The Adrift Sphere had departed. Alison sat inside the cargo hold. The crew on this vessel was not quiet, that was for sure. Cossette’s boots were a dead giveaway. Hoary could be stealthy if she could spread her wings and fly, so only in the exercise room was she truly quiet. Otherwise, those augmented steel penetrating talons tanged and left marks on the floor. Jackson could be heard walking down the hallway before she ever saw him, not to mention he liked to sing-along to songs from anime out loud as he worked in the kitchen, cockpit, or wherever he was busy.

She hadn’t seen the engineer yet, she just knew his name was Wingman Riptide, but he couldn’t be found it seemed. She hadn’t been in engineering, so she assumed he spent most of his time there. She was also sleeping in one of the crew quarters, with the vent open so she could easily escape into the airways of the ship. Alison knew how to stay hidden, and was hoping the food she was swiping wasn’t being looked at too closely.

Other than avoiding running into the crew, she had free reign of the ship, particularly when they were all sleeping. They left the ship uncrewed when they went to bed. The ship had some sort of sensor array that allowed it to self-manage and regulate itself for extended periods of time, meaning no night shift. At least, not right now, but if they found out she was hiding on board, they certainly would start having a nightshift.

The bird, Hoary, was always in her lab doing some sort of experiments or on the bridge, reading from physical books. Who does that anymore? Who reads from physical paper books? Who even bothers to have those printed? She had taken one to get a look, and it turns out that the one she took was an original work, from Terra. They couldn’t all be originals, could they? That bird’s book collection would be worth a fortune.

Today she was inside Hoary’s room. The right angle bird bed, the perch instead of a desk chair, at least a hundred paper books and several things that looked like old odd data discs. She examined one and looked over it. The title was “Stingstorm, Vol 1.” Then a list of titles which she assumed were songs, but the strange part was the humans on the cover. They were not vectors, no, they were straight-up humans. Aren’t humans extinct? She thought as she checked another one. The disc read “Beyonce, Dangerously In Love” and showed a darker skinned human on it. The date was 2003, but this was 744 A.E., when was 2003?

She kept trying to figure it out as she took another disc. It had colorful ponies on it that looked like cartoons, and it read, “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Season 3 Music.”

Cartoons? Those can’t be vectors. I’ve never seen horses in cute pastel colors as vectors. What is all this stuff?

She put the Beyonce disc into a device that looked like it was supposed to take it. She hit play random and it started it. The music began, and suddenly she felt so distant, in a trance as the voice of the human hit her. She had only felt the Voice of The Master once before. Slowly, the song played, the beat soothed her heart and slowed down her excitement, while the effect within her DNA from the Master’s Voice made her docile, staring off into space, and all she could do was listen and hang on every single word. Four minutes passed and the voice stopped. She reached forward slowly and hit the stop button on the disc.

That’s dangerous, how can… How can Hoary listen to this and not just zone off into oblivion? That felt so weird, like it was a drug. Not the artificial Voice of The Master the cogs can use, no, that was… that was the real thing. She heard Hoary yelling as she came down the stairs.

“Who’s in my room? How dare you touch those ancient artifacts!” Hoary burst into the door just as Alison found a hiding place. The bookshelf was built into the wall and ran the entire length of it. She had slid into it and quickly placed the books back over her, concealing her as she laid down the length of the shelf. She hoped Hoary didn’t have some precise organizing system she had just messed up and was certain to notice.

She steadied her breath and hoped Hoary was so focused on the music that had played. Hoary groaned and sighed. “I swear, if I find out who was playing this, I will ruin them. These artifacts need to be cared for properly,” Hoary squawked irritatedly as she got into the radio attached to her PADD.

“Which one of you were in my room? Go on, confess and I promise to not actually hit you.” The radio was silent. Hoary went from miffed to irritated listening to the silence. “Lexington, it was you, wasn’t it? You wanted to see what bird girls like, didn't you?”

Lexington hissed back into the radio, “Heck no, you aren’t the bird girl type I like. Second off, you’re way too uptight, and I value my jugular vein!” He snarled into the comm as she left the room to go find him.

