Grace had seen plenty of purple crystals. Most of them were in the blue to purple range, as that was where most needed to be in order to travel safely through subspace. Brand new ones could be white, but they didn't hold onto that long after being put into use. She’d seen a yellow-orange set once, and that had been frightening to the crew for how close to dead the crystals had become. The captain had lost his mind on the engineers for letting it get that bad without telling him.
These crystals before her now were dim, dusty red turning gray.
Subspace crystals were naturally capable of recharging. The process was too complex for Grace to understand because it involved subspace physics. But she knew that subspace and real space existed right beside and within each other. Subspace was something like the foundation on which real space was built. The crystals in real space recharged because of something in subspace. The lifespan of a subspace crystal could be hundreds of thousands of years. If used sparingly, they could, theoretically, last forever.
The real danger of subspace crystals dying was that, if they went dark, they couldnotrecharge. They would be rocks with no special properties or energy storage capacity. If that happened while a ship was in subspace, they would never be able to swing out. They would become lost forever in that space beyond space and not only could they not be rescued, they’d never be found. There were legends told of the ships lost to that very same fate, spoken of like ghost ships lost to the depths, preserved in time, but totally unreachable.
These crystals were not dead yet, but they were so close, it could happen at any time.
Grace looked up, open mouthed, horrified, to where Sway was crouching beside her at the compartment’s edge. He didn't appear surprised or concerned about the state of the crystals. He caught her stare and offered her an unconcerned smile.
“Vytln is really good at monitoring them to make sure they don’t die.”
“Sway!”
“They don’t recharge well anymore. Takes about five days for them to recharge enough to let us complete a swing. And we can’t go very far in subspace. Or fast. Though, I guess, you don’t really go ‘fast’ in subspace. That’s not how it works.”
“You’re lucky you haven’t died with these things yet!” She gasped, staring down at the dull, lifeless rocks like they might explode or attack her. “It will probably take a solid hundred years for these to even recharge back to yellow!”
“Longer, actually,” he shrugged. “There’s a formula for it. I’d say it would probably take about a thousand years for these to be completely recharged. Faster if they’re set around others though.”
“You need an entirely new set! Not one of these can be salvaged.”
“Yeah, that’s why we’ve been putting it off. A full suite of crystals is expensive. Luckily, we had a really lucrative job recently. So, we can finally get that done. We also need the shielding replaced though. On the machine and the ship. Some of our crew are getting subspace sickness.”
Grace had to recover from the shock of that too. Subspace sickness was the body actively rejecting being forced to travel through subspace. When mild, it just caused extreme discomfort and nausea. But at worst, it would be lethal causing heart attacks and seizures and even internal bleeding or strokes.
But that was an old sickness. No one suffered that anymore because proper and effective shielding had been created to safely travel through subspace. It was like a sailor getting scurvy in this day and age – it just didn't happen because the fix was so effective.
Grace stood straight, tapping quickly on her tablet. Adding a full suite of crystals and a generator overhaul to the list along with subspace shielding.
After that, seeing the sorry state of the life support systems wasn’t a surprise. It was no less horrifying, but not a surprise.
How was this crew even still alive? Why would they ever risk their lives on this thing? Sure, earning a living was important, but she couldn’t imagine ever using this ship to do it. If it hadn’t been connected to the station’s power and life support, she would have probably turned and run out before all the systems failed. Nothing on this ship could pass any sort of inspection as it was.
And, honestly, that just made her more determined to get this job done right. Sway and his crew were nice, honest, hard-working males. They didn't deserve a ship like this.
Chapter 5
Sway
Grace looked so serious and determined. Her pretty face was all scrunched up in determination as she worked at her desk. He could see what she was doing through the back of the holodisplays, so he knew she was checking inventory and pricing and labor costs. But he wasn’t really paying much attention to that when he was instead entranced by her face and the hardened expression of focus that didn't quite take away from her softness.
They had left the Humility down in the docks and gone up the lift to Grace’s office. She shared the circular room with the other dock masters. One of which was conducting a similar meeting with another ship representative, while the others were either coordinating, tapping at their displays, or otherwise busy.
Grace looked a lot better here, in her element, than down in the Humility. That old, dirty, banged up can was no place for a female this elegant and fine. The sleek, modern, clean look of this expensive and luxurious office was far better for her.
But it had the downside of making her appear completely untouchable.
Perched neatly in her chair, ankles crossed, back straight, surrounded by all the wealth and power that went into building this room, she was beautiful. But it just drove home the differences between them as he sat there in his dirty, ragged jumpsuit. His feathers were often dusty and unkempt. He didn't own anything in terms of accessories or fripperies. He honestly didn't see the need for them. Unless one counted the claws he kept hidden away in his room. But he doubted she would.
They couldn’t have been more different. And maybe it was best that he reminded himself of that right now, firmly, in no uncertain terms.
Before that churning darkness he could feel twisting in his belly built further.
Sway was a bad person. There really wasn’t much room for argument in that. It was an unobjective fact. He’d killed a lot of people. He had no hesitation in stealing if he needed to, lying if it benefited him, and manipulating circumstances to get what he wanted.
In his defense, Sway did notlikehurting people. He got no pleasure from it like the Master had. Violence was just a fact of life on Rik-Vane. Sway committed his atrocities because there was no other choice.
