Bouncer woke me living up to his
name. He pounced on the bed, dislodging the sheet pooled around my back. I
grunted and pushed up onto one elbow, shoving him off my side. “Ow, you beast.
What’s got you so excited?”
His eyes were fixated on the door,
and he danced on his legs. The soft mattress sunk under his weight, and I
rolled toward him. Bowling into him, we collapsed into a heap. He licked my
shoulder and neck, nuzzling his head against my cheek. I stroked his nubbly
skin, rubbing along his powerful muscles over his shoulders and down his spine
as far as I could reach while I tickled his sides with my lower arms.
“It makes me nervous when he does
that,” Garjah said.
Craning my head, I glanced over
Bouncer’s back. Garjah was in the doorway, two trays balanced in his hand.
Steam rose from the upper tray, and a large jug with mugs balanced below it. I
had the urge to pounce on him, not to knock him down and rub my body all over
his—though that would be fun too—but to get to the food.
My stomach snarled angrily, and
Bouncer jerked back onto his haunches. I laughed. “Sorry, buddy.”
Garjah set down the trays on the
bed and slid in on the other side of them. Somehow they didn’t spill. Technology,
magic, I didn’t care. “How long did we sleep? I’m starving.”
“Timok said you were still providing
nutrients for the change in your body and the additional mass. You need to eat
more.”
“All I ever do is eat.” I picked
over the tray, grabbing into the bowl and the stabby things I was supposed to
eat with. Not even bothering to ask what the new dishes were, I started tasting
and eating. I huffed and hissed my way through a few bites that were too hot,
which made Garjah chuckle as he ate at a much slower pace from the single bowl
he’d grabbed off the tray.
“Did you make all this? How?” It
looked fresh.
“I had a delivery from the markets
of food, other parts are replicated, and some is from the garden.”
Stopping with the bowl pressed to
my lips and a shovel of the diced orange bits about to scoop into my mouth, I
glanced from Bouncer’s begging eyes to Garjah. “The garden he was in,
unsupervised? Did you wash the produce?”
Garjah’s thin lips spread in a smirk.
“What would you say if I said no?”
My nose wrinkled, and I started to
lower the bowl. Garjah grabbed it and tilted it back up. “Stop. You’d think you
weren’t a biologist with how finicky you are. The food garden is enclosed so he
couldn’t get inside. And I washed it,” he said before I could open my
mouth to protest again. “No other animals, insects, or chemicals are present in
your food. Well, other than the chemicals that make it, but that’s not exactly sexy
breakfast in bed talk.”
“So we did sleep all the way until
breakfast!” I blinked, but the light hadn’t changed much. The suns were really affecting
my ability to tell time.
“A human saying I picked up, since
we don’t call first shift meal breakfast.”
“Is it first shift if you’re not on
a ship?” I countered.
“Yes. It is still the first shift,
and the same general functions apply to the meals and work performed on a
planet as on a ship. Speaking of that, I need to connect with Seedrah today,
and there’s a meeting we need to attend regarding the block I put up.”
I put down the bowl since I couldn’t
exactly look serious and dignified while shoveling food in my mouth. “We need
to talk about that, by the way. When were you going to tell me about the power
you have? You never told me you head security for the entire race!” My voice
rose, and I stopped, taking a breath.
“It isn’t something I felt the
need to explain. Jah. My name says it all.”
“Your name says it all for Four Arms.
Even with these”—I waved my arms—“it’s obvious I’m different. I don’t know
these things.”
Today, you should learn more then.
While I am in a meeting, Mereval asked to speak with you and also work on some
documentation from your quadrant from long ago. Something about books on paper
she’d like you to assess.”
I’d wrapped my hand around the cup
on the tray, but I jerked when he mentioned records on paper and spilled over
my hand. Lifting my hand to my mouth, I sucked the sweet, caffeinated fluid off
my skin. Hmm, I faintly tasted of Garjah.
“Is that all?” I liked the scent,
and I wanted nothing more than to be wrapped in it. But my belly was sated, I gave
Bouncer my bowl to pounce on and finish off, and I was ready to go.
Bliss. Water cleaning. They had
reclamation processes, so it didn’t go to waste, but I was able to get
completely clean in a water shower that didn’t make the water feel like chemicals
burned by skin or gave me a risk of organ-consuming bacteria spiking straight
for my brains.
Clean, fed, hydrated, with Bouncer
at my side, I left the transport Garjah was piloting and waited on a light blue
bench for him while he put it wherever personal transports were located. I
liked the one he had better than the one the Kardoval had made us use the day
before. This one didn’t let anyone see inside, limiting the uncomfortable stares
directed at us.
Mereval met us at the doors, this
time made up in a casual outfit with a tunic that tied above and below her
arms. She looked nice, but not so nice my clothes looked out of place.
“I have a scroll I’m dying for you to translate for me,” she said, tugging me inside.
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