What sort of pilot couldn't handle a Wave?
Caelan frowned as xe wandered through the lower level of the Blessed Prayer, walking the ship more in an effort to acclimate to Shahnaz' clock than any desire to move. Xe was exhausted, the sort of tired that came with aching bones, burning eyes and shaking hands. Fortunately, the Wave wasn't so strong that xe had nausea or disorientation so that was a positive benefit. At least once xe went to bed in whichever of the bunks xe chose xe would sleep well.
Strong Waves were perfect for sleeping. Xir's best sleep ever had been in a Wave so tightly curled that its visualization on the screen had looked like a tunnel. This one promised a good solid night's sleep without nightmares, random sounds waking xir or xir's mind running away with xir as xe dropped off.
Shahnaz, on the other hand, had looked as though the Wave was going to knock him flat. The first minutes after he engaged the Wave had been bad. Caelan had followed him closely, prepared to catch him when he fell over. But Shahnaz never did. Instead the made his slow, calm way back to the galley where he mixed up a stew that he set to baking in the oven. Then he meandered down to hydroponics to tend his garden of Eden.
Caelan had watched, then wandered off. Xe knew nothing of plants, honestly. They were there. They made oxygen. Some of them produced food. Some didn't. It was the complete sum of xir botanical knowledge.
"Still wonder where the engines are," Caelan murmured as xe reached the end of the hallway beside hydroponics only to be confronted by a heavy steel door.
Just steel. No reed and linen wall coverings. No nice paint to make it look more beautiful. Caelan raised an eyebrow before hesitantly touching the entry pad. It beeped, chimed three times and then opened.
"Oh…"
Caelan stepped inside, xir breath stolen. Such engines. Even for a yacht the engines were a marvel. Shining, new and powerful, they filled the compartment nearly entirely. Twenty feet high, perhaps as much as ten yards long, the compartment was huge. And the engines were equally massive. Xe had seen engines like this on attack ships, destroyers and fighters, but never on a yacht.
"No wonder he can make the trip in nineteen days," Caelan whispered as xe carefully studied the maintenance controls by the door. "Full tanks? Mmm, mostly. He'll need hydrogen. They're so stable. I would have expected more ripples in the Wave edges."
But no, Shahnaz had crafted a wave of near-perfect symmetry that held with elegant calm. Much like the man himself. Xe hadn't spent this much time around an un-Altered human male and not gotten at least a little flirting in years. For that matter, Caelan frequently got aggressive flirting from women, too.
So many people in the galaxy assumed that if you were Gensyn then you were willing to have sex with anyone at any time for no reason at all. It was quite odd to be around a man who seemed to see Caelan solely as a person, not as set of holes to fuck with a cock to tease.
Caelan liked it.
Pity it couldn't last.
Xe wandered back along the access catwalk, studying the lovely engines as xe went. They were so very new. Or at least so well maintained that they looked new. Caelan leaned on the railing, studying the flux capacitor. It vibrated so quickly that it was virtually invisible but the normal waves of wind that flowed off the capacitors xe'd seen before was absent.
"Any leakage?" Shahnaz called from the doorway. "Looking at the flux capacitor, right?"
"Yes," Caelan called back. "None. Which is shocking."
"The Wave is more stable when there's no leakage," Shahnaz said as he made his slow careful way to xir side. "Every time I'm in port I have it checked and the seals updated. The Drath guidelines I've found say that no leakage is acceptable. Had a fair few mechanics argue that with me but I'm the customer. I'm paying. They do it and grumble behind my back."
Caelan snorted a laugh. "I'd say it works. I've never seen a Wave so stable."
"I try." Shahnaz's cheeks went red at the praise. He didn't stare down Caelan's shirt even though it gaped away from xir chest.
"Are you asexual?" Caelan asked and then flinched. "Forget I asked that. I'm sorry. That was rude."
"No, not at all," Shahnaz said and his grin was as wicked and amused as anything Caelan had ever seen, even out of Storm when xe was plotting trouble. "I'm pansexual, actually. Don't honestly care what plumbing a person has. It's their personality that attracts me. You're attractive enough, certainly, but we barely know each other. Also, I'm Muslim. That sort of aggressive sexual demand is haram."
Caelan stared at him, frowning, before gesturing with one hand for him to explain.
"Forbidden," Shahnaz explained, snickering. "Sorry. I try not to use terminology people don't understand but it's difficult."
"You know so very much," Caelan replied and there was that amazing laugh.
Shahnaz laughed like a supernova, loud and bright and with everything he had. His head went back, his mouth dropped open and he clapped his hands together with delight. If laughter could be a prayer, Caelan thought that Shahnaz' belly laughs were just that. They were beautiful. As was he when he grinned.
"You know anything about engines?" Shahnaz asked once his laughter subsided to little chuckles that shook his shoulders and crinkled the corners of his eyes.
"I've worked as engineer," Caelan admitted. "Also pilot. Your controls are… odd."
"Logical, at least to me," Shahnaz said with such delight that Caelan's cheeks heated. "Would you like to learn them? It would help if we push a stronger Wave. I can't do the stronger ones without significant problems with sleeping. Only a couple hours at a time and that's terrible for my concentration."
