#andi ryder

Andi bit off a curse and dropped the spoon she’d just pulled from the drawer.  It clattered across the floor and came to rest at his feet.   She whirled around with a hand on her chest.

“Christ, Drack, you scared the shit out of me.”  Guilt flashed across her face.  “Did I wake you?”

He chortled.  “You don’t get to be as old as I am without being a light sleeper.  S’my fault for taking the mess to sleep in.”

“I’m sorry.  I shouldn’t have come in here during sleep cycle.”

He waved a hand, dismissing her apology.  “Don’t sweat it.”

Drack considered her with a more critical eye.  Her short hair was plastered upright on one side of her head, indicating that she had been asleep at some point.  It clearly hadn’t been a good sleep.  The skin around her eyes was red and puffy.  She looked more tired than she had when she’d retreated to bed early, citing a long day.  He’d spent enough time with humans to know when one was upset.

“What’s eatin’ you, kid?”

Andi stiffened and looked ready to argue.  Then her gaze took on a far off look, like she was listening to something he couldn’t here.  She wilted.  “I guess,” she muttered.

“You guess what?” he prodded, feeling distinctly uncomfortable.  He was the opposite of equipped for dealing the possibility of her hearing things.  That was a problem for the doc next door.

She shook her head.  “Sorry.  SAM was talking to me.”

Drack made a disgusted noise in the back of his throat.  She rolled her eyes at him, apparently expecting that response after their chat about the AI the day before.

“And what did it say?”

“He thinks I should talk to someone.  I… had a nightmare.  Couldn’t get back to sleep.  Didn’t want to wake Lexi up in the middle of the night, like some little kid,” she muttered, scratching the back of her head sheepishly.

Ah, now this was something he was equipped to handle.  It’d been a while, but he was no stranger to talking kids down bad dreams.  Kesh had them frequently when she was a tyke.  He pat the bench next to him in invitation.

She gingerly took a seat next to him and stared at the floor.

“So, what was it?  Kett?” he prodded gently.  She shook her head.   “Remnant?”  Those vaults sounded terrifying from what he’d heard, but she gave another shake.  “Something from the Milky Way?”  Another shake, but delayed.  He was getting closer.  “… your dad?”

She gave a jerky little nod.  Her shoulders began to quake, and she sniffed wetly.  

“Oh, kid,” Drack sighed and dragged her over against his side with one arm.  “C’mere.”

Andi stiffened at first, probably indignant at being manhandled, and then deflated against his side.  She threw an arm across his torso and curled against him.  He knew he wasn’t the softest thing to cling to, but the kid clearly needed some physical comfort.  He let his arm rest across her shoulders and raked his clawed fingers gently through her hair as sobbed against his breastplate.

“That’s it, kid.  Just let it out.”

Several minutes passed before the flood slowed to an occasional hiccup.  He handed Andi a napkin with his free hand, which she accepted with a small “thanks,” and extricated herself enough from him to blow her nose.  The crumpled napkin landed beside the waste bin, but neither moved to pick it up.  She fell back against him, limp, like all the energy had been drained from her.

“Can I ask what happened, or would you rather not talk about it?” he rumbled, curious.

She frowned.  “Thought you said Vetra told you.”

“She told me that he died on Habitat 7 and you became his successor.  She didn’t say how.”

“My helmet got smashed.  The air was toxic, and I was suffocating.   The shuttle was too far away.  He gave me his helmet.”  Andi shuddered at the memory.  “Almost died anyway.”

“Can’t fault him there.  I’d do the same for Kesh, in a heartbeat.”   He gave her arm a comforting pat.  “But I’m sorry you were left alone and saddled with this mess.  That’s rough, kid.”

“The pictures you sent helped a little.  Thanks for that, Drack.”   She yawned hugely and shifted against him.  “You’re… really sweet under all those bones.”

“Yeah, well.  Don’t tell anyone,” he muttered.

Silence was the only response he got.  He glanced down to see that the human had fallen asleep.  He sighed and accepted the fact that his hip would probably be stiff as hell in the morning.  This wasn’t the worst position he’d slept in.  The kid needed this. She reminded him a little of Kesh, just a small fry lost in a galaxy determined to see her put down.

Cora keyed into the comms.  “Kallo, did you get that?”

“Yes.  Plotting a return course to Havarl.  Good thing we didn’t get very far.  What would possess you to bring a strange creature on this ship and turn it loose?”

“I didn’t ‘turn it loose,’ it escaped!”

“Andi, you already have a weird space hamster, how many pets do you need?”  Peebee leaned over the rail on the rotunda overlooking the garage, snickering.

“I thought he might like a friend.”  Now she was shuffling through Gil’s tools, ignoring the man’s sputtered protests that that is very delicate equipment, stop it.