Alison slowly removed the books. It only took a couple of volumes out of the way before she could bend herself around the other books, then replace the ones on the shelf. She was a cat, and honestly, the ability to turn her bones into mostly liquid was a nice touch. She waited until she was certain that the voices were far away, then slipped into the common room and back into the empty crew room she had appropriated for the last nine days.

They haven’t said where they are going or what their mission is right now, do they… do they just live out here? Are they actually just really well-disguised pirates? This ship certainly has the firepower for it. They have a railgun, right? A license for one of those should be really hard to get. These were her thoughts on and off for the last week while she spent time in this room, especially when she made a mistake that might get her thrown out an airlock.

*****

“Cosette, I genuinely believe him this time. I don’t think he, nor Riptide, nor Jackson were in my room,” Hoary said to Cossette as she stood on the bridge, checking the sensor readings and gathering the data on the comet they were asked to get a detailed scan of. The Arend-Roland comet, as the humans called it, passes through the solar system once every few hundred years. The corporates wanted a detailed scan of it without worrying about interference, and they had a job from three separate companies to get the scan up close.

They looked at the twin-tailed iceball in space as Hoary ran the science suite over it. Cossette was on the bridge, Jackson was piloting, and Lexington wasn’t here. Riptide was just staring into the room from the doorway.

“Why are you so certain? I mean, it was one of those ancient CDs in a replicated version of an ancient CD player right? It could just be a malfunction of semi-digital semi-analog tech.” Hoary rolled her eyes and kept getting the proper readings.

“Well, I believe Lexington, for once. Jackson was in his room watching anime, one I don’t particularly like, so I did not join him.” Jackson frowned and rolled his eyes. She looked to Riptide as he took his position to observe the comet from the bridge. “Riptide was in engineering, and besides, he’s way too slow moving outside of water for him to get away, and he’s too big to hide.”

Cossette smiled as she enjoyed the beauty of the moment, following an ancient comet through space, getting a look at it from only a few dozen kilometers away. “How do you know it wasn’t me?”

Hoary scoffed and let out a protesting sharp chirp. “Because you would just admit it. I also found something unexpected in the room.” Hoary never took her eyes off the scanners, using her talons to manipulate them manually as her pushframe levitated a small plastic bag over to Cossette with several black hairs inside it.

Cossette reached around her captain’s harness to pick it up and examine the bag. “What is this?”

“Felidae hair. Common house cat species. So you tell me, is this enough evidence we have a stowaway, or do you need more?” The group on the bridge turned away from the comet to stare at Hoary and Cossette. Now they had something more interesting than the comet to discuss.

Jackson looked up and raised his eyebrow. “I mean, I noticed my anime was out of order a couple of days ago, and someone had put in a USB stick I hadn’t watched yet. I assumed that was you, Hoary.”

Hoary looked at him with her owl stare that could penetrate the soul. “Why? I watch anime to try to understand you better, why would you think I was watching it by myself? It is no fun for me to just watch alone.”

Riptide nodded and his gills flexed with a bit of agitation against the air. “Yeah, and the other day when I asked who was in engineering, none of you answered. Was no one actually in there?”

Everyone collectively shook their heads at the question, and slowly the room settled as they took in the clear fact that there was someone on board with them, messing with their belongings, scouting them out. Cosette checked the computer stores according to the fridge. The crew was supposed to log when they took food between meal times.

“This confirms it, we are down roughly eight pounds of fresh food in the freezer. Someone is eating our food too. At least, compared to what Jackson has documented.”

Jackson shrugged in his usual way. “I just thought all of you were eating the leftovers and really liked what I cooked. I mean, I get that Hoary likes raw food, but even she was eating it,” He commented with a smile on his lips and a blush across his face. “Please tell me you all liked my cooking?” He was still smiling eagerly like a happy dog you just didn’t want to upset who had successfully played a game of fetch.

Cosette smiled. “Yes, we do. I am sure even Hoary likes it.” Hoary looked down and her feathers shifted in the transcendent echo that resembled a pink blush. “That is the best ‘yes’ we’re going to get out of her.” Cosette put a hand up to her chin and started to think about it.

