The Galaxy, and the Ground Within Becky Chambers (books to read to get smarter .txt) 📖

‘And what ha—’ What happened, Captain Tem presumably began to say, but as she caught sight of Speaker’s suit, she fell silent. ‘How long has xe been without oxygen?’

‘I don’t know,’ Speaker said. ‘I just found xyr a minute ago.’

Captain Tem retrieved a small item from the hidden cupboard she’d opened: a packet of SoberUps. She tore the wrapping open, popped the tabs in her mouth, and crunched furiously. Her cheeks swirled a discordant mix of colours as she swallowed, as though her body was sorting itself out. ‘Did you flag the emergency channel?’

‘Not yet, I wanted to get xyr out of my ship first.’

‘Makes sense. Does xe have a pulse?’

‘I have no idea. Do you know how to check for a Laru’s pulse? Do they even have one?’

‘Fuck. I don’t know.’ Captain Tem ran a hand over her smooth head. ‘Okay. Okay, you – you know how to use a bot scanner?’

‘Yes.’

‘You know the advanced options?’

‘Basically. I know the first aid functions.’

‘Okay, good, you – wait, shit, no, I’ll have to do it. You won’t be able to read my scanner. Here—’ She opened another previously unseen cupboard and retrieved what appeared to be a breathing mask connected to a handheld canister of super compressed air. ‘See if you can get this on xyr, I’ll do bots.’

Speaker took the mask and moved to the head of the bed as Captain Tem picked up one of Tupo’s forelegs, searching for xyr wristpatch. Speaker gently lifted the child’s head with one hand and tried to slip the mask on with the other. She still couldn’t tell if Tupo was breathing.

‘Dammit, there’s so much fucking fur,’ Captain Tem snapped. She searched through the thick curls with her delicate fingers. ‘Ah, there!’ She pressed a fingertip down on one spot, then brought the bot scanner over. ‘Okay, kid, let’s check you out.’

‘There’s a problem,’ Speaker said. ‘Look.’ She’d got the mask on, but the device was ill-fitting for a Laru head. Tupo’s mouth was too wide, but when Speaker tried to position the mask solely over xyr nose instead, the contours prevented a proper seal. Without that, it seemed, the canister wouldn’t activate.

Captain Tem looked up from the scanner and grimaced. ‘Maybe we can—’

‘Tape,’ Speaker said. ‘Do you have tape? Or something like it?’ Captain Tem reached for a cupboard, but Speaker stopped her. ‘No, not medical tape. It’s got to be airtight. What would you use to patch a leaky pipe?’

‘Not tape,’ Captain Tem said. Her cheeks had settled into placid silver. ‘I’ve got sealant guns, but—’

‘Would that be safe for xyr?’

The Aeluon’s eyelids flicked. ‘I mean, it’ll rip xyr fur off.’

Unpleasant as that sounded, Speaker considered that an extremely fair trade under the circumstances. ‘Where?’

Captain Tem pointed down the hallway and turned her attention back to the scanner. ‘Storage room. Straight ahead, then take a right, then the wall opposite from life support. You know how to open our doors?’

‘You just …’ Speaker raised one of the suit’s hands and mimed pressing its palm against something.

Captain Tem glanced over as the scanner got to work. ‘Yeah, right.’

Speaker worked the suit’s controls with one hand, following Captain Tem’s directions as she grabbed her scrib. She gestured at it, readying it for verbal request. ‘Flag local emergency channel,’ she said. ‘And make a voice call to the ground host.’

Roveg would never forget the sound Ouloo made when she ran into Captain Tem’s shuttle and saw Tupo.

He couldn’t call it a scream. A scream was sharp and shrill. This sound was curved, liquid, moaning. It was a frightened sound, a mourning sound. If blood could speak as it was spilling, that was the sound it would make.

‘Xe’s alive,’ Captain Tem said. ‘I don’t know how, but—’

Ouloo started speaking, but her words weren’t directed to any of them. She spoke to Tupo in Piloom, her cooing words at once pleading and angry. Roveg did not need translation to understand her meaning.

‘Did you flag emergency services?’ he asked.

Speaker, who was in the middle of – what was she doing? gluing something to the little Laru’s face, it seemed – threw him a pointed look. ‘My signal won’t go through,’ she said. ‘Too many people are trying to use comms.’

‘Idiots,’ he said. ‘What else – what’s the point of an emergency channel if you can’t—’ The sentence trailed off before he could remember where he’d been leading it. Stars, why had he drank so much?

Captain Tem noticed his trouble. She stuck her hand into a wall, grabbed something, and tossed it his way without a word. He fumbled the catch with his first leg, but recovered with the second. A packet of SoberUps. Thank goodness. He consumed the distasteful stuff without delay.

The Aeluon crouched beside Ouloo, putting her hands on the Laru’s forelegs. ‘Ouloo, I need you to listen to me. I’m not a doctor, and neither is Speaker, but we’re going to help as best we can. I need you to answer some questions. Can you do that?’

Ouloo trembled, but waggled her neck in vigorous assent. ‘Anything.’

‘Okay. I don’t know much about your physiology. My scans say that Tupo is alive, but not breathing, and everything internally seems to be kind of … shut down. Speaker’s trying to get some air into xyr, but xyr nose is … it seems to be closed up. I don’t—’

At this, Ouloo made the sound again, quieter this time. It was still enough to make Roveg’s frills twitch uncomfortably. ‘It’s olotohen,’ she said, and wailed once more.

‘I don’t know what that is,’ Captain Tem said.

Roveg bent his torso lower. ‘Breathe, Ouloo. You can do this.’

Ouloo took a breath. ‘It’s a … oh, stars, I don’t know how to explain it. It’s a – a protective sort of … sleep? Not sleep. Shit, I don’t know the word.’

‘Torpor?’ Speaker offered. ‘Coma?’

‘Yes, something like that. It’s a – a reflex our kids have when they’re – when they’re in danger.’ Her voice broke. ‘I would’ve thought xe was too old for