“Captain Laika, are you okay?” Chloe leaned over me, her shirt falling forward enough to give me an eyeful. Her skin was iridescent from the layer of sweat, pinks, oranges, and blues seeming to dance across her skin.
As I twisted around to answer her, pain shot through me.
Raph let out a long whistle. “It looks like you’ve been shivved. Don’t move.”
If I looked down, I might not be able to hold it together. I held his gaze instead. “I have never been good with blood,” I gritted out, “especially my own.”
“Then don’t look down, Cap. There’s blood every—ouch! What was that for?” He spun around to glare at Chloe.
She put her hands on her hips. “Your bedside manner is awful. The captain is bleeding out! And you’re not making it any better.”
A third face joined them, angular, pointed, and most notably, covered in green scales. Horton stood on two legs most of the time, and he had two arms, but that was where the human similarities ended. His features and anatomy were reptilian, including a short thick tail that fell to his hocks. He occasionally wore a shirt but, at the moment, was present in all his scaly glory. I squeezed my eyes shut.
“That was quite a tumble, Capt’n. I swear I could hear y’all banging away for the last two minutes. I was worried the entire da’gum ship was gonna crumble. Lift up your little pink unicorns and let us see how bad it is.”
I pulled up my shirt, feeling the hot, sticky blood spreading up my rib cage as I moved the fabric then a thick trickle running down my side and onto the metal below me. After an eternity of poking and prodding, Horton disappeared.
My eyes popped open in time to see Chloe pull out her work unit and kneel over me to get readings. Her work unit was a small hand-sized rectangular device as thick as two fingers. Programs and sensors were installed to help us do our jobs, though I knew that most of us had games and other distractions on them to help pass the time. Since she acted as on-board nurse, she had all the medical software installed.
“Just a bad cut,” she said. “No internal damage, but you sure bleed a lot. We should probably run a panel soon.”
Horton returned. He was radiating heat as was the open door behind him that led to the engine room. Because of his biology, he enjoyed temperatures that would kill most living creatures.
Between gasps, I addressed him while the three of them looked at my wound. “You’re running the engine too hot,” I said.
He waved a four-taloned hand in my direction. “It’s good for Eugene to run hotter at night. We waste a lot of energy keeping it at the freezing-cold temperatures the fleet recommends.”
That was probably part of the reason that we were making such good time on our delivery trips. But I was a bit worried that I was hallucinating. “Eugene?” I choked out.
“Oh! It’s just what I call the engine. Nothing more.” He laughed nervously. “Now hold very still. The cut isn’t too bad, but you’ll bleed like a stuck ash-pig if we leave it like this.”
Chloe leaned over me, gesturing wildly. “No, I don’t think—”
Whether she stopped talking or I stopped hearing her, I was unsure because my own screaming blocked everything out. A scalding heat burned into my side with an intensity that made me feel like my chest cavity was going to explode. My screaming faded as I ran out of air in my lungs, but I continued to make odd squeaking noises. I realized I was jerking my body around like a puppet whose strings were attached to a puppy, but Chloe and Raph were trying to hold me down with their weight on my shoulders and arms.
Black spots were dancing in front of my eyes, and ten thousand years passed before the raging pain stopped, though shock spasms still bounced around my body.
Horton stood up, and his forked tongue darted out to lick each of his eyeballs. “There. Good as new. If you need me, just holler.” When he pulled the door shut behind him, the sudden lack of heat was unsettling.
I drew in a deep, shuddering breath.
Chloe stood up and faced Raph. “How could you let him do that? You should have stopped him!”
“Me?” He stood to face her. “I’m not in charge of medical stuff. He seemed to know what he was doing.”
“He didn’t wash up or give pain meds or anything.”
I interrupted them with a long gurgling attempt at speech. “Errrr.” I took another shuddering breath. “What?”
Chloe learned over me, her coloring more green than pink, and put on her cheeriest voice. “No worries about your little cut. Horton… took care of it.”
The pain radiating across my body was no longer all-consuming but rather focused in my midsection. I weakly raised a hand, and they pulled me to a seated position. “What smells like bacon?”
Raph swallowed. “That’s you.”
“I was scared you would say that. Can you help me stand?” Once I was on my feet, I finally looked down before jerking my head up again. I had seen enough blood on my torn pajamas and on the floor next to the rugged bit of jagged metal sticking up to know that I wasn’t in any shape to look at my side just yet. “What did he cauterize the wound with?”
Raph offered me a steadying arm. “He stuck one of those long nails on his hands through the engine venting and heated it up. That was the most hardcore thing I have ever seen. Cap, you want me to walk you back?”
I took a step and found I could move reasonably well. I pulled away from him. “I think I can make it.” The pain was ebbing, and I still had a situation to deal with. “Chloe, which room is it? And someone make sure that floor is fixed.”
Chloe started walking much slower than before. “You got it,” she said, bursting into a relieved smile. “And the room is right up here. I mean, maybe I was wrong and the guy is okay.”
I walked next to her, holding my side and trying not to breathe. “Wrong? I thought you said he was dead?”
“I don’t know a lot about Ceruleans. Any chance they don’t need their heads?”
