Page 4 of Claim
As he settled on the cushion she indicated—much too small—it took more effort than he would’ve anticipated to soothe the agitated ruffle of his carapace.Maybe it was that lingering smell, something layered with dewdrop whorl sweetness but hinting at a darker mystery, like the temptation of riches mined from the depths of the dangerous asteroid fields that kept theDeepWanderalive.
The scent, he realized abruptly, came from the little Earther herself, wafting toward him with her every movement.
He glowered as she straightened the room.Why could he not force his antennae to stop bending toward her?Not only was she the smallest of the females, she was also the softest.When the Earthers had first come aboard, Teq had expressed concern privately that they would be too soft for orc hands.But once in the grip of the i’lva himself, the crusher had rescinded that fear.
“They are small and soft but strong,” Teq had said when it had been just the two of them, apex and crusher.“Their light guides us in the darkness, just as the i’lva promised.You chose well for your orcs, my apex.Once we have taken our place in the Luster, we should contact the Big Sky IDA outpost again.”
The hope for a better life that his brother had sung to the ship had clearly sunk into the big crusher too.
But it could not penetrate an apex’s extra tough hide.
Nor should it.His place at the top required him to be cold and hard so that his people might shine, living their lives in the light.
“Glaring at me isn’t really better than stomping,” June said.She probably believed she’d said it under her breath, but his antennae caught the vibrations of her mutter.
“I am not glaring,” he informed her.“This is how I look.”
“Resting apex face?”
Her tone tickled through his antennae in a way he couldn’t quite translate, though the words were clear enough.“An apex does not rest.”
“It was a joke… You know what, never mind.”She perched on a cushioned stool—not the one closest to him, he noted.“Let’s not make this more weird.Obviously neither of us wants to do a makeover.You’re clearly, um, happy with who you are already.And I’m…here too.”
“If this makeover, as you call it, will show our worth, do it.I will do anything I must for the good of this ship.I am apex.”
“So you keep telling me.”She flashed her tiny little tusks at him.
He knew the “smile” was not an Earther gesture of threat, but a strange tension gathered in him anyway.The little female was absolutely no threat to him, so why was he responding to her like this?
He forced himself to focus.“Your position on Earth was crafting false impressions?”
“False…” She made a sputtering noise.“No.Scissors and dye are real enough.I’m a hairdresser.”She touched the locks piled atop her head, each strand like a different hue of dark, smoky quartz angled toward starlight.“Although you wouldn’t know it from looking at me right this second.”She let out another of those little sounds that stroked his antennae across the distance between them.
He considered this.“You were changing Kinsley’s appearance when I came in.What were you changing her to?Who is she, really?”
June tilted her head.“She is fully committed to becoming Sil’s wife-mate.But she still feels bad about how she got here, sneaking aboard, lying to the IDA, and almost getting herself and Sil killed by those pirates.Changing her hair is part of how she’s showing who she wants to be now.”
He found his lower hand drifting up to touch the glyph carved into his chest.“I was always meant to be apex,” he murmured.“The only way that will change is if I fail the ship and this glyph is struck from my skin.”
June did not move, but somehow her eyes seemed even brighter than her hair and softer than her Earther flesh.“What would you be if not apex?Would you have been a stone singer like your brother?Or a crusher like Teq?There are so many positions on a ship as big as theDeepWander.Surely you could change if you wanted to.”
This time he did glare at her and flattened his antennae.“I am apex.”
“But if you wanted something else…”
“I was marked in the egg.My brother’s yolk was half starved for mine.The ship flies or falls on my command.I am apex.”
She blinked, that delicate fringe of keratin around her eyes hiding the soft brightness.“Riiight.Well, okay then.I’ll make sure nobody wonders about that.”She rose from the cushion and circled him slowly.
He told himself once again that she was no threat, he tensed.“What are you doing?”
“As I reminded Adeline and Kinsley, I’m a hairdresser, but you don’t have any hair.So I’m trying to figure out what else we might do.”She hummed under her breath, a slightly discordant sound that shimmered through his antennae again.“I think manufacturing wigs for all of you is probably not the way to go…”
He clacked his tusks.“Why not?An apex will do anything—”
“Anything for the ship, I know, I know.But considering orcs usually don’t even wear shirts, I think wigs would be a big ask.”
He swiveled on the cushion to face her.“I am bigger than you.So you may ask me.”
