Chapter 8
Haven
Vytln let her out again.
Despite his insistence that he wasn’t going to, despite fussing at her like a cranky old man pacing about in his shed, he still let her out.
To be fair, he didn’t have much of a choice. The life support developed a short and kept dying, their oxygen recycler failing every time Alred attempted to restart it. It was the kind of problem that required immediate attention, but not the kind that would kill them immediately. The size of the ship alone meant they had a while until they ran out of air, but the fact that the recycler was shorting at all was still an emergency.
“We paid all this money to get this fixed, and it breaks!” Vytln snarled as he carried the chassis into the workroom so he could begin the arduous process of breaking it down.
The parts weren’t too small for him this time, but he quickly realized he needed a second set of hands. Like he was plucking a tool off the bench, he opened the trap, scooped her up, and pulled her out. He barked an order at her to start from thebottom, and he would start from the top. They had to find whatever fault was causing the short, and the sooner the better.
Haven was happy to get back to work, and she eagerly plopped onto the ground and helped him dig through the internals, trying to find what was wrong.
The life support system included not just the air recycler, but also the atmosphere stabilizer, humidifier, and air quality monitors. It was a pretty complex machine. They had also replaced the entire life support system at Hir-Fallow when they upgraded the ship. However, everything they bought was second hand, and only decades younger than the Humility itself. Haven wasn’t at all surprised that the systems weren’t agreeing with each other.
Under normal circumstances, the repair station would have run the newly installed systems for a certain time to detect shorts like this.
However, they had left the last station a little too quickly. They got everything installed properly, but hadn’t lingered for the usual system checks post installation.
Working together, it only took a few marks for Haven and Vytln to find the fault, repair it, put the recycler back together, and get it installed back into the life support system. They both became so focused on the job, Vytln didn’t even realize that Haven had followed him out into the ship to put the chassis back in place until he had it installed, the recycler running, and they were watching it work to make sure it did so without complication.
She could tell the moment he realized though. He was glowering at the recycler, then looked over at her, looked back, stiffened, then looked at her again.
“Why are you out of the workroom?” He asked, eyes narrowing.
Haven, who had helped him install the recycler back in place, ran her fingers over her tool belt, taking comfort from the familiar, metallic bodies.
“Wanting to finding the broken pipe?” She asked innocently.
Her attempt at diverting his attention did not work. With a growl, he scooped her up in his arms, up against his chest, and began walking her back to the workroom. Haven laughed, kicking her legs in the air as she banded her arms around his neck, holding on and enjoying the ride.
Oh, yes. He was very strong. She could just imagine the things he could hold up for her, making her work so much easier. There were a lot of benefits to this mating thing. Maybe she could talk him into it after all.
“I’m going to find that pipe. I don’t need your help,” he snarled, eyes forward.
She snickered. “You say. Still haven’t finding it yet though, hm?”
His expression tightened, but he didn’t argue with her, which just set off another fit of giggles as her eyes darted up to the horns on his head. She wanted to touch them. They didn’t look super sharp, but they definitely looked like they could do some damage. Were they bone? Or like the same stuff as her fingernails?
Haven didn’t normally care about biology, but she couldn’t help but be curious about this grumpy male that called her a pest but carried her so gently right back to her prison that was lined with silk and pillows. He wanted so badly to be hard and angry –and maybe he was. In fact, knowing what little she did of his past based on what she overheard, she was sure he was.
But their captain truly was a male of discerning tastes. He’d not only managed to find the most talented of murderers and criminals from the cesspit of ruthless monsters that populated the infamous station Rik-Vane, but he’d somehow also found the ones that were actually trustworthy. Males that weren’t truly despicable.
Haven felt completely safe as he hauled her right back to the workroom.
However, when he walked them inside, it was to find that, in the time they were gone, some visitors had come around. Haven dropped her head back, smiling at the three women standing within. The soft half of the crew – in more ways than one.
The three human girls weren’t from Rik-Vane, weren’t criminals. Grace didn’t even curse. Something that Haven really admired, and knew she should try to emulate but simply didn’t. Her friend had easily fallen in with the twin girls here, Garnet and Goldie.
Garnet, the captain’s mate, and Goldie, the medical officer, were identical in the face, but differed greatly in their sense of style. Goldie had more of a cute look, wearing a pretty pink dress with a bow in her hair, while Garnet wore overall shorts and had her hair back in a messy bun.
“Hello,” Haven greeted as Alred popped up. Though she knew he couldn’t see her, she still waved at his light form. Even the projection of him looked irritated as it scanned the air for her.
“Recycler is fixed,” Vytln grunted, his tone short and annoyed as he walked past them, taking her to the trap.
He folded her up, like a toddler going into a car seat, before sliding her inside. Haven let out a short ‘wee’ as she fell into her nest of pillows. The trap was already closing behind her before she had a chance to turn around and climb back up so she could peer out.
