Amina set out to find Desur. He was in the tool room, sitting on the floor with small boxes and packages spread in a circle around him while he held an information square checking things off.
He looked up, and his expression went from relieved to hurt. “You left me.”
Why did he sound like a kid who’d been forgotten in an eatery on a trip to the city? Desur might be her age, but he seemed much younger.
“I’m sorry about that,” she said, then sat down on the floor facing him. “I shouldn’t have done that.”
“I thought you got bored because it took me so long to bargain for everything we needed,” he said, his ears drooping with dejection. “I rushed to get back, but you weren’t here. If anything had happened, it would’ve been my fault.”
Those last words were soft and accompanied by a sniff. Ugarians were one of the only species that cried like humans.
She’d really scared and hurt him. It made her look forward to chanting with Helmen because she deserved to suffer!
Amina scooted closer. “No, Desur. If anything happened to me it would be my own fault. You’re perfect, and I abused you.”
His head shot up and the tips of his ears drooped even further in confusion. “What?”
“We were out there to help each other, and I let you down,” she said, seeing the entire situation clearly. As much as Desur wasprotecting her, she was also protecting him. Helmen knew Desur wasn’t a fighter or good at bargaining. She should’ve stayed, had it out with the shopkeeper, then helped Desur get all the parts.
Instead she went off on her own the moment she could.
“I don’t think I got a good price,” Desur said. “I spent too much of our wealth, and I lost you. I failed at everything today.”
“Only because I failed too,” she countered. Pulling his packets of treats out of a jacket pocket, she set them down between them. “Next time we’ll succeed together instead of failing separately.”
“I like how that sounds,” he said, grabbing one of the bags and opening it up. Tilting his head back, he dumped half the contents into his mouth. He made all kinds of happy sounds as he chewed, his mouth comically full to the point his cheeks puffed out.
Amina laughed. “I won’t ever leave like that again,” she promised.
Both their information squares chimed in a way that said everyone needed to finish pre-launch duties.
Getting to her feet, Amina smiled down at Desur. “Time to get to work. Want to play a game of domie after the evening meal?”
Desur gave her a fast, eager wiggle of his ears. “Yes!”
Feeling much better, Amina left the room to start her duties. She was going to spend the evening either chanting with Helmen or losing domie to Desur, but those were small prices to pay for making them worry.
Heading down a corridor, she heard Helmen talking. She was explaining the ship’s emergency systems in a worst-case scenario. To stay out of sight, Amina ducked down a different hallway that would get her out of Helmen and their passenger’s path.
A black dot caused by a mismatched fastener on a floor plate made her think of bugs. Bugs made her think of Ruby.
Of course that reminded her of Myrum.
She never would’ve given him her contact information; she wasn’t used to trusting anyone but family with information. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t have gotten his.
Why didn’t she ask?
She doubted he lived on Polkor Station, but maybe he was on a different station or outpost and she could’ve tried to visit.
No, that was dumb. He probably lived within the Talin Empire. She might be confident walking around a Hulg station, but even she knew better than to waltz into Talin territory and think she could get back out.
It was probably for the best that she didn’t know how to find him. It was too dangerous, and she didn’t need that temptation.
“It’s fine,” she mumbled as she slipped into the monitoring room for engine one. Teshor was probably in engine two’s monitoring room. “I’ve got everything I could ever want right here.”
Why did those words feel so hollow?
Letting out an aggravated huff, she forced herself to focus on her job. “Hello, engine one. You’re going to run perfectly today or I might start using all the best cuss words on you. You’ve been warned.”
