She comes from a line of apex predators in a desert planet. Her heat vents cool and take the pressure of the sun off her body during the days, and the nights bring forth a trance like state where her people wait for the sun, burrowed in the sand.
She has many fond memories of being warm and cozy coiled under the stars. Watching the skies above with the plain curiosity that is so inherent in children, no matter what planet they bailed from, wondering if there was someone there.
Adjusting to life in space has been easier than expected thanks to this. Being surrounded by stars everywhere reminded her so much of those nights at home. She never would have expected, when she was first abducted and placed in that space zoo, that she would be able to find it in herself to be calm in space.
Her shipmate however, seemed to not be having such a pleasant time.
Every eighteen or so hours the captain would turn on the ships autopilot systems, double check the nav system and retire into her room for about six hours. Not to be disturbed.
At first, Silvia assumed that the human just didn't like being around her too much. She herself had to admit that at first, she thought the way too small eyes with the weird shifty dots in them were freaking her out; even before the captain lost one of the pair and replaced that with the freaky led display that now made for half her face. She could only assume that the Captain must have felt the same way.
But the Captain, or as she insisted she be called, Rox, has looked out for her continuously. She made sure to take her with her when she escaped from the zoo. She has gone outside that time schedule of her whenever she was asked to help in a task for running the ship or in making it more hospitable to Silvia's own physiology.
The Captain has really given no reason, other than this, for her to think she is actively put off by her.
After a while, Silvia arrived on a different conclusion. That being that she must not be doing well and that she might be too scared to show it. Her room was the darkest place on board after after all, not a single room showing the endless stars beyond.
Yes, the more she thought about it the more believable that conclusion became. Why, after all, would she be so distracted every time before she locked herself up? Or her one organic eye bother her so to be rubbing it every so often?
Silvia has seen the Captain's eye leak before. Once, when she lost her limb and half her face. When Silvia had asked what that function was at a later time, Rox had explained that it was something called "Crahing", and that human eyes did it when the human possessing them was very very sad or very very pained.
Silvia could not imagine any part of a body leaking that wasn't a wound, and so the rubbing could be a result of the pain, trying to keep the Crahing at bay.
There was so much she didn't know about how different species of aliens worked. Living with one was exhausting in all the ways actions could be interpreted and translated. But for this she was so nearly sure, and most importantly, worried for Rox.
She had planned a little something for Rox. Something that would hopefully show her that she didn't mind it if she had to Crah, and that she didn't have to hide away to do it.
The captain had made this stollen ship feel halfway near a home. She wanted to repay the favor.
If that human function was necessary to keep the Captain going through this endless abyss of space, Silvia did not want to shame her out of it.
During the last two scavenging missions on Glazier-E, she managed to find enough colored glass near the desert craters to make what her people call a Tink-ling-tang.
A chime made of beautiful materials that is supposed to remind the giftee that they are in the gift givers thoughts.
It is, Silvia conceeded, a bit of a useless gift in space. Since there is no breeze amongst the stars to make it ring out and all.
It's the thoughts and symbolism that matters most, she repeated to herself as she slithered back and forth one more time in front of the captain's door.
She should not be so nervous about knocking. Or about giving this gift away. She really wanted to give it but, what if it wasn't pretty enough?
The colored glass on Glazier-E was pretty but nowhere near pretty enough to compare to that the glassweavers of her home planet could make. What she herself could make, given the resources and time to make something better.
Maybe she should remake it? Or scrap it entirely and try to put together enough materials for a furnace and a blowpipe, she could use a regular pipe, and different kinds of sand and-
She was stalling. She had to stop stalling. She has stalled enough all her life on Lamicor and that got her nowhere. If she wanted that to change she had to start now.
She flickered her tongue, once, to calm down and knocked on Rox's door.
No response.
"Rox? Em, I know you asked me to not to disturb you unless we are on fire but, well," she gulped, "I would like to talk."
Still no response.
This wasn't like her, Silvia thought. She has never ignored Silvia before. Not when she spoke up. She knocked again.
