Chapter 18

Lucinia looked herself over in her full body mirror, making sure her uniform wasn’t sloppy or out of place. She straightened the back of her shirt and pulled her utility belt on. She set her lanyard in place over her left shoulder and did a radio check, hearing Proculus answer back clearly. She headed into her common room, took a long drink of coffee, and procured a mint from a jar on her desk. As she rolled the mint around, she headed to the door, chewing the mint to bits before pulling the door open. Outside her door, Nyka and Rusu stood, with somewhat shocked expressions on their faces.

“Oh, uh, Captain!” Rusu said.

“Hello, you two.” Lucinia smiled at them both. “You were looking for me, I presume?”

“Ya.” Nyka answered. “Er, yes, Capsa..., Captain. We, speech, er speak?”

Lucinia noted some emotion in both of their voices and felt a level of seriousness to their request.

“Step in.” She stood back so they could enter. “Follow me, let’s take a seat,” She led them into her common area where two comfortable chairs sat in one corner, near the entrance to the bedroom.

Lucinia could see both Lexocanus’ fidgeting and unable to sit still as she took a smaller chair from her breakfast table and set it in front of them, taking a seat.

“What’s going on?” She asked.

“Uh, we...” Rusu’s face started to show a hurt expression. “ ... we miss home, Captain.”

“Oh,” Lucinia nodded sympathetically. “Are you holding up ok?” She saw Rusu shake his head and she stood up, pulling him up, into a hug. A moment later she felt Nyka close her arms around the both of them.

Nyka was silent for a few moments before she started to shake involuntarily. “Miss, them, miss family, Captas, Captain.”

“I’m sorry Nyka.” Lucinia ran her hand over Nyka’s back to help calm her. Lucinia could hear Nyka gritting her teeth before letting out short wheezy breaths.

“Miss them all.” She whispered. “Miss old ... talks with you, too.”

That touched Lucinia deeper than she had expected. She fought to hold back tears, without much success. “I’m sorry we didn’t continue those talks. We got busy and I thought you were doing ok.”

“You family too.” Lucinia felt Rusu rubbing his head against her shoulder.

“You most family.” Nyka managed to say. “You an Jack an Zakia an Charm an Spurius also.”

Lucinia felt a stab of guilt for allowing so much time to go by without checking in with them.

“We miss talk you.” Nyka whispered.

“Do you want to have a weekly night where we can talk, like we used to?” Lucinia asked and felt them both nodding against her.

“We do,” Rusu answered.

“Do you want to talk to anyone else?” Lucinia asked.

“Is Jack, maybe some time,” Rusu answered and Nyka nodded in acceptance.

“Ok, that can be done. What about anyone else?”

“Is not sure that they understand.” Rusu clarified “They never talk much with us on matters personal.”

“You just need to give them a chance.” Lucinia tried to sound comforting. “Just take it slow and talk to whoever you feel comfortable with.”

“Procul, First Officer not very nice.” Nyka said. “Glad, no, mad, about cargo hold. Mad about reports. Mad about take time do work...” Lucinia felt her let out another deep breath.

“Andor weird.” Rusu said. “He say weird things.”

“What about?”

“He say, howizit, want to lay, er, sleep with sis.”

“He what!?” Lucinia spoke harsher than she meant to.

“He weird,” Nyka said. “Say things weird.”

“I’ll straighten that out, ok?” She felt Nyka nod. “I’ll talk with the First Officer too.”

“Thnak, thna ... rrrrrrrrr,” Lucinia heard Nyka struggling to say the word ‘thanks’ as she let out saddened breaths, finally growing frustrated with herself.

“Hey, don’t worry,” Lucinia comforted her. “I understand what you’re trying to say.”

“Ok.” Nyka said quickly.

“We try not to bug anyone,” Rusu said. “Just that we is not sure who else to talk with. We don’t really know howisit, how to approach.” Rusu broke his embrace and sat on the floor. “Not sure if we do something wrong?”

Lucinia sat on the floor beside him, with Nyka joining so that Lucinia was between both sun wolves.

“Do we do something wrong?” Rusu asked.

“Not at all.” Lucinia took his hand and gave it a supportive squeeze.

