AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My shuttle had always been opinionated, but I’d thought that was normal. All Xarc’n shuttles had at least rudimentary AI to assist in our quest to wipe the scourge from the universe, with some models being less intelligent than others. Nov’k’s shuttle, for example, was about as smart as a rock.
I’d never believed my shuttle was one of these ultra-rare PIP models, but these humans…the female named Sam specifically…had convinced my shuttle that it was indeed special. It now demanded to be called Pip and identified as male. Which was ridiculous. Shuttles didn’t have sex parts.
The human had clearly brainwashed it.
There was a knock on my door and the shuttle informed me that it was Sam. Again.
What did she want? Hadn’t she done enough damage for one day? I opened the door, scowling.
The little human female with the male name stood in front of my shuttle, a cup of that disgusting liquid they calledcoffeein her hands. “I left my phone on the dash.”
“Why didn’t you just open the door?” I leaned down, grabbed her device, and tossed it to her.
She caught it, then looked at me like I was stupid. “I tried to. The door won’t open.”
“If you can’t even figure out how to open the door, then why are you even working on my shuttle? You’re probably breaking it more.”
Her face turned red. “Listen, jerkwad. First of all, I don’thaveto fix your shuttle. I’m being nice. Pip doesn’t want to go up tothe mothership, so I’m all he has. Plus, I’m not even working with the right tools.”
That part at least was true enough. Sam’s makeshift shop, set in the corner of what used to be what humans called a supermarket, was filled with tools and machinery from a human garage—all except the set of Xarc’n hand tools, which looked ridiculously huge in her tiny hands. All the more reason why she shouldn’t be touching my shuttle. But the hunters living with these humans had insisted I let her try.
“Not to mention, Pip won’t let me do what I need to do to get the work done,” she continued.
Nowthatwas clearly just an excuse. Pip might have superior intelligence for a shuttle, but he still had to follow orders.
“It is just a shuttle. It isn’t capable of stopping you. I’ve never once been locked out or in before. You just don’t know what you’re doing.”
“Hey—guys?” Pip said, a note of panic in his voice. “Stop fighting. You’re supposed to be happy and in love.”
“Don’t know what I’mdoing?” she seethed, ignoring my shuttle’s words. “Fine.” She marched up to me and jabbed her phone into my chest so hard I wondered if it would leave a mark. “Youfigure out how to get your shuttle fixed yourself. Stick a fork in me; I’m done!”
The scent of her filled the air of my shuttle’s cabin. I’d vented all the air the moment I came back and had my shuttle bring in fresh air from outside. Inhaling it live and in person now was so much worse. The deceptively sweet fragrance made my chest hurt, like I’d inhaled poison. The universe’s most addictive poison. I held my breath.
She whipped around and stomped out of the shuttle.
“Noooo,” Pip wailed. “Come back!”
The door didn’t slam shut dramatically behind her, but I wish it had. Oh well. The door being left open meant her intoxicating scent was dispersing faster.
“Who’s going to fix me up now?” An angry cartoon appeared on my shuttle’s screen.
“There is no longer any fear of getting discovered on Earth. I will send you up to the mothership where they will fix you properly. Who knows what mistakes that human has already made through her incompetence.”
When we’d first arrived on Earth, the hunters from my contingent had hidden from the mothership and the other hunters already on the planet. Technically, I wasn’t supposed to be here at all. None of my contingent was. But after hearing tales of hunters finding mates here on Earth, we’d chosen to abandon a hopeless mission on a mostly dead planet to come here instead.
That fateful choice had caused one of the first violent conflicts between Xarc’n hunters in our history. We’d had to fight and restrain several of our number who had been so set on following our original orders that they’d posed a danger to us all.
Worried that there might be other hunters with similar views who would find us and drag us back to our doomed mission, the entire contingent agreed to split up once we landed on Earth.
A few hunters understood technology enough to alter our shuttles and how their position showed up on the main system. They had been in the process of modifying the shuttles one by one when the restrained hunters had gotten loose and attacked, forcing us to flee before the changes were complete.
A few of the hunters traded with friendly humans who were technologically knowledgeable enough to figure out our shuttles. Others were forced to abandon their shuttles completely to avoid detection, especially when the slighted hunters started using our locations on the common map to track us down. Me, I’d been lucky. My shuttle had known how to modify itself and had guided me through the alteration.
Still, surviving without the support of a mothership—since we’d had to abandon it—and without supplies from the food production facilities established here on Earth had proven to be a challenge. I’d had to forage in the ruins for packaged human food, which was admittedly more flavorful than our food bars, but less nutritious.
I’d even resortedto trading with humans, which was how I’d met the group that had ended up turning on me and stealing my shuttle. I’d traded with them several times, and the betrayal had taken me by shock, but at least now I knew humans were not trustworthy. This hunter group simply hadn’t learned that valuable lesson yet.
I had. Months of being imprisoned had ensured that. And the moment my shuttle was operational, I was leaving.
