Everyone looked at Gabriel, “What did I say?” He asked. Madeline started chirping while the Captain and Micia looked confused, or what Gabriel assumed was confused.

“Nothing,” Madeline said after getting herself under control, “I assumed someone told you about Ronieans while I was doing something else, why didn’t you ask before?”

Gabriel smile and shrugged, “Wouldn’t change my decision to go...and I might have forgotten”

Madeline shook her head with fur ridge standing up, then she pulled up a picture on her pcu and slid it over, “This is how Ronieans look.”

Ronieans, as it turned out, was the large green humanoids Gabriel has seen one of during his trip to the Embassy. The picture showed both a male and female, both appearing about the same height. The male had a wide torso but was otherwise kinda thin. The female, on the other hand, had more pronounced muscles but a thinner waist. Otherwise curved like a human and quite similar. Their noses were flatter and wider and they had leathery crests on their heads, the male in red and orange, and the female the same color as her skin.

“Huh, I saw one when we went to pick you up at the embassy,” Gabriel said squinting, raking his memory. Maybe he had seen wrong. “I thought they weren't part of the Union?”

“Kind of, ” Scarrask said and shrugged with his two lower arms, or rather raised them palms up as his shoulders didn’t move, “There are peace and trade agreements which...” A monitor beeped and he looked over, “The explanation will have to wait, a Captain Kanthua L'Krani wants to speak with you both”

Gabriel raised his eyebrows, “Huh, what’s he doing here?”

“Don’t know, but you should hurry while the final preparations are getting done,” Scarrusk said and waved his upper arms in a ‘shoo’ gesture while crossing his lower arms.

“Thanks, Captain,” Gabriel said and got up, he walked out with Madeline in tow. Outside he found Kanthua with Alith and Taurana as well as the Captain's family. “Hey, come to see us off?” Gabriel asked smiling at them.

“Yes, and to thank you for saving my family,” Kanthua said bowing, his family bowed as well. “Who knows what would have happened if you didn’t help us, the pirates might have...and then my family would...” He stopped himself and sighed, “Thank you both.”

“Gabriel did the hard lifting,” Madeline said smiling.

“Then I will thank you for what came after we landed,” Kanthua said and bowed to Madeline.

Gabriel walked over and put a hand on his shoulder, “I’m just glad everyone is safe”

Kanthua’s wife, or mate or whatever bowed her head again and said something that didn’t translate and his daughter repeated it. “They thank you as well,” Kanthua said.

Gabriel smiled and nodded to them but then frowned at Taurana, “I thought I had Quizeateran on my translator”

“You do, but the Captain's family doesn't have translators right now, everyone speaking must have one for them to work.” She said. The Captain and his family walked over to Madeline and started talking.

“So...even if I have a language it will not translate?” Gabriel asked.

“It can record and translate, but not in real-time no. It’s a setting you can turn on by linking your pcu to it.” She explained, then turned to Alith and together they pulled over a heavy bag. “We had another heavy suit made, this one is of better quality and will even self-repair with a small dose of nanomachines you can find in any manufacturing terminal. It is not better at stopping bullets though so try to not get shot”

Gabriel laughed and grabbed the bag, “I’ll do my best,”

“We should not keep you any longer,” Kanthua said, finished with his talk to Madeline, “Consider the suit a gift, and good luck with whatever life throws at you.”

“Same to all of you,” Gabriel said.

“I hope to see you all again, hopefully on a happier note than our last meeting,” Madeline said.

Kanthua and his family left with Alith but Taurana lingered for just a moment, “Can...can you pet my head before you leave” She asked Gabriel a bit nervously. Madeline smiled, chirped, and turned to head back to the ship after patting Gabriel on the back.

“Sure,” Gabriel said grinning and gave her a quick head rub.

“...thank you,” she said smiling. “I hope you two succeed in your endeavors” She bowed and hurried after the rest. Gabriel in turn headed back to the ship as the dock crew started to clear out.

Madeline stood waiting by the door, “I’m glad we got the time to say goodbye.” She said, her gaze focused on the Quizeateran's backs.

Gabriel walked up to her and turned, “Yeah, with some obvious exceptions traveling with them was not bad.”

Madeline smiled and her fur ridge rose once, “We should get back to the bridge” She pushed the button on the cargo door and it slid close as they headed into the ship.

“So, how far exactly is Roniean IV?” Gabriel asked.

