On the Lam 1 (Patreon)

@ArcadeDragon and @Rick Griffin suggested an interesting notion this month: In the AU where Sur'an didn't die, what if Commissioner Sarsuk had escaped the authorities and snuck onto the White Flower II to lay low?

Let's find out!

———

Captain Ateri yawned and rubbed his eyes. Commander Sur’an had woken him up to tell him about the unscheduled visit, but with such little notice there hadn’t been time enough for him to even brush his fur. “Welcome aboard, sir,” he said. “We weren’t expecting your next visit for almost a week. What would you like to inspect first?”

The drab yellow krakun looked around the docking bay for a moment as if expecting to see someone else present, but of course there wasn’t. With such little notice, Ateri hadn’t even assigned a junior officer the role of liaison for this visit. “Uh, no,” the mammoth beast said in his native language. “I think… I think I’ll just head back to my office and study your report like usual. When I spot … something suspicious, I’ll let you know. I’ll inspect … whatever it is. For now, your report—”

“Commissioner,” the captain interrupted, “for me to make certain that the biweekly report covers everything that happened during the reporting period, I don’t actually write my report until just before—”

The krakun clearly wasn’t paying attention. As if he just now noticed that the tiny geroo was standing there, he swung his massive head down to face him. “Um … what?”

“Sir, I don’t have the report yet,” Ateri explained again. “The reporting period doesn’t end for almost a week, so I haven’t—”

“Oh right. Sure, there’s no report yet. There wouldn’t be. Of course,” coughed the commissioner. “That’s fine. I’ll just head off to my office and study … the raw ship logs. It will take a little longer, but that’s fine.”

“Sir?” the black geroo asked, his ears lowering with worry. “Is there anything wrong? Anything I should address or be concerned about?”

The krakun was already walking toward the airlock, but he turned to look back over his shoulder. “What? No. Everything’s fine. Just fine.” He walked on another two or three steps before stopping once more. “Everything’s fine, but please have your communications officer remap the gate communications through my office. He can take the night off.”

“She, sir,” said Ateri.

“Hrm?” asked Sarsuk, almost absentmindedly.

“Subcommander Jakari, sir. My mate is manning the communications station tonight.”

“Fine. Fine. You should both take the night off. You probably don’t get to spend enough time with her as it is,” said the lizard as he walked away. He paused once more before disappearing through the lock. “But I’ll handle communications during my stay. I don’t want anyone else interfering.”

“Uh, yes sir,” Ateri said to the empty docking bay.

# # #

“No, I don’t know,” Ateri hissed quietly into his strand. “He’s acting very weird.”

“Let him act weird. He’s the commissioner,” said Jakari. “But I’m wide awake, and your next shift doesn’t start for another four hours! We don’t have to sleep if you don’t want to, but I’d definitely like to spend our extra time together in bed.”

Ateri’s ears spread wide in a grin. “You’re incorrigible,” he whispered. “I swear, you and Sur’an are going to be the death of me.”

“Absolutely not! Neither of you are allowed to die … ever! The three of us have to live forever…” she laughed, the corridor behind her zipping by as she half-walked/half-ran home. She slowed. “Are you coming back to the apartment or not? It looks like you’re still standing there … standing there like a cub who’s so stupid that he doesn’t realize that every minute of this evening he misses out was going to be one he’d never forget.”

Ateri lowered his ears to cover the blush forming inside them. She wasn’t lying. All the minutes they spent together in bed became his treasured memories. “Hon, I’m just worried. What in the ancestors’ names is he up to? What if he’s hoping to dig in and find our exit plans?”

“All the more reason to hurry back,” she huffed, rounding a bend. “If he’s intent on finding treachery, you’re not going to stop him, and this will be our last night together. Let’s go out with a smile!”

“And if he calls for me, and I’m not waiting for him?”

“Did he tell you to wait for him?” she asked.

“Well … no…”

“Then the big lizard deserves a delay between ringing you up and seeing you in person,” she said. “No one—not even a krakun—would expect someone to anticipate all their demands.”

