The Captain's Heart CH 53 (Patreon)

“Do you always eat the same thing?” Jeremy asked as Gralgiran added Myrrik sauce to his tray. “What do you mean?” He grabbed one of the

“Do you always eat the same thing?” Jeremy asked as Gralgiran added Myrrik sauce to his tray.

“What do you mean?” He grabbed one of the last plate with rolls of rauhshen and added that too.

“It’s always meats with sauces.”

“We are meat eaters. Earther’s diet is broader, right?”

“Yes, but there’s other stuff in there. That’s filled with a paste.”

Gralgiran looked at the plate he held. “Dhurum. It’s a grass, I think. I never really got into the food preparation thing. I know it’s pounded, then blood is added to make it into a paste.” He looked over the counter. “Cook, blood is used to for the Dhurum paste, correct?”

“If we can get it fresh, Captain,” she replied. “Otherwise, it’s Aulivan juices.”

“Thanks.”

He grabbed a glass of Aspirel.

“So, you don’t only eat meat. Why not make that into a pancake? Add syrup for sweetness.”

“You’d best ask one of the cooks. Thar did nearly all the food preparation when I lived at home.”

“With a name that short, it means they are really close to you, father or mother? Do you have coffee?” Jeremy asked over the counter.

The cook looked confused.

“He doesn’t understand Earther. And all I know about coffee is that it’s a popular Earther drink. We don’t have an equivalent.”

“Caffeine then? It’s a mild stimulant.”

“Do you have a medical condition I don’t know about?” He looked at the cook. “Do you have any drink with a stimulant?”

“No, Captain. That would be handled by Medical.”

“No, it’s just something I like to drink. It comes from a plant on earth.”

“I don’t think you’ll be able to get something like that on the ship then.” He scanned his bracelet. “And unless you have a medical condition that requires stimulants, I don’t think you could convince a medic to prescribe you any.”

Jeremy smelled the content of a glass and placed it on his tray. “I’ll be fine.”

He scanned his bracelet again.

“So you have to pay for the food?” Jeremy indicated the bracelet as they headed for a table.

“No, eateries don’t charge. We have to scan to keep a tally of the flow of peoples. It’s automated administrative stuff I don’t even have to look at. It’s sent home with my reports and someone there looks them over. What they do with them, I don’t know.”

He nodded to the others at the table before sitting. Jeremy took the one opposite him.

“Morning,” he greeted them.

A few replied in Earthers, the others nodded.

Gralgiran chuckled. They were in the middle of third shift.

“Am I going to need one?”

“Yes. It’s where we’ll go once we’re done eating. You’ll also get a tablet and a collar.”

“I’m going to need something to use the consoles. I don’t have claws. So, the collar is more that a fashion thing? I know some people hook their earpiece to it, but if I’m getting one, it’s got to do more.”

“It’s part of the communication equipment. It picks up our voices. Which means you probably don’t need it, since you can’t speak Kelsirian. And we should be able to find something for your typing. Cubs learn well before their claws are long enough to reach the bottom of the wells.”

While they ate, those on either side who spoke Earther asked Jeremy questions about his planet, his family. If he liked the ship. One asked him how he should address him, and Jeremy didn’t seem to know how to answer.

“I can’t say I’m the Engineer, right? That’s Alix.”

That got him stares.

He looked confused for a second, then his skin turn deeper pink as it did when he was embarrassed.

“I can’t pronounce his full name, we’re not— I mean, I’m not his— I haven’t even met him.” He caught his breath.

“You should get in the habit of using people’s titles,” he told him.

“That’s going to take some getting used to. Unless I was dealing with a direct superior, I pretty much always used people’s names if I knew them.”

“Then you’ll want to get used to explaining why you are using Alix and Querik’s short names.”

“Which you just did.”

Gralgiran smiled. “Alix is a dear friend.”

“And Querik? Who I consider a friend, by the way,” he told the others.

“I am hoping to deepen the relationship we share. In this case, my use of his short name is an indication of my desire to get to know him better. I know he’s interested. If I wasn’t, I’d use his full name in a situation like this to avoid presuming.”

“You guys have an interesting social system when it comes to names.”

And that led to Jeremy having to explain to the others the Earther naming system. Or one of them, as he was quick to point out. Just as on Kelser, Earth had multiple cultures, not all of which used the same naming system.

The fact Earthers linked their lineage to their name was the aspect Gralgiran found fascinating. The only Kelsirian culture that he knew of that did that were the pirates.

    *

Jeremy’s identity bracelet was the first thing they handled with a visit to the ship’s general administrative office. It delt with the duties that didn’t need constant handling, of which the census was one.

Instead of a clerk, Jeremy rate the Administrator’s service, and the male behave like a juvenile courting his first sex. Even after Gralgiran warned him to be professional, the male barely managed it. He even offered his short name to Jeremy.

“I’m sorry,” Gralgiran said.

