She shook her head. “Keep it up,” she challenged. “I could draw dicks all over your face in permanent pigment. That would be a fun talking point when we get you to your destination.”
It took him a moment to understand what she’d said. The moment the meaning registered, he sounded a loud rumble of amusement. “Human dicks, Ugarian dicks, or Talin dicks?”
“All three!” she responded with a chuckle. “Back to your story. You were a young adult in the military making friends. What happened next?”
“I was assigned to a diplomatic ship,” he said, remembering how plush that assignment had been after so many years on military ships. “Most diplomatic emissaries have a small contingent of soldiers to oversee security and present a show of strength. We were on our way to meet with an Ossiso diplomat. Our ship never made it.”
Amina brows furrowed. “Were you attacked?”
“No, a micro meteor shower hit us.”
His words made her hiss out a breath. Micro meteor showers were something that terrified everyone. They were hard to detect and often traveled at such fast speeds that they were nearly impossible to avoid. Despite the small size of the individual particles, they did irreparable damage. If you were lucky your ship was simply disabled.
He hadn’t been lucky.
“It happened so fast we didn’t have a chance to do anything,” he continued. “I tried to get to the ambassador, but her section took the brunt of the hits. What hadn’t been exposed to space was on fire. The few of us that had been on the port side had a chance to get to the escape tubes.”
“Escape tubes? Why didn’t you have escape pods? They’re much better.”
“The ship was old but was due to be replaced after that mission,” he explained. “That meant tubes instead of pods.”
He shuddered at the memory. As crew members slid down escape tubes, the section of the tube would close over their head and launch. Then the next person’s feet would land on the hatch that closed over the first person. Another hatch would close over their head and their segment would separate and launch them away from the ship. Each escape tube could launch ten individuals.
The biggest issue with tubes was they were fragile. They couldn’t land on a planet or dock with a ship. They couldn’t be steered, and they were intensely uncomfortable to be trapped inside.
“Later I found out that everyone who got into the tubes in front of me died almost immediately. The tubes running down the side of the ship were all punctured. The only one undamaged was the last one, which I dropped into. I’m not sure whether that made me lucky or not.”
“How long were you in the tube?” she asked.
“Too long,” he said grimly. “By the time my tube was recovered, I was almost out of air.”
“The air on those tubes is meant to last about fifteen days,” she whispered. “You were trapped in that thing for fifteen days?”
“Thirteen rotations,” he said. “At least that’s what I was told. I probably used up a lot of oxygen when I screamed. There was one little window in the tube, and I watched several of the othertubes go by. I know it made no sense, but I wanted the others to know they weren’t alone.”
“I’ve been in one of those tubes,” she said. “We have an old planet runner, and I was sent down to check all the systems. It was tight even for me. How did you move around?”
“I didn’t,” he said simply. “I was able to squeeze my hands to my mouth, which allowed me to consume the hydration packets.”
“The tubes I serviced only had three days’ worth of hydration packets,” she said. “Did yours have more?"
He sounded a negative rumble then remembered she probably didn’t know what that meant. “No, there were only three. I spaced them out, but they didn’t last long anyway. Our systems are incredibly efficient when it comes to food and water, but even with that, thirteen days was a long time.”
“I’m impressed you lived,” she whispered.
“I didn’t survive intact,” he said. “At some point nothing made sense anymore. I thought one of my crewmates was there with me, or sometimes the ambassador would be there. The worst was when I heard them screaming and begging me to save them or saying this was all my fault.”
He stared up at the ceiling as he talked, unable to watch her expression change from interest to pity or horror.
“Eventually I passed out and woke up on an Ossiso outpost with several medics and staff caring for me. I panicked because I didn’t understand what was going on. They had to keep me drugged. Time passed in strange ways. An entire rotation would go bye in the blink of an eye and other times it felt like a submark lasted for a rotation. I couldn’t tell what was real and what wasn’t. Sometimes I still can’t, especially when I’m in enclosed places, like ships. I thought I was doing better, but I guess I wasn’t.”
When her soft hand pressed gently on his chest, he turned his head to find her crouched next to the bed, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears.
“You’re so strong,” she whispered.
He didn’t feel strong. “I think I’m the opposite.”
“The itinerary we got on you said your planet of origin was Kalor,” she said, confusing him.
