"Ready to go?" A voice from up front asked as Minna adjusted the straps holding her to the seat and looked up towards the front of the shuttle.

I could tell she was not happy about being a passenger instead of the pilot.

It had been a week since Ivy talked to me about the massive cargo ship. Minna had actually seemed excited about it when Trenil filled her in, so I had been growing curious as to what it would be like, and it had apparently arrived at some point during the night. I had tried to spot the ship in the sky after the Morning Song, since it sounded like it would be big enough to see from the ground, but I hadn't been able to spot anything.

We had headed to the spaceport like we had every other workday, and had met up with Minna's guards... and then we had waited.

And waited, and waited, and waited.

And then I had caught a nap on Minna's shoulder. And when I woke up, just to switch things up a bit, we had waited some more.

It was nearly noon when a large shuttle landed near us. The pilot had waved us over, and Minna's father had led the way. He seemed to be unusually cautious today, and had been the only one that hadn't relaxed while we were waiting.

But we were finally ready to leave.

Everybody nodded or otherwise confirmed they were ready. Minna reached to her shoulder and picked me up, moving me to her lap and holding me firmly, then nodded back to the pilot. "We're good."

The pilot nodded and began messing with the controls in front of him. Nothing happened for a moment except for the sound of the engine growing louder... then the shuttle lurched under us, and I felt it tilt around us.

I bent my neck around Minna's hand to try and get a view through one of the windows. The buildings of the spaceport were already falling away, and with each second they were moving faster and faster.

That wasn't very unusual - this wasn't my first shuttle ride, though usually Minna didn't care if I sat on her shoulder or even flew around the cabin. So I was more than used to the sight outside the window. It didn't seem like anything special so far...

The sound of the engines grew suddenly louder, and the entire shuttle tilted again. I flattened my ear tufts in annoyance at the sound, then squawked as gravity suddenly pulled me towards the back of the shuttle, instead of the bottom. It was completely sudden and there was a lot of force pushing on me, and I would have fallen out of Minna's lap if she hadn't been holding me. The engine whined for another second or two... then it roared loudly, and the shuttle began rocketing upwards.

It took me a few seconds to get used to the tremendous force pushing at me. I realized I had been digging my claws into Minna's armor and forced myself to relax. I glanced back out at the window.

Empty sky was all around us. There wasn't anything to focus on to tell how fast we were moving. I squirmed a little in the hands holding me to try and get a view of the ground, but no amount of wiggling or bending my neck showed me anything.

I thought I heard Minna saying something, but the sound of the engines drowned everything out. A moment later she said something again, but it was still drowned out.

The engine was very loud, and there was nothing to see anyways. I gave an annoyed warble that was lost in the roar of the engine and tried to settle down in Minna's lap.

After what felt like forever - but which was probably only ten minutes - the sound of the engine grew quieter. It didn't feel like we had slowed down, though. I peeked out around Minna's hand to look out the window.

The blue sky was gone. There was nothing but blackness outside.

"How about now?" I looked back at Minna as I heard her speak again. The engine was just a distant hum now and I could clearly hear her.

"We're clear of the atmosphere. Give me a second to reorient, then I'll switch us over." The pilot answered from the front of the shuttle and went back to the controls.

The entire shuttle shifted again, and I felt myself pulled towards the ceiling, as if I had been flying upside down. The shuttle must have rolled over, so that now the Earth was above us instead of beneath us. I looked out the window in case there was anything to see...

The pull towards the ceiling suddenly vanished, replaced with the usual pull towards the floor.

My head swam from all the sudden directional changes. I felt a little queasy.

"Okay, we're on artificial gravity now." The pilot nodded from the front of the ship. "That should be it until we head back to the surface."

"Thank you." Minna's hands relaxed from around me and shifted to pet over my back. I was still a little out of sorts from everything shifting and moving around so quickly, so I waited in her lap for a few minutes and let her calm me down.

I listened to the hum of the engine until my stomach settled, then I got to my feet and hopped the short distance to the window. It had a tiny ledge before it that I was able to grab on to, and I used that to steady myself as I looked outside.

Space was... scary, actually. It was just nothing but darkness. Even the stars didn't really look right - they seemed smaller, somehow, as if the light from them was narrower and skinny. It was just an ominous emptiness all around, with tiny holes of light.

I looked down and saw only more darkness. I shook my head and felt stupid - it really did feel like the ground should be 'beneath' me, but I knew the shuttle must still be upside down. I looked up instead.

The curve of Earth shown brilliantly above us. It was just like all the pictures and videos I had seen as a human. Clouds, endless stretches of bright blue oceans, smaller clumps of land. The whole thing seemed to glow above us, brighter than I would have imagined.

