Those wars had been ongoing on that planet for probably a couple thousand years at this point. It was their culture, in a weird, twisted way. It was their way of life. That was how they chose to live, and if they actually wanted to stop, they would at this point. It wasn’t for her to tell them that war was wrong and destroying themselves over it was foolish.
She bit her tongue about the topic and just focused on her tasks. It was easy since she and Vytln were focused on the ship and its components. They weren’t really involved with the deliveries. But Haven was able to track where they were in the process of each delivery based on where they were at in the subspace swing process.
When they were swinging, she and Vytln took that opportunity to work on the engine. The swing process moved them across vast distances, crossing galaxies in a matter of days or marks all without using the engine. In those moments, they could stop the engine and work on parts that, normally, were in use. They never shut the engine down completely, as it would take too long to turn it back on. It also didn’t cool down, despite not being fully functional. For that reason, Haven had to wear her envirosuit as they worked on it.
That’s what they were doing now, as she explained to Vytln all the progress they were making with Alred’s body planning. She was standing on his shoulders, working on a part of the engine that was, essentially, an alternator. It wasn’t outputting as much energy anymore, so she was breaking it apart, trying to findthe problem. There were multiple alternators in their engine, so there was redundancy, but that didn’t mean they could leave it broken.
She was talking and working when Alred called out over the intercom that they were due to swing out of subspace soon. They had to start putting the engine back together so they could begin starting it back up.
“The delivery will be quick,” Vytln said. “We’ll be swinging again as soon as we unload, so we can finish then.”
“Grace has already picking our next job,” Haven said, closing the panel to the chamber. She started the process of bracketing it closed as she continued. “It’s not being a medical job; she’s still looking for one.”
“They probably have contracts with more established and bigger companies,” Vytln said, his hands stroking along her calves. She couldn’t really feel his touch through her envirosuit, just the pressure, but it made her smile.
He couldn’t keep his hands off her, and she loved it. Nothing made her feel so beautiful and appreciated as the obsession he had with her.
They finished closing up the engine and she climbed down off of him. He touched her again, just a gentle stroke across her back, as he walked away to begin the process of starting the engine back to full power.
Meanwhile, Haven stepped back across the barrier, into their workroom. In the cooler area, she was able to pull her helmet off her head and set it down. She kept the rest of the suit on though. It was heated on the outside right now. She either needed help pulling it off or she had to walk around in it until it cooled down.Her locs were back in a thick, messy bun, held up off the back. It wasn’t so hot that her hair would be in danger, but it was easier to fit it in the helmet when she didn’t have them down.
Yawning, she began moving around the workroom, setting out the pieces of the alternator she’d brought out rather than put back together before they were done. They looked fun to play with at first glance, but she would have a better chance to look them over out here than standing on her toes on Vytln’s shoulders.
She was a bit tired. It was kind of late, and she didn’t get much sleep anymore. Not with Vytln’s near constant attention. The male was insatiable. Not that she was complaining. She didn’t want him to go easier on her. She wanted to build her stamina so she could match him.
Maybe she should take a day off. It had been a while since she did that. This wasn’t like a normal workplace where she clocked in and had hours – or marks, she supposed. Regular delivery companies might work that way. But this wasn’t really a job. Not for this crew. This was their entire lifestyle, and they didn’t take days off because they couldn’t. Vytln, especially, had to always be available and ready to work. That was the downside of being the only engineer. A bigger ship would have a whole crew for engineering, another one for navigation, another for cleaning, etc. But they didn’t. They had Vytln and Sway and Garnet respectively, doing an entire crew’s job by themselves.
Haven didn’t jump, she wasn’t at all surprised, when Vytln wrapped his arms around her from behind. He held her back against his chest. Not at all bothered by the heat of her suit. He even let out a sound of contentment, like he enjoyed the radiating warmth.
“You should take a day off,” he said, making her laugh. “What?”
“Nothing. I just thought the same thing.”
He didn’t respond, but she felt him start in surprise. She looked up and back. “What?”
“You said that correctly,” he said.
“Huh?”
“You said, ‘thought’, not ‘thinking’.”
“Oh.” She paused, surprised. “Yeah. I guessing I did. Guess… I did.” The second correction wasn’t as natural as the first one.
Haven knew she didn’t speak perfect Standard. That was a consequence of learning the hard way by listening to other people and just submerging herself in the language. She was fluent enough to get by. She wasn’t refusing to improve, but she wasn’t actively trying to improve her language either.
Except for the written language imprints. It didn’t immediately include spoken word, but there was a direct, natural connection between reading a word and speaking it for the first time later. Maybe her language was improving just by virtue of that.
But…
“You sounding… sound disappointed,” she chuckled, focusing back on Vytln.
He turned her around, then grabbed her by the waist, picking her up and setting her on the workbench amongst the disassembled parts of the alternator.
“Not disappointed,” he said, though he certainly didn’t sound happy. “I liked the way you talked. It was… endearing.”
“You were about to saying cute,” she chuckled, running her hands down his chest. Her fingers bumping off the cracks in his skin. “I can keeping talking this way.”
“No.” He shook his head. “I don’t want you to do it on purpose for me. Keep getting better. It’s a joy to watch that too.”