They had a stowaway, and it was the first time someone had gotten onto her ship. Any decision she made on how to handle the situation would set what their go-to solution for a stowaway was. Cosette was slowly putting a plan together as she looked at the tiny specimen bag full of hairs. “Common house cat you say?”

Hoary nodded. She didn’t take her eyes off the sensor readings to make sure they got everything the corporate customers wanted. “Yes, common Felis Catus with features indicating what would be called a Black Cat for her phenotype.”

Cosette looked ambushed, “They’re female? You are sure?”

Hoary nodded. “Yes, well, I mean there is a chance their gender is different from their DNA, but yes, the hairs contained a root in one case, and I got a full genetic makeup from the creature.”

“And you didn’t report this immediately, why?” Jackson raised his eyebrow, looking over his opposite shoulder to go from looking at Cosette to Hoary.

“Because I had to be certain that we had not just acquired the hairs on accident and brought them on board,” Hoary spoke carefully as she made adjustments to the sensors.

“Can’t we just use the ship sensors to find the cat on the ship?” Riptide spoke up, looking rather disgruntled.

Hoary laughed and shook her head. “You’ve seen too many science fiction shows. No sensor can find a lifeform on a ship. We might be able to detect motion or heat sources, but this ship is full of movement, heat sources, and metal pieces to interfere with any internal scan. No tech we have could pinpoint lifeforms, only take guesses at what is what.”

Riptide looked at Hoary, disbelieving her words. “I’m an engineer, and I’ve seen it done,” He spoke with finality.

“You mean like your dockworkers knowing where they are? Yeah, they all have implants or wrist transponders to locate them. No, for us to detect life on this ship, we would have to cut the engines completely, stop all spin, and therefore lose gravity. We would need to cut all heat sources, and lastly, we would need to shut off life support to stop the movement of air currents.” She turned to Riptide and looked at him. “After all, how many coolant conduits have rushing water in them? How many panels have active electrical junctions that have power running through the ship? How fast are we rotating or thrusting forward actively? 0.9G? 1G? 1.2G? All of that creates movement and motion. No, our sensors can no more determine lifeforms on a ship than another ship approaching us.”

Riptide nodded as he heard all of this. She was right. Short of putting very specialized pressure plating into the ship floors and walls, they had no real way to find an intruder besides hunting them down.

“Jackson, could you cook something specific, and then we use Riptide’s ability to pull a bait and switch?” Everyone on the bridge turned to look at her, surprised. The doors opened and Lexington stepped onto the bridge.

He looked at Hoary, who only gave him a glance from the corner of her eye, but it was enough to make him take a little longer to get to his own station on the bridge, a cyberware suite they had installed while on Mars, just for him. He could ensure the recordings and clean up the sensor readings from the comet and its twin trails.

“Jackson, I need you to cook up a very well done plate of fish, and then once it's ready, remove the fish, and Riptide will provide a replacement for the bait, though you will need to already have it set on the table. Then bring the crew their meals to their rooms first like you would normally.”

Cosette continued to discuss the plan among them for a few moments. Eventually the ship was steered on course for Deimos to deliver all the scans and bring this part of the mission to a close. Jackson got up finally after ensuring the autopilot could handle it, while Hoary continued to take more readings and get more up-close visual pictures.

“I’ll go get dinner ready then.” Cosette nodded to him as Riptide followed Jackson out of the room. The rest of them stayed put as Cosette turned to Hoary.

“I’m going to go to my quarters and look over the ship to figure out if we can do anything to prevent another stowaway.” Cosette removed herself from her captain’s harness and started towards the door. “You two, talk it out. That is an order if I need to make it one.” The way her voice echoed in the silence of the room as she closed the door made Hoary and Lexington both stare at the cluster of tails fluttering against the air, right up until the bridge blast door closed.

They slowly, in unison, turned toward each other, meeting the gaze across the bridge. Lexington reached up and rubbed the back of his head. “I umm… I don’t exactly have it—”

Hoary squawked at him to get him to be quiet. Once he was properly silent, she looked away from him and looked at her sensors. She sounded impartial and quiet as she looked at the readings. “You were defending yourself and you assumed we were pirates or worse. I cannot blame you for shooting at me, even if it is racist because I resemble the creatures that tore apart Laruen’s friends.”

