Page 3 of My Alien Pirate

Medic

Picking the tiny being up again, I carried her into the cool, recycled air of my ship toward Dasonix, our chief medical officer.Kraxing hells!We were pirates, but he insisted everyone use the official title he earned when he was part of the Justice Raiders. Pretentious, vaxuling male.

Coming to the doors of the med bay, I again began imagining the potential for enormous profit. The right buyer would pay a fortune for such a unique specimen. Hell, the right buyer would pay a fortune just for the chance to study her.

The med bay doors hissed open, revealing the sterile white interior. I gently laid my strange find on the examination table, stepping back to let the medical droid begin its scans.

"Daz!" I barked. "Get in here."

Our ship's medical officer strode from a back room wiping all four of his six-fingered hands with a sanitizing rag. "Keep your tail on," he groused at me. Dasonix was the only one who would dare to speak to me in such a fashion. The Centari hadpractically raised me, saving me from a slaver when I was only a few sols old. I showed my teeth and shot him a half-hearted growl anyway. For good measure.

"I found something, uh, someone, on the ship," I told the old Centari. "I'm pretty sure it's female but I've never seen the like. She has basically no defenses and speaks a language my translator won't pick up." My fingers dared to rub the silky dark filaments growing out of her head. So soft! "Have you ever seen anything like her?"

Dasonix made a fast, clicking sound that implied great interest as his large black eye scanned the female's body. "Mmmmm," he hummed. "I'm not sure. I'm not sure. Maybe. Possibly."

I felt my pupils elongate in irritation at the male's typical, unresponsive response. Just once, I'd love him to give me a direct answer to a direct question.

"I saw that." The male might have only one eye, but it saweverything. "Give me some time to examine her and review the scans." A single hand came up and made a shooing motion toward me. The kraxxing male actually shooed me!

"Fine." Turning back toward the door, I barked into my comm. "Jorixx, get us out of here. Standard evasive maneuvers. I don't want anyone following us from this graxmucking moon!"

"Aye, Captain," came the reply, followed by the familiar rumble of engines coming to life.

I turned back to the unconscious being on the table before I walked out the door, unable to resist one more peek. For a moment, I watched as the med droid's scanners played over her form and Daz studied her intently. Who are you? I wondered.Whatare you? And what in the name of all that's unholy am I supposed to do with you?

Part of me—the ruthless pirate captain who'd carved out a feared reputation across three-star systems—knew exactly whatI should do. Sell her to the highest bidder, no questions asked. It would set me and my crew up for life.

But another part thought I might keep her. At least for a while. My ridges flashed yellow in agitation.

"Kraxing hells," I muttered, running a hand over my crest in frustration. "No, no, no! You do not need a female on this ship. Especially one that belongs to a species you don't even recognize!"

I obviously needed to plan to stop on Oasis Prime soon. My kraxing mating hormones were messing with my synapses. Stomping in frustration, I left the med bay to go check on the rest of my crew and make sure we escaped orbit without any tails or other issues.

Several clicks later, having checked on the crew, eaten, and cleaned all the dust and soot from my scales and skin, I returned to the med bay to see what Daz had learned about my fascinating find.

The old male was nowhere to be seen so I ordered the med droid to provide an update, eager for any information about my mysterious guest.

"Well?" I demanded. "What can you tell me?"

The droid's monotone voice filled the med bay. "Subject is female, carbon-based lifeform. Bilateral symmetry, internal skeleton, warm-blooded. Respiratory and circulatory systems unlike any in my database. Brain activity suggests high intelligence. No known pathogens detected, but caution is advised, due to unknown origin."

I absorbed this information, my frills twitching thoughtfully. "Any signs of how she got here? Radiation signatures, temporal distortions, anything like that?"

"Negative, Captain," the droid replied. "No recognized anomalous energy readings detected. However, the subject'smolecular structure shows subtle variations from known norms. Further analysis is required for definitive conclusions."

Curious and curiouser, I thought, unconsciously echoing a phrase from a story I'd once heard on a distant trading post. I reached out, almost despite myself, to brush a stray strand of that fascinating, dark filament from her face.

As my rough, scaled hand made contact with her soft skin, her eyes flew open. For a moment, we simply stared at each other, her blue eyes meeting my multifaceted, multicolored ones in mutual fascination and wariness.

Then she spoke, her voice quiet but steady. "Where am I? Who are you?"

I had no idea what she said, but I felt my face twitch into a smirk. "Well now, little zixxit," I said, "I'm sure those must be questions about where you are, but how about we start with you telling me who you are, and how in the graxxing void you ended up on that wreck of a ship?"

As I waited for her response, I felt a familiar thrill course through me. It was the same feeling I got when setting course for uncharted space or taking on a particularly challenging heist. The thrill of the unknown, of potential danger and potential reward all mixed together.

Her slender throat bobbed as she continued to study me, frozen in what I could only imagine was fear. I sighed. I'd learned that the calmer I could keep any livestock we were transporting, the easier the journey was. Fearful livestock often fought, invariably resulting in injury to themselves, to one of my crew members, or, on one occasion, my ship!

I reached out a tentacle to wrap around her wrist, attempting to soothe her in the way of my people, the secretions available a mild tranquilizer to most species. This was apparently the exact wrong thing to do. She took one look at my dark green appendage lightly curled around her wrist and screamed.