"Ah…"
That explained his reluctance to push the Wave any harder for the longer legs of their journey. Interesting. Most pilots xe knew didn't have such problems with Waves. They tended more towards the amorous effects or towards munchies.
"I'd like to learn," Caelan said and then snorted because Shahnaz immediately turned towards the door. "Once I've had a good night's sleep, I'm afraid. I'm too exhausted to retain any of the information now."
"Okay," Shahnaz said. He tilted his head to the left, eyes thoughtful. "You could just go sleep, you know. There's no need to stay awake and keep me company. I'm very good at keeping myself occupied."
Caelan rubbed xir face. Sleep sounded so very good. Especially sleep without nightmares, without the fear of being jumped. And how sad was it that knowing that Shahnaz was both constitutionally unlikely to attack xir and religiously prohibited from it made him seem like the most wonderful human being ever?
"Sleep yourself out, Caelan," Shahnaz said so gently that he had to have seen the conflict on xir face. "The bunk doors lock and you can program them to whatever you want. You'll be safe, I promise."
"I suppose I should," Caelan said. "My mind is profoundly fuzzy."
"It's the Wave," Shahnaz replied only to snort a laugh when Caelan shook xir head. "Well, my brain-fuzz is the Wave. Yours should go away with sleep."
And that was that.
Caelan allowed Shahnaz to herd xir back upstairs. The fifth from the top step actually was loose. Should fix it tomorrow. If xe could find some tools to use. They were probably down in the engine room, the beautiful, clean engine room that made Caelan's fingers twitch for tools and monitors and tweaking things to run even better.
Shahnaz let Caelan pick the right bunk and then blushingly ferried books from that room into the bunk across the hall. By the time Caelan had made the now-exposed bed, Shahnaz had removed all the books but the ones stacked on the table and stools.
"Leave them," Caelan said. Xe sat on the bed and groaned at how perfect it felt. Soft and supportive, just enclosed enough as it was built into the wall to make xir feel that no one could come at xir. There was a little light overhead that shined a gentle glow over the room.
"If you're sure," Shahnaz said. "Light switch is by the head of the bed. Should be able to reach it while you're curled up. I think I have some spare clothes you could borrow. At least a coverall I use when doing hauling and maintenance. And there should be a comb in the bath if you want to straighten up your hair."
"Straightening my hair is a lost cause," Caelan said and then laughed as Shahnaz grinned at xir. "Go on. I'll be fine. Don't fall over as you move about."
"No, I'll be in the control room, playing my sitar for a while," Shahnaz said. "It helps me calm down during strong Waves. And that helps with sleep. Plus I have more studying to do."
He left, bowing to Caelan before the door shut. And when Caelan got up, went to the door and checked, yes, xe could lock the door from the inside with a custom code. More amazingly, the lock wasn't tied into the ship's systems so that custom code couldn't be broken.
Caelan stared at the lock for a good ten minutes before locking it with the standard, built-in code. Xe would hate to be trapped inside if something went wrong. The books left behind were a random mixture of fiction, mysteries and overly dramatic romantic adventures, and reference manuals for the ship. Well, this ship and a half dozen other similar classes of ships.
Xe took the manual for this ship back to xir bunk, stripping naked before crawling in. There was a certain temptation to go shower but Caelan really didn't want to bother right now. Xir bones ached. Xe couldn't remember the last time xe had a truly secure place to sleep.
Weeks. Months, maybe. Caelan had been rather nervous about the job before xe took it. None of the really bad stuff had happened at first. It had built slowly over time until Caelan realized that xe had to run, somehow, or xe would kill everyone on the Azure Wave. More likely, xe would have been killed first. Or worse.
Caelan stared at the book, words blurring. It had been so tiny at first. Captain Hed had only smiled when Caelan told him that xe didn't appreciate the surprise hugs he kept giving xir. He'd kept on touching without permission. The second in command had started doing it too, though he tended to punch Caelan in the shoulder rather than going for hugs.
Pretty soon the entire crew was touching, smiling when Caelan flinched and glared.
It moved on into harsh shouting at any mistake, whether Caelan made the mistake or not. Throwing things. Cursing. Bellowing rants anytime Caelan tried to stand up for xirself.
The first time Captain Hed hit Caelan xe'd put him through a bulkhead. And promptly been locked into the brig for four days with practically no food or water. They'd come out skeletal-thin and shaking. So the second time xe'd taken it. And the third.
"I should have jumped ship at the first port," Caelan whispered. "He put my name on all of the manifests. I signed all of them. Every single one. They won't arrest him. They'll arrest me."
Xe should tell Shahnaz to expect attack. People following them. There was no way that Captain Hed wouldn't figure out that xe'd jumped ship. Yes, Caelan had turned off the monitors, made sure that no alarms would go off, but Captain Hed kept far too close track of xir for him to miss xir for long.
"He'll be searching now," Caelan said to the book. "He'll try to find me. I should tell Shahnaz."
Instead, Caelan curled into the covers, book clutched to xir chest. Sleep hit like flicking off the lights, awake one moment, asleep the next.