Page 14 of Cozy Prisons (Human Pets of Talin: Origins #4)

Nataly

The moment Daxus left to get supplies to fix her ceiling and organize her domicile, she ran to the food preparation area for another cup of tea. Daxus had cut her off after two cups, claiming that too many stimulants were bad for humans.

For today she simply waited until he left. If he kept hanging around, she was going to have to explain to him that she drank as much tea as she wanted and he wasn’t allowed to tell her no.

Pulling the cup out of the reconstituter, she wrapped both hands around it, even though the outside wasn’t warm at all.

The first sip made her sigh with happiness.

The sludge she’d consumed before joining with the Talins was a memory she would happily forget.

The tlash tea the Talins grew was the best she’d ever had.

Getting to have good tea each day was a simple bliss she would never take for granted.

The door chimed. Her first instinct was to down the rest of the tea, but then she realized it couldn't be Daxus.

She commanded the door open and the day got much more interesting.

“I don’t know you,” she told the human standing in her doorway. “That means you’re Hale. I’m Nataly. It’s nice to meet you.”

Hale had the unnaturally pale look that happened when you spent too many years on a poorly outfitted space station. Their dark brown hair only made them seem even paler. They were tall, probably around six feet, and painfully thin. Other than that, there were no obvious maladies.

Their dark blue eyes caught her attention. She’d only ever seen a blue-eyed human once before, but those eyes had been bright. Hale’s eyes almost looked like they were a midnight blue. She didn’t think that color was possible.

Their expression was closed off. Their eyes were hard and their mouth was a harsh, thin slash. This was a person who’d suffered a lot in their life. Her heart went out to them.

They pointed to their chest. “Hale,” they confirmed. Then they held out a data crystal with a crack going down the center. “Can you fix this?”

She blinked, unprepared for their taciturn attitude. They didn’t even say hi.

“I’m not sure, it depends on what’s wrong. I can try, though.”

Hale nodded. “Yes, try. It’s important.”

Trying hard not to judge, she took the data crystal and led them inside. Daxus had done a thorough job of cleaning up the mess and piling the bits of broken ceiling in the refuse pile. Her place didn’t look any more disastrous than usual, but Hale didn’t say a word.

“If the crack follows a data matrix line, I can create a patch. That will let me pull everything off of it,” she said, sitting at her workstation. There was no other chair, so Hale stood behind her, watching. “If it crosses the data matrix lines, then I’ll only be able to recover a portion.”

“They looked at it on the ship and said they couldn't do anything,” Hale said. “No matter what, I want the crystal back. You can’t keep it, even if it’s completely broken.”

She set her tea down and looked up at them. “I wouldn’t keep it. No one here would ever steal from you.”

Their expression flashed from stoic to enraged. “They already have.”

She knew they were talking about more than possessions.

Her guess was that Hale must’ve had to leave someone or something behind when the Talins purchased them.

She desperately wanted to ask more, but kept all her questions to herself.

Hale seemed on edge and she didn’t want to be the one who pushed them into a mood where they did something irreparable.

“Right, well, I’m not sure how long this will take,” she said, setting the crystal on an energy pad. “I guess you can sit on the bed or pull up a bit of floor. Sorry, I don’t have a spare chair.”

Hale started pacing behind her. That got on her nerves fast. After carefully dripping some bonding gel on the crystal, she twisted in her chair.

“Sit or leave,” she ordered.

Hale froze and glared at her. “I’m not leaving.”

She pointed to a spot next to a wall. “Then sit down.”

They stomped over to the spot she pointed at and leaned against the wall. Crossing their arms they stared at her with a stony expression. At least now she could ignore them.

She checked the crystal. The gel had set with the help of the energy pad. She picked it up and popped it into a reader. Nothing happened.

Not surprising—this level of damage never made data retrieval easy—but she had more tricks to try.

As usual, when she worked, the world around her faded. She worked slow and steady, concentrating on not doing any further damage. When the inbuilt display started listing data files, she let out a little happy crow.

“Ha, I’m good!”

“What?” Hale asked, suddenly pressing at her side. She’d forgotten they were there and startled badly.

“Ah!” she screeched, falling backward off her chair. It was easy to do when there wasn’t a back to catch her. She tried to grab the armrests but only ended up toppling the chair so it landed on her. Stupid Talin style furniture!

Hale’s eyes went wide. “Shit, I’m sorry!”

“Get away from her!”

The roared order was followed by a flurry of motion. Nataly pushed the chair off her and sat up to see Daxus pinning Hale to the wall. The human wasn’t fighting or trying to explain. If anything, Hale looked relieved.

Daxus sounded a loud war rattle. “I could kill you for attacking her!”

“Do it, Talin.” Hale managed to taunt him even though they could barely speak past Daxus’s hold on their throat. “Do it!”

Daxus was being overprotective and Hale had a death wish; she needed to break this up!

“They didn’t do anything," she called, scrambling awkwardly to her feet and rushing to them. “I fell over, Hale didn’t push me!”

“You were on the floor and they were over you,” Daxus growled, never looking away from Hale’s face. “How could that have happened if they weren’t violent with you?”

She grabbed one of Daxus’s arms and tugged. “Because Talin chairs are dumb, and I’m clumsy. Hale surprised me and I fell over backward.”

Daxus slowly lowered Hale and let go, but didn’t step away. “Is this true?”

“Whatever,” Hale snarled, and shoved at Daxus.

