Nyx enters her room. There, she finds two bags attached to a hook by her desk. One has more medicine. The stuff to stop her from getting whatever cancer is? There’s also a note: “Don’t forget we need to fix the heart defect.”

  Nyx touches above her heart. She’d forgotten she had heart issues.

  The other bag has clothing in it and is much larger. She takes these out and takes them to Cai’s room, where she puts them away. Mostly more of the things he called boxers in various colors and shirts with various designs and colors. She takes boxers that are teal, like the teal on their spacesuits, and a shirt that’s light and shows off her belly.

  She then takes a quick shower and then swallows her medicine.

  Cai is in his sleeping sling with the VR headset on when she leaves the bathroom.

  Nyx straps herself to the desk chair and picks up her VR ring. It’s the first time she’s been alone and free to do what she wants without Cai there. Did he really trust her so much already? Of course, the Donati would probably tell him if she did anything she wasn’t supposed to.

  She looks at the ring. Maybe she could go back to the boat or shoot guns? With all the grief she’s felt over the last day, she needed something to distract her.

  She looks at Cai. What does he do for fun or to get rid of stress? “Donati, will ya be openin’ Cai’s favorite thing for havin’ fun?”

  She puts on the VR ring and soon the world spins.

  Nyx is on Earth again, or something like Earth. She’s on an outside hallway or whatever those on planets call the places people walk from house to house, of which there are many. Unlike the house by the lake, these look older and crude and made from… she’s not sure what they’re made from other than some rocks stacked on each other, some white stuff for the walls, and brown stuff that looks rough and textured that’s holding the white walls together. Probably stuff only found on planets, and she sees no metal. Many of them have signs that give her an idea of what the house is for, such as food, tools, or stacking shiny flat discs. Many also have storage containers outside of them, most boxes, but some cylindrical with flat tops and bottoms.

  She looks at the hallway and sees it’s made from the things called ‘rocks’ that Cai mentioned for her not to run into when she drove the boat. They fit closely together and are mostly flat, but she can still feel how uneven the hallway is under her shoes.

  The surrounding area has few plants, many of which she sees growing up the sides of the houses. There’s also a few trees, grass, and something thick she thinks the owner is using as a wall.

  It smells terrible. She smells sweat, garbage, and shunk.

  Then there’s the people. There are more people here than she’s ever seen. They have darker skin than she or Cai, though not too much darker. They’re all taller than her except for a few children and several women, three with beards and two with hairy feet. Some have human ears, some are long and pointed, and even a Felis, one with triangular ears and a very fluffy tail, and another with two long ears on the top of her head and a round fluffy nub where a tail should be.

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  She notices there are no men.

  She scowls as she notices something else about the women. All of them have enormous chests so large that their clothing can’t even hope to hide their cleavage. Every single one. The Felis and the one with the long ears on the top of her head have chests so large she doesn’t understand how they’re walking upright in this gravity.

  Several women glance at her, but otherwise go about their day.

  “What the spark, Cai.” She says to herself as she walks through the crowds. Why did the Donati send her to a place filled with busty women when she asked where Cai went to have fun?”

  She knows why. She’s lived with pirates for fifteen years. Been made fun of for her flat chest.

  Looking at these women makes her feel self-conscious. Did Cai really like women with such prominent chests?

  She looks down at her body. She’s in shorts and a shirt like she had on at the shooting range. No curves to speak of. Just bones and skin.

  She looks back at the women. Would Cai ever look at her like he probably looked at these women?

  Why did she think about wanting him to look at her like he would these women? What did she want with Cai?

  He has treated her kindly. Took her in for reasons she suspects he still hasn’t been honest with her about. He even comforts her and gets happy for her when something makes her happy or excited.

  He treats her more like Wrench did than a man would treat women like these. Like a child or a daughter.

  She bristles at the thought. But why?

  Is it because she doesn’t want to be treated like a child?

  That’s part of it, but she knows why.

  She likes him as a man. He makes her feel safe and wanted. He’s handsome. She’s always watching his face, his muscles, his back.

  She blushes as she realizes this. But would he see her the same way? His tastes in women are obvious, and she’s not… that.

  She finds the Felis woman. Since there’s one here at all, it means he’s at least open to Felis women. But they couldn’t have kids because of the birth defects…

  She blushes even more. Why is she thinking about having kids with Cai!?

  “Something wrong?” She hears Cai’s voice.

  Nyx yelps and hisses from fright, her tail floofing, “Cai!?”

  She sees him walking towards her. He’s wearing metal armor engraved with beautiful designs with soft brown stuff at the joints. There’s a long thing at his waist that looks like a very long ‘t’. There’s also a ‘u’ shaped thing on his back with a wire pulled tight at the open end. Both the thing on his waist and back glow even under the light of the star overhead.

  All the women are looking at him like he’s a prize to be stolen, and several even wave. He returns their wave.

  “Ah, sorry.” He chuckles, “I saw you found my favorite game and wondered what you thought about it. It’s based on a world with fantasy races. I started with just a few companions after a shipwreck, and we built this city over the last hundred years.”

  Nyx glances at the women’s chests again, “Yer buildin’ these city things for fun?”

  She suppresses the desire to confront Cai about the women.

  “Yeah. I also go hunting monsters like those goblins you fought yesterday.”

  Nyx’s ears perk up at this, “Mya? Gobluns?” She likes shooting goblins.

  “Those are the easy monsters. Maybe someday I’ll show you how to earn skills here, learn magic, and then go kill a dragon. But we’re almost to Mars, so we should do that after we finish our business with them and the murderers.”

  Nyx growls at the mention of her siblings’ murderers, “Spark yeah, let’s be gettin’ goin’.” She pauses. She has to say something, so she points to a woman walking nearby, her chest jiggling as if taunting her with every step, “What the sparks Cai! Why’re ya makin’ their tits so sparkin’ huge!?”

  Cai blushes, “Ah, I was hoping you wouldn’t notice. It’s uh… Donati, end simulation!”