Ror’k collapsed onto me, and I gasped for breath.
“Sorry, I am heavy.”
He rolled to the side to lie next to me instead, one arm still around me.
“No, you’re perfect. That was perfect.”
He grinned, looking proud of himself. I was spent, even though he’d done most of the work. I lay in his arms and closed my eyes, enjoying the sounds of our breathing and the way his heart beat next to mine.
After a long, wonderful moment, he rolled off.
“Stay right there. The towels should be clean again.”
That towel cleaner was sure coming in handy, because when he returned with a warm, damp towel to clean me up, I was ready to give the inventor my life savings. All clean and dry again, we stayed in the sleeping nook to relax together.
***
“Do you think it’s still there?” I asked when I finally pulled my clothes back on.
“What is still there?” Ror’k looked confused.
“The centicreep.”
“Oh, I’d forgotten about it.”
I giggled. “It was that good, huh?”
He grinned. “It was.” He tied his loincloth back on with practiced movements. “Let’s see if it’s still there.”
He turned on the external feed, and despite expecting to see a centicreep on the shuttle, I still yelped when I saw the underside of its belly.
“Eww! It’s so disgusting.”
I thought of the first time I’d ever seen a scourge. The visceral reaction was still the same.
“Does it ever go away?” I asked. “I mean, the disgust and fear every time I see them.”
“The disgust remains forever. But I do not know about the fear. I have never feared them. I only have a drive to rid them from the universe.”
“I see. I remember the first time I ever saw a flyer like it was yesterday.”
He cocked his head, listening, his horns looking almost too big and heavy for his body. “Tell me.”
“They’d just announced a statewide curfew for everyone that day on the morning news. We’d all seen the reports of giant space bugs rampaging through the streets of New York, but a lot of us couldn’t fathom them showing up in Franklin. I wasn’t even sure the videos I’d seen were real. I mean, space bugs? Really? And their musclebound alien warrior counterparts were here to help us fight?” I eyed Ror’k.
“We are pretty unbelievable,” he said, flexing his arms.
I chuckled. “You are. Well, I went on a final grocery run that day, braving the crowds and possible trampling in search of that elusive package of toilet paper. Yes, I really needed it. No, I wasn’t hoarding. It was in that parking lot full of angry, impatient people and screaming children when I saw my first flyer.”
Larger than my minivan, the winged alien that looked for all the world like a scorpion with wings had swooped down without warning, snatching up the whiny child just a few cars down. The next few seconds after had been utter pandemonium. The honking, the screaming, the crying… they all coalesced into a wall of noise. I shuddered at the memory and found myself wrapped up in Ror’k’s arms.
“I was super lucky that I was at the very back of the parking lot. Survival instincts told me to drop everything, get in the car, and drive. So I did.”
I’d driven with blinders on, leaving the massacre behind, refusing to look anywhere that wasn’t straight ahead.
“I was two blocks from home when I got stuck in traffic. And the scuttlers came.”
I wasn’t sure what was worse, the Rottweiler-sized creatures with many legs and front claws that reminded me of praying mantises, or the flying scorpions.
