“No.” Dommik lied without a beat. “There are no other lifeforms on this ship.” He imagined Kat, sitting quietly in her quarters.
“I want to believe you but I just can’t. We will accompany you to Xan’Mara and inspect your ship upon retrieval of the flowers. Unless you show me what you are hiding.”
Dommik breathed, letting his body fill with sterilized air. He kept his mind on Kat while he let the code deep inside him that told him to kill all Trentians fall back into its shallow grave.
“Let me see you off,” he gritted his teeth. “One O’lia it is.” The metal plates in his jaw tightening, each step a test of his willpower to not tear the aliens apart. The four of them didn’t make a sound, gliding as trained predators would out of the menagerie; so when the barely audible coughing, a strangled moan, followed by a sharp intake of breath for a lost silence came through the multi-layered steel barriers, it was as loud as thunder. And just as damning.
Markoss pulled his scythe out, slow and lazy, a sway of power and hooked it around his neck. Dommik relaxed as it pressed into his skin as the smell of copper filled the air.
“I don’t like liars, Dommik.”
Dommik shifted. His extra limbs pulled away from his metal frame, his fingers and toes locking into eight sharp claws all while only losing a single drop of blood. He speared the aliens lord’s lackey’s into the ground. “Make a wrong move, Markoss, and your friends are dead.”
“Not before you lose your head. Is it a girl?” They stood their ground, each a cut away from death.
“She’s mine.”
“She sounds sick. Show her to me and I will be the judge of that.”
“I could kill you a thousand different ways, Alien, diamond can’t cut through my skeleton. Not before your death.”
“Dommik. Dommik. Dommik, try me. My blade has met your kind in battle.”
“So have mine,” he sneered, his bladed claws pressed deeper into the pinned down guards. They wouldn’t move, wouldn’t fight without their lord’s command. “You’re on my ship. You won’t die honorably here. I’ll make sure your bodies are never found.”
“And you will not make it out of this sector without every Space Lord and Knight after you. Does this girl know you are a monstrosity? A disgusting eight-legged creature? Sometimes I wonder if there are redeeming qualities within the Earthians but then something like you lands in my path.”
Dommik didn’t need to be told what he was, he already knew. He didn’t even look like a ‘spider’ when he shifted, but more of a deformedthingwith an arched back, stretched flesh, and exposed wiring. Many went into shock upon seeing his other form. He thought of Kat.
His limbs drew back into his body while his bio-suit reformed around his frame, his fingers breaking off from his claws, until he was a man again, a normal figure, with a pile of shredded clothes at his feet. The guards drew up and the scythe slipped from his neck, releasing him from its noose.
The cut had healed by the time Markoss settled his weapon back in place.
Dommik cracked his neck and calmed his heart. He didn’t turn around to face his visitors.
She should have stayed in Ghost.
***
Kat tried to stifle her cough but it slipped through her fingers and onto the waste basket she was bent over. Her stomach roiled and clawed at her insides. She broke the foil on her pill case and swallowed one. She gagged as it left a bitter taste in her mouth. Kat looked around.I wish I had water.
Her eyes landed on the door and stilled. She waited silently, trying in vain to discern any noises beyond but heard nothing, nothing but the sound of air flow. The pain in her gut ebbed. Her heartbeat rang like a bell to her ears, it echoed like a roar throughout the small space as the familiar feeling of paranoia came back. Gingerly, Kat unzipped her pants and peered down into her panties.
No blood.She was either having the worst period of her life or something else was causing her pain.
Her ears pricked when she heard Dommik’s familiar footsteps outside. The room was too small to rush the door but she managed to put her clothes in order before it opened. She reached for him just as he took her into his arms, his face grim.
“What happened?” she asked as he led her into the hallway, undimmed now and startling. Her eyes caught the cascade of rainbows first, hundreds of colorful dots ran down the walls, blinding...and so very wrong for the interior of his ship.
The spider didn’t have color. Unless it was the red glow that it bled out as light and pretend light was not the same as true color. Her life was black and white, just like Dommik.
That’s when she saw the Trentians. Dommik gripped her arm, holding her close enough to know she’ll have a new bruise within the hour.
“Hello, little one. What is your name?” The intimidating one with the weapon that blinded stepped forward. He spoke to her in a heavily accented Earthian. She looked up at her Cyborg expectantly, he nodded.
“Katalina. Kat for short,” she narrowed her eyes. “If I like you.”
The alien laughed. It didn’t lighten the mood, it only made it worse. “Kat. Katalina. A catch-all of a name, beautiful and robust, Lina and Katal and Talina for short. It is very Earthian but I could see our women enjoying that namesake. Katalina.”
