F-588: Spanial (Docked at Mundo Zargo Highport), Common Area
Gregar starts to speak, while Prrri simultaneously makes an alien hissing noise and they both stop and fall silent.
Jennie breaks the deadlock, “Gregar, you stay with Spanial. Prrri, if you need to, you can pretend you don’t speak our language well. If you get into trouble, call me and I can be a grumpy XO who’s idiot crewmember has wandered into the wrong building.”
She turns her attention to Oliver and Lia, “does that work for you two?”
Lia throws Jennie a grateful glance.
“Sounds good. I need to send a couple of messages and get my go bag together. Can you guys sort out an emergency code?”
She looks from Oliver to Jennie.
“Shouldn’t be hard. A casual phrase that doesn’t imply much… what if I call you ‘Jennie’, it means things are fine. If I call you ‘XO’ it means things are a little patchy but nothing too troublesome. If I call you ‘Jen’…” he thinks for a moment. “Maybe get off the planet as soon as possible.”