Chương 41: 025 – The Dark Room

The 'dark room' wasn't an official establishment, just an empty bunk room that had been appropriated as a meeting place because it wasn't occupied, and moved as necessary to keep out of trouble with the ship's officers. Drasner stepped inside quickly, a bowl with two six-packs of beer pouches and some of the dried fruit he'd bought at their last port in one hand as the rakido closed the door behind him, letting his eyes adjust before he pushed through the curtains facing the entrance.

The space beyond was dark, lit only with weak red lights at about shin height. They were just bright enough to shine on the furniture, giving the room shape and depth without banishing the gloom. Most of the humans who found the dark room thought it was a space the pajhadin had claimed, and generally left it alone. At the moment the room was far bigger than it was supposed to be, with actual room for him to walk between the room's fixtures.

The bunks along the wall were narrower, turning them from beds to comfortable benches, and one of the square tables had seemingly lengthened into a rectangle three times its usual length, while two of the four chairs usually bolted around it were under the table, their shapes warped to spread under the tabletop and support its weight.

On the table was a large bowl filled with more pouches of beer in cold water, packets and three large bins of assorted snacks—the salty and fatty processed starch human kind, but he had a flavor pack for that—and shallow bowls of the nutrient mix for the tiwada. Phingrui was already there, sitting on a chair that was usually meant to comfortably seat a human, and was currently elongated to comfortably seat the Horotract.

Drasner's eyes were still adjusting, so at the moment the pajhadin was a dark shape in the gloom, low red light gleaming off his hands and tentacles, which were in the middle of pouring a pouch of beer into a tumbler. Otro, Efal and Xymel were sitting at one of the bunks—which was now low to the ground and a comfortable height for the three tiwada Whisperers—their roots sunk into snack bowls beneath them as they watched some video on a tablet propped up on a stand on the floor in front of them.

Tree Blooming In The Fullness Of The Season—who insisted on Tree Season for short, because the long form had become socially coded as a brooder name—was at the snack table, grabbing one of the pouches of beer. Drasner could make out the shapes of snacks already floating inside of his form, which was another very good reason the dark room was deliberately kept so dark. Phingrui noticed his arrival first, of course.

"Hey, Dras," he greeted languidly, one tentacle giving a lazy wave. In this relatively private space, he felt free to not keep his limbs wrapped around himself, especially since the Horotract could expand the room as much as he wished… or at least as much as he could maintain.

"We're just waiting on Jrevno and Falling Stillness to arrive. Oh, and I got you this." One tentacle reached down to under the chair and pulled out a bottle.

"It's the latest brew from the back of the gym. Already diluted, don't worry." Drasner smiled gratefully as he walked over and accepted the batch of steelbrau, sticking into the bowl he was carrying before he handed the pajhadin a handful of dried fruit. Tentacles caught the strips of fruit in a little snack bowl, and the two touched drinking vessels.

The rakido made sure the bottle was sealed, then furiously shook the drink to get the metal shavings inside to stop settling at the bottom before popping it open and taking a drink. He sighed at the mix of steel shavings, thick jelly, beer, egg white, and just a touch of acid. It was almost like home.

"Ah, that's the stuff. Thanks." The pajhadin wiggled one ear, not so much dismissing the praise as saying there was no obligation between them as Tree Season hopped up to one of the bunks nearby, the inside of his body no longer glowing.

"Dras," the old cultivator acknowledged politely, before seeming to compress into a smaller mass. A hum he felt in his bones and flesh rather than his ears rose as Tree Season fell into a shallow meditation. He and Phingrui exchanged looks of fond exasperation before Drasner headed back to the table. Dropping off his beer into the bowl to let them cool in the firewisp binding that the tiwada had made, he filled his bowl with snacks to chew on before walking back and sitting on a different bunk.

"So," he said as he poured the flavor packet of bone meal, oil and rust onto the snacks, "I heard the kaykay tried to explain magic to the skipper again. Is it true?"

"Dras, we're trying not to speculate about anything until we're all here and Falling Stillness can tell us what happened," Phingrui said.

"Why do you think no one's talking?"

"I'm not speculating, I'm just collating the wild and unverified rumors I've been hearing," Drasner said innocently.

"Nothing wrong with doing that to pass the time." The pajhadin's ears made circular loops.

"Well, as long as we only stick to what we've heard others speculating about… I heard that they demonstrated some kind of force field technology to the captain. The humans were going on and on about its hypothetical applications, but how it still wouldn't be of any use against the ship's lasers."

"So confident," Drasner said, shaking the bottle again before taking another sip of steelbrau.

"You'd almost believe they actually knew what they were talking about." He very firmly pushed down all the thoughts he had about that argument, which was that physical force needed a physical medium, and that medium would be able to affect the light passing through it, so even if they physical force itself couldn't stop the light that didn't meant other aspects related to the technology couldn't. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

It was half an hour before they heard the door open again and someone else enter the dark room. Jrevno stepped inside with motion and grace that seemed to have more in common with flowing water than biomechanics, even as the other rakido carried several packets of seasoned and chemically preserved meat in one hand. They were from the ship exchange, and in Drasner's opinion a bit overpriced, but if someone else was paying for them he wouldn't say no.

