Page 40 of Experimental Voyage
“Does your desire to explore stem from our mishap to Melody?”
Both grinned and nodded while the Veloc hooted their laughter.
Yulgali lowered his head my way with his crest raised. “Please feel free to draw the attention of more shiftgem gates. Vivamightbe happy to stay home for a few weeks should she have to conquer the paperwork to claim her share.”
As the Veloc had brought himself within easy range, I went to serious work stroking his muzzle and scratching between his eyes, earning a whistled coo for my efforts.
“How does one get adopted into a Veloc clan, Viva? If I get adopted, I can pet my clan as often as I want, right?”
The fox hybrid burst into laughter. “You could try asking. And then, if you’re extra bold, you could ask your clan to claim that handsome pilot of yours.”
If only. “That wouldn’t actually work, would it?”
Ever since Waldren had departed, taking Squeakers and Palta with him, I’d spent at least an hour a night staring up at thestars and wondering where he might be, what he did, and how his beautiful ship fared.
“It might. Veloc get unreasonable when it comes to romance, and the other clans already whisper about how you’ve done good work breaking through Waldren’s shell. He’s still grumpy, but he tolerates people in his space now. That’s because of you.”
“He’ll take time to tame, I’m sure. But first, I want to see if I can better understand where he came from.”
Our pasts shaped our futures, and I wanted a close look at Waldren’s world before a clan of Veloc had plucked him and his sister from the ruins of their failed colony. The why of the colony’s death pained me, but I wanted to understand, at least a little, what Waldren attempted to cope with.
“In good news, we’ll be able to leave shortly. We’ll have to load up some supplies, a hunting kit, and all the medications we might possibly need. After that, I’ll do our engine checks, get clearance, and escape before Delta’s father has any additional misgivings. He even gets to keep our foxes for this trip.”
“However much we’d love to take Pandora and Boo-Boo with us, Pandora’s pregnant with another litter, and we don’t take her into space once we’ve confirmed she’s pregnant. We were not expecting this litter. Someone forgot the birth control.”
“And I legitimately forgot. It wasn’t intentional!”
“She’s having a huge litter,” Delta complained. “Twelve kits. Do you know what’s going to happen to us when she gives birth to twelve kits?”
“Mayhem,” the woman predicted, and her tail whipped back and forth. “She’s only supposed to have four or five. But we’re gettingtwelve. Her previous litter had six.”
“She’ll be fine, Viva. She’s larger than normal for avulpes vulpes, the kits are all small but healthy, and we’ve already modded them. The modding bill might cost me my sanity. But the kits will be fine barring any unforeseen circumstances. Wejust can’t afford to bring her into space with that many kits on the way.”
Viva bounced on her toes, pointed at my quarters, and said, “Delta, you settle Camellia. Feathered murder machines, you can help me get the cargo boarded, our inventory registered, and help me go over everything in the engine room. Once you’re done settling Camellia, you can take the controls for the takeoff.”
“I was great with everything until you got to the part where I take the controls,” Delta replied, and he faked a pained sigh. “You just want me to get more flight time.”
“I can’t get you your own racer until you have registered flight time. Andyourracer will be just that: a course racer. I already made arrangements for a permanent parking spot at the spaceport because she isnotgoing to be entering or leaving orbit intentionally. She’ll be built in space, and she’ll live all of her days out in space. My racer is an exploratory racer. Yours will be a course racer.”
“Yet you’ll be entering your exploratory racer in my courses.”
“And she’ll be at a disadvantage, but I still might win!” Viva laughed and headed off, the Veloc following behind her.
“Is she always this bouncy?” I asked, regarding Delta with wide eyes.
“When we’re preparing to head off into space? Yes. She’s extra excited because we were just visiting with Pandora and Boo-Boo, who are in fox paradise. Pandora didn’t even want to come with us to the airport. My mother was grooming her, as she should. Boo-Boo was napping with their last litter of kits, who are about to be shipped off to new homes. If you would like avulpes vulpes, we can give you one of the females from the litter after training her. Ourvulpes vulpesare a bit defective. All of them love cats, Veloc, and space. The females are more social and better suited for space, we’ve found.”
“Shouldn’t I pay for her?”
“No, not at all. Consider her a gift for putting up with us, our planet, and our slow ways. And yes, I checked your education record. You’ve beenblowingthrough the coursework like an obsessed fiend. You now hold the planet’s record for fastest certification in exploratory botany, and you scored the highest grade while doing it. I was asked to find out which certification you’re trying to obtain next, as they couldn’t tell from your rather eclectic schedule.”
“Engine maintenance and rebuilds,” I informed him.
“Okay, to be fair, that onewasa little obvious, and they’re ignoring it because it’s keeping you from tearing the school down around their ears. I’m still trying to figure out how you managed to book in for six hours a day of engine courses. I hadn’t even known we could work that aggressive of a schedule. It’s usually three hours three times a week for a semester for the basic certification.”
I was two weeks from bagging three different engine certifications, and I grinned at him before stepping into my new quarters to explore. “I’m trying for three for engines and one for overall shiftgem care, maintenance, and installation. I’ll be done with the shiftgem course by the end of the semester. That one is complicated, because it isallship systems. The engine ones are excessive.”
“One engine design, one emergency rebuild, and the standard engine care and maintenance certificates?” Delta asked, joining me. He pointed at the tub. “So, this is Viva’s primary splurge. We have a special purification system just for the bathing water. All baths have to be scheduled, as the system can only handle one bather at a time. In good news, the tubs all have heating units, so you can soak for however long you have scheduled. If overall gravity cuts off while the tub is in use, each tub has a backup gravity unit and the tub will immediately drain. The bather will be unhappy, but it’s not actually dangerous.”Delta showed me how it worked, and he went to the desk, opened a drawer, and pointed at a rather thick manual. “This has all the customizations for your quarters. The pages with the red flags are what’s been specifically done in here. I suspect Viva wants you strapped into quarters for takeoff, but I’m going to defy her and take you up to the bridge. The Veloc will hide in their nests, as while they are feathered murder machines, space travel is scary for them until they remember they’re feathered murder machines.”