“I’m not sure, really depends on how fast this ship is,” Madeline said and cocked her head to the side.

“I guess it would,” Gabriel said rubbing his chin, “Not like there’s a speed limit in space”

“Correct, I think there is a standard which all ships base their speed on but I don’t know it” Madeline shrugged.

They entered the kitchen and dining room, Gabriel stopped and furrowed his brow, “Mess hall? no, dining room…?”

“What are you doing?” Madeline asked confused, they both turned to the bridge as the door opened and Micia walked out.

“It was something on G, what’s the word?” Gabriel asked Madeline, racking his brain after the word for a room like this.

“How would I…?” She started.

“Galley!” Gabriel exclaimed grinning, “That’s what this room would be called on earth. Or was called on ships, I think, thanks”

“Uh...sure?”

Micia approached and looked between them both, Gabriel with a wide smile and Madeline looking confused, “Um, you two need to sit down during the undocking procedure. I would recommend you wait here if you want to see out, otherwise, your sleeping cube will do.”

“Oh sure,” Gabriel said and sat down close to the window, staring out. He heard Madeline sigh before she also sat down.

“Are all humans like you?” She asked as Micia went back to the bridge.

“Yes and no?” Gabriel smiled, “What are you referring to?”

Madeline gestured towards him but stopped before saying anything and waved her hand dismissively, “nevermind, we’ll be here all day” she said as her fur ridge rose.

Gabriel grinned, “Am I that interesting?”

Madeline rolled her eyes, “Yes you are, being the only human in the Union so far. But your ego could use work”

“No promises,” Gabriel said just as he felt the ship shudder. He looked out the window and saw a giant door open. A smaller ship attached to the side and pulled their ship out of the dock. “Cool,” Gabriel said with his face glued to the window.

Madeline scooted closer and looked out, “Yeah...” she said looking around, “Shame space is so dark, there’s not much to look at”

Gabriel chuckled as the ship turned and headed towards a smaller platform, “Agreed, but still cool” as they were pulling away from the station he looked back and got a good look at it. It was shaped like a squashed sphere with a spire poking through the top and bottom.

They headed away from the station for a few minutes before the door to the bridge opened and Scarrask and Micia came out. “Alright, so we are heading to another platform where our cargo clip-on is located and that will take a few hours,” Scarrask said and sat down at the table. “Then it’s off towards the FTL gate and about a week in transit.”

“I just realized I have no idea how FTL works,” Gabriel said, “Is anyone keen on explaining?”

“Yes!” Micia said excitedly, “The gates are machines capable of opening a...tunnel through space, bringing two points closer together.” She explained while Scarrask got up and headed toward the kitchen.

“Like a wormhole?” Gabriel asked.

Micia squinted, “I am not sure that translated properly.”

Gabriel smiled, “It likely did, it’s just a strange name. A wormhole is what we call a theoretical...tunnel linking two points in space. I don’t think it has to be shorter than the actual distance though. There was another name for it...Einstein-Rose bridge? No that didn’t sound right.”

Micia nodded slowly, “Hmm, yes it is likely similar, which means I have less explaining to do. The gates open a path and we simply fly through, but I don’t know the exact details on how it works.” Scarrask returned with four bottles of water and some bread, or fluffy pastries or something.

“So the only way to travel is via the gates?” Gabriel asked and took a bite, the pastry was sweet but very like white bread otherwise.

“No, large ships can install their own FTL drive but it requires a lot of power and a lot of calculations before a jump can be made.” She took a bite before continuing. “Gates functions as beacons as well which allowed those with FTL drive to link coordinates to them.” She took another large bite.

“But if there is no beacon?” Madeline asked, then she sniffed the pastry and handed it to Gabriel.

“Then you can do what is called skip-jumps” Micia explained, “It is risky and only works short distances, relativity, of course, a few light-years at a time. It is done by powering up the FTL drive and just before entering FTL properly you jump out.” Micia pulled up her pcu and drew a few lines on it. One short straight and one longer that started to waiver the longer it got. “A skip-jump is quite accurate short distance while an FTL jump without a beacon gets more and more uncertain the longer the distance. And they take at least a day to perform. And no one wants to rush it and end up in a star.”

“Has that happened?” Gabriel asked, starting on Madeline's pastry after finishing his own.

“I do not think so, I have heard stories of ships ending up in the gravity well of a planet” She looked to Scarrusk for confirmation.

