B4 V-Day (Patreon)

This chapter of Executioner's Gambit didn't need many changes, just had to trim it down a bit and change the PoV.

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Tori stood in front of the bathroom mirror, staring at her reflection. Most of the burns covering her body were small pink patches where the skin was too ruined to regrow fur. When she smoothed her pelt down, it hid most of them, but not one burn—weirdly textured and roughly the size of her fist—directly in the center of her chest. She glared at it, wishing she could make it go away, but there simply wasn’t enough fur to brush over it.

Druka came in and watched her for a moment before speaking. “You still look lovely to me,” he whispered.

Tori’s ears lifted for only a moment but fell just as quickly when she looked back in the mirror. “I’m hideous,” she said, “a monster that frightens cubs.”

“You’re healing,” Druka repeated for the thousandth time. It was a lie, she knew. Scars never really healed, but still she appreciated him saying it. More than anything, it reassured her that he wasn’t disgusted by how she looked. He laid his cheek against the metal doorframe and watched her expression for a bit. “We don’t have to go out,” he reminded her. “We don’t have to celebrate Visitor Day if you’re not up to it.”

She sighed. “No, I need to. This will be a great opportunity to walk the ship and talk to a wide variety of crew members socially. They’ll be drinking and more apt to say what’s on their mind. This is the best opportunity I’ll have before the commissioner’s inspection.”

Druka grinned. “Well, then I’m glad I got you some V-Day presents!”

What was left of Tori’s ears perked up. “You did?”

Aboard geroo gate ships, the krakun permitted only two official holidays: Visitor Day to commemorate when the krakun first visited Gerootec and Exodus when the geroo left their world aboard Planetary Acquisitions ships. Exodus was typically a quiet celebration with family and friends, a way to give thanks for all the good in their lives, but V-Day was a much rowdier affair. On V-Day, the geroo would throw open their doors, welcoming anyone who wandered in with food and booze.

Neither was typically a gift-giving holiday, but that might have been more of a reflection on life aboard a generation ship than anything else. The geroo were generous souls. Back on Gerootec, they had loved to carve wooden knickknacks and give them to friends when they came to visit. But aboard the ship, everything had to be recycled, so their culture had shifted to keep up. Instead of consuming precious resources to produce unnecessary gifts, the geroo now preferred to give tokens of a more ephemeral nature: food, liquor, and stories about their pasts. Since the Exodus, sharing a secret with a friend had become the most sincere form of gift-giving possible.

Druka pulled out the small flat box he had been hiding behind his back and flipped it open to reveal a band of deep green cloth that sparkled like jewels. Tori’s eyes opened wide and her heart skipped a beat at the sight. “It that … a sash?” she whispered.

She’d never owned a sash before. She wasn’t even friends with anyone who did. Geroo only ever wore cloth at the very ritziest of parties—the sort thrown by those who lived at the very top of the ship. She stared at it in stunned silence for many long moments, speechless. “Kind of fancy … for deck fifteen.”

“Perhaps,” Druka said, removing the gift from its box. He carefully draped the nearly weightless cloth over her shoulder so that the band of green crossed the center of her chest before looping back around the opposite hip. It was the perfect width to conceal the bald patch over her heart but yet narrow enough to look elegant instead of gaudy. “But considering the circumstances, I’m sure everyone would understand you wearing it whenever you wished.”

Tori turned to face him. She rubbed the sheer cloth between the pads on her index finger and thumb. “I wish I could feel it.”

“It’s very soft,” he promised with a smile. “Even though you’ll no longer need it when you get your new body, at least you’ll be able to feel it then.”

If I get a new body, she thought, but instead of voicing her fears, she stared into his green eyes and whispered, “It’s amazing, just like you.”

She leaned forward to kiss him, but he raised his paws. “Wait! Wait! There’s still one more.”

“Hon,” she sighed, “you don’t have to give me anything…” But her words trailed off as he snatched the item hidden just beyond the doorway. “A weapon? Oh, Druka, I’m in no state to fight anyone off—”

“It’s not a weapon!” he yarped. The aluminum tube was about a meter long, as thick as his thumb, and bent at the end so that the last dozen centimeters were at a right angle to the rest. “I was reading about life on Gerootec before the exodus. It said that when geroo had difficulty walking, they would fashion these ‘canes’ to help them get about.”

