Regi shot to his feet. “You need not leave nor apologize.”
“I should. I’m not....” Dante turned and would have fled, only Regi abused his power by triggering the office lock. When the door didn’t open, Dante whirled back around, the black center of his eyes larger than Regi had ever seen before. Peaches clung to the fabric over his shoulder and chittered unhappily.
Regi held his hands low and unthreatening. “There is no need for an apology. Many species, including Kowri, use touch to reinforce closer bonds. I do not wish for you to place yourself in a difficult position.” More to the point, Regi did not want either of them to suffer the consequences because they failed to maintain a professional distance.
“I didn’t realize that.” Dante stood taller. “I will be careful to avoid touch in the future.”
They stared at each other, and Regi studied the curves of Dante’s unfamiliar expression; he struggled to understand thethoughts behind those blue, black and white eyes with their touch of ember red where veins peeked through the white.
“Please open the door. I don’t like locks.” Dante’s voice was strained.
Regi flinched. Of course, Dante would be discomfited. Regi kept making unforgivable mistakes. He triggered the sensor, and the moment the door slid open, Dante bolted. In the corridor, a rumbling trill of displeasure suggested Vk was in the hallway. A few seconds later, she stuck her enormous nose around the corner. “What did you do to him?” she demanded.
Regi sank into his chair. “We have more pressing security concerns than Dante’s ignorance of social norms. Tomorrow I must go to the temple to speak against executing Ter.”
Vk came in and closed the door behind her. “Can’t you ask your goddess to get involved and fix this?”
Regi was so shocked that for a moment he could not find the proper words. However, Vk spoke from ignorance and not malice, so he gathered his thoughts. “The gods act for their own purpose. Unless Ter can attract the attention of one, none of the gods will move on his behalf, and Kowri do not ask for the gods’ intervention. We are more likely to avoid their help since the gods have enormous hands that are likely to do us harm as they move us into the correct position to receive divine intervention.”
Vk blew air until her nose vibrated. “Your gods are as bad as the fictional stories still told on my planet about our early gods.”
“Perhaps your old gods were our gods only you stopped listening to them.” Regi was horrified such impious words had escaped his mouth. He laid his ears back and his skin tingled as all his fur stood on end. “That was so impious as to put all our lives in danger. Do not repeat what I said to anyone, crew or not.”
“I will not,” Vk assured him. “I am too ignorant of any gods to speak of them. However, I have become an expert in Dantesince you insist I must accompany him when he rides those great beasts he favors, and his expression as he ran from the room is more than concerning.”
Regi winced. “I had the bad judgment to lock the door. Locks have an undesirable connotation for him.”
Vk’s nose wrinkles deepened. “You are not one to forget your manners. Why would you lock the door?”
“It is not worth discussing.”
“Clearly it is.”
Regi took a deep breath. “Huuman customs are not aligned with the Coalition or the Kowri. The miscommunication is not worth mentioning.”
“It is. Ean wants to document all areas where culture, mannerisms, or language either mimics or contradicts known samples in the psychological or linguistic databases. She hopes to narrow down the location of the suns of either Earth or Mars using sociological data to narrow the possible sectors. I have not studied cultures other than knowing which laws certain species are more likely to break. However, Ean explains that certain traits tend to occur in groupings. The two species closest to her own planets are the blaviv and the namall, and they, along with the ril, are all infamous for their bulk and the volume of their voice.”
“If that is true, they should look in the opposite corner of the universe for huumans. They are frail compared to those three,” said Regi.
She studied him. “Tell me what miscommunication caused a locked door, and I will leave you to fantasize about Ter’s death while you simultaneously attempt to save the fool’s life.”
The truth did not reflect well on Regi. He allowed the touch for as long as he had because he had difficulty controlling his feelings. “I explained that touch is used to deepen bonds and recommended that he avoid touching others so often,” Regi said.
Vk’s nose relaxed so that it hung to her mouth. Slowly it drew up into a more normal position. “You suggested he touches others too often?”
“This is likely a species trait, but I hoped to save him from misunderstandings.”
Vk stared at him, her nose twitching. The silence had grown uncomfortable before Vk said, “You are as great a fool as Ter. How is there room for two such great idiots on one ship?”
“You speak disrespectfully,” Regi snapped.
“I respect you as a security chief, but I cannot respect this idiocy.” She took a step forward, her expression far too pugnacious for a subordinate. “Dante does not touch overmuch. Dante does not touch at all. He avoids Bevit under all circumstances out of fear that she will initiate contact. He darts out of the way when Ean comes down the corridor because he would not be forced to brush past her aknestis. In engineering, he sits on the highest piece of equipment possible to keep himself from others. I had thought huumans had a social taboo until I saw him with you.”
Regi’s confusion derailed his anger.
“Speak with him again, and do not assume what is not true,” she said.
“I have other work that requires my attention,” Regi said. After Ter’s show of temper, he could not afford a distraction.
