Pan Sophi, Captain of the Rhyssa, was right where Cadan would have expected to find her—with her crew in the back of the seediest pub on Arvum Moon. Sophi had gathered people from all over the system for her crew of smugglers, and humans were the minority. Most of them would be down here with her.
Cadan ignored everyone else and fixed her eyes on Sophi. She was lounged across two of her huge dust-gray anoloid bruisers like they were a throne, serving them as both companion and supplementary heat source. There were few the lizard-like aliens would welcome that way, but that was Sophi. She found a space for herself anywhere she didn't belong. Her smooth black hair was overdyed with a faint blue iridescence today, braided into a long rope over her shoulder. Her heavy-lidded black eyes laughed above high cheekbones. Despite the earliness of the day she was sipping on a glass of something that, by the smell, could only be the local whiskey—and Cadan had been dirtside far too long if she was starting to think local planetary time meant anything.
"Well, look who it is." Sophi tipped her glass to Cadan, a sharp smile playing on her lips. Her pebbly-skinned anoloid bruisers vibrated in the low frequencies of amusement. Human crew members elbowed each other and smirked. Cadan most definitely did not hear a few murmurs of "captain's girlfriend," or she'd have had to break people's faces. A glare was all it took to shut them up.
Blattas Cadan couldn't see in the dim light chittered and rustled from hiding spots in the corners and beneath the furniture, the sound familiar and comforting. Simple as the black-chitined aliens were individually, they were still the only species who had mastered the blink that made interplanetary—and even interstellar—travel reasonable. They were everywhere, starside, and after three months stuck on this agrarian moon, breathing muddy planetary air, Cadan was more than ready to be off it.
"What can I do for you, Cadan?" Sophi asked. Her tone turned it into far too much of a flirtation. Her light, silky shirt was unbuttoned clear down to her belly button, showing off the fact that she had nothing under it except rich golden-brown skin. She idly stroked her long braid over her narrow chest, making her shirt fall open farther.
Damn her for knowing how she affected Cadan. Cadan felt unwanted heat pounding in her cheeks, and knew that even those who could not pick out human arousal by scent would be able to see the red of it on her face. She grabbed a nearby empty chair and pulled it up, careful not to accidentally place it on an anoloid's tail. A family of angry anoloids was the last thing she needed right now.
Cadan kept it simple and formal. "Captain Pan, I need starside."
"I knew you'd come with me when you wanted off Arvum." The smile teasing at Sophi's lips suggested the double entendre was absolutely intentional. "Unfortunately, there's been a blockade on since your stunt with the harvest. We're all stuck here entertaining ourselves however we can." Sophi raised her glass to Cadan and took a sip while her crew laughed around her. There were a couple cheers for "entertainment" and several demonstrations as crew members drank or mimed sexual acts.
Three tiny anoloid males—each no longer than Cadan's arm—squirmed out of the pile beneath Sophi to perch on top of the bruisers and join in, doing pushups and flicking their brightly colored dewflaps in display. Sophi fanned her hand before her throat in imitation and one of the bruisers stroked her deadly claws down Sophi's body just as affectionately as it touched the purring males. Sophi's eyes fluttered nearly shut, and she arched into the contact with a moan that sent a sympathetic shiver all the way down Cadan's body.
Cadan had never considered herself a xenophile. She shouldn't have wanted to climb up the pile of anoloids and join in, be wrapped up with Sophi in cool, scaled bodies so much bigger and stronger even than her own. But that was Sophi for you. It was like she had a short circuit in Cadan's brain. Anything she implied or suggested sounded like a fine idea.
"Don't give me that," Cadan answered gruffly. "I know you can get out." The Imperium likely thought their blockade on Arvum was impenetrable, but Cadan knew the Rhyssa had delivered, and smuggled out, at least three full-to bursting shipments since it had begun. Sophi specialized in the impossible—a different impossible than Cadan did.
"Maybe," Sophi granted. "What's in it for me?"
If Sophi were a true loyalist, Cadan would only have to show Magnus's communication calling her home to get where she needed to go. That wouldn't work with Sophi. Cadan knew she'd laugh at the idea she should serve the king because she was a descendant of the same colonization wave and had been born in the orbit of the star system he ruled. Mention of the king would only end in one of their old arguments. As much as Cadan might physically want Sophi, her callous disrespect was grating. The only thing Sophi truly cared about was money, so money was what Cadan would offer her.
"Royal credit or antimatter bullion. Your choice." Royal credit should have been good enough. It should be good enough for any citizen of Nidum, but Cadan already knew Sophi wouldn't take it. Unlike royal credit, antimatter could be traded anywhere.
Sophi named her price. "Six grams."
