by Alix Labelle
“Talacanthus,” I call, slapping the side of his face. “Wake up or at least don’t die.” Scrabbling about, I start to clear some space around his body and look through some of the boxes and chests around us. There are a few items of clothing and some things that look like blankets which I use to cover him, hoping the warmth from Acrulla will help to revive him.
***
I feel somewhat better after having my way with Shaktee. Unfortunately, she submitted quite easily to my demands, maybe I can teach her to be a little more aggressive in future. I shall leave her for now, huddled in the corner where she can lick her wounds and contemplate how to please me better.
“Report!” I bellow as soon as I enter the command section. “Are we to resume course?” A pointed silence follows, and I can feel the tension in the air around us. “So you have failed,” I spit at them with contempt. “Supposedly, you’re the finest crew Intrellia Prime has ever assembled, and you cannot determine what is wrong with this ancient beast?” I scan them all, and not one will meet my gaze. Although...Talacrus is looking at me. “Well?” I demand.
“Commander,” he begins with less deference than I would like, “we have determined what ails Acrulla,”
“And?”
“He does not accept your command, Commander.” Talacrus tells me with obvious pleasure, and I feel rage burn through me. I manage to control it, however, and hone it into a cold determination, and a plan comes to my thought center.
“He does not accept my command,” I repeat Talacrus’ words coldly. “Then maybe I can alter his thought processes somewhat.” I stare into Talacrus’ dark gray eyes for a few moments. “Maybe he will begin to respect me if I cut out one of his hearts.” The shock they all feel at my words is obvious and gratifying. They probably believe I am insane, which merely increases my hold over all of them. “To your stations,” I order. “I shall return a little later.” With those final words, I turn and leave the command section, heading for the reactor chamber.
***
My eyes flicker open, but it takes my brain a few seconds to catch up, and a confusion creeps through my mind. I finally remember where I am and how I got here then turn my attention to Talacanthus. It’s really hard to tell whether he’s any better or not. The penetrating wound I found in his chest would probably kill a human, but I lay my ear on his gently moving chest, and I hear a weird thumping as if he’s got horrific arrhythmia.
My whole body aches from being squeezed through the ship, searching for my alien, and I could really use something to eat and drink, but I don’t think I’ll find much down here. I sit up, wriggling out from under the covers I shared with Talacanthus, and decide to start a more detailed search of the packed boxes around us.
A few hours pass while I manage to fashion myself a reasonable outfit comprising of a pair of leather leggings, which feel as soft as silk against my skin, and an off-white shirt that feels like it’s made from cotton. Both garments are way too big for me, being from members of the Intrellian crew, but I manage to find a couple of belts, which hold it to my ample curves.
Without searching every box, bag and case, I can’t be sure if there’s a goldmine of weapons hidden here, but I do manage to find a pair of nasty looking daggers. One is of a smooth, reflective metal and the other looks to be made from bone, but it’s the hardest bone I have ever handled and razor sharp. I tuck the knives in the belt at my waist and decide to check on my patient.
Scrabbling back over to where I left him, a thrill crashes through me as I see his eyes are open, and I pick up speed, tripping and stumbling over the cargo in my need to get back to his side.
Kneeling beside him, I whisper, “Talacanthus?” I abandoned the translator along with my clothes, so he won’t be able to understand me, but I hope the sound of my voice will be enough to make him fight for life. I watch, eagerly, for any signs of life, but my chest constricts when I don’t see anything. I decide to lie down beside him and sleep. What’s going to happen if he dies? I’ll be left here alone, to either starve or get found by that new commander and slaughtered. I can feel the fright trying to creep into my brain and clamp a door shut on it all. I doubt Talacanthus felt fear when he fought the nightmarish beast from the lake, so I won’t dismiss him now. He will get better and we will be together.
***
Word must have spread before me as there is a small gathering in the reactor chamber, the presence of which amuses me greatly. I stride forward and attempt to skirt round the edge of the few who are there.