She felt Nyka take her other hand and both Lexocanus’ leaned into Lucinia, resting their heads on her shoulders.

“Are we trouble, you? Trouble broth ... bother you?” Nyka asked.

“Never.” Lucinia replied. “You two could never bother me, even if you tried.” She smiled.

“Thank you for talk with us.” Rusu rubbed at his eyes. “Please be there more, please have more talk nights.”

“We will, starting with now. We will talk like we once did.”

Lucinia’s radio clicked and the voice of Proculus came in, “First Officer to Captain, are you on comms, over?”

“Captain is on comms, occupied at the moment, over.”

“Captain, we really need you in engineering, over.”

“Is this an emergency, over?” Lucinia asked.

“Negative, over.”

“Will be there when I am available, over.”

“Captain, The First Officer strongly requests your presence in engineering, over.”

“Not. Now. Captain. Out.” Lucinia spoke slow and direct into the radio.

If only she knew who else was listening and giggling at the radio conversation. Both Sita and Cardox were giving the middle finger to a radio that Sita held out. In another part of the ship, Jack looked at Kazlaena with a grin, seeing a surprised one from her that fell into a giggle.

For a time, Lucinia sat on the floor with the Lexocanus’, letting out their built-up stress and emotion, seemingly holding her hard enough to prevent her from getting away.

“I don’t know what to say, looking forward.” Lucinia said to them. “I can’t imagine what it must be like, being exiled from home. I will keep trying to help you make this a new home, that is a certainty.”

“Thank, Capsain.” Nyka said. “Much thank.”

“Yes, thank you much.” Rusu rubbed her hand a few times. “You do best you can. Just we, sometimes lonely, get lonely.”

“I understand.” Lucinia felt pity for them. “You want to see others of your race but that would only be exiles and unfortunately most were exiled because they were not good people. That makes it hard to want to reach out to them.”

“Yes, does, much.” Nyka sighed deeply.

“No one from home ever answer call either.” Rusu replied. “We not exist any longer to them.”

Lucinia saw Rusu reach across and hold hands with his sister as he broke down again, bringing a tear to her own eye.

“I don’t know what I can do, but I’ll think of something. You two deserve far better than this. What happened wasn’t right.”

“Nothing you can do, Captain.” Rusu looked at her. “Not your burden to carry. Not your bridge to fix.”

“You two are worth trying for.” Lucinia said as she felt them both press up against her.

Once they had calmed down, they stood up and started heading for the door.

“You two can stay here for a while if you want. Take some time to rest and destress. My vidscreen gets a lot of interstellar channels, delay in data can be a buzzkill though. I do not expect this system has good broadcasts. There are plenty of recorded programs though.”

“Oh, is ok, uh...” Rusu saw Lucinia turn on the vidscreen and a channel entry prompt came up.

“This guide covers just about everything I get so, go crazy.”

“Ok,” Nyka took in a deep, calming breath.

“I have to go, but we will talk more, lots more,” Lucinia gave them both hugs, fixed her appearance and left her quarters.

“Uh, what to watch?” Rusu asked.

“No, sure.” Nyka bit her lower lip.

Rusu flipped to a nature documentary and they both shook their heads. Then he flipped to a romance and Nyka shook her head. He flipped to an action vid and then he shook his head. He flipped to an intense asteroid racing circuit and they both leaned in, watching intently as the pilots raced their ships around the course.

Jack stepped into the rec room and saw a good portion of the crew enjoying their downtime inside. He saw Andor and Delilah at one of several small tables, engaging in a shallow conversation as they both focused on the VR vidgame between Rusu and Zakia. Nyka and Kazlaena sat on the big sofa, the former watching with reserved interest while the latter was excitedly cheering both players simultaneously. Charm and Spurius sat on the smaller loveseat. As Jack approached to watch the game, both Nyka and Kazlaena gave him a wave and Charm looked at him.

“Hey, Jack-boy. When we gonna get that chess rematch done? Gots a score to settle.”

“Tell you what, you get the board, I’ll get the beer, then we’ll get this on,” Jack said.

“Right on,” Charm stood up and headed over to the shelving units on the left side of the room to retrieve the chess set.

Jack headed out of the rec room and went down the hall to the drinks lounge. He grabbed a couple of beers from the fridge and returned to see Charm at a table with the chess set ready to go.

