Chapter 28
Igroaned and swatted at something as I came awake, blearily blinking my eyes and pulling back the covers. Yet nothing happened. A wet drop landed on my face, and I blinked, wiping it away. It was sticky, and I pulled the substance between my fingers, getting a sense for it.
"Lily?" I asked, looking around. She was gone.
I pulled my sheets off, finding them damp, and scrambled, padding my way around the room until I could find my desk. I went through my drawers until I pulled out a small pen light, as well as my tablet, then clicked the light on and swept it over the room.
I had fallen asleep after a few vigorous rounds with Lily. Now, I was unsure where she had gone. Normally, she stayed and watched me, but it wasn't unheard of for her to roam the ship to keep an eye on what was happening.
The drip sounded again, and I lifted the light to see just what was above me, only to find one of Lily's many sensory organs with a chunk taken out of it above me.
I frowned. "Lily?" This time I raised my voice. When she didn't respond, I cupped my hands around my mouth. "Lily?"
I swept the pen light back and forth. That part of the sensory organs had been eaten and Lily wasn't here was in itself highly concerning.
Somehow, I doubted Lily would leave me alone if she suspected something violent was in the room with me.
Yet as I swept the light around, I saw nothing else that might indicate anything more.
Holding the light in my mouth, I pulled open the door, stepping into the hallway. "Lily!" I hissed, and still, there was no response.
Well, whatever was going on, it would probably be best if I wasn't alone. People in horror movies always died because they did not find a hallway buddy to watch their back. So I swept the pen light back and forth as I moved through the hall.
The closest room to mine was Melgara's, just two doors down.
There had been some initial shuffling when we first picked our quarters.
As the captain, I was practically forced into the largest of them.
However, there was at the time some conflict when it came to who would get to stay next to me, and as a result, it was left empty.
Melgara got hers on the virtue that it had a direct door to the medical bay.
I padded along, staying low and quiet in some vague sense of stealth, though I doubted I was doing a very good job of truly being stealthy.
I reached Melgara's door and gave it a tug, like the rest. They'd all been put into manual, without power on the ship.
The first tug wasn't hard enough; I had to brace myself and pull again.
This time it came free with a loud clank.
As the door pulled back, I felt the cold kiss of a pistol touch my temple, and I froze still, holding the door where I had slid it open.
"Captain Valcrest?" Melgara's voice was confused, and she withdrew the pistol.
I slowly turned my head. She was wearing a barely present nightdress. As my eyes climbed up her body, however, she grabbed my hair, stopping me.
"One moment. I must get my blindfold," she said, and I could practically hear the blush in her voice.
"Sure," I answered quickly, remembering the pistol, and I turned away from the room, already feeling more comfortable that I had someone with me. I understood that showing someone her eyes was incredibly intimate for her.
"So, what was the blaster for?" I asked, sweeping the pen light back and forth, checking the hallway.
"I heard the door. I purposely made the door loud,” she answered.
“And... you sleep with a weapon?" I asked.
"I have trust issues," Melgara said, as if that explained it all, which, in a way, I suppose it did.
"Oh, well, sorry." I kept my eyes averted. "Let me know when I can turn around and re-enter the room. I'd rather not be out longer than I have to at the moment."
"Is everything alright? I thought you slept with Lily," Melgara said. "I can't help but wonder why you've come into my room in the middle of the night." There was a small chuckle in her words.
"Well, I woke up, and something had eaten Lily's sensory node in my room, and Lily herself is gone," I told her.
Melgara dropped something. "You're good. You can turn around," she said.
I didn't waste a moment stepping into the room, and the door clanked behind me as I closed it.
"What do you mean something ate part of Lily?" she asked. She had a black strip of cloth across her eyes and had put on a lab coat, though they weren’t really meant to be the primary covering, and her chest was still heavily on display.
"I think it's fairly self-explanatory. I'm not sure how to state it differently. Lily's sensory node was dripping on me and woke me up. And Lily was gone, so I figured the best thing I could do was wake someone up and not be entirely alone."
Melgara smirked at me. "Captain, are you scared right now?"
I stared at her. "Yes. And I'm man enough to admit it. I particularly like waking up to seeing a part of Lily, even if just a sensory node. I do not like when it is bleeding."
