Page 93 of Cozy Prisons
Turning to face Daxus, she tried to smile, but it failed. “I don’t know what’s wrong. I’ve lived most of my life on a station, and I’ve traveled on ships, but being on this feels different.”
Daxus started purring. “It’s probably being surrounded by this crew. And that you have to wear a collar.”
Nataly rubbed the metal band around her neck. When Palathum explained to the ship’s captain that they’d taken most of the collars off the humans to add a locator unit, only to lose all the collars during the disaster, the captain had accepted the story, but then produced an entire box of collars!
She claimed to have bought them in the hope of coming across humans during the ship's travels, except there were enough collars in that box to accommodate three times the humans on the ship. Nataly found it slightly annoying that the captain’s hopefulness led to her having to wear a collar.
She didn't think it was going to be a big deal, but it felt heavy. Even after Palathum reset it so she could take it off herself.
“I keep telling myself it’s a necklace," she said, tapping it with a fingernail. “But it isn’t working.”
“Maybe distraction would be best,” Daxus suggested. “We haven’t walked the top sections of the ship.”
Falkilm declared her feet healed enough for moderate walking, and thankfully, he hadn’t seen all the moving she’d done the day before!
As much as exploring the ship sounded good, she was worried about the crew. After hugging that one crew member, she’d been asked repeatedly if she needed to “clutch” or “cling” by almost every member of the crew. Navigating Talin neediness was exhausting.
“We are approaching a way station. That means the crew will all be extremely busy for the next two work-shifts,” Daxus said,standing up and holding out a hand. “Even if we see someone, they’ll have duties to perform so they won’t be able to linger.”
She was still debating, making Daxus worry.
They were several corridors away before Daxus asked her a question. “Are you feeling some of the same feelings that you felt on the planet?”
She stifled a laugh. When they’d first gotten on the ship, several people asked her something similar, but she didn’t expect it from Daxus. “No, nothing like before. You don’t believe I’m a Conduite or anything, right?”
He started purring again. “Of course not, but I have great respect for your unconscious pattern recognition. I will always listen to your anxiety from now on.”
This time, she couldn’t stop the laugh that bubbled out of her. “I’ll keep that in mind. I guess I’m a bad news barometer! What floor are we going to?”
Daxus accepted her change in subject and explained the basic layout of the ship. She already knew the facts he was relaying, but wanted to talk about anything except her anxiety and intuition. He moved to the door, and she followed, hesitating in the hall outside.
When he turned and sounded a questioning rumble, she gave him a bright smile. “I’m warning you, if anyone insists that I clutch or cling to them, I’m going to pretend to faint.”
“Then you’ll end up in the med bay,” he cautioned her with an amused rumble.
“Fine, then I’ll cry instead,” she countered as they started down the corridor. “What’s our first stop?”
“The bay is full of items meant for a different colony,” he said. He told her about the colony as they walked. Soon, they were in the massive bay packed full of equipment. It reminded her of one of the stations she’d briefly worked at.
Because this was a cargo ship and not a civilian transport, there wasn’t any kind of observation or entertainment deck. But they did find a room full of the ship's monitoring systems. Nataly was fascinated by the way they set up their docking sensors.
“I wish I could see the way they organized the data paths for these,” she murmured, going up on her toes to look past a bundle of cables to the wall attachments.
“I can ask for you,” Daxus said. “I’m sure they’d share.”
She gave him a grateful smile. “Thanks! All you need to do is ask for the path schematics.”
He sounded a rumble of agreement as they left the room and almost ran into a crew member trying to get in.
The crew member sounded a startled rattle. “Oh, a human!”
Nataly pretended to be surprised. “Oh, a Talin!”
The crew member went silent for a moment before sounding a rumble of amusement. “I didn’t mean to be insulting, I just didn’t expect to get to meet any of you.”
Nataly made sure to stay pressed tightly against Daxus's side. “I guess you've got to meet one of us. I’m Nataly, this is Daxus.”
“I’m Second Tier System Technician Hulmun,” she answered, slapping a hand to her chest in greeting. Nataly hated that traditional greeting because it sounded so painful. Thankfully, most of the Talins on Arise stopped doing it.
