Broken Boundaries Ch. 00-02

***

Days continued and whenever they saw each other, Alain and the girls would exchange a greeting. Tiness removed her helmet in their crew pod after she and Asitha ended their shift. 'We're done for today, right?'

'Mhmm.' hummed Asitha while she stepped out of her suit.

'Then I think I'm going to explore for a bit.'

Asitha gazed at her. 'What for?'

'I've been thinking, the captain and highest officers would have to entertain high members of the party once in a while, right?'

Asitha nodded. 'So?'

Tiness chuckled. 'I don't believe they wouldn't have a small amount of mushka on board.'

Asitha let out a laugh. 'You want to go look for that?'

Tiness replaced the air supply of her suit. 'Yes.'

Asitha sat down. 'And I thought I needed a drink.'

Tiness giggled. 'It's not that. For the most part. I just thought if there was enough we could give the human a bottle to return the favour.'

'Ahh..' Asitha said. 'Not a bad idea actually. It's better to be on friendly terms in the end anyway. No need to continue with the same hostility between our species.'

Tiness smiled a little at Asitha. 'You certainly have relaxed your view.'

Asitha sighed and leaned back. 'Being out here on our own gets me thinking. I doubt they'll call us back any time soon and if we want to stay sane and safe we'd better work together as much as we can.'

Tiness picked up her helmet. 'Coming then?'

Asitha looked at her suit's small status screen. 'Why not?'

The captain's quarters were quickly located and the girls shone their lights through the dark room, illuminating a variety of items that had began floating around over time. Only the furniture attached to the floor had stayed put while a couple of chairs floated just above the floor at a tilt. 'I'll take this side.' said Asitha and pushed herself towards a long and low cabinet.

'Found it.' said Tiness after forcing the lock on a built-in cabinet in the corner behind the desk. She shone her light on the floating mess of bottles and glasses. 'We can definitely spare one or two bottles for the human. This captain must have liked his shot of the good stuff.'

Asitha hissed in a high tone through her teeth at the sight. 'Our luck.'

Tiness shone her light around the room again. 'See if you can find some bags or something. Now that we found this I don't want to leave a single bottle behind.'

***

Alain hauled himself along the rungs and rails towards the front of the warship even though his next target for retrieval wasn't that far forward, but he hoped to see the Silth and suggest opening a communication channel between them. He was glad they appeared from behind their pod before he reached the hatch he'd had to use. He stuck up his hand and received a reaction from them.

While they were on their way towards him, he kept going over the arguments to convince them of the advantages of his idea and what he'd try as an alternative if they rejected it. If they did, he supposed he'd have to think of ways to gain enough of their trust.

One of them put up its hand again when they drew near and he responded with a quick wave of his own. He moved towards the crushed hull but stopped when the Silth climbed across it from their side, and waited patiently for them to set foot on the Walkurea.

'Hey there.' he said and stepped closer to them. One of them presented a bottle and he chuckled. 'I guess we made a promising first contact.'

Tiness held out the bottle of mushka and the human bowed when he took it. He lit his helmet light for a moment to show his gratefulness. She giggled when he examined the bottle and gave them a thumbs up and bowed back. 'I think he likes it.'

'Seeing what his present tastes like, I doubt he wouldn't like one of our favourite bad habits.' Asitha said.

The Silth stepped back but Alain quickly put up his hand. It came to him in the spur of the moment but he couldn't pass up the chance. He gestured with a sweep of his hand towards his pod behind and pointed at the bottle, then at the Silth and himself. His heart beat faster while he watched and waited for a reaction.

'Did he just invite us to drink with him?' said Asitha.

'Looks like it to me.' said Tiness. 'You think we can?'

'Not while there are sensors to keep either of us from each other's warship.' Asitha said and pointed at the ship, and at herself and Tiness.

Alain did a mental facepalm. 'Of course.' he said and typed a few commands on the small touchscreen attached to his forearm. When the sensor's status returned as offline he gave the Silth another thumbs up and gestured at his crew pod again.

'He turned off their detection system!?' said Tiness. 'Does he trust us not to take advantage of the situation?'

'I have no idea what he's thinking apart from maybe hoping we'll follow him to drink with him.'

Tiness bit her lower lip. 'Can we trust him not to lure us into a trap?'

