Nyx is kneeling on the floor, staring at a drone cleaning a puddle of her vomit.

  How long had she sat there?

  Cai hands her a cup of hot milk, “Think you can drink something? I sweetened it with some brown sugar.”

  Apparently it was long enough to warm some milk.

  Nyx takes it and blows on the milk, “Cai…”

  Cai sits next to her and pulls her into a hug, “Nyx. Today’s been hard on you. Why don’t you get some rest in your room? I’ll take care of everything else.”

  Wrench’s charred body flashes in her mind, and suddenly the milk doesn’t smell so good.

  “Want to get some sleep? Or maybe do something to distract yourself?”

  Nyx shakes her head, “I’m gonna be stayin’. Wanna see what the spark bein’ happenin’ to the Gaper’s crew.”

  Cai turns on Nyx’s wrist computer to show the feed from the drone in the Hellish Abandoned, “They’re fighting. Your old crew caught the crew of the Hellish Abandoned off guard and have taken over the Hellish’s cargo and crew area. Seems like the Hellish’s crew used up most of their stun rounds capturing the Gaper’s crew, so now they’re going hand to hand. Your old captain has a pistol with live rounds, and two of the Hellish’s crew do too. Seems like they’re at a standoff now.”

  Nyx hears shouting over the com. It’s mostly insults and other things she ignores, “I wanna practice shootin’.” Nyx looks away from the feed. She really isn’t interested in the pirate crews fighting.

  She takes a sip of her warm milk, and it takes some of her nerves away.

  Cai stands, “We’ll be entering FTL soon. How about we…”

  Nyx growls, “Can ya be makin’ those ships ‘n the crews in that sparkin’ VR thing?”

  Cai pauses, “You don’t want to do that. Shooting people isn’t something you want to get used to. That’s why I used goblins. Taking someone’s life…”

  Nyx takes another sip, then looks at him, “Ya ever been killin’ someone?”

  He shakes his head, “No. But I have watched people die. My wife from cancer. My…” He touches his heart again. “No matter how many people I’ve seen die, it never gets better. Those crews. Are they good people? Not at all. But they’re still people. Would you like it if someone recreated you without asking and killed it? How would you feel even though you know it’s not real?”

  Nyx growls, “I’m not sparkin’ carin’ what they be thinkin’! Goddum them! Did they care when they were stealin’ things? Not a dum bit!”

  The countdown reaches zero, and the Hellish Abandoned moves away from the derelict Az Gaper.

  Cai kneels in front of Nyx, “I don’t blame you for being angry. They deserve the hate. But I’ve never seen anyone happy holding onto hate.” He takes a deep breath, “Listen, Nyx. I’ll have the drones destroy the weapons.” The ships enter FTL and they both go weightless, “Then we forget about them. We go find the group that murdered your siblings, have them face justice, and then I’ll show you a secret. And no, I’m not telling you now, but it’ll blow your mind when you see it.”

  Nyx sighs. She knows he’s right. But today… Today she’s gone from breaking into Cai’s ship. Eating the most delicious food she’s ever eaten. Found her murdered siblings. And now found out Wrench died in the explosion when the Gaper chased them.

  She’d known deep down he probably had the moment she saw the explosion. He was always fixing what needed it the most. The captain wouldn’t have even told him to be with the engines.

  The Az Gaper’s crew despised Wrench, but they let him stay and fed him because they needed him. She still needed him. She missed his gentle smile. The way he patted her head when she did a great job.

  Cai was so nice, but he’d never replace Wrench. Not in the same way.

  Nyx sighs and downs the rest of her milk. Her fatigue was catching up with her. How much sleep did she get last night? Five hours? Four?

  A yawn.

  Cai smiles, “Why don’t you get some sleep? I can handle La La Land and the pirates.”

  Nyx is nodding off, “Goddum it to Earth… Wrench…”

  ***

  Nyx wakes with a start.

  How long was she asleep?

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  She’s confused for a moment, waking up in this unfamiliar room. She’s still sleepy, and it’s too quiet. Too dark. She feels it crushing down on her. Hears the popping noises of the guns taking her siblings’ lives. The explosion that killed Wrench flashed in her eyes.

  Nyx feels nauseous again and notices they’re under gravity. She’s on the flat soft thing Cai called a bed earlier with a piece of fabric draped over her, but she barely notices.

  She needs to get out of here. Her heart is pounding, and she feels like she can’t breathe.

  She leaves her room and finds Cai’s.

  It opens

  Cai’s sleeping on his bed, and Nyx climbs in next to him, a black thing jumping away. She feels safe. His scent and warmth immediately calmed her nerves. He’s shirtless, and she sees a glint of something hanging from his neck in the dim light, but she barely notices as she curls up under the covers.

  He opens his eyes in surprise, but then he smiles and pulls her to him.

  ***

  Her consciousness slowly returns. She’s warm and feels something on her. She nestles into the warm scent she smells next to her. It’s Cai’s. He smells of the soap they use and lightly of sweat.