We were racing along very quickly. At this angle I couldn't see the entire planet, but I could still get an idea for how fast we were moving by how quickly the land or clouds came in and out of view. I had no idea how large the landmasses were, but even if they were small... we were still going very, very fast.

After a few minutes of watching I saw darkness swallow up the glow. The oceans and clouds were all still visible, and were still brighter than the creepy void that was everywhere else, but it was darker than it had been. We were now on the night side of the planet.

It was actually even prettier.

"Do you think he wants out?" One of the younger guards spoke up from his seat. I glanced back at him and saw he had taken off the seatbelt, though he was still sitting in the chair. Most of the Kymari had undone their straps, actually - other than the pilot and Minna, they had all taken them off.

I wondered if it was something about the pilot training that made Kymari want to keep that extra bit of protection for longer... or if there was something about the guard training that made Kymari want to be able to move.

"Maybe. He didn't seem to appreciate the noise of the engine. He might want out." Minna watched me for a second, then looked past me and out the window.

The pilot glanced back at us and frowned. "Do we need to worry about him trying to break open the window?"

Minna shook her head. "No. I requested this military model shuttle with that specifically in mind, despite the extra noise, since I wasn't sure how he would react. His claws won't be able to puncture anything if he panics. Neither will his fire if he decides to use that. We're safe." Minna paused, then pointed out the window. "Look, there they are."

I made certain to stare at Minna's finger for a moment - the biggest thing that had always stood out to me about animals was how they always stared at your finger, not the direction you pointed, and I made sure to do that whenever Minna pointed at something - then turned to look back out the window as if I had decided to all on my own.

The Earth was still visible above us, but I could also make something out in the darkness of space. At first it was just a gray speck, and I mistook it for a large star, but as we grew closer it began to take form. It was actually three shapes - one large gray blob, with two smaller ones following it.

The large blob became more defined with each passing second. It was actually very angled, and was much wider than it was tall. I stared at it as it became clearer and tried to understand what I was looking at - and more importantly, why it had been designed that way.

It looked like somebody had taken two barges and smooshed them together. There were small openings randomly along the middle, where the two 'barges' met, possibly meant to be windows, or maybe something to help refuel the ship. The passenger ships we had inspected often had those - places where hoses could be connected to pump in water, or air, or other things the ship would need. This ship didn't look that different from one of those passenger ships, even if it was a little bit bigger. And I still couldn't make out those smaller blurs. Could they be shuttles? Companion ships, meant to help with ferrying supplies around?

I watched the ship through the window as we sped towards it... and had to rework my understanding of what I was looking at.

The ship wasn't small - we were just very far away from it still.

Over the next few minutes, the vessel grew to fill the entire window. It was huge. The openings I had mistaken for windows or fueling ports were actually large enough to fly an entire passenger liner through, with room to spare. The sections between those openings were simply massive, and would have had room to hold any number of goods and supplies.

This ship could hold a lot of shia fruits.

The two ships alongside it were now large enough to dwarf the passenger ships I had inspected, though they looked much more similar to what I was used to than the large freighter. They were clearly Kymari designs, though meant for something other than simply carrying people from place to place. From the various protrusions I could spot - most of which seemed aimed in the direction of the freighter - I got the feeling they were military vessels of some kind.

Making it park on the far side of the planet from our cities, and having two warships escorting it... it seemed obvious that the Kymari did not trust this ship.

The pilot adjusted some of the controls on the console, and the shuttle began banking towards one of the openings. "Ilrivian freighter, we are beginning our final approach. Please provide docking instructions."

Ilrivian? Was that the name of the alien race that crewed this ship? That was the first time I had heard a name for them - Minna hadn't mentioned it in any of the conversations I had overheard, and everybody had seemed to know what she was talking about when she said 'the freighter'. It wasn't like there were any other freighters coming, after all.

The Blood Memories didn't give me any information on the word, so I assumed it had no information on the species. Though I supposed the word could mean any number of other things too. 'Ilrivian' could be the name of the nation, or the trading company that the ship belonged to, or even just the name of the ship itself. I didn't have anything else to call them, though, so 'the Ilrivians' would work until I learned otherwise.

The pilot seemed to listen to something in his headset, then nodded and began tapping on the console. The shuttle turned again and began slowing down, sliding slowly towards the large bays I could now see lining the sides of the opening. The pilot continued talking to somebody else through his headset, though it was about complicated subjects like approach vectors and speeds, so I tuned him out. If he messed something up, I was sure Minna would fix it.

