"Seriously, I mean it, though. You act like a person who has been in charge for the past decade, because you have been in charge for the past decade, and you have to stop because it will get people tortured and you killed."

"I can, in fact, act."

"What would you do if an Alte ordered you to do something that was really stupid?"

"...Tell them politely that it was not a very good idea...?"

"Nope. You suck it up and do it anyway."

"But--"

"To the Alteri, you're not a person. You're a trained dog. No one wants a dog who's suddenly started having opinions about the most effective way to hunt rabbits."

"...We are all going to die."

"Speaking of, we are almost certainly being watched by a psyon right now."

"Yeah, I thought about that. There is no way in all the nine hells and twelve heavens that we will be able to keep up a facade that is impenetrable to psyons-- well, I could for a while, but I'm going to slip, and you're hopeless. But that psyon helped us, right? She didn't tell them about Elara, she got you assigned to the same job as me--"

"Yeah, as a spacer."

"I'm sure she has her reasons which we'll find out soon enough. So either she's got it covered, in which case there's no point in worrying about it and in fact we should talk about Elara so she has as much information as possible, or we're dead, in which case there's no point worrying about it. So I'm not going to worry about it." 

"Aaaaand I'm going to spend all day tomorrow worrying about how we're going to die."

"It'll be a change from worrying about puking in your spacesuit!"

"I hate you so much."

"Hey, nice psyon lady, Vel used to run half the government, do something with that."

"So, so much."

With that, Vel rests his head on Sher's shoulder and falls asleep. 

Cuddling in a bunk is not a very practical way to sleep. Tomorrow, they will sleep in their own separate bunks. But today he was enslaved and tomorrow he might die, so he thought it was worth the indulgence.

Imrainai sleeps for exactly six hours, then forces herself out of bed when her alarm sounds at 0537. A two-minute shower, a change of clothes, and half a nutrient block allow her to reach something resembling functionality, and she's ready to go at exactly 0546. She'll probably feel really good about herself by 0600. 

"So. All set?"

Sher grins. "I am refreshed, mistress, after last night's rest."

Vel is less happy.

"I hate thee. I hate thee so much. Wherefore art thou like this?"

"Good enough," she declares, and leads them out the door. It's important to be able to give explanations while you walk. "You have two weeks, so we're gonna cover biosuits and basic safety info and get you started on zero G navigation and how to use your tools, so at least you won't look wildly incompetent. You're just not gonna learn the engineering stuff in two weeks, at all, so we're not gonna try, but I can maybe get you to executing specific instructions that you get from Alteri on the ships. OK?"

Soooomeone has not met Sher. 

"I like this plan. It delays me vomiting!"

"Oh no, we're gonna start zero G today, zero G takes practice. But safety regs are really the thing to cover first."

They climb up a ladder. The upper decks have less apparent gravity than the lower ones, and then there's a central section of the ship that doesn't spin at all and accordingly has no centrifugal force to stick people to the floor.

She checks behind her to see how Vel's handling the shift.

Vel is clutching the wall and looks slightly sick!

Sher is walking along without apparently noticing the shift in gravity, notices Vel, tosses an arm around him, and gets him moving much more quickly.