He barks out another order, this time pointing at me. Fuck. “I’m an innocent victim!” I exclaim, trying to remember what Omni told me to say. “I do not give consent to have my memories wiped. I demand you take me to your leader and I refuse to be left alone with that trigger happy, unnecessarily aggressive asshole,” I add, just in case he wants to escort me somewherealone. Probably straight into a malfunctioning airlock, if he had his way.
The guard who stood up to the commander earlier says something to me. Even though his coloring and sharp teeth remind me of a tiger, he sounds friendly. That, however, doesn’t solve our communication issue. “Do I look like I speak alien to you? Give me something so I can understand you, and take me to someone in charge. There’s a slaver vessel with one hundred and eighty-seven kidnapped humans on board about to pass through your stupid blockade and I’m fairly certain that this guy,” I point at the commander, “is the one covering it all up.”
The tiger guard looks taken aback, his eyes darting between the commander and me. The asshole in charge aims his weapon at me, spitting out something I’m fairly certain is a curse, but just as I’m bracing myself for a blast from whatever he just hit Omni with, the tiger guard steps between me and the gun.
Well, look at that. It looks like there actually might be some decent aliens aboard this ship.
I flinch when another guard, this one resembling a human-sized Godzilla, approaches me. Seeing my unease, he stops a safe distance away and extends his hand toward me. In his palm, there’s a small device. I don’t recognize it at first, but when the Godzilla guard taps on a hole in the side of his head before pointing at me, I grab it and put it up against my ear.
“… the traitor away, immediately!” sounds from the device a split second after the commander speaks, the electronic English overlays his enraged grunting like a badly dubbed foreign film. “And this human is clearly in shock. She needs to be sedated.”
“Like hell I’m in shock! You’re just trying to silence me to protect yourself, but guess what, buddy? You’re busted.”
Straightening up, the commander glares at the soldiers surrounding me. “This is a direct order and anyone who disobeys it will be punished. Put the traitor in a cell and preparethis human for the memory wipe procedure,” he speaks with the authority of a man used to having his orders followed without protest.
“Sir, with all due respect,” the tiger guard starts, “she said that she does not consent to the procedure. The regulations—”
“I don’t care about the regulations! Just do what I fucking said or I’ll shoot you!”
The Godzilla guard and the tiger guard exchange frowns, clearly unsure what to do. The rest of the guards seem to be on edge, too, but they’re somewhat likelier to obey their commander than stand up for me. Before I can figure out something more to say, a deep voice rumbles through the hangar. “What is going on here?!”
The soldiers all turn to face the newcomer, snapping to attention as another Godzilla guy approaches. This one looks older than the one who gave me the translating device and, from the way the others treat him, I assume he’s in charge. Even the four-armed commander lowers his weapon and stands up straighter, though he doesn’t stop glaring at me.
“Admiral Eldri,” the tiger guard says as he performs an alien salute. “We’ve apprehended a Quintran kidnapping a human from Earth. However,” he glances at the commander warily, “there were some serious accusations made against commander Kelvok.”
“Lies!” the bastard, Kelvok, immediately exclaims. I’m pleased to hear the note of fear in his voice. “It’s all lies. This human is clearly deranged, her mind damaged from the abuse this traitorous piece of Karli crap has put her through. Whatever she says is nonsense.”
“Excuse me?” I ball my free hand into a fist, resting it against my hip, and, channeling my inner Imani, give the asshole my best glare. “I’m not deranged, nor am I in shock. Nor have I been kidnapped, so if you would kindly shut the fuck up, thatwould be great.” Ignoring Kevlok’s sputtering, I turn to the older Godzilla man, the one I hope is truly in charge of this shit show. The tiger guard called him admiral, and though I’m certain it’s just an English approximation of whatever title these people use, he must be high ranked. “Sir, there’s a ship about to pass through your blockade. It belongs to an Ataxi slaver named Garresh and on board there are one hundred and eighty-seven kidnapped humans and two enslaved, er, Kar-something.” Omni told me the name of the species, but I forgot.