“Yeah, same here. Of course, no one hears back from ships that jump into suns.” He shrugged with his two lower arms.

“Can’t argue with that” Gabriel said and leaned back, “So how do the gates work exactly, I mean logistically”

“As a beacon, it can be targeted by any number of ships and give out coordinates so no one collides. But it can only send one at a time” Micia said.

“So there might be a queue?”

“There might, but we have a time slot already. If we cannot make it or arrive early we could have to wait.” Scarrusk said and stood again, “We will arrive and connect the clip-on before next meal, can anyone you cook?”

“Only Zilgi food,” Madeline said

“Only human food,” Gabriel said, “But I can follow instructions”

Scarrusk nodded, “I’ll get some recipes for you, I assume you have not learned station standard?”

“No, I only heard of it like two days ago. I am planning on learning it though.”

“Miss Noini, I assume you know it?" He asked and Madeline nodded to him. "Good enough, you will have some time on the trip to learn,” He said to Gabriel and turned to leave.

“One more question, how long will this trip take?”

Scarrusk pulled up his pcu, “Three weeks” He headed back to the bridge.

Gabriel turned to Micia, “And how likely is it that the black market ship will stay in place for three more weeks?”

Micia waved her head to the sides, “I am not any kind of expert, but if the buyers travel from different system quite good? But I do not know how long the ship has been there or if they are just selling to the locals.”

“Hmm, well we can only hope,” Gabriel said.

Micia smiled, which looked a little strange as she pulled her...beak? back and showed her teeth. Maybe it was just chitin attached to her lips.

She caught Gabriel looking, “Sorry didn’t mean to stare,” He said.

Micia shook her head, “I don’t mind” She tapped the chitin, “Our diet was heavily based on a hard-skinned fruit.”

“Thanks, everything is new to me, I’ll try not to stare.” He said smiling.

“If you catch yourself, it is better to ask,” Micia said and hopped down from the couch. “Fewer races get upset by questions.”

“I’ll try to keep that in mind,” Gabriel said nodding.

“If you need me I am going to be in the crawlspace, our water line was newly fixed and might need adjusting.” Micia nodded and walked to the environmental room.

“Should we unpack?” Madeline asked and gathered the water bottles.

“Good idea” They found a press the plastic bottles got fed into and walked over to the sleeping cube.

“Which one do you want?” Madeline asked picking up her bag.

“Whichever is hardest, the hotel beds were too soft,” He said and opened the bag Taurana and Alith gave him. “Hey! look” Gabriel pulled out the helmet made for him on the Quizeaterans ship, “They saved my helmet”

“Yay, souvenir. Unless you are planning on wearing it around the ship?” She said skeptically while putting her clothes into one of the closets beside the bed.

“I was not planning on it, no,” Gabriel said and turned it around in his hands, “But you never know, might be useful for something”

“I guess,” Madeline said and pressed down on the bed, “I’m taking the bed, it’s probably softer”

“Fine by me,” Gabriel said and pulled out the new weight suit. This one had thin padding covering most large muscles. Between the padding, it looked like thin wires were sewn into the fabric. The joints very flexible while the padding was more resistant to movement. This one came was two pieces and Gabriel pulled off his shirt and began unbuttoning his pants.

“I turn around for just a moment and you start stripping?”

Gabriel stopped with his thumbs in his waistline, “Yeah? you’ve seen it all before, I want to try on the suit”

Madeline chuckled, shrugged, and went back to digging through her bag. “Guess you’re right”

Gabriel pulled on the suit and tried moving around. The padding was thinner than he first thought, just thick heavy cloth really. It was about as comfortable as a tight suit could get, “So what do you think?” He asked Madeline.

She turned and looked him up and down, “Well, It’s not exactly fashionable,” She said and smiled.

“I never bothered with fashion anyway,” Gabriel said and pulled on his pants and shirt. He looked around in the bag and pulled up a large jar of some kind. “And what is this?” He pulled off the lid and got a puff of fire-root power right up his nose. “Ah, fuck!” He shouted and rubbed his nose.

“What?” Madeline turned around startled.

“They gave me a jar of fire-root” Gabriel said grinning before sneezing.

“Great, just keep it away from me and my food,” Madeline said and chirped.

“Will do,” Gabriel said and stuck a finger in the powder and licked it off, “Oh, spicy”

Madeline sighed but and stoved her bag in a locker, “I left the left closet for you once you’re done playing” She said plainly but her fur ridge was not quite flat.