Asitha pondered for a moment. 'Although we can't be certain just yet that he's really alone, he'd have to have some confidence to invite the two of us into his pod while he's alone.' She chuckled at the thought of seeing a human face to face for real. 'I think it's a good opportunity to find out more about the humans. Drinking while observing them doesn't hurt either.'

Tiness giggled. 'All right, so we go?'

Alain smiled when the Silth stepped forward and he felt his curiosity growing while he led them along the Walkurea's hull to his pod.

All three were affected by nervousness while Alain opened the airlock and entered it. A sweat drop crawled down his forehead and he cursed silently, hoping he wouldn't leave a disgusting impression of himself. Then he realised the whole pod would still smell of him and he regretted he hadn't yet hooked up the Walkurea's filtration system to the pod. He sighed and resigned himself to the situation. Nothing he could do about it any longer.

Tiness hesitated when she took hold of the handrail next to the open airlock. 'Is this really going to be all right?' she asked while thinking the human might think them weird or inferior because Silth resemble one of their favourite animals they keep as pets.

Asitha took a deep breath. 'We're here now, might as well go all the way.' she said. 'We can't worsen relations between our species any more than they already are.'

Tiness put one foot on the airlock. 'Yeah.' she said and pulled herself inside before she lost her nerve.

The lock was a little cramped with the three of them inside but cycling the environment was quick and Alain was glad to step into the pod's roomier entrance and take off his helmet. He hung it in the suit's locker and turned towards the Silth. 'You can hang your suits there if you want to.' he said as he gestured at two empty lockers on the side.

He clenched his jaw slightly while waiting for their next move, and relaxed a little when they unlocked the seal of their helmets.

The three of them gazed at each other after Asitha and Tiness had removed their helmets. Alain swallowed quickly at the sight of the two felines so close to him. The urge to pet them fought with the realisation that they were just as dangerous as the large predators on Earth.

Asitha tried to read his expression but there was no movement of his ears to indicate his mood.

Tiness gazed at the misty grey eyes going from her to Asitha and back. They gave her a sense of curiosity and honesty even if she had never seen another human's eyes before.

Beeping from the airlock nearly startled Alain. 'Crap.' he said while his heart pounded and he closed the inner airlock door. He was glad for the distraction though and gestured at the open door towards the common quarters where crew members could sit, eat, and work. 'Nyar.'

'Oh?' Asitha said when she recognised the Silth word for invitation despite his pronunciation. 'He knows our primary language?'

'This human is interesting.' said Tiness.

Asitha flicked one ear. 'That only means we have to be more careful around him.' she said. 'I don't like it when others know more about me than I about them.'

'Do you want to go back?'

Asitha watched Alain taking off his suit. 'No. Not yet anyway. There doesn't seem to be any danger to us so far.' she said and began to detach the upper half of her suit, and Tiness unsealed hers.

Asitha chuckled silently when Alain quickly picked a dirty plate and cup from the table at the side of the compartment and put them in the dishwasher. "At least that's a common thing." she thought and looked around the small space. 'It's a little bigger than ours.'

Tiness looked at Alain placing the mushka on the table with three small cups and two bottles of which she could guess what they contained. 'Maybe they need more space because they're so busy all the time?'

Asitha pricked up her ears. 'I heard they were as lazy as they could get away with.'

Tiness chuckled when Alain wiped the table in a hurry. 'I doubt this one's one of them.'

He gestured at the couch at one side of the table. 'Have a seat.'

The girls slipped onto it and he noticed how they tucked their tails along the side of one leg. He suspected they kept it in one of their suit's legs because they were thicker than the ones from human suits.

He slipped onto the opposite couch, unscrewed the cap of the mushka, filled the three cups to the brim, and took his.

The girls noticed his lips moving before he spoke up. 'Voshth!'

Asitha let out a laugh, and picked up her cup. 'Vostch!' she said with clear pronunciation.

'Voshtch!' said Alain again and Tiness giggled, and picked up her cup. 'Vostch!' she said and they downed their drinks.

'Whoa!' said Alain when the heat spread from his mouth and nose down through his chest and abdomen. 'I would visit your planet just to drink more of this.'

Asitha grinned at the hot face of the human. 'He likes it.'

