Page 76 of Pets in Space 10

“I have a general idea of what she ate on her own world,” Tyrelle said, opening her eyes and taking a drink of water. “I can send Chef Stephanie a list of suggestions for items to provide to you.”

Now Dahlia had another worry, at the thought of the five star chef in charge of all food operations on board the ship being asked to come up with a special diet for her pet. “Oh, I shouldn’t bother her.”

“We’re a family on this ship,” Mike said, while Tyrelle nodded agreement. “Pets are part of the family and while Stephanie doesn’t have any of her own — although her mate has dogs of some kind — she’s understanding. She likes nutritional challenges.”

Tyrelle petted Petal gently, nose to tail, causing the pet to make her purring noise and shed one scale, a small one from her hip.

“She appreciates your help,” Dahlia said. “She’s given me a couple of scales and I think it’s her way of showing gratitude.”

Tyrelle picked up the glittering scale to admire the colors. “I get the impression it’s a gift of gratitude, yes, but more seems to be involved. A surprisingly complex level of thought going on for such a small animal, no offense to Petal.”

Blushing, Dahlia said, “Part of why I was attracted to her that day was because she’s almost exactly like a fairytale creature from my childhood.

The pandjinn granted wishes. I will say on the days she’s given me a scale, I’ve had unusually good luck.

” She couldn’t stop herself from glancing at Mike for an instant.

“I’m honored and I’m glad I could help,” Tyrelle said, sitting back in her chair. “May I make a suggestion?”

“Of course.”

“Four stops from now we’ll be at Diego Eight, which has an immense and extensive zoo and wildlife preserve.

They’re known for successfully breeding all kinds of rare animals from across the galaxy.

I’d get in touch with them and see if the curator might know what Petal is and if the zoo would be willing to give her a home.

She’s not well suited to shipboard life. ”

The idea of relinquishing her pet made Dahlia sad, but as she studied Petal, sitting patiently on the desk, doing a bit of grooming, she had to admit it would be better for the little beast, especially with babies in her future.

Petal had a highly developed instinct to burrow and dig and rearranging the bedding in her cage frequently clearly hadn’t been enough to satisfy her needs.

At times her digging became so frantic and so constant Dahlia worried about her hurting herself. “I’ll definitely do that.”

“I can contact them,” Maeve said, joining in again.

“I’ve talked to them before about Midorri, although in her case, the experts had no idea what she is or where she might have come from.

But of course Midorri is perfectly acclimated to the Nebula Zephyr and would resist being separated from you, your husband and Moby the cat. ”

“We’d never part with her,” Tyrelle said. “I know you wouldn’t either, Maeve.”

Mike checked his wrist chrono. “I have to go, ladies. This has been an interesting meeting, thanks for your help, Tyrelle. See you later, Dahlia.” And with that, he left them, walking rapidly through the ranks of hydroponics containers until he was gone from sight.

“Anything else I can help you with?” Tyrelle asked, gathering up her handheld.

Dahlia scooped Petal up and set her gently in the carrier. “No, but thank you. It’s amazing the way you can read an animal’s emotions. I’m more at ease about her future, although the babies are a worry.”

“We should be at Diego Eight around the time the babies are due,” Tyrelle said reassuringly. “But please feel free to com me if anything changes with Petal.”

“I will.”

They parted and Dahlia made her way back to her cabin on the employee crew deck.

Once she had Petal safely in her cage again, Dahlia got out a few special treats and sprinkled them into the food bowl.

“You were a good girl today, or should I call you mama now?” As the pet munched on her tidbits, Dahlia sat on her heels and reviewed the list of what the empath had shared.

“Please don’t have your babies early,” she said to Petal.

“I haven’t got any experience as a midwife.

And I know Tyrelle offered her help, but I don’t think I should call her in the middle of the night to come attend the birth of pups. ”

Petal stopped chewing and eyed Dahlia seriously before giving a chirrup and resuming her snack with gusto.

“I guess we understand each other.” Dahlia went to fix her own dinner. “It was nice to see Mike again today,” she said over her shoulder to Petal. “He’s so kind. He went out of his way to get Tyrelle to help us.”

***

Two days later, as Dahlia sat on the beach deck, sketching, lost in the flow of her art, she heard thudding footsteps and there was the man who took up entirely too much of her daydreaming time currently. “What are you doing here?” she said, closing her sketchpad.

