“That it’s going to be hard to explain this to Captain Ikvar,” she sighed. “He’s going to have so many questions about how we suddenly obtained another human. And another unregistered one as well. You two are bad enough. A third one is going to make him mad.”
Garnet made a face. “True. You need Tanin to do the talking?”
“No. I can handle it. I just have to spin it properly.”
“Just tell the truth,” Haven interjected happily. “Tell him I’m a stowaway that snuck on board and got caught in Vytln’s mating trap. If I’m his mate, there’s nothing he can do about it, and I’m automatically registered and legal.”
All three of them looked at her in surprise. It was Garnet who spoke though-
“You’re okay with that?”
Haven nodded happily. “Yeah. Vytln’s fun. I like repairing things. I feel like this could really work out between us. It’s like an arranged marriage or something. We’ll fall in love later, but I’m already in the trap, so why fight it?”
“How very alien of you,” Grace said, understanding in her smile. She and Haven had been away from Earth so long, the culture of the Coalition was starting to imprint itself in their heads, changing their way of thinking and looking at the world and situations. “I mean, it’s the truth, so it’s not like we’d be lying to him. But…”
“But what?”
Grace looked at Garnet who continued to stare at Haven curiously. “You know who these guys are, don’t you?”
“You mean murderers?” Haven asked calmly.
The three women stared back at her. Their expressions blank. Waiting for Haven’s reaction. Waiting to see what she thought about the males they had taken as their own crew and family. It was, Haven recognized, their way of protecting them. The males on this ship didn’t need any sort of physical protection – absolutely not. But the kind of people they were, the things they’d done, were the kind of things most would not consider forgivable. And judgment, disgust, hatred were things they absolutely could and would shield their males from.
Haven smiled at them. “They haven’t killed anyone that I’ve seen. They haven’t tried to hurt me. They’re trying to be better. I can respect that.”
Her words caused an immediate change. All three women noticeably relaxed and they smiled, the action much warmer and more welcoming and genuine than before.
“I better get to work then,” Grace said, looking at Garnet as though for permission, which she got with a single nod of the head. “I’ll be back for some information from you Haven.”
“Okay. Bye,” Haven waved her off.
“I still want to examine you,” Goldie said.
“Sure. Whenever Vytln lets me out.”
“Does he, er, know?” Garnet asked her grin widening. “That you’re planning to accept his mating?”
“He knows,” Haven nodded happily. “He says no. Right now, anyway.”
“Right now?” Garnet snickered.
“We’ll see how long he can resist biology,” Goldie agreed, looking back.
Vytln hadn’t left the room. Though he couldn’t understand what they were saying in English, he remained in the area. He had pulled something out of his pile of half finished projects and was working on it on his workbench. Haven couldn’t see what it was, but it appeared to be half electronic and half fabric of some sort.
“We’ll be back later then,” Garnet said, snickering. “Welcome aboard, Haven.”
“Bye,” Haven waved them off, smiling, feeling like she’d won. At least halfway. She was sure the male half of this ship stillconsidered her more of a prisoner, but the female half had accepted her decision to remain.
That made sense though. After all, the three of them had chosen to stay. They chose to hitch their wagons to this particular train. They knew what it was like to want to be here. To want to be with these guys. So long as Haven was accepting of them, they’d be accepting of her.
After they left, the room fell quiet. Well, as quiet as it could be with Vytln tinkering and the constant hum of the engine in the background. The shielding helped deaden the sound a lot – along with blocking the majority of the heat and all the radiation – but it wasn’t completely gone. The rumble was comforting to her as she watched Vytln work.
They didn’t say anything for a while. He worked; she watched him work. It was comfortable in a way she rarely felt with people. Vytln didn’t demand small talk from her. He already knew she was likely to mess with things and break things down, and he clearly didn’t care. It was probably the most unbothered she’d ever felt around someone.
“What is that being?” She asked some time later when he finally stood straight, looking over the thing he had spread out on the workbench.
“It’s an envirosuit.”