Tiness laughed while he filled their cups again. 'He sure does.'

Alain relaxed more at the notion that the two Silth were no direct threat, and likely very friendly hanging around with. He tried not to, but he couldn't stop gazing at the creatures sitting across from him. The fur on the arms of one was like a red tabby from one of his old neighbours, mostly dark orange with lighter stripes,and she had alert green-yellow eyes, He made a conscious effort to ignore the obvious bumps underneath the white tank top she wore. He couldn't make out any bumps underneath the other Silth's tank top because of her very fluffy and bright white fur filling her top, while her clear blue eyes reminded him of the clear summer skies when he visited his grandparents as a kid out in the country and were just as distracting.

He wondered what their names were and smacked himself mentally for the first thing one's supposed to do when meeting new people. He put his hand on his chest. 'Alain.'

The red Silth put her hand on her chest. 'Asitha.' she said and the other followed with 'Tiness.'.

He lifted his cup. 'Crash Course ruwarra, Asitha, Tiness.' he said in the best Silth he could speak after some practice in the days before. He hoped he really said welcome to his pod, which he named Crash Course just for fun.

Tiness giggled and lifted her cup. 'Shi-shi.'

Alain chuckled and gestured at his mouth and her. 'You know a word or two of our common language?'

She held her flat hand just above the table to indicate she knew only a little.

He nodded, pointed at himself and repeated her gesture. 'Same here.' he said, then picked up the bottle of mushka. 'But there's one thing everyone understands without knowing the language, drink, lash!'

The two Silth lifted their cups. 'Lash!'

Alain picked up a tablet from a shelf behind him and started the language module to help with the conversation. 'I'm glad you took my invitation.' he said in the mix of words and gestures. 'I worried that we'd start things on a hostile foot, like our home worlds.'

Asitha nodded. 'We don't want to spend our time here as enemies either. But, there are some things I want to know before I can begin to trust you.'

Alain nodded and refilled the cups. 'I'll tell you what I can,' he said. 'As long as you don't ask about confidential subjects.'

Asitha looked deep into Alain's soft grey eyes, noticing the hint of caution in them, which she expected. He didn't look like the images she'd seen of human males before. They were either as bulky as Silth males and often barely dressed, or they wore black clothing and wallowed in luxuries. This one looked a bit worn with his black head fur a mess, and the upper half of his face bare and the lower half shaved. She wondered for a moment how a Silth male would look like with the fur on his face gone but quickly dismissed it. There were more important questions. 'Are you alone here?'

'Ah.' Alain said and leaned back. 'I expected you'd have noticed by now that I am indeed alone here on this warship.'

One of Asitha's large feline ears turned forwards, just like Tiness's ears did while she looked at him over her cup as she sipped from it.

'We were supposed to come here with two men but the other one got into an accident at the last moment and we had no direct replacement.' Alain said and took a drink. 'They said they'd find someone else to join me here but I doubt anyone will come soon. Very few who are qualified and willing to stay for an unknown duration out here.'

'So he's really alone.' said Tiness softly.

Asitha frowned a little at Alain. 'Then how were you able to activate this warship almost completely on your own? Something the size of this needs a crew to run.'

Alain chuckled and suppressed a proud grin. 'I can't give you the details but for someone who has the right experience, it can be done. Let's just say I know my way around systems most people have never bothered learning about nowadays.'

Asitha twitched her ear. 'That's, difficult to believe.'

Alain took another drink and picked up the tablet. 'Keep an eye on the forward section.' he said with a gesture of his head at the window, and typed several commands.

Asitha and Tiness looked at the hull of the Walkurea and held their breath when all the missile hatches opened at the same time the laser turrets spun around. Tiness looked at Alain. 'How did you do that!?'

Alain smiled knowingly. 'As I said, the right experience.' he said and closed the hatches and returned the turrets to their parking positions. 'It saved me the trouble of needing to check everything by hand. I know the status of most equipment and only need to look at those that failed to react or returned error codes.' He put the tablet on the table again and leaned back with his cup.

Asitha stared at the tablet. 'We weren't sure whether you were making a statement of force when you lit up the ship before.'

Alain froze midway in taking another drink. 'Ah! No, that wasn't my intention! I just ran my script to trigger everything and get a list of what did and didn't respond.'

