Tabitha Chirrick - Overshadowed

She was making the point that he was the heaviest of them all when Shy swung out of the open hold door and announced they were about ready to depart.

“And, Tayel!” she called. “Co-pilot?”

“Sure,” Tayel called back. “I’ll meet you up there in a few minutes. Gonna check on Fehn real quick.”

Shy gave her a thumb’s up, and Tayel left to skirt around supplies, making her way through the ship toward Fehn. If she thought his room was cramped before, it was absolutely packed now that they’d put medical equipment inside. A small computer with wires leading to parts of him under the blanket tracked various readings, and boxes of stuff labeled with thick, red crosses sat stacked and netted to the wall. Fehn himself looked happy, the color back in his face and his voice evidently stronger as he laughed with Jace.

“Hey,” Tayel greeted from the doorway.

“Hey, Red, we were just talking about you,” Fehn said.

Jace’s feathers puffed.

Tayel crossed her arms. “Oh?”

“Yeah, well, you and Shy,” Fehn said. “Definitely news worthy.”

“I didn’t realize anyone saw.”

“I didn’t mean to start gossiping,” Jace said. “I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s okay. I don’t care if anyone knows. In this proximity, you all were going to find out anyway.” She grinned at Fehn. “Jealous?”

“Not at all. Now I get to come up with gross couple nicknames.” He arced his hand through the air. “The Princess and the Mag Player. Or: The Raider and the Tramp.”

“Wow.”

“So sorry,” Jace mumbled.

“Well at least now I won’t be named a color,” Tayel said.

“No,” Fehn assured, “You’ll always be ‘Red’ to me.”

“That’s almost sweet. They give you morphine?”

“No, it’s not that bad.”

“Well how are you feeling?”

“Feeling pretty lucky Locke had a compatible blood type.”

“Do you know how long it’ll be until you recover?” Jace asked.

“The Varg didn’t exactly speak my language, Feathers, but your dad mentioned he’d take a look at me once we’re in the air. Hear we’re going to Olgaia?”

Jace nodded.

“What’s there?”

“Locke apparently has contacts there,” Tayel said.

Fehn rolled his eyes. “A contact for what ? Contacts. Raiders always have contacts . Someone needs to tell them not every drug and weapon dealer in the verse is a contact .”

Tayel snorted. “I’m glad you made it, Fehn.”

“Me too.”

The engines thrummed under her feet, picking up in volume. “Well, Shy wants me to help fly this thing, so…”

“No loops this time,” Jace chided.

“Are you staying with Fehn?” she asked.

“Figure he might want some company.” He looked to Fehn. “Right?”

“Right.” Fehn’s yawn mid-way through turned his answer into a much longer word than it should have been.

“Tayel?” Jace asked.

“Hm?”

“I know I sort of said it a million times last night, and I know you told me to stop…”

She smiled.

“But really, thank you for everything. For helping me find Mom and Dad.”

“Wasn’t just me, Jace,” she said. “And I’m happy you’re all coming with us.”

“As am I,” Locke said from behind her. He squeezed into the room. “May need Jace’s fiber optic knowledge for a take two on that data capturing — since this last one didn’t work out.”

“My bad,” Jace said.

“No. Rokkir bad. You all strapped in, Fehn?”

Fehn picked at a black scab on his arm. “Yep.”

“Strapped in with a whole fragging six gills worth of my blood,” Locke teased. “Tayel, Shy needs you in the cockpit. Something something you’re taking too long. And that is your bad.”

She laughed. “Okay. I better head up, then.”

She waved farewell, and left the cramped space and its chatter behind. She walked through the hold, acknowledging Nita and Arcen’s warm smiles as Otto went on about something ship-related, or so it sounded like in the vague five seconds of conversation Tayel was able to hear before she entered the cockpit corridor. One rounded turn and there was Shy, leaning back in the pilot’s chair with her hands behind her head.

“Sorry I’m late.” Tayel slipped into the co-pilot’s seat.

“How’s Fehn?” Shy asked. She leaned forward to flip a few switches on the dash, and the tremor in the engines erupted into a roar.

Tayel clipped into her harness as the ship lifted. The momentary weightlessness made her stomach flip. “Back to normal, I think.”

“Figured he’d be okay. He’s annoying as hell, but he’s tough.”

“Need me to do anything?”

“Not for now. Or unless one of the Rokkir patrols Paru mentioned becomes airborne and attacks us.”

“All it took was one dogfight for you to think I know what I’m doing with a weapons suite, huh?”

Shy just smiled as she continued to steer the ship skyward. Tayel stayed quiet as they rose above the snow, leaving the outpost far behind. The sky became larger and larger, shrinking Modnik back into the floating space marble it really was until they reached the familiar turbulence of breaking atmosphere, then orbit. Tayel didn’t know if it was normal or not to be so comfortable entering space. Somehow it didn’t seem more dangerous than combat. She was safer in the void than anywhere else.

Sufficiently far from orbit’s pull, Shy engaged the FTL drive. The ship became engulfed in brilliant light, the same pink, orange, and white illumination Tayel had only seen a sliver of when they’d departed Elsha. The front seat had a whole new view, and it made her mouth hang open. Far ahead, in the dead center of the slipstream, something that looked a lot like a thundercloud spun. Arcs of colored lightning swirled around a gray mass that stood out in the otherwise brightly colored abyss.

“What is that?” she asked.

Shy flipped another switch and leaned back in her chair. “What is what? ”

“The lightning, rainbow thing up ahead.”

“That’s the end of the slipstream. Our route, anyway. Like shooting toward a pinhole. You’ve never seen it?”

“Not in person.”

Shy looked over. “I’m sorry your mom didn’t make it.”

“Huh?” Tayel realized she’d thoughtlessly gripped the eir stone pendant around her neck. “Oh. Thank you. I’m sorry, too. I spent a lot of nights lying awake in camp, wondering if there was any chance she could have survived. It’s nice to have closure, I guess. I just hope she didn’t suffer.”

“She was a great mom, huh?”

“She was.”

Shy’s mouth parted, but closed again.

The chatter in the hold had settled down, leaving little noise except the thrumming engine and the whisper of slipstream space. Tayel wondered what her Mom would think of her now. Mom would be proud, probably. Maybe a little mad, too. She never did like when Tayel broke laws — well, broke curfew . What Mom did? She wouldn’t have been okay with stealing fuel from the government, either, not even a corrupt one. Tayel laughed to herself. Seventeen’s not too old for a timeout , Mom would have said.

Shy picking at her nails brought Tayel back to the real world. “Hey, I’m glad we found Locke,” she said.

“Yeah, that’s a relief. I was worried I’d be the heir to the raider crown.”

“You’d make a good queen. A scary queen, but a good one.”

“Scary?”

Tayel raised her eyebrows and pretended to adjust her necklace.

Shy smirked. “Not sure if that calls for a ‘thank you’ or another fighting lesson — maybe one where I don’t go easy on you.”