I was much more interested in that ship. It was huge! How did they power that thing? The electricity requirements must be enormous. Air conditioning and heating, lighting, all the computers something like that had to require, refrigerators for food, or for perishable trade items, the machinery for moving all the supplies the vessel could carry... not to mention whatever was needed to actually move that thing...

"-place stinks. Are you smelling this?" I heard a faint voice through the mindlink. It took me a second to place it - it was Tom, the purple dragonet that had helped me a few months back.

Ivy replied with a voice that was just as faint. "It's everywhere. Did they paint the walls in this stuff? I'm already getting a headache."

"Same. I'm not sure I'll make it through an entire shift at this rate."

Another voice joined in, though it seemed a bit stronger than Ivy's and Tom's. I recognized it as a normally quiet red dragonet who had joined up with the Kymari a bit before I had joined Minna, though I didn't know her too well and couldn't recall her name at the moment, beyond that it was some kind of flower. Marigold? Daisy? Tulip? Something. "The Kymari aren't going to like this. They tried to schedule everything so we could clear this as fast as possible; if we have to cut out early... ugh, what even is this stuff..."

I imagined 'thinking' to the world around me - I had only used the 'general' mindlink a handful of times, and as a dragonet my hands held very little, so it still took a bit of effort to do. "Hi everybody. We're docking now."

"Hi Nate!" Ivy's voice was still faint, but I could hear a new sense of happiness in it. The rest of the dragonets sent their own greetings. In total there were four of them, with Tom's mate, Serena, rounding out the group. That was what I had expected - aside from Tasha and Keegan, all of the 'bonded' dragonets were here. Well. At least now that I had arrived.

The other dragonets all sounded much less cheerful than Ivy. That wasn't that unusual - I think most of the other dragonets still held a few grudges towards me because of what had been done to them in the lab, even if they had warmed up a little towards me over the past few months - but I also picked up a bit of frustration in their voices that I didn't think was my fault.

At least, I hoped that it wasn't my fault.

"How are things going?"

"Not well. We've been at it for about fifteen minutes now. We've picked up a few scattered scents, but something in the air on this ship is..." Ivy trailed off as searching for words.

"It smells like hospital detergents mixed with paint fumes. And it's everywhere." The scarlet dragonet jumped in for Ivy, and followed it up with a sensation of a strong smell that... well. Smelled exactly like somebody had dumped a bunch of bleach into paint, then mixed in some sour milk for good measure. It was a horribly acrid stench.

I wrinkled my nose and shook my head. "Yuck."

Minna noticed my reaction and held up her hand. "Come here, Nate; we'll be landing soon, and then you can fly around."

I reluctantly left my perch on the window and flew back to Minna. She brought out the shorter 'patrol' leash and clipped it back onto my harness, then I went back to craning my neck to look out the window.

"It's bad enough we have to deal with this stuff in our noses; the least you could do is not put it in our heads." Serena chimed in with an annoyed tone. "New rule; no sending this smell over the mindlink."

"What, and let Tasha and Keegan miss out on all the fun we're having?" The rest of the dragonets chuckled at Ivy's retort.

"...okay, we can send it to them. But the rest of us have suffered enough!"

The general mindspeech filled with laughter again. I took that as a good sign - we had a lot of work ahead of us, and if the others were laughing and joking, then that meant the smell couldn't be that bad.

I watched as the shuttle slowed to a stop before a wall of the freighter. I was confused as to why we were stopping until the wall began to slowly split apart. It took several long minutes to open all the way, then the pilot nudged the shuttle into a simple bay. He sat us down on the floor, then the large door began creeping closed behind us.

The Kymari seemed perfectly content with waiting through the process, which... helped me a little bit. I was getting impatient with how long it was taking and was a little anxious to begin.

I listened to the other dragonets complain about their searches while the door closed behind us, then waited even longer while the pilot tapped various things on his console and spoke into his headset. Finally, after what felt like way too long to do something as simple as dock with a giant freighter, the pilot turned back towards us. "The bay is sealed and we've got air pressure outside. You're good to get started."

"Thank you." Minna began undoing the safety straps and climbed out of her seat. I balanced on her hand and peered back through the windows, but it seemed like an empty room around us. Aside from the large door we had flown in through and a smaller door on the far side, there was nothing in the room.

Minna's father stepped to the door of the shuttle and tapped the controls. The door split open, allowing the outside air to rush in... and I became instantly aware of the stench the other dragonets had described. If anything, the mindlink had caused the stench to lose some of its sting. I squawked and shook in indignation, rustling my scales enough to cause them to chime lightly, but the smell continued to fill my nose. "Yuck!!"