Melgara's smirk fell into a frown. "Alright. I suppose that's fair. Well, what do you suppose we do then?" She tapped at her wrist, a thoughtful expression looking into the middle distance.
"Finding Lily or Violet is honestly next on my list," I told her.
"Lily should have multiple sensory organs around. And you haven't had her come to your aid yet?" She seemed just as confused as I was.
"Nope. That makes this particularly troublesome to me. It's simply unlike Lily to leave me alone, especially if something or someone is running around the ship.” Though I wasn’t sure what could take a chunk out of her sensory organ and leave me entirely alone.
"Yes, she is incredibly territorial of you." Melgara smirked.
"Don't be too amused. That could backfire on us more than anyone, once.
" I narrowed my eyes, knowing she'd been at least somewhat part of the discussion between Lily and Violet.
"Especially if Violet continues to push, I can’t promise what Lily's reaction will be.
" I didn’t want to ruin the wonderful thing I had with Lily.
"Fine, fine." Melgara waved a hand. "But we might have to count Lily out for this one. I'm not sure what could be eating her sensory nodes, but my first concern is that we've had multiple threats levied on us as of late," she said pointedly.
I opened my mouth to argue, but then I found I had nothing to say besides... "Shit. Do you think someone's on the ship?"
"Truly, that's the only thing I can think of that would stop our dear helivore from being here with you. However, perhaps even more concerning is how they knew to target the sensory organs."
I found myself nodding along with her. "Alright. Then let's see who all we can gather. We will be safer together." Whatever was happening we could figure out later once we made sure everyone was safe.
Melgara hummed an agreement and reached back to grab several items. I hadn't had the thought to grab a weapon, but she made sure to hand me one—apparently her spare.
"Brick's room is down the hall, but he often sleeps in engineering. I’d say we collect Tiri next," Melgara said.
"Okay, Tiri's back the way we came," I said. Lily's room was closer, but if she wasn't in my room and wasn't responding, I wasn't entirely sure where we were going to find her. She rarely was in her room, and if she was out dealing with whatever had come into the ship, she wouldn’t be there.
Melgara stepped out, pistol in hand. "After you." She gestured.
And I suppose this was one of the few instances where ladies first didn't apply. I smirked and led the way down, my pin light sweeping the hallway, with Melgara's spare pistol held up beside it.
"So a chunk was taken out of Lily. Did you get any indication as to what might have done it?" Melgara asked, and I frowned.
"Missing bit about this big, in a half-circle." I made a circle with my pointer finger and thumb.
"Huh," Melgara said. "And you're sure it wasn't made with a blaster?"
I frowned, recalling the image. "No, it would have to be at a very odd angle for it to be the result of any projectile. It would have had to have ricocheted off the ceiling to create the shape. It was kind of like someone had taken a bite out of an apple."
"Interesting. Perhaps whatever unwelcome guests we have on the ship are using some sort of small creature." She seemed unsure of her own words, and I was right there with her.
“To have that creature and to use it to specifically target Lily's sensory organ seems highly unlikely, I would agree." I nodded, feeling slightly better about the situation.
"Which means it may not be an act of sabotage. Instead, we might just have something on this ship interested in pieces of Lily." Melgara nodded.
"I wasn't aware that helivores had any natural predators," I said.
"Well, she wouldn't have any natural predators"—Melgara held a finger up—"but whatever those sensory organs are a mimicry of could."
“Frugalia,” I said, remembering the name of the race she used for much of her main body.
Melgara nodded. "Yes, which is interesting, because I wasn't aware they had natural predators either. That, or there's something about the sensory organs that are drawing this creature to them. So, some dietary need, perhaps."
I shrugged. Speculation wasn't going to get us anywhere at this point. Though I’d want to understand it eventually.
"Well then, Violet and Tiri it is," I said, reaching Tiri's door and pushing it open. However, the voice inside was not the one I expected. I heard a deep rumble from Brick.
"Who's there?"
These doors were anything but quiet, and I lifted the pin light to see Brick and Tiri lying together in the bed.
"Oh," I said quickly and averted the light.
Brick scowled. "Don't you already have enough?"
"Huh? What? No, Brick. Something is wrong. There's a foreign creature running amok on the ship. I was just trying to get everyone up," I told him.
"To get everyone up? Was I next?" He frowned, glancing down at himself and then back up at me.