Page 20 of My Alien Bughead
“Yes,” Cai translates Tink’s response. “I think, draw, and build. Males collect and help build.”
“That’s…amazing.” I have no words. Some of the drawings are scratched into thin sheets of metal, clearly designed to be carried around, while other, larger ones, are etched into the walls of the workshop.
I finally recognize the machine’s purpose. “It’s environmental controls. Designed to maintain stable humidity and temperature in the biosphere. And this one…” I tilt my head as I try to makesense of the unfamiliar design. “I’m not sure. A heat box? Do you guys use it like a sauna or something?”
Tink clicks her mandibles. “No. It’s for youngling.” She follows our eyes as we look over to Cricket, then clicks again. “Not him. Our heart. See.”
Leading us toward a lowly whirring box, I see that it’s no more than four feet tall. As we approach, the lights on the control panel blink, then go out. With an angry hiss, Tink rushes over. She fiddles with the wiring for a few seconds until the lights come back online.
“Trouble,” she says, her head hung low. “Always trouble. Danger for the heart.”
“Cai, what does she mean by ‘the heart’?” I ask, confused. Are they keeping an actual organ in there or is it just a hitch in the translation?
Astra places her hands on the box, her expression solemn. “I’m no technician, but I think I can guess. May I?”
Tink looks nervous, but chirps her approval. “Look. No touch. No hurt, please.”
“Of course,” Astra says, her smile earnest. She pops the lid open an inch, her eyes widening a fraction as she looks inside. “Yep. Just as I expected.”
Curious, I move next to her and peek into the box as well. Inside, nestled in soft padding and surrounded by dozens of heating spools, is a round object. Through the somewhat transparent membrane covering it, I see something moving.
“An egg,” I say, stating the obvious. As if hearing my voice, the creature inside moves again, pressing its limbs against the membrane so hard it looks like it’s about to break. “Okay, we’re definitely in horror movie territory here.” A shiver crawls up my spine as I step away from the box. The incubator.
An alien egg about to hatch on a spaceship. Everyone on Earth has seen that movie. Everyone knows what’s about to happen.
Then the incubator display beeps out another angry sound and the machine dies again. Shrieking in what I assume is frustration and maybe a little despair, Tink attacks the mess of wiring again, trying to bring it back online, but nothing she does seems to work.
“Fuck,” I mutter under my breath even as I launch into action. Creepy alien egg or not, this is not a horror movie. This is a mother fighting for the life of her child, and I’ll be damned if I won’t do everything in my power to help.
Chapter 13
D’Aakh
They’re taking too long.I know it’s only been a few minutes since Astra and Lucía entered the cave but it’s already been too long. What the fuck was Zarkan thinking, letting two unarmed and untrained civilians enter a potentially dangerous territory alone? And Tareq? I would have thought he cares more for his precious mate.
“Fuck it,” I mutter to myself as I tighten my grip on the rifle. Only Zarkan’s threat of kicking me out of here prevents me from aiming the weapon directly at the Serramorphs and demanding they get out of my way so I can follow my… Tareq’s mate. Tareq’smate and the other annoying human. Neither of them being “my” anything.
Tareq looks nervous, and so do the Serramorphs. Only Zarkan is sitting on the soft grass, seemingly relaxed and without a care in the world. I know him well enough to know he’s ready to jump up and unleash carnage at the slightest sign of danger but even his pretend calm still irks me.
My hand steals toward the pocket hiding my stimsticks. I barely catch myself before pulling one out in front of everyone. I can’t use the stims in front of Tareq and Zarkan. Especially not Zarkan. He wouldn’t understand. None of them would.
Yet, the fact that I almost did it without even realizing, is…disturbing. Even worse is the itch to take the stim anyway, consequences be damned. My body craves the rush of artificial stimulants, the tingles that race down my nervous system whenever I breathe in that sour-tasting mist.
The worst part, however, is that I don’t care. I know I’m displaying several signs of addiction to a very dangerous substance and yet, I don’t give the slightest fucking damn. I’ll do what I have to do to keep me moving, to keep others alive, no matter the cost.
“This is ridiculous,” I say, unable to keep my mouth shut anymore. “We should—”
“No,” Zarkan replies, shooting me a warning glare.
Tareq’s tail swishes from side to side as he shifts his weight. “He’s right,” he says. “Astra… Astra!” His eyes widen as he watches his mate emerge from the cave, his hand on his pistol in the blink of an eye. “Is everything alright? Astra? Where’s Lucía?”
Astra hurries over. “She’s fine, everything is fine, nobody’s hurt,” she blurts out, seeing that both Tareq and I are ready to start shooting. Frowning, she points to our weapons. “We’re all friends here, so put those blasted things away. The Serramorphsdon’t want to hurt us. All they care about is keeping their baby alive. That’s ‘the Heart’ they’ve been talking about. They have a creepy egg in some sort of a heating box. But the box is broken. Lucía is fixing it but she needs a little help. She said…” Astra’s brows draw together as she pauses for several seconds before looking at me. “She said she needs you to, um, reroute auxiliary power into…secondary something? Dammit!” She rubs her face. “She said something about damaged relays and rerouting and secondary…”
“Conduits?” I offer.
“Yes! Secondary conduits! That was the word. Thank you. Look…” She gives me a wary look. “I know you don’t like the Serramorphs, but could you help, please? Lucía said that if we don’t get the box operational again, the egg will not survive. And it’s just an innocent baby. Please?”
I stare at the tears brimming in her eyes, incapable of speech. She’s begging me as if she thinks I’m going to say no. She truly believes I’d let a youngling die? Just because I want to throw its parents off our ship?
