Chapter 22
Blair
I spent the rest of the night ruminating if the punch was worth it while locked in my broom closet.
The thought stayed on my mind into the next morning when I was woken up, naked, by the cold, unforgivingly minty blast of the Biwbanian’s cleansing pod.
My palm slammed along the side wall for the temperature pad and frantically button mashed until the whirlwind of air turned warm and soothing.
“Hey!” I called, poking my head out of the pod. I locked eyes with the penguin-like Biwban manning the door and asked, “You, what’s your name?”
Beady black eyes watched me unblinking. Then the Biwban tilted her head and said, “Pebble.”
“Pebble? Girl, don’t lie to me.”
“They.”
“Apologies. Why would an alien penguin be named Pebble? That is not your real name.”
They shook their head.
I waved a hand at them. “Well, go on then.”
“SquAAAWK.”
A heavy silence settled between us.
“Pebble, got it.” I stepped out of the cleaning pod and patted the side of it.
“Anyway, tomorrow morning I want you to heat it up to this temperature before I’m brought in.
While we’re at it, I’m gonna need one of these bad boys installed into my house once you build it.
Tell Dr. What’s Her Face to put it in my contract. ”
Next to the pod was a glowing blue ray that held my clothes.
Snatching my black jeans, I gave ’em a whiff to find they actually smelled nice.
Jasmine and honey instead of the hot ass and misery of the days prior.
“One of these too. I hate doing laundry. And doing things I hate could cause what?” I asked, putting a hand to my ear.
Pebble snapped up straight like a good soldier. “Cycle complications, Subject 12!”
Smiling, I retrieved the rest of my clothes and got dressed.
“Very good. Now remember, we’re all gonna have to work together if we want this Crucible thing to work.
And if y’all got me waking up in cold showers and stressed out that my future home doesn’t have everything I need, then…
” I trailed off, steadying myself against the wall as I shimmed the jeans over my hips.
“I just don’t know if I could get pregnant under these conditions. ”
“Forgive us, Subject 12. I assure you that we will see to it you have everything you need. Construction of the beach house is already underway, and the building team should have blueprints ready for your review after you complete today’s trial.
We aim to have everything in place in time for your beacon. ”
“Hmm?” My dagger pin had nearly fallen from my jacket; I stabbed the pin back through the neon-green leather and fiddled with the clasp. “Oh right, yeah, the beacon. Real important stuff.”
I needed to keep a notebook or something to keep these lies straight; shit was exhausting.
Without knowing where the auditor was, or hell, what they’d even look like, it was important to keep pretending nothing was wrong.
If these Biwban suspected I was in my whistleblower era, they could decide to just lock me up until the investigation was over.
Pebble noted down any other demands I could think of during breakfast. When I was fed, dressed, and ready for more alien bullshit, I followed Pebble upstairs where Osid waited for us both in front of wide metal doors with the number four painted on them.
His own escort penguin stood behind a control panel not far off.
“Hey, darlin’! Hey, other…penguin alien.”
The Biwban raised a wing in greeting. “Good morning, Subject 12, you may call me Marble.”
“Real name?” I asked.
“Wraaah-wraah.”
I bit the inside of my cheek to stifle a laugh.
Osid had no such composure. “What kind of name is that?”
“Tritos, Subject S 52.”
“So you’re not a Biwban?” I asked. “I wasn’t given an introduction packet on the different alien races.”
“We tritos are Biwban. We are just a different gender than the brightly colored males and the russet females you’ve been seeing.”
Pebble spoke up behind me. “Tritos names are based on musical notes rather than occupations, locations, or ancestors.”
“So the tall, black-and-white Biwban like you are tritos. The bright birds are male, and the dull ones are female, right?”
“Correct.”
“Fascinating.” I made my way to his side and nudged him. “How’d the rest of your date with the T. rex go?”
Osid looked down his nose at me, unamused.
The fire from yesterday had fled from his eyes, leaving him looking like a candle burned down to its final stub, the wick barely holding on to the flame.
Even his voice carried weariness, hoarse like the rasp of an old saw on splintered wood.
“You realize you can put an end to this whole charade at any moment and just agree to be mine?”
Tendrils of compassion wormed their way into my gut at his disheveled appearance, and I bit the inside of my cheek to force it down.
What did I care if he got a good night’s sleep or not?