Lexington exhaled. “Yeah, I am sorry for—”

“I wasn’t finished.” She let out another squawk to assert herself and turned to stare him down again. Lexington was starting to get that this was her way. No matter how stand-offish it was, it’s just how she was with others.

“However, the pin-up posters of bird girls in your room, and the amount of other things I’ve already found on the ship's hard-drives… Did you do that on purpose to get a rise out of me or what?” She stared harder at the readings, although her eyes easily betrayed her annoyance at what she had found.

“N…n…no… I might have a crush on…” Hoary blinked a few times and turned her head sideways in the unnatural way only an owl can, where its neck looks broken, but the eyes are still blinking and intelligent at that odd past ninety degree angle.

“I have a crush on Lauren,” Lexington managed as he stared at the odd position. “Doesn’t that hurt your neck? Do all bird girls do that?”

Hoary returned back to her neutral position. “Oh, I… apologize. It was rude of me to assume that was targeted at me.” Hoary turned her head towards him, not moving her body. “I apologize sincerely for my actions. I am used to others being terrified of me, or trying to find ways to get under my skin, to find justification for their prejudice, and I gave it to you in this case.”

Lexington blinked a few times and smirked. “Ya know, it doesn’t help that you are absolutely so stand-offish and angry all the time.”

Hoary growled and then dropped the ruse. “Very well. Fair warning, if you have a crush on a bird girl, they prefer live food.” She got up and nodded to him. “Is there something else you wish to speak of?”

Lexington laughed and then after a few moments he realized she was serious. “Did you just give me relationship advice?”

Hoary just smirked and left.

*****

Alison could smell fresh fried fish. It was so tempting to her instincts as she took in another inhale of the wonderful steamy smoke coming through the air vents. She usually waited for the leftovers, but those were often cold. How could she resist a hot meal like this? She crept up to the kitchen in the vent to see the dog–no, he was more a dingo–preparing a meal.

The room was designed as a kitchen and dining room at the same time. Half of the room consisted of a large table with seven chairs, each of them bolted to the floor, and a bird perch at the far end. The chair at the head was a little more ornate and had a space cut out of the back for the captain’s many tails to slide into.

The opposite side had a serving bar ringing a fully fit kitchen. Half of the kitchen was taken up by a massive freezer that was slotted against the wall. Beside it was a sink, dishwater, microwave, an electric stove, and a preparation counter with several cabinets that held magnetic locks to prevent whatever was in them from cascading around should the ship suddenly stop or take a hit. She had seen it passingly or when she was scrambling, but Jackson opened the cabinet to reveal an entire fully stocked spice rack as well.

The taur danced around, having left what appeared to be a large steaming fish, maybe shark of some sort, on the table. It was the size of her leg and decorated with veggies as well. It was a platter fit for royalty.

That must be for the captain, especially considering the other things he’s making. She kept watching as Jackson prepared the other meals and started out the door with what looked like everything he could carry. Oh? Eating in Quarters tonight? Right, the comet! He’s probably going to serve them on the bridge! Now is my chance!

Alison carefully started to get out of the air vent. She had already mostly unscrewed all the vents in the rooms to make it to where she could peel out of them anytime she wanted. She wanted to take at least one big bite of that fish. She had never seen an actual fish before, only artificial. It smelled divine, wonderful even. She leaned in and opened her mouth, closing her eyes, took a bite and then suddenly choked!

A hand gripped around her throat, and the sound of the dish flying across the room echoed as she snapped her eyes open. Riptide, the massive lemon shark engineer, had his hand on her throat, and she had his bicep in her mouth.

What the hell? Where did he… She couldn’t fathom it, or where he came from.

The shark-like fish that was on the plate was gone, completely. Her eyes rapidly looked around for it, trying to find it, only to meet the sharp dark purple orbs with yellow streaks that stared at her, a trait the Selachii were designed with to remove the more soulless looking black sphere their ancient ancestors had.

“Got ya.”

His voice rumbled through her as the rest of the crew came into the kitchen and dining area. The only reason the chairs were not sent flying was them being bolted into the floor. Alison smirked and tried to play it off. “Hi… nice to meet you, fish face.”

