A Rabyth's worries

Being turfed out of your own quarters was something Dustin hadn’t expected to experience - but between the worried look on Rye’s face and Meli flattening her ears towards anger the longer he stayed present, he had more or less been marched out. As soon as he was outside, Meli slammed the door behind her, and the lock light flickered red. “Well. I dunno what that was all about.” Dustin muttered, then headed towards the bridge. If his senior staff were otherwise occupied, he should at least play his part as captain and make sure everything was ready for receiving their noble guests.

Sitting down in his chair on deck and getting comfortable, Dustin pulled up everything the databanks had on the Theria and began to read. After a while, he paused to fetch a cup of Mocha from the automat before returning to his studies. The Theria really were fascinating as a species; evolved from a kind of plant that had used tumbling seedpods not unlike tumbleweed on earth to spread, they had over time gained more and more control until they’d developed into a full sentient form of life. The culture was just as Meli had described - he noted that the visitor would likely come aboard in a sealed container but communication would be possible via viewports. As long as the container remained sealed when they arrived, the mission would register as a success.

“Sola” Dustin called out as he continued to study “do we have a suitable location cleared for the Theria noble?” The AI in response flickered the viewscreens to show the inside of one of the spare shuttle bays. “I am in the process of final cleaning and preparing the bay to be lowered. The chief science officer checked and neither planet we are visiting has a suitable starport in orbit so we will need to undertake re=entry and landing. Please note that these procedures will require your presence on the bridge and plan your time accordingly captain.” Dustin sighed at that - it wasn’t that he minded being on the bridge, but he wasn’t a pilot - he was purely there because the rulebook said the captain needed to be present any time there was an AI-controlled landing.

As he was pondering that frustration, the intercom chimed. “Captain, would you please rejoin us in the ready room? I have concluded my discussions with our chief engineer” Meli’s voice was clear and monotone, betraying no clue as to why he had been banished for… and here he checked his tablet, noting that it had been nearly two hours. Sighing to himself, Dustin stood up and made his way back towards his cabin as Sola prepared for the upcoming jump to the Theria colony.

Back in the ready room, Dustin found the pair seated once more. Rye looked nervous for some reason; Meli was her usual self, although her ears were betraying a certain amount of tension. “Captain, I apologize for my earlier outburst” the chief science officer said, before gesturing to the Rabyth. “Given Rye’s state, I wanted to confirm a few things with her before discussing the matter further with you. At this time…” and here Rye cut in. “Captain, I’m going to send you a voice memo later on. Listen to it alone ok? It’ll help make everything make sense. For now, we should get back to the Theria”

Now it was Dustin’s turn to interject. “Already sorted. Sola is prepared to pick up and deliver the noble’s chamber, I’ve instructed her to add remote communication screens so that we can converse with our guest if they wish without even entering that cargo bay. The estimated travel time is only a day or so depending on how long it takes to get to the jump point in the initial system; there’s a few roaming orbitals on the outbound path that might get in our way and delay our flight time by an hour or so.” Meli and Rye stared at him for a moment, as Dustin felt his cheeks flush and shrugged. “I am the captain, you know? I thought I should take care of it while the two of you dealt with whatever this situation was.”

Meli nodded at that. “Good thinking captain. On which note, unless there is any other business to attend to I believe I should review the systems we’re going through after this little excursion - they’re supposed to all be blank space, but that just means no sapients. Might be some interesting things to explore while we’re traveling. And I believe Rye has a voice message to dictate.” After that she paused, looking at Dustin who nodded. “As you were, chief science officer, chief engineer. Meli, you have the bridge - I want to be on duty for the duration of this passenger trip so I’m going to go get some sleep before we reach the colony world.” With that, the two women filed out and Dustin flopped into his bunk. He pondered on Rye’s insistence on a recording rather than just talking to him, but shrugged it off. The Rabyth woman was as strange a character as he or Meli were, and it was better not to second guess these things. Instead, he fell into a deep sleep.

Dustin awoke several hours later to an alarm from Sola. “Captain. We are approximately twenty minutes from the colony. This will give you time to wake, review the voice note you have been sent by the chief engineer and then arrive on the bridge before landing. I have preempted your request and the automat in your ready room will be dispensing a cup of mocha shortly.” Grinning to himself, Dustin climbed out of his bunk and splashed water on his face to wake himself up fully. What little sleep was left was banished shortly afterward by the hot beverage, and he was deeply glad that the AI was starting to learn his routines.

After he was sure he was fully awake, he checked the door was locked, settled into a chair and pulled up Rye’s voice memo. “Captain? Ok. Assuming this is working, and the computer isn’t snooping please make sure you’re alone. And just in case the computer is snooping…” the speakers suddenly broke from Rye’s voice and erupted into a burst of high pitched static that made Dustin jump. “That should have temporarily disabled Sola’s audio processors for the room you’re in. Don’t worry, I’ll turn them back on at the end of this recording. Right. Fuck, how do I begin to explain this bachrana-dung of a situation. Breath, Rye, the captain will listen. Ok.”

Dustin sat forward, listening intently - he wasn’t sure what was stressing his engineer out so much, but it demanded his full attention if it was that much of an issue for her. “So, Rabyth. Lets start with that. You know how we have… a habit of having a lot of litters? Well, that’s not just because intimacy is pretty casual in our society. Un-paired Rabyth - should I explain pairing? No, fuck it, not important right now. Probably. Anyway, un-paired Rabyth usually have this drive to find a mate that kicks in a couple of times a year. Usually won’t end up with pairing, but will end up with a litter quite often.” Dustin blinked at that, but figured it made sense. Thousands of aliens species, at least one of them had to go through heat, and given everything he knew about the Rabyth it seemed perfectly sensible for it to be them.

Rye’s voice meanwhile continued her explanation. “Well, I say we usually have that drive. But not always - sometimes we have something that’s blocking us; conditions aren’t right. The biosculptors say it’s what prevented us from going extinct the first time we swamped our homeworld, a chunk of the population lost the mating drive. Still fucked like Rabyth tho, so it was only a small reduction, but that was enough. Anyway, it still crops up. The exact conditions vary - for some it’s the amount of water around them, others the vibrations of orbital satellite engines. I’m…” The voice on the recording paused for a second, and Dustin wasn’t sure that the note hadn’t ended until Rye spoke again in a much more subdued voice. “I’m pretty sure it’s part of the reason I never approached anyone. Never really felt it that strongly; it cropped up maybe once each year and each time I’d just ignore it and focus on my current project. Ever since we’ve been traveling though it’s gotten stronger. Like, much stronger. I’m pretty sure spaceflight was my trigger.”