Page 16 of My Alien Pirate

I stared at the stars without really seeing them, my mind returning to Nova. The way her face had lit up when she'd understood something we were trying to communicate. The graceful movements of her small, five-fingered hands as she gestured. The fascinating way those filaments on her head caught the light...

Kraxing void, what was wrong with me? I was still captain of this ship and had responsibilities to my crew whether I had a mate or not, yet…I couldn't help but think about her complete alienness. Everything about her was different from any species I'd encountered in my many years of pirating. The way her skin flushed with color when she was excited or embarrassed, though nowhere near as dramatically as my own species. The strange, melodic quality of her voice, even when speaking words I couldn't understand. The surprising warmth of her body when my tentacles had played over her soft, soft skin...

I growled in frustration, my ridges pulsing with confusion. This was ridiculous. I was a feared pirate captain, not some love-struck hatchling. I had a reputation to maintain, a crew tolead. I couldn't afford to be distracted so easily by one unusual alien female, no matter how strong our bond was. I needed to concentrate.

"Captain?" Lyra's voice came from behind me. "The course to Novum is laid in again. Shall I engage?"

I hesitated, my claws drumming against the control panel. "No," I said finally. "Hold position for now. Until we can communicate with her properly, we should..." I searched for a reasonable excuse, "we should learn more about her species. Could affect her value."

Grixxa's ridges raised in surprise over her crystalline eyes, but she said nothing. "Aye, Captain," Lyra answered cooly, no question in her tone, but I knew sooner rather than later the crew would realize something unusual was going on. And what if they didn't accept it? They were more than my crew after all these sols—they were my family.

"Captain!" Jorixx's voice crackled over the comm, interrupting my troubled thoughts. "The translators are ready for testing!"

My hearts sped up flushing my body with warmth that had nothing to do with the temperature. "I'll be right there," I responded, already moving toward the lift.

As I rode down to the security deck, my minds warred with each other. Part of me was eager—too eager—to finally understand what Nova had been trying to tell us. Another part dreaded it. It was easier to think of her as cargo when she was just making meaningless sounds. Once she could communicate...

The lift doors opened, and I strode into Jorixx's domain. The security chief was hunched over his console, his three eyes focused intently on the screen before him.

"Show me," I ordered, trying to keep my voice neutral despite the way my ridges were probably betraying my excitement.

"I've integrated the language patterns we extracted from her ship's computers and the recordings we found," Jorixx explained, his thick fingers dancing across the controls. "The universal translator should now be able to process her speech patterns and convert them into something we can understand. And vice versa."

"Have you tested it?"

"Only with recorded samples from her ship's logs. But the results were promising." He tapped a few more commands into the console. "Would you like to try it now?"

I hesitated. Did I? Once we could communicate, everything would change. She would no longer be just an interesting specimen, but a being I could talk to, understand. Learn from.

But wasn't that what I wanted? To understand her better?

"Yes," I said finally. "Let's test it."

Jorixx nodded and activated the ship's internal comm system. "Activating translator now, Captain. You should be able to understand her speech, and she should be able to understand yours."

I stifled a show of pleased teeth as I held out my hand for the small round disc that could be fitted to the alien's head in order to activate her understanding. "Have Daz meet me in her quarters," I commanded Jorixx, who only nodded.

"Grixxa," I called to the comms that would connect directly with my first mate's console. "Meet me at the alien's quarters immediately."

"Yes, Captain." I barely heard my first mate's response before I was eating up the distance between the engineering lab and the quarters Nova had been assigned. With each step, my hearts seemed to beat faster. What would she say? What would I say to her? How do you start a conversation with someone you've essentially kidnapped?

Only a few clicks later, I stood outside her door. As I waited for Daz and Grixxa to arrive, I found myself running a hand over scales and tucking in my tentacles so as not to frighten her. Kraxing void! I was acting like a juvenile on his first female-seeking journey!

Before I could castigate myself further for my ridiculous primping, my first mate and medical officer arrived. "What's happening, Zharrox. Is the little being ill?" Daz asked clutching a hard case of supplies to his chest.

I held out the small translator disc for them to see. "Jorixx broke the code and has uploaded her language to the translator comms. I need you to place it."

Daz's wide mouth turned up. "Ah, excellent! There are so many tests I want to perform. So many questions."

"You're not experimenting on her, Daz! Do not even speak of it. Today you're only to place the translator. Do you understand?" I commanded.

Dipping his head in a small bow, "Of course, Captain."

Grixxa simply stared at me, her crystalline eyes drilling into me; seeing too much.

13

Only One

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