The Captain's Heart CH 13 (Patreon)

Jeremy leaned back against the Reactor’s controls and, this time, Thuruk didn’t freak out. For some reason his guide couldn’t explain

Jeremy leaned back against the Reactor’s controls and, this time, Thuruk didn’t freak out. For some reason his guide couldn’t explain, because he wasn’t sufficiently fluent, he’d been against Jeremy studying the reactor the way he had. Jeremy had told him he was careful. That he’d been scanning to make sure he stepped on support structures and not panels covering circuitry. Same when he’d climbed up to get a sense of how the anti-matter chamber was incorporated into something this large.

With it being shutdown, he hadn’t learned much, other than as with his design, the hatch to insert the anti-matter containers was on top. Considering the size, he expected they’d had to use a crane to bring down the container.
He couldn’t see the tracks for it in the ceiling, and he wondered if they also had a better grasp of gravitics than the humans did. Then his gaze went to the walkway again, where he’d thought he’d seen motion earlier. But like then, it was deserted.
He couldn’t imagine the power output of a reactor this size, something using a container that had to be more and a dozen times the volume of the ones he used, but if the cats had so much, maybe they were able to manipulate gravity with it, unlike how the human’s version was contained to one direction within a box. If humans wanted to change the direction, they had to move the entire box. In this case, he’d need to have a way to move the box that contained this giant container. Which he could only think of using a crane to make happen, so he’d forgo the box.
He didn’t know how it had failed, but he considered it a miracle something that powerful hadn’t blown up half the ship.
But if the cats could harness that level of power for a merchant ship, Jeremy was getting a sense of why the science council was pushing their own research so hard. There were centuries behind.
And whatever the insulation material was, it kept his scanner from reaching beyond the surface circuitry. It wasn’t all that powerful, but he should be able to see a meter within the reactor, or the walls. Instead, he got the fifty centimeters of circuits, and then, nothing. And even the circuits had oddities he couldn’t account for. Voids that might be places where that insulator made its way within the boards for some reason. 
It was the same with the controls on the walls, although there, since they worked, he could see that the power moved around those voids. It had to be the same in the reactor, but it didn’t tell him why they were there.
Which meant that now he needed to go in and see what it was all about. He pushed himself from the reactor and, turning to work out how to access its inside, he saw the four cats standing in one of the large archway. A glance at the other entrances confirmed they were the only ones. They wore pants and vests, no shoes, and ranged in size from slightly shorter than Thuruk to slightly taller. They were all lean, and all had tools attached to the vest or a belt.
“Thuruk,” he told the cat who had been reading on his tablet while Jeremy thought. He motioned to the ones in the entryway.
Thuruk let out a sound that was a mix of hiss and chattering as he brought something up on his screen.
“Start,” he said, heading for them.
Instead, Jeremy watched them talk. They were too far for him to hear. Another benefit of engineering being so vast. Normal work sounds wouldn’t carry out. But was the wasted space worth it when sound blocking plating was barely a centimeter in thickness? All he could guess from the body language was that there was some agitation.
He crouched, facing the reactor. Each panel had latches that, he expected, could be removed by undoing them. Whatever had happened, even if it hadn’t caused extensive damage, had deformed the plating. Undoing the latches didn’t let him remove it. He wondered why they hadn’t removed them. Surely, they had needed to look over the circuitry behind them. His scanner didn’t show any damage or distortion, but there was no way they only relied on scanners.
He looked at Thuruk, who crouched next to him, then around. One of the cats, with white and black fur, looked back at him as he headed for a control board on the wall. Looking around Thuruk, he saw one with copper fur heading for another.
“Where were they?” Jeremy asked. “Did you have them clear the room so I could work without distraction?” Right. He needed to keep it basic. “Them, why return now?”
“Start now.”
“Are you saying you guys start at—” he pulled his tablet and checked the time. “—past eleven in the morning?” Had he really taken over three hours to scan all the panels in the room? He looked around at the size, how many there were, and it no longer seemed odd.
