It tried to dive past her, aiming at the spot where Scrimshaw pressed xist-self defensively against the deckhouse, but Talis leaped forward to head the mermaid off. Using the belay pin like a club, she struck it across the ribcage as high as she could reach. She’d meant to go for the joint at its shoulder, but the thing reared up, lifting high with a beat of its wings. Its coiling tail dragged on the deck, winding and unwinding with rage.
It hissed at Talis and swiped to push her out of its way. Claws caught in her jacket collar for a moment, then grazed her cheek as she twisted out of its grip. Let a mermaid grab you and it’ll fly you out over nothing, drink your blood, and then drop the drained husk to flotsam.
Sophie came running with the net. At the sound of her boots, the mermaid turned its attention to her, wings lifted high over its head. Raindrops bounced off of them in an arcing spray that made the beast look even bigger.
No way Sophie could toss the net over it with the wings outstretched and beating. Talis would need to distract it.
She circled away from Sophie’s side and went in to strike again. But the moment that she stepped out of the way leading to Scrimshaw, the mermaid was moving toward xin again. Too late, Talis swung the pin at the thing’s chest, the angle too high as the mermaid slid across the slick deck on hands and hips. Talis swept the pin at it again, and managed to club it hard across a hip bone. It emitted a shriek of pain and outrage, but still ignored Talis and Sophie to lunge for Scrimshaw.
Talis grabbed at the thing’s tail with both hands as it passed. “Now!” she yelled to Sophie. “Throw it!”
It dragged her across the deck, and Sophie cast the net over them both.
Wings pinioned, limbs tangled, it collapsed. Talis tripped and sprawled across its lashing tail. That and the net were finally enough to stop the mermaid from reaching Scrimshaw, and it whipped around, turning on Talis with claws and teeth. The beast thrashed violently against the net, tangling worse and worse, so that thankfully its teeth could only snap at her throat, missing it by less than a handspan. Its claws grasped at her hair, pushing her head back to bare the tender flesh. Talis bit it first, chomping the thing’s arm. Her teeth sank into the waterlogged, too-soft skin, and found the wiry muscle beneath. It reared up and away from her throat in outrage. She spat, feeling like she’d bitten into a live, wriggling worm.
It rolled sideways, still desperate to reach Scrimshaw, who was cornered with no retreat that would see xin outside its reach. Talis grappled with its elbows and shoulders, trying to pull it the other way.
She had never seen a mermaid so intent on a single victim. The alien was so brittle looking, Talis feared for her contract if the mermaid got its way, but she was tangled in the net with it, and couldn’t get her knees under her to push back against the deck. Instead the mermaid finally reached Scrimshaw’s legs and pulled xin off xist feet. Its claws left scratches in Scrimshaw’s exoskeleton that caught on and chipped the ridges of xist precisely carved patterns. Xe hit the deck on xist hip and wrist, and curled up in a fetal position, xist hands crossed protectively over the pouch on xist belt. Not over xist porcelain face, nor over the torso and vital organs. Talis narrowed her eyes.
Sophie chased after, a knife in her hand to try and free her captain. But there were legs, and wings, and tail, and net, and all moving too erratically and quickly to risk moving in with the blade. Dug was there, then, and together they pulled back on the edge of the net.
“What is going on with this thing?” Sophie asked against clenched teeth, as she and Dug hauled it back off Scrimshaw.
Talis got the mermaid’s arms behind it, ducking out of the way of its frantic wings until she had the wrists pinned against each other, and she knelt over it, holding it down.
She yelled back over her shoulder to Dug. “Check xist pouches!”
Dug looped his corner of the net over a deck cleat, and dodged the mermaid’s thrashing movements to reach the harassed alien. But Scrimshaw’s ordeal was just beginning, Talis resolved, if xe’d somehow attracted danger to her ship.
Dug yanked Scrimshaw to xist feet, and away from the mermaid, but held xist wrists together in the grip of a single hand while he invaded the alien’s belt pouch. Scrimshaw’s eyes were dilated, xist head turned as xe leaned away in xist best attempt to evade the movement. Still, Talis thought xe might have resisted with more effort than that.
When Dug’s hand emerged, he gripped something, and dropped Scrimshaw to the deck. The alien sank to xist knees in defeat, then edged backward farther from where Sophie was attempting to untangle the net from her captain’s shoulders.
“Explain this,” Dug said to Scrimshaw, holding up a small vial. Green light glowed across his hand from the contents, which pulsed and swirled like a trapped insect.
The mermaid stopped struggling beneath Talis’s grip, its head lifted to watch Dug closely. Sophie used the stillness to cut her captain free.
Scrimshaw offered no explanation. Xist mouth was open, and xist chest moved with panicked breaths. Xe looked from Dug to Talis, and back again.
Sophie bound the wings and arms up behind the mermaid’s back so Talis could extract herself. She hopped away quickly as she let go her hold on the mermaid’s arms, but the beast was still transfixed by the object in Dug’s hands.
Tisker
