“Then it’s decided! Welcome to the team, Squit.”
Chapter Seven
Bob introduced Squit to the rest of the team who soon learned that even though they couldn’t understand her, she could understand them. Squit extended a tentacle for everyone to shake, and with Straya and Arkei, shook both of their hands at the same time, while turning her face to the other side without having to move her body.
Regan found her to be a strange creature. It surprised him how head over heels Bob was for her. The young man kept grazing up against her and spoke to her very closely. He was like a child with a new pet.
Before Regan shook her tentacled hand, he wondered if her skin was just a shiny pink, or if she was covered in slime. He was glad to learn it was the former. It made him feel better about her having touched all the items in the kitchen.
And, in remembering the kitchen, Regan thought he might as well take this opportunity as captain to have a full crew meal. They hadn’t all sat down to eat together before, and he couldn’t imagine a better place for a first meal for the crew than in this wonderful room aboard their new space yacht. It seemed celebratory in a way.
Regan cleared his throat to get everyone’s attention.
“As we welcome Squit to our ship,” he started, “why don’t we all sit down and share a meal?” He turned his attention to Squit, who had tentacles in front of her eyes like a small child covering her face in excitement. Regan couldn’t help but smile at her enthusiasm, and that both she and Bob reminded him of little giddy kids.
“Squit, would you please continue to cook for us?” he asked with a smile.
Her tentacles did a dance and wiggled about. She made some sounds, which Bob translated to everyone else.
“She’d be delighted! Everyone take a seat and she’ll get our meal going.”
Reverie was still standing next to Regan and touched his shoulder. “Which table would you like us at, Captain?” she asked.
Regan looked around, seeing a medium-sized table with arm chairs surrounding it that would fit them perfectly. He said nothing, pointed to it, then he and the three women took their seats.
Bob tried to follow Squit, but she waved him away with one of her tentacles. It was as if she was blushing. Regan assumed she knew what she was doing and perhaps didn’t want Bob distracting her on her first meal prep for her new team.
Regan respected that and looked forward to the meal.
Bob took his seat next to Regan, who was at the head of the table.
“I admire your willingness to stand up for what is right,” Regan said to him, assuming if he hadn’t been there that Straya and Arkei would have blasted Squit away in no time.
“I try to do what’s right,” Bob replied, before telling the girls, “Thanks for giving her a chance.”
They waved him off like they always did, but with smirks of understanding.
As they sat there, the ladies joked about other ships they’d been on, other meals they’d had on those ships, and other adventures prior to this one. Regan was glad to see the interaction. It felt like a family. For the first time since leaving Earth, Regan felt at home. Sure, it still was an adventure with an uncertain future, but he had found a balance in it, a calmness to it. He had found people he could trust along the way, people who he loved.
This was Captain Regan’s home now.
Just then, Squit arrived with plates full of food. Thanks to her talented tentacles, she could serve the entire table in one go, reaching around and setting everyone’s plate down before them. She hurried back to the kitchen and returned moments later with drinks and pitchers.
It was an impressive spread, and it smelled wonderful, but Regan didn’t recognize a single ingredient. He had tried foreign space foods before, like back on the Brute planet, but never from a stockpiled storage fridge in space.
This food could be anything!
Everyone looked at Regan with anticipation, and so did Squit. She murmured a squeaky sound.
“She says you’ll love it,” Bob said with a large smile. “It’s called… Well… I won’t be able to pronounce that, but the way she describes it, I think it’s like a casserole.”
Regan picked up his utensils and cut a piece off, with everyone still staring at him. He wasn’t sure if it was because he was the captain, or if they were nervous to try it themselves. But he didn’t want to be rude and delay the meal any further, so he put it in his mouth.
Damn. That’s good.
It was indeed like a casserole, with a hint of something sweet. It melted in his mouth like savory butter. The texture felt like eggs, and the taste had a perfect hint of spiciness, not enough to overpower it, but just enough to give it a bite.
Regan recalled the Brute planet, and how the fruit he had for breakfast after his first fight was the best thing he’d ever tasted at the time. This meal now surpassed that.
Again, maybe it was the setting, maybe it was where his life sat that morning, but this meal was incredible. And he told Squit and everyone else too.
He raised his glass.
“Squit, this is the finest breakfast I’ve ever had. I’m so glad you are on board.”
The table all raised their glasses and started to dive in. They each complimented the food, which made Squit bounce with excitement.
Regan encouraged Squit to join the table, and after some convincing, she did. She took the chair next to Bob, and the two sat very close, Bob endlessly complimenting her cooking the entire time.
Regan’s smile grew larger, then he thought of another person on board the ship: Calico. He wondered how long it had been since she’d eaten anything. Even though she was locked up, it wouldn’t hurt to bring her a plate. They were alive because of her after all.
Regan excused himself from the table and made his way to the kitchen to fix another plate. They were all so deep in conversation that he dipped out unnoticed.