“Commander,” this comes from Talacrus, “I must advise against this course of action. If you destroy one of Acrulla’s hearts, it will endanger the lives of us all.”
I turn to face him. “I am fully aware of that fact,” I tell him icily. “I was Chief Engineer aboard this old beast for more cycles than I care to recall, and I will bend it to my will or I will kill it.” I turn my head left and right. “And us all.”
“No,” he states flatly. “You will not.” The action is so fast I almost miss it but manage to dance backwards, barely avoiding a slashing cut which would have spilled my innards to the floor. Talacrus’ blow missing me sends him slightly off balance, and I throw my weight against his shoulder, pushing him further so I can draw my own knife.
I drop into a crouch and lunge forward, trying to stab him in the back as he spins and lashes out at me again. The other Intrellians around us back off and form a circle around us, a ring for us to fight to the death inside. Talacrus will die today, to join his bastard brother in the Hereafter. His reactions, style, even the amount of strength he can bring to bear are all far below mine, and we all know it.
“You are not your brother,” I taunt him. “I had to shoot him from afar, in this very room.” Talacrus leaps forward, his rage forcing him into making a rash decision, and I catch his wrist, using his own momentum to drive his body onto my blade. I watch as his eyes widen in agony, his breath coming in tiny gasps as I twist my dagger inside his body, tearing and cutting. His fingers loosen around his own knife, and it falls, the handle hitting my shoulder as it passes. His arm goes slack next, and then his knees buckle as he falls to the ground, crumpling into a heap of dead flesh on Acrulla’s floor.
“ACRULLA!” I scream into the room. “You will do as I command or share the fate of this weakling.” I clean Talacrus’ blood from my blade on his clothing and stand back up. “If I return to this room, I will spill your blood!”
I turn and shove my way through the ring of Intrellians before me. Maybe I will go and see Shaktee, begin her training while I tell her of the death of her friend.
***
I can feel something tickling my face, in that place where nightmares and daydreams can come from, but when I come to, I can still feel something gently tickling. I can’t wake up fully because I know this has got to be a dream, and it’ll fade if I wake up. Whatever this is – Talacanthus I hope – it strokes my right cheek, runs across my forehead and down my left cheek before making its way down to my chin and throat before working back up.
I regretfully feel my eyes open to the dim light inside Acrulla’s storage bay, and my stomach clenches. It is him!
“Talacanthus?” I ask in wonder. “Is this real? Are you all right?”
“Thanks to your ministrations, love, I am as well as can be expected.” He must be able to read the shock, which I can feel across my face, as he adds. “Is something wrong?”
“I-I can understand you!” My voice is high and choked with feeling.
“Of course. Your crew mate gave you a device.” His tone leaves little doubt as to my state of mind.
“I lost that days ago,” I tell him. “Acrulla told me I had to leave everything behind, so he could get me down here to you.” Although Intrellians have little to no ability to alter their facial features, Talacanthus looks shocked and confused.
“What do you mean Acrulla told you?” He asks.
I shrug and look into those blue pool eyes of his. “Well, exactly that,” I t
ell him. “I was locked in some kind of cell. One of your people,” I click my fingers while trying to recall his name, “Jonober! He came to tell me he was commander now, you were dead and I was going to be taken to Intrellia Prime to be cut up and experimented on.” I pause and look at him. “He did tell me that was your plan to begin with. Is that true?” I ask in a small voice.
“Initially,” Talacanthus admits. “Intrellian policy dictates such. However, I never intended to hand you over. I could not do that. Ever.” He strokes my face again. “I have never felt such overpowering love for anyone else before.” This revelation fills me with both surprise and warmth and I feel a silly grin swim across my face. “How did it come about that you and my ship spoke?” He demands.
“I laid on the floor, just waiting to die really, when I felt one of those tube things...”
“A proboscis,” Talacanthus tells me.
“A proboscis,” I repeat. “So I stuck it to my head, like I saw you do, and he told me some things.”
