Page 38 of Sway's Peace
Grace’s gaze ran up and down, and up and down again, Loyalty’s body. He didn’tlookdead. But ratchi really did not come in that color, and their quills didn’t glow like that. And that hole the plasma pistol should have carved in his chest was completely gone. How…
“I see you have a lot of questions,” Loyalty said, chuckling nervously at her obvious stare.
“I mean, yeah,” she admitted, cocking her head. “You’re… What does that mean that you’re a parasite? Like, are you a worm or something in his… your…thatbrain?”
Loyalty laughed at her confusion. “I am not a worm. Although, that’s pretty funny. Are you curious about what I am?”
“Well, of course. Like, are you purple because you took over that body? How did you heal from getting a plasma bolt through the chest? Did it hurt?”
“Of course, it hurt.”
“So, you canfeelthe things in that body?”
“Naturally. It’s mine now.” He lifted his hand, showing her the soft, mostly scaleless skin of his rough palm. “The ratchi body is my host. It’s like a shell that I’ve adopted.Mybody, my true body, is the blood that now runs through these veins. The blood, the lymph, the spinal fluid – everything. There is no brain in this skull. My body dissolved it when I entered through his veins. What you would callmybrain then replaced it, taking over all the open-ended neurons instead. My body acts as the fluids in this body, powering all the cells and their activities. It’s purple now because of the proteins my body creates in the process of claiming the host and the cell machinery. It’s something like a calling card for my species. We can take over the body of anything of a sufficient size, but in the process, they always turn this color. Makes it rather easy to identify us.”
Grace leaned in closer, looking at his palm. Specifically, at the soft webs between his fingers, right where there were no scales at all, and the skin was thin to allow for free movement. Humanswere strange in the fact that their skin could be so thin in places that their veins were frequently seen, but that didn’t mean you couldneversee the veins of others. She could see a little one right there in the space between his fingers.
But it was a dark, almost black, shade of purple. As she watched, it throbbed once, then twice, then began twisting like a tentacle waving hi to her.
“Oh, wow!” She breathed, leaning in closer.
Loyalty was the one who pulled back. Giving her a startled look.
“Sorry,” she said quickly, standing straight. “That was rude.”
He blinked at her, startled. “No, it’s fine. I just… expected you to be disturbed.”
“You did that on purpose, right? Like, you can control your veins? That’s incredible.”
Loyalty stared at her, surprised. Her cheeks burned and she looked away. Sway put his arm around her waist, pulling her in with a glare at Loyalty.
The xenom male chuckled at him. “I told you, I have no interest in your female. I have a mate.”
“I didn’t know your species mated.”
“How did you think we reproduced then?”
“I suppose I figured you must bud off like an amoeba. Isn’t that what your true body is anyway?”
“Sway!” Grace hissed, nudging his side.
Loyalty, however, laughed. Completely unoffended. “I’ve a mate, and she’s beautiful. She managed to get the body of alovely laral female. We wish to have a large family. We only needed me to claim a body of a suitable size to breed her, and, of course, one she would enjoy looking at and laying with.”
“A laral?” Grace frowned. “Your species can hybridize? I thought only my species could do that.”
“No. Not at all,” Loyalty assured her. “Like how my body dissolved the brain of this body, it also dissolved the gonads and replaced them with my own. The seed I produce is not of the ratchi body, but of my xenom body. The same is true of my mate. Her body dissolved the ovaries of the laral she claimed and replaced them with her own gametes. The young we shall produce will be xenoms; there won’t be anything ratchi or laral about them.
“That is why I wanted so badly to get my ship fixed. I left my home planet to claim this body after my deal with the previous owner was fulfilled. And now that I have done so, it’s time for me to return and start our family at last. But the ship I purchased came from a rather… irreputable dealer. He was the only one who would work with me. And he apparently took full advantage of that by selling me a subpar starship. It won’t function at all anymore, and now I’ve just helped violate the only male who could fix it. So, now it appears I really am stuck.”
“But you’re under contract,” Grace reminded him. “I completed it myself.”
“Didn’t stop them from ignoring me before,” Loyalty said sadly. “And unlike Sway, I don’t have a captain to threaten him with. Or any friends. Or the likelihood that anyone will side with me. It would be illegal to break that contract, but he could argue he was scared of my kind, and the authorities would probably agreethat it was reasonable to be afraid. It wouldn’t be the first time that my species was discriminated against that way.”
“That’s terrible,” Grace said, frowning. “What if I go back? I’m the dock master. I canforcethem to work on your ship.”
“And put you back in the grasp of that male? I would never ask that of you.”
“But you have to get home to your mate…” Grace said, frowning.
