Page 20 of Collision!
“Ms.McCoy was with Ikaryo.I asked her to explain the nuance.She said it is art and sometimes activism and also silliness.Is that correct?”
“A way to use up some of my stash too.”
“We were able to glean scrap from the mining tailings before we powered down.Nothing sufficiently explosive for long-range weaponry.Fear and a few fireworks are all we have.”
“I’m sorry I passed out on you.”She gave him a rueful smile.“So much for being a help or at least company.”
He rolled one spiny shoulder.“You were quiet company.”
How had she fallen asleep so hard?Had he carried her here?
To his bed?
She started to scoot out from under the blanket, but paused at a grumbling from beneath her feet.“What was that?”
A solitary gleaming yellow eyeball popped above the blanket.No, not an eyeball; it was Lub’s lure.The goblhob nudged free of the covers and trundled up next to her knees.
It had lurked nearby the whole time she’d been working out her design, and she’d decided it was one part universe’s ugliest dog, one part dentally challenged great white shark, and one part leather ottoman, liberally sprinkled with catitude.And the delicately bobbing lure light between its devil horns was…wrong.
Lub stared at her, bulbous orange eyes unblinking.
“Thank you for keeping me warm,” she murmured.She slanted a glance at Suvan.“Um, do goblhobs like petting or treats or positive crew reviews or…?”
“They are known to be aloof and territorial.But when you were almost falling off the stool, Lub brought you its own blankie.”
She only choked a little at that.So it hadn’t been Suvan who’d noticed her fading.Of course, he had other concerns, like the engines keeping them all alive in the depths of dangerous space.
That shrinking feeling?Oh, that was just the colder air creeping under the blanket where Lub had been.
She smoothed her hands over her braids.“I didn’t realize I was so exhausted.”
“This cruise has been too much for all of us.”
She half-smiled at him as she stretched the stiffness out of her neck, appreciating the offered justification.“And yetyouare still on your feet.”
“Szauralithyn sleep less than Earthers.Maybe that’s why we don’t dream as much.”
Her dream…
“Love.”
Had it been his voice to say the word?
Not that it mattered.It was only a dream.
“I need coffee,” she muttered, pushing aside the blanket.Then she paused to finger the nap.“This is nice.I wonder if it could be spun.”
“It’s a larf pelt,” Suvan said.When she instinctively recoiled, he added, “Fake fur.Because larfs aren’t really that big.And Lub eats any larfs it finds.”
A ping from one of the consoles interrupted, and he abruptly disappeared.
If not for Lub’s lure and the ambient illumination of the machinery, she would’ve been left in the dark of Suvan’s bedroom.
But there was enough light that she couldn’t help but glance around curiously as she swung her feet to the deck.
The narrow bed was wedged against the bulkhead with a small stand by the single pillow holding what she assumed was his personal datpad.An inactive wall-mounted screen was a square of darker black.
The screen could be tuned to a view of anything, of course, but if there was color or comfort anywhere else in the vicinity, her eyes could not perceive it.