Gabriel smiled and put the lid back on, “Much appreciated” He walked over to the empty closet and put his clothes in. Then he sat down on the mattress and leaned against the wall, “So, how do we pass the time?”

“Well, we surely have more entertainment here than last time,” Madeline said and laid down on the bed.

“Hmm, I’m sure...wait, I just remembered what Taurana said about the translators. I know you said your culture and others make movies but can I even watch them?” Gabriel said.

Madeline sat up and frowned, “Hmm, you can watch them, but I don’t know if it will translate. Otherwise, It would be a good opportunity to learn Station standard.”

Gabriel sighed, “Yeah, I guess you’re right. I should probably do that anyway. How much Station standard do they speak on Roniean IV?”

“If I remember correctly...” Madeline said thinking for a bit, “they don’t”

“Great...” Gabriel sighed again, “But I hope my translator will work.”

“Yes it will,” Madeline said. “Probably”

Gabriel shrugged, “Fantastic, oh well, what can you do” He stood up and moved his arms around, “You know, I think this suit is way better than the last.”

“It was very nice of them to give you that,” Madeline said smiling, “Now, should we find that recipe and at least read it before we reach the cargo?”

“Yeah let’s go.” They walked out to an empty galley and the door to the bridge was closed. Gabriel stopped and listened slowly looking around.

“What are you doing?”

“Shh,” Gabriel listened for another moment before hearing a soft clang from the ceiling. He grinned at Madeline and stepped up on the couch and knocked on the roof.

A moment later a hatch opened and Micia poked her head down, “Hello”

“Hey, do you know where the recipe is?” Gabriel asked her.

“Dinner? Oh right,” She let go of the roof and dropped headfirst downwards. Gabriel flinched but was too far to grab her, not like it mattered as she just glided down to the floor. She walked over to the kitchen counter and grabbed a tablet, “Here, the recipe is...what’s wrong?” She asked after seeing Gabriel standing with his arms half raised.

“Nothing, you just scared me dropping like that” Gabriel said and stepped down from the couch.

“Oh, I am sorry,” Micia said.

“Don’t worry about it,” Gabriel said and smiled.

Micia handed the tablet to Madeline who sat down at the table, “I know most of these ingredients, I’ll look up the rest.”

“Thanks, Micia, didn’t mean to pull you from your work” Gabriel pulled out his pcu and tried finding somewhere to write things down.

“It is no problem, but could you help me up to the hatch? I cannot fly in this gravity” Micia said and pointed.

“Sure,” Gabriel walked over and paused, “My instincts tell me to lift you under your arms but will your wings be in the way?”

“No, they stretch” She held her arms slightly to the side and Gabriel helped her up to the hatch. “Thank you” She closed the hatch and continued with whatever she was doing.

“So...” Gabriel said down at the table, “complicated?”

“No, It’s a simple stew. Cut and boil vegetables.” Madeline said and showed Gabriel a picture of a purple beet looking vegetable. “We need to grab the purple ones, not the blues if they have any. They are poisonous to me.”

“I’ll check, will eating the wrong one be bad?” He asked and rummaged around in the fridge.

“I won’t die or anything so no, but It’s not fun. I will feel cold and weak, shivering, and being tired for half a day or so. Probably with a fever.” She said and looked the recipe over. “Yeah, we just need to cut everything and boil it with some spices. No fire-root” She said glancing at Gabriel.

“Don’t worry, I’ll only add it to my portion” He pulled out a drawer with the purple roots. “I can’t see any blue ones but I don’t know how they look”

Madeline walked over and rummaged around, “Here,” She gave him one that looked almost identical. “The color is different and it grows in cloves under the skin, you can faintly see it.”

Gabriel pulled up a purple one and compared them. He saw the differences although the blue one was almost purple as well, “Right, I’ll be careful. Now, how many do we need to chop?”

Of course, there was a machine that chopped the food for you, which Gabriel considered taking the fun out of cooking but he still obediently followed Madeline’s instructions, and just as the ship slowed down to pick up the cargo they were done with all preparations. And as it was a very simple meal, and with the boringly efficient stoves, they just had to press a button and set a timer.

