“Excellent,” she said and clapped him on the shoulder. “Let’s finish the tour, then I need to see to my duties.”
“Certainly,” he agreed. She showed him the galley, his cabin, and finished the tour in a small bay.
“I wasn’t told you had an open space,” he said, feeling even better about the ship. He hadn’t realized Holian had managed to secure him a freighter to ride in.
“Originally the bay was going to be full of cargo, but Commandant Holian insisted we empty it. All the cargo was transferred to our sister ship, Sturdy. You can spend as much time in here as you like. Sleeping in here is an option as well, but we need some warning to make sure you’ll be safe.”
He felt Ruby move against his neck, reminding him that he wasn’t alone. “I’ll probably be in here often, but I don’t think I’ll need to go that far.”
“Then I’ll leave you here and let you make your way back to your cabin when you’re ready,” Helmen said.
“Thank you for your gift of time and skill,” he murmured by rote, even though Helmen was already striding away. Pulling a deep breath, he mostly smelled mechanical oil. It wasn’t a comforting scent, but it was better than the stink of auto-exausters or burning escape tube insulation.
Memories tried to creep up on him.
No! He wasn’t going to do that. He focused on picturing Amina in his mind and set off at a fast pace to walk the outside edge of the bay.
The plan was simple: walk in circles until he was exhausted. It worked in the past and would work again, especially with Ruby nestled against his neck and memories of Amina circling his head. These two females would keep him sane, and neither was aware of it.
Amina
“I can’t believe Helmen gave me this assignment, as if I don’t have enough to do. She knows I hate dealing with biocleansers,” Jossulum grumbled.
Amina had been watching a display full of engine one’s stats when Jossulum came storming into the room.. Everything looked good, so she turned and faced her dramatic crewmate.
“No one likes servicing them,” Amina pointed out.
“But they singe my nose,” he said, rubbing a hand over his snout. “Besides, I really need to finish putting the patch plates together. Helmen is piling too much work on me. You’ll do it so much faster than me. Please, Amina, service the biocleanser, and I’ll owe you!”
Amina rolled her eyes. Keeping his sensitive Ugarian nose from being burned by the chemicals the biocleansers used had a simple fix; wear a mask!
Jossulum knew that, but he seemed to always forget it until the insides of his nostrils were irritated. Amina wondered if maybe he did it on purpose because he didn’t like dealing with the delicate machinery. It was easy to accidentally upset the unit and have to take it completely apart to reset and seal it.
“I’m done here so I’ll deal with the biocleanser for you,” Amina agreed. “But you’re on galley check for me tomorrow.”
Jossulum didn’t hesitate. “Agreed!”
Then he turned and rushed away, as if he was scared she’d take back the trade in duties.
Amina chuckled and left the engine room to head to the tool room to get everything she’d need to reset the biocleanser. Their new passenger must be really sensitive if Helmen was assigning this task as urgent.
It didn’t take long before she was in the passenger's cabin, a little startled to find nothing there. She knew he wasn’t here; Jossulum had assured her he was in the bay exercising. She could understand that he hadn’t had time to do anything to his cabin, but where was his stuff? Shouldn’t he have luggage, or at least a bag?
Desur was supposed to bring the stuff from the ship’s main hatch to here. He must’ve gotten distracted. That happened to him a lot.
Shrugging it off, she pulled up a wall panel to reveal the biocleanser unit. She worked as quickly as she could manage. Helmen would be upset if she found out Amina traded work with Jossulum, but there really wasn’t any risk of running into their passenger. Everyone was constantly posting where the Talin was on the crew's message system. The second he left the bay, she’d know about it.
Humming to herself, she got to work. First she replaced the chemical pucks, making sure to wear her mask because even though she wasn’t as sensitive as an Ugarian, it was still unpleasant.
After that she checked the tubes for clogs then made sure the diaphragm was still pliable. Hooking everything back up again, she set the entire system to maximum so it would scrub everything out of the air.
“It’s a good thing the Talin complained," she muttered. “That was much worse than I expected.”
She’d have to have Jossulum tell Helmen all the systems should be checked because this one was obviously overdue and hadn’t signaled.
Closing it all up, she took a last look around the sterile room and shrugged. Passengers probably expected impersonal cabins when traveling. Besides, this Talin was on some kind of super-secret mission, not a vacation.
Packing up her tools, she double checked that the system came on, then she left. Time to get back to her regular duties.
