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Radmer joined Leia and Esifwu in the dining room. After greeting Leia briefly, he said something to Esifwu, speaking too quickly for Leia to catch more than a few words, but it sounded like an update on when they'd arrive at the next port, and who was likely to want shore leave. When he noticed Leia listening closely to what he was saying, he slowed down a little. Unless she'd really misremembered the number words, this ship was a helluva lot bigger than she had realized, and a lot of people were planning on spending several days off the ship wherever it was they were headed. She wondered what the attraction was: gambling? Tropical beaches? Opera festival? Fleeber concert? Scantily clad people dancing in the street?
Once Radmer finished his explanation to Esifwu, he turned to Leia and said something she didn't completely understand. He touched the table top between them and a screen appeared. Another touch or two, then he repeated what he had said to her. It appeared on a split screen, in Target Language, and in English. "Glad to see there's finally someone at home today." He grinned when she looked up at him, still a little puzzled, then patted her gently on the back, and rubbed between her shoulders. She smiled back, and pointed at the screen. "How did you do that?"
Radmer's mouth dropped open and he looked at Esifwu, who looked like she was about to cry. He waved at her, to dismiss her reaction as an overreaction, then showed Leia the movements to get a screen and explained when one could be brought up and where one could not be brought up. Then he asked, "Where's your ear piece?" This time Esifwu put her head down on the table and banged it gently a couple times. Radmer laughed this time, said he'd be right back, and left the dining room. He returned a few minutes later with a portable screen, and a device to fit over the ear. He attached the ear piece to Leia, and showed her how she could fasten the screen to her several different ways. She wasn't at all sure she'd remember how to do that, so he showed her how to get the screen to demonstrate the options for her. She muttered, "I wish technical support was always this good."
"That's why they keep promoting me," she heard her voice say in her ear, a few beats after he replied. Radmer grinned, raised one eyebrow at her, then turned to Esifwu, who was morosely eating her lunch while watching the byplay. "And this is the problem with putting a generalist in charge of the new kid."
"Kind of an inverse hammer-nail problem," Leia thought aloud. The explanation Radmer explained from the ship-mind was complex, but apparently enlightening, because he laughed. The faraway look of a cell-phone user continued, then he leaned over the screen on the table, which helpfully displayed a hammer and a nail.
"That's really the tech level you're used to?" he asked.
"Those are not new, but we do still use them, yes. Housing construction, stuff like that." Radmer whistled. "So, Esifwu, have you recruited her yet?"
Esifwu rolled her eyes but made no effort to shut down that line of conversation. "No, and I wasn't going to bring that up for a while. She's got a lot to think about."
"You cannot keep her on ice any longer, Esifwu. Everyone needs to belong and unless she finds someone else to belong to, she belongs to us. Put her to work. She'll feel better. She can spend part of her time with the ship-mind, but she should not be in front of a screen in a room by herself all day. That'd make anyone crazy." He paused for a moment, then turned to her and added, "Not that you are crazy. Which is surprising."
"Radmer, you could leave this sort of thing to the people with communication skills. Would you want me taking over your job?"
"Esifwu, you are welcome to my job. Any time." People further down the table laughed at that one. He elbowed Leia. "So. You're joining the team, right? Find people stuck in situations they do not belong in. Extract them. Put them somewhere else. Duck all complaints. Shrug off blame. And never stay anywhere long enough to be encumbered by regulations. What do you say?"
She finished chewing and swallowed. "Yes?"
Radmer whooped and a lot of noise was produced along the length of the table. Esifwu rolled her eyes again, but joined in.
When Leia started collecting her dishes to put away, Radmer put a restraining hand on her forearm while he concluded his conversation with the person seated diagonally across from him. He asked Esifwu, "Is her afternoon available?"
Esifwu replied shrugged and replied, "Her decision."
Radmer nodded, and stood up, tugging Leia along with him. "Let's get you geared up."
For what? She wondered. But she didn't ask, just followed along to see what might happen next.
Partway down an unfamiliar hallway, Radmer looked over at her and said, "You're still too passive. Anyone else on this ship would be asking where we're going, what we're getting, how it works, and when we get to use it. But from you? Not so much as an enigmatic smile. Esifwu's drugs not working? You can't be hungry. Need a nap?"
Leia was dumbfounded. At home, she might or might not have asked some of those questions. This felt like first day on a new job, which meant she almost certainly wouldn't have asked all of them. She closed her mouth when she realized it had dropped open.
"Can't figure out how to answer? As long as I'm asking you questions you're not willing to answer, let's try this one: want to have sex?"
Leia blinked. That could NOT have been a mistranslation. She'd gone over the reproductive stuff with the ship-mind paying a lot of attention to the details, wanting to know what the disease risks were with these people, what the contraceptive and prophylactic options were. One of the procedures Esifwu had offered after the extensive second medcheck was reversible sterilization. It involved a pinching not-really-an-injection, but Leia hadn't said anything to Esifwu yet.
"If I can't trust you to give an answer to that question, you don't get to do anything with anyone, Leia. Otherwise we have to tell everyone you can't give consent. Do you understand?"
Radmer looked worried, and now Leia was even more confused. Was he hitting on her? Or was he just trying to figure out if she was so fucked up she wouldn't be able to say no to someone who was hitting on her, even if she didn't want to have sex which would make her, wow, totally crazy. Made sense that if she couldn't be trusted to say no when she meant it, either she'd have to be kept away from other people until she could, or everyone would have to be warned off.
"That's why Esifwu's been keeping me alone," she said out loud. "She claimed it was because she thought I was shy, but she's afraid I can't say no to anyone."
Radmer nodded sharply, but still watched her. Leia cleared her throat. "I can say no if someone wants to have sex with me and I don't want to." That got her a raised eyebrow. "And right now, I am curious about the gear, but I can be patient and let you explain in your own way."
Radmer grinned widely. "You're avoiding the question. And that is an enigmatic smile. And I am not being rejected. What a good day this is turning out to be." With a whistle, he opened a door to a room about the size of the one Leia had been spending most of her time in, and gestured for her to precede him.
She wasn't sure what made her say it, but she did anyway. "In my culture, we've got this idea that the rescuee falls in love with the rescuer. How's it work with you guys?"
Radmer startled, shot her a searing glance, and answered, "We figure that if you survive a desperate situation with someone hot and willing, other commitments allowing, you're expected to make the most of it. You," he pointed at her, to eliminate any possible misunderstanding, "are considered something of an exception, but I've still been asked about a dozen times a day why I've been keeping my distance." He paused to let the translation catch up and then added, "How's the rescuee feeling about this?"
On the spot, she blurted out, "Most of the time, like I'm still falling into that starfield, and if I start screaming, or even feeling any of what I'm feeling, much less talking about it, I won't be able to stop again."
Radmer blinked, reached out, and pulled her to him, whispering into the ear with the earpiece, "You can push me away. You can say no. Don't forget that."
She didn't forget.
She didn't push him away, either.
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Copyright Rebecca Allen, 2012.
Created: July 9, 2012 Updated: July 9, 2012