Page 17 of Experimental Voyage
“And scratch,” Herserael added, and the Veloc hooted his amusement. “And attempt to use her skull as a weapon.”
“She gets full points for determination,” Waldren stated. “And now that our medical entertainment is over for the moment, it’s time to prepare for the jump. Camellia, am I correct in understanding you have zero training regarding jumps and protocols?”
“I have no training,” I replied, and once the Veloc released me, I brushed my clothes off and straightened, careful to ignore the urge to give my scalp a good scratching. “I understand the basics, but I don’t know if my basics are correct. I learned them from a book.”
“Pretend I’ve never been on a ship in my life and tell me what is supposed to happen with a jump,” Waldren instructed. “Keep it to as simple terms you can. If you want to become a shiftgem engineer later, that’s something you can pursue at your leisure.”
“Every jump enabled ship has a special drive that interacts with the shiftgem gates. I’m not convinced it’s actually science, but the gems in the gate, which is an archway somehow locked into a fixed location in space, activate the gems in the engine of the ship. The gems then unite the connecting archways and shunt the ship through. If everything goes correctly, the ship materializes through the other archway and floats out to space. If something goes wrong, the ship may not jump—or it might be torn to pieces.”
Waldren nodded. “That’s as good a base explanation as I’ve heard. I have several gem colors on board with a drive allowing me to switch out the cores to best match the gate we’re going through. While my ship isn’t the fastest in the universe, the Veloc gifted me with sufficient shiftgems to utilize any gate—even the ones requiring black stones. This is where things get touchy. The gate that allows us to make the journey to your world in two weeks uses black shiftgems. The gate has… issues.”
“Issues?” I blurted, my eyes widening, as his tone implied the gate itself was alive. “What sort of issues?”
“It has a mind of its own. Most people only use the gate if there is an emergency. For example, whenDauntlesscame to your world, the captain was aware that there were a lot of people in critical condition. The gate reacted accordingly—and shunted the ship within a ten minute flight to your world. We’ve been traveling longer than ten minutes, as I’m sure you’ve noticed by now.”
“I had.” I considered him with a frown. “We’re not in an emergency, so you aren’t sure if the gate will send us to where we want to go?”
A faint smile appeared before he smothered it. “Precisely. Sometimes, the gate responds to the needs of the crew—and sometimes, the gate is aware of those who need assistance in some other portion of space and decides a ship might becomesomeone else’s salvation. Space is a vast and dangerous place—and the Veloc have a rule. If the shiftgem gate calls, we answer. And that rule tends to mean we get sidetracked fairly often if we use one of the touchier gates.”
“Like this one.”
Waldren nodded. “And with your situation, we simply don’t know what will happen. The shiftgem within your brain might even react to the gate. This is about as experimental as it gets. We won’t know what will happen until we try the jump. No is an allowed answer. If you aren’t comfortable with the risk, we’ll take a different gate and extend our voyage.”
I shook my head. “It’s fine. It’s better to find out now rather than later. What do I need to do?”
“Not much. I’ll have you in the command area of the ship. I’ll put you in the co-captain’s chair and let you get your first taste of working with a spaceship. The Veloc prefer to hide in their nests, where they can be safely tethered. Jumps unnerve them, and they’ll cap their claws so they don’t shred their nests.”
“And Palta?”
“She will be in her cubby in my quarters. Her bed closes and has sufficient padding to protect her, and she has her own life support system. There’s also a water dispenser, waste receptacle, and a food dispenser. If something happens to us, she’ll be able to survive for three months. There’s even a heater so if the systems shut down, she’ll be okay.”
My eyes widened. “That’s incredible.”
“It cost me a fortune, but I refused to take her into space until I was certain I could make her as safe as possible. But now that I have her system sorted, I can replicate it in every quarter. When I had the ship refitted, I made certain every habitable space was fitted with the necessary connectors for the system. The battery is the expensive part; it requires a complete collection of shiftgem crystals. But she’s worth it.”
That she was. “Can I see the system afterwards?”
“Sure. I actually have all the components for a second system, so I can show you the whole thing. When we got word about your situation, I gathered the equipment. The Veloc are obsessive, and if they feel like you need an animal, you will be getting an animal. And Veloc tend to believehomo sapiensof all stripes need animals to thrive.” Waldren shot Herserael a glare, and the subject of his displeasure laughed.
“I haven’t had a pet before,” I admitted. “I was always too busy looking at the stars than being willing to take care of an animal I’d probably have to leave behind.”
“On most exploratory ships, a pet wouldn’t be an option. I make the concessions and pay the prices to have Palta—and the Veloc sometimes bring their pets along, too.”
Alban snickered. “I have a parrot that was originally bred on Earth, but my beloved refused to let me take her off planet this time. It’s her turn to keep Rosie company.”
“Do you all have pets?”
As one, the Veloc nodded. Herserael said, “We’ll keep an eye out for a friend for you. Unless Palta decides she likes a male of her kind, it probably won’t be an Andean like her. But that’s not a bad thing. If Palta does make friends with a male, he’ll likely become Waldren’s companion as well. It’s better for the cats to be kept together.”
That I could readily understand. “Or we could find a male for Waldren, and then we could go on a quest to find another pair for me. We will be overrun with them within a few years and create an empire of cats.” I’d read just enough about genetic diversity to understand with four cats from different lines, with the science of genetic manipulation available, we could repopulate the species and give them a new lease on life—assuming we could gain access to the machines needed to do it. “We could make a conservation project for cats like Palta.I mean, have you looked at her? She’s adorable, and her kind deserves to be spread far and wide.”
The Veloc hooted their laughter and Waldren sighed. “Cats like Palta generally sell for over a million standard galactic credits, Camellia. However much I would love to further their species, it’s not precisely affordable—and finding three cats with the appropriate genetic diversity would be a challenge.”
“Kittens,” I replied, as I felt the word fully explained my stance on the situation.
“It would only take one or two profitable derelicts to make her idea a reality,” Alban commented, and he flashed a toothy grin Waldren’s way. “You worry about flying the ship, I will retire to my quarters and worry about sourcing felines. Palta is an excellent hunting companion, and our world can sustain the species when they’re companion beasts. We may have a habitat suitable for wild release, but we would have to genetically modify at least three hundred kittens for proper diversity, breed them, and then scatter the animals throughout their territory. Not impossible, but a challenge—and stocking their territory with suitable prey might be a challenge.”
“Might?” Waldren blurted. “Where are we going to get threehundredAndean kittens?”