“I try to run or work out or both daily,” he said, breathing hard. Taking a long swig from an electrolyte bottle, he added, “I haven’t seen you here before.”

“I was here yesterday afternoon with the daycare kids and the sunset was so lovely — Maeve does a terrific job with her lighting and the sky holos. I thought it must be equally beautiful at ‘dawn’ and I could probably do good work with no people to gawk or interrupt me.” Dahlia knew she was blushing.

“I’m pretty shy about my art.” Next moment she heard herself say, “Would you like to see what I’ve done so far today? ”

“I’d love to. I did ask to see samples of your work before,” he reminded her. Wiping his hands on the towel draped around his neck he took the sketchbook from her. “What medium are you using?”

“Art crayons for now,” she said, pointing at the neat array of colors in their tray next to her. “I’ll probably redo the scene in watercolors later.”

He flipped through the back pages before she could say anything else. “Wow, you’re really talented. These portraits are amazing, so lifelike.”

“My family,” she said. “I did them from memory. I prefer these to holos.”

He showed her one. “I think this is my favorite. He has this mischievous glint in his eye and I just know he’s going to be up to hijinks.”

“Benjji, my youngest brother,” she said with delight. “You certainly sized up his character accurately.”

“From your art.” Mike closed the book and handed it to her. “You should see about putting some of these into the Level A art shop on commission.”

“Oh I’m nowhere near that good,” she said in a rush, embarrassed at the mere idea. “No one would pay for my daubs.”

“I would.” He sounded deadly serious. “I’d love to have one of the dawn for my office, for example.

You should think about it. I wouldn’t encourage you if I didn’t think you were talented and there’s a process for submitting your work to the art gallery if you decide to take the plunge.

Maeve can assist you.” He eyed her with a raised eyebrow. “What?”

“You constantly surprise me,” she said honestly.

“In a good way, I hope.” Now he seemed a little ill at ease. “Dahlia, forgive me if I’m rushing things but would you go out with me?”

Blinking, Dahlia was sure she’d heard wrong. “On a date? You want to take me out?”

“There’s a special dance performance next week to kick off the tournament and I happen to know Mrs. Benfield will be in attendance.

She used to be a Comette on this ship, you know.

I thought you might like to attend the show — we could have dinner first of course — and meet Mrs. Benfield since you’re here through one of her foundation’s programs. I have to attend and they gave me two tickets and I can’t think of anyone I’d rather go with. ”

“I’d give anything to thank her for all the exceptional work her foundation does in the refugee camps,” Dahlia said, moved nearly to tears.

“My family was able to get out of the camp and join a colony planet. My father’s working on a Benfield corporate farm for now, but we’re all saving every credit we can get so he can buy his own land and he and my mother can have an independent farm of their own again, like on our long-ago homeworld.

” She bit her lip, afraid she’d said too much about her past now.

“We had no hope, and then her foundation offered to help me and the support spread to my family.”

“Yes, I assumed they identified you through one of their dance academies in the camps, so I was hoping you’d like the evening of dance,” Mike said.

Dahlia hated to dampen his good mood but she couldn’t take credit she didn’t deserve.

“Actually, I’m a terrible dancer. Kind as the instructor was, it was obvious to all of us I had no future in dance.

But I loved it there at the school — so much less bleak than the rest of life in the camp and so I made myself useful to the director and the teachers in any way I could and they created a paying position for me and the rest is history.

But I do enjoy watching dance performances,” she hastened to assure him.

“I’d love to go with you, thanks for asking.

I have credits left from Mr. Sutton’s tip so I can splurge and get the right dress and shoes. ”

“I could pay for it,” he said.

“Absolutely not.”

“Gift from one friend to another,” he said. “I get a big employee discount on Level A retail items.”

“It would be awkward,” she said. “I can cover it. I’m excited to think about the possibilities in fact.

” Was she agreeing to go on a date with Mike Remington?

Had he really just asked her out? “I hate to mention this, but is there a problem with the fact I work at the casino on occasion? I wanted to thank you for the three days I’ve been called in recently. ”

This was obviously surprising news to Mike. “I wasn’t aware you’d been on the schedule.”