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“That’s correct,” I said. Cleo might want to do one of these meet and greets, but not yet. She had some stuff to work out with Lexarit and Narmuna, and of course there was JJ waiting for his time to come into the world.

She sounded a negative rattle. “It’s unfortunate that the crew of the Ever Secure didn’t find all of you sooner. Still, it’s excellent that you are perfectly healthy and Human Cleo will soon have a healthy cub. We’ll be the only station with a human cub and the pride of the Stromo line of stations.”

“That’s very good,” I agreed.

“It is,” she agreed and stood up. “Have a fruitful rotation, Fuel Security Engineer Tolreum. Stay healthy and happy, Human Opal.”

Then she turned and left. After that awkward interaction I was ready to be back in the suite. I especially wanted a secure place to go over what the conversation meant and if we needed to be worried.

“Let’s go,” I murmured.

“Certainly,” Tolly said, standing up with me cradled in his arms. I loved that when he held me like this, I felt safe from everything. I nestled my face against the strip of bare skin at the base of his neck and closed my eyes, trusting that Tolly would take care of everything.

Chapter 28

Opal

“What are you doing?” Cleo asked, half sitting, half falling into my nest. Tolly and the guys were all at a meeting with the station director. I wanted to go, but they’d asked me to stay back this time.

The only thing that made me agree is that they’d taken an information square and promised to record the entire meeting so I could listen later. While I waited, I settled down in my nest with an information square, searching the station's Unibase for anything interesting.

“Do you know a Talin can’t stay on Talarian unless they have property there? Talarian is their homeworld. That law is so strict there aren't any lodgings they can pay to stay at. If they're working on a ship going there, they have to stay aboard the ship. They can’t even leave the port to walk around or anything. And there’s a limit on how many Talins can live on the homeworld.”

“That’s interesting,” she said, wiggling around a little to get comfortable.

“They have local government units, called clans. Each clan sends a representative to a city called Moravi, that’s the city on Talarian where their monarch and government reside. Those representatives gather together to form a part of the federal government called the Apogee Assembly. They have a monarch, but that individual's power is limited by the Law of Civil Duty. I guess it’s a kind of governing document that outlines each part of the government and their duties. It turns out there are three times more Talins on colonies than on the homeworld, but they get less representation. I think they’re even looked down on a little.”

Cleo held up a hand. “Enough! I wouldn’t have come in here if I knew you were going to give me a civics lesson.”

I chuckled. “Sorry. What would you like to talk about?”

“I'm worried we’ll lose out on a lot of work if we stay here for too long,” Cleo said. “I know we're not paying for this suite or docking here, but we're still losing money every day we aren't fulfilling contracts.”

The moment Cleo realized she really was part owner of Ever Secure, she'd demanded to see the finances. The guys hadn't hesitated to give her access. I had a feeling this conversation was partially because of that.

“There will always be contracts waiting,” I said. “There will only ever be one Baby JJ. Let’s be safe and do as Healer Grifforum suggests and stay here.”

“I know,” she said. “But I feel bad. They spent an intense amount of wealth to go through the private gate to get you here from the Marper station. It nearly emptied out the wealth they’d saved for a second ship.”

“Now I feel guilty,” I said. “I should’ve told them to just cut my leg off instead of getting treatment. Much cheaper."

Actually I had because of the pain, but I hadn't told Cleo about that. I never wanted her to know how badly I'd been hurt.

She shook her head and reached out to smack me. “You know that's not what I meant. It’s only that I want us to be successful.”

“This whole adventure might have been a financial setback for the guys,” I said. “But it was definitely a net positive for all of us. Besides, once we start working again, we're going to make a fortune. Have Tolly show you some of the contract offers we've been flooded with. We're going to have more work than we'll ever be able to handle, at rates well over what the guys got paid before.”

“I didn’t know that,” she murmured, looking relieved. “I guess it’s okay if we stay here for a while.”

“It’ll be good for us to luxuriate," I said, lifting my arms up and lacing my hands behind my head. I stretched back onto some pillows with exaggerated movements. “Hmmm, nice.”

Cleo shook her head and picked up the information square in my lap and waggled it in the air.

“Reading about the Talin government is relaxing?” she scoffed, “You need something to do.”

I nodded and sat back up. “I desperately need something to do. I’m not used to being idle!”

“You should write about everything that’s happened to you,” she said, handing the information square back.