Nothing.
She felt the urge to rattle her tail, something wasn't right.
She clicked at the controls by the entry and the doors retracted with a whooshing sound. Inside was pitch black and quiet, and despite Silvia's eyes being well adapted to darkness, she struggled to make out the captain's body, bundled up in cloth and unbearably still.
She slithered slowly in, careful to keep the chime from making any noise with the motion.
"Captain?", she asked, voice low.
"Captain are you okay?"
The captain did not stir and Silvia could feel herself panic. No. No no no Rox could not be this still. Humans are this still only when recovering from something bad. Ling'sha, did she get hurt in a mission and not tell her?
"Captain!", she yelled and slithered on her. Hands immediately searching in the dark for wounds, leaking things.
The captain's led eye suddenly lit up the room as she shot up from her cloth and her head, her human skull which must apparently be made of rocks or metal, collided with Silvia's.
The next moment the captain fell back down grasping at her forehead with her organic arm muttering "ow, ow, ow fuck", while Silvia did the same.
"Silvia, what on earth happened. Is the ship okay?", said the captain.
"You-You weren't moving", Silvia finally got out.
"You were still as death and didn't respond when I called and your room is so dark and-", the captain stopped her with her one hand on her shoulder.
"Breathe. You are fine, and I am fine. I was just getting some sleep", she said.
"Shouldn't you also be resting? Why are you in my room?"
"I-", she glanced at the Tink-ling-tang lying on the floor, dropped and half shattered, and decided to focus on something else.
"What the ling'sha is sleep?", she asked instead of answering.
"It's like...", the captain trailed off, hand rubbing her organic eye, "Every twenty four hours humans need to lie down and be unconscious for seven to eight hours."
"It helps our brains operate better. If we don't sleep we get dumb."
"What?", Silvia breathed out.
"We get dumb," Rox repeated, hazel eye finally opening again.
"It's a normal human function."
"So you just, lie down. For hours", Silvia repeated.
"Yes," Rox confirmed. "Could you please get off of me now?"
Silvia's eyes widened but she slithered off, somewhat embarrassed of how worried she had been a moment earlier.
"I apologise for jumping on you. I thought... I thought you were hurt."
The captain sat up, stretched her arm and jaw, before she finally spoke again.
"It's fine. You were worried and I never explained how sleep works to you anyway", she said.
"Don't stress about it. Now, is there something you needed me for?"
"Well, I had made you a gift", Silvia lowered herself picking up the chime and the two broken shards off the floor.
"But I kinda dropped it in my rush to check if you are alright."
Rox's led eye scanned the item in Silvia's hands and her eyebrows lifted. "Is that a chime?" she asked.
"Yeah! Do you also have those where you are from?"
"Oh yes, I used to have one made out of seashells in my childhood bedroom", Rox slid the cloth off of her, reaching for it. Silvia tentatively gave it to her, keeping the broken pieces herself.
"It's beautiful, are those Glazier desert glass shards?"
Silvia coiled the tip of her tail. "Yeah, I've been collecting them in the last couple of scavenge missions. I thought you might like them", she said.
Rox held it up in front of her organic eye and shook it a little, hearing the clicking of the glass. She smiled, a lopsided smile impacted from her facial scarring, but a smile none the less. When Rox looked at her with that smile, Silvia felt as warm as she did under her own star back home.
"Thank you for this. I'll put it up in the cockpit", she put it down on her lap when she stretched her jaw again, this time it seemed almost involuntarily. Silvia had so many things to learn about humans yet.
"I do need to get some more sleep still, if you don't mind. Don't want to be too dumb to drive the ship," she joked but her eye looked tired and her led dim.
"I'll leave you be then. I'm sorry to have interrupted this sleep. I'll try not to again in future," she lowered herself on her tail a bit, apologetically.
"I said don't worry about it Silvia," the captain said, covering back up with the cloth. She looked so vulnerable like this, bundled up with her prosthetic arm discarded.
"Good night."
Good night, Rox," Silvia returned, and slithered out of the room.
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