Riptide bared his teeth at her in an open mouth grin. Cosette looked with disapproval as the group surrounded their intruder. “Are you going to try to run if Riptide stops choking you?”

“And not call me fish face?” Riptide punctuated his statement by tightening his grip slightly.

All Alison could do was slowly nod as she fell to the floor. “Where… where… did the fish on the plate go?” She stammered while holding her throat. Riptide growled in response as Cosette reached up and pushed on his chest gently to get him to slither back a bit and out of the way.

“Riptide was the fish on the table. One of his implants allows him to take the form of a normal dogfish, though the implant can only contain his mass and density in a pocket of the exoverse for a couple of hours,” Cosette explained as she took her captain’s chair and motioned for Alison to sit down in the chair that would put the table between her and the only door.

“If you hadn’t touched my things, I wouldn’t have noticed the hair,” Hoary snapped as she was perched next to Alison, glaring down at and looming over her from the perch as Alison sat down, taking up Cosette’s invitation.

“Well sorry, I didn’t know they were so valuable. Come on, who 3D prints relics like those?” Alison snapped back.

“They are originals,” Hoary replied indignantly.

“Hey, she did watch my anime! I didn’t even get to some of the ones she was watching,” Jackson snapped as he took his very large seat, “Even shifted my beanbag around. It took an hour to get the impression right again.”

Riptide snapped, “Do you have any idea how much of my time is going to be wasted resealing every one of those ventilation shafts? Seriously, how do you even fit inside there?”

“Umm… cat bones are basically a liquid or a suggestion,” Alison replied with a confident grin.

“Hey hey, let’s hear her out before we get too mad,” Jackson said, sitting down and putting the actual dogfish plate in front of the captain while serving each vector their own meal. “I mean, I figure you like fish, so here.” Jackson was smiling at her as he put a plate in front of Alison. It contained several pieces of baked potatoes and a set of frozen, now fried, fish sticks covered in batter. “I mean, it’s not the captain’s, but that’s really tofu made to look and taste like a dogfish, this is at least real fish.”

“Yes, Jackson. Thank you for making sure I get to enjoy it, even if it costs extra.” Cosette smiled as she took a bite and waited on Alison. Alison stared in stunned silence as the group started to each a meal around their “prisoner.”

Cosette finished her bite and reached for the pitcher of water, pouring it into a glass that Jackson had just set in front of her. She craned her head to the right to see Hoary eating a bunch of worms that were still wiggling, but had been covered in spices and some sort of sauce.

Alison looked back to see each meal had been prepared precisely for all of them, and now one for her.

“What the fuck is this? Is this how you treat all your prisoners?” She finally burst out as Lexington snickered at something knowingly. Meanwhile, Riptide smirked at that and scarfed down another piece of rare cooked meat from his plate.

“We’ve never had a prisoner before. How do you think we should treat you?” Cosette asked. This was all part of her plan, to keep the intruder off guard as long as possible.

Alison stared and her jaw went slack in disbelief as she looked at the captain, too stunned from the words to speak. Hoary let out a hoot that rippled, a kind of bird chuckle. “Leaving your jaw slack like that will hurt it, I mean you are still a cat right? Don’t you need tension in your jaw to function?”

This got Jackson to chuckle himself as they continued sharing the meal with Alison. Cosette was starting to finish her meal and she looked up at Alison. “So what is it going to be? Do you want us to just drop you off at our next stop on Deimos?”

Alison stuttered for a moment, “Y-You mean… it matters what I want?” She looked very confused at Cosette.

“A better question would be, why did you stowaway here? Who are you working for?” Jackson chimed in, as he leaned over. A sense of both threat towards Alison and protectiveness towards the rest of the crew echoed from his words.

Riptide leaned over from their side of the table with him. “I wonder which part I have to nibble on to get her to talk?” Riptide had the same sense of protectiveness, but he also had much more bloodlust masking it, especially with him grinning and showing his razor sharp teeth to her.

“Alright you two, she isn’t a threat to your pack in the slightest,” Cosette mused and then looked at Hoary, “Besides, do you really want Hoary to have to exercise her oath to do no harm by stopping you from harming a prisoner?”

