Page 45 of Experimental Voyage
“This ship is designed to be piloted by a single person, and it truly has a robust autopilot system. We’re safe to leave the bridge. If something trips the alarm, we’ll know about it—and Viva will go from sound asleep to wide awake in half a second should one go off. I tripped an alarm while working on her other ship while she was napping, and she let me know I had sinned. First, I was working without her. She was napping! Do you know what a smart man doesn’t do? Interrupt his wife’s sacred nap. Second, I tripped an alarm. I had no idea she’d installed a new monitoring system, so when I went to make the adjustments, I failed to disengage that system. I don’t have a link yet. I can’t just think at the ship and get the logs for new installations. And since it washership, I didn’t actually have access to those logs. She fixed that, though.” Delta herded me off the bridge and deeper into the ship, where we met the Veloc in the hallway. “I need exercise, else all thehomo sapienson board might go mad by the end of the day. Shall we test Viva’s improvements to the fitness room? She claims not even a pair of Veloc can damage anything in there.”
The Veloc whistled and hooted their amusement before bobbing their heads.
“We must damage something, at least a little, to prove our prowess.” Fogali fanned his crimson tail and shook out his feathers. “As I belong to a more combative clan, I will be teaching of everyone. Thehomo sapienswill learn how to subdue Veloc. Yulgali will practice subduinghomo sapienswithout injury. By the time Viva awakens, all beings on board will be slightly injured. It is inevitable.”
“I better get the med kit,” Delta said before hurrying off. “Make sure your caps are installed properly, because if you lose a cap, we’ll go far beyond slightly injured.”
The Veloc went to work checking their claw caps, removing and reinstalling them before taking swipes at the padded walls. The walls remained intact, and the caps stayed on.
Morbid curiosity got the better of me, and I asked, “How sharpareyour claws?”
“We can slice ahomo sapiensin half with little effort. Your skin parts like butter does in the presence of a warm knife.” Fogali showed me his many teeth in a predatory grin. “Your bones offer a little sport.”
Rather than receive the lethal message the Veloc attempted to send me, I scratched under his chin. “And you’re the cutest feathered murder machine,” I cooed at him.
Yulgali hooted his laughter. “We will not be frightening thishomo sapiens, my brother. She would be glorious in the Crimson Tails.”
“The Crimson Feet might be able to contain her a little. Perhaps we could showcase her skills for them to see after some teaching of her and use her as a way to infiltrate the Emerald Crests. Should she continue to charm young Waldren, an alliance could be proposed. The Crimson Feet very much like the Emerald Crests, and their hatchlings are quite striking. And if we encourage Waldren to hybridize,theiryounglings might be courted. It would only take a slight modification to make her tail and ears a dominant trait capable of overwriting even Veloc genetics.”
The Veloc regarded me with interest, and I raised a brow at their open discussion of my romantic future. “Doesn’t Waldren get a say in this?”
The Veloc exchanged looks before regarding me solemnly and chorusing, “No.”
I laughed at their determination. “All right. Let’s assume, for a moment, that I am interested in pursuing Waldren.” When I was honest, I had a healthy interest in the man. As every Veloc to cross my path thus far appreciated bold humans, I continued, “And don’t get me wrong. I have an interest. He’s grumpy, but he’s interesting, amusing, and kind when you look beyond his rough exterior. Anyway, is Waldren interested in forming a relationship with someone? He runs from his Veloc suitors.”
Both of the Veloc bobbed their heads, reminding me of giant birds excited over something. Fogali regained his composure first and cooed. “Waldren is uninterested because Veloc women rarely travel through space outside of their rite of passage. He would have to give up the love of his life for her, and that is not a sacrifice he is willing to make. He would be unhappy. She would become unhappy because of how unhappy he became over needing to stay on the ground. It would not be a joyous union. The chase pleases everyone, and it is a way the Veloc welcome him without much pressure. Everyone respects his love of space. You share his love of space. It would be a balanced union, and he would not even mind staying on a planet for the birthing of any young and throughout their early years before raising them to venture through the stars as well. You would partner well with him, for you would want to travel the stars except when it’s time to nest, and then you would break his ship and demand he work on maintenance for the duration. By the time the little one is ready to venture into space, the ship would surely be repaired. You can also have him work on short hauls while you stay on the planet, which will surely annoy you both. You could hold his precious Palta hostage.”
