Page 2 of My Alien Pirate

Find of a Lifetime

My spines twitched irritably as I navigated the smoke-filled corridors of the derelict vessel. "Kraxing waste of time," I muttered to myself, my voice muffled by the breather mask covering my lower face. This scavenging run was turning out to be a complete bust.

The ship—if you could call this heap of fused metal and crystalline alloys a ship—had crash-landed on this moon's surface barely a quarter of a rotation ago, seemingly out of nowhere. My crew and I had been the first to reach it, hoping for easy pickings. But so far, all we'd found was charred debris and malfunctioning tech that wasn't worth the effort to haul back to our own vessel.

Should've listened to Grixxa, I thought, recalling my first mate's hesitation about this particular scavenging run.But no, had to follow my kraxing instincts. Fat lot of good they've done me.

I was about to call it quits when a flicker of movement caught my eye through the smoke. I froze, my three hearts skipping a beat in perfect synchronization. There, through a haze of acrid smoke, I saw... something. Someone.

"Vexing hells," I breathed, creeping closer. The figure was small, clearly disoriented, and unlike any being I'd ever encountered in my centuries of piracy across the galaxy.

It—she? it was difficult to tell through the dark miasma floating through the air—appeared to be bipedal and crawling low to the ground. It had a soft-looking outer layer that was singed and torn in places. No scales, no exoskeleton, no protective carapace. Just... vulnerable, pale flesh. Its head was crowned with long, fine filaments that I found oddly mesmerizing. They shifted and swayed with its movements, catching the erratic light of sparking circuits.

What in the name of the Seven Moons is it?I wondered, fascination overriding my usual caution. I'd never seen anything quite like the being on any world or outpost I'd visited or plundered, and there had been a lot of them over the sols.

The strange little thing made a high-pitched sound before crawling straight into my lower leg and falling flat to the floor. It made another disconcerting noise, clearly overcome by the toxic fumes filling the bay. When it looked up at me with pleading eyes, I reached down a hand. It lunged forward, grasping the appendage like it was a rescue capsule. Without thinking, I lifted it directly into my arms. It felt oddly fragile there, its body temperature setting off alarms on my biosuit sensors.

"Easy there, little zixxit," I murmured, using a term of endearment usually reserved for small, helpless creatures. "Let's get you out of here before you cook this odd, sickly flesh of yours."

As I scooped the little body up, my mind raced. Where had it come from? This ship was unlike any I'd seen before, andI prided myself on knowing every make and model in the quadrant. And according to Grixxa, it had appeared out of nothing but space dust. One minute there was barren rock and dust, the next, the ship. Could it be... No, impossible, I chided myself. Interdimensional travel is the stuff of hatchling tales and drunken theorists. The anomaly we were near was just a simple wormhole.

And yet, as I carried the small, vulnerable being through the twisting corridors, doubt gnawed at me. There was something undeniably other about it, something that didn't fit with any known species in charted space. Or at least none that I had ever come across or heard about.

"Upumedwn," a voice suddenly piped up, startling me out of my musings. "Iknwk."

Krax! It spoke!My mind whirled. The language was unfamiliar. I shook my head trying to clear my Universal translator without using an appendage. It must be on the fritz again and I made mental note to have Grixxa check the implant later. Of all times for the thing to quit working properly.

I glanced down at the being in my arms, meeting a pair of startlingly alert eyes in such a pale blue they looked frozen. Her lips—for I was certain now that this strange little being was a female—were full and parted in a perfect circle as she stared into my faceplate. For a moment, I considered paying attention to her pointing frantically to the ground and putting her back on her feet. But only for a moment. The smoke was still thick, and I couldn't risk her collapsing again. Besides, a selfish part of me wasn't quite ready to let go of this fascinating creature just yet.

So, I simply looked away and kept moving.Sorry, little zixxit.

A sharp poke to my chest plate nearly made me laugh.Feisty one, aren't you?I thought, admiring the female's spirit even as I worried about her fragility. Her small appendage—a hand?—must have been hurt as she shook it and put it to her mouth. Maybe she had healing fluids there like the Atarians.

As we emerged from the smoking wreckage into the docking tunnel that connected my vessel to this wreck, Hypatia's harsh purple twilight bled in through the portholes lining the corridor. We needed to get out of here before the suns completely fell and the ice crept into our engines. This moon's temperature dropped faster than a glacial wyrm’s breath.

I felt the small female in my arms stiffen then begin to thrash causing my tentacles to shoot from their pockets to keep her from falling. Glancing down at her again, I saw her captivating eyes wide with... was that fear? Confusion? Both?

"Kraxing Void," I swore softly. "Hold still or I'm going to drop you? Never fear, little zixxit, we'll be out of here before the suns set."

I tried to make my voice soothing but it seemed to have the opposite effect. She kept repeating something that sounded like 'no, no, no'. Though I wasn't at all sure, I thought this was a word of negation. My arms and tentacles pulled her closer into my chest and attempted to hide her eyes from the view that caused her such distress.

Walking faster, my mind churned through the possibilities of what she could be. She was a lone female without male protection and no physical protection of her body that I could see. She obviously had no idea where she was and, I was coming to believe, spoke a language my translator didn't know. Her ship had appeared from nowhere according to my first mate.

If she was truly a being from another dimension, this female was potentially the find of a lifetime. She could be worth innumerable klicks to the right collector. My crew and I could be set for life! No more scavenging on dangerous kraxing planets. No more staying just one step ahead of the Justice Raiders.We could settle down somewhere like Solara, drink Venusian Velvets, and play with a veritable troupe of Nymphalytes.

My lips twitched up and my tongue ran over my fangs as I pictured it. Suddenly, I realized the female had gone slack in my hold.Krax!Had I squeezed her too tightly? I loosened my grip just a bit and gazed down at her. Her eyes were closed but the strange bumps on her chest seemed to be rising and falling like she was breathing. She was so fragile. I needed to get her to the med bay and have her evaluated. She'd be no good to me dead.

"Captain!" Grixxa's voice crackled through my comm unit as I ducked through the final hatch. "We were about to send a search party. Did you find anything worth—" My first mate's voice cut off abruptly as I came into view, my unusual cargo evident.

"Prep the med bay," I ordered, my tone brooking no argument. "And tell Jorixx to fire up the engines. We're leaving as soon as possible."

"Aye, Captain," Grixxa responded, her multiple eyes blinking rapidly in what I recognized as a mix of surprise and concern. "But... what is that you're carrying?"

I carefully lowered the little being to a bench while I pulled off my helmet and biosuit. Her eyes were still closed, and her limbs were slack. Her chest continued rising and falling in a rhythm that seemed both familiar and alien. Just unconscious then.

"That, my dear Grixxa," I said slowly, "is a very good question."

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