Alison was surprised by the reaction the huge wild dog and nearly three meter-long shark creatures gave. They both looked at Hoary with nervous eyes and expressions of uncertainty on their faces. It was as if they were both afraid of the bird and were asking permission for something, or looking for her reaction.

While Alison was studying their reactions and trying to understand them, a feathery wing settled onto her shoulders, wrapping around her possessively. “I will allow zero harm to a single prisoner on board our ship who has not harmed one of you.” Alison looked at the way Hoary stared at them.

She was staring down two larger predators, but something about the way she looked gave Alison the feeling she had killed a vector more than once. It was something Alison had gotten from gangers, corporate security, and others. Which ones had killed before, and which hadn’t. It was a look in their eye. Riptide and Jackson were clearly bluffing in comparison, as Hoary did not flinch at them. Both slowly sat back down, looking away from her piercing eyes as she withdrew the wing. Hoary turned that gaze to Alison. “Ask permission to touch my artifacts, next time.”

Alison felt that gaze and wanted to be anywhere but locked on to by those eyes. She cowered away from Hoary to the best of her ability within the chair. Hoary calmly went back to eating her worms like nothing was wrong.

Cosette snickered and covered her mouth at the giggle. “Don’t mind Hoary, she is mostly all squawk and no talons, so to speak.” Hoary gave a look at Cosette with one eye closed then returned to her meal without a word.

Lexington leaned up and smiled. “Ya know, you could stay here. I could get you a new ID, and you’s definitely the sneaky one. Not to mention, those pants, kinda hot.”

Cosette rolled her eyes. “Lexington, don’t be creepy.”

“I’m serious, I could have a new ID for her that would pass muster in an hour. Plus, I mean we don’t exactly have anyone that is more of the… quieter persuasion on board.” He looked over at Cosette and adjusted the glasses on his long snout to make sure she was in focus. His eyes were pleading with her as well.

Cosette tilted and turned her head sharply since he was right next to her. “This isn’t a chance to get a look at her butt or see what she looks like naked in the shower, right?” The way she asked the question, it meant he might have tried to do that at least one time before.

“No, I mean, not again… seriously it was one time!”

Jackson pointed his fork at Lexington. “Doesn’t make it any less creepy, and the funny part is you thought Hoary was the captain, right up until the steam cleared.” Lexington blushed, his brown complexion heading to a deep black.

Riptide chuckled, and even Hoary let out her hooting laughter as Cosette nodded to Alison while they all had a moment of comedy at the repitlia’s displeasure. “Well, what is your name, miss feline?”

Cosette wiped her mouth with a napkin and she stood up. “Alison, it’s Alison Shadow.” Alison looked at her plate as she talked, she hadn’t taken a bite to eat yet.

“Oh what a perfect name,” Cosette remarked as she walked towards the door. “Grab your plate, come with me, let’s talk, away from these jokers and idle threats.”

Alison picked up her plate and snuck past Lexington, her tail getting a mind of its own to caress his cheek and along his under snout as she walked past. She turned her head and gave him a wink, seeing him watching her backside as they stepped out the door.

Alison looked at the plate suspiciously, until without missing a beat, Cosette reached over, took one of the fish sticks and wolfed it down in the most undignified way possible. “What? You think we would poison you? We have to eat out of that skillet too, don’t you know?”

Alison blinked a few times as she took a fish stick finally and bit into it. “I thought you were a veggie?”

Cosette laughed, “I normally am, but I am not afraid to eat meat for putting on a show, or for social comradery. Now, tell me, why did you sneak onto our ship exactly?”

“How do you know I won’t subdue you and use you as a hostage?” Alison looked at her, her eyes going up and down the captain, over and over again. She was definitely sizing up Cosette. It was pretty clear she wasn’t a fighter.

“You don’t have a weapon, and the crew is more than capable of beating the snot out of you if needed,” Cosette replied as they walked down the hallway towards Engineering. “I want you to tell me about yourself, grotto dweller.”

Alison raised an eyebrow. “How did you know?”

Cosette smiled at her with warmth, as if she had found a long lost sibling. “I grew up in a grotto too. I imagine that with the wild-eye way of looking around for threats at the table, you grew up looking over your shoulder a lot, especially at corporate interests.”