Raph let out a whistle.
I shook my head slightly. “No such luck.”
She went to the door and pressed the button. The door opened as smoothly as it could, catching and stuttering while letting out a high-pitched screech.
I looked into the room. A male form, slightly blue, lay on the bed in a pool of congealed greenish-black liquid. I turned to the right, and on the single table was the head, the tongue protruding and the eyes staring blankly, surrounded by a puddle of green blood that had dripped onto the floor.
I opened my mouth to say something, but the world swirled around me and went black.
CHAPTER THREE
Four faces floated over me until I was able to focus, then there were just Raph and Chloe looking down on me. I had a strong sense of déjà vu, though I didn’t know why or why I was lying down or what we were doing.
“You okay, Cap?” Raph asked.
The genuine concern in his eyes freaked me out more than anything else. “I’m fine. Fine, fine, fine.” I tried to sit up, but a shooting pain from rib cage to hip bone stopped me, and I flopped back down. “Fine,” I choked out.
Slowly, the memories flitted back to me. First, I remembered the fall and the barbecue job Horton had done on me, which made my stomach roll with nausea. Then I recalled the body on the bed and the head on the table. I swooned a little and swallowed hard to push it away. I was thankful to already be lying down. “Sorry,” I said tightly. “It must have been the blood loss.”
Raph helped me to my feet and propped me against a wall. “Sure. Right. Of course, Cap. I have some bad news. When you fainted, you landed in a big pool of dead-guy blood.”
Chloe sniffed. “Don’t be crude. He was a person… or something.”
“You want me to pass out like she did?” Raph pointed at me.
I pushed myself upright and raised my hand. “Enough. I need to call the administration about this.”
“Whoa. No way. I say we just close the door and pretend we didn’t see a thing.”
That was not possible, but
it did raise a question. “Chloe, why did you go in the room to begin with?”
She blushed a delicate orangey-pink color, and her gills flapped nervously. “I got a note with a hundred standard currency units attached, asking for a dozen of those green cookies I made. It instructed me to bring them in and put them on the table and said I would get another hundred. Imagine if I hadn’t. No one would have known.”
Raph shook his head. “You were set up.”
Her eyes were wide. “Someone did it on purpose?”
“Dear, sweet, dumb Chloe.”
She sucked in a breath.
I held up a hand to cut them both off. Chloe had broken a lot of rules, but Raph wasn’t far behind. I, on the other hand, was going to play it straight. “Clearly, it was murder, and the sooner we get someone out here, the better.”
Under his breath, Raph muttered, “Dear, sweet, dumb Cap.”
“Enough.” I debated going back to the navigation room to use the large communications screen, but a quick look down showed my rainbow unicorns swimming through green alien blood and leftover gore from my accident, not to mention the large tear that exposed my blood-covered midsection. I patted my pockets, but my work unit was still charging in my room. That left the comm screen in the room. It would only show my face, and I could justify its use as an emergency.
I took a breath and turned to face my crew. “I know it feels like we had a little shared moment, but I am still the captain, and this is my decision. Speaking of which, maybe it’s time we tightened up protocol around here.” I tried to look stern and captainly.
Chloe pursed her lips and held back a giggle.
Raph nodded. “Sure thing, Captain Laika.”
I was pretty sure his reply was more about pity than genuine compliance.
I walked into the room and adjusted the camera so the body on the bed wasn’t obvious, then I typed in my credentials and signaled fleet headquarters. I reached a bored-looking receptionist who confirmed that I was who I said I was then took down my request.
“A passenger has been killed, and all signs indicate it was a homicide. Please send a police unit to investigate.”
She typed away, not even a flicker of concern crossing her face as she ran through a list of questions that I answered as best I could. Then she sent a locked sequence for us to use to seal the room. “Expect an official reply within four hours and a unit to appear within twenty-four hours,” she said in a bored voice. “Until then, you can hold course but no docking. Any questions?”
“No,” I said shortly. After terminating the call, I stepped into the hallway and typed the locking sequence into the pad. “Let’s head back to bed. I probably won’t hear anything for a—” I stopped when a ding rang on both Chloe’s and Raph’s work units.
Raph pulled his out. “Police unit expected in four hours. Cap, that’s not a good sign.”
A shiver of panic ran up my spine. “They probably just already had someone in the area. But we better try to get cleaned up and rested before they arrive. It will be a long day.”
***
Realistically, having the police unit arrive in four hours was a good thing. They would show up while most of the crew and passengers were still asleep. I set up a lock alarm, which required that everyone stay in their rooms. Most occupants would assume it was because of debris that could cause turbulence, except the murderer of course, who could guess at the real reason.
I would hand off the whole situation to the police and focus on piloting the ship. That should have been a good thing, but I couldn’t shake a feeling of dread. The response from headquarters had come within a minute, almost as if someone was waiting for the call, waiting to catch me screwing up. I tried to tell myself it was just paranoia, but the sensation settled into the back of my head, and I found myself jumping at every sound.
