Caelan shuddered. Set xir forehead against xir knees. Xir nails dug into xir shins. There'd be marks. Maybe blood. Short-lived but still blood.
What the hell?
Seriously, what the hell? Xe'd been used as a human mule, used to smuggle data? Smuggle it where and to who?
But no, the who was easy. Storm.
"I was supposed to wait for my former lover and life-long friend Storm Vlahovic to pick me up," Caelan said. Xir voice came out high, tight, terrified. Xe forced xirself to meet Shahnaz's frightened eyes. "Xe gave me a transmitter. Said that if things got too bad I should escape in a life pod, push the transmitter and then wait. Xe'd come and pick me up. Save me."
"Caelan, there was no signal transmitting from your life pod at all," Shahnaz whispered. His face was so pale that he looked grey. Xe'd never seen him so pale before. "It gave off no SOS at all. My finding you when I did was pure luck. Anyone else coming for you would have had to wait until the Azure Wave arrived at port without you and then go searching. By which point you would be…"
"Oh fuck," Caelan whimpered. Xe curled inwards again, shaking so hard that the only thing holding xir again was xir arms wrapped around xir legs.
A moment later Shahnaz's arms wrapped around Caelan, pulling xir close. Xe shuddered and wrapped xirself around him. Arms around his waist, face against this chest, legs draped over the top of his. He shook, too. Not as bad but he still shook.
Must be upset. Xe'd never seen Shahnaz skip his prayers. Not once.
"Sorry," Caelan whispered.
"I am sorry that you were betrayed this way," Shahnaz whispered back. His arms tightened around xir. "But I am not sorry to have rescued you or to have met you, Caelan."
His voice strengthened as he spoke. So strong. He was fragile as a spring flower physically and yet he was the strongest person xe'd ever met. Well, he had been that fragile. Now he was getting less so. That was good.
Because Storm would kill him.
Both of them.
No doubt about it. There really was only one person who could have done this and that was Storm. Xe hadn't let xir guard down with anyone in over a decade. Even with family Caelan had been increasingly suspicious. The missions xe got sent on…
But xe'd become suspicious of those missions because of things Storm had said late at night while they lay cuddled together. And Storm had worked so hard to keep Caelan away from her family, to cut xir off from xir friends. It hadn't started out as anything more than laughing and teasing to keep Caelan in bed. But it had grown to questions whenever Caelan went out, repeated calls when they were apart for more than half an hour and the sort of total surveillance that left Caelan with no room to breathe or think or live.
Xe'd accepted it. Bit by bit xir freedom had been eroded away. Xe'd taken the mission on for the family reluctantly, refused the ship they suggested and taken Storm's suggestion of the Azure Wave without doing any double-checks of what xe was getting into.
And look how that had turned out.
Xe'd given up xir freedom just because Storm wanted xir to. Given it away bit by bit and only now that Caelan was here with Shahnaz, isolated from everything xe'd ever known both good and bad, could Caelan see it. Xe'd been a fool but xe didn't have to keep on this way.
Caelan swallowed down xir fear and hurt, pulled back and then smiled that Shahnaz held on for just a second longer before letting xir go.
Good to know that he actually meant it that he was attracted to xir. Better to know that he'd still let go when xe wanted him to.
"Right," Caelan said. Xe stared at the device because one glimpse of Shahnaz's frightened eyes was enough to make xir want to crawl right back into his lap again. "So. We have a data module full of plans for the destruction of the entire human sphere."
"And the Drathanni," Shahnaz agreed.
"Yeah, and them," Caelan agreed. Xe picked up the device and scrolled through one of the files, frowning. "Correction, we have speculations on how one could destroy the Drathanni that are obviously inaccurate given that it says that there's no way the Drathanni could take down the interstellar comms and the Drathanni did that… what? A year ago?"
"A year and two months, Old Earth standard," Shahnaz agreed. He peered over xir shoulder. "Hmm. This is older data then."
"Seems like it." Caelan frowned. "I want a bigger screen for this."
"I most assuredly do not want this loaded into the Blessed Prayer's systems," Shahnaz said so fast that the words tumbled over each other escaping his mouth.
Xe stopped and stared at him, trying to trace down exactly where his train of thought had gone. Secret files to destroy everyone. Secret files on the Drathanni.
Oh.
"The Drathanni might decide we were complicit in this," Caelan whispered.
"You in particular, yes," Shahnaz agreed. "Myself less so but I did somehow miraculously manage to find and rescue you. It looks… suspicious from the outside."
"So what do we do?" Caelan asked. Xe waved the device at him and then grinned when Shahnaz scrambled backwards a couple of feet on all fours. "I'm tempted to chase you all around the Prayer with this thing just because you're reacting that way."
Shahnaz huffed, very little amusement in his eyes. "Mean."
"Frequently," Caelan agreed. Then frowned at the device again. "But seriously. My instinct is to take it straight to the Drathanni and scream for help."
This time it was Shahnaz who got to his feet and stalked off into the ship. Damn. The man was so calm usually that Caelan hadn't expected him to just walk off in a huff. A second later Caelan scrambled to xir feet and followed him.
