Page 24 of The First Omega Made
I’d seen it coming. Expected it.
“Work on getting Merriel back online, please.” Noel trudged his way into my lab,accidentallywhacking the male’s head against every surface on the way in before slumping him onto the table.
I rummaged around and procured a specimen tray and laid Sarge’s limp form in it. The white, sticky shape of him did indeed look like a leech. So, Noelwasright. He was a space leech. I’d joked that I’d put him in a specimen jar after he’d gone and he told me to do it, but I didn’t want to stare at his corpse for the rest of my life.
“Now, please?” Noel rummaged around my lab, procuring gloves and firing up the RPC. “I’ve only got a narrow window to do this.”
Billions of credits lay in the creature’s corpse. New Naleucian DNA was unheard of. And Noel was anything if not practical and cold.
I made my way to the cockpit and popped open a side panel. The old school screen flashed at me to complete a reboot, and I did, bringing Merriel back on with a series of swears. “Aw, thanks, man! Oh shit, that Shafa guy—oh. Noel’s cutting him open… Bummer… Sarge is gone, too…”
“Yeah,” I said, my voice hoarse. “Go ahead and tell Vil to get his ass in here. I’m going to go shower and cry for a while, okay?”
“You do you, man. Sorry. I know you two had massive chemistry. I was rooting for you. Really.” Merriel’s odd brand of comfort didn’t sway me, but it did solidify things. Part of me wanted to go look at Sarge’s corpse. Serjio’s. I couldn’t imagine that being Sarge anymore.
I shuffled off to my chamber and threw myself into a shower. We had a fifteen-minute limit programmed in, but Merriel piped in to tell me that he’d lifted the restriction.
“Grief showers are like… therapy and shit. Besides, Gorm hasn’t washed his ass in a month, so you can take his showers.”
I couldn’t even muster the energy to be offended or disgusted. Hot water solved all ills.
Thick shower walls silenced all cries.
I bundled myself in a ball on the shower floor and screamed. The primal rawness of it tore my throat and healed it just as fast because I was in a body that didn’t age. Didn’t die. My wings extended of their own volition and surrounded me, water droplets battering them with a pleasant tattoo. I could imagine it was rain on Mater Terra.
I wasn’t sure how much later it was when Gorm entered my room, willingly entering the shower with me. He lifted me off the floor and instead of his usual perverse offerings, he only carried me out and sat me on my bed. I vaguely recall there being a towel on my head, a pair of pajama pants—no underwear, because commando was key and underwear didn’t have tail holes. Noel had figured something weird out with crotchless panties, but I wasn’t that far gone, yet.
A spoon with food met my lips, and I ate mechanically. Just enough to sate me. Alcohol. My lips and tongue stung with it, but I swallowed a few mouthfuls. I was a lightweight before andblissfully still was one when I finished the swill. Actual wine. Fit for the occasion. A toast to the dead.
“Not gonna ask if you’re alright. I know you isn’t. Not gonna fuck you either, not now, anyways. We all know. Fucked up, yeah?” Gorm stroked over my head a few times with what I realized was a hairbrush.
How is someone so perverted and so gross so kind?
“Wouldn’t be the same if Sarge wasn’t watching.” My voice held solar rotations of gravel in it that I couldn’t shake.
“I know.” Gorm squeezed my shoulder before leaning down to give me a little peck on the cheek. “He got to watch me fuck you one last time, though.”
I smiled. Gorm had come by to check on us, and we’d assumed our usual routine. My surrogate dick, as it were. Hewasgood at it. “What’s this about you not bathing for a month?”
“Well, lookit the time. I’m going to go head off and help repair the ship. Did you know Noel kicked that fucker’s head straight through two centimeters of plate titanium?” Gorm ran his fingers through his damp hair and slinked off.
Gross.
But still sweet.
Chapter Thirteen
Sarge
“Space zombie.” Noel’s dry voice spoke to me in an echo-chamber haze.
“Space lizard zombie,” Merriel corrected.
Noel grunted. “Hmm.”
I made to move my hand to rub at my face—instinct taking over. My entire body spasmed and flopped around against restraints. “Wha?”
“Best you not try to move. I think there’s a synchronization period…” Noel stared at a row of view screens with pages upon pages of scribbles that I’d not known too well—until then. Naleucian cursive. “Talking is probably off the table, too.”
