22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Iris

Good to her word, the woman didn't leave, and the rest of the humans decided to stick around also. They eyed Iris with a mixture of curiosity, awe, and fear as she handed the woman back her knife. Thankfully the Talins had agreed to give her some room to talk with the other humans, even if Damascus had grumbled a lot.

"Where'd you learn to do that?" the woman asked as she accepted the bloody knife.

"I pick things up," Iris answered, refusing to admit to all the hours she'd spent with the training bots because she never wanted to feel helpless again. "My name's Iris."

"Nataly," the woman with the knife said, then started pointing and naming the humans behind her. To Iris's shock, she counted twenty-one humans. How had they all fit in that one tent? Even as underweight as they all were, that was still a lot of bodies squeezing into a small space.

"Are there any more of you?" Iris asked.

"Only a woman and a small child, but they've gone missing," Nataly said with a sad expression. "Someone must've gotten to them while we were all out."

"If you're talking about Grace and Maeve, then I've got good news. They're with Merrick on my ship," Iris assured Nataly. No sooner were the words out of her mouth than she was flooded with questions.

"Merrick is alive?"

"You own a ship?"

"Are those your bodyguards?"

"How did you get so rich?"

"Can you lend us some credits?"

Iris held up her hands in a quieting gesture. "Is there a place we can all sit and talk that isn't in the ghetto?"

Nataly pointed. "There's a human-friendly eatery that way. If you buy a meal, they'll let us all sit with you."

"How about I buy all of you meals while we talk," Iris offered. An excited cheer went up, but Iris held up her hands again. "But my Talin friends are going to join us. Will all of you be okay with that?"

Nataly shrugged. "I don't care as long as I get food."

Everyone echoed her statement and soon they were moving in the direction of the restaurant. It wasn't much of an establishment. There was an open kitchen with tables and chairs in front and a few tarps hung to shade part of the area from the sun. Insects buzzed around the kitchen area as several Massoc prepared food with both open fires and an old reconstituter.

The humans lined up to order, and Utharium stepped up last to pay for everyone. They watched him hold up his Ident with wide eyes. The shiny new tech was rare on Dandilow II.

"They're the ones with the money, right?" Nataly whispered.

"Yes," Iris admitted. "I've got some of my own, but they've got a lot more."

"What are they? I don't know if I've ever seen their species before," Umor asked as he edged close to Iris.

"Yes we have," Nataly argued. "They were the species that ferried us here."

He and several others made surprised sounds. "There were so many refugees crowding us, that I guess I didn't see them when we were moved from the station onto the ship and then offloaded here."

Would the humans have been noticed and singled out if there'd been fewer people trying to escape the station? Could the trend of collecting humans have started even earlier with this group instead of Ari and her miners?

There were all kinds of "what ifs" and "maybes" but the end result was these people needed a new home, and the Talins had one to offer.

The place was quick to make their food, and soon delivery bots were shoving overfull plates onto rickety tables. The humans grabbed seats and started eating. The food didn't smell too bad, and it was probably the best this planet had to offer them.

The Talins took seats near the entrance, looking intimidating and subtly driving away customers. That would give the humans plenty of room and time to eat their food. Iris noticed Damascus was the only one still standing, his back rigid and his hand resting on his belt latch. He was ready for more trouble. Hopefully there wouldn't be any, but it was good to know he was vigilant.

"Tell me about these Talins and you," Nataly said, shoving an empty plate away from her and sitting back with a burp.

A quick glance confirmed that almost everyone had already finished eating. Damn, they'd only sat down with the food a few minutes ago. She was impressed at their speed but also sad at the implication.

"Right," she said with a nod and tried to figure out where to begin. She should really come up with some kind of speech for these occasions! "I'm Iris, that's Damascus standing up. The one sitting closest to us is Utharium. Then Savium and Talzeum. They're Talins and part of a pretty big and successful empire." She paused.

Should she be talking about their laws about love and bonding first or when Talins first met humans?

There was so much; where did she start?

"Maybe you could tell us how you ended up living with them," Nataly suggested, as if she could tell Iris was struggling.

"Yes, good idea!" Iris agreed and launched into a brief history of the last year. She didn't leave anything out, including being kidnapped and then rescued by Palathum. She decided they should know all the good and the bad.

By the time she was done, their expressions were a mixture of fear, interest, and disbelief.

It was Nataly who spoke up first. "All I can eat, no work, and all I've got to do is wear a collar? Bonus, I get cuddles and purring? Well, fuck, where do I sign up?"

***

Damascus

It was crowded in the shuttle, but they managed to pack in all twenty-one Dandilow II humans, five Talins including the pilot, and Iris. His sweet little human had to sit in his lap to make it all work.

The pilot messaged Progress so several crew members were there to help walk all the humans to the infirmary. Beds were already set up for all of them, leaving very little space to walk between. Healer Raltinum had two crew with some medical training assisting her. Soon all the humans had a turn in the cleansing unit, a change of clothes, and were eating a light meal full of supplements.

It was only after half of them had dozed off despite the bright lights and bustle in the infirmary that Damascus was able to get Iris alone.

"We should check on Mia," he urged. "It might've been late afternoon on the planet, but it's morning here on the ship. She'll be waking up, and I don't want her to worry if you aren't there."

Iris gave him a little nod. "I guess we can do that then come back after to check on everyone."

He looked around at the humans. "These humans don't need to be coddled by you. They survived on Dandilow II; there's nothing on a Talin ship that can scare any one of them."

She made a huffing laugh, as if trying to stifle her amusement. "Are you admitting we humans are tougher than we look?"

With a hand on her lower back, he urged her to the door. "I never thought otherwise."

"Thanks," she said, letting him guide her out. "It's nice to be acknowledged as something besides cute or adorable."