After the second shove, Daxus let them pass. Nataly let go of Daxus and watched Hale stomp out of her domicile.

“Tragedy averted,” she muttered.

“Tell me exactly what happened,” Daxus asked, facing her. He still seemed agitated but was also purring.

She ran fingers through her shoulder-length hair. “Hale asked for my help,” she explained, then went through everything with more detail than he probably wanted. By the time she was done, Daxus’s claws had retracted and his quills settled back down against his arm.

“When I walked in, it looked like they were attacking you,” Daxus explained. “I might’ve overreacted, but Hale has a reputation for being combative and aggressive.”

“Maybe, but I think they’re dealing with something,” she said, then remembered the data crystal. “Could you see if they’ll come back in here? I think I was able to do what they asked.”

Daxus sounded a rumble of agreement. “I’ll try, but I doubt they’ll listen to me. Even if they didn’t do anything wrong, I won’t allow you to be alone with them. They’re destructive. That means they can’t be trusted to make good decisions for themselves or anyone else.”

After what she witnessed, she had to agree. “You’re probably right.”

“Are you sure you’re not hurt?” he asked.

She laughed. “It wasn’t a big deal. I’ve done more damage when I’ve tripped on my way to the elimination unit in the middle of the night.”

“I’ll talk to Hale, but either way, I’ll come back here when it’s done.” He pointed to a medium-sized carry bot standing just outside of her open doorway. “I came with supplies to make your domicile perfect again.”

“Great,” she said. At least nothing required her to leave the house. She was feeling a little shaky and ready to focus back on work.

“And I noticed another cup of tea on your workstation even though we agreed that you’ve had enough. We will need to discuss that,” Daxus said, then left.

Nataly moved back to the workstation, righted the chair, then sat down and downed the cold tea before Daxus could reappear and steal it from her.

Daxus

Guilt was a hard emotion to deal with. Daxus thought he was finished with it when he quit working as a mavin on Talarian.

He’d been wrong. It ate at him as he left Nataly, even though he wanted to sweep her up in his arms and hold her close. Guilt was probably the only emotion that would make him leave Nataly.

He didn’t need to go far. Hale was where the narrow path from Nataly’s door intersected the wider path that circled the inner compound. The human stood there, back straight and arms at their side, and watched Daxus approach.

“Decided to finish me off?” they asked.

“No, I want to apologize for my hasty action,” Daxus said, keeping his distance from Hale.

Hale looked surprised, but hid it quickly behind the stony expression the human had when they’d first walked off Progress. “I guess I can understand why you were upset. It probably looked bad.”

“Even if it appeared as if you were being aggressive," Daxus said, “I should’ve hesitated before rushing into the situation. In my past, I didn’t act quickly enough and someone was hurt. It’s haunted me ever since. It still affects me in my present.”

Hale seemed to relax a little. “Yeah, I can understand that, but I still want my data crystal back from Nataly.”

“That is why I’m here. She wanted me to bring you back,” Daxus explained.

Hale hesitated, as if debating between their desire to get the crystal back and having to be around Daxus. Finally, they pointed. “You go first, I’ll follow.”

By the time the two of them made the short journey back, Nataly was standing in her doorway. Daxus stepped far to the side, hoping to make Hale feel more comfortable. The human ignored him and stepped closer to Nataly.

She held up an oddly colored data crystal with a visible crack running through it. “I couldn’t fix your old crystal,” she said, handing it back to Hale.

They accepted it with a nod. “Thank you for trying.”

“I didn’t fail though,” Nataly said and held up a second crystal. “I was able to get all the data off your old one before the repair gel completely failed.”

Hale stared at the new crystal she was holding up. Their hand shook as they took it from her. “The tech on Progress said this wasn’t possible,” they whispered.

“The tech probably didn’t have the practice I have,” Nataly said. “I’ve spent a lot of years fixing things because we couldn’t afford to buy anything. It gives me more insight than someone who could easily replace anything that breaks.”

“Will this play on a standard information square?” Hale asked.

“It’s formatted to be compatible with any of the machines here on Arise,” Nataly said.

Hale blinked rapidly, as if trying not to cry. “Thank you for this. It’s…it’s important.” They pulled in a deep breath. “If you ever need anything from me, it’s yours.”

She gave them a teasing grin. “Well, I’ve been wanting a new kidney.”

Hale’s expression didn’t change. “It’s yours.”

“Woah there, I was joking,” she said, looking at Daxus. He didn’t speak because he didn’t know what to say either. Hale felt like an emotional landmine ready to go off at the slightest breeze.

“I know you are,” Hale said. “But I’m not.”

With that, they turned on their heels and walked away.

Daxus moved next to Nataly. Together they watched Hale disappear down the path.

“Do you know what was on the crystal?” he asked.

“No,” Nataly said. “I didn’t look at the contents, only the quality of the transfer and overall numbers in the amount of data. Honestly, I don’t think I want to know.”

Daxus didn’t blame her. Sometimes lack of knowledge allowed for more happiness.

Sounding a soothing rumble, he faced her. “Are you prepared for me to fix your ceiling and reorganize your domicile, or do you require rest after all that’s happened?”

Nataly scoffed at his concern. “That wasn’t anything. Besides, I can’t wait to see what my floor looks like.”

He sounded a rumble of amusement. “As the human wishes, so it is my pleasure to accomplish.”

She laughed and led him into the house. He adored the sound. If the ancestors listened to his prayers, he’d hear it much more in the future.