“A crutch?”

“Not exactly,” he said, “but similar. I used a little of Aziz’s money to bribe my boss into turning his ears the other way while I made it. Then, I anodized it green to match the sash.” He rolled the cane in his fingers so it would sparkle in the bathroom’s light. She reached out to touch it. “And I put a little rubber stopper on the bottom to keep it from sliding against the aluminum decks.”

Tori’s ears lowered with worry. “And the sash?” she asked. “It looks really expensive.”

“I … sorta blew all my savings on that,” he admitted. Her dark eyes lit with alarm, and he rushed to explain, “You know how careful I am with our credits now. I learned my lesson when we had to move down a deck. Besides, I didn’t have all that many left anyhow after you missed so much work, so we were going to have to dip into some of Aziz’s money to pay rent anyhow.”

Tori frowned, her mind catastrophizing dozens of dire scenarios. “I need those credits for bribes,” she reminded him.

“I know. I know, hon,” Druka swore. “There’s still plenty left and there’s nothing else we really need. I won’t waste it. Besides, Dr. Amhela gave you a legitimate path forward. Just imagine if we don’t end up having to bribe anyone, and can keep that stash for ourselves. We’ll be set for life! We might be able to move up a deck or maybe two and still not have to worry about making rent each month.” He gave her a reassuring smile.

“If I can get the commissioner’s permission,” she reminded him, leaving the, …and he doesn’t purge the ship, bit unsaid. “Yeah, that would be amazing. But for now—”

“Right, not another credit,” said Druka. “We will presume you’ll need every last bit of it.”

She took the cane and experimented, walking with it first in her right paw and then in her left. “This is pretty great,” she finally admitted. “Thanks. I guess you’re tired of me leaning on you when we walk together?”

“Hardly!” he yarped. “That’s why I only made you one.”

They set three bottles of wine and a few glasses on the table before the pair left the apartment with the door wide open. Usually, family members would take turns staying behind on V-Day to welcome guests that stopped in, but as always, Druka insisted on staying by Tori’s side. They wouldn’t have left the door unlocked back on the Harvest Reaper III, but they’d brought no personal possessions with them, leaving this apartment pretty bare. If someone chose to rob them, they wouldn’t be taking much.

Biiz waved to the pair as they strolled by the neighbor’s apartment. “Happy Visitor’s Day, Druka. Happy Visitor’s Day, Tori. You’re looking lovely tonight!”

“Thanks,” she said, lowering her eyes. “And a happy Visitor’s Day to you as well, Biiz.”

“Come inside and have a drink with Thojy and me.”

Thojy grinned wide when he saw the couple enter and was quick to ask them about their day. “Good. Good,” said Druka as he pulled out a chair for Tori.

“My day was a weird one,” said Tori. “Commissioner Daskatoma called me into a meeting and said he wanted to be my friend.”

But the reaction she expected was notably absent. Biiz nodded, and Thojy added, “He’s a good guy. Sadly, you can’t take him out drinking, and whatever you do, don’t go out dancing with him!”

Druka winced. “I suppose if he stepped on your paw, he’d smoosh it flat.”

“It’s worse than that, far worse!” said Thojy, tapping the table with a fingertip. “That krakun’s got no sense of rhythm. It’s just embarrassing to watch him try.”

Tori covered a giggle with a paw.

“We can’t stay too long,” warned her mate. “Tori wants to walk the whole ship tonight and meet as many of the crew as possible.”

“It’ll be a great night for that!” said Thojy. He reached into a canvas bag and pulled out a bottle coated in dust. Turning it to the side, he blew on the label, releasing a big grey cloud. “Before you go, you need to try this brandy. I’m told that when the stars wept, Genna’ho collected them in this very bottle, and stashed it aboard the Sailor’s Gambit I where it rested for decades before a shopkeeper convinced me to trade him a captain’s ransom for it.”

“Thojy!” groaned Biiz. “What did I tell you about being smarter with your credits?”

“I can’t drink,” declined Tori with a smile. “I’m still on pain pills from my accident.”

“Well, your mate will just have to try some instead.”

Biiz shook his fists at his friend. “Thojy!” he pleaded. “This is why you had to move down a deck … again!”