"Six?" Cadan growled. "That's…"
Sophi cut her off. "The only way off this dirtball with the Imperium's blockade in place." She had the monopoly and she knew it, damn her. No one else had her crew's skills. The blattas hidden in the shadows chittered in approval of the hard bargain.
"Six grams antimatter, to be paid upon safe arrival at Vagari Station." From Vagari Station, there were well-established blink routes to everywhere in the system. From there, she could get home. "With half a gram subtracted for every standard day past three it takes to get there." That was some incentive for Sophi not to get sidetracked on the way; she was famous for it if she thought she could make a little extra profit. She always got the job done, but she didn't always do it fast.
"Can't do it." Sophi shook her head, taking another sip of her whiskey. "Take us at least five if we're slipping the blockade."
"Five days then," Cadan agreed.
"Good." Sophi nodded. She knew Cadan was good for whatever she agreed to—just as Cadan knew Sophi would honor the word of any agreement she made. "You know there's no passengers on my ship. You'll work?"
"You know I can make your engine purr." There were few in the system better at tuning a ship's engine. Only after the words left Cadan's mouth did she hear how that could sound—and of course Sophi never took anything but the most suggestive of meanings.
"Mm, you do have a way with it," Sophi mused, shifting her hips to rub her slender legs together as a few human crew members chuckled. She handed her half-full glass of whiskey off to a blatta. Ve accepted the glass with vir first two sets of limbs, hugged it tight to vir carefully upright thorax, and skittered away on vir final two sets of limbs.
Sophi eased her way out of the anoloid pile. A long tail squeezed Sophi's narrow waist tight before letting her go. She extended her hand to shake, and Cadan stood to take it. "It's always a pleasure to have you, Cadan," Sophi said, her small hand not releasing Cadan's. "Seal the bargain with a kiss?" She tugged Cadan closer. "Or are you back to resisting me?" She looked up at Cadan with eyes, dark as the pull of space, half-hidden under her heavy lids and lashes, lips sweetly parted. Damn and damn and damn her again, she knew exactly how to push Cadan's buttons.
Fuck it.
Cadan cradled Sophi's beautiful face between her hands and kissed her. Sophi tasted of smokey whiskey and beneath that some sweet fruit, smelled of the dry, leathery musk of the anoloids, felt tiny and beautiful and soft and breakable in Cadan's arms when Cadan slid them down to hold her. Cadan groaned at the perfection of just holding Sophi again after so long—she missed being close to Sophi so much, as bad an idea as it was. She dug her fingers into Sophi's hair, diving back down for kiss after kiss from Sophi's eager lips, not caring in the slightest about the crew laughing (and rumbling and chittering) around them.
She would never have lasted five days in the close quarters of the Rhyssa without breaking down for Sophi, anyway.
*~*~*
The complex series of blinks to set the ship on its way were completed. The blatta could leave the company of vir pod siblings and make vir way to the engine room at the time it was ordered that shift should change.
The new human was in the engine room.
Human. Very large for species. Sound label = Cadan. Scent signature = simmering frustration, loss of salt and moisture due to physical effort.
The human's eyes were weak, so the lights were very bright. Ve shuttered most of vir eyes and took over from vir tired sibling, who returned to the welcoming dark comfort of their little travel pod to recover. The human's soft, fleshy body twisted around and under the engine, removing and replacing parts while the human made huffing and rumbling sounds.
Sound signature = displeased human.
The blatta could not complete the tasks in vir list with the engine in maintenance. Ve flattened virself to rest on the floor and tucked vir limbs beneath virself to wait.
The human looked at the blatta over the engine. What passed for a face was darkened with increased flow of hemoglobin-rich blood—visible through the thin, melanin-tinted skin that barely contained the human's blood and organs. The human blinked two large, exposed eyes at vir.
"Blatta," the human addressed vir, "is there a call name you prefer?"
Sound label "blatta" = polite. Respond with same. Sound label "cockroach" = impolite. Not present. Recognition of vir as different from vir pod siblings = rare. Very polite.
The blatta clicked loudly twice. Ve did not have or desire a call name.
Sound label "two clicks" = understood by human as negative.
Human understanding of blatta sound language was limited. Simple code of positive and negative was all most of them could grasp. Communicating in visual language was more precise between all the species, but the human would not use a translation panel with vir single set of hands dirty.
The human's head bobbed sharply.
Body language "human head bob" = imprecise communication of understanding or positive agreement.
"Could you please clean these pieces as I take them off, and keep them in order?" the human asked.
Sound label "please" = polite. Task = basic. Normal tasks on list = impossible during maintenance.
Ve clicked once for positive agreement and began the task. The human was strong for the species. Ve moved—
Label "ve" = incorrect for human. Most humans = reproductive capable, regardless of social role. Labels "she" and "he" = polite for majority of humans. Label "she" = overheard in reference to human sound label Cadan.
Brief frustration with imprecision of human language and social roles.