Rather than sit and worry, I disposed of my torn and bloody pajamas and slippers and showered. Finally, I looked at my midsection and the hideous purple-and-red tear that went from my ribs to practically my hipbone. I was still a little lightheaded. I was careful in the shower, and I ached all over, but I had to give Horton credit. The wound was effectively sealed.
I lay down to nap, though I was sure that I would toss and turn. Instead, I slipped into fitful sleep that offered no real rest. I had dreams that I was being chased by something or someone through endless hallways and all the doors were locked. I was getting closer and closer to the engine room as the temperature rose, but every time I tried to turn back, the footsteps got closer. Finally, I woke with a start, gasping for air as my alarm went off.
I got off the bed very carefully, splashed water on my face, and dressed. At the last second, I put on some light makeup, something I hadn’t done since my first few weeks of command. I didn’t do it out of a sense of vanity but as a distraction from the dark smudges under my eyes and in the vain hope I would appear professional.
I found Raph waiting near the docking hatch. He’d cleaned up and put on a fresh uniform.
“You are supposed to stay in your room.”
He avoided my eyes. “I couldn’t let you face them alone. I don’t trust this whole situation. Something feels off about it. Plus one of them could be a hot lady. Look.” He gestured to a comm screen where the incoming craft had broadcast instructions and a police roster.
I didn’t look at the woman because a familiar name caught my eye. The pilot and team leader was a man I knew. He was older than the last time I had seen him. His eyes were no longer filled with laughter but had turned cold and frightening. The planes on his face were more angular, though a short beard hid most of his face.
His title was the most surprising. Until that moment, I had no idea he had moved up in rank so quickly or that he worked directly for the fleet president. “James Markswell, head fleet officer.”
Raph looked over my shoulder. “Looks like a jerk. Do you know him?”
The light over the docking portal turned yellow at the same time that the dock clamps ground to a halt.
I flipped off the comm screen and stepped back into place. “He was my fiancé.”
CHAPTER FOUR
Raph shot me an alarmed look. “You were engaged? Please tell me it ended well.”
I stared at the dock door. I was nauseated and fighting the primal part of my brain that was screaming at me to fling myself out of an airlock rather than run into the only man I had ever loved. “He was in his last year of officer training when I started my advanced flight training at Fleet University on Earth. We were planning our wedding, but right after he graduated, we got into a huge fight. He said I was cold, would never be able to love anyone, and would die alone. I said he was unmotivated, unambitious, and would be a failure at whatever he did.”
“Well, everyone says terrible things during a fight.”
“He sent me every gift I had ever given him with a note saying that I could use the items to try and fool another man into thinking I was a human with real emotions before destroying their life.”
Raph winced. “Maybe he regrets that because you were more mature?”
“I sent back his engagement ring. I called it a tiny handcuff and suggested he use it to shackle another woman as his marital slave.”
“Well, it’s been nice working for you. I’ll write you in jail.”
The light over the door turned from yellow to green, and the airlock hissed as the pressure stabilized. A million thoughts raced through my brain, but they were too quick to identify beyond flashes. Studying together in the library. Getting cupcakes at my favorite bakery after I aced my last final and officially was top of my class. Him telling me that I was the love of his life as he gave me a thin platinum band. In the pass of a heartbeat, the corner where I had buried it all was a violent jumble of emotions, good and bad.
Raph cleared his throat, just a little verbal nudge for me, and I pulled in a breath.
I re-centered, locking away a lifetime of pain as I slammed the door on my memories. I’d learned th
e skill after my parents’ deaths and perfected it during the trial. By the time James stood in front of me, after ducking slightly and turning to slide his body through the small doorframe, I knew that even an expert wouldn’t be able to detect any discomfort or distress in my expression.
James was older, but it was more than that. All his angles had sharpened and hardened. He appeared to be chiseled from stone, unyielding and dense. Even without our history, I would not want to face off against him. When our eyes met, I didn’t flinch, but a shot of electricity went through me.
He didn’t recognize me, or at least, that was the impression he gave. But he would need to be a moron not to recognize my name and face, and he had never been that. I had expected to read something in his ice-cold blue eyes, but they were as slick and unchanging as a glacier.
We stood there, looking at each other like strangers, until a second officer stepped through the doorway. All the reactions I had been holding back came out in a gasp of surprise that would have been obvious to James if he hadn’t also turned to face her.
She looked exactly like me, or at least, she looked like I did when I had been engaged to James. The shape of her face was different from mine with a longer and narrower nose, and she had fair skin. But the heavy eyeliner winged out with a smoky-bronze eyeshadow, red lips, and thick eyebrows matched the look I had worn at the academy on Earth. But it was the hair that really stood out, buzzed short on the sides and longer on top, all bleached to blinding white except the tips, which were violet.
It had been an expensive time-absorbing look to maintain. Next to the hair, my brown skin, often called “nicely tanned” by people who didn’t realize it was my natural shade, looked off without the full face of makeup to compensate and complete the look. It was a costume that I wore to hide my insecurity, and it had worked until everything fell apart.
I still had the look when I had gone public to defend my uncle and when I had been dubbed Lying Liz by the media. After the truth was revealed, even to me, I had to give up so much, almost everything, that a shift in appearance seemed minor.
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