The Neko's Tail - 10. Asla

“One more try and we’ll leave it for today,” Artemis promised.

He pointed to a letter on the tablet and Elias frowned.

“R?”

“P,” the tiger replied.

The neko grumbled under his breath.

“Cheer up, you have most of them down already. I’m really proud of you; most people need a year to learn this much.”

A beep drew them out of their study and Artemis rubbed Elias’ head before leaving the kitchen.

The alarm grew in urgency and the tiger frowned. Rushing toward the command room, Artemis threw himself into a chair. Scanning his instruments with practised ease, he realized they were five minutes away from colliding with an asteroid.

“Elias! There is a suit in the bottom of my dresser! Put it on and get in here!” he yelled, his fingers flying over the ship’s controls.

Glancing at the computer, he confirmed they were in the sister system to Asla. There weren’t any asteroid fields on this side of the portal; not in this system anyways. Where had an asteroid come from?”

Pushing the thought aside, the tiger throttled down and dipped the nose of the ship. They should shoot past the asteroid with at least a mile of space between them. It was cutting the manoeuvre way too close, and he called for Elias again.

The neko appeared silently, dressed in a large baggy yellow suit. A glass helmet was held uncomfortably in his hands, and Artemis took the orb from him.

“We’re passing really close to an asteroid of some sort. There is a chance we could crash, and if that happens it’s likely the ship will break open. I need to put this helmet on you so you can breathe if that happens,” he said quickly.

“What about you?”

The tiger bit his lips.

“I’ll be okay,” he lied. “I can get my own suit on really fast.”

Elias nodded uncertainly, and Artemis placed the helmet over the neko, making sure there was no breach in the seal between Elias and the outside universe.

“There,” he said, his throat catching. “We’ll be okay. But if anything happens, you stay in the bathroom, okay? That’s the safest part of the ship.”

Elias nodded again. His arms embraced Artemis, and the tiger touched the top of the cat’s helmet.

“Don’t worry, we’ll be fine. I just need to slow and alter our direction ten degrees and we should miss whatever that is completely.”

Turning Elias away, Artemis went back to his anxious study of his instruments, showing a minute to collision. He flicked a marker onto the object. If they missed it, he would turn back an figure out exactly what was floating this far out in relatively uncharted space.

Further reducing the ship’s speed, Artemis held his breath. The alarm sped up even further, settling into an insistent pattern demanding attention as the ship slowed to a stop.

They had missed.

Elias crouched in the bathtub, feeling small and insignificant in Artemis’ clothes. There was no airflow and he could barely hear. The pants were nearly impossible to walk in.

There was no second suit. This was the only one Elias had seen. The tiger was going to die for him. The thought crushed Elias, and tears streamed from his eyes as he cowered in the tub. Not for the last time, the neko wondered if he had made a horrible mistake following Artemis.

A loud thump echoed through the ship and Elias flinched. He couldn’t just sit here.

Unlocking the bathroom, the neko shuffled back into the cockpit, finding Artemis staring intently at a screen.

“Artemis?”

The tiger yelped, spinning around.

“Elias! Fuck!”

Elias flinched back at the yell.

“Hey, sorry,” Artemis said. “I just need to take care of something. We’re in wreckage of some sort, and someone is still out there.”

“But…” Elias fell silent, but Artemis gestured for him to continue. “We can’t breathe outside the ship?”

“No. Someone is out there though. I’m picking up signs of life. Being in a field of wreckage like this, I think it was the IMFL. Their ships have escape pods that freeze you in time for up to a hundred years. But I came through here three months ago and there was nothing here.”

Artemis stood and switched chairs.

“I’m programming a probe. I’m pretty sure this is the wreckage of a ship, but I need to be sure before attempting a rescue. Here, see?”

The tiger leaned to the side, showing Elias the screen in front of him. The neko could see several letters he recognized, but he couldn’t make out the words.

“Program limpet,” Artemis read for his benefit. “I’m setting it to read life forms and report back.”

There was another thump as Artemis pressed a button, and a screen appeared beside him. The tiger set his hand on a controller and began guiding the screen through several broken pieces of metal.

“It was Military fleet,” he said, scanning a panel with the letters IMFL on it.

A quiet beep echoed through the ship, and Artemis increased the size of the screen, revealing a white container floating through the wreck

“Tagging for recovery. That’s a life pod,” he said. Now we return to the ship and reprogram.

Elias shuddered again as the probe thumped back onto the ship. He watched Artemis’ fingers fly, sending the limpet out again. Five minutes later, the pod was aboard the ship.

“Here, let’s get you out of the suit,” Artemis said suddenly.

Elias glanced at the screen.

“Oh, we’re stopped. As long as we fly slowly we should get out of here safely. Coming at the speed we did would have damaged us.”

The tiger’s hands pressed against Elias’ neck, and the cat heard a hissing similar to the hissing of the doors. He felt the air around him freshen slightly and Artemis removed the glass from his head.

“Okay. Let’s go meet our new friend,” the tiger smiled as Elias stepped out of the suit.

Artemis studied the white shell of the pod, trying to remember how to open it. He had only seen one of these in training, years ago.

