The Captain's Heart CH 77

Jeremy looked at his reflection. The frame holding the opaque lens wouldn’t win him fashion contests anywhere, but they held them over his e

Jeremy looked at his reflection. The frame holding the opaque lens wouldn’t win him fashion contests anywhere, but they held them over his eyes, and the curve he’d given them meant bright lights wouldn’t come from the sides either.

He was pleased he’d invested in a personal printer. The plan had been to print the circuits for his weight machine, but he’d forgotten Kelsirians didn’t have recipes for those. He had to design each one. He was learning it was one thing to print someone else’s design and testing them. That just meant making sure the print hadn’t been corrupted, and power ran through as it should.

Making his own was revealing he knew little of how they were designed. He’d get there, but unless he could convince the Engineer to help him, it was going to be a lot of trial and error until he had the circuits he’d need for his weight machine to do what he needed it to.

He found Gralgiran watching a ballad, something taking place a long time ago, by the primitive house construction.

“What do you think?” he put the sunglasses on.

Gralgiran glanced at him, away, opening his muzzle, then his head snapped back and he stared, mouth agape. He burst out laughing.

Jeremy took them off and studied them while his Heart regain control. They weren’t that bad. The frame was thin, not particularly noticeable where it held the lenses.

“Sorry,” Gralgiran said, straightening, and snickering. “Sorry. It’s just that…” he snickered again. “You made me think of an Harushdin beetle with those things on your face.” He made circles over his eyes with his fingers. “Big black eyes like that. Flat face, but also black.” His expression sobered as Jeremy realized this might be a futile exercise. “What are they supposed to be?”

“They’re the sunglasses I told you about. For when we go swimming. It’s going to cut down the brightness to a level I can manage.” He handed them when Gralgiran extended his hand and his Heart raised them up to the screen.

“You really need that much protection? You said you were fine. I thought it was just slightly brighter than you liked.”

“It’s more than I need, but I’m not a chemist. I don’t know the recipes for adaptive polymers that react to light.”

Gralgiran handed them back, looking pensive. “Put your jacket on. I think I know someone who’ll have something better.”

    *

Jeremy had never been in this part of the ship. Which, he acknowledged, meant little. He hadn’t exactly explored it.

But there was still something about the men and women they walked by, the way they held themselves, nodded to Gralgiran, addressed him as Alpha, that made him think he wouldn’t find himself here without a very good reason.

“Where are we?”

Gralgiran acknowledged a greeting. “The hunter section of the ship.”

“There’s a section reserved for the hunters? I thought they were part of the crew, or had other jobs on the ship.”

“Many do, but some have hunter dedicated work. The female we’re going to see is one of them. This is also there hunt specific training takes place. Firing range behind that door. Intensive combat training further down. Weapons maintenance a deck above.”

“Leisure alley over there,” Jeremy said, hearing loud music from what would look like an intersection otherwise. “Isn’t that too loud, even for there?”

“There rules are slightly different here. Some hunters live more….intensely, more integrally for the hunt. They like everything stronger. They usually stay in this section, where they don’t have to worry as much.”

And that meant vigorous sex; he found out when the couple came into sight. He looked away before being able to tell the genders. Further down, a dozen men and women danced and drank like…. The best he could think of was a party in a movie he’d watched about the end of the world.

“Were they on your hunt?” While that had been two weeks ago now, it was the only thing he could link the behavior to.

“Some, possibly.”

“Have you done that?” he had trouble imagining his Heart being so wild. Although…. The sex when he’d returned had been intense.

“A few times. More when I was younger. When I had the energy and the lack of vision to believe that I’d survive the next one. After that, only if I came close to entering the Forest did I need to remind myself what it meant to live. Then I became Alpha….” He trailed off, and Jeremy took his hand.

“Now it’s the loss of their lives?”

Gralgiran put the arm over his shoulder and held him close. “I have a habit of forgetting I’m not my namesakes. There is only so much I can do to prepare for a hunt and that hunters will always reach the Forest as part of one. The only thing I can do to prevent that is to not send them. And then other people will pay for my cowardice.”

“You’re not a coward.”

“The Psychologist agrees with you. I sometime feel otherwise.” He smiled. “But I’m not giving up the rank, so I deal with how I fell by remembering the hunter’s creed. It helps.”

Jeremy detected a mild lack of conviction, but didn’t bring it up. The music from the alley was barely audible when he stopped by a door and tapped the announce pad. The light over it turned blue, and the door opened.