I stuck my hands on my hips and tsked. “I already told you, that horn upgrade is the last thing I’m ever gonna do for you. Unless you try to plant another kiss on me like you did last night, then I’ll knock you out twice as hard.”
He rolled his eyes. “Is my touch that horrible?”
“Yes.”
Marble rummaged around in her pocket and pulled out a white feather the size of a pen. “Subject 12, I almost forgot. This is a communications device that you can use to check in with Subject 4.”
“You guys actually made me a phone?” I asked.
“See for yourself,” they said, handing me the feather. “Simply brush along the side and say her name.”
The feather was firmer than I expected and felt more like the bristles of a thin wire comb rather than an actual feather.
When I brushed my thumb along its edge and spoke Dory’s name, a screen appeared in front of my face.
It took a moment for my mind to make sense of the chaos I was seeing.
Flits of wild orange fluff were thrashing about, covering most of the screen.
All I could hear were women screaming and shouting.
“Um, Dory?” I called again. The screen floated higher in the room, and I could see that the blob of orange was in fact Dory’s hair.
She was on the back of a buff East Asian woman holding a butcher knife.
War paint was smeared on her face. They were in what looked like a large indoor gym, complete with a full basketball court.
The bleachers were full of more women in face paint, like some weird Lord of the Flies–style tribunal was taking place.
Another woman with green box braids held a flaming torch high as she screamed, “Kill the demon!” While more female warriors cheered in unison. They advanced on a Sankado male tied against the basketball hoop screaming bloody murder.
His sole defender was a short light-skinned woman wielding what looked like a makeshift spear. Her thick round lenses made her terrified green eyes look huge, like a cornered animal caught in a nightmare.
The large woman Dory clung to shifted her weight and threw Dory to the ground before charging at the woman with glasses.
Dory leapt up to tackle her legs, and she went down.
The knife fell from her hand and skittered across the floor, causing her intended target to leap out of the way before it sliced her bare feet.
Growling, the determined redhead clambered to her feet and ran in front of the Sankado and his defender, spreading her arms out wide to shield them with her own body.
“For the last fucking time,” Dory roared over the crowd. “They are not demons, they are aliens!”
Not knowing what else to do, I cleared my throat and asked, “I take it this is a bad time?”
Silence fell over the crowd as they all turned to look at me.
“Blair?” Dory asked.
“The one and only,” I replied. “So…what, uh…what’s going on here?”
Osid placed a hand over my shoulder, invading my space as he peered into the screen. “There are other females with her, is she at the female camp?”
“Excuse you,” I chided, stepping away. “This is my phone call.”
The buff woman on the ground stood and pointed at the screen. “There’s another demon with her!”
“I don’t recognize her,” said another in the crowd. “Lord Jesus, did they take someone when we weren’t paying attention? Oh, they’re gonna snatch us up one by one!”
“See, now y’all gone and done it.” The camera panned to a stocky blond woman in a tinfoil hat.
She stood at the end of the row of bleachers, as far away from the tied-up alien as possible.
“They contacted the mother ship. I done told y’all they been wantin’ us for our wombs.
Why else would aliens take a gaggle of pretty young things like us?
Human. Sex. Traffickin’!” She shirked off her backpack and pulled out a roll of tin foil.
“Well, they can take me from my land, but they can’t take my mind!
Line up now, ya hear? I got three rolls of this good stuff left.
We act fast, and we might be able to save the rest of us from their mind control waves. Tie up the new girl, she too far gone.”
Dory looked ready to kill her on the spot. “Marcy, you are not helping!”
“What are they saying?” Osid asked. “I can only understand Lok’s woman.”
“They’re saying mind your business, nosy.”
Dory wiped a hand down her face, exasperated. “Listen, the Sankado didn’t take Blair, they didn’t take any of us, the Biwban did. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.”
The woman with the torch pointed it accusingly at Dory.
“And why should we believe you? You showed up talking crazy with a freaking lion in tow and started rambling about bird aliens and about how we all have to kiss you to talk to these weird demons.” She pointed the torch at the Sankado tied to the basketball hoop.
“This one already got all up in Misty’s head.
If we hadn’t shown up in time, he would have strangled her! ”
“He was not trying to strangle me!” shouted the woman with glasses.
“Then what was he doing on top of you?”
Misty’s face reddened. “That’s…that’s not important.”