Alison nodded. “Yeah, I just fled a grotto, because of corporate interests. I…” She stopped, realizing the days of hiding were over, the hours of running done, and her plate clattered to the floor with a clang. Alison felt all of the need to hide, to conceal herself, gone. She felt her emotions rise within her and overwhelm her.

The image of her sister in her head, the last thing she said to her was in a heated argument. That was it, that was all she had left and she was gone. Cosette stopped and watched as Alison fell to the floor beside it and started to weep. This wasn’t the ugly crying she had done at the lobby just a few weeks ago, this was a proper mourning.

She kept repeating as it set in, “She’s gone, she’s really gone… This…” Cosette leaned down and softly pressed Alison’s head to her shoulder, letting her cry and sob for a while.

Cosette looked up to see Hoary peeking around the corner with a raised eyebrow. Cosette shook her head and the owl disappeared around the corner back into the kitchen. Cosette softly brushed her hand along the felinae’s neck and shoulder. “Shhh… it’s okay, tell me about her,” Cosette whispered.

I never intended to get a ship, but here we are. I actually got my own ship, and instead of some sharp crew, it’s a crew of misfits, rejects, and vectors society didn’t want. I can live with that, I guess, She thought as she kept petting Alison in her arms, sitting in her ship’s hallway and letting Alison sob for a while.

“My sister…” Alison reached to her hip bag and pulled out the data gem, “This fried her computer and sent some signal. They got to our apartment within minutes. I must have just barely left… she’s dead now…”

Cosette Orashen recognized a data gem when she saw one, and this one was huge, probably several exabytes of data saved on it. What is on here that is worth killing so quickly over? She thought to herself as she looked at the gem. Maybe Lexington can figure it out?

“Go on, I’m listening, sweet kitty,” Cosette whispered into Alison’s ears as she fell onto her rear and spread her tails out, letting Alison put more of her weight onto the kitsune woman’s shoulder. Alison felt the warmth, which only resulted in her crying more, like a newborn who just wanted her mother back.

“I left her, I had a fight with her and left her…” Cosette kept stroking her neck and let the felinae break down. It wasn’t the first time she had someone finally break down on her. There was no telling how long Alison had been in survival mode, at least for Cosette to understand, only that she had been there for days.

Cosette had seen it, time and again, in human journals left behind by the extinct species, how one kept in survival mode slowly goes insane, and eventually just breaks as soon as the first bit of kindness is shown to them.

Alison, through sobs, recounted the story of her sister. How the grotto took them in when their mother wasn’t there anymore. Her dream at one point to be a gymnast, only for that to turn into her being a paid specialist thief. It started out with simple stuff, a wallet here or there, as well as her sister working to be a data miner. How their lives were good, they had made money, a lot of money, and were getting ready to leave Mars. Then she took a dream job, a job with thousands of credits on the line. A fortune for her and her sister to never have to work again.

Cosette strokes Alison’s head. “It’s always too good to be true, always is. We don’t have a sponsor here on the ship, but we owe an incredible debt to get that status. They can’t actually repossess the ship, but…” Cosette trailed off with a sigh, “I don’t think we’ll ever pay it off.”

Alison looked at Cosette. “We?”

Cosette nodded. “Yes, we. We all own a percentage of the ship so long as we live here. I decided to invite you to stay here, make this your new home.” Cosette took the data gem and held it up for her to see. “And we can start by getting the ones responsible for your sister and finding out what she died for.”

A Helpful Intruder in a Haystack

“I have a home here? Like the Grotto?”

Cosette smiled. “Yes, and if you give them a chance, even Hoary can be a part of a family for you. I’ll let you think about it. The room you took over is yours until we get to Deimos and you give me a decision.” Cosette helped her up and walked Alison down to her new room, wondering what modifications she would make as she came back up to the rest of the crew.

“So,” Cosette leaned her head in until everyone was paying attention to her, “I’m keeping the cat that wandered in,” She said and left them all looking at her, puzzled, as Cosette made her way to her captain’s cabin to figure out how to integrate her, and what Lexington might be able to do with the data gem.