The Space Spoon novel Chapter 24

Tejeda’s laughter echoed throughout the room while everyone else stood there in awe at the Interplanetary Police officer. His ears turned to the glorious laughter, still pointing upward. The fur on them waved along with the motion, opening up his cochlea.

Shayla turned to Tejeda. “I don’t understand why you are laughing. Can you please explain it to us?”

“In a second,” he replied, trying to catch his breath. “I laugh because I imagined the faces of those admirals if they would find out that their outstanding officer who freshly graduated their academy is a Ferali.”

Shayla's eyes widened before she returned her attention to their new crew member. Jackeye seemed unconcerned. C1313 stood up and spoke in a solemn, unemotional tone. "One of my directives requires me to notify the superiors. All Ferali are abominations that must be exterminated."

“Do you want to make that call and see our friend here destroyed?” Tejeda asked plainly.

C1313 tilted her head, pondering over her internal drives. “No,” she stated after a while.

Tejeda gave her a huge grin. “Perfect! Then sit down and purge that directive. Learn to make a triage.”

“A triage? How am I supposed to do that?” the emotionless phosphorescent teal eyes inquired.

E00 coughed straight into their ears or via the speakers. Nobody knew for sure. "C1313, if you need assistance, connect yourself into one of my consoles and I will assist you with scanning and debugging your system."

“Don’t do that,” Tejeda whispered, holding a hand over his mouth. “He will screw you up so bad that it will be even harder for you to understand yourself. He likes to play with people’s minds.”

“I heard that!” This time E00’s voice seemed pissed as hell.

Tejeda dismissed him with a gesture of his hand. “I was joking. You two can do things however you want. I won’t intervene.” He pushed the table with his hands, sliding the chair over the floor tiles. The Nubilae stopped right next to the young officer. “What is your name?”

“Cato,” the officer responded without looking up. His ears flickered at every sound as if he was afraid.

Tejeda smiled as he patted him on the shoulder. "Cato is a bold young man. Even though he is a Ferali, he graduated from the academy. His race had been labeled a genetic monstrosity, and every member had been sentenced to death. Cato would be dead today if he had been apprehended."

“Mmm, hey, Tejeda, you should stop referring to Cato as a he. Cato is a woman,” E00’s voice interrupted the speech.

The officer’s cheeks blushed.

Tejeda decided to ease up the mood. “You need not be worried about anything. You are among friends. Also, we…” he paused a bit, gesturing with his hands through the air while searching for his words. “We understand women. E00 can read women’s minds, so he knows a lot about them. Jackeye pretends to be a woman often enough.”

"No, I don’t," Steffen interrupted, paying attention to the conversation for the first time.

Tejeda shrugged. "How many times did you have a female avatar?"