"Of all the species in this universe, HUMANS are my least favorite."
"Why?"
"They're cruel, they're selfish, they're relentless, they're greedy, and they have absolutely no remorse for any of they pain they cause, or the planets they destroy."
"Aren't... you human?"
"That doesn't change how I feel about them." -- Anon Guest
"And what's worse," continued Human Vid as she waited for her turn at the buffet, "is that we're so very stupid. You know the system I'm from? Planitia Magus?"
"The stellar cluster with the fortuitous planetary alignment, yes." Companion Thi remained wary, though ze was growing used to Human Vid's wild gesturing.
"Four stars, each with a minimum of three planets in the goldilocks zones, orbiting around each other so it made travel between all those worlds ridiculously easy. You know what we did with that? We flakking wrecked it. We picked the best planet and in four generations, turned it into a polluted shithole. Then we moved to the next-best planet and did the exact same thing! We weren't even that great when we just had one planet. My crazy ancestors flakked that up, too. There's Deregger worlds everywhere like none of us can learn from the lessons of history and my lot are playing duck duck goose with planets!" She only stopped to ask the server for some of her favourites. "We're stupid and vile and shouldn't be allowed anywhere without a keeper."
Considering that Companion Thi's very job description boiled down to 'keeper', she didn't object very hard to that last part. "You are not stupid and vile," she insisted. "You are generous and caring and I must persistently remind you not to harm yourself for us."
"See? Stupid," insisted Vid. "Always trying to throw my life away so you can go on without me. And what good am I to you dead? I shouldn't be pulling that shit, and I think it's worth it. Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb."
Ah, it was one of those moods. Where the Ship's Human was in a negative spiral that ended in a pillow fort with ice cream and any cats that wanted her company.
"You are not dumb. Your life has worth, and you have worth," said Thi, covertly tapping a message out to the rest of the crew. "You have improvised many solutions to problems in the spur of the moment that were near to miraculous. You are smarter than you believe you are, and we appreciate everything you do for us."
Two crewmembers entered the lunch space with a box. It had been so hastily removed from its place in the ship that it still trailed a cable or two. On one side were the words, Skitty Birthing Box.
Vid saw it. "Aw daaannnng... You guys..."
The crew positioned the box so that Vid could see the kittens.
It worked, Vid was already making extra liquid in her eyes. In a few minutes, she would be cooing over at least one kitten and bypassing her morose mood entirely.
All in a day's work.
[Photo by The Lucky Neko on Unsplash]
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