Original Fiction: The Stranger Who Sojourns With You

[bramblepatch]

(Crossposted from Patreon, SFW, 1,197 words. Gen. Content warnings: implied death of a parent, implied self-loathing, religious themes.

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Rosemarie had been onboard the Uncertainty for nearly two years before Jim Meqaem ever spoke to her.

This, in itself, wasn’t really so strange. Graey Jim – as she’d been known by most of the crew ever since James “Human Jim” Chang had signed on a decade ago – wasn’t the only graey on the Uncertainty to keep her distance from the rest of the crew and associate mostly with her own family. And as far as Rosemarie was aware, all of the graeys on the ship were Jim’s family; she was a cousin of some sort to the captain of the ship, although far enough along a branch of the family that Rosemarie wasn’t sure what the exact relation was between Jim Meqaem and Captain Aem III. Common wisdom held that graeys had difficulty relating to anyone who wasn’t a direct blood relative – but then, common wisdom held that humans were criminally reckless and could survive practically anything, so perhaps common wisdom ought to be taken with a grain of salt.

Most humans, to Rosemarie’s knowledge, had never even said the words “Hold my beer and watch this,” so probably there were a good many graeys who saw aliens as something other than interesting creatures to observe in their not-so-natural environments. Rosemarie had no complaints about Aem III as a captain or as an employer. But although Rosemarie mingled easily with the rest of the crew, she rarely interacted with the captain or most members of the captain’s family on anything other than official business and she wasn’t entirely sure what Jim even did, professionally speaking, so it was a little surprising to come into the ship’s small, rather utilitarian chapel one morning and find the little alien sitting crosslegged on a bench next to the door.

To tell the truth, it took her a moment to recognize Jim. Rosemarie was good with faces, even across species – a skill she’d spent no little time cultivating – but to say that the family resemblance among House Aem was a strong one would be to dramatically understate the matter. One smooth gray-green head and set of large dark eyes looked pretty much like another, although she’d be embarrassed to admit it.

Graey Jim apparently had no such problem in recognizing the human, though. “You’re the one supposed to keep people in one piece emotionally, right?”

Rosemarie lifted a brow. Jim didn’t particularly seem like a person in crisis, although graeys in general were notoriously hard to read for most other intelligent species. Abrupt and detached was more or less their baseline. “That’s one way to put it, I guess,” the human said. “Can I help you?”

“Probably not.” The words were accompanied by a slight narrowing of those huge dark eyes, an expression that Rosemarie thought was the graey equivalent of a wry smile. Jim sobered quickly, though, as she added, “I thought probably someone should make sure you’d been told about the family-house that Three’s approved to join up on the ship, though.”

“I’m not usually involved in hiring crew or booking fares around here,” Rosemarie pointed out. Still, this seemed like it was going to be a whole conversation – not least because she couldn’t remember any graeys other than those of House Aem ever being in residence on the Uncertainty before - so she took a seat next to Jim in the back of the chapel. “Assume that I don’t know.”

Jim was, apparently, unperturbed by the admission that Rosemarie was not entirely current on whatever this was. Shipboard news? Politics? Gossip? “They’ll be in a couple of adjoining suites on Deck C. Two adults – siblings, I think – and three children. They’re a remnant house, that’s why they’re so few.”

Five individuals had struck Rosemarie as an unusually small graey family group, but… “I’m not certain what that means.”

“It means all of their House-Named heirs are dead,” Jim explained flatly. “Which usually would mean that the house would reform in place under a different name, or maybe get absorbed into a related house since there aren’t many of them? But they aren’t our cousins.”

Rosemarie frowned thoughtfully, trying to chase down the implications of this, still feeling like she was missing a rather important piece of the puzzle. “Are you worried about having an unrelated family on your house’s ship?”

“What? No, we’ve got plenty of space, and anyway I’d hardly have room to complain, huh? Orphaned childless branch-born screw-up and all,” Jim said quickly, with a dismissive wave of her hand. This seemed like kind of a lot that deserved unpacking in its own right, if you asked Rosemarie, but the graey was already barreling ahead to subjects other than her own apparently rocky standing. “No, I’m just worried about them because if House Sae Remnant can’t go to their own family or keep their old home that means that something big happened. Probably something traumatic. I don’t know what, which is also odd… a small house losing their House-Named wouldn’t be headline news or anything but I should be able to find out what happened and I haven’t been able to find anything and -”

She seemed to run out of words abruptly, and picked sheepishly at the hem of her sleeve.

“And just because the Uncertainty is safe doesn’t mean they’ll feel safe,” Rosemarie supplied.

“Yes,” Jim agreed, and the affirmation seemed both abrupt and subdued after the earlier flood of words.

The silence stretched for a moment, as the graey seemed to be collecting her thoughts again; Rosemarie didn’t hurry her. “I don’t know how to... welcome them. Support them,” Jim said eventually. “It’s not really my place? I asked Three what happened to House Sae and she just said I shouldn’t bother them. But the kids, you know? They have to be scared. And it’s just two generations, so the parents can’t be much older than I am. I think they probably just lost their own parent...”

Another, shorter pause. “And then I remembered that’s kind of why we have you around, right? Part of it, anyway. I know some of the other aliens talk to you when they’re in distress, even if they’re not part of... your... star spirit thing.”

Rosemarie couldn’t help chuckling a little. “Universal Galactic Soulism,” she supplied. “I can’t make them come talk to me, but I’ll keep an eye out for them when they get here, and offer help if they seem like they need it.”

Jim nodded once, decisively – Rosemarie wasn’t sure if that was a gesture typically used by graeys, or if Jim had picked it up from the ship’s human crew members – and got to her feet. “Thank you.”

“Of course,” Rosemarie said, and then, because she couldn’t avoid worrying a little, “If you ever want to talk about anything else, my door is open, Jim.”

The suggestion seemed to take Jim a little by surprise, but after a moment she narrowed her eyes in a smile. “I guess I might take you up on that,” she said. “Some time.”

“When you’re ready,” Rosemarie agreed.

In the meantime, she thought maybe she ought to do some review on graey psychology and family structure, though.