Sounding an affirmative rattle, he moved them down the hall toward the crew cabins. "I would never make the mistake of thinking you're anything else but devious and deadly when you want to be."

She frowned up at him. "Devious and deadly don't sound very good."

"It should sound like the compliment it is," he argued. "No species or individual survives if they are not at least a little devious and the deadly part is unique to you. I saw what you did with that knife. You disabled that Massoc with cold brutality. It was beauty in motion."

She stopped in the middle of the hall and turned to face him. "You thought that was beautiful?"

He sounded a curious rumble at the obvious question. "I think everything you do is beautiful. When you are in the throes of pleasure or cutting an enemy's flesh, you are magnificent."

Silently she stared up at him as if he surprised her. Why was she acting like this? She should answer him with a quip or joke. There was only one thing he could think that might cause this un-Iris like reaction.

"You're fatigued!" he announced, remembering belatedly that humans couldn't go a full rotation without sleeping. Bending over, he lifted her up and cradled her against his chest. "You need to rest."

If he thought she would argue, he was mistaken. She snuggled into his hold and let out a sigh. "You're right. I've never been good at staying up all night and being functional the next day. I kept confusing Riff and Dalia. They might be siblings, but they don't look that much alike."

It was good to hear her agree with him. "We can go back to your cabin, check on Mia, then settle you in your nest."

"Cleansing unit first," she insisted. "I can smell Dandilow II on my skin and clothes."

"After Mia and the cleansing unit, then you rest," he agreed. His long, fast strides meant they were soon at her cabin door. It whooshed open to reveal Mia and Dek-lee staring at something on a table. Mia was still in her sleeping clothes with her mane in a messy halo around her head.

When the little human looked up, she made a joyful sound, bounded off the chair she'd been kneeling on, and rushed to him and Iris.

"Iris! Da! Look what I gots!"

She tugged at his belt, trying to drag him across the cabin to the table. Dek-lee watched all of it with a small smile.

"Kalorum brought us back a gift from Dandilow II," they explained.

She must've walked around the open market near the port and purchased something while she waited for them to get back to the shuttle.

"That was nice of her," Iris said with a smile and tapped his arm indicating she wanted to be put down.

"Iris hasn't slept in the last rotation and needs rest," he told Dek-lee while setting her down. She let out a tired sigh and leaned against him.

"I can dress and groom Mia then take her to breakfast," Dek-lee said. "I'm very good with her mane now! She says I'm even better at brushing it than Iris."

"Hey!" Iris said in mock outrage. "Are you trying to replace me with Dek-lee?"

Giggling, Mia let go of Damascus's belt and grabbed Iris's hand. "Come on!"

Following closely behind them, Damascus was curious to see what had Mia so excited. It turned out to be a set of mechanical bugs. He'd seen them for sale on Dandilow II and didn't understand why Mia found them so delightful.

As the four of them watched, the bugs climbed on top of each other to form a pyramid. Then they disassembled and linked together to create a circle and rolled a few times around the table.

"Stop!" Mia commanded and all the bugs went motionless and the circle fell over, making Mia sound peals of laughter. She picked up the box they'd come in and pointed to the scrolling details and instructions on the top. "See, these are the commands you can give them. Aren't they the best pets?"

Iris nodded her head even as she looked up at Dek-lee. "They're not sentient, are they?"

Damascus answered before they could. "No, they are purely mechanical with no organic components. They don't think or feel."

Iris relaxed a little and smiled down at Mia. "You need to show everyone your new toy."

Mia nodded and reached for them, but Iris was quick to stop her. "You need to get cleaned up and dressed for breakfast first."

"No, I wanna show everyone now!" her face was starting to flush red, and her straight mouth indicated an imminent tantrum.

Iris's expression didn't change. She was probably used to Mia's moods. "Okay, I guess you can go to breakfast looking like Dek-lee doesn't know how to take care of you. I hope no one says anything bad about them."

Mia gasped. "Dek-lee is the bestest!"

"No one will think that if you show up with a tangled mane," Dek-lee said, understanding Iris's intentions. "They might even send me to live in a different cabin."

Mia blinked a few times, then ran off to the room she and Iris now shared. Damascus thought she might be about to lock herself in, but she soon reappeared with a grooming tool clutched in her small hand.

"Here," she said, thrusting it at Dek-lee.

"Please," Iris reminded her. "We say please and thank you."

"Please," Mia repeated even as she was turning to let Dek-lee deal with her messy hair. "Please hurry so we can show everyone our bugs?"

"I'll go as quickly as I can without doing harm," Dek-lee agreed.

Damascus saw Iris's shoulders slump a little, probably a combination of exhaustion and relief that Mia's emotional outburst ended before it really started.

"Cleaning unit!" he ordered, giving her a little push in that direction. "I'll go over to the galley and bring you back some food. It'll be faster than making a request and waiting for a delivery bot."

"After breakfast we're going to spend some time with the information square Danakium helped program for human learning," Dek-lee explained then nodded at the pile of toys taking up space in one corner of the cabin. "I had planned to come back here, but we can stay in the galley. That might be better. There'll be less distraction there."

Iris hadn't heard the Delorta because she was already in the cleansing unit. Damascus sounded an affirmative rumble.

"Please contact me before you return," he requested.

"I expect we'll be gone for at least four marks," Dek-lee said with a knowing smile. "Time enough for you to help Iris relax and rest."

Unsure what to say, Damascus sounded another affirmative rumble and left to fetch Iris some food.

He wasn't sure why, but seeing Mia and Iris interact had settled something in his gut that had been churning since the battle on Dandilow II. He refused to examine his feelings too closely; there was too much risk.

There was a plan, and he couldn't afford to let Iris and Mia distract him from it.