“No sign of anything in the crew cabin,” Liam called over the comms.

Suvi followed suit over Kallo’s complaints about animals wrecking the ship.  “Cockpit is clear, Andi.”

“No signs of it in the cargo bay,” Vetra said from the door to her little hideout.  “I swear, if that thing wrecks one of my shipments…”

“It’s not in the food stores.  Good thing, or I’d add it to them,” Drack yelled from the galley.

“Nothing in the medbay,” Lexi called in. “Do we know if this thing is dangerous?”

“I dunno.”  Andi shrugged.  “He seemed pretty friendly to me.  Jaal?”

“If it’s from Havarl?  Probably.”  Jaal joined Peebee on the rotunda above the garage. “What exactly did this ‘critter’ look like?”

“It was really cute and really pretty?”  The Pathfinder shrugged.  “Like a weird squirrel had a baby with a macaw?”

He frowned as his translator had no idea what to do with those words.  “What is a sk-werl?”

“A furry little animal with a big, fluffy tail that climbs trees and looks cute.”

“And a macaw is…?”

“A big, brightly-colored bird.”  Andi held up her hands about eighteen inches apart.  “The critter was like this big, really colorful, quadruped, has feathered wings on its back.”

“Ah, a vavere.  They are… mostly harmless, I suppose.”

Cora arched an eyebrow.  “Mostly?”

“They typically aren’t aggressive, but they have venomous spurs in their hind legs to defend against threats, strong enough to kill an Angara.”

“Wait, seriously?”  Andi blanched.  “Is Havarl like fucking Heleus Australia or something?”

Jaal gave her a blank stare.  “I don’t understand the question.”

“I’m going to give that a yes, since apparently everything on that planet can kill you.”  Gil pulled some metallic mesh gloves out of his back pocket and tossed them at the Pathfinder.  “Have fun with that one.”

The sound of shattering glass echoed through the corridors, freezing them all in their tracks.  It came from above them.  Andi winced and scooped the gloves up off the floor.  

“I hope that wasn’t anything crucial.  SAM?”

The vavere is in the bio lab.  It is attempting to invade Lieutenant Harper’s seedling greenhouse.

Cora growled and glared at the Pathfinder.  “Andi.”

“On it!  Thanks, SAM.”  She darted off up the ladder, Gil hot on her tail.  She barely heard Cora say she would find the humane trap.  A shattered beaker littered the floor, along with a bunch of spilled pots.  Dirt was scattered across every flat surface.  Andi was pretty sure Cora was going to kill her.

Several of her crew gathered in the doorway behind her, partly to keep the animal from escaping, partly to watch the spectacle. The critter had been digging through Cora’s baby ferns, but froze at the commotion in the doorway.  Andi took the opportunity to strike.  Its feathered wings and fluffy tail flared in surprise, but it wasn’t quick enough to evade her enhanced reflexes.  She pulled the hissing, squirming creature from the greenery for all to see, maintaining a firm grip on its scruff and holding it at arm’s length.

Gil whistled and took a step backward when she turned towards him.  “I’ll be damned.  It does look like a squirrel fucked a macaw.”

“Look at you, Dr. Doolittle!”  Liam called from the entry.  “Nice grab!”

“I know, right?”  Andi tried to calm the flailing creature.  “Shhhhhhh.  It’s okay, little guy.  We’re not gonna eat you.  Well, Drack might, but I won’t let him.”

Cora appeared then and held the cage open.  “Just put in here before it kicks someone.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

Squalling critter safely contained, everyone heaved a sigh of relief.  On Jaal’s suggestion, just in case it chewed through the cage, they stored it safely in the airlock.

“How did you even get it on the ship without anyone noticing?”  Cora asked as the door slid shut behind them.

“It snuck into my rucksack, the one Suvi gave me to get samples, so I thought he wanted to come home with me.”  Andi pouted.  “He really seemed to like me. And he was so cute and fluffy.   You know, unlike that weird toothy bird that bit the shit out of my hand on Aya.  Or that six-legged lizard on Kadara that spit acid.  Or--”

Cora stopped her because this list was going to get excessive.  “Just what is it with you and animals?”

“I… really miss having a pet to come home to at the end of the day and play with.”  She sighed and fiddled with her omni-tool.  “I had to leave my dog behind with a friend of the family.  A hamster is cute, but it’s not the same, you know?”

“You know we brought the genomes for dogs, right?”  Andi’s wide-eyed stare clearly said she hadn’t.  “If you stop trying to adopt every animal you see, I will personally get you one once we’re set for them.”

The Pathfinder practically quivered with excitement.  “A big one?”  

Cora nodded.  Future her would probably regret this, but present her wanted the peace of mind of not having strange animals doing strange things on the ship.  Or calling the Nexus to report that curiosity killed the Pathfinder.  “The biggest.”