Smell of welding mixed with that of solvent and melted polymer reminded Jeremy of one of his schoolmate, who would go wild in the fabrication lab when left unsupervised. Brilliant woman, he’d always felt, but utterly without self control.

“Alpha,” she greeted them, pausing on Jeremy, then returning to what she was assembling.

“Will you be long?” Gralgiran asked.

“Just need to attach these components.”

Jeremy looked around the workshop at the items on counters and shelves. He recognized the general shapes for guns with some, but he lacked the knowledge to tell anything about them. A few helmets, a couple of printers, although he expected she had access to more than those. Circuits and individual components for circuits made him wonder if she went beyond designing her own and assembling them, instead of simply printing them.

She stepped away, attaching tools to her vest. Jeremy saw more tools than fabric. “How can I help you, Alpha?” she looked at Jeremy. “How may I address you? I am Hunter Builder Atarikna DrogDromar.”

“I’m Technician Jeremy Bradshaw. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

She beamed. “Like wise.”

“My Heart needs protection against bright light. Earthers are more sensitive to it than we are. I thought you might be able to adapt combat lenses to only provide that.”

“Shouldn’t be difficult.” She stepped to Jeremy. “May I?” Her hand was next to his face. “Keep your eyes open.” She held his head as she looked at them from different angles. “I’m going to need a scan to make sure the shape is the same, and to work out how his field of vision is different from ours.” She headed to a counter with tools and other things.

“What do you build?” he asked.

“This, that. Things we’ll need on a hunt. If I know what we’ll be dealing with, I’ll make something for it. Otherwise, I refine what I already have.” She nodded to Gralgiran, returning with a portable version of the scanner he’d seen the Engineer and Repair use. “He’s always appreciative of improvement to our gear. Means more of us stay out of the Forest. I think he doesn’t believe the gods will treat us right.”

“I just want to make sure you all have plenty to tell them when you arrive.”

“So, those circuits over there. They’re your own design, right?”

She narrowed her eyes. “I’m not in the habit of stealing. Not from my people, anyway,” she amended. She raised the scanner to his face, and he closed his eyes.

“Not what I meant. I’m wondering if you’ve had to make a circuit to control micro-gravitic projector.”

“I wouldn’t think to tell you how something should be done.”

“Really? You’re going to defer to a technician?”

“My understanding is that you’re more than that.” She stepped away, tapping the controls.

“Among humans, yes. Here. I’m just a technician.”

She glanced at him, then Gralgiran, who didn’t react. “Thing is, my rank’s not real. It’s a hunter thing.”

“I heard you capitalize it. It’s real enough to you. And I’m asking for your help. I’m building a weight machine.” He waved her curious expression aside. “Human thing. But I need the micro-gravitics to adjust the weights. But those things are a lot more finicky than I expected. If I was back on Einstein, I’d print a couple variation of C-19 boards, see what happens and that would give me an idea of which board model will give me the results I want. Here, I’m having to design the circuits from scratch and I don’t have experience with that. And you guys aren’t great at making documentation available to the general public.”

“Have you asked the Engineer?”

Gralgiran snickered.

“I’m not bothering him with something like this,” Jeremy said. “He’s trusting me with more work, and I don’t want him to question my capabilities.”

“I haven’t worked with Micro-gravitics, but I expect it’s not more sensitive than the Rargon Elite, and I’ve gotten those to behave. So I should be able to help you out.”

Gralgiran cleared his throat. “Can you confirm you can give Jeremy the eye protection he needs first? Then I can leave both of you to….” He motioned to the workshop. “What you get up to here.”

She tapped the scanner, and Jeremy’s eyeballs projected over it. “The shape will need minor adjustment, but I can have him a set made before I sent him back to you.”

“Are you sure you’re okay leaving me here alone?” Jeremy asked.

“I trust my hunters.” He paused. “Just stay out of the alleys. They might get carried away.”

“Oh, no worries there. I am not setting foot in one of those in this part of the ship.”

Outline section 

nothing added

Addition 

Jeremy makes a pair of sunglasses, which leads to Gral to take him to the Hunter of builds some of the special ops tech, which leads to the two taking shop and eventually becoming friends.

The sole purpose for this chapter is getting Jeremy to meet someone who will become part of his friends circle. Everything else is about setting up getting there, and details that occurred to me as I wrote them there.