“Oh?” Her head popped up, excited. “Really? Let me seeing.”
He didn’t come to get her out of the trap, but he did continue. “If the life support in the ship shorts again, it could be something worse next time. You need an envirosuit. The other females have one already, and if you’re our prisoner, you’re our responsibility.”
Haven nodded eagerly in agreement. She’d seen envirosuits around but hadn’t actually been able to get her hands on one. Most of them were too big for her because most every alien species in the Coalition was bigger than her. But they also tended to be tailored to a single person. Not just in the way they fit, but in the life support they provided. Getting one was definitely on her list, but not a task she’d been able to check off before.
An envirosuit, especially a good one, could do a lot. The most basic types needed to be able to withstand the vacuum of space, as that was their primary purpose. On starships, there were many redundancies in place to keep people safe. Multiple systems often had to fail before things would become dire. All beds on starships, for instance, were required to be pod style that could and would seal in case of hull breach, protecting the occupant inside. On most starships, with few exceptions, it was also required that people had an envirosuit to don in event of emergency.
A ship the size of the Humility was definitely one that would need everyone to have a suit. Haven had always just accepted the risk that she would be vulnerable if something happened.
But Vytln was working on what appeared to be an older, spare suit. One definitely not big enough for him or one of the other males. And she couldn’t help but notice he started doing it only after the short in the air recycler.
“Is that being mine?” She asked, smiling.
He didn’t respond verbally. He tensed, however, his shoulders bunching up. He kept working on the suit though.
That answer was enough, and she beamed at his back.
Chapter 9
Vytln
It was just basic common sense. She was their prisoner, she was their responsibility. And she was a delicate human female. The female crew just came to check on her, so clearly they felt kinship with her, and he felt it was his obligation to look after his female crew. He also wasn’t cruel.
Anymore. He wasn’t cruelanymore.
Her being a pest was annoying, but not a crime worthy of a death sentence. At least, not out in Coalition space.
Yes. There were many reasons to adjust one of the old, spare envirosuits for her. It wasn’t as good as the top of the line ones the other females had, but until they could purchase one, it was better to have it just in case. Especially if the life support shorted again.
Not that they’d purchase one for a prisoner. Of course. And since he wasn’t mating her, they definitely weren’t purchasing one for her.
He was still fine. He wasn’t trapped by this mating instinct.
“There is being two rooms in the secondary commanding center.”
Unprepared for the abrupt topic change, Vytln didn’t immediately know what Haven was talking about. He turned his head from the suit and frowned at her. “A second room? You mean the subspace generator beneath it? I’m aware it’s there.”
She shook her head, the human signal meaning no. “Secondary commanding was buildinginsideanother room. That room still being there. Behind the walls. Pipe is being there.”
It took Vytln a moment to understand what she meant. Not because he was having trouble understanding her speech – that was getting easier the more she nattered at him. No, he had to work out what she meant because he didn’t even think that there would be another room inside the secondary command center. Or rather, he should say, the command centerwasthe other room.
The Humility was an old ship, and it had served as a delivery vehicle for basically all of that time. He didn’t know its full history, he doubted anyone did since it had been renamed, re-registered, and renovated multiple times over its life. All he knew was that the smugglers they bought it from had worn out the last of its feasibly usable lifespan, and they had turned over what was little more than floating space junk with a barely functional engine.
It had been, at the time, their greatest prize, and their ticket off Rik-Vane. Vytln put a lot of work into making it livable, flyable, and comfortable over the years since their escape, and he was exceedingly proud of everything he had done.
But the secondary command center was not something he did. It had already been there when they purchased it. Most shipsthat were likely to see combat would have a heavily fortified bridge, separate from the main bridge, deep within the ship to be used in case of attack. That way, if the bridge – which had more functionality but also more vulnerability – was damaged, the secondary command could continue to fight back and fly without issue.
Sure, the secondary command looked rough and ramshackle, but that wasn’t strange as the entire Humility looked like that. He knew that the secondary command had been retrofitted into place, but he thought the room had just been changed, not builtintoa different room.
But if that were the case, there was a space between them. And if the secondary command hadn’t been well built – and he knew it wasn’t – then it was likely that it was a wide enough space for pests to infest at their leisure.
“How’d you get in there?” He asked, closing the panel on the chest piece of the suit.
“Squeezing,” she said, taking a breath. “Too small for you. Giving me a pipe and I willing fixing the broken one.”
“Nice try,” he grumbled, scooping up the suit and returning to his trap. He handed the suit to her with a grunt. “Try this on. Make sure it fits.”
Haven took the suit from him and, after she had it in hand, let go of the hole and slid back into the nest with a soft call of joy. Like she enjoyed the fall.