"Had a good dinner?" Phingrui asked. In the pajhadin's native Pagabat, Drasner knew the question was more literally 'did the prey you devour grant you strength', but the greeting had needed to be sanitized when translated to English. Humans could be so squeamish.

"It needed copper, but it always does," the engineer said. He held up a pack of the seasoned meat.

"Want some?"

"Do you have any dog?" the pajhadin asked.

"Yes, let me find it… ah, here it is." One of the packs went flying, which Pingrui caught with a free tentacle as Drasner felt a sharp, subsonic hum of disapproval. Tree Season disapproved of the chemicals used to preserve and flavor the meat. Given he knew the Changer liked to consume that capsaicin-filled meat and bean monstrosity humans considered food, he thought that was very hypocritical on their part.

At the arrival, the three tiwada looked up from their tablet—no doubt watching cute insect videos—and one of them raised their arm.

"Finally, you're here!" Efal's voice said. It sounded like it was coming from the space an arm's length away at head height.

"What took you so long?"

"You know where I work, Efal. I'm not going to run all the way from the engine room," Jrevno said.

"Running in the halls is the kind of things that annoys officers, remember?"

"We never have problems when we do it," Orto said.

"Shorties' privilege."

"That's heightist, rock bones!"

"Excuse you, they're ceramic alloy bones, you twigs," Jrevno said as he tossed a small sauce packet towards the three. It landed just behind them, the Kylathi's aim perfectly precise,"Rock is rock! Thanks!" The three cheered as they grabbed the little pack of what Drasner was certain was honey. Ah, the degeneracy perfectly respectable people fell into when they joined the navy…

"Our guest of honor should be here soon," Jrevno said as he handed Drasner a pack of jerky. Llama, from the parts of the label he could make out in the gloom. He could have restructured one of his eyes for improved low-light vision, but that seemed so unnecessary under the circumstances.

"Saw her talking to Eli on the way here."

"Who's Eli?" Orto asked before going back to licking up honey from the packet.

"One of the kyuees," the engineer said. Ah. One of them.

"We should get her seat ready then," Phingrui said, and suddenly the chair bolted on the deck at the other side of the table was in the space in front of where they were sitting, the seat warping itself into the low, bowl-like configuration Changer's preferred. Even having a general idea of how the pajhadin's Horotracting worked, the warping of the space inside the room needed to move everything to its current configuration was both impressive and made Drasner's head hurt to just think about.

But then, it wasn't exactly his field of expertise.

"So, I heard the kaykay almost told the humans how to make dreambone," Jrevno said as he took a seat.

"All the not-kyu engineers were talking about—""Stop, stop! Wild and unverified rumors only! Nothing that might be accurate."

"Oh, we're playing that game? Well, I've got that too. I heard someone talking about how the kaykay used dreambone for making dice." Everyone paused to consider that statement.

"That's a terrible idea," Trea Season declared, showing he was back in the conversation.

"All it takes is a few hits for the corners to round out, depending on how many sides it has those dice would be balls very quickly."

"Maybe they shape it with a salt grater?" Drasner proposed.

"Bring a cube to a fancy dinner, shape it over the course of the meal with the grater, at the end everyone's had a touch of dreambone in their food and they had a funny dice shape for some after-dinner entertainment…" They were in the middle of debating what games might be played with such absurdly decadent dice when the dark room's door opened again. Drasner's nose was immediately struck by the delicious smell of meat, spices, and tomato sauce. The smell was a lie though, hiding the treacherous poison underneath.

"This Rain Falling On the Lake In Stillness has arrived to grace you with their presence, and comes bearing deliciousness!" Falling Stillness declared.

"Is there any beer left?"

"Lots," Jrevno said.

"Yay!" The curtain parted, and the Changer flowed in, bowls of no doubt chili con carne balanced atop her body, along with a carton of ice-cream, a paper bag full of bread, and a bar of chocolate. Despite all of it clearly looking unstable, the pillar of food didn't fall, the bar of chocolate stubbornly staying on top of the bread. Was it showing off? Most definitely, but what could the humans do about it? It wasn't like it was blatantly and obviously magical.

Theoretically, someone could do it with practice and an excellent sense of balance and coordination. Besides, Drasner could understand the urge to just indulge in using one's magic. At the infirmary he always had to waste supplies unless he could plausibly pass an injury off as being less severe than it actually was when he was dealing with humans.

A perfectly controlled jump deposited the various foods onto the table as they landed at the peak of their arc, save for one of the bowls of the vile capsaicin thing and the bag of bread, while the ice-cream was placed next to the three tiwada, who touched the carton and hopefully started making some kind of binding to keep it cold until everyone was ready to eat it. Another jump tossed the bread at Phingui, who cause it with one hand as Falling Stillness put down the bowl.

Drasner felt his horns vibrate as she and Tree Season went through their usual social pecking order ritual as a tenacle was wrapped around the bowl and the lid was popped. The greeting done, another jump got Falling Stillness onto the chair prepared for her, a part of which seemed to lengthen into a convenient ledge.

"So!" the Changer junior officer said as the bowl of chili and the now-open bag of bread was placed next to her. A pseudo pod extended from Falling Stillness' mass, grabbing a piece of bread and using it to scoop up chili before the whole mass was engulfed into her body.

"I got chosen to be present to attend the kaykay when the Captain and the rest of the brass were meeting with them and I heard all sorts of interesting things…"