Page 30 of My Alien Jewel
“Welcome aboard the Supernova,” he greets me, his rumbly voice almost as soothing as Nikolai’s. “I’m glad to see you’ve finally decided to join us. I hope that everyone,” he casts a side glance at D’Aakh, the angry Krestilian who’d yelled at me before, “is being nice to you.”
I nod. They have been nice to me, perhaps more than I deserve. I understand how they came to the conclusion that I was behind the damage to this ship. They knew I was on board, hiding in the maintenance walkways, and they don’t know about the insects.
“Come, let’s remove that collar,” the captain says. “I hate seeing those things on my ship.”
I bet he does. I almost go with him, then realize what I’ve been forgetting about. The crew doesn’t know about the insects because idiotic me still hasn’t told them.
The captain quirks his scaly brow as he watches me scramble for the datapad, but he doesn’t say anything, letting me type out my message.
“There are insects on board, big ones I’ve never seen before. They wander the maintenance walkways in the lower levels and tear cables and pipes off the walls. That’s why the systems are malfunctioning.”
I hand the datapad over to the captain. As he reads, his brows burrow. “Insects? D’Aakh, come here,” he calls out, waiting untilthe Krestilian reads the message. “Are you sure that’s what you saw?”
They don’t believe me. Well, of course they don’t. I look like a creepy swamp monster that just crawled out of a sewer. Yet I have to convince them I’m telling the truth. If they don’t stop those insects, the entire ship is going to fall apart.
It’s Astra who rescues me. “Did you just say insects?” she asks, staring at me with her mouth wide open. When I nod, she continues, “Blue ones? About four feet tall? Look like alien praying mantises?”
“Yes, they’re blue and about four feet tall,”I type my response.“I don’t know what a praying mantis is, though.”
“It’s Cricket!” Astra cries out, clapping. “He and his friends are alive! This whole time, we thought they’d died when the slavers cut the oxygen to the holding cells, but it looks like they made it out of there in time.”
D’Aakh glares at her murderously. “Why the fuck are you so happy about this? They’re literally tearing our ship apart! I say we go down there and deal with them.”
“No!” Astra protests. “It’s not their fault! They probably don’t know what they’re doing.”
I hate to disagree with her since she’s been so nice to me, but I still correct her.“They definitely seemed like they knew what they were doing. If it’s any consolation, though, I don’t think they were trying to damage the ship on purpose. It looked more like they were building something and needed the parts. Some of them wanted to take apart a control panel that looked important, but the big one stopped them.”
It’s quiet as they read my message. I really need to practice speaking more. This way of communication sucks.
Like I expected, D’Aakh speaks first. “Even if they weren’t trying to damage the ship on purpose, they’re doing it. We’re hours away from losing our engines because the cooling systemsare failing. Once that happens, we’ll be left floating in the middle of nowhere, with no one around to help us. I’ve secured the life support system and the artificial gravity, so those should hold for now, at least in the inhabited areas, but there’s no telling how long it will last.”
“Alright.” The captain sounds calm, despite the dire situation. “We need to dock somewhere. Cai, what’s the nearest safe location?”
“The mining station on the Alevvo asteroid belt,” a computer voice responds. “It’s a small station but sufficient for an emergency landing and conducting the necessary repairs we need.”
“Redirect us there immediately. D’Aakh, I want you to focus on keeping the engines and the life support system going until we get there. What do you need from us?”
D’Aakh’s antennae twitch. “To shut up so I can think. Let’s see…” He rubs his forehead. “Tareq and Omni should be able to help me with emergency patches.”
“I’m coming, too,” the Zyderi female says as she jumps off her bed.
“You’re injured, Lyriana,” the captain objects.
She shrugs her healthy shoulder. “So? I can work just fine with one hand. Plus, if we don’t keep the engines running long enough, we’ll all die anyway, so there’s no point in hiding in the infirmary.”
“Good point,” the captain says. “I’ll join you as soon as I remove Z’Ree’s collar. Astra, will you check on Nala and Ellen and make sure they’re both alright? Stay with them so that Faelin can help us with repairs.” He doles out duties to his crew before turning to me. “Z’Ree? Will you watch Nikolai? We’ll move him to a bed and he should be out for a few more hours but I want to make sure someone’s with him when he wakes up. Unless you’re a master engineer?”
I snort and shake my head. I can just about operate basic devices but that’s it. Nikolai probably knows more about technology than me.“I’d be happy to watch Nikolai,”I type quickly. I would have stayed with him anyway, but it feels oddly gratifying to be assigned such an important job.
“Okay, it’s settled then. Get on with it.”
The crew starts moving, everyone rushing to their assigned tasks. I watch as they carefully transfer Nikolai to the little room in the back while the captain rummages through some drawers. “Ah, here it is,” he says, pulling out a dangerous looking device. “This should do the trick. Please, sit here.” He pats the examination table. “I’m Zarkan, by the way. Please forgive me for not introducing myself earlier. It’s a little busy around here at the moment,” he jokes.
I chuckle. A little busy, indeed.
He shows me the tool as I hoist myself up on the table. “I’ll have to cut through the collar. Normally, we’d open it with one of the generic key cards, but yours is special. Stronger, with a more advanced tracker and equipped with a solid anti-tampering system. I guess the bastard who owned you didn’t want to lose his precious merchandise,” he growls, squeezing the tool so hard I’m surprised it doesn’t snap.
“I’m sorry, just ignore me. I have a very strong opinion of slavers.” He raises the tool to my collar. “I have to warn you, it might trigger a safety mechanism and shock you, but I’ll be quick. It won’t last more than a second. Trying to hack into the lock’s control system would take much longer and D’Aakh’s too busy. Do you still want me to do it?”