Page 28 of Sway’s Peace (Delivery Service #2)

Sway

Moving Grace onto the Humility wasn’t that difficult. Only time consuming.

The three of them – including Loyalty – went further up the station back to where the employee dorms were located.

It was rather high on the station, away from all the people and shops down below and close to the docks and offices.

The dorm floors were quiet and, mostly, empty, since everyone was still at work.

Though, judging by the time, Sway estimated that would be changing soon.

Grace’s room was a simple space. It was big enough for her bed, a privy, and a small kitchen. Most everything inside it was company property. Furnishings provided for the employees that moved to the station from elsewhere.

It made Sway angry. Grace was a dock master. She was, ostensibly, rather high up in the station’s hierarchy. The room she had been provided with, however, was something that would be more likely to be assigned to the dock workers.

Was that a deliberate choice by her boss? Maybe his way of making her not get too comfortable so she’d be more open to his advances. Sway wouldn’t be surprised. Especially if he was already keeping watch on her because he thought he could claim her as a mate.

And, if that was indeed the intention, it worked very well. Grace’s movements were quick as she moved about, gathering her stuff from the minimal amount of storage space available. She even still had the luggage that she must have brought from Holotulle under her bed.

Loyalty remained standing outside, guarding the open door, while Sway stood just inside, looking around as Grace moved quickly from one side to the other, gathering things – clothes, shoes, keepsakes, toiletries.

Honestly, she didn’t have much. He was rather surprised. She dressed and moved with such grace and elegance, he was sure she would be the type that appreciated the finer things in life. But looking around her space, he didn’t see much of that.

Everything she owned fit into two suitcases and one bag.

As he was picking up the luggage, she was putting the bag over her shoulder.

She gave him a grateful smile as she followed him out.

Loyalty took one of the suitcases, which Sway gave up without a fight because it meant he could take Grace by the hand again.

Unfortunately, her luggage wasn’t the type that came with hover tech that would allow it to float on its own, but it really wasn’t that heavy, so it wasn’t a burden.

“What about your stuff?” Grace asked Loyalty as they walked towards the steps that would lead back down to the first floor.

“I can go get it from my ship later after we make sure you’re safe,” he said jovially.

“But what if Covor…” Her voice trailed off. But she didn’t really need to finish the sentence. He was certainly the type to sabotage Loyalty’s ship. And unlike Sway, he didn’t have crew members to prevent it from happening.

“It’s fine,” Loyalty shrugged. “Really, I don’t have much. I only intended to leave home long enough to get this body. My last body was a four-legged beast. Didn’t even wear clothes. So, there’s nothing on that ship that I’ll miss. You’re more important.”

Sway glanced over at Loyalty briefly. The violet male was already looking back at him, grinning like he knew what Sway was thinking without him even needing to say anything. His eyes were the same glowing, bright purple as his quills – like a beacon marking him as a 108.

And he was obviously amused, though Sway said nothing. He claimed to be mated, but Sway didn’t know that for sure. And Grace was certainly lovely enough to tempt a male into lying in order to stay close to her.

But regardless of what intentions he might have, the fact remained that he had come to her defense once before. Sway felt like he owed him at least for that.

Besides, if he was lying about being mated, Sway could always deal with him later.

He looked forward again, leading them up back to the Uver Prime docks. Hiding the aggravation that rushed through him immediately on the heels of that thought. Not because he was disturbed by the idea of hurting Loyalty. Only because of his own failing.

What was wrong with him? Sway had been good for years .

He hadn’t hurt someone except by accident or through no fault of his own since Tanin recruited him.

His captain made him that promise that he’d never need to fight again, and Sway had stuck to it.

He’d been tempted. Sure. Sometimes, they’d been faced with situations wherein violence would solve a problem much faster than any other options.

But he’d always resisted those urges. That was a trained behavior, he’d reminded himself again and again through the years whenever those violent tendencies rose.

A behavior that he’d been working so hard at unlearning.

Sure, he might have broken those rules a little with Covor, but he was still alive, wasn’t he?

Nothing he did to him couldn’t be healed.

So, really, it wasn’t that bad. He could have killed him, and he didn’t. He was still a pacifist.

Though, if he was being honest with himself, he knew that wasn’t good enough for other people. He hadn’t even tried to think of another way to deal with Grace’s boss. He certainly didn’t regret it. That piece of skakt had left marks on Grace’s delicate skin. He deserved worse.

But Loyalty had done nothing that would earn the immediate urge to hurt him. To beat him back, away from Grace.

It felt like all those years of work and effort trying to retrain his brain into rejecting violence the way it was supposed to had just never happened. It was annoying, frustrating, how easy it was for Sway to slip right back into that mindset.

And now that he was back in it, now that he’d lost control one time, he immediately turned around and considered violence against another person.

He was disappointed. In himself. In all the years of wasted in effort. Shamed by the harsh reality that, despite everything, he was still that dishonorable, violent, heartless madman he had been carved into by the Master’s cruel touch.

But he didn’t have the time to wrestle with that right now.

The dock housing the Humility wasn’t empty as it should be this time of night.

One of his crew, Vytln, was there. He was a large male, with rough, rock like, brown skin streaked through with glowing red and orange lines – like the dying embers of a fire.

He’d brought a storage box to the bottom of the loading ramp and was seated on it, tinkering with something.

His casual, relaxed position was a facade. No doubt, Tanin had assigned him there to make sure that no one attempted to sabotage the Humility after Sway attacked the station master.

Vytln looked up as they approached, his eyes glowing like the lines on his skin. There was no censure in his gaze, though Sway had, most assuredly, ended his leave time on the station. He had likely been out enjoying himself when Tanin commed to get him back here.

But he didn’t complain or demand an explanation. He merely glanced up then back down at whatever project he was fixing or breaking – Sway wasn’t sure what he was doing, and it could be either. It was just a means of keeping his hands busy as he kept watch anyway.

Neither of them spoke as he passed. They didn’t have to ask the other a single question. Vytln didn’t even appear curious as Sway guided the other two up into the ship.

Already, it smelled different. Sway noticed it immediately when they first began cycling the air through the new life support system.

The initial smell wasn’t a good one, but it was clean in a way that their old ship wasn’t.

As the system was continuously cycled, however, that new scent was fading, leaving a fresh, clean scent in its place that would soon become the new normal.

It would never completely cover the scent of metal, but it was much better than the stale, harshly metallic scent of before.

It was also cleaner in here. The stain removal had been done already, and the result was a lot of the discoloration being lifted off the floors and walls.

The secondary command center was open when they passed, the subspace generator once again looking like a neat, clean machine, with a proper concavity in the center and not the welded bowl they had before.

It was still open and waiting, the old, dead crystals missing.

The plates had all been replaced with properly sized ones and were now just missing the new crystals and the final layer on the bowl.

The Humility only had one spare room that they would offer to living cargo. It was being used by Goldie at the moment, but would be briefly claimed by Loyalty from today on. There was no second extra room for Grace to stay.

So, Sway brought her to his room.

He hardly used the thing anyway, he reasoned.

Most of the time, he was sleeping on the bridge.

His room was pretty much just used to store his belongings.

Vytln didn’t use his room much either, but it was full of machine parts and kept warmer than humans preferred the ambient temperature.

And he couldn’t ask anyone else to vacate their space for his passenger.

There really was no reason for Sway to make excuses for keeping Grace in his room.

He wanted her in there, true, but it really was the most logical place for her.

It was a little messy because he wasn’t particularly focused on cleaning, but it wasn’t anything that couldn’t be tidied quickly.

Which he did the moment the door slid open.