Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
When I woke up, I was still trying to process what had happened. I sat up abruptly, my mouth running away with me as I bellowed, “You bastard!” again. Except, the fussing alien wasn’t still holding me like I expected. There weren’t any aliens around at all.
“Rossi? You alright?”
My head whipped around, and I let out a breath of relief. “Knightley. You’re awake.”
He twisted his mouth wryly. “Yeah. No pain whatsoever, which is weird. Not sure what they did to me, but they said I’d be moved to my own room soon. What about you? Were you hurt? You okay?”
I didn’t actually want to explain that I’d snuck out and got nabbed by an alien who didn’t understand jokes and was determined to fix me.
It was too embarrassing. So instead, I just waved his concern away with a smile.
“I’m good. Just glad you’re okay. What the hell were you thinking, jumping off the wing like that? ”
He gave me a sheepish look, rubbing the back of his neck. “That seemed like a better idea at the time. It felt like it would’ve taken too long to climb down the normal way. I panicked. Sorry we were the first to get captured. That was my fault.”
“You’re fine,” I reassured him. “They haven’t done anything creepy or scary yet.”
He scooted forward a little, eyes wide with curiosity. “So what did happen?”
I walked him through what happened after we arrived on the ship, telling him about the hold full of military personnel and the hallway of rooms. I was just telling him about being forced to room with Colt when I remembered he’d snuck off and I hadn’t heard anything about him being found yet.
Like me thinking about it summoned his chaos, alarms started going off, red lights flashing throughout the room.
The female alien who’d jabbed me with the serum came rushing out of the back room as fast as her tentacles could carry her.
Which, again, was freaky fast. She slammed her hand on the panel near the door, and I heard the loud thunk of the lock.
When she turned around and noticed us watching her, she put her hands up in a calming gesture.
“Don’t panic. It’s nothing to worry about. Stay in your beds. Someone will be by soon to move you if necessary.”
“What’s going on?” Knightley asked.
The female alien shook her head. “I don’t know yet. I will check. Stay in your beds, please. I don’t want anyone to get hurt. We are safe in here.”
She hurried off again, back to that back room. I almost wanted to follow her and see what was back there, but I didn’t want to scare the shit out of her and have her kill me. She already attacked me with a needle.
Okay, she didn’t attack me. I just really hate them. And once I found that demanding guy, I was going to hurt him for forcing me to get a shot. Several deployments under my belt and a rough history as a kid, and the thing I was afraid of the most was needles. Make it make sense.
The alarms shut off within a few minutes, and the lights stopped flashing.
I thought maybe it was a false alarm, but when the female alien came back, she went straight for the door and unlocked it again, stepping back as a large group of guards hauled in a screaming Colt.
They had him by the arms and legs, and he wriggled and twisted in vain to escape.
Of-fucking-course.
“Let me go! I’m a lieutenant in the US military! I will destroy you! I guarantee it! We will nuke your alien asses straight to hell!”
The female alien ignored his rant, pointing to an empty bed at the end. “Put him there.”
Underneath the rage and cursing, I saw the terror in Colt’s face. I felt bad for the guy. He was only twenty-four. He was basically still a kid.
“Colt, relax, man. They aren’t going to hurt you,” I called out.
He twisted to look at me, his eyes widening. “Rossi! Do something! Fight them! We can escape if we work together and–”
His eyes suddenly rolled back, and he went limp just as they laid him on the bed. The female alien stepped back, another needle in her hand and a deep frown on her face.
“That’s enough of that.” She looked around, narrowing her eyes slightly. “Anyone else want to cause trouble in my infirmary?”
Everyone who wasn’t still in that sleep state healing was awake and watching the chaos. We all shook our heads, and a few people put up their hands in surrender. Nope. Not fucking with her. Terrifying needle-wielding alien chick. Nuh-uh.
She stalked off without another word, and the group of guards who’d hauled Colt in all walked away without a second glance in his direction. Whatever they dosed him with, they didn’t doubt it’d keep him knocked out.
Slipping off the bed, I went to check on Colt.
He looked roughed up, but there was no major bleeding or limbs at odd angles that I had to worry about.
I wasn’t a medic, but every Airman knew basic first aid.
