Sleep.
Klivam ships were all built the same, predictable, even in this century. The bridge was foremost, after the gunner, the umbilical ran against the cargo-bay, and the dilithium matrix was on top of the shield emitters. The room beside the matrix, at the center of the ship, had a separate shielding. It was the safest place, the place no one would shoot, no one would risk damaging. Doors had the best locks, best encryptions.
"Liorae."
The doors almost swallowed the sound, engulfed it and him as Nero crossed the threshold and his grip parted from the wall. The lights were hard, yellow, still Klivam but just barely. They hummed against the floor as he crossed to the mattress. Four bunks, stripped and lashed together made up one half-decent expanse of bedding. It crunched as his knees gave out and sent his weight down atop it, crackled with sound like shifting rock.
He'd slept on rock and ice long enough, it was familiar in the way it dug against his ribs, his shoulders, his neck. Nero's eyes were closed within moments, lost to thoughtless sleep. His breath was slow but only tension bled from him this time. It smelled like Ael. He was safe.
"Liorae."
The doors almost swallowed the sound, engulfed it and him as Nero crossed the threshold and his grip parted from the wall. The lights were hard, yellow, still Klivam but just barely. They hummed against the floor as he crossed to the mattress. Four bunks, stripped and lashed together made up one half-decent expanse of bedding. It crunched as his knees gave out and sent his weight down atop it, crackled with sound like shifting rock.
He'd slept on rock and ice long enough, it was familiar in the way it dug against his ribs, his shoulders, his neck. Nero's eyes were closed within moments, lost to thoughtless sleep. His breath was slow but only tension bled from him this time. It smelled like Ael. He was safe.