Condition Evolution 2: A LitRPG / Gamelit Adventure by Sinclair, Kevin (black female authors txt) 📗

me an opportunity no one else would. This galaxy is shitty; if you’re not in one of the powerful groups, then you’ve little worth. If you happen to be from an out of favor race, then you're worth less than nothing.”

“Deep man. Still, you’re worth something here and always will be. If, you’ve our best interests at heart.”

“This is a great opportunity for me and I’m proud of you, giving the prisoner a chance. I know it would’ve been you who forced that through. You might be an intimidating person, but I also think you might be a genuinely good person.”

“Thanks, Calegg. I’d always try to do the best by us all. As for where we’re going, I imagine Elyek will help with that. Only, we’ll have to stay roughly on course to Weka Four, for obvious reasons.”

“At least, until we can get our new ride,” Calegg said, bouncing up and down like a kid.

“Are you glowing Calegg?”

“Oh, shit. Sorry, I was just happy. Excited for the adventure, even. I wasn’t going to burst into flames, I promise.”

“I didn’t fucking think you were. Is that something you can do, Calegg? I thought you could maybe make a little fire ball, or something.”

“Ah, well. I might also be able to coat my body with flames.”

“Really? Anything else I need to know?”

“No, no. That’s it.”

“Nice. You’re gonna be a real valuable member of the team. Don’t explode the ship though.” I pointed at him.

“I won’t. I promise,” he said, almost desperately.

“Chill, dude. I know you won’t.”

“Ha, chill. I like it. You're actually a funny guy, Shaun.”

I waved off the compliment like I’d intended the pun. I really hadn’t. I seemed to have a knack for finding them, nonetheless.

“If you’re staying we need to discuss your needs.”

“What do you mean? I’ve a bed. We have food?”

“When do you need to sleep? And, what needs doing while you rest? We should work this out now.”

“Probably a good idea. I’m happy to spend eighteen hours a day on the bridge. Although it’s a lot, it’s not unheard of. Some crews would insist upon those hours from a pilot. Also, I need to reacquaint myself with everything.

“I can manage to eat and toilet without needing someone to take over on the bridge. The other nine hours of the day I’ll sleep. We’ll need someone here for that, although I’ll have navigated our course, so it will be just the checks you’re already familiar with.”

“Sure. We’ll sort out a rotation for that. Quick question; I count twenty-seven hours in your daily plan. Is that like a thing here?”

“Yes, Captain,” he said, trying to hide his look of disdain. “A galactic standard day is, and has always been, twenty-seven hours.”

“Oh. Right, because back where we’re from there are only twenty-four hours in a day.”

“Okay. Well, I think I should break this to you now. We’re not back where you’re from and we really need to get you up to speed on galactic times, language, culture, history, social structure, ruling classes, and legal rights, or lack of them. Otherwise, you’re probably going to get us all killed.”

I don’t know why I found that so damn funny, but I fell into a laughing fit. When I finally recovered, I said, “You’re not wrong, Calegg. Lucky for you, we’re ignorant of such things or we’d have had a preconceived idea of you and turned you down flat.

“Now seriously, is eighteen hours not too much?”

I’d clearly put him off with my sudden change of direction, but this Torax dude was all over the place anyway. One minute he was meek and desperate, and the next he was acting like he was the bloody captain. I made a mental note to keep an eye on his bipolar personality.

“I’m the pilot. It’s my job. Plus, it’s not too taxing. It’s only difficult if something goes horribly wrong, if we’re landing, or taking off, or being chased. The rest of the time it’s just keeping an eye on the instruments. If, anything happens when I’m asleep just get me. Okay? “

“If you’re sure. I mean, me and Ember do have lots of training to do.”

“Yeah, go for it. Try training in a couple of the things we’ve just mentioned while you’re on.”

“You’re a cheeky bastard, Calegg. But I like you. I’ll also encourage Ember to learn all of that. I’ve a certain skill set, and I think that’ll do us all more good than me reading up on galactic social structures, or whatever the fuck you said earlier.”

“I’ll take your word for it, Captain.”

After that odd exchange, I went to find Ember to let her know Calegg was still cool with everything. She was still in the room she’d assigned Elyek. “You okay, guys?” I asked as I entered.

Elyek nodded, sitting sheepishly on the bed.

I continued, “Calegg is more than happy to stay on with us. He’s also gonna be flying the ship for eighteen hours a day. We agreed in the nine hours he needs to sleep we’ll divide monitoring the bridge between us. That’s three hours each.”

“Sounds doable,” Ember said.

“Elyek, you said you were part of a small crew. What did you do? What other jobs were there? We’re a bit green, and well, any advice is welcome,” I asked.

“Oh. Well, I can fly most craft apart from the heavy classes, where I can function as part of the flight team. Other than turning invisible and acquiring things, my main skills lie in computing. I can pretty much hack anything I’ve ever come across.

“I can help with any of the jobs that come up, but on the whole space flight is pretty boring and there’s not much to do. The computer does it all for you, including the maintenance. Unless, something physical comes up. We had this one crew mate who kept blocking his toilet. Still, that was his problem. We usually just kept moving to our next job.”

“We’re probably gonna need a job after we drop you off because, I’ll be honest