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"Keffing beast," the bird squawks, as if I'm the problem. I spit out another feather, a silent fuck-you to him. At least when I die, they won't say I went down without a fight. "The human bit me," the bird-alien snarls at his friends. He pauses. "No, not yet. Let me just kill it." Another pause, and a sigh. "Fine."
I know without even hearing the other side of the conversation what's happening. He wants to kill me, but I'm too valuable alive. He's just going to have to suck it up and deal with me.
"Get up," the alien tells me.
"Go fuck yourself," I say, closing my eyes. Captivity. Again. I'm going to be sold. I'm going to lose Jerrok and Sleipnir…if they're even still alive.
As if my wonderful, handsome Jerrok knows I'm thinking about him, the comm in the lavatory buzzes. "Sophie? You taking a shower?"78JERROKSomething's not right.
The feeling niggles at me as I run yet another diagnostic in the engine room, watching the numbers scroll across the screen. They look fine. Everything's reading as it should. There's no unusual fluctuations, no hints that something isn't running optimally. And yet…I can't shake the feeling that there's something off about the situation.
It's been lurking in my head, this general feeling of wrongness, ever since we left V'tarr. It might be the cynic in me who finds it was just too easy for us to leave the spaceport. That it should have been more difficult to extract the Little Sister from the grips of an alien race in a forbidden system. It feels as if we're missing some sort of obvious answer…or we're walking into a trap. But maybe I'm just too used to things being hard for me. Frustrated, I watch as the diagnostic pings with an all-clear response and I put my data pad aside. Maybe spending some time with Sophie will help me work through my thoughts. I've been so focused on checking and re-checking the Sister in the hopes for clues of some kind that I've neglected my poor mate.
I tap the screen, flicking through the readings. Sophie's vitals show she's in the lavatory. She does love cleanliness, my mate. I buzz her through the comm, unable to stop the smile on my face. "Sophie? You taking a shower?"
It takes her a moment to respond, and I imagine her soaking, reaching for the comm with a wet hand. Those glorious breasts of hers are probably all soapy, and the visual distracts me. Sophie finally responds. "Yes. I'm here."
"Can I join you?" I ask, letting a hint of promise slide into my voice.
Her answer takes a moment again. "No. I'm good. Thanks."
She closes the comm, and I'm stung at her crisp answer. Sophie loves to be held, and we've taken showers together several times before. She loves her hair washed or for me to scrub her back, and she's never refused me before. Is something bothering her? Did I do something wrong? Fighting my wounded feelings, I head toward the kitchen. Maybe some food will soothe my sour mood. Sophie probably just needs time to process how she feels about the Little Sister and the missing va Sithai brothers and doesn't need me groping her.
I head into the kitchen, and it's obvious Sophie's been in here. Everything sparkles with cleanliness, the floors shining, and there's a faint smell of cleanser in the air. I grin to myself at the sight and head for one of the food dispensers and nearly trip over the damned carinoux as I do. He's sprawled in the floor, sleeping in that stretched out way that he does.
"Come on, buddy," I say, tapping him lightly with the tip of my boot. "Move it or lose it."
The carinoux doesn't budge. In fact, he doesn't move at all.
A cold feeling sweeps over me as I stare down at the creature. I look for a breath, knowing Sophie will be utterly devastated if he's died, and I'm relieved to see Sleipnir's ribs are moving up and down. He's breathing. As I watch, though, it's like he's breathing TOO slow, and I put a hand on him, trying to wake him up. Still no response. I give him a little shake, and as I do, I see a discoloration on his neck, like a bruise. As I turn his large, triangular head, trying to see, a syringe rolls out from under the carinoux's paws.
Kef me.
Kef. Kef. Kef.
I'm instantly on alert.
We're not alone on this ship. Immediately, I know what's been bothering me. All the pieces slide into place. The logs, the diagnostics, everything seems so normal. TOO normal. There's no fluctuations that an older ship like the Little Sister would have. They've been tampered with to ensure that my guard is down, and I can bet that's not the only thing that's been tampered with. I go to the wall panel and log in to the Sister's controls, searching for life forms. Only Sophie, myself, and Sleipnir come back, but that's easy enough to override, as well. With the right coding, the Sister will ignore everything it's told to ignore and I'd be none the wiser.