“Start now.”
Right. Too complicated. “Why?”
This time it was Thuruk’s turn to speak, a mix of growls, hisses, something guttural, and more chattering. He stopped and looked at Jeremy, then he rolled his eyes and the ears folded back. That, Jeremy was confident, meant the same thing as when he did it.
Thuruk stretched on the floor, placed his hands on his stomach and made a sound that was close enough to snoring Jeremy realized what he was mimicking.
“They were sleeping? What time is it here?”
“Time?”
“Here.”
Thuruk turned his tablet, and tapped the center side symbols. There…lettering went from top to bottom, instead of left to right, and where the cat tapped, was a string of three sets of symbols. The top one was two of them, the next two contained three, and the bottom-most symbol changed at a regular interval. It seemed too fast, but there were three of them, instead of his usual two for the seconds. And he was taking for granted that they were using the same unit of time.
Regardless of it being a clock, it was still meaningless to him. Still, it was clear they were dealing with a misaligned day-night cycle. Not that he could do much about it, other than check with someone on the station so he could figure out how to make it work. He didn’t want to always pull Thuruk out of bed.
“Okay.” He tapped the deformed panel. “Open?”
“Stuck.”
“Cut?” His tool bag only contained what he’d need to work on the circuits once he had access to them. He hadn’t considered bringing a cutter, and that would have meant putting on his belt with all the heavier tools.
Thuruk looked over his shoulder and yelled something.
And there was one of the down size to a room this big. When everything worked and they needed to communicate, there had to be a lot of screaming going on. The cat with splotched fur in white, orange, black, and gray grabbed something next to him and brought it to Thuruk.
Were they really all guys? The open vests made it clear none of them had breasts, so he looked at one of their crotch, and his stomach did a small flip at the bulge there. What was he doing staring at someone’s groin? He discreetly glanced around, and the one he’d stared at was the only one with a bulge.
The movie hadn’t lied about the cats all being built the same, except for down there. Short of pulling the pants and looking, how did they tell each other’s gender apart?
“Jeremy,” Thuruk said. Again, his name was preceded by another word. A title, maybe? Or what they called his species? Was it a slur? The way…
Shit, had he been mentally insulting Thuruk this entire time by thinking of him as a cat instead of a Kelsirian? It was a good thing he hadn’t said that out loud.
“Jeremy?”
“Sorry.” He down looked at the item the Kelsirian, offered him and saw the bulge in Thuruk’s pants past that, and immediately shifted his focus as his stomach protested. So, two guys and three girls. Hopefully, he’d never have to state which was which, because he’d end up slapped, staring at everyone’s crotches.
The item Thuruk held looked like a three fingered glove with the palm open, along with the underside of the fingers, except the part that covered the end of the fingers.
“What is it?” Jeremy wondered if even that was too complex, as Thuruk seemed to struggle to answer.
“Claw,” he finally said. He reached for Jeremy’s hand, which he hurried to pull away. The idea of being touched by one of them was… “show?” Thuruk asked. He sounded tentative.
Jeremy offered him his hand. His stomach protested, and he swallowed it. He had work to do, he reminded himself. And he’d been the one who had stupidly not brought all the tools he might need to get it done. So he’d use theirs, and that meant Thuruk had to show him how it worked.
If he was going to be stressed about that, he might as well go to the commander right now and tell him he was stuck with the cats until Amanda came back from her vacation.
Then, he’d probably have to pack his bags, because he didn’t think Doctor Manuel would be able to rescue his hide.
Thuruk seemed to sniff the air between them as he placed the glove on Jeremy’s hand, having to work out how to place the fingers. Jeremy noticed they only had three of them, not including the thumb. So for them, it would cover each one. Thuruk placed them over his index, major, and ring fingers.