"Sounds like Nate's landed. Welcome aboard!" Tom's smug tone would have annoyed me if not for the undercurrent of sympathy in it. Nobody was happy with the stench, and they were just glad to not be suffering through it alone.

Though now that I could smell it, I would have been more than happy to have left them to it.

I looked at Minna to see how she was taking the stench. She was watching me with an expression equal parts alert and curious, but other than that she didn't seem to be bothered by anything. None of the other Kymari seemed to notice anything wrong, either. The guards had all filed out of the shuttle and taken up positions around it, weapons at the ready, but they didn't appear bothered by anything. Which seemed impossible - I was drowning in the scent. It felt like somebody had loaded an air freshener with the scent and was spraying it directly at my nose. How could anyone not smell it? "Can the Kymari not smell this?"

Annoyance came back with Ivy's answer. "Not as far as we can tell. Or if they do, it isn't bothering them. Trenil mentioned something when we first landed about it smelling like they had just cleaned, but that was it. I guess this is supposed to be some chemical they use to sterilize ships."

"I can't imagine anybody using this stuff if they could actually smell it." I fanned out my wings and shook again, then jumped up to Minna's shoulder. It actually helped a little - the familiar scent of Minna, and Kymari in general, helped distract me from the other odor. Even the scent of her shampoo made a tiny dent in the pervasive stench. I edged along her shoulder and got as close to her helmet as I could. I half wished she would take the thing off - the extra protection of the helmet was necessary, but I would have appreciated just sticking my nose in her hair and breathing in anything else.

"Nate? Are you okay?" Minna frowned at me and reached up to pet my back.

Kilpin glanced back through the shuttle door at us. "The bay is clear. Is he okay?"

"I'm not sure. I think he smells something, but he's not reacting like he does to a crawler or a sicora. I don't think he's scared or angry. More..." Minna trailed off. I helped her out by hissing, then reaching up to rub at my face. "Annoyed. I don't think he's happy up here."

Kilpin turned back to the dock and slowly looked around it, as if searching for any sign of danger. I noticed the other guards doing the same. After a minute or two of looking, Kilpin shook his head. "This is just a standard passenger bay. I don't see anywhere anything could be hiding at, or any signs the walls are concealing anything." He looked at the device at his wrist. "Our escort is still on the way. Maybe one of the other handlers will have an idea of what's bothering him? They'll probably be glad to know we've arrived, too."

I recognized one of the subtle hints Kilpin tended to give - not an outright order, but a bit of helpful advice to give Minna direction when she was confused as to what to do next.

Minna nodded and stepped out of the shuttle, grabbing her tablet as she did. She tapped on it a few times before it made the familiar beep sound I had come to associate with a phone call, then Trenil's voice emerged from it. "Trenil speaking."

The other handler did not sound happy.

"This is Minna. We've just landed and are waiting for the ship's escort before starting our route." She tapped the tablet again and I saw what seemed to be a map of the ship, with a tiny portion of it highlighted in blue. A few of the rooms seemed to have dots in them, though I couldn't tell what they represented. "My map is working and I have today's schedule loaded."

"How's Nate doing?"

Minna looked back at me and caught me rubbing my nose again. It was impossible for my hands to get the scent out of my nose, but it made me feel a lot better to at least try. "He started acting odd as soon as we disembarked. It doesn't seem like when he's spotted a ktari or a crawler though; I'm not sure what he's reacting to."

"Annoyed? Rubbing his head a lot?"

"Yes."

"All of the fire lizards are doing that. There is something in the air they don't like, but we can't figure out what it is. Our best guess is that it's a cleaning agent. It seems like the ship was cleaned very thoroughly on the trip here."

Minna's father shot a glance at her tablet, then looked back around the room with narrowed eyes. He walked over to one of the walls and held his hand against it. The rest of the Kymari were all wearing similar looks of suspicion, though they stayed around Minna. Even Minna started looking around nervously. "Does that mean what I think it means?"

Trenil took a moment before responding. "It... could be nothing. The crew wouldn't have had anything to do on this trip, since there wasn't any cargo to bring. They might have just decided to take advantage of the free time to clean everything."

"Or they could be trying to cover up something." Minna took her hand away from me and brought it to rest by the knife at her side.

"It's starting to look like that. Stay polite, but stay alert. And take your time - Alec is already looking at redoing our schedules; we want to make sure the fire lizards can still catch any sicora scents through this. Don't let your escort rush you. If Nate seems confused or uncertain, take him back through until he's sure. We've all come across a few rooms like that so far."

