Tessa's POV:
As we entered Taureen's home, I eagerly went to greet Mom, Dad, and Dirk – although I kept a careful eye on Soranto. He wasn't going to be sneaking away on me this morning...
Soranto wasn't wearing his armor. As far as I could tell, he was pretending this was a normal day where he left me with Taureen. The thought of him leaving for the day didn't bother me too much – nothing like the thought of him leaving me here for the night did. The chance to see where he worked was too tempting to pass up though.
It was probably going to create another new trend in our schedule, although I could let him sneak out successfully next time. Maybe. It depended on how interesting his job was.
Soranto finished talking with Taureen and began quietly walking towards the door. Aeria watched in amusement as I aborted my landing on the end table and took off after him. Just before he reached the door, I landed on his shoulder pad and trilled innocently at him. I perked my ear tufts up and tilted my head cutely, trying to charm him into letting me come.
Taureen appeared in the hallway behind us. "Do you have everything you need?"
"I packed the normal supplies as a precaution. Well, Tessa, you are going to be in for a surprise today..."
I stood up straighter and chirped happily. This was quite promising; everyone was taking this right in stride without a comment. Even Soranto wasn't trying to make me change my mind.
"Call if you run into any issues, although it will probably be easier to contact Aeria today if you need to meet with someone."
Soranto nodded. "I will, although I don't think I will have any trouble."
It was almost strange to leave Taureen's house and not see any of the guards waiting along the sidewalk for us. A small shuttle dropped down onto the street beside us, and we got inside.
It quickly sped off into the air and brought us to our destination. The building seemed plain enough, although I could see a lot of strange machines in the parking lot beside it.
As we went inside, several Kymari did double-takes when they spotted me. I briefly wondered what life would be like if our scales were camouflaged browns or greys instead of such bright colors. It would probably make a lot of things much easier.
"Your little friend decided to tag along today?" a woman asked.
"Seems that way. It could become a frequent occurrence."
"I can't see anyone here complaining about a bond animal's presence."
"They would just be wasting their breath if they tried."
She chuckled and waved him towards one of the doorways. "Get going. There is a shuttle waiting for you outside in bay five. Take whatever supplies you think you might need."
He went through the door indicated and easily navigated the series of doors and hallways. This place was a complete labyrinth. I had never been in a building this confusing before – not even when we visited Aeria's parents. If Soranto hadn't been walking along without a hint of confusion, I would have been much more worried.
One of the doors finally led us to a room full of equipment. Soranto picked up a large duffle bag from beside the wall before walking up and down the rows as he selected bits and pieces. Some things, like scanners, I could identify. Many of the small pieces were likely replacement parts or other tools.
The bag was mostly full by the time we left the room. After more hallways and junctions, we exited the building.
"Huh," Soranto murmured. "A private express shuttle. They must really want that spaceship fixed."
Soranto got into a small, sleek shuttle meant for long distance travel. It quickly gained altitude and began flying much faster than any shuttle I had ever been in before.
Soranto chuckled as I gazed out the window with wide eyes. "With luck, the Captain will lend us this shuttle for our trip home. Don't get too used to it. This type is primarily used for space travel between spaceships and other planets."
I flicked an ear back at him, but didn't look away from the swiftly passing scenery. It made me wonder how fast spaceships could go. How far was it between planets? I didn't know, and the Blood Memories didn't put things into relative terms. There was a lot of distance between them, though, and this planet was unusually remote.
Leaning closer to the window, I could see that the ground was getting closer. Much closer. This shuttle had better slow down before it tried landing or it was going to resemble my first flight.
Buildings suddenly appeared below, and our speed dramatically decreased. We weren't nearly as low as I had expected, but now I could see we were heading towards a huge spaceship that was sitting on the ground just outside the city.
The shuttle slowed more, then twisted while dropping almost straight down. It landed with precision beside the ramp. I flexed my fingers and toes, only now realizing that I had been digging my claws into the shoulder pad rather hard.
As we exited the shuttle, two Kymari were walking down the huge spaceship ramp to meet us.
"Glad you could make it, Soranto. Who is your little friend?"
"Hello, Vrake. This is Tessa. She is currently in a transition phase, and she insisted on coming along this morning."
"I've heard a lot about their potential. Any fire lizard is always welcome aboard. Let's see if the two of you can get this warship space-worthy again."
"The mainframe would be a good place to start. I want to see if I can get the unusual readings to appear on a few different testers."
"Right this way."
The two continued talking as we walked up the ramp and down a lot of hallways. I examined the hallways in keen interest, although I wasn't seeing much difference between this ship and the training rooms.
To be fair, there were no hidden traps, and I seriously doubted I would find any trace of a crawler or sicora on this spaceship. We passed a surprising number of Kymari, all of whom had armor and weapons.
We entered a large room that was different from any other I had seen before. At least a dozen Kymari were sitting in chairs in front of massive desks with hundreds of buttons and controls. I gawked at the strange projections above each desk.
The Kymari occasionally touched parts of the light, causing them to brighten, before the image changed. How they passed through parts of it to reach other areas behind was fascinating. Not only did they have the controls on the desk, but they also had the three-dimensional light one as well.