He wasn't the sort to walk his upset off. Shahnaz was the sort to research until his fear had been managed. That meant he was going to dig through his books for something. No idea what yet.
Xe found Shahnaz digging into boxes of books in the port storage bay, back in a corner that was dimly lit. Caelan wandered over, device tucked into xir thigh pocket. He already had a dozen books scattered around his feet. Books on the Drathanni, first contact with them. Opinion pieces that said the Drathanni would kill them all eventually. That they were 'testing' humanity for reasons of their own and that if humans failed then they'd all be executed.
"I showed this one to a Drathanni once," Caelan mention as xe flipped through it.
Shahnaz froze, eyes wide and breath stuttering in his chest. "And what did the Drathanni do?"
"Laughed," Caelan said. Xe grinned. "No, not just laughed. They do this thing where their jaw goes floppy and their ears kind of sag. That's a little laugh, a snicker. If their tail goes into loops then that's one of your big laughs. If it's a true belly laugh then their legs sort of drop out from under them as they do all the rest of it but they also do this wheezy thing where they get all breathless and flat. You ever seen a really relaxed hamster?"
"They go from tiny balls of fur into tiny flat puddles of fur," Shahnaz said and thank goodness, his eyes weren't so wide, weren't so frightened. Even the dim light at the back of the storage bay xe could see that he was getting color back to his cheeks.
"That," Caelan said, offering the book to Shahnaz. Xe grinned. "That's what the Drathanni did. Laughed until he was a greying puddle of Drath fur on the floor with a corkscrew tail. Funniest thing I've ever seen. At least until he stopped and shook himself off and said that no, the Drathanni would never do that to humanity but there were other aliens out there that we hadn't met who would. Trotted right off, tail still looped. I tried not to grab his tail to make him explain."
Shahnaz stared. Perfectly still, perfectly poised. Xe could see the wheels turning in his head and couldn't really blame him. Xe'd spent years afraid of those other aliens that humanity hadn't met. Been all of fourteen when the conversation happened so xe'd thought about it a lot. Which of the six other races would do that? None of them had agreed to meet humans. They were way more xenophobic than humanity was. Only the Drathanni wanted to spend time around other species, apparently.
Well, the Drathanni and humans.
Most of the humans Caelan had met were fascinated by the idea and the reality of the Drathanni. Even if they were afraid, they still wanted to know more about what made the Drathanni tick.
"I would not have been able to resist that urge," Shahnaz admitted finally.
"Would've lost a hand," Caelan said. Then snickered because Shahnaz clutched the book to his chest as if horrified by the thought of not being able to turn pages again. "They're pretty calm for the most part. You never ask about their home world or how their government works. You only pet them if the Drathanni in question outright puts her head in your lap. And you don't break their laws. Keep those rules and nothing bad happens. Overall, they're sociable and nice, if you can stand the dog smell."
Shahnaz nodded. He kept pulling out books and flipping through them as if scanning for something in particular. Caelan watched, leaning against the bookshelf. It was hellaciously durable. Didn't even shift from her weight. When Shahnaz tossed books back into that box and dumped it back on the shelf the thing barely quivered.
Even his library was exquisitely engineered. Should've known that having seen his engine room.
Shahnaz rifled through another box, then a third before making a triumphant little noise. The book he pulled out was a good foot and a half square, one of those big picture books that xe'd always associated with rich idiots who wanted to look well read without actually doing any reading. Big glossy full color book with a hard cover all about the galaxy and where everyone lived.
"What's this for?" Caelan asked.
"My intuition tells me that there is more to this module and your situation than it seems," Shahnaz explained as he headed back towards the front of the ship. "There is geometry to it that is bothering me."
"Huh, okay," Caelan said. "You're going to have to spell out the steps a bit for me. Because I haven't seen anything like that."
Shahnaz nodded. He started slowly towards the door, leaving the box of books open. Caelan snorted and set to work repacking it properly. No reason to leave them lose. Who knew what sort of trouble they were going to get into? Better to have everything properly secured. Besides, it would probably take Shahnaz a little bit to sort out whatever it was going on in his head.
"Gonna make rounds and be sure everything's secure," Caelan called at the back of Shahnaz's head.
"Thank you," Shahnaz replied distantly enough that Caelan just snorted.
Yeah, already deep in his books. It was kind of fun to see. Xe'd spent so long around people who needed things from xir that it was nice to be around a person who was just as happy alone as with Caelan. Felt like climbing a mountain and gasping in great lungsful of air as you stared out over everything.
Only did that once but the experience had stuck with Caelan. Planets were weird for the most part, too big and too wild, way too much sky. But sometimes the experiences were… amazing.
Caelan snorted, shook xir head and got back to work straightening up the books. Fix this, check the rest of the ship, make a ton of food for the two of them to eat. Drag Shahnaz away from his whatever-it-was he was figuring out. Stuff food into him so his nanites didn't start consuming his muscles and bones.
And then, once Shahnaz had it figured out, see what to do next.
Good plan.
Simple enough that it might even survive the first steps of implementation.