I must have dozed off, because I opened my eyes to the sound of someone digging through one of the storage units. Craning my neck to look, I saw that it was Biv. Her eyes widened as she noticed me staring at her. “Oh, I’m sorry!” She exclaimed in a whisper. “I was just looking for something else to read.”
“S’ok,” I rubbed my eyes and sat up, not feeling at all rested. “I should probably get up and let somebody else have a turn at sleeping up here, anyway.”
“Oh, you don’t have to. Puck’s asleep in the bathtub with the spare blanket and pillow, I already slept, and Kiasis doesn’t sleep when she’s flying. Sometimes for days at a time.”
I blinked. Surely in my half asleep state I’d heard wrong. “Days…?”
“Days. And by the end of the fourth day, she’s pretty unpleasant. We’re on day three now,” she warned.
I resolved not to throw any questions at Kiasis until after she’d had some sleep. The alien woman already didn’t seem to like me too well. “How’d you end up with her, anyway? It just seems kind of…..different,” I finished lamely, aware that I’d been about to say “weird”. But it was weird; humans and Sch’silians just didn’t often have personal associations. Professional, sure, but that was obviously not the case here.
Biv hesitated, and the instant sadness that came over her face made me feel immediately guilty for asking. “She took me in when my parents were killed a few months ago. The commuter shuttle we were on got caught in the crossfire between her and another ship. When I woke up, Kiasis was standing there. She told me she’d make sure my little sister was provided for for life, if I’d come with her. It’s been a pretty good deal so far.”
“Oh,” I didn’t quite know what to say to that. Personally, I felt a lot worse for her than I did for somebody like myself. It had to be a lot harder to lose someone you’d known and loved your whole life than it was to never know those people in the first place. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” she smiled a little, but I could tell it was forced. “Well, it’s not. But it’s a little easier now.”
“But why did Kiasis take you with her?” I was just full of questions that were none of my business, and I half expected Biv to tell me to butt out. She didn’t, but her silent shrug was just as good, and I decided to change the subject. “So I guess you already knew Puck, too.”
She nodded. “I stay with him, sometimes, when Kiasis is away.”
I digested this briefly. “So….did he tell you…about himself?”
That made her grin just a little, and I relaxed slightly. “About what? What he is? Yeah. I thought he was crazy at first, until I asked Kiasis and she told me the same thing.”
“How do you know they’re not both nuts?”
“Sch’silians don’t lie. They don’t bother. I guess they have a saying that lies are all born out of fear or greed…so those that don’t have fear or avarice don’t need to bother lying. I think it rhymes in the original language.”
“Yeah…I’ve heard that they don’t lie. I guess I just have a hard time believing it.”
“I don’t. I don’t think Kiasis is afraid of anything…if she is, she never shows it. She isn’t even afraid to die.” A wistful note crept into her voice, and she dropped her eyes. “I wish I could be more like that sometimes.”
“I don’t know.” I stretched, scooting over in the bunk so Biv would have room to sit down if she wanted. “I think a little bit of fear is a good thing. It keeps us from doing stupid things.”
“I guess.” Biv sat down cautiously on the edge of the bunk, like she was afraid I was going to bite her. I got the definite feeling she didn’t agree.
“I was scared to death to leave the colony with some crazy guy I didn’t know. And you’ve got to admit…I got lucky. It could have turned out a lot worse, he could have been some psycho killer, or something.”
“So why did you…?”
It took me a few seconds to come up with the answer to that one. I don’t think I was really expecting Biv to start asking questions in return. “I guess….maybe I was more afraid of what would happen if I stayed.”
There was nothing really left to say to that, I guess, because we both fell silent for a while. I was surprised that Biv was the one to break the silence. “Puck said he’s going to take you out to one of the malls when we land so he can get you some new things, since you had to leave all yours behind.”
I snorted softly. “I didn’t really have any stuff. All I had was some….oh. Shit…!” I realized with a start what date it was, and just what was going to happen in the next day or two, if the vague cramping in my abdomen was any sign. “Biv….” I could tell my cheeks were heating up a little, but there was nothing really to be done about it. “I guess there was some stuff I kind of needed. Do you have any….um…..tampons or anything?”
Biv just stared at me for a good ten seconds before vibrant color began to flood her cheeks. “I’m not a girl.”
She might have just said she was a refrigerator or a seagull, for all the sense those words made to me. “What…do you mean, you’re not a girl?”
Biv just sighed. “I’m not a girl. I’m a boy. I’m just….kind of….small, I guess.”
What? Kind of small, and kind of pretty, and kind of girly, he must have meant. I felt like an idiot. “Oh. Shit. I’m sorry!”
Her….his weary tone would have told me that I wasn’t the first person to make that mistake, even if his words hadn’t. “It’s okay. People do it all the time. I used to think I’d hit puberty and grow a little and look more…..well….” He trailed off before flashing me a rueful smile. “That hasn’t happened yet.”
“Um….” I thought about trying to lie and make him feel better…but I didn’t see the sense in it, when I knew neither one of us would believe it. “No, it doesn’t look like it. But maybe it still will.”
The look he gave me said that he didn’t believe me any more than I did, but before I could wedge my foot any more firmly in my mouth, a voice interrupted the conversation that had suddenly turned horribly awkward.
“Biv,” Kiasis said sharply. “Go wake Puck. We are about to be under attack.”