“Why are you sorry?” Jeremy replied with a nervous chuckle. “You aren’t the one who…was all over me like that.” His blush diminished. “Didn’t you say they’d respect it if I told them I wasn’t interested in that level of relationship?”

He snorted. “That was beyond inappropriate. He just met you.” He sighed. “But, as the sole Earther representative on the ship, you have become known and some will…. Some people crave the exotic.”

“Like you?” Jeremy’s smile was teasing.

He laughed. “No, I crave you. I’ve never had an interest in other species. As for the name. That’s what I’m sorry about. Not everyone respects boundaries.”

Jeremy took his hand tentatively, then wraps his arm around Gralgiran’s and leaned into him. “Well, you don’t have to worry. I am not taking him up on that offer.”

“I’m not worried.”

Getting the tablet and artificial claws proved less eventful, although they drew gazes as they visited the shops. But people kept their distance.

Clothing was the one thing Gralgiran hadn’t considered, and Jeremy’s requirements proved interesting to those who sold them. The Bane didn’t have a Tailor. He’d never considered he’d need one, and none happened to be related to any of the crew. The best Jeremy could get was for them to scan what he wore and have copies printed. Which he was fine with.

“It’s just clothing,” he said as they left. “So long as it keeps me warm in your slightly cooler temperatures, I’ll be okay. If I need something official at some point, I’m sure I can find a way to get the right schematic for a printer.”

Jeremy didn’t get a collar. He’d been surprised the tablet didn’t have a place to hold the earpiece, since collars had that, but he could carry it in his pocket. Having the earpiece molded to his ear only took a scan, and a few minuted to have it printed.

Then they returned home, and they changed for work. Jeremy watched and blushed as they undressed and dressed again. He wanted to ask if Earther had an aversion to seeing each other naked, but as Jeremy had said before, he wasn’t a good representation of how Earthers were when it came to intimacy.

They walked together to engineering, and he found he was reluctant to let his Heart go. Jeremy was the one to push him away with a chuckle.

“We both have work to do. I’ll see you at the end of the shift.”

He watched his Heart head to the reactor, then call over one of the technicians, and forced himself to head to his office, where he had administrative work of his own to do.

    *

Litamir sighed contently and Gralgiran rested against him. “I wouldn’t think you’d be this pent up with your Heart in your bed.”

The meeting had been accidental. Gralgiran had needed to unwind after a few hours at his desk and he’d decided to get in some fighting. Litamir was there, teaching a class. When he was done with his exercise, it have been natural for them to share a shower and each other.

“Jeremy isn’t ready. What his people did to him has deeper claws in than I thought it would. Even he seemed surprised when he pulled away.”

“You were expecting a hero’s reward?” the male said with a chuckle.

“No,” he replied, offended his friend would joke at the situation. “But I did think that it would be easier, with him on the ship, away from them and they machinations.”

Litamir turned the shower on again. “Do you think he’d benefit from talking with a counselor? I’m sure my sister would be fine with talking with him.”

“The Psychologist is implanting his Kelsirian. I’m sure that if she feels he’d benefit from counseling, she’ll recommend it.” He lathered the male’s back.

“Otherwise, how is he adapting?”

“He finds our names interesting, but confusing. Some idiot came on to him. And he’s an Administrator.”

“Someone’s feeling possessive?”

“It’s the lack of respect. Jeremy told him he wasn’t interested, and he still said to call him such. It’s just…. Jeremy’s just arrived. And they know that. I mean, we had an emergency situation as an announcement of his arrival. It’s not like no one talked about it. And that male isn’t even giving him time to get used to us. We arrive for his id bracelet, and immediately he’s on him like they’ve shared a bed for years.”

“How did your Heart take it? I seem to recall Toom mentioning something about him running away from you when things go too intense, once.”

“Twice. And he was understandingly embarrassed, but he stayed by my side.”

“That’s progress. Are you two doing anything after shift? I’m sure Lil would enjoy meeting him in a smaller setting.”

“Maybe another time. Until he’s done with the language implanting, I think it would just leave him feeling isolated.”

“You know the invitation stands whenever he’s ready. Maybe something social too. We could all go swimming.”

Gralgiran laughed, earning himself an odd look from his friend. So he explained about Jeremy’s discomfort with nudity.

Outline section 

No outline

Addition 

Breakfast, Jeremy’s desire for coffee(don’t involve Xenial just yet) Gral goes about his day. Getting Jeremy what he needs to function. Meets up with friends.

The main goal here, other than I feel time needs to be shown to pass, is getting Jeremy to interact with different types of people. Draft 0 suffered of “humans are bad, Kelsirians are good,” syndrome. I don’t think that anything in that draft ever happens between Jeremy and Kelsirians because he’s human. He’s always treated as one of them.

That isn’t realistic. So I’m establishing different kinds of Kelsirians for him to interact with. I don’t plan on making that ‘plot points,’ but I don’t want his integration among Kelsirians to be seamless.