He made adjustments so they would be snug; the underside of the tips stretched to hug the fingers. He had Jeremy extend his hand, palm down, then tapped the surface of the glove and a circle appeared. Another tap and light appeared at the end of Jeremy’s fingers.
He turned his hand, once Thuruk moved his away, and watched in amazement. “A plasma torch at your fingertips.”
“Claws,” Thuruk said, and pointed the claws extending from the Kelsirian’s fingers until they were about a centimeter and a half in length.
Jeremy looked at Thuruk’s feet; none there.
Thuruk followed his gaze, then Jeremy noticed the foot tense and claws extended. They seemed to be slightly longer.
He couldn’t remember one movie considering they were retractable. Of course, it didn’t make for as funny a situation if they could be sheathed.
“How do I turn this off?” As interesting as learning what movies got wrong, he was here to work.
Thuruk showed him the controls. He couldn’t read what they said, but were fairly easy. The space where the were the connector attached to the fingertip told it which of them he wanted to control, then the circle let him turn it on or off, and control the length of the torch.
The ingeniousness of it, from Jeremy’s point of view, was the ability to keep wearing it while working, so if he needed to cut himself another access, all he needed was to put the tool he held away and turn it on.
With a few slashes, he’d cut the panel apart and pulled it out of his way. He attacked the light around his head and looked in and didn’t immediately understand what he was looking at. Or rather, why there was so little to look at. Instead of having to lie on his back and pull himself in, he could crawl in, then sit and look up at the underside of the panel.
There was no insulating material, there was simply nothing there.
It wasn’t a void. There were support structures and he saw they’d need to be replaced. The same force that had deformed the covers had bent them. They were still solid, but they were angled in…wait, was this damage, or just how the cat—the Kelsirians built things?
“Thuruk.”
The brindled furred head poked in.
Jeremy tapped the bent support. “Normal?”
Thuruk shook his head.
“Does that mean— Yes, no, Thuruk.”
“No.” He shook his head again. Well, they had one piece of body language in common.
“Okay, thanks.” He scooted deeper, then stood. Nearly two meters around him was nothing but empty space. Above him were six chambers about the size of the antimatter containers he used. That meant the containers would be smaller. Still, six meant a higher output, although no longer on an entirely new scale from what his reactors generated.
Looking around, none of the circuits he saw showed signs of the damage he’d expect from an explosion, nor the bending he saw in the support structures. He scanned those and received wildly different density and tension results. He’d need to scan an undamaged beam to see what the values should be, and then work out how to go about supporting this structure.
He looked around, just taking in the work.
He wished he could talk with whoever had built this. Ask for reasons behind the design decisions. He had an inkling that part of it was because cats—Kelsirians liked having space to move in. But was that all? How about six containers instead of a larger one? Amanda had a design that called for a container one and a half times larger, but until someone built it, it remained theoretical.
He pushed his questions aside, his wonder down. He was here to get a job done. And that started by scanning every circuits so he could build a virtual version. Then he’d need to get his hands on intact circuits to run calibrations so he could be sure his simulation was accurate and then impose the power flow the circuits in place caused and see what happened.
Without the catastrophic explosion he’d expect to have caused the damage he scanned, the most likely situation was that everything had overheated to the point the materials had expanded beyond their ability to resist and bent.
That didn’t explain how it was only the covers and the support structure had been affected, or how that hadn’t devolved into the usual chain reaction as component failed, which resulted in an explosion, but his simulations would answer that.
He expected Thuruk had a report on hand for him to read. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be in English. 
He put the scanner in his jacket’s pocket, then grabbed onto one of the support and discovered a downside of the glove. The finger tips slipped on the metal. He took it off, pocketed it, and climbed.
He could go outside to get the scans; it might even be easier. But he was already here, and with the bends in the supports, there were plenty of handholds.
So, once at the top of the support, he set about getting his scans.
