Page 7 of My Alien Bughead
I shrug. “I’m used to dealing with condescending jerks. Needling them is fun and I get to rub it in their faces when they’re finally forced to acknowledge they were wrong about me.”
“You’ll love D’Aakh, then,” Astra says. “Sometimes it feels like he and Lyriana are competing for the title of biggest jerk on the ship.”
“Lyri is fine,” Nala objects. “Deep down inside, she’s really nice.”
Astra snorts. “Uh-huh. Sure. Very, very deep down.”
“Lyriana has always been like that,” Tareq says. “Ever since she joined the Voidstalkers. It’s difficult to get to know her but once you do, you’re in forever. D’Aakh, on the other hand…” He sighs. “He used to be friendly.”
Both women look at him doubtfully. “Now, that is even more difficult to imagine than Lyriana being ‘nice’,” Astra giggles. “Anyway, we should get going. Those clothes aren’t going to buy themselves. We’ll see you on the ship, uh…?”
“Lucía,” I say, wanting to smack myself but huffing out a laugh instead. “I’m sorry, I should have introduced myself. I was just so excited by meeting two other humans when I never thought I’d see another one ever again that I forgot how to act like a human myself.”
“No problem,” Astra replies, smiling. “There are actually three of us, but Nikolai has a brand new girlfriend so they’re tucked away in his room, ‘celebrating’ their relationship. Oh, and Nala here has a half-human four-year-old.”
“I love children. I can’t wait to meet her. If I may?” I ask Nala, not sure if she wants to parade her kid around strangers. I really hope she says yes, though, because I’m not lying. I really do love kids. The tiny wailing ones, the crawling drooling ones, even the tell-me-why smartass ones.
I’m friends with every single child on the Alevvo station and while I don’t have time to babysit, I always find a spare moment to play or chat with them. I’m not entirely sure about Zhuse’s snake youngling yet, but if the little python doesn’t bite or strangle me to death, I’ll probably be smooching it in no time.
Nala rolls her eyes. “I’m absolutely certain you’ll meet her whether I agree to it or not. She’s all over the ship, despite not even having any shoes. Please, tell me someone sells kids shoes here. After everything D’Aakh did to save us, the ship’s corridors are full of debris and shards. Ellen is going crazy confined to our room.”
“Of course. Ask Gz in that stall over there,” I say, pointing in the right direction. “He might have some stuff at hand and will make whatever else you need. I’ll take a quick shower and join you on your ship.”
Astra frowns. “Didn’t you say you just spent hours fixing something? Don’t you want to rest first?”
“Nah.” I wave my hand dismissively. Given the choice between sleeping and working on an actual spaceship, I’ll pick the spaceship one hundred percent of the time. Especially now that I don’t have to worry about being captured and enslaved. “Who needs sleep?”
Chapter 5
Lucía
The Supernova is supercool. I don’t have words for it. It’s just so damn cool I want to jump up and down like a kid at Christmas just from looking at it.
It’s smooth and sleek, nothing like the bulky, unwieldy cargo haulers that usually dock at the station. It’s bigger than a hauler too. In fact, the Supernova barely fits into the massive space of our docking bay.
Just as Arnik said, there doesn’t seem to be any damage to the outside of the ship. No blast marks, dents, or jagged holes. In fact, at first glance, the Supernova appears to be in topshape, not a sensor array out of place. It’s only after I cross the ramp connected to the ship’s main airlock and enter the inner corridors that I see that the poor thing is most definitelynotin good shape.
When treated properly, electricity is a reliable and excellent tool. When left to run rampant, it raises havoc and turns deadly in an instant. The situation must have been truly dire for the ship’s technician to choose such a drastic solution.
The corridor walls are charred and the wiring is clearly fried. It’s either melted into a useless mush or burned beyond recognition. Almost all of the lights are broken, their contents scattered. Someone’s swept most of the shards out of the way but some still crunch under the thick soles of my work boots. I really hope Nala gets some shoes for her daughter because there’s no way she’d be able to move around this ship barefoot at the moment.
Since the ship’s generator is offline, the ship is hooked up to the station’s systems. The air filtration pipes hum as they pump air through the vents but the stench of burned wiring is too ingrained to filter out fully. The few unshattered lights cast an eerie glow along the damaged corridors. One flickers on and off like something out of a horror film, adding to the creepy vibe but also helping me snap out of my shock.
It only takes a few seconds to find the right screwdriver from my tool belt and soon I have the wall panel next to the flickering light open. It reveals yet another mess of burned wiring.
This particular light is part of the emergency system. Therefore, its insulation is better than the rest of the electrical units, which saved it from total destruction. However, melted plastic from somewhere above the unit has dripped down onto the contacts of the ion sphere array. It’s caused the magnetic field holding the ionized plasma to fluctuate, hence the flickering.
Not wanting to electrocute myself, I flip the switch down on the panel to turn the light off, then carefully clear the melted plastic away from the contacts. After a bit of cleaning and re-insulating, I flip the switch back on and voila! The light works.
I feel the satisfied grin on my face as I put the panel back in place. Fixing stuff brings me so much childlike joy that I already want to throw myself into the next task. It’s both a blessing and a curse that there’s a multitude of broken things around here.
The sound of shards crunching under boots announces someone else’s arrival. “Well, it looks like my ship is in good hands,” a low, grumbly voice says.
I turn around to find a massive alien standing just a few steps away and realize he must have intentionally stepped on the debris to announce his presence and not startle me. How thoughtful.
I’ve met several Lakhartans while out in space, since a lot of them work for the UGC. Still, the Supernova’s captain is definitely the largest I’ve seen so far. He towers a good foot or so above me and I’m not a tiny thing myself. He’s also nearly twice as wide as me even though I’m not lacking in that department either. In fact, the years of strenuous physical labor have made me strong and muscular.
My body is that of a hardworking woman, rather than a willowy supermodel or a curvy sex icon and I’m perfectly comfortable with that. I’ve never cared what others think about my appearance, and since I was taken from Earth, it’s mattered even less.