Despite being a breeder, the human continued at her task as tirelessly as any worker might. She was strong, able to move objects larger and heavier than herself with some effort. She took parts of the engine off, and ve cleaned and organized them for her. The human's sounds gradually turned from grumbling displeasure to silence.
Human silence ≠ anoloid silence before attack.
The human eventually removed part of her cloth covering as she worked. She unzipped the part that had covered her top limbs and upper regions and dropped it to hang from the back of her body below her abdomen, leaving her abdomen and upper regions mostly uncovered except for a harness of tight cloth across her fleshy upper thorax.
The human's silence gave way to sighs and quiet humming.
Sound signature = content human. Scent signature = tired and pleased human, increasing loss of salt and fluid from effort.
The human was taking pleasure in her task, even if she had begun it angrily. The blatta also took pleasure in the task ve was given. Ve cleaned the pieces and kept them in order as tasked, and gave them back to the human in the proper order when asked. Vir shift was nearly over when the engine was all together and clean again. The human thanked the blatta for vir help.
Large human sound label "Cadan" = polite. Pod will continue to assist in future.
The human performed diagnostic tests on the engine, her thin skin abraded in places, hands smeared darker with engine lubricant. Her head pelt, short and close to her head in tight spirals, was also smeared with the lubricant when she ran her fingers over it. The blatta did not know why the human should want to put grease there. It served no apparent purpose.
Ve left the human to her task and began vir own normal tasks. The engine vibrated in a quieter and more harmonious note than previous to maintenance when turned on. Information panels showed increased efficiency. The human inspected the information, tapping at the panels uselessly.
The human's head jerked up when another joined them.
Human. Small for species. Sound label = Sophi. Scent signature = plant inflorescence, faint anoloid scent, human sexual arousal. Respected pod mother. Obey.
"I see you're done here. Looking good," Sophi said. Her voice was lower than usual. Her body sagged against the wall. Her fragile skin was more exposed than normal by her cloth coverings. Various bulges of soft flesh were barely contained, and the shapes of her endoskeleton showed through in some places.
Distress = not present. Cause of unusual behavior = unknown. Action = observe.
The human Cadan looked back down at the engine quickly. She poked at things that ve had already helped her put back together. Her face became darkened with increased blood flow again. The blatta fanned vir antennas through the air to observe as closely as possible.
Scent signature = tired human, loss of salt and fluid from effort, frustration, growing sexual arousal. Human mating behavior possible.
Majority reproductive-capable society + mating behaviors = complex and inefficient. Majority workers = simple and superior. Pod mothers fusing with mates to become one = simple, efficient, and superior.
"Come here." The human Sophi held her hand out toward the human Cadan. The human Cadan accepted, stepping close. Their angular faces tipped close together, coming closer and closer as though their large, weak eyes could not easily see one another despite the brightness of the light. Pod mother Sophi's hands touched the human Cadan's skin where it was exposed, on her shoulders, arms, and abdomen. She licked her lips, which turned up on the ends.
Body language "human lip turn up" = imprecise communication, usually of pleasure.
"You're a mess. You should use my shower to clean up. I can spare the water. Captain's orders." The human Sophi's voice was low and breathy, and one of her eyebrows lifted.
The human Sophi was a pod mother. She also was a human breeder. She was also accepted as a mate in the anoloid family. She was also exhibiting mating behavior with another human of approximately the same hormone type.
Human reproduction ≠ same + same. Anoloid + human ≠ reproductively compatible.
Pod mother Sophi = human. Human = inefficient and imprecise social roles.
Frustration.
"With you in it?" the human Cadan asked. Her voice was rougher than it had been when speaking to the blatta. Her large hand circled behind Sophi's slender abdomen to pull their bodies closer together, spreading a smear of dirty engine lubricant on pod mother Sophi's skin and cloth coverings.
Disrespect of pod mother! Scents blending = human arousal strong. Displeasure = not present. Distress = not present. Action = no.
The blatta quietly expressed vir disapproval of the disrespect as ve continued vir tasks.
"Of course," pod mother Sophi answered. Her lips turned up farther.
The human Cadan pressed her face against the human Sophi's, joining their mouthparts in a way that caused the scent of human arousal to spike strongly. The blatta continued vir tasks as pod mother Sophi and the human Cadan pursued their pointless and inefficient mating behaviors. There were smears of engine lubricant on many more parts of pod mother Sophi and more of her skin was exposed when she moved away. She pulled the human Cadan out of the engine room with her lips turned up and her pale, calcium-based teeth bared.
The blatta turned the lights to a more reasonable level and unshuttered vir eyes while ve continued vir tasks until the time it was ordered the shift should change. Vir pod sibling took vir place, and the blatta returned to the companionship of vir travel pod and siblings to eat and rest.