“But—”

“This is Subcommander Jakari speaking, Captain,” she said, the smallest hint of anger or frustration creeping into her tone, “and I’m ordering you to report for duty in our bedroom on the double!”

Naturally, with his mate holding two ranks beneath his own, she was in no position to boss him around, but still he managed a smart salute and crisp, “Yes, ma’am.”

# # #

Several hours later, Captain Ateri buzzed the intercom to the commissioner’s state room, but a surprisingly long delay preceded the krakun’s reply, “What?”

“Commissioner Sarsuk?” the geroo nearly squeaked. “The bridge said that your shuttle hadn’t left yet, that you’ve been here for several hours. I’m growing concerned that there’s something wrong with how I’ve been running the ship and—”

“Well, you should be concerned!” huffed the krakun’s voice in angry tones. But as he continued on, the blustering seemed to fade and fail him, “The reactor hasn’t … and the maintenance…”

When the link went silent, Ateri asked, “Sir?”

“Perhaps, you best come in.” And with that, pumps began to whir and the sulfur levels on the airlock display screen started to drop. Soon, it was safe for the geroo to enter, so Ateri did.

Although there was no specific sign that the captain could launch onto and the scaly krakun lacked any fur, Commissioner Sarsuk’s appearance definitely had a sense of being “disheveled”. He was laying on his side and poking idly at the strand he normally kept hanging from a chain around his neck. From the unfocused look on his face, Ateri suspected that the giant lizard hadn’t been awake for long.

Ateri stepped to the edge of the table-sized strand and waited. Eventually, he cleared his throat. “Sir?” he asked. “Is there a problem?”

A pause. “Well, there is an issue,” he said, “but it’s a purely personal matter and totally not any of your business, Ateri.”

“Oh,” said the geroo, drawing the sound way out with his realization. “Well, I won’t say it’s a relief since there’s clearly still an issue, but I’m glad that it’s not something specifically related to how I’m running the—”

“Is it…” Sarsuk said, haltingly. He stared down at the tiny geroo with a glare that could melt tungsten, but his tone was … almost conversation. “Is it even possible for me to tell you something in confidence?”

“Of course, sir.”

“No, I really mean it,” he explained. “Is it possible for me to tell you something that you’d tell nobody else?”

“Well, sir,” Ateri said, his tone softer. “I don’t know how things work in krakun society, but geroo mates are … very close—Jakari and I more so than most. I don’t keep any secrets from her … ever. But if there was something you wished to confide in me, I could give you my assurance that it won’t go any further than Jakari. She would never gossip about anything I told her to keep in confidence.”

“You’re a little two-pack,” he grunted.

“Yes, I suppose so, if I get your meaning,” the captain said, forcing a smile.

A longish delay, and the krakun sighed, “Very well. Then, for your and your mate’s ears, but no one else: I’m having some … financial challenges. On Krakuntec, when we want to stay somewhere other than our homes, we can rent a room on a day-by-day basis, but it’s very expensive. I’m trying to avoid that expense. And since I have offices on each of my ships, I figured I might as well just stay here for a bit.”

“Ah!” The cavernous room went silent for a long while until the geroo found his voice once more, “Sir, I don’t want to complain. You are, of course, welcome here as often and for as long as you wish to stay. And I don’t think we’ve ever run the numbers—”

“Spit it out,” Sarsuk growled, his conversational tones gone.

“I don’t think our agriculture deck generates enough food surplus to host a krakun for very long,” said Ateri. “We have dipped into our supplies to provide a meal for you from time to time, but I don’t think we can—”

“I have brought supplies with me,” Commissioner Sarsuk explained. “And I will be calculating the ship’s bio load during my stay. You needn’t worry about your crew starving.”

Ateri let out an audible sigh of relief. “Thank you, sir.”

“You can go,” said the krakun, dismissing the geroo with a flick of his claw.

———

Reviewer's link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KkvYoykQuCkKs2k_qPJYnEEepcy0gKgDZGEjBbnlWdw/edit?usp=sharing

Thoughts?