Poking at a panel, the tiger flinched back as a cloud of freezing vapour flooded out from the pod.

“I think it will take at least thirty minutes for them to wake,” he said, trying to see through the cloud.

The first thing Artemis noticed was a hand. Pale, furless…

“Ir’s a human,” he said with interest. “I didn’t know there were any out here.”

There was a hole in the hand, and Artemis frowned.

“Help me get them out,” he said quickly.

Reaching into the pod, the tiger unbuckled the belts holding the human in the container. He winced as more injuries made themselves apparent on the human, a woman, the tiger noted. A woman with the blue bracer of a commander. She outranked him.

Elias helped lift the woman out of the pod, and they carried her to the medical pod Elias had been in when he first awoke on the ship. Artemis set up the unit for a human occupant, shutting the woman inside.

“Injuries like that, she should be in there for a few hours. I know you don’t want to go to Asla Station, but we really don’t have a choice now,” Artemis said.

Hours passed, Artemis continuing to help Elias with his letters. The neko was worried about their passenger, but Artemis knew it would take a while for the human to wake up. They needed a way to fill the time, and Elias needed to learn to read.

The neko began rubbing his eyes a few hours in, and Artemis paused.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

Elias nodded.

“If you need to stop we can,” the tiger pressed.

Elias shrugged, and Artemis closed out of the book they were reading.

“We’ll take a break,” he decided. “Let’s go check on our passenger. She should be waking soon.”

The trip to the medical bay was short, and again Artemis thought about the size of the ship. With a third passenger on board, even for a day, their limited space was even more limited.

The med pod was beeping softly, alerting Artemis that the healing was finished. Standing over the container, he opened the glass, shutting the pod down.

A minute later, the woman inside opened her eyes.

“Commander, I place my ship at your disposal,” Artemis said quickly, hoping to avoid any issues of command.

The human blinked uncertainly before her mind caught up with the situation. She sat up, taking in the situation, the nervous tiger with a bangle and the silent neko.

“There is no need to surrender your ship, Captain…?”

“Artemis, Commander.”

The woman nodded.

“I require transport to the nearest station to report. I believe that would be Asla?”

“Yes Commander.”

“What is today’s date?”

“42.18.132.”

“Two months… We should be safe to jump any time. I’ll leave the ship in your hands,” the woman said, closing her eyes.

“Yes Commander.”

The tiger motioned for Elias to follow him, and they vacated the room.

Her name was Hawke, and her ship had been attacked by pirates.

Elias shuddered at the thought of a weapon that could destroy a ship capable of travel between the stars. More and more his new home seemed to be a death trap. When they landed at the station, he was grateful to step off the ship.

Artemis seemed uncomfortable for a different reason. Elias understood, Hawke was a good looking woman. But he didn’t think Artemis had a chance with her. She seemed more interested in the pirates who had destroyed her ship and stolen several military codes.

Artemis took him aside when they left the ship.

“Hey, I need you to help watch the ship. I have to go with Commander Hawke. Make sure the Xanar refill the food and change the water again,” he said.

The neko stared warily at the six-armed alien opening panels on the ship.

“You don’t have to do much, just make sure nothing goes missing, okay?”

Artemis hurried away, following the human, and Elias grumbled quietly. What was he supposed to do? He didn’t know how to talk to the alien.

Climbing back into the ship, the neko sat against a wall near the ramp, watching a pair of Xanar loading food into the ship.

“Did you want anything specific added to the ship?” a Xanar asked.

Elias stared at him blankly, and the alien asked again, in a different language. After repeating themself in two more languages, the Xanar shrugged and gave up, muttering about foreigners not understanding basic speech.

The neko leaned back against the wall, blinking slowly. His eyes hurt. But they hurt a lot now since Artemis had shown him the tablets. They’d be fine after a short rest.

Elias’ eyes closed, just for a little nap.

Artemis growled as he climbed back onto the ship. Commander Hawke needed a ride to Cubeo, over a hundred light-years out of the way, and apparently, his ship was the only one in the station that could possibly take her. No matter that there was no damned space aboard his ship. He’d need to take on extra food to accommodate her, and another bed, all at extra cost to him. Not to mention that now Elias wouldn’t get to mine the rings around Asla 3a.

Speaking of the neko…

“Elias!” Artemis called, trying to keep the edge out of his voice.

There was no need to worry the neko with things that could not be changed.

Stepping into the kitchen, Artemis frowned.

“Elias? Come on, we need to move some things around.”

Heading into the cockpit, Artemis brought up the ship’s hologram. Aside from his own red dot, the hologram was devoid of marks. The neko wasn’t on the ship.

“Shit…”

The tiger ran out of the ship, hurrying toward a collared Daknar working on a ship.

“Have you seen anyone leave this ship?” he demanded.

The Daknar blinked slowly.

“Yeah, a Xanar removed a cat about an hour ago. Took him to be tagged.”

“WHAT?!”

The tiger didn’t wait for the Daknar to repeat himself. Praying the station was having a busy day, Artemis sprinted toward the marketplace. He had to get Elias before the neko was lost in the slave trade.