The Intrellian commander nods. “I suspect this is how you have come to know my language so fluently.” He trails off and sits in quiet contemplation.
I move in closer, and his arm makes its way across my shoulders, draping heavily over me. I could stay like this forever, pressed up against Talacanthus’ side and basking in the warmth of his love.
“What’s wrong?” I ask timidly, and he jumps a little as if I broke his concentration.
“Sorry?” He looks at me. “Nothing is wrong, love. Merely unusual.” He’s pensive and contemplative. “It is unheard of for a Sentient-Ship to contact someone aboard, even if I am still commander.” I pull away and look at him. “I am glad he chose to do so, however,” he adds, squeezing me into his side.
“Acrulla told me we were linked by unbreakable bonds and because we’d both shared his mind, we were part of what makes him up,” I explain. “I don’t pretend to understand, but there it is.” Talacanthus nods slowly as if he does understand. “What will happen now?” I wonder in my small voice again.
“I shall take a little time to recover and heal. Then I will go and find Jonober and hack him into tiny little pieces.”
I feel a chill run up my spine at his words but really feel the same way. I look forward to watching Talacanthus destroy that little imposter. “I know you’ve only just woken and need to rest, but is there any chance you can tell me where to find a little food?”
“How long since you ate?”
“Days, I think,” I tell him. “I could use a drink as well.”
Talacanthus moves slowly onto hands and knees before trying to get to his feet. With a shout, he drops back to the ground and shudders in pain.
“Let me help!” I cry out and try to lever him up. With a huge amount of grunting and pain, I manage to get him to his feet, and he guides us towards what I assume to be a door.
***
The pain is more than I can bear. I can see darkness creeping into the edges of my vision, and every step we take jolts more agony up from my thorax and into the rest of my body. Hetty is trying to help me yet has been weakened by lack of nutrition, and our short journey is set to take a lifetime.
Eventually, we reach the door which opens before us, exiting the Personal Storage section and its historic wares. From what I recall, there are a number of low level crew quarters on the level above us. I only hope we can make the journey in such poor states.
“Come, my love,” I pant. “We must climb to the next level.” Hetty looks at me with love and trust in her eyes, and I feel a tightening in my thorax. The reason for it is beyond me, yet I can only assume it is to do with the feelings she has stirred in me.
The corridor branches off to left and right. Both offer the same outcome. Hetty pulls me left, so we stumble along that way, every step an explosion of searing agony through my whole body. We eventually reach the ramp leading to the upper level, and my thought center tells me I have little chance of making the climb.
Barely a quarter of the ways up, my legs fold beneath me, and I drag Hetty to the floor, bringing a scream from her throat.
“My sweet, you are hurt.” I say, yet my beautiful, alien creature shakes her head, making her fine curls bounce around.
“Don’t worry about me, babe. I’m fine.” This confuses me. Am I some kind of infant? I ask her this and she laughs. “No, it’s something you say to someone you’ve got feelings for or want to be with.” I nod then hold my fingers to her warm mouth as I hear voices above us.
“...is nothing but a fool and will end us all,” someone states.
“I know. Can you imagine what would actually happen if he was to cut one of Acrulla’s hearts out?” I can hear their footsteps as they pass by the far end of the ramp we are on. “Things were so much better under Talacanthus. Now there was an Intrellian who knew how to run a Sentient-Ship.”
“Crewmen!” I shout as loudly as I can. “Aid us.” There is a pause, presumably while the two above take in the fact no one should really be down here. Then I hear the sound of running feet. They both skid to a halt a few meters away from us, eyes wide in shock at the sight of their dead commander and his alien consort.
“Commander Talacanthus!” One cries out.
The other can merely stare. “I thought you were in the Hereafter.”
“I was,” I tell them. “I got bored, so I decided to return. Will you help us?” Both of them snap to attention immediately.
“Of course, commander,” they speak in unison.