  Nyx’s eyes shoot open. Cai?

  She remembers entering Cai’s room and climbing into bed with him now.

  She feels a wave of embarrassment rush through her, but before she can push herself away, she notices Blackie staring at her as if she’s stolen his favorite prize.

  “Sleep well, princess?” Comes Cai’s soft voice.

  Nyx looks towards his voice. Her head is resting on his bare chest as his scent overwhelms her. Her ears flatten, “Cai… I’m bein’ sorry. I should have been stayin’ in my room.”

  Cai smiles, that smile that she finds so pretty, “You had a rough day yesterday. I think most people would want some companionship.”

  Nyx’s ears flatten again as she remembers yesterday.

  He pats her head, “Why don’t we get something to eat? You didn’t have dinner, so I bet you’re hungry.”

  Nyx doesn’t feel hunger and still feels queasy.

  She notices Cai’s wrist computer. It’s one of her siblings, “Cai, where’d’ya be gettin’ that?”

  “The Donati cracked the hard drive we took from the secret lab. It’s the records of you and your siblings and years of holo recordings. Probably didn’t think it was worth the time or effort to delete videos of kids playing.”

  She looks, Cai’s arm is over her shoulder holding her against him. She doesn’t protest. It makes her feel safe being held like this. But it’s only been a day since she met him. How could this man, who was just a stranger yesterday, make her feel so safe?

  How could he be so kind to a woman who had snuck onto his ship to steal it? People just weren’t this kind. People would gladly take your food when you weren’t looking. She’s done it herself when she knew she wouldn’t get caught.

  She looked at the image of her brother. It was Ryx. She wasn’t friends with him, but she remembered him as being very furry, as the picture on the hologram showed. He had deep black fur from head to toe, his only other coloring being his green eyes.

  Cai points to his name where there is writing she can’t read, “This is interesting. They named you after what they did to your DNA. Ryx here is Resilient Y-Generation eXperimental and has radiation-shielding dermal layers inspired by feline fur, paired with cellular repair mechanisms for cosmic ray mitigation. So he could probably survive near an active engine without getting as much DNA damage as we would.” He swipes to Nyx, passing several other familiar faces, including Tyx, “Nyx, you’re Nocturnal Y-Generation eXperimental and have modifications that let you work well in the dark or low light.” He looks at her, “Have you noticed that you can see in the dark better than other people?”

  Nyx didn’t even need to think, “Yeah. Was thinkin’ it was bein’ a Felis thing.”

  Cai nods, “Normal Felis just have cosmetic changes. The ears, tail, and iris. Gene editing was still very hard to do when the first Felis were made. Human experimentation was highly illegal on Earth, but because Terminus, where the first Mars colony was, didn’t exactly have to follow Earth laws, they did it.”

  Nyx blinked. Her eyes were modified? She recalled Cai mentioning other modifications early, and it hit her again that she’s immortal like the Never Dyin’. But she has something she’s even more interested in.

  She wants to see her friends again. What happened to her DNA doesn’t matter to her. She wants to see them. Not as husks, but what they really looked like, “Cai, can I be seein’ the recordins of me and my siblings?”

  Cai takes his arm off of her, “Yeah. Just put the VR ring on and ask the Donati to play one. I’ll make breakfast and take care of some other things while you do that.”

  Nyx sits up, causing Blackie to jump off the bed. She’s in her underclothing. When had she taken her spacesuit off?

  She growls and turns to Cai, “Cai! Where’d my suit be goin’!?”

  She grabs his shoulder and bites him, though not hard enough to break skin.

  Cai yelps, “Ow, ow, ow! Sorry! I just thought you’d be more comfortable out of it, and you’re still in your clothes, so I thought you wouldn’t mind! And I promise I didn’t do anything to you I shouldn’t have.”

  Nyx scowls, but lets go, a trail of saliva connecting her mouth to his shoulder for a second, “Hmph!”

  She gets out of bed while Cai chuckles. She knows he’s just trying to help, but the image of him undressing her sends a shiver down her tail.

  She sits on the desk chair, “Where are we bein’?”

  Nyx wonders what happened to the pirates.

  Cai gets out of bed and puts on a shirt, “Deep space. The Az Gaper’s crew is on La La Land Station. The Hellish Abandoned’s crew retook the ship after isolating my drone, but not before I damaged the power systems to their weapons. They’ll have to replace the whole thing.”

  Nyx honestly didn’t care. She was done with pirates.

  Cai pats her head, “I’ll message you when breakfast is finished. I put your new clothes and medicine in your room, by the way..”

  He leaves the room, Blackie making his weird noises, leaving Nyx alone.

  Nyx stares at the console for a minute. Was she ready to see her friends again?

  A deep breath.

  She didn’t want her last memories of them to be their dried out husks. She wanted to see their faces again.

  “Donati, be playin’ the vids from the secret lab.”

  Her vision goes dark, and she feels a rush as she enters VR.