“We must be well on the hunt now huh?” Charm asked. “Playin our own game of cat and mouse, huntin for these drones.?”

“Just have to hope the radar catches them when they’re out and about.” Jack nodded. “Playing figurative chess while we play actual chess.”

“Ha! Well, it’s on you, boyo,” Charm took the bottle he was offering and popped the cap off.

“Is there a disadvantage to playing white?” Jack looked over his pieces.

“Ya move first is all,” Charm grinned.

“Yeah, seeing that grin ... not sure you’re being straight with me,” Jack eyed her up.

“Ah, bein straight as an arrow, bucko,” she said.

“Arrows wobble in flight,” He countered, and she laughed.

Jack thought long and hard about his strategy. Charm was good at reading an opponent’s plan and Jack often predicted the move she would make just before she made it. He was never able to turn this to his advantage though and relied on entrapment to isolate her pieces and remove them.

“Alright, no more suspense.” Jack said to himself. “Game time.”

Jack moved his first pawn and Charm immediately mimicked his move. He thought for a moment, having developed a plan of several movements since his last game with her, designed to get his rook into her field as soon as possible. He moved another pawn and she followed with a move of her own, though this time it was not a mirror of his. Jack noticed a peculiar look on her face as she caught sight of a possible move available to her. But she seemed almost disappointed, and it threw his line of thought momentarily. He finally settled on making a move with a pawn.

“For real Jack?” Charm frowned.

“Uh...” Jack saw her take hold of her bishop and give him a look of disbelief. “What...”

He saw her strategy, completely taken aback by how foolish his moves were. To drop his own stellar plan, he was playing erratic to mask his intent. It backfired as her bishop moved to the side of the board, directly in line of sight of his king and no way to stop it.

“Did ya do this on purpose?” Charm interrogated with a slight smile.

“I can’t believe I did that...” Jack looked at the board in disbelief. “I had this grand plan all laid out. I can’t believe you just burned it to ash.”

“Better get yer strat book out for round two here, buster. I’ll give ya that one as a pass. This next rounds for real.” Charm drew her pieces back as Jack did the same.

The match started out slow as Jack built up a line of defense, ensuring any piece he lost would be countered in kind. Before long, an audience grew around this battle of wits as Jack and Charm traded losses anytime an aggressive move was made. Jack had managed to get his rook into a spot to cut down four of her pieces, but her bishops went on a surgical warpath when he focused too hard on exposing her king. Within eight moves he had lost most of his remaining pawns and half of his remaining pieces, leaving him with six chessmen total, she had nine, only two of which were pawns.

“Jack!” Kazlaena wrapped her arms around him. “You are getting sa butt kicked.”

“Sa butt is getting pretty kicked,” he said back as he focused on his next move.

“Yeah, you’re supposed to be a soldier boy. How you gonna let this doc kick your ass,” Andor said with a bit of a forced laugh.

“These pawns don’t have air support, or guns. They come from a different world, like some of us inadvertently live in... “ Jack replied and some of the crew laughed.

“Ok, ok, fair enough,” Andor eyed Nyka and her pure focus on the game. “Is a pretty intense game, right Nyka?” He asked.

“Er, no sure,” Nyka scratched her chin. “No, no, ach, k’now ... no, know how play.”

“Is a grand battle of the wits,” Andor stated. “Or at least people who think they have wits, haha.” A couple others laughed lightly.

“It sharpens the wit, Andor,” Jack said. “Makes you think ahead and with precision. Reading your opponent’s moves with suspicion. Hoping your own plans fall to their prediction...”

Charm laughed at that. “Coralane’s droppin a bit of rhyme here.”

“Sa game seems, confusing.” Kazlaena said. “‘ow you know to move wat pieces? and ‘ow many spots?”

“Practice, Kaz.” Jack rubbed her shoulder a few times. “Once you learn the rules and play a few times, it becomes committed to the mind.”

“Um, is sat a lot?”

“For some it might be,” Jack replied.

“You, may, might teach sometime?” Nyka poked his shoulder.

“If you want to, sure,” Jack nodded. “Be happy to.”

“Better wait and see if he wins first, Nyk-nyk.” Andor said.