Tuofah inched quietly along the cold, metal wall. The waxing moon cast a faint glow through the ship's many windows and the only audible sound was the faint humming of the spacecraft's engines- not all of them, for the ship's most powerful thrusters were reserved for interplanetary travel- but just enough to keep the vessel in the air. The ground beneath Tuofah was perfectly stable, showing nearly no signs that the ship was even moving at all. Her feet were bare save a ragged pair of socks and the thick mechanic's gloves that covered her palms. Her Tactile sensations were slightly diminished by the leather that separated the wall from her skin, but they were still more than adequate for her current purposes. She had remained dressed in her pajamas so that, if she were to be discovered, she would not be suspected of anything more than a restless night.
Now, in the quiet that surrounded her, she was able to sense the walls to a much greater degree than before. The stories within them were so vast and powerful that she did not even need to reach out into the metal to feel them. They came rushing into her fingertips like water into a sponge. The sheer volume of the subject matter within them caused a small gasp to escape Tuofah's lips.
One of the pieces of the wall had come from a fallen Imperial bomber, and another from the helmet of a fallen Djaren. Some were once hovercars, and others were tin cans. Their origins spanned every planet from Celatys to Djara.
The Peenutz' ship was a patchwork of random items that, when combined, should've made a junkyard.
Not a fully functional spacecraft.
There was no way that any Tactile- even a Minister or other distinguished Gifted- could've created something like Hugo's ship using only the materials that constituted it. The feat was comparable to building a skyscraper out of a thousand garbage cans.
Unless...
Tuofah froze in pure terror as the pieces slid together in her mind, unconsciously digging her nails into the wall behind her.
There was only one answer to the question that had consistently plagued her for the past two days, and it was the one answer she had been dreading. No Tactile in the entire universe but the miraculous, telekinetic Nexetra Serpis could've built a ship out of virtually nothing.
And under no circumstances did Djaren overlords do business with humans.
It was confirmed.
For two whole months, Tuofah was going to be stuck on a ship with five members of the most impulsive and destructive race known to mankind. That was, if she managed to get through those sixty one days in one piece.
Hugo must've been an important Djaren, too, if he was granted such a large vessel by Lady Serpis herself.
Suddenly, Tuofah's quest became much more serious than the simple satisfaction of a nagging curiosity.
It was either find out what the five Djareny were keeping in their secret room and stop them, or be killed, sold into slavery, or worse.
Making a Herculean effort to slow her breathing, Tuofah peeled herself off of the wall, finding that her back had left a sweaty stain on one of the ship's aluminum seams. The stories immediately faded from her mind, allowing her a moment to clear her head. She took in a much needed breath of fresh air before flexing her fingers.
As infamous for unnatural, mutated Gifts as they were, the Djareny were not capable of teleportation. This meant that where there was a room, there was a door.
Tuofah continued to move along the wall of the main hallway, sticking her covered fingers into every crevice that they managed to find and pulling hard on the ones that shows promise. Yet, even after a solid ten minutes, she achieved nothing but frustration and aching fingertips.
As she walked, she gradually began to hear her footsteps echoing a little louder and longer than was expected. The echo increased in volume and intensity until it was distinguishable as the sound of a distinct pair of feet.
Tuofah felt a puff of warm breath on the back of her neck, and whipped around with a high-pitched squeal.
There, pressed up against the wall with nowhere to run, she found herself face to face with Hugo Lennez Pearce.