The white geroo quickly snapped the wax seal and popped the lid. He looked a little older than Tori, perhaps in his early thirties. With a sad expression, he sighed, “Damn. Guess I can’t return it now.” Then, he snatched an empty glass and poured a half-dozen glugs before handing it to Druka.

Biiz groaned. Looking to Tori, he asked, “Can I get you some juice?”

“Oh, yes, please,” she said.

Thojy poured some for himself and lifted his glass in a toast. “I miss living next to ya, buddy,” he said with a grin. Turning to Druka, he explained, “My bedroom—well, yours now—shares a wall with the bedroom that Biiz and Lusa sleep in. And for an hour every morning, they would play us the loveliest bedspring symphony…”

“Oh, I wish that were true!” laughed Biiz as he returned from the kitchen with a glass of juice.

With a wink, Thojy added, “My mate and I would take turns at the peephole in the wall and doodle our notes and diagrams of everything they tried. Thank you so much, Biiz! Your prodigious sex life has been so educational.”

Biiz took a seat and filled a glass with brandy. “My apologies for Thojy. He’s not usually like this,” he told Tori. He sighed. “Normally, he’s much worse.”

Druka sipped at his drink, and his eyes popped open wide. He whispered, “Wow, this really is good stuff.”

Thojy nodded, then turned back to his friend. “Well, I’m hoping it’s been educational, that is,” he admitted. “My mate’s put me on a sort of ‘sex diet’ as it were, so I’m only getting some lovin’ like once a month now.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” said Biiz, taking a sip of the aged booze.

Thojy shook his head. “Oh, once a month’s not so bad,” he said. “I know a bunch of guys she’s cut off completely!”

Tori laughed, and Thojy turned to her. “But you must know!” he said. “Now that you’re living in fifteen-twenty-two, you’re the keeper of all that wisdom we recorded—scrawled corner to corner, deck to rafters. I hope you and Druka are working through our notes, trying them all.”

She opened her muzzle to speak, but Thojy snapped his fingers. “Publish it!” he suggested. “Those stick figures are my drawings, but you’ve got my permission to include them.”

Tori petted his paw with her fingertips. “I’m afraid the landlord must have painted them out before we moved in, Thojy.”

“No!” he groaned. “This truly is a tragic loss. Losing Gerootec to the krakun invaders was one thing, but this? It’s put our people back centuries!”

Tori finished her juice and stood. “Thank you, Biiz, and it’s always a pleasure talking to you, Thojy, but we really should be going. I mean, presuming everyone even has their doors open tonight,” Tori added. “Considering the current situation, I would understand not taking drinks from strangers.”

Thojy grinned wide and pointed a finger at Tori, his pink eyes sparkling. “Yes, well, there are quite a few officers and supervisors who are widely hated, but I suspect they know damn well who they are. Keep an eye out for the closed doors as you visit.”

He savored a sip of the brandy with dreamy eyes. “The rest of us—like our fine host Biiz here—will keep our doors open wide. I know Besho and my son are greeting guests down on sixteen.”

Druka finished his glass and smiled. “I’ve never been a brandy drinker,” he said, “but I could get real used to this!”

Thojy nodded excitedly. “Yes, my thoughts exactly! Savor the best things in life while you can. While we—the good and decent crew of the Sailor’s Gambit I—enjoy our holiday, I hope those like my boss will be cowering behind closed doors, too afraid to let anyone in.”

Tori’s eyes met Druka’s for a moment as she thought back to how exciting it had been working together on her first case. Then, she turned back to Thojy. “So, you think your boss will be on The Executioner’s hit list?”

The white geroo lifted his paws in prayer for a moment. “May our killer elude capture … at least long enough to claim her. Boots in the trash.”

Biiz’s ears drooped in a scowl. “Oh, Thojy, that’s a terrible thing to say!”

Thojy finished his drink and pointed at his host, glass still wrapped in his paw. “No, what's terrible is the pool we’ve got going at work. Someone’s gonna make a fortune if they can guess his next victim. I’m ever hopeful, but I know I’ll have to split the pot if I’m right. There’s no way I’m the only one betting on my boss.”

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Reviewer's link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xNVvyGpvUA6Evc_pRMswnmZDhMS-ilIyar1gWKRMMr0/edit?usp=sharing

Thoughts?