Scarrask emerged from the bridge, maybe it was more of a cockpit as it was not much bigger than what planes had. “Great food is coming along nicely,” He said and looked down into the pot, “This will likely take about an hour,”

Micia dropped down from the ceiling and walked over, “Everything is double-checked Captain”

“Good, we are now waiting for...” The ship shock slightly and Scarrask looked towards the cargo door, “That, they are now connecting the cargo, and then we will have to check the clip-on for anything out of the ordinary.” His pcu beeped, “Brace” He said and grabbed the table.

The ship shook again, Gabriel just adjusted his stance but the rest would have stumbled if they were not holding on to anything. “Connected?” He asked the Captain.

“Yes,” Scarrusk said, “Start the cooking and I’ll show you two the cargo” He headed back towards the outer cargo door.

Gabriel looked at the stove but the numbers and letter meant nothing to him, “Madeline a little help?”

She walked over and pressed a touchscreen, a virtual stove showed with four plates. Gabriel pressed the one the pot was on and then found the timer, “I’ll set it, hold on” She pressed another button and set a slide to the correct time.

Gabriel leaned forward and looked at the numbers. Best he could tell the numbers added a line through 1 to 5 but no further. “Maybe learning to read numbers would be a good start,” He said as they followed Scarrusk and Micia.

“Yeah, sure,” Madeline said nodding.

Scarrusk checked a panel before opening the cargo door, beyond was a very large and long cargo bay. It stretched for probably at least a hundred meters by Gabriel's best estimate. “Huh, bigger than I thought” He walked over to Scarrusk, “All this is berries?”

“Fruit,” Scarrusk corrected, “And yes it is” He turned to Micia and spouted off orders to check everything from fuel pressure to electricity and heating. She nodded and went back to the ship, this time opening a hatch in the floor and entering. While Scarrusk busied himself at a terminal taking to the crew that had connected the cargo Gabriel and Madeline walked back to the galley.

“Does that Captain seem, I don’t know...friendly one second and the next all business to you as well?” Gabriel asked when they were out of earshot. Madeline’s fur ridge rose once, “Not just me then, well whatever, let’s start studying.”

Gabriel quickly realized that thankfully Station standard counted zero to nine like humans. Although Gabriel thought he remembered some counting to eight. Either way, the letters added one line from zero to four. Five was its own symbol with lines added up to nine. Ten also had its own symbol but after that, it was more or less human counting. Strangely enough, the symbol for ten was only used up to nineteen, then it was two and zero, and so forth.

Madeline showed him how to write on the tablet they had gotten with the recipe and Gabriel made some math problems for himself to try and remember the numbers. Scarrusk entered and sat down quietly observing while waiting for the food to get ready. It beeped a few minutes later and Micia appeared from the floor to join them. The meal was not bad but Gabriel sprinkled a healthy dose of fire-root into his portions.

The trip to the gate was uneventful and Gabriel learned the symbols for basic math in the meantime, but as they were nearing the gate they stopped with the lessons and looked out the window.

The gate was a huge half-circle with attached to a small station or large ship. They waited in a line and seeing actual queueing in space amused Gabriel more than he would have thought. Maybe it was the lack of entertainment.

Scarrusk entered the galley just before they were set to leave, “You need to sit down for the FTL jump, it can be a bit disorienting but that will only last a moment.” He said and walked back to the cockpit.

Gabriel sat down grinning as they moved closer to the gate. “I never thought I would get to see FTL travel or another planet for that matter”

“Same” Madeline said smiling, “At least not this soon, I thought I would have to wait years. As I said back on Captain Kanthua’s ship, it’s both terrifying and exciting. Though from now on I hope more of the latter.”

“You and me both.” Gabriel agreed.

“We are entering FTL in two minutes, starting countdown” Scarrusk’s voice sounded out over the speakers.

Madeline scooted over beside Gabriel and grabbed his hand, “I’m a little nervous.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine” Gabriel smiled, feeling a little nervous himself. They sat in silence until the countdown started from ten. “Alright, hold on to whatever”

“Oh sure, great advice,” Madeline said and gestured around, she did, however, grab his hand tighter.

“I mean what’s there to be nervous about, It’s not like we will end up in a sun or anything.”

Madeline squinted at him, “Very...” She managed before they jumped. It felt to Gabriel like one of those roller coasters where you get quickly accelerated out of the gate, a dropping feeling in his stomach while at the same time he felt like he was floating in space and somehow it was like everything stretched out before him. A moment later everything spanned back to normal. “Funny...” Madeline finished and elbowed him lightly in the ribs.