Page 37 of Alien Peacock

“Lots and lots,” the robots yips. “But most of it can wait. I’ll stick with Maeve for a while. She’s fun. Things happen around her.”

“I can’t deny that,” I mutter. “All right, Maeve. Want to explore this ship?”

She holds up an orange pack of some kind. “Afterwe patch you up. You’re dripping.”

She’s right. There’s a small puddle of blood on the floor.

“It’s the fashion right now. There’s been a lot of dripping recently.” I raise one eyebrow.

I think I see her face going a little flushed, so she probably gets the innuendo.

She clears her throat. “You want to sit down for this?”

I lean on a low console while she tends to my wounds, using her alien equipment. Her touch is light, but efficient.

I turn to help her reach the first injury. “You’re fast with that stick.”

“I practiced a lot before I went into space,” she says, concentrating on her work. “They didn’t want me to carry an actual gun, so they gave me that fake one that doubles as a stick. You said it’s pretty fancy, and I believe you. Tell me if this hurts.”

It does, but I’m determined to not whine from pain in front of Maeve. “I must do some research into Earth and its inhabitants. Perhaps you are right, and the reputation for being devious is unfair.”

She places a sticky piece of thin material on one wound and moves on to the next. “We can be as devious as anyone if we have to,” she says, “but it’s not what defines us. I suppose the Bululg want us to look bad, so that nobody will come to our aid. I wonder, why is your blood red? You’re very blue on the outside.”

I look into her eyes, seeing a fine network of bright red. “What color is yours? Red, yes?”

“Sure.” She puts a medical device deep into the fleshy hole left by a bullet.

I do my best to not wince. “Oxygen-breathing sentients usually have red blood, if I remember correctly. Not many Eoans are blue. Most are some shade of red. How is that on Earth? Do Earthlings come in different colors?”

“We do,” Maeve says. “But blue is rare with us, too.”

We talk about our planets until she leans away and checks her work. “That should do it. I don’t know how deep those wounds are. There may be bullets stuck at the bottom of each hole.”

I stand up and stretch. The spots she treated feel tight, but there’s no unusual pain. “Perhaps. I’ll get it checked out at some time. Thanks for knocking out that last one. I think he would have killed me.”

Maeve looks down. “Oh, that was?—”

I put one finger under her chin and raise her face to me, then place a soft kiss on her lips. I enjoy her surprised intake of breath and how she immediately accepts and responds.

I slowly lean back.

“And thank you for treating these wounds.” I lean in again.

This time she’s ready, her soft lips receiving me. I move my hand to the back of her head to keep her close as I explore her with my tongue. Her scent fills my nose and makes me think of the jungle experiment.

I disengage before I can’t control myself. “Now we should check if there are aliens still hiding in the ship. Bring your stick.”

I lead her out of the control room, pretty sure the whole crew is now aboard our old trash hauler, furiously trying to get it to work.

“Such a strange layout,” Maeve comments as we make our way along the hallway, looking into various rooms that branch out to the sides, as well as those in the ceiling and the floor. “I have no idea where in this ship we are.”

I’m a little disoriented myself. “It’s extremely alien. But you and I have had worse than this. I will never forget the gravity room.”

“It was scary,” Maeve agrees. “If you hadn’t been able to fly, I don’t think we would have survived.”

Some of the rooms have obvious functions, while others are mysterious to me. Some reek of Fresk alien, some are plainly meant to hold captives, while most are as sterile and cold as the Bululg themselves.

We reach the end of the hallway. I’ve made a mental map of it, and it’s actually a pretty effective way to have a single corridor lead through the whole ship without crossing its own path even once. Though why anyone would want that is beyond me. “No aliens left. But I spotted an interesting room back there.”

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