Yes, things had gotten much easier since the beginning.
Except they had picked up a pest while they had been docked during the last round of repairs, and nothing he did was catching the damnable thing! It was in the walls, he knew it. He’d seen traces of its presence. He could even track its movements in the subtle changes in the internals.
But he wasn’t quick enough to find it. He wasn’t small enough to go into the walls after it, and no trap he set up seemed to catch it. Despite his best efforts. He’d tried rope traps, sticky traps, even just basic alert traps meant to tell him where it was!
Nothing. It was a smart pest, whatever it was.
And it was messing with his wiring!
Grumbling, he thrust his hands into the open panel and began digging through the mass, checking to make sure that nothing was damaged or broken.
There wasn’t. There never was.
That was another reason the rest of his crew were giving him odd looks. Though he insisted there was a pest, and though he knew for a fact it was there, he couldn’t actually produce any proof of it. There were no chewed wires, no scat left behind, no scratches in the ship body – at least, nothing that could be proven to be new or different from all the other scratches and dings. If nothing was damaged or missing, was it even a pest?
Yes, yes it was, because it wasn’t supposed to be here and it wasmessing with Vytln’s wiring!
Nothing was supposed to be on this ship without the captain’s approval. That was a hard rule they’d all agreed to live by – alongside always making sure to complete their jobs and never killing without the captain’s permission. Honestly, the male didn't ask for much. Vytln had no problems following those simple edicts, even if he sometimes tried to resist them.
The killing rule was really the hardest. Removing a problem was usually the easiest way to solve it, but Tanin hobbled them by forbidding them from doing so whenever it would be convenient.
Not because he didn't approve of killing, but just because maintaining their new freedom would be difficult if they were out here murdering whatever annoyance came their way. There was good logic behind the rule, even if it became suffocating at times.
Tanin was a good captain though. He could be much harsher, and they would all probably still fall in line under him. The freedom he offered, the security he promised and delivered, were so good, they wouldn’t dare risk it at this point.
That was why Vytln was so determined to catch this pest. It wasn’t doing any damageyet, but he didn't know what it was. He didn't trust it. He didn't like that it was messing with his wiring! Look! It had connected the-
Oh. Wait, actually. That wasn’t too bad of a-
“Vytln! There you are!”
Groaning, he snarled but otherwise didn’t move as he ignored the chirping little doll that came up to his side. Even from his crouched position, her head was still just barely over his.
Grace was the newest addition to their crew. And the most obnoxious in his opinion. She was constantly nagging after them for one thing or another. Do this datawork. Biosign this thing. Log that thing. Please respond to this message – please respond in a reasonable amount of time as well. Just one thing after another. It was annoying.
The biggest change in their lives recently was the addition of females. And not the kind of females that lived on Rik-Vane. There were only two types of females there. The meek, broken ones that were owned by others, and the tough, ruthless ones that would tolerate being owned by no one. There were no normal, happy, pleasant females there.
But there were three of them on the Humility now. And they all annoyed him.
The captain had his mate, Garnet, who was constantly nagging at him to eat. Then there was her twin sister, Goldie, who was constantly nagging at him to let her do a medical exam on him. And now Sway, their navigator, had his own mate – Grace. She had joined their crew at the same repair stop that improved the Humility so much. The captain had put her in charge of administrative tasks – booking jobs, tracking payments and payroll, and anything that required datawork that, normally, they’d either take turns doing or leave to Tanin or their AI, Alred. And she nagged him about datawork so much, he wondered why she needed a task at all.
The females were constantly just nattering or chattering or invading their space. Garnet liked to talk to her cleaning robot– the one she named Spot for some reason. Goldie tended to keep to herself in the medbay, but she’d been on this recent kick trying to get all of them to do a health check now that she was starting to master the medscanner.
But it was Grace who nagged him the most. She needed him to log the various parts he used and supplies he took so she could replace them. She needed him to create a proper credz account for his payment so the credz weren’t just on credchips he hoarded like old fashioned money. She needed him to do this or that or fill out this or respond to that.
He was starting to ignore her comms. Just wanting to work and not bother with any of that. He wasn’t at all surprised though that she came up to him in person instead, chirping and nagging again.
She was obnoxious, but he could at least admire her tenacity.
Still hate it, but admire it as well.
“Vytln,” she frowned at him, hands on her hips. Giving him a stern, disapproving look that he barely paid attention to out of the corner of his eye.
She was a little thing. Thin and delicate. He could probably grab her in one hand. He didn't know how Sway rutted her without breaking her delicate little bones. Even given that Sway was shorter and smaller than him, he was still larger than this naggy little chit.
She blew out a breath, tossing her long black hair back with a careless flip of her hand. She was always wearing pretty dresses and had her face done up all pretty. She was completely helpless and harmless and delicate.
And she was giving him a glare as she complained, “I’ve sent you multiple messages these last few days. You aren’t even looking at them. That’s very rude, you know.”
