Golden Cages (Human Pets of Talin: Origins #3)

30. Chapter 30

Chapter 30

Damascus

Instead of carrying Iris back to their cabin, he ducked into a small utility room and locked the door behind him. There were no chairs, so he sank to the floor with her curled in his lap.

To his relief she remained silent while he gathered his thoughts. It was hard to bring order to his chaotic thinking, but eventually he managed to focus on one thing.

“No one outside of the ship will treat you with respect,” he said. “If you take Palathum’s place, it will be in the shadows. You will always be the cute but simple human to everyone we interact with. There might even be times you won’t be able to attend a meeting because the other party won’t want a human there as a distraction.”

Iris leaned back in his arms so she could look up at him. “I know your culture puts a lot of importance on being acknowledged. It’s part of how you achieve social status, but I don’t need that. I’ve spent the last year, um, I mean solar, pretending to be a clueless human pet every time we docked and inspected a station. I’ve sat in on so many holo meetings with Palathum, I’ve lost count. For every single one of them, I had to stay out of the holo capture’s view. Has it been annoying sometimes? Of course. But do I care much? No, not really. I know my worth and so does everyone on this ship. That’s what's important.”

Her answer made him realize this was a concern she’d already dealt with long before he boarded Progress.

“It’ll be hard work,” he warned. “You’ve only been doing a portion of Palathum’s job, not everything.”

“And I won’t be doing everything after she leaves either,” Iris retorted. “Or do you think you get to laze around the ship all day and night? I might even see if one of the humans wants to stay on and help. Some of the crew do certain jobs also. This was never a one person operation.”

Despite his misgivings, her reassuring words helped ease his worries. “I’m not skilled in any of these things.”

“You’re smart, Damascus. You can learn if you want to. Are you asking me these questions because you’re worried about me or yourself? If you don’t want to do this, we can settle on Palathum’s colony.”

Iris deserved the truth from him, but that meant he had to know what his truth was. Could he be happy living a domestic life on a colony?

Building colonies was always risky. No matter how thoroughly the scientists surveyed and inspected planets, something always escaped their notice. A dormant fault line, a dangerous animal, or a severe weather pattern too infrequent to be realized during a research mission. There had been colonies where entire towns had to be moved. One colony had to be abandoned all together because of a planetwide hurricane that lasted an entire solar. Further research revealed it was a once a century occurrence, but it made the entire place uninhabitable.

Assuming there was not a colony-ending event, within a solar, life would calm and a daily routine would be established. Rotations would pass with little differentiation and almost no danger. It would make the population happy and fruitful because most beings enjoyed a calm, peaceful routine.

Was he that type of being?

“Do you ever think about settling on a colony?” he asked.

“Maybe, in the future,” Iris said. “I lived that life before on Omanal. After doing this job for a few years I might start yearning for a quieter life, but not yet. I want to do this job and see more things. Do you know the next place we’re scheduled to build a station is in the Ormof system? That’s a dual start system. The planets in that system have really severe elliptical orbits, and planning out the station's stabilization system is going to take a lot of specialized engineers and technicians. I’ve already hired several, and I’m waiting to hear back from two more. I did that. Palathum put me in charge of that station way before we met you and took all these side trips. She double checked my work and choices but approved everything, so I’m confident I can do the job. But more importantly, do you know how much fun it’s been?”

He couldn’t help it, he sounded a questioning rumble. “Fun?”

She wiggled in his lap a little, delight showing on her face. “Yes, fun! I love research and organizing. That’s ninety percent of this job. We might not be inventing space stations, but it’s still a challenge to take existing tech and refit it to each purpose. No two systems are the same, and that means no two space stations are the same. Each one is a unique challenge. They’re puzzles I get to unravel and knit into a cohesive plan. Then I get to watch the plan come into being. It’s an amazing feeling. I was there when they did the soft start for the Delft station. I was responsible for the rotation and stabilization system and it worked! Not a single bug or problem.”

“Of course there would be no bugs, everything is sanitized before being shipped,” he said absently as he digested how much his little human could do. He knew she was smart, but he’d never realized how very intelligent she was. An intellect like hers didn’t do well without stimulus.

