Tanin didn’t say anything, just held his arms out. Waiting for her to finish. Which she didn’t realize until several, long seconds later as she stood there, poking and stroking him with her fingers just to see the lights follow and bloom around her touch.
She came back to herself with a sheepish laugh, pulling her hands to her chest. Holding them tight to try to keep herself from touching him again.
“That’s nice. They’re… nice,” she finished lamely, somehow breathless from that.
Tanin dropped his arms, letting the sleeves of his jumpsuit stay rolled up. Which she wholeheartedly approved of. She hoped he stayed that way. It was a great look for him.
“You’re mine now.”
“Huh?” She jumped. Surprised, but not really unwilling. It was fast, but-
“My crew,” he clarified. “You’ve offered; I’ve accepted. So, you’re my crew now.”
“Crew! Right. Crew,” she laughed nervously. “T-Thank you, captain. Boss man. I promise, we’ll work hard and earn our keep and everything.”
He inclined his head. “We still have to make our appointment with the keepers though.”
“Wha-Why? I don’t want to go back home.”
“I know. And you won’t have to. As long as they get permission for you to stay. And if we don’t show up after telling them you’re here, they’ll come find us. And believe me, they’re not going to run off like a bunch of cowardly pirates.”
Chapter 13
Tanin
Goldie and Garnet both got sick when they swung into subspace. Nauseated to the point of curling into balls on their bed but never throwing up. Which, Garnet complained, was worse than just getting it out and being done with it. They were sweating, their entire bodies aching, and they couldn’t take more than a couple steps without collapsing from weakness.
Subspace sickness wasn’t particularly common anymore. In the early days of subspace travel, it had been more rampant. Living beings were never meant to travel through subspace, and it took a toll on the body when forced to do so. However, as time passed, shielding improved, and in this day and age, subspace sickness was rare.
It only showed up when someone was using an outdated subspace generator, or their shielding was old and ineffective. Both of which were true for the Humility. Tanin hadn’t gotten sick before, though Sway occasionally complained of some aches and weakness. Never as bad as what the females were going through, however.
Tanin and Trove took turns bringing them food and water and helping them through the worst of the sickness. There wasn’t much else they could do. The mediring couldn’t help, as even if it did try to alleviate the symptoms, it couldn’t fix the actual problem of them being in subspace. The shielding was still strong enough that it wouldn’t kill them but knowing that didn’t make the symptoms easier to bear.
Tanin would need to buy better shielding for the Humility before he bought a new generator. The last fight with the pirates had done some damage to the shields as well. He told Alred to find them a new station to stop at to resupply and restore the sheilds, though he’d have to wait until they emerged from subspace for any answers. Subspace travel was infinitely faster than standard space travel, but it did come with the drawback that no one could communicate within subspace. While modern communication used subspace to connect the vast distances between planets and peoples, when someone was actually within subspace, they couldn’t use those same communication channels – radio or any other frequency was also absolutely unreachable.
That made the few days they were trapped in subspace peaceful, but miserable for the poor females now under his care.
He was responsible for them now – even if they still needed to get approval for a sponsorship. Even if they didn’t, they were under his care for the moment, and the fact that his ship’s inadequate equipment was what was making them sick made guilt churn in his gut.
That had to be why he was so determined to take care of them. Trove or the others could bring them food trays. He didn’t have to do it himself.
But he did.
He had the synthesizer make them a soup from his home planet that was popular with females because it was easy on the stomach and light in flavor. Females had more sensitive taste buds then males, and so their preferences in food ranged to the sweeter, less heavy foods.
And it seemed to be one of the only things the nauseated females could tolerate. They might not be vomiting, but that didn’t make eating any easier with the way their stomachs were rolling.
Still, they both gave him grateful looks when he walked in, two steaming bowls on the tray, alongside fresh, cool water. He set the tray down between them before looking them over.
They both had a pale cast to their features he knew wasn’t normal for them, and their skin shined with sweat. Goldie had curled into a ball, arms clenched around her abdomen, while Garnet had decided to sit up with her back against the corner of the wall, hugging her knees.
“How are you two feeling?” He asked.
“I’m fine,” Garnet gave him a pained grin. “It’s my stomach that seems to be having a problem. Any way you can just cut it out of me?”
“Sway probably could.”
“Not even going to ask why that is. I’m down. Take it away. I could probably stand to lose some weight anyway.”
