“No. It was a pretty big bowl.” She held it up, chuckling. It was made for alien bellies, so the bowl was more like a mixing bowl to her. “But I wanted to bring Goldie some food. My sister.”
“Ah. The other one. No problem.”
He watched her make another bowl, making sure she did it correctly. After praising her for her success, they put the food on a tray and brought it back to the guest room. Goldie was still sleeping, but Garnet roused her enough to tell her that food was there waiting when she woke up. After dropping off the tray, she stepped back into the hall and asked Trove to take her to Tanin.
Now that she’d had some sleep, she wasn’t freaking out, and she spoke the language, she wanted a chance to speak with the man in charge properly.
Trove took her through the ship, explaining where things were as they went.
Their room was in the lower part of the ship, along with the others’ private rooms. That’s why they hadn’t opened as she pressed at their control panels. They were locked to all but the owner of the room unless someone else was given permission to enter.
Everyone had their own room – except for the twins. They were avanava males though, Trove said like that explained everything. But before she could ask, they reached a wall-less lift that took them up a couple floors. The second floor, he explained, was where all their workrooms were. It also had the workout room, the rec room, and the entrance to the storage rooms. Then, on the third floor, the lift came to a halt on the bridge.
Garnet had been most excited about that. The bridge of a spaceship? Surely, that would be the coolest room on a spaceship!
But as they came up, she frowned because it wasn’t the coolest, but it was definitely the messiest room on the spaceship.
There was one person inside. Someone she hadn’t met on her desperate flight through the ship. He turned around as they came up, his entire body covered in bright blue feathers. All but the crest laying flat on his head and the long feathers of his tail which had beautiful yellow and orange and pinkish-red banding coloration. He was a bird man! He didn’t have a beak, but he did have bright black eyes – all over black, like a doll’s eyes.
Which might have been more impressive if it didn’t appear that he was making a nest of garbage and dirty dishes. They surrounded him and his seat on all sides. There was nothing spilled anywhere, but it was just a cluttered, dirty stack of mess.
“This is Sway,” Trove introduced jovially. “He’s our navigator and helmsmale. Sway, this is Garnet, our new human friend.”
The bird man whistled gently before giving her a kind smile. “Hello, Garnet. Welcome to the ship. Er, sorry for you being forced to be here.”
“No, it’s okay,” she said quickly, putting a smile on her face. “Thanks for taking care of us.”
“Cap should be up there,” Trove interjected, pointing to a ladder on a near wall. “You go on up. Cap will take care of you.”
Garnet nodded. “Thanks, Trove.”
“Sure,” he smiled back.
She nodded at Sway as she turned to the ladder and began to climb. There was a hatch at the top, but it was sitting open, allowing her to climb right up and in. From below, she heard Trove mocking Sway for showing such a mess to a pretty female, but she just chuckled and ignored them as she stepped off the ladder, looking around the upper bridge.
The lower bridge, underneath Sway’s mess, resembled something like a command center. There were four chairs in total, though only Sway’s was occupied. The other consoles were all dark as well, though his had multiple different displays lighting up the air that he was jumping between like he had ADHD and couldn’t stay on one task. But there wasn’t a cool viewing window of space or anything. It looked more technical than spectacle.
The upper bridge, in comparison, was much smaller, but that’s where the view was.
Garnet gasped as she turned, stepping forward into the room. There were windows in all directions but the very back, offering her a great look at space. A black emptiness so complete it was like there was nothing there.
But projected onto the windows was a bunch of data, galaxies, star maps, information. It brought the entire space to life. The dim light glowing like something out of a dream as she looked around, trying to take it all in and understanding none of it.
There was a chair here too, just one, but it had been pushed to the side. Instead, Tanin was standing in front of the console, a bunch more information floating in the air before him. There was a model of the ship with little purple dots. She realized, when she saw the two at the top, they must be the people who inhabited it. There was another ‘screen’, insomuch as a holo light display could be called a screen, that was filled with words she was too far away to read, and two more similar screens beyond that one.
The light was low in here, letting the holos shine brighter. Their colorful glow reflected brightly off Tanin’s gray skin. He looked at her with that same, calm, stoic expression. She met it with a bright smile of her own as she approached.
“Captain,” she greeted formally.
“Garnet,” he inclined his head as she stopped in front of him, resting her hip against the console. “Glad to see you awake.”
“It’s good to be awake,” she beamed. “I feel like I got my head on straight. And I feel like I should probably apologize for punching you yesterday. Sorry. I was panicking and I didn’t think that you were trying to help me.”
He inclined his head. “No need to apologize, but you have my forgiveness if you’re seeking it.”
“Great.” She smiled, folding her hands together in front of her. “And thank you for taking care of us like this. Even if it is temporary.”
“You’re welcome.”
