Chapter Eight — Part 4

Just when I thought my wings were going to tear to shreds from the stress, the ship’s gravitational vector gave way and we were launched at the hull of the Persimmon. My back slammed into the hull, causing me to groan. The Scandivat struck nearby, much more gracefully than I did.

“This hero stuff is really starting to suck.” I groaned, trying to get a full breath back into my lungs.

The Scandivat gave me its equivalent of an apologetic wincing stare. It crawled through the Persimmon’s access hatch, pitting the ship’s metal skin with its claws. The holes sealed shut behind it as it moved, as if they were skin, healing super fast.

“Sorry.” It hissed as the others helped me into the portal. “I’m Captain Reed. My ship’s vanquished. My life is yours.”

Five humans huddled in the bay. Some had the look of primitives — of people who had never traveled the stars. Two, who looked a little out of place with their primitive counterparts, acted more at home on a star ship. They were both conversing with Tiffany, and I was astonished at how smart my mother was. Still, you could tell that she was in some ways the little concubine I had been sworn to protect some time before, and not all that ashamed of it.

Her attitude shifted violently when she saw Rusty’s eyes drift to my chest. Tiffany smacked Rusty on the back of his head, as only a scolding mother can do to any man younger than herself.

“You aren’t used to seeing an angel, are you?”

“Pardon me ma’am, I don’t mean to stare, but I never saw a woman with wings before.”

The man was attractive without being overly handsome. He wasn’t exactly weak, but he was pudgy in a cute, well-pampered sort of way. A man of means was always attractive. Tiffany gave him a look of vehement death, letting him know that I was completely off limits. He quickly looked away, and I felt a strange sensation overcome me. I flushed, letting my wings cover my body, as if the bodysuit weren’t enough.

“I think my colleague is trying to say you’re beautiful. I’m Jonathan Holstein, a Professor of Biology. Who, pray tell, are you?”

“I’m the Pirate Captain Bit, and you’re on my ship, the Persimmon. We can send you home, if you’d like.”

“Like that, ma’am, but I haven’t got a home — it’s why we didn’t bale ship — no safe place to return to and no guarantee we’d go anywhere. The not so human Captain here saved our lives just before our star went nova. His ship got caught in the after-blast, and we’ve been drifting in Otherspace since.”

“Well, it’s a good thing you passed by us.” Tiffany said. “If you’d drifted much longer, you would have ended up in the gravity well caused by the local sun. We might not have been able to get you out of there.”

I flexed my wings, stretching sore muscles. Tiffany noticed my injuries and grabbed a first aid kid. She dabbed my wounds with antiseptic, worrying unnecessarily over me. “Oh, Gracie, you’ve gotten yourself hurt again.”

“My fault. I forgot to retract my claws.” Captain Reed said, touching me with the back of his scaly hand.

He looked part wolf, part reptile, and mostly insect. The combination wasn’t a mismatch, but rather my best interpretation of the fluid work of the artist, evolution.

“This body isn’t always merciful — even to my friends. I’m a Hunter of the Scandivat Race.”

“It would seem your mind wasn’t designed for the body it was put in.” Fluff said.

“My body was designed to protect the collective from attack and to hunt for it. Hunting takes cunning, and defense takes sentience, the Hunter body is resultant of these two merging evolutionary necessities.”

“You’re with friends now.” Tiffany said. “Maybe I’m misunderstanding your emotional state, but I think you’re feeling out of place.”

Captain Reed let his massive arms droop, and his tongue flicked. “To feel truly one like the others, instead of forever alone. Such is my fate.”

“I don’t understand.” Tiffany said.

“I’m separated from my people, exiled and alone. I’ve only had these two humans as company. Our people refer to humans as the others who are alone.”

“What about the three in the corner? Who are they and why do they cower from all of this. You all are from the same planet, right?”

“You’d better field that one, Jonathan.” Rusty said, leaning back against a bulkhead.

Jonathan explained quickly. “Just before the nova, time and space got terribly distorted. I think they’re from a primitive backwater world like Earth, and their language is unlike any I’ve ever heard before. They seem to think that we are all minions of evil, sent to carry them to their own personal Hell.”

Advertise Here