***
I’m comfortable now. Apparently, there are quite a few Intrellians who are still faithful to Talacanthus and more than happy to help us in the hope he will resume his command. We’ve been fed and watered, and a healer of some kind has been to tend to his wound, muttering and fretting over the amount of time he has been left without medical attention. One of the crew gave up his quarters for us to recover in and all have agreed to keep the secret of his being alive. We’re warm and safe for now.
Snuggled up to Talacanthus’ side, I feel drowsy and on the verge of sleep, until a hard knock comes at the door.
“Come in,” I call.
The Intrellian whose room this is enters, his eyes flicking from me to Talacanthus who’s sleeping soundly in his bed. “There is no need to rise, great lady,” he tells me. “I merely need to fetch some tools, so I may follow my assigned duties.” He seems almost nervous.
I reach out to him, grabbing his arm and making him freeze. “No, this is your room, and you have lent it to us from the goodness of your heart.” My throat tightens at his simple act of kindness. “I will stand when you enter. It’s the least I can do.” I lean in and wrap my arms around his vast chest, squeezing him tightly. I feel his body tense as if this is wrong in some way, but he speaks again.
“And this is the least I can do, great lady,” he tells me. “On the day Commander Talacanthus rids this ship of Jonober, I shall receive my reward.” He manages to extricate himself from me and takes a small case from inside a cupboard. “I must leave now, great lady.” I nod and watch him go.
“Charming the crew now are you?” Talacanthus teases me from his bed.
“You’re supposed to be asleep!” I tell him mock harshly.
“Yes, great lady.”
***
“Four cycles have passed. Four cycles!” I scream across the heads of the gathered Intrellians. “And what progress have you made in getting this bucket of shit to move through space?” I scan their faces. “None at all. Will someone explain this to me?” Not one of them dares move, and I can feel the fright in the room, satisfying me greatly. None can stand against me now that I have vanquished Talacanthus. “No?” I quiz, taunting them. “I shall have to select a few of your number to serve as examples to the rest.” At least they manage to meet this with a stoic silence.
***
Such sleep is the thing of cycles past. I have not slept so soundly or well, or even for so long, in many cycles, yet I must wake. My eyelids peel back and
take in the unfamiliar surroundings of Benslala’s quarters. Tentatively, I sit up, feeling the pain in my thorax has muted to less than a dull ache. Whatever else that healer might be, he can work miracles with wounds. I look down and see the scar tissue on my flesh, bringing back the blinding rage I feel at Jonober’s cowardice. I will make him pay dearly for using projectile weapons to subdue me.
Where is Hetty? I swing my legs to the warm floor of Acrulla and step over to the door. Outside is an industrious looking crew member performing some kind of maintenance behind an access pane.
“Have you seen the alien female I had with me?” I ask his surprised face.
“No, Commander. I have only been here a short time and seen no one.”
“Carry on,” I tell him and return to Benslala’s quarters. There I find the pair of daggers Hetty discovered, and something cold makes my chest go tight. I believe something is wrong. Someone has discovered us and taken Hetty to use against me.
***
Unbelievably, I’ve been kidnapped now. One of the female Intrellians crept into our room and pressed a knife to my throat, pulling me from Talacanthus’ side and dragging me through the ship. I don’t know how she managed it. There’s no one around at all. Maybe there’s a change of shift and in between one set of workers and the next.
“You don’t have to do this,” I tell her. “I’ll come easily.”
“Silence, filth.” If she’s surprised at my speaking her language, she doesn’t show it. She just shoves me along corridors and up the ramps, which join levels inside Acrulla.
***
The communications sub-chief locks eyes with me as I move towards him with a dance like action. My short sword lashes out, opening a slash on Dhualcan’s forearm down to the bone. This is the first of those I intend to kill, ridding myself of the turncoat crew who still cling to the memory of their inferior commander. I lash out again, the very tip of my blade lancing into his cheek, so deep I can see teeth glistening wetly under the flap of muscle, which peels away. So far, this is the third such fight I have had with the remaining crew looking on, and I have begun to inflict as many wounds as I can before watching them die at my feet.