Tessa’s POV:

  As we entered Taureen’s home, I eagerly went to greet Mom, Dad, and Dirk while keeping a careful eye on Soranto. He wasn’t going to be sneaking away on me this morning.

  Soranto wasn’t wearing his armor, just his shoulder pads and wrist guards. 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. The chance to see where he worked was too tempting to pass up though.

  It would probably 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.

  After chatting for a while, Soranto began walking quietly to the door. Aeria grinned as I took off after him. Just before he reached the door, I landed on his shoulder pad 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’re 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 the guards waiting on the sidewalk.

  A small shuttle took us to a rather plain-looking building. 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?” asked a woman at a desk.

  “Seems that way. It could become a frequent occurrence.”

  She chuckled. “There’s a shuttle waiting for you outside bay five. Take whatever supplies you think you might need.”

  Soranto 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.

  We eventually entered a room full of equipment. Soranto grabbed a large duffle bag off the wall and walked up and down the rows as he selected bits and pieces. Some things, like scanners, I could identify. Many of the small pieces were probably replacement parts or other tools.

  When we left and went outside, Soranto paused. “Huh. A private express shuttle. They must really want that warship fixed.”

  Soranto got into the small, sleek shuttle; it quickly gained altitude and flew much faster than any shuttle I had been in before.

  As I gazed out the window with wide eyes, Soranto commented, “With luck, the Captain will lend us this shuttle for our trip home. Don’t get used to it though. 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 the ground was getting closer. Much closer. I hoped the shuttle would slow down before it tried landing or it was going to resemble my first flight. Buildings suddenly appeared below, and our speed dramatically decreased. Now I could clearly see a huge spaceship on the ground just outside the city.

  The shuttle slowed and twisted while dropping almost straight down, landing beside the ramp. I flexed my fingers and toes, belatedly realizing I had been digging my claws into the shoulder pad.

  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.”

  “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.”

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  They continued talking as we walked up the ramp and through a lot of hallways. I examined the corridors with keen interest, although I couldn’t see 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 anything I had seen before. At least a dozen Kymari were sitting 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. The way 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 ones as well.

  Soranto ignored them and set his bag on the floor. Kneeling down, he pried off a few panels off the wall and began hooking up some of the devices he had brought with him.

  He looked over at the other people sitting at the desks. “I’d like 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 listed dozens of systems one by one, 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 tapped a spot on the floor with his heel. “Can we open this hatch?”

  Scratching an ear tuft, I gazed at the floor in bemusement. That spot looked exactly like the rest of the floor. Someone came over with a strange tool, and part of the floor popped up with the faint hiss that airlocks usually made.

  Huh. 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 a square piece out and unhooked it.

  He passed it up to the person above the ladder. “Where’s a replacement for this module?”

  “You should have given us some notice before pulling that 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 and a backup module. I already 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 an advanced resync program?”

  The man looked thoughtful. “No. We ran the testers and resyncs separately.”

  We waited until the new part came. Soranto put it in its slot, climbed out, and returned to the panel where his equipment was.

  “Let’s see if this worked. Can we run through those sequences again? Shields, please.”

  The readings on the displays meant nothing to me. Growing bored, I looked around the room. Most of the Kymari were watching us patiently, occasionally doing something 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.

  Once I was done, I tentatively 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 headed 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. They guided him to a hallway, where a wall panel slid back to reveal another hidden room. Soranto connected 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. Walking over to the wall, I sniffed the crack under 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. I peered under the machinery and saw what looked like a dried leaf. What was a leaf doing on a warship? The gap was too narrow for my hand, so I swept my tail under the paneling. The dried-up corpse of a ktari slid out like a piece of heavy lint. With a squeak, I bounded behind Soranto and peered out from behind him at the creepy remnants.

  Just in case they couldn’t identify the almost odourless husk for some bizarre reason, I sneezed, “Ktari.”

  “How long has that been in here?” Soranto asked idly, barely sparing the mummified remains a glance.

  “We fumigated the last time we docked at a planet, so likely a couple of weeks.”

  They ignored it, which irritated me to no end. Did they really expect me to just sit here and pretend it didn’t exist? It was away from the walls and wiring, and the floor was metal. Taking a deep breath, I exhaled quickly with a coughing sound. The lack of flame didn’t surprise me—I still hadn’t managed to breathe fire yet.

  The odd noise had Soranto pausing to look at me, but I simply shook my head vigorously. Being 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 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.