Out here, though, I am alone.
Well, almost alone. Alder and Morpheus might not be Chilchek, but they were my ‘brothers-in-arms’, as Alder had once said. He tried to explain that a “brother” was more than just a colony-mate. He saw us as if we three came from a single egg sac. And perhaps wore the same removable chitin. It didn’t make any sense, but I could sense the importance of the phrase to him, so I had programmed it into my translator. Egg sac and chitin sharing warriors as one.
“Here we are.” The woman stopped at the hatch, keying in her code to cycle us into the ship. I didn’t recognize the metal it was made of, but the midnight-blue coating reminded me of my egg-parent’s chitin.
Perhaps she, too, could become one of our egg sac and chitin sharing warriors as one. Despite being female.
I would have to ask Alder if that was possible.
The hatch was low, so I dropped down to walk horizontally as we entered the ship. It was the most natural form of movement for me, anyway.
“Lights on, Blue,” the woman said. She’d given us her name. However, although it started with a respectable click, the long, sibilant sounds following that were nothing I could reproduce. I would have to assign it a Chilchek character and program it into my translator, as I had for Alder and Morpheus. I wasn’t looking forward to the day Morpheus discovered the character I’d assigned him meant broken wings.
Speaking of Morpheus, he’d had enough time to walk off some of his anger and was no longer clouding the room with the stench of his fear-rage. So I unfurled my antennae and focused them on the human woman again. Her scent also carried a touch of fear, woven in with the vibrations of excitement. Not fear of the men she’d brought aboard, at least. Still, something had the woman worried.
“Blue, this is Morpheus, Alder, and Evik,” she said. “Guys, this is Bluebird, my ship’s AI.”
“Hello, and welcome aboard.” The ship’s tones were lovely, as were so many of the liquid languages of non-Chilchek.
Too bad they’re unreproducible heathen languages.
I waved hello with my mandibles, released a greeting scent, and added a verbal click to enhance the salutation experience.
Morpheus gave me a sidelong glance, but I ignored him. Even among heathens, it does not hurt to follow all the formalities.
As the others greeted the ship, I quickly recorded its name and tagged it in my translator with a short series of Chilchek symbols. Flight of Atmospheric Color.
I was still recording when the ship said, “Lise, there’s a squadron of station enforcers headed down the hallway.”
A momentary scent of elation escaped me. I needed to learn to keep my own emotions under control. But I had caught her name without having to ask. Now to connect it to Chilchek. She was tiny and pale, as if fresh from the egg sac, but from Alder’s response, she was also a sexually mature female.
I pushed aside the part of me that pointed out I, too, had an oddly sexual response to her.
Adult female larva human.
Close enough.
“Time to get out of here,” Lise was saying. “Hope you guys didn’t leave behind anything important.”
Morpheus tapped his hand against the bag holding our take from the con game we’d played, along with what we made selling our last ship for scrap metal as soon as we brought it limping into the station. “We have all we need right here.”
“Good.” She sprinted down a corridor, speaking as she went. “Blue, lead them to their quarters. I’m spinning up to get us out of here.”
“I’m coming with you,” Alder announced, following her.
Morpheus and I glanced at each other. “Us, too,” he said.
Lise didn’t bother to answer directly, simply shouting out as we hit the ship’s bridge, “Blue, have they locked us down yet?”
“Not yet. I have access to the station mainframe. The orders have gone in, but I blocked them.”
As her tiny hands flew across the control consoles, Lise nodded—a signal I had learned to interpret as an affirmative response. “Then get us out of here.”
The high-pitched whine of the engines vibrated through my exoskeleton.
“Buckle in,” Lise ordered, throwing herself into a seat far too small for me—or even Morpheus, though he could probably squeeze himself into it if necessary. Alder was able to fall into a similar seat. Luckily, the bridge had restraint straps built into the walls for additional crew members, and Morpheus and I rigged ourselves into them. Not a moment too soon, either, as the Bluebird shot out of its berth alongside the station, the docking clamps falling away with a thunk that reverberated throughout the bridge.
The room echoed with a tense silence as we waited to see if any security ships followed us. As soon as we were far enough away to give us a head start on any pursuers, Lise blew out a breath. This one translated as a sigh of relief.
If only it carried a scent, maybe I could translate it myself.
Mammals. Utterly barbaric.
“What the hell was that, Blue? Why is station security so interested in us?” Waves of anxiety floated off Lise.
“They are not interested in us,” the AI answered. “They’re interested in one of your new crew members.”
We egg sac and chitin sharing warriors as one glanced at each other, waiting to see which of us was in the most danger this time.
The ship continued in her lilting voice.
“Morpheus Madagar.”
4
Morpheus Madagar
I tilted my head against the hard-composite surface of the inner ship walls and closed the inner and outer lids of my eyes. The thin membranes did not completely block out the blinking lights of the bridge console, but the dimness was enough for me to set afire the quiet buzzing at the back of my throat that