The alien woman came back out from the back with a tray.
She did a double take when she noticed me, but I put my hands up before she could get pissed at me.
“I just wanted to make sure he was still breathing. He’s an idiot, but he doesn’t deserve to die.”
She scoffed, setting her tray on the little stand beside Colt’s bed. “No one is trying to intentionally kill humans. The few who have killed humans have all been acting in self-defense. I mean, really. Why does your species have so many weapons when your planet is dying?”
“That question is above my pay grade,” I replied dryly. “You’ll have to ask the government stuff like that. I’m just an engine maintainer.”
She looked up curiously, cocking her head. “My translator does not understand that word. What is a maintainer?”
Huh. So the thing put in that guy’s neck was a translator?
“I do maintenance on airplane engines. C-130s, specifically. I’m qualified in H models, but J’s are standard these days, so I mostly work on those.”
Understanding overtook her face, and she nodded. “Ah. You are a preservation specialist. We have at least one on every ship. Their jobs are important.”
Tell that to guys like Colt. We were barely one step up from janitors in his mind. A glorified car mechanic was what he called me once. Jackass.
She went back to her little tray, and I felt a tremor wrack my system when she lifted his sleeve and stuck another needle in his arm. I averted my gaze, swallowing hard against the bile threatening to come up.
“What, uh… What are you doing to him?”
“Serum, for injuries. Longer lasting sedative to keep him under while he is in here. And a blood sample.”
“What for?” Knightley asked as he slid hesitantly out of his bed. He was cautious about putting weight on his leg, but when it held without any pain, he smiled brightly and came to join us. “That’s kind of awesome. Is it magic or something?”
Her nose wrinkled. “No such thing. It’s science.
Humans have science, too. It’s just not as advanced as ours.
” She wrapped a rubber band around Colt’s arm to take the blood sample.
“As for the sample, I am trying to make sure he didn’t touch something he shouldn’t.
The croxud in the wall, for example, is poisonous to humans. ”
I was suddenly thankful I didn’t touch the sticky glowing wires while I was messing with the wall panel. Might’ve accidentally killed myself trying to get Colt to shut the hell up.
The door slid open again while she was finishing up, and a few familiar faces marched in. The big guy was back, as was the demanding guy and a few more guards. He looked at my empty bed first and before scanning the room. When his eyes landed on me, I knew I was in trouble. I grimaced.
“In my defense, it was an official order from a superior officer.”
The big guy opened his mouth to reply, but the demanding guy shouldered him out of the way, grabbing my hands and flipping them over. He frowned, checking every inch of my skin, probably for any signs of the poisonous stuff. I pulled my hands away.
“I’m fine. I didn’t know it was poisonous, but something told me it would be a bad idea to touch it, so I avoided it.”
He still looked wary, but he nodded and took a step back, choosing his words carefully. “That’s… good. You are smart to avoid.”
“How did you know which to cut?” the big guy demanded. “You could have caused many problems with the system.”
Yeesh. Did I tell the aliens I used to hot-wire cars? Nope. Not going to put that on their radar. I went for a half-truth instead.
“I work in engine maintenance. I am comfortable with wiring.” I shrugged, looking to Knightley for backup.
He nodded quickly. “He’s one of the best. Took extra training just because he was curious.”
The demanding guy actually looked proud, which was confusing. I decided to ignore that for now, offering an olive branch instead. “We might have gotten off on the wrong foot. I’m Lorenzo Rossi.”
I stuck out my hand to the big guy to shake, but the demanding one dodged in front of him and shook my hand first. With his human hand, not with a tentacle, so that was nice. “I am ???t?rv??t.”
I stared at him blankly. Pretty sure there were some sounds in there that I’d never heard before. I wasn’t sure I could pronounce it.
“Nice to meet you,” I said weakly. Hopefully, I didn’t have to ever call him by his name.
“Nice to meet you too, Lor-Enzo Rozz-eeee.”
I heard Knightly snort, and I had to bite the inside of my cheek to not burst out laughing. “You know, my family calls me Enzo. It’s easier. You can call me that, too.”
The demanding guy smiled and nodded once. “Enzo. You call me Aster. It easier, too.”
Okay. Maybe communicating with these guys was going to be easier than I thought.