Asitha nodded. 'Yes, I see now.' She looked straight at him. 'If you did feel hostile towards us you wouldn't have invited us, or gave us, what was it called again?'

Alain smiled a little. 'Jenever.'

Asitha pricked up her ear. 'Jenever.' She fingered her cup. 'I think we don't have to worry about any enmity between us.'

'Exactly what I hoped for.' he said. 'We're all alone out here and I'd like to leave political matters back at the home world.'

'I think that's a good excuse to drink to.' said Tiness and topped off the cups. 'For as long as the supply lasts, at least.'

'I suppose when your side left the Amaroth, they took everything with them.'

Tiness nodded. 'Didn't they with your ship?'

Alain grinned. 'They didn't take everything and there's several local storages that include a good stock of food and drinks. And unlike your rules, I can order a decent amount for myself so we're not running out any time soon.'

Tiness's eyes grew wide and her ears pricked up. 'You're willing to share it with us?'

Alain stood up and opened the pod's mini fridge. 'I have no problem with that. Drinking on my own isn't as much fun anyway.' he said and placed a large plate with a variety of small sausages on the table. 'And best of all, most of what was left aren't rations.'

Asitha picked up a sausage, stared at it for a moment, sniffed it, and carefully tasted it. She hummed. 'Good.'

Tiness took one and tried it. She hummed in satisfaction. 'Much better than the standard food they're sending us.'

Alain picked one and started chewing. 'I don't know if you like spices, but I could give you some to try and improve the taste of your food.'

'I heard you humans like food that burns your mouth. I don't think we'll like that.'

Alain laughed once. 'Some of us certainly do! I like to eat something a little hot once in a while too but there's a lot more than just the hot stuff to give taste to ingredients.'

Tiness looked at Asitha. 'Then we'll try some of your spices, shi-shi.'

'Anything to make our stay here a more pleasant one.' Alain said and dropped another sausage in his mouth. 'Any trouble doing your side of the recovery?' Asitha shot him a suspicious look. 'Oh, I don't mean to find out anything about your technology, just the general curiousness of learning if the job's giving you the same trouble as mine. I can tell you some places I need to go are troublesome to get to because of the crushed corridors.'

Asitha nodded. 'There's much damage and it does prevent us from finding out if the equipment there still has value.'

Alain leaned forward. 'Isn't there a way to reach it remotely? If you can get a response from the systems you'll know whether they're working or not and if they're not worth the trouble to get to in the first place.'

Asitha shook her head. 'Even if there is, we don't know how.'

Alain leaned back and looked at his tablet. 'I have no knowledge of your systems, but the challenge tickles me.'

'You're not allowed to enter the Amaroth so don't even try. We'll have to report you.'

'I know.' Alain said and chuckled. 'It's just that I have a thing for technology and I'm curious about almost anything. I won't try anything unless I get permission.'

'Do you even have time for anything other than the work you're supposed to do?'

Alain grinned again. 'I already know what I can write off for certain and don't have to bother looking at, and since they sent me here on my own because of the deadline, I use that as an excuse to do less than half the work we're expected to do with two people.' He gestured back at Earth behind him. 'Let's see them complain when they forced the situation themselves. I'm not going to try my best on this.'

Tiness sighed. 'If we try that we'd get in trouble.'

'Really? Who's going to come here and inspect what you're doing? They had some people estimate how much work could be done and created the orders from that. If you keep falling short they'll have to accept that their estimate's too high and they'll set it according to what you deliver.'

'But we already sent a full shipment back.' said Asitha.

Alain shrugged. 'Just tell them you were lucky or began on the easy stuff first to retrieve as much as possible before it could fall into our dangerous human hands.'

Tiness giggled. 'Those humans might plot to spy on our systems so the faster we pull out the circuits that are easily reached, the harder it'll be for them to steal them.'

Alain smiled at her. 'Yes.'

Asitha chuckled. 'I don't know.'

Alain leaned towards her. 'What could they do? They're not here.'

Asitha looked at Alain's face, then emptied her cup. 'All right, we'll try it. But if we get any trouble we'll blame it on you.'

Alain smirked and filled her cup again. 'Be my guest.'

Tiness giggled and Asitha looked at her. 'What's so funny?'

She grinned at Asitha and Alain. 'Us.'