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It was unlike anything I could have imagined.He wasunlike anything I could have imagined.
The alien was dressed in clothes. Well, he was at least dressed from the waist down. The pod was at least twenty yards away from me, but I could tell his pants were made of some kind of scaled leather. Almost like a snakeskin. They were black in color, but when he placed a booted foot on the sinking wreckage of our spacecraft, the sunlight caught the scaled pattern in the pants and an array of blues and greens shimmered along the fabric. The boots were thicker and lacked the scaled pattern but still leathery judging by the give in the material. They were thick-soled and laced-up the very muscular calves of the alien. I focused on those pants for a brief moment, some part of my mind trying to protect me from what would greet me above the waist.
But I couldn’t avoid it forever. Above a thick black belt was an abdomen. Ablueabdomen. Royal Blue to be specific. The male was facing away from me, but his back was large and wide, well-defined, and carrying quite a few long and violent looking scars. His blue skin was very similar to the pants in that he had patches of vibrant scales that caught the light. Thick black braids hung down to his lower back, gold bands and jewels interwoven throughout. I held my breath as he turned to the side, speaking to another blue alien beside him. His side profile was striking. Humanoid with two eyes, a nose, and a mouth but the nose was wide and flat to his face and his lips were quite a bit wider than a human’s. His eyes were large and parietal like a reptile. He grinned widely at the other male, revealing a mouthful of teeth that would put a shark to shame and I trembled atop my floating scrap metal. They both bent down to retrieve a tangle of wires from the wreckage, and I was stunned at the strength they both exhibited as they ripped out steel wires thicker than my wrist by the handfuls and seemingly very little effort. Over the next few minutes, the two males worked together to basically wrap what was left of the ship in net of its own wrecked wiring where they then tied it to the back of their pod. Then even more shockingly they climbed back in and began to tow it away. That pod was a hell of a lot stronger than it looked.
Esther was still screaming throughout this entire scene mind you, but the two males acted as if we didn’t exist. They hadn’t acknowledged us in any way. And then the pod was retrieved by the massive shop and our spacecraft was hauled up as if it were nothing more than a pile of driftwood.
Esther’s shouting eventually petered off and together, the three of us just watched the massive ship, waiting to see what would happen next.
I was not expecting it to drop a fishing net big enough to scoop up a whale and I was especially not expecting it to scoop the three of us up, scrap metal and all.
Chapter5
LAYLA
Iwas surprised to find three survivors, and I was very rarely surprised by much these days. The creatures were strange in appearance. One, a female, was pale skinned and pleasingly plump, while the other two were clearly the elders of her kind. One, a male, also pale skinned and quite frail looking and the other another female, darker skinned with a head of strikingly white hair. The male stared at me with fire in his eyes—it was quite endearing—while the two females huddled together cast wounded looks toward my curious crew.
Visitors were a rarity on Vyessa. We lacked desirable resources and with very little land, most were not equipped to harbor long term. Aquatic species were mostly found in her waters. Not these…land creatures.I studied them closer, curious as to what sector they hailed from. They held a few characteristics of theLoyobvbut those cretins would sooner land on a fire pit than set fin on Vyessa. But as I studied them closer, I quickly dismissed the possibility these fearful creatures hailed from any species I was familiar with. Their eyes were much too small, their skin too thin and frail. They wobbled around on their two legs as if they lacked the knowledge to use them.
Lyv gave the young female a pat on the rump. Gently knocking her back to her knees to save her from stumbling off the side of my ship. I sighed heavily taking them in.
“What do you want to do with them?” Roche asked warily, sneering at the older male as he took a weak swing with his tiny fist.
I shrugged, watching in amusement as Lyv easily subdued him. The male winced guiltily as the females cried out in shock and fear, rushing over to the older male. “We’ll drop them when we port in Jufv.”
Roche grunted uneasily but did not quarrel. Jufv would not be kind to these outsiders, but my ship was no place for them either and they would fetch a decent coin. We would arrive at the floating city of Jufv in a mere three sunrises. “Load them in lower deck until we anchor.”
Roche nodded and crept closer to the creatures warily. The two females tensed as if ready to flee while the male attempted to regain his footing. But he was injured and clearly exhausted and so he ultimately did not put up much of a fight. I was not in the slave trade—nasty business—but I was also not equipped to care for an unknown species. And at heart, I was a pirate therefore anything that could be sold, would be.
Chapter6
LAYLA
The aliens dumped us in a cargo hold. There were actual crates piled up around us on all sides. Esther was poking her way through them, trying to peek inside but they were made of a weird bonelike material and was impossible to pry open.
“What are you looking for?” I asked, following after her like a timid puppy.
“Albert said to look for anything with a pointy end,” she told me, squinting at a weird lock on one of the boxes.
I wasn’t sure we should be taking Albert’s advice; the aliens hadn’t seemed to appreciate him trying to fight them off. In fact, it was pretty sad just how quickly they managed to subdue him and the three of us altogether. Fighting back did not seem wise when they were twice our size and could very easily bludgeon us to death with their inhuman strength.
I swallowed thickly, recalling the many faces that had surrounded us topside. So,so, many aliens. All of them male. We didn’t stand a chance against them, and I honestly wasn’t sure what the hell we’d do or where’d we even go if we did manage to fight them off and escape.
“Maybe we should make nice,” I suggested haltingly. Esther frowned at me over her shoulder. “Albert says we need to get—”
I cut her off. “I don’t care what Albert says we need to do.” I touched her arm, silently asking her to face me. “We shouldn’t provoke them.”
Esther sighed. Oh how the roles had reversed. This woman, whom I loved dearly, had just switched from flagging these guys down to save us to now wanting to jump right back in the water with Albert.
In my mind, this was the lesser evil. I probably shouldn’t be trusted in making decisions for the group though seeing as I was biased. Since I couldn’t swim and all…
A door banged from beyond the crates and Esther and I sprinted back to where Albert was crouched in the center of the room. We huddled at his side, staring around with wide eyes.
When nothing jumped out at us, we both took a collective breath of relief. Albert glanced at the both of us, unimpressed by our clinging to his arms. I grinned sheepishly, releasing him to continue his task of whittling down the door handle he’d salvaged into a pointy tip. I was surprised he’d managed to hold onto it through being scooped up out of the ocean like a school of tuna fish, and even more impressed that he thought to file it down against a steel edge in the floor.
“Ladies,” he began in his craggily voice, “it’s going to be alright. I have a plan.”
“What plan?” I asked warily, slapping Esther’s pinching fingers away.
