#whatever the equivalent of cottagecore lesbian is if one of the participants doesn't know how their pronouns translate in alien languages

[ishipgenfics]

You and Your Human: Part 6

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

You gently peel your human away from you, limb by limb. It makes a soft whining noise.

"I am sorry," you say, edging away from your human. "I need to go."

Your human seems to collect itself, nodding firmly. "Right. Sorry."

"Captain?" the pilot calls. "You really should come look at this."

You wish you could stay. Your human is breathing heavily, and it looks tense as it shifts along the ground, as if any wrong movement might make it fall over and shatter. But this, whatever it is, is important.

You follow your pilot up to the bridge, where your engineer and scientist are both standing. They nod as you approach. You note vaguely that it is funny, how easy it is to pick up on human quirks.

"We got a messsssssage a few minutesss ago," your engineer explains. Her Pyricese is getting very good. "It is the same word... wordsss?"

"Do you mean phrase?"

"Yes. The same phrase, over and over. Many languages, but same phrase, I think."

"What is it?" you say. There is no voice echoing through the bridge, so your engineer must have shut off the message for now. Unless perhaps the message written, and sent through the controls. You can't really say.

"Do you have a human?" the Sirviles quotes. "That is all."

You stiffen, thinking over all the sentients you have encountered so far. Could one of them have figured out your secret, your human?

Or maybe it is someone you haven't met before. After all, your former customers would know what language you speak.

So. Who is this, and what does it want with a human?

"Do you want me to answer their hail?" the engineer asks.

"Yes, thank you," you say. "Please do."

The big screen that usually shows nothing but blank space and the flicker of stars lights up. A human appears on the screen.

It looks young, probably around the same age as your human, if you had to guess. Its hair is the color of dirty sand, and it is wearing a gray shirt that is definitely too big for it.

Its eyes meet yours, and he says, in pitch-perfect Pyricese, "Do you have a human?"

It starts to repeat it in another pronoun variant, but you hold up a hand and it stops. "I am captain of this vessel, and use she/her pronouns," you say in your native tongue, all lilts and rolls. "What are your pronouns, and what do you want with us?"

The human says nothing.

You frown. "My name is Rhy'cd," you say. You had not gotten the impression that names were of much importance to humans, considering your human's behavior, but perhaps it was simply an anomaly. "Please state your intentions."

The human stayed quiet for a moment longer and then repeated, "Do you have a human?"

You stare. "... that's the only sentence in Pyricese you know, isn't it?"

"Do you have a--"

"Yeah, yeah," you wave your hand and the human stops talking. With a sigh, you switch languages. "Do you speak English?"

The human startles. "Yes, I do. Why do you speak English?"

"I have an personal interest in languages," you reply, which is not technically inaccurate.

"Do you have a human?" the human says again, falling back on its weird catchphrase. You try very hard to focus on the words and not just the way this humans speaks. It is different then your human, faster and smoother, with more heavily accented vowels. A dialect, perhaps? Or could English be this human's second language? The books had implied that Earth was a multi-lingual planet...

"Well?' the human demands, shocking you out of your thoughts. Your ears shoot up, and your fur bristles.

"Why do you want a human?" you ask.

The human does something with its lips, like a smile, but not all the way. "Let's just say... I have a personal interest."

Snarky little-- "I will not give up a member of my crew," you say. "Not without a reason."

The human points at you. "Aha! You do have a human!"

Shit. Shit shit shit shit shit. You try to pull yourself together and deliver some kind of eloquent plea to continue diplomatic talks but what comes out of your mouth is instead, "It wants to be here!"

The human's face shuts down. Completely. You aren't all that good at reading human facial expressions at the best of times(void, you have trouble with it among your own species) but right now you are getting nothing. Except the eyes. Those are filled with cold hard anger. You shiver.

You know humans are predators. But this is the first time you've ever really felt it.

"Wait," you say. "We can talk about this--"

"Will you give me my human?"

... you've had a bad day. You've been a little stressed ever since you woke up, and you really haven't been sleeping enough ever since you started cramming for your human's surprise, and now you're in the middle of a direct confrontation and you're a prey animal, damnit! You aren't meant for this.

And all these things, piled one on top of the other, are slowly wearing down your restraint and making it so that--

Well. When you hear that possessive adjective, your instincts scream.

"Mine."

The human nods, stiffly. "Right then." The screen turns off.

You sink into your chair, wrapping yourself in your tail. No one says anything.

Your engineer is the one to finally break the silence. "Captain? They're charging weapons."

That little tidbit breaks you out of your haze of instincts and failure. Your claws retract and reveal again, scraping against metal. You take a deep breath.

"Pull up the star charts," you order your scientist.

"But--"

"Pull them up!"

"Yes, Captain!"

The screen changed, a sea of empty black appearing. You must have stumbled your way into a dead zone. Damnit. Out of the corner of your eye, you see your engineer frantically fiddling with the controls. The shields around the ship glow brighter, blocking out the first volley of attack. The human's ship pauses, waiting to see what you do. They must not have much ammunition.

"Expand," you order.

There's a slight pause as your engineer taps frantically at the controls before the screen expands wider. You search the void, sharp eyes scanning every inch and-- there!

"My pilot," you say. "Set a course for the star."

There's a flash of bright light, and as your pilot springs to action, feathers rustling, you turn to see your scientist flickering anxiously.

"Can't--danger-- star-- fire,"

"I'm sorry," you say as gently as you can, as the ship hums and starts flying. "We don't really have a choice."

Your scientist growls.

"Captain?" your pilot says. Their voice is ever so slightly higher-pitched than normal, indicating a hint of hysteria, but they seem to be holding together well. "The other ship is following us."

"Are they charging weapons?"

Your engineer snorts. "At this speed? In that ship? No."

The star map comes down, and you see the star quickly approaching. Your ship slows down/

"Shall I stop the ship?" your pilot asks. "We're going to hit the star."

You nod. "That's the point. Keep going."

You fly into the star. Instantly, the ship starts shaking.

"Shields are down!" your engineer yells. "Shields are down!"

"The other ship has stopped following us!" your pilot says.

There is another flash of bright light and your scientist is gone. You look around, but can't see it anywhere.

"Captain?" your engineer says. "The shields are... coming back up. 10 percent... 20 percent... 30 percent... 40 percent... holding steady at 40 percent!"

You peer at the screen. "My scientist?" you say, feeling stupid. "Is that you?"

A shining face appears and nods at you before vanishing, presumably back into the wiring.

Your engineer coughs. "Captain. We are safe for now, but this ship was not made to enter stars. We will need to do repairs before we can continue safely."

You nod numbly. Your ears are low. You think you might be in shock. Or no.

Adrenaline crash, my old friend.

"Captain?" your engineer says. "What do you want me to do?"

Your head feels floaty. "The other ship isn't coming after us."

"That is correct."

You stand up, and wave a paw at everyone. "You all can... do whatever you want then. I'm going to go find my human."