“Bug is a way some humans say computer error or glitch,” she explained with a little chuckle.

“It’s a fitting term,” he acknowledged.

“Are you more sure now?” she asked. “Do you have more questions?”

“What if I don’t want to do this?” The words came out of him in a rush, and he braced for her anger.

There was no frustration on her face with his question, only curiosity. “Then we can go back to Talarian or settle on Palathum’s colony. It’s only a job, Damascus. You’re the love of my life. I can find other things to occupy my time.”

“You would do that for me?” he asked, feeling relief loosening tense muscles. “You would give up your calling, soul flower?”

“If you’re worried about going back to the Talin Empire but you’re still open to travel, I’ve got an idea,” she said, excitedly clasping her hands together. “I’ve got some marketable skills, and with you at my side, no one would dare try to underpay me. We could get jobs on ships and stations and work our way from place to place. We could still travel, but you wouldn’t have to deal with any Talin bullshit.”

The way she’d pivoted to keep him happy was humbling. If Iris considered you family, she’d figure out a way to make you happy.

“I agree,” he said, interrupting Iris’s plans and counter plans.

“—then we…wait, what?”

“I agree to Palathum’s plan. She can adopt me, and I can be the figurehead of the operation while you are the boss,” he explained.

She blinked, confused. “You don’t mind? We’ll have to go into Talin-controlled space. That’s where most of the space stations will be built. And you’ll have to deal with a lot of committees and government inspectors. Some of them can be really obnoxious.”

“I won’t snap any necks unless you tell me I’m allowed,” he assured her. “Going back into the empire doesn’t bother me if I’m with you. You’ll keep me safe.”

A beautiful smile curved her lips and lit up her face. “I’ll absolutely keep you safe.”

***

Iris

She watched Damascus press his hand against an information square for several seconds before the display flashed.

“It’s done,” Palathum declared, taking the information square out from under Damascus's hand.

“That’s it?” Iris said. “All he did was add his biosignature. Shouldn’t there be some kind of formal ceremony?”

“Formal ceremony?” Utharium echoed. “Why?”

“To mark the gravity of the moment,” Iris answered. “This is a big deal. Palathum just adopted Damascus as her, um, son? Brother? What is he to you now?”

“Family,” Palathum answered simply. “When we do these types of adoptions, his generation will be marked as mine but a direct bloodline isn’t created. He isn’t anything to me but family.”

“That seems cold and sweet all at the same time,” Iris muttered. “Still, it feels like you guys should hug or something.”

Palathum sounded a puzzled rumble. “Hug?”

Iris elaborated. “Cling, clutch, embrace. Say some formal words or tell each other how happy you are.”

“Is that what humans do at an adoption ceremony?” Utharium asked.

“We’d probably throw a party. What do you guys do when you celebrate things?”

They went quiet, as if trying to think of a ceremony.

“We have a ceremony for the recently dead,” Damascus said suddenly. “And a ceremony to welcome diplomats to Talarian, but that almost never happens.”

“The last time a foreign species was allowed on Talarian, besides the humans, was when I was still in the cresh,” Utharium said thoughtfully. “It was quite a large event, and we watched a live capture of it at the cresh.”

Iris felt genuinely shocked. “Wait, are you guys telling me you don’t do weddings or birthday parties or anything like that?”

“What’s a wedding?” Palathum asked at the same time both Damascus and Utharium asked questions.

“You celebrate the day you were born?”

“Why would you celebrate the day you emerged? It happens every year.”

Iris held up a hand at Damascus and Utharium, speaking only to Palathum. “A wedding is the formal way we humans acknowledge and celebrate a marriage. There were all sorts of traditions back on Old Earth, and we came up with a few new ones on Omanal, but one thing tends to be the same. Family and friends get together to witness a couple, throuple, or group formally declaring their married status and starting a new life together.”

Palathum sounded a confused rumble. “Utharium and I are already married. The contract has been submitted and will be finalized. There’s no reason for the Lineage Committee to deny us. We don’t need a wedding. Celebrating marriage with a ceremony hasn’t been done by Talins for thousands of years.”

Iris shook her head. “We’re going to need to fix that.”