Page 9 of Alien Peacock

He squeezes me harder. “Are you sure you want me to explain?”

Shit.I knew breaking into some unknown spaceship and hiding could be dangerous, but if I knew this ship belonged to Arelion I wouldnothave picked it. Because since I first saw him and noticed his unmistakable air of menace, I’ve known that he’s perfectly capable of putting me in the airlock and flushing me into empty, airless space. Or just biting my head off, which right now seems more likely.

I try to speak, but his grip is so hard the fabric is restricting my airflow.

“Sir!” comes an urgent call from the floor. “I will explain!”

I glance down. Bari the robot puppy is looking up at us.

“Don’t bother,” Arelion growls and carries me easily over to the hatch, opening the inner door of the airlock. “I helped her against a gang of criminals, and the next thing I know, she’s aiming a gun at me in my own ship.”

I kick and writhe and try to scream, but it’s like fighting a concrete pillar. I’d need a sledgehammer to make much of an impression on him.

“It’s not a real gun!” Bari says urgently. “It’s a memory metal fighting rod. It can’t shoot! That’s just a disguise!”

“She aimed afakegun at me,” Arelion replies coldly, dark wings tipped with pulsating, fiery red. “I’m not sure if that’s better or worse.”

“It’s better!” Bari insists. “Kind sir, we didn’t know it was your ship! If we knew, we would have stayed away!”

Arelion dumps me on the floor of the airlock and puts the heel of his boot on me to keep me down. If he now closes the inner hatch and hits the button to open the outer one, I’m dead.

“We would,” I creak, clutching my throat.

“Would you really.” His voice is flat and icy.

The inner hatch hisses shut, and I’m alone in pitch blackness in a space so tight there’s just barely room for me. I scramble to my feet and search frantically for a control panel or a handhold or anything that might save me or at least give mesomethingto do. Everything I touch is smooth and featureless. The outer hatch could open at any time.

A sore sob escapes me. Damn it. I was hoping I’d get further than this before the end?—

I jerk and whimper as there’s another hiss.

But it’s the inner hatch again.

Arelion gives me a withering look. “I was told that it’s unwise to open an outer hatch when a ship is in hyperspace. And I suppose it might be true.”

“Itold him that,” Bari says eagerly, small tail wagging. “It’s true, too.”

“Thanks,” I manage as I take a quick step back into the ship.

Arelion is standing in the middle of the floor, dominating the whole space. “Save it. We won’t be in hyperspace forever. It’s common and legal practice to jettison stowaways. In most jurisdictions it’s even required, and not doing so incurs a penalty. I think I’veincurredenough trouble from you, yes?”

“We didn’t know it was your ship,” I tell him, voice still hoarse. “We really needed to get away from that station.”

He brushes a speck of dust off his immaculate shoulder, his wings now back to their shimmery blue. “I agree that you did. One wonders what you were doing there in the first place. And how you gained access to my ship. Surely it wasn’t this robotic fur ball? It goes against the robotic code to use it to open doors into other people’s property.”

“We were desperate,” Bari says. “And I was never properly programmed.”

“The Earth female also wasn’t,” Arelion scoffs. “Or she would know not to get into a fight with Krunku and to break into someone else’s ship.”

“Again, we didn’t know it was yours,” I tell him firmly. “If we’d known, we would have picked another one. It was just the closest. May I ask where you’re going?”

Arelion chuckles. “You’re a funny one. I just told you I intend to flush you out into space when I can safely open the hatch. And still you want to know where I’m going?”

“I think you’re a better person than that,” I say calmly, not sure at all but having to persuade him. “Meaningless murder seems like it would be beneath you.”

The peacock man tilts his head to the side. “What could have possibly given you that impression?”

Damn. For all I know, he could be a mass murderer. He might get enjoyment from killing. “Just a hunch. Am I wrong?”

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