Calico looked miserable in her cell. She sat huddled up into a little ball with her arms crossed over her knees and her chin resting on her forearm. When Regan entered, her face lifted, but she made no movement. She was clearly done thinking Regan would let her go.
“I did what I had to do to survive,” she said to him.
“I understand,” Regan replied. “Here’s some food.”
He slid the plate through a slot at the bottom of the door. She didn’t move, only glimpsing at the plate. But when she sniffed the air, her eyes lit up. She quickly approached the cell door, likely faster than she meant to, as it gave her hunger away.
“Did you make this?” she asked curiously as she looked down at the plate.
“No, our new crew member did.” Regan took a seat across from the cell door. “She’s a pink, shiny creature with a bunch of tentacles that make up—”
“A Squilly,” Calico interrupted. “That type of creature is called a Squilly. I remember her from Mephistopheles’s collection.”
“Her name is Squit,” Regan said.
“Well, I suppose that makes sense,” Calico replied. She bent down and picked up the plate. As she took a bite, her eyes opened wide. She stared at the plate, then took another bite quickly. “This is delicious. I didn’t know they could cook! I didn’t even know they could communicate, to be honest. Mephistopheles wanted a specimen because of their odd neurology. Their brains are evenly dispersed throughout their entire bodies. Because of that, Universal Translators can’t interface with them.”
Regan considered Calico’s statement for a moment.
“It seems Mephistopheles overlooked the best parts of a lot of creatures,” he said, a comment which made Calico pause from eating as she looked at him. He stood up and said, “Well, enjoy that. I’ll be back to check in on you later.”
Calico fell into her sad, pouty face again, but like last time, Regan could tell it was genuine. Her guard really was down. She was locked up and posing herself honestly, he felt.
You fell for it before.
He couldn’t let it be that easy. He no
dded and continued walking toward the main brig door, which he locked behind himself after leaving.
As he walked the hallways of his ship, he thought of her and the things she said. He thought of how Arkei was also manipulated by Mephistopheles. She kidnapped Regan, just like many other species, and was expected to hand him over for experimentation. In fact, she did hand him over. He then thought of Straya and the pirate life she led, believing she had no other choice.
But if Calico really was a princess, then why did she stick around with that evil creature? What brought her there in the first place?
Regan then thought of the blinking light on the bridge—the one that Calico continued to turn off when she was seated in the pilot’s chair. This thought suddenly intrigued Regan. He would go to the bridge and check it out. It’d be a test of sorts for Calico’s trust. He would find out exactly what that red button did.
Regan made it to the bridge with ease, becoming more comfortable with the layout of the ship the more he walked around it. When he arrived, he wasn’t surprised to find the little light was blinking again on the pilot’s console.
He stepped up to it and reached out to push it, but he hesitated.
You don’t know what this will do.
He wavered his finger back and forth, even dropping his arm at one point, but ultimately, he had to know what was going on, so he reached out and pressed the button. A small prompt appeared on the pilot’s console asking whether to answer or ignore the call. He pressed the prompt to accept it.
A section of the windshield turned into a monitor screen of sorts. A viewscreen. Salvato sat at the other end. He looked the same and seemed surprised to see Regan’s face again. He had a cocktail in his hand that he set down so he could rub his hands together.
“There you are!” the mobster said with his gurgled voice.
“Here I am,” Regan said calmly, taking a seat in his captain’s chair.
“Yes! But… where is there?” Salvato asked. An eyebrow rose from underneath his sunglasses.
“I don’t know exactly,” Regan replied with a smirk. “Why don’t you tell me why you were trying to destroy us?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Salvato said with a growl, banging on a desk in front of him. “You stole the data cube! And I want to know why?”
Regan’s smirk became one of confusion. He brought his hand to his chin and thought for a moment. He searched his mind for what Salvato could be referring to, but he had nothing.
“The what?” Regan finally asked.
Salvato’s fists were so tight and his expression so angry, he looked as if he would have a fit. His mouth opened, pointing at the screen as if about to shout something at Regan, but then he relaxed his posture. He adjusted his pinstriped suit jacket and removed his hat to reveal a slicked back oily haircut. There were gold strands running through it, as if he wanted it to match his pinstriped suit.
He lifted his drink and took another sip.
“So… You really don’t know what I’m talking about, do you?” he asked.
Regan shook his head. “I don’t. But I know shooting a bunch of missiles at us for some data is a bit much. What would you have done if the missiles destroyed our ship? Would the data have been destroyed too?”
Salvato clapped his hands together once and laughed. “You clearly don’t understand,” he said.
“No, I don’t. But I do know that if you’ve taken Mephistopheles’s compound over, you have an entire archive of data at your fingertips. Information about the entire universe. What’s so special about this single cube?”
“It’s none of your concern,” Salvato said with a more stern tone. He took another sip of his drink, finishing it. “Just know that I’m serious when I say the following: Until you return it, you’ll never know peace. You’ll be in constant danger. And when I find you—and I will find you—I’ll tear off anything that protrudes from your body until I get an answer. You’ll hand it over, eventually. It’s up to you how much pain you’re willing to endure first.”
