Work Text:
Sissix, sideways on her bed, stared at the paper note in her claws with more than a little bit of confusion.
She’d found it taped to her door. Paper was, itself, a bit of a luxury item (especially in space) and this particular paper was tinted hatchling egg blue and had a spicy sort of cinnamon scent to it. Clearly it was meant to be very impressive.
Her feathers were half raised in consternation. “Your thrust vector control only deviates 0.002387 degrees! -Ohan.” Sissix turned to her human girlfriend. “What is he even talking about…?”
Rosemary, cuddled up behind her, was equally perplexed. “Is he giving you a compliment?”
Sissix tilted her head at the paper, then let her head back fall to her pillow defeated. “I guess? I’ve never gotten something like this before.”
Rosemary shrugged and nuzzled into the warm feathers on the back of Sissix’s neck. “It certainly doesn’t seem like a *bad* thing.”
Sissix sighed and rested her head back against her girlfriend’s. “I guess not.”
#
Two days later, Ohan sat next to her at breakfast. “Did you know that an Aandarisk feather holds thirty two percent more insulation than a Sianat’s hair?”
Sissix stared at the blue quadrupedal alien. “Wait… One feather is better than your entire fur coat?” She was suddenly very concerned about how well he was handling the ship’s cold temperatures.
The sianat blinked. “Um… No, I meant that a feather was more insulating than a single hair.”
Corbin, the ship’s Algaeist (and Sissix’s ward, much to her chagrin) was sitting across the table with a bowl of porridge. He raised an eyebrow. “A feather has a lot more mass than a hair though.”
Ohan looked confused. “Why is that relevant?”
Jenks, the ship’s AI tech, perked up from across the table. “I think what Corbin is saying is that it’s not particularly impressive for something big to have more capacity to retain heat than something small.” He took a sip of tea. “It is rather implied by the laws of thermodynamics.”
Ohan looked unconvinced. “That is an insufficiently detailed model of the physics at play. An object’s mass, or more accurately the thickness of the material between two surfaces of different heats, is only part of the equation. Even in a purely conduction based model the thermal conductivity of materials is quite different. Most heat sinks are much less effective at retaining heat than a feather and they can weigh a lot more.”
The ship’s AI chimed in through the voxes. “Well yeah, but that’s due to surface area am I right? And I guess the thermal conductivity too… Um… Sorry.”
“Oh you’re fine Tycho,” Kizzy said, striding back from the kitchen with a pastry in hand. “You’re allowed to talk and a cube of silver is so much more thermally conductive than a hunk of glass. Sorry Jenks, I’m with Ohan on this one.”
Sissix was getting a headache. She turned to the sianat. “Let’s just simplify this. For a given mass and surface area, which is the more effective thermal insulator, Sianat fur or Aandarisk feathers?”
The entire room turned to him expectantly.
Ohan winced. “Um… Sianat fur.” He suddenly became very pre-occupied with stirring his oatmeal.
#
Two days later, Sissix was molting, and she was not happy about it.
Her hated clothing chafed at her entire body and she grumbled as she tromped down the hall to med bay trying to remember as many curses in as many different languages as possible.
Unfortunately, the ship’s resident navigator was blocking her path with a goofy grin on his face and a strange metal ball in his forelimbs.
Sissix rolled her eyes. “Ohan, whatever this is. I don’t have time for it okay? I’m-”
He held up a forelimb to stop her. “Molting right? Don’t worry. I can help!”
That said, he threw the ball into the air where it promptly floated over Sissix’s head and exploded in a burst of light.
Sissix stumbled back, momentarily blinded. “Ohan what the-!?”
And that’s when Sissix realized.
The pain, the itchiness, it was all gone. She looked down at her perfectly buffed new scales. “Holy… How!?”
Ohan looked practically giddy. “I built a drone that scans your body and gets rid of your damaged dermal layer! It just took a few bits of scrap and a tiny ambi charge I picked up last time we were in port.”
Sissix stared at her claws. The gold curls of paint had been stripped away, but that was more than a fair trade off. “That… Ohan, this is incredible! You could make a fortune sell-”
And that’s when she looked down. “Wait… What happened to my clothes?”
Ohan Froze. His eyes widened. “Um… I… I guess the algorithm thought they were dead skin?”
