"Oh shit!" I curse, my heart racing for a different reason. "I forgot about the alien I shoved into the compartment."
Chapter
Five
BEHTU
"Please, don't hurt it." Jules clutches my arm when I advance on the unrobed Gehrt.
"Why is this creature onboard my ship?" I growl, my gaze piercing into the cowering figure.
"It's my fault," Jules rushes to explain. She stands before me, draped in a sheet she ripped from the bed. "I hit the poor thing over the head with the butt of your blaster and took its robe as a disguise so I could leave the ship and rescue you."
"You incapacitated a Gehrt for a robe?" My growl reverberates through the room, tension coiling in my powerful frame as I process her confession. “You risked too much for a disguise.”
Her actions spoke volumes about her resourcefulness, but her recklessness chills my blood. Even my sivot shifts uneasily beneath my flesh.
"It was to rescue you, so I don’t think I was risking too much," she states simply as if that justifies everything. There's steel in her voice challenging me to question her motives.
"To rescue me?" I echo incredulously, skepticism giving way to a disbelieving snort. The idea that I, a Star Maverick could require rescuing by a mere human female like her borders on ludicrous, almost laughable. Yet as I stare into her unwavering gaze, an unfamiliar warmth blossoms within me, a shift catalyzed by her reckless bravery against all odds. And I have to admit, I was in desperate need of rescue. Had she not come to my aid and triggered my sivot, my head would no longer be connected to my body.
"We will talk about your... motives later," I say gently, a rare softness coloring my baritone. Inside this wisp of a female beats the heart of a space pirate—bold in the face of the most perilous situations.
The Gehrt cowers, its large, luminescent eyes wide with fear as they dart between Jules and me. It's a pitiful sight, this creature, so far from its own kind, trembling on the cold metalloid floor. Its attempts to communicate come across as a series of chirps and thrills, high-pitched sounds that resonate oddly against the walls of the command deck.
"Can you understand it?" Jules whispers, tugging the sheet tighter around her. I growl low when she inches toward it. She’s in no danger from the docile creature, I just don’t like her near it. “My translator isn’t kicking in.”
"No. Gehrt speech is all clicks and whistles. Not even my translator implant can decipher its language.”
The Gehrt's spindly fingers twitch as it continues to emit its anxious symphony of sounds. Each note seems to be laced with desperation.
“I’m so sorry for hitting you on the head.” Jules crouches a few feet away.
Internally, I wrestle with an unfamiliar sensation tugging at the edges of my hardened heart. Why should I feel anything for this Gehrt? Compassion has no place in the life of a StarMaverick. Yet there's something undeniably compelling about its plight. I've spent my life fighting to maintain my freedom, but always on my terms. The vulnerability of this creature claws at my resolve.
“Hand me the robe, Behtu.” Jules reaches out a hand. “He looks cold.”
I reach for what’s left of the robe after my sivot ripped it from Jules’ body. My blaster clatters to the floor still locked in the holster, and there’s a sack of rillium next to it.
“The Gehrt is a sexless species,” I say, snatching up my weapon carelessly abandoned on the floor, then stuff the sack of rillium in my pants pocket.
“What are we gonna do with it? We can’t take it back to that planet.”
“Vont 4,” I supply and drape the shredded robe around the creature’s trembling body. It peers up at me with frightened eyes. “The Gehrt are from a planet called Hurj. The Stryt invaded their planet a long time ago, took many captive, and forced them into slavery."
"That's horrible." She makes a soft sympathetic sound in her throat, then snarls, “We should go back to Vont 4 and rescue the rest, then blow those Stryt fuckers to hell.”
“Bloodthirsty little thing,” I guffaw.
“It isn’t right to take other beings captive just because you can and force them into servitude.”
I watch Jules' eyes soften, an ocean of compassion in their verdant depths and wonder if she’s recalling her abduction. She’s never spoken about what happened to her before I found her on the Lizordian reaver’s ship, not to me anyway. I won’t press her to talk, she will tell me when she’s ready.
Jules inches closer, a hand hovering as if to provide comfort but not quite daring to touch. The creature's chirps are plaintive, and though I can't understand them, Jules seems to.
"Shh, it's okay," she murmurs, her voice a soothing balm. "You're safe now. We won't let them hurt you anymore."
My brows draw together as I watch this display. Why does she care so much? It's just a Gehrt. Expendable, replaceable. But Jules doesn't see it that way. Her empathy is like a beacon, illuminating the dark recesses of my indifference.