"Got it."

Trenil hesitated as if he wanted to say more but was choosing his next words carefully. "Trust Nate. Keep a close eye on him for any signs that something else is wrong. He knows what he's doing by this point."

Minna frowned at the tablet but nodded. "I will."

"Okay." Trenil's voice sounded heavy, as if he wasn't sure if Minna had gotten the hint he was dropping but wasn't willing to say anything more. "Let me know if you find anything or if anything changes. I'll let Alec know you've arrived and are getting started on your areas. I'll call you back if anything new comes up."

"Thanks." Minna tapped the tablet and it made the familiar 'bonk' sound as the call ended. She slipped the tablet into a pocket of her armor, then went back to petting over my back. I knew it was meant to be calming... but all of the Kymari were clearly on edge now, and I could see her hand still hovering near her knife.

We waited in silence for a few more minutes before a hissing sound came from the smaller door. It slid slowly open to reveal two aliens standing on the other side. I recognized them - I still didn't know the name of their race and the Blood Memories were just as unhelpful when I checked them again, but it was the same type of alien that I had met back in the market so many months ago. Their clothing was different, but they had the same brown fur and the same features that subtly reminded me of cats. Even if their race wasn't called 'Ilrivian', it was still as good a name for them as any other I had.

It was hard to tell what their expressions meant, but I had a feeling they were annoyed.

They noticed the posture of the Kymari and moved their hands to their hips, where they each had guns of some sort. Neither of them drew their weapons, though - I wasn't sure what those guns did, but I could still tell they were outnumbered five to two if they tried anything. Six to two, if I got involved. It was probably just a nervous habit that made them feel better, like when I extended my claws when I was annoyed.

I only then noticed I had been digging my claws into Minna's armor. I made an effort to pull them back, then I rubbed at my nose again. That smell just would not go away...

"Are you ready?" The Ilrivians stopped a few paces away and glared at us. The one in the lead looked at Minna and clearly saw me perched on her shoulder, but looked away from her to instead direct his comments towards Morton. "We understand you need to go through the crew sections?"

Minna cleared her throat and stepped forwards. "Yes. Please show us to the aft rooms on deck twelve. We'll be starting there."

The alien deliberately looked away from Morton and stared blankly at Minna, as if not impressed by what he was seeing. I felt Minna's shoulder tense and realized she was squeezing the knife a little tighter.

It seemed a fairly obvious ploy to try and provoke Minna for some purpose - possibly to have an excuse to pull us off the search? It had managed to annoy her, though. I doubted she was about to actually attack the alien, but she clearly wasn't happy with him.

I closed my eyes and tried not to think too much about what I was planning, then inhaled deeply. The stench filled my nostrils even more than before, becoming strong enough that I could even taste it in my mouth. I gagged on the scent and coughed, then coughed again. I hopped on Minna's shoulder and fanned out my wings for balance while the coughing fit did its best to clear my lungs and throat of that horrid stench.

By the time I had recovered I could tell Minna had calmed down. Her shoulder had relaxed, and she was holding her knife hand back at her side, with the knife still in its sheath. She continued to stare at the alien, but it was a patient expression now, just waiting for him to answer her.

He watched us for a few more seconds before slowly looking back at me. "Is your beast sick? We have quarantine protocols we will need to enact if he has an illness."

"He is perfectly fine. It just seems that something in your ship's air disagrees with him." Minna glanced towards the other alien and wrinkled her own nose a little. "The fire lizards have extremely sensitive noses. I would assume it is nothing more than your ship's hygiene systems being overtaxed and in need of maintenance."

I saw Minna's father break into a slight grin.

"Can you take us to deck twelve now, please? I was under the impression there was some urgency to this inspection, and that your captain was interested in returning to your trade schedule as quickly as possible."

The alien glared back at Minna for another second, then nodded. "Of course. Follow me."

The two Ilrivians went back through the door, and we filed into the simple hallway after them. The door closed behind us and the walls made a hissing sound for a few seconds, then the far door opened. We followed the aliens down several more hallways, up and down stairways, and through several other doors.

The stench somehow managed to grow stronger as we went, which I would have sworn was impossible until it happened.

Finally the lead Ilrivian stepped to the side of a hallway and motioned ahead of us. "Here we are. Deck twelve aft, crew quarters."

"Thank you." Minna sheathed her knife and withdrew her tablet. I noticed that one of the dots on the map had moved into the blue section. Minna scrutinized it for a moment, then nodded and began to unwind the leash from around her wrist. "Okay, Nate."

"Go seek."