And Squeakers.
I could see how the ploy might work, although I had already accepted the likelihood of children to be close to zero.
Waldren and the Veloc had done far more for me than just restore my hearing.
“I can really learn how to throw one of you?”
Both Veloc hooted and bobbed their heads. Fogali nuzzled my throat before saying, “Once you learn the trick of it, you will be doing so with great glee at your whim. We are light for our size, and our center of balance is suchhomo sapienscan easily use our anatomy against us. Here, I will show you. Grab hold of my chest feathers. Don’t worry about doing any harm. The feathers there are, in truth, closer to fur and resistant to harm.”
I did as told, although I couldn’t resist giving him a hearty scratching before digging my fingers in and securing a grip on him. “They’re long!”
“Yes. It helps prevent bites from other Veloc. A mouthful of feathers is ineffective for defeating one of us. We’ve evolved with time, and the feathers have thinned a little, but they’re plusher now. Our crests and breast feathers are for more pleasant pursuits now. While we Veloc still fight among ourselves, we do so with capped claws and showy bites. We save our lethality for other beings. We are well suited for that.Homo sapiensare easy prey for us, but we truly prefer reproducing with them rather than devouring them for lunch. Those who steal our hatchlings are turned into a meal, though. It cuts down on burial costs.”
“Should I for any reason forget, please remind me not to be at all involved with the kidnapping of hatchlings.”
The Veloc whistled. Before either could reply, Delta returned hauling a stainless steel box. “All right. Let’s limit the bloodshed, as Viva will make us scrub until every drop of blood is removed from her precious padding. Bruises are acceptable. Let’s avoid broken bones, because I only have a splint kit, and the bastard stuck with a broken bone will have to deal with it until we reach a spaceport. Camellia, the rules are simple for ushomo sapiens.Try not to pluck their feathers, and if you manage to steal oneof their baubles, they didn’t work hard enough to fend you off, and it becomes your prize. Every last one of their baubles are shiftgems, and they’re usually solid quality. The last time I cornered a Veloc with a shiftgem scanner, she was wearing four million tokens worth of shiftgems, and some of them were suitable for various life support and purification systems.”
“We are beautiful and deserve to wear beautiful things,” Fogali announced, and to prove his point, he posed, fanned his tail, lifted his crest, and showed off all his baubles, which gleamed in the room’s light.
“You are beautiful,” Delta conceded. “You use your beauty to trick ushomo sapiensinto putting up with you. Camellia, he’s going to lean towards you. Give a pull when he does. Go ahead and do it like you mean it.”
Fogali leaned, I pulled, and with a startled yelp, we ended up on the floor. As the Veloc had been prepared for the tumble, he dodged falling on me. I lost my hold on him, and he hopped away. “When you want to throw one of us, grab our feathers while we’re moving forward, turn, and use your shoulder. We are tall enough that when we collide with you, we will flip over you and hit the floor. It is a matter of our center of gravity, which is, forhomo sapiens, in a rather convenient location.”
“That’s it?” I blurted, scrambling to my feet. “All I have to do is grab your chest feathers, turn, ram my shoulder into you, and pull like I mean it?”
Delta laughed and nodded. “It sounds easier than it is, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll be throwing Veloc left and right, earning their ire and respect all at once. As my wife isn’t conscious to stop us, let’s compete. The winner scores the most tosses. Oh, and Camellia?”
“What is it?”
“If you fail to toss them, theywilltoss you. I recommend you learn quickly. It hurts less that way.” Delta regarded ouropponents with a rather apprehensive expression. “Honestly, I’m signing us up for a bad time, but if they can’t teach us, no one can.”