Tilting his head to the side, the admiral blinks. It’s a little unsettling to watch the nictitating membrane slide over his eye from the inner corner, but I do my best to ignore it. For an alien species, he could have looked a lot more…alien? “Karetelans?” he offers. His voice is flat, not giving me any clues as to whether he believes me or not.
“Yes, those. Garresh has an ally on board your ship,” I continue, eager to relay Omni’s message. “One who let his ship pass through the blockade undetected and subsequently blocked all transmissions and warnings we’ve been trying to send to you from Earth. I believe it’s this guy.”
Kevlok snarls as I point at him. “Liar. I’m a decorated member of the UGC peacekeeping forces. I don’t need to answer to such ridiculous allegations. Admiral, if you would just let me resolve this situation—”
“Enough.” The admiral doesn’t have to raise his voice. A single word carries enough authority to shut everyone up. “Move the prisoner to a cell,” he orders. Two soldiers grab Omni by the arms and begin dragging him away. Everything inside of me screams to protest, protect him, but the memory of our earlier conversation sounds through my mind. I need to remember what’s important. Sizing me up, the admiral continues, “See the human to one of the guest quarters.”
Both the tiger and the Godzilla guard approach and I know there’s no point in trying to fight them off. Still, I don’t acquiesce immediately, looking at the admiral imploringly. “What about Garresh and the humans? You have to save them.” If he’s in on the plot, everything is lost, but I don’t get that vibe from him.
“I will look into it personally,” he promises, his voice a low rumble which my mind has trouble associating with the robotic English translation coming from my ear piece. It’s like I’m listening to a text-to-speech app dubbing over Klingon.
“But, Admiral,” Kevlok protests, “this is not part of your duties. I am more than capable of—”
“I said, enough!” Now the admiral sounds pissed. I hurry after my two guards, eager to be away from them both. He’s fucking terrifying and, by the way Kevlok is squirming, I’m certain the admiral will tear him a new one once he discovers the truth. Hopefully, it won’t be too late to rescue the humans.
Chapter 30
Fin
Onceagain,my“guestquarters” look more like a hotel room than an actual cell but, yet again, it’s locked from the outside and guards stand dutifully by my door as if I am some extremely dangerous criminal. I mean, seriously? Ten days ago, I was just a regular nerd, running around wearing a murloc costume and geeking out with other weirdos. Now, I’ve had sex with an alien and left Earth in an antique alien spaceship held together by a shit ton of duct tape and a prayer. I’ve been locked up by both the U.S. Air Force and now the alien space cops. What in the actual fuck has happened to my boring life?
Sighing, I sink down onto the comfortable bed, cradling my head in my hands. I know exactly what happened or, rather, who happened. Omni literally fell into my life headfirst and turned everything upside down.
Do I regret it? Hell no! The only thing I regret is leaving my friends behind without saying a proper goodbye, but I’m sure they understand. The rest? No regrets. Well, maybe a tiny regret that we were freaking out about the authorities getting their hands on Omni so hard we never considered actually asking them for help, but who could have known that the military would actually turn out to be the good guys?
Hopefully, we aren’t too late, and things still work themselves out with the human captives and their traffickers. I wouldn’t know, because I’ve been locked up in this room for hours going crazy worrying about both the kidnapped humans and Omni. Okay, I’m mostly worried about Omni. The sight of him crumpled on the floor after that asshole Kevlok shot him flashes in front of my eyes every time I try to close them. Not that I’m tired. I’m too wired, too much adrenaline still coursing through my veins from the earlier altercation. It’s refusing to subside until I have answers and, by the looks of it, no answers are coming. After all, I’m just a primitive human to these guys. It’s not like they’ll rush to include me in their universe-changing decisions.
The food is better here than on the Air Force base, which is funny, considering I’m on an alien spaceship. The tiger guard brought in a tray shortly after locking me up in this room. It contains various things that all vaguely resemble Earth foods, but each one is just a little off. Like the green pancakes. They don’t taste even remotely like Earth pancakes, more like meatballs with marinara sauce, but they’re still delicious. There are also some sweet pastries I bet Omni would love. Justthinking of him makes the food in my mouth turn to ash, and I’m grateful when a soft chime from the door interrupts my meal.