Sissix glared at the Navigator. “Ohan! Those were expensive!”
The Sianat looked down. “I’m sorry… I-”
Sissix held up a claw. “Oh no, now you listen here mister. Your drone is very nice and all, but you can’t go around disintegrating people’s things without asking.”
Ohan looked down. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think-”
“No- you didn’t think! And-”
Sissix’s well deserved rant was cut short as Corbin turned the corner and froze, staring at the naked Aandarisk in the hallway.
What’s he looking… ? Right, humans are weird about that.
Sissix covered herself with her claws. “Sorry! This nudity is completely accidental!”
“It’s true!” Ohan chimed in. “I condensed her clothes and dead dermal cells into a diamond!”
Coribin raised a finger, lowered it... and turned around and walked back the way he came, saying nothing.
Sissix looked down at herself and sighed. “I’m going to go get dressed.”
#
Sissix was not in the habit of bothering crewmates with sensory issues, but enough was enough.
She rapped on Ohan’s door. “Ohan! We need to talk!”
The door slid open, revealing a sheepish Sianat wearing a pair of sunglasses. His fur was slicked with discomfort. “Sissix! Hello…” He stepped back, allowing the Aandarisk into his modest (though somewhat more full than usual) quarters. “So… I know you’re probably still mad, but I’ve ordered you some new clothes and-”
“Ohan, stop. I don’t even care about the stupid clothes.” Sissix let out a breath and plopped herself into one of the room’s waiting cushions. “Look, you’ve been acting really weird lately and I have no idea what you’re trying to say to me. Can you please just talk to me like a sapient being and explain to me what’s going on?”
The sianat stopped. He sat down on a cushion of his own and looked at the floor. “I was trying to do nice things for you.”
Sissix blinked, processing this information. In a weird way, it fit. “Okay… I appreciate that, but what prompted all of this?”
He looked away. “I... wanted to be part of the family.”
Sissix’s expression softened. Oh . “Ohan... you’re already part of the family. The crew cares about you. I care about you. You don’t have anything you need to prove.”
And then it hit her. She reached behind her neck and plucked out a single feather. “Is this what you wanted?”
An aandarisk feather. A symbol of family. Of connection. It wasn’t something you gave out every day.
Ohan shook his head, still not meeting her expression. “Not like this…” he was practically burying himself in his cushion. “I… I wanted to be your feather brother. But I want…”
He looked away. “I don’t want to pressure you into it.” He winced. “Which… I just realized I was trying to do in a backwards way.”
Sissix considered his words. He was right that the situation was strange, but… “There’s something I should apologize for too.”
Ohan perked up. “What?”
Sissix let out a breath. Then put the feather in front of him. “I’m sorry I didn’t give this to you sooner.”
The navigator opened his mouth, but Sissix held up a claw. “The reason, the only reason I didn’t give you a feather years ago was because I didn’t think you’d want it. Because I didn’t think…”
Sissix actually felt herself tearing up. She’d never felt more melodramatic. “Ohan, for the longest time you were so quiet. So aloof, so… cold.”
Now it was Sissix’s turn to look away. “Or at least that’s what I thought you were. I don’t know if the you I’m talking to now didn’t exist, or was trapped or… I don’t know when you stopped being the kind of person who wanted to be alone and became the kind of person who builds weird personal hygiene drones to make someone else feel better-”
He winced. “Again, I’m really sorry about that.”
“Don’t be, I got two extra itch free days out of it. We’re going to have to talk marketing later. Anyway…”
She let out a breath. “Look. I… I didn’t understand you. And even when you saved my life back by that angry little planet I didn’t reach out the way I should have… Permission to put a claw on your shoulder?”
His eyes widened. “Um… Granted.”
Sissix put it there and met his eyes. His fur was so soft... “I should have made it clear you were my family a long time ago.”
Ohan stared at her. “Can… Can I give you a hug?”
The pilot smiled. “Any time I’m not at the controls.”
Sissix was enveloped by a warm, fluffy embrace as the Sianat gripped her tight. Sissix returned the hug with gusto. She chuckled. “Love you too Ohan.”
Ohan pulled back for a moment. “Oh, by the way. Before I forget. I’ve been developing some different sensory desires lately and I was wondering… Would you have any interest in exploring them with me?”
Sissix knew where this was going. She smiled. “With pleasure.”