Soranto ignored them as he went to a desk along the wall and put his bag on it. Kneeling down, he pried off a few panels on the side and began hooking up some of the stuff he had brought with him.
He looked over at the other people sitting at the desks. "I want to see how many systems are affected. Power to shields, please. Without activation."
One of the Kymari touched a few buttons.
"Thanks. Activate upper portions of the shields if it's safe. Okay, it looks like the shields aren't affected. Power to weapons, without activation."
He kept listing off dozens of systems, occasionally making notes. Pausing, he reached for one of the hooked-up machines and did something.
Rising to his feet, he walked between two rows of the desks and lightly kicked a spot on the floor with his heel. "Can we open this hatch?"
Scratching an ear tuft, I gazed at the floor in bemusement. This part of the floor looked exactly like the rest of it. Someone came over with a strange tool, and part of the floor popped up with the faint hiss that airlocks usually made.
There was a hatch there. With the hatch now opened, Soranto climbed down a ladder into a small area filled with wires and panels. Skimming along the sections, he paused and pulled one out and unhooked it.
He passed it up to the person above the ladder. "Where's a replacement for this module?"
"You should really give us some notice before pulling those out," the man commented as he took it and gave it to someone else, who walked away with it.
"There's a stop failsafe on this one, so we're fine. I made a copy of the data it held just in case something went wrong."
"We already tested all of these."
"I expected as much, but did you replace that one and then run a resync program?"
"No. We ran the testers and resyncs separately."
We waited until the new part came. Soranto put it in and hooked it up before climbing out and going over to the panel where his equipment was attached.
"Let's see if this worked. Can we run through those sequences again? Shields, please."
The readings on the machines meant nothing to me. Growing bored, I looked around the room. Most of the Kymari were watching us patiently. A few were doing things in response to Soranto's requests. With a yawn, I stretched my wings wide before folding them up.
Without looking away from the screens, Soranto passed me a big blueberry. With a trill, I took it and nibbled on the uncommon treat. Even savoring it didn't make it last long.
Tentatively, I leaned forward and dropped down to his knee, then onto the floor. He glanced at me, but didn't say anything. I walked closer to his hands and sat down as I watched him work. The different angle didn't make it any less boring.
Soranto got to his feet and started walking back to the hatch, keeping an eye on me. I scampered after him, trying to stay close to his heels. It was nice to stretch my legs, but each of his strides involved a lot more footwork on my part.
With a snort, I jumped into the air and flew up to his shoulder with a handful of wingbeats. He climbed back down the hatch and poked around a bit more.
He came back up the ladder. "Where's the secondary relay room? Something isn't syncing properly in some of the programming, but I need to fix it right at the panel."
"This way."
Soranto grabbed some of his equipment and followed the two Kymari out of the room. We paused in the hallways where a wall panel slid back to reveal another hidden room. Soranto hooked up his testers to the panels before sitting on the floor and working on them.
It grew boring very quickly. He hadn't minded me leaving his shoulder pad last time, so I jumped down to his lap, taking care not to touch anything he was working on. Easing off his lap, I sat beside him, still testing how lenient he was going to be.
I scratched an ear tuft and flared my nostrils before looking around. Slowly walking towards the wall, I sniffed along the crack along the bottom of the numerous open panels. There was a really faint smell... almost dusty, and somehow recognizable although my mind wasn't identifying it.
After a few passes, one spot seemed a tiny bit stronger, and I peered underneath the edge of the machinery. It looked like a dried leaf. I tried to reach it with my hand, but it was too far away. Sweeping my tail under the panelling, I pushed it out. The dried-up corpse of a ktari slid out like a piece of heavy lint. With a squeak, I bounded around Soranto and peered out from behind him at the creepy remnants.
Just in case they somehow couldn't identify the almost odourless husk, I sneezed, "Ktari."
"How long has that been in here?" Soranto asked, not bothered by the mummified remains.
"We fumigated on the last planet before leaving. This room has to be manually cleaned, and the last cleaning was done not long before the fumigation."
They ignored it, which irritated me to no end. Did they really expect me to just sit here and pretend it didn't exist now that I knew it was there?
It was away from the walls and wiring, and the floor was metal. Taking a deep breath, I exhaled quickly with a coughing sound, but no fire. The lack of flame didn't surprise me – I still hadn't managed to breathe fire yet.
Soranto glanced down at the odd noise, but I simply shook my head vigorously. Being really careful with my claws since he wasn't wearing armor, I climbed up his back to his shoulder pad. It would be easier to glare at the ktari from up here.
"Can you kick that thing through the door and out of sight?"
The nearest Kymari nudged it out the door and around the corner. With a sigh, I laid down on Soranto's shoulder and scooted closer to his neck where it was warmer. This room was a bit on the chilly side.
Soranto tapped his wrist comm a few times and went back to working on the machines. After a few seconds, I lifted my head and sniffed the shoulder pad before pulling my head back. I tapped a few spots with my hands to ensure that I wasn't losing my mind, but his shoulder pad was actually heating up.
Lowering my chin onto the warm leather, I thrummed in tuneless contentment.