Regan didn’t appreciate the threats, but he knew that Salvato was telling the truth. He had defeated and escaped one enemy only to make another. His mind was racing through the possibilities. He wanted to say something smart and threatening, but he held back. He had to play this one cool. Too hot right out the gate wouldn’t bode well for what could come further down the road.
“What does it look like?” Regan asked, staying calm and pretending like the threat Salvato had made mattered little to him.
Salvato started laughing at the reply. He waved his arm and someone off screen brought him another cocktail. He sat back in his chair and put his feet on the desk.
“You humor me, little human,” he said and took a sip. “It’s a cube! Two inches by two inches, I’d say. Blue lights on all sides. And to answer your previous question, no, the missiles would not have destroyed it. It’s made of a metal you can’t break into, so don’t even try it. It has fail safes in place that only I know how to work through. Spare yourself the agony.”
Regan gave a nonchalant shrug. “Okay, well, I’ll let you know if I come across it. No guarantees though. It’s a big ship.”
Salvato instantly dropped his legs from his desk and leaned forward, pointing his finger as he started to say something. All he got out was, “You little—” before Regan pressed the button and ended the call.
Well, there you go again. Making powerful enemies with other species in space.
Regan thought about that for a moment.
Screw him.
He didn’t get up from his captain’s chair, and he assumed for a moment that the little light would start blinking again. But it didn’t. Salvato’s threats had already been made, after all. Regan knew that Salvato would see them through if he got the chance.
So better not let him get the chance. But how would he get ahead of this?
The cube’s somewhere around here.
Right. So could it be as simple as finding it then calling Salvato back? Handing it over? If that were the case, maybe he should have asked how to call Salvato back before hanging up on him…was there such a thing as a phone number in space? How did the dude call him?
Regan knew only one thing: If that data cube was somewhere on his ship, then only one person knew where it was, and why it was so important.
And she was in a prison cell two floors below him.
Time for another visit.
Chapter Eight
Regan left the bridge and headed for Calico’s cell. She knew about the data cube Salvato was after, yet hadn’t said a word about it. Not quite a point in her favor.
This data cube seemed like a big deal—big enough to hunt down Regan and his crew across the galaxy. It seemed like every time Regan thought Calico was changing, she was hiding something else.
He took the most direct route to get to the brig, which meant he had to pass by the galley. He didn’t want his crew to see him this upset, but he also didn’t want to lie to them.
As he passed the large open doors to the galley, he paused. Some of his anger subsided as he got a glimpse of Bob and Squit in the kitchen. Bob was helping her clean the dishes, and the chemistry between them was ridiculous. They rubbed against each other as they passed dishes back and forth, and Squit was reaching around Bob, grabbing items, sliding her tentacles across his shoulders as she did so.
I gotta hand it to you, Bob. You found someone who matches your level of weird.
Regan was about to turn from the galley when Arkei and Straya showed up and stopped him.
“Where’d you go?” Straya asked.
“Reverie went off to check the captain’s suite. We’ve been looking for you,” Arkei chimed in. “We need to decide—”
But Regan raised his hand and stopped them.
“I have to go talk to Calico,” he said, making no attempt to hide the irritation in his tone.
“About?” Straya asked.
“About a certain data cube that she likely stole. That’s why S
alvato’s trying to destroy us. The cube is apparently his, and he wants it back.”
Straya and Arkei gave each other nervous glances. They knew something.
“Data cubes store an immense amount of information,” Straya noted. “Enough to topple empires.”
Regan shrugged. “Yeah, well, if Calico tells us where it is, then we can return it and put it all behind us.”
“It might not be that simple,” Arkei said.
“Shit,” Straya added. “Arkei is right. A data cube, depending on what’s on it, could make us a big target.”
Regan thought about it. If Salvato was as powerful as he seemed to be, then perhaps he had spies or contacts working all over the galaxy for him. Suddenly, this seemed like a bigger deal than it had before.
I should have gotten his number.
“Well, no sense talking in the hallway about it,” Regan said. “First things first, we get Calico to tell us where it is. Then we decide our next move.”
Straya smacked her fist into her hand and smirked. “I can get that feline to tell us exactly where it is. Just let me at her, Captain.”
Regan put his hand on her fist and gently lowered it. “How about we start with a discussion first?”
Straya took it well, stating, “You’re always so compassionate, lucky for Calico.”
“Let’s get a move on,” Arkei said, then the group headed for the brig.
Calico was sleeping on the bench in her jail cell when Regan, Straya, and Arkei entered. She lay stretched out on her back, without a care in the world.
He noticed she had licked her plate clean. She must have been hungry.
But Calico went from this relaxed state to a near panic when Straya kicked the bars hard. She did it twice and Calico leapt upright into a defensive hunch, her fingernails turned into claws.
She relaxed a bit when she saw who was standing before her. Her nails started to retract.
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