* * * * *
Jeremy dropped on his back, grabbed the side of the panels, and pulled himself out of the reactor. “Thuruk, do you have the structural rating for—”
His voice left him as he looked up and found himself next to a pair of large feet covered with short tan fur, the leg in the black pants went up, connecting to the other at—his stomach protested hard—a large bulge and he forced his eye aside that, and further up the fur on the stomach was a longer and a paler tan, almost gold, he thought, almost the same as.
Gold eyes peered down at him, and Jeremy scrambled out of the reactor and away from the predator.
With a couple of meters between them, his stomach settled, slightly. He took the bottle from his pocked and dry swallowed a pill. He used studying the differences between Growler and Thuruk as a distraction.
Growler wasn’t as gigantic as Jeremy remembered, but he was still quite tall, much taller and larger than the brindled furred Thuruk. Although, like him, he came across more as leanly muscled than the massive some of the guys at the gym had achieved. His vest was black like his pants, bordered in gold. There was a simplicity to it that made Jeremy think what he’d worn for the meeting was to reflect his status.
There was something predatory in how Growler watched him, and something was urging Jeremy to run, before it was too late, but he couldn’t move. He couldn’t even look away from the dangerous beast.
He shook his head. What was wrong with him? Yes, the guy was terrifying in how strong he looked, and how that muzzle was filled with sharp teeth that could tear his flesh off his bones, but he wasn’t a beast.
Kelsirian were people, like him, like the others out there, none of which looked anything like humans. And he wasn’t somehow thinking of them as beasts. The Taournians looked like lizards on two legs, and he wasn’t jumping to that image anytime someone mentioned them. So why was he doing that here?
They approached, speaking, and Jeremy took a reflexive step back. They exchanged a few words and Thuruk cautiously approached, while Growler remained behind.
“What is?”
The question broke whatever spell had kept his gaze locked on the large tan male and his stomach settled as he looked at Thuruk, who was motioning to the bottle in his hand. He loosened his grip on it before he broke the bottle, if that could be done. He didn’t know what the compression resistance was for the material—
“What is?” Thuruk asked again.
“They’re to calm my stomach,” he answered. “It gets agitated when I’m stressed.” He kept himself from looking at Growler. And the confused look on Thuruk’s face registered. “Medicine,” he said. He placed a hand on his stomach. “Pain.”
Thuruk nodded, and said something to Growler, who replied, and Jeremy had to focus on keeping his stomach down as his bones vibrated at Growler’s voice.
“Report for captain,” Thuruk said, and Jeremy focused on that.
“What?”
Thuruk motioned to Growler. “Captain.” Jeremy purposely did not look in his direction. “Report?”
“It’s too early. I just got the scans. I’m going to have to go over them before I can figure out anything.” Jeremy cursed himself for not making it simple, but didn’t have the patience anymore.
Still, Thuruk told Growler something, who responded, and Jeremy fought to remain standing. Then the large cat left.
“Need help?”
“Don’t touch me!” Jeremy jerk away from Thuruk’s hand. Out of the corner of his eye, Growler stopped and turned to look at him.
Jeremy had to get out of here.
He grabbed the glove and handed it to Thuruk, who said something to Growler.
“I have to go,” Jeremy said, trying to keep the panic from mounting. He had to leave before they did…something to him. “Look, I have the scans and I need to study them. So I have to go do that now.” He turned and headed out.
“Wait!” Thuruk ran after him and Jeremy barely kept himself from bolting. “This way.” He motioned in the opposite direction from where Jeremy had turned.
Lies! Something yelled in his mind. He was trying to pull him deeper into the ship, where there were more of them. More of those animals and they would.
Stop!
Jeremy couldn’t be freaking out this badly. He had to think. Whatever else Thuruk might be, he’d been helpful. So this was him helping again, and Jeremy didn’t know where he was in the ship. So he took control of this irrational fear and followed the brindled furred male all the way to the exit and once he breathed the dock’s stale air, finally felt like he was able to breathe properly again.