Challenge #02563-G006: Little, Quiet, Troublesome
There were three humans aboard this ship. As big as it was, and with the size of the crew, even with three they had their hands full! Still, it wasn't a bad job, pay was good and they saw some of the most beautifully unexplored worlds. Two of the humans were burly individuals, boisterous and active. During down time they always headed to one of the storage areas that had been converted to a game room to burn off steam playing racket-ball, badminton, or work out with the free-weights.
But then there was the third person. They were quiet, polite, unassuming. During down time they read, or worked with their companion learning the history, and language, both oral and written, of the crew they were with, something they did with every crew he ever worked for. In violent encounters, they were likely to stay back and let the larger, stronger, humans handle it and direct their efforts into helping their crewmates stay calm and get them to safety. But you know what they say, look out for the little guy. Because when the pirate attacked the ship and his companion was badly wounded, this small, unassuming, human makes the big ones look like gentle teddy bears compared to their rage. -- DaniAndShali
Humans are pack animals, and they will bond with anything. They will even bond with inanimate objects. They're that good at bonding with others. It has long since been advised that any ship should have a minimum of two compatible Humans on board. The Touring Trader had three. Two large ones who lived up to the expectations of Deathworlder violence on the daily, and one... who did not.
They called him Pip, though knowing Humans, it was either an extreme shortening of a much longer, much more complicated name... or an in-joke that only fellow Humans would understand or even find funny. He was the quiet one. During bonding times, he preferred to sit quietly and read while other Companions shared the same space. Sometimes, he would share snippets he found funny.
He liked creating things, working on clockwork constructions when he wasn't on duty. Designing them on paper and tweaking the printed results in his little workshop. Even he joked that he was the Invisible Human, so quiet that he passed under everyone else's radar. Nevertheless, the bigger Humans, Jo and Del, joked that everyone should "watch out for" Pip, as the most dangerous Human on board.
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