The Neko's Tail (Book 2 of Astara)

Oyhaf

A beep roused Artemis from his bed. Grumbling, he stood up and threw on his shirt. Examining his drawer of chips, the tiger sighed. To use a translator or not to use a translator?

Shrugging, the tiger left the room without the chip. It wouldn't really help him anyways.

Passing into the cockpit, he began the process of slowing the ship to just below lightspeed, before heading to the bathroom to relieve himself.

Returning to the cockpit, the tiger scanned the ship. Elias was hiding in the med bay; it had become his safe haven while Hawke roamed the ship. Speaking of the human, she appeared to be eating in the kitchen.

The tiger headed to the med bay, interrupting Elias' reading.

"Hey, we've reached Oyhaf. I'm about to power up the portal," the tiger said.

Elias nodded his understanding, closing his eyes briefly. Artemis wondered if he could find the neko a pair of glasses in the station. He'd look into it; reading was a favourite pastime of his, and if it caused the neko pain, Elias would never learn to enjoy it as he did.

Returning to the cockpit again, Artemis poked his head into the kitchen, warning Hawke of their impending jump. She responded without her usual snark. The past week had been hard on all of them, and they just wanted to get her off the ship.

Warming up the portal drive, Artemis took a deep breath. No matter how many times he did it safely, portal jumps always made him nervous. He had done his research on the Oyhaf system. There were no asteroids, it was a binary system, with two habitable planets orbiting the second star. Several planets lacking atmospheres orbited the first star, with a ringed gas giant stuck in the middle of them. The odds of them hitting something on the other side of the jump were virtually nonexistent, but still, as the ship heated around them, powering the drive, Artemis felt the chill hand of fear on his back.

Taking a deep breath, the tiger reached forward and hit the button to launch the portal. A second later, they were through, and he scanned his instruments for any threat to his ship.

Finding none, Artemis relaxed. Bringing up the galaxy map, the tiger zoomed in on the system, locating Oyhaf Station, on Oyhaf B 2. Setting the computer to fly them there, Artemis began reading up on the planet the base was on.

Elias stared at the inky void, watching the stars spin around the ship. Artemis didn't usually open the cockpit viewport this high above a planet, but this time he made an exception. It was Elias' first alien planet, after all.

But there was nothing to see, except stars rotating, making Elias dizzy. The neko sat, his stomach rumbling ominously.

"You might need to close your eyes," Artemis said. "I was a little early opening the port."

Elias did as he was told, and after a minute the spinning stopped. The neko let out a sigh of relief, followed by a burp as his stomach caught up with him, and Artemis chuckled.

"Feeling better?"

Elias nodded, then realized Artemis probably couldn't see him.

"Yes," he said quietly.

"Good," Artemis replied with a satisfied voice. "Once I find the planet, we should be landing in twenty minutes."

A minute passed before Artemis said, "Got you!"

Elias opened his eyes and gasped. A large white swirling orb floated in front of the ship.

"We're going to stay planetside for at least two days," Artemis said. "There are a few things you and I need to talk about. Can you find Hawke and tell her... Nevermind. She'll figure it out."