It was uncomfortably cold to him now. He’d liked it better when he had the heat from the engine bathing his entire room. That had been more like home. Sure, it got too hot sometimes, but he hadn’t actually minded that.
However, the rest of his crew weren’t south lvtls. It wasn’t even just the fragile human females, none of the crew had been able to withstand his workroom for long periods. And it wasn’t just about the heat. The radiation was the real danger.
For their sake, he could tolerate the chill. He wasn’t happy about it, and he certainly didn't hold back his displeasure when he grumbled every chance he got, but he could deal with it. At least his forge was still putting out a pleasant amount of heat – and since that wasn’t redirected radiation, just heat, he didn't have to worry about his fragile comrades and their skin’s inability to tolerate high radiation anymore.
The transition from the chilly halls to the cool but at least tolerable heat of the workroom was familiar and pleasant. The door shut behind him as he immediately crossed to his workbench, fully intending on figuring out a way to catch the pest.
It was moving in the walls. Which meant it must be small. But that was a relative term, because Grace was certainly smallenough to fit through those tight spaces. Humans were smaller than the rest of the species in the Coalition, so what a normal person would consider to be a tight squeeze was probably nice and comfortable for them.
However, there were still limits to it. The engine, the subspace generator, and the life support systems all had higher protection in place that would prevent even the tiniest of pests from getting to them. So those were safe. Or, for his purpose, unlikely to be a place he could catch the thing.
But it had to be getting food. Which meant it was either getting into the food synthesizer or eating nutrition powder. He’d already put up an alarm trap around the synthesizer and had only been alerted by the crew going to get food, so it wasn’t that. Which meant it must be eating the nutrition powder. That would be much easier to get to since the bags of powder filled the storeroom.
It would be harder to get a trap around all of those at once, but he could-
There. In the corner of his eye. Something wasdifferent.
Vytln stopped dead, heart sinking in his chest as panic filled his brain. When he turned, tools in hand, he caught sight of his trap.
Not any of his pest traps, hismatingtrap.
Opposite the engine, taking up the entire wall, he’d built his mating trap using the discarded, useless, and melted down pieces of the Humility he’d gathered through the years. Old broken tools, various metal pieces, things he couldn’t repurpose.
He’d started it with old, broken panels from the outside of the Humility. He used those to build the cradle of the nest within,then the rest of the trap was melted and welded around it. The result was an ugly, harsh, unappealing lump of metal.
Lvtl males built traps to capture females. It was instinct. He couldn’t help himself. He didn't realistically expect to catch anything, of course. That was why it was in his workroom where no one but himself spent any real time. He justhadto build the damned thing. It was soothing, in a way, even as he knew that no female would ever find her way inside.
Except the tiny entrance, the small hole he’d built in a depression near the center, was practically sealed shut. The jagged, metal spikes he’d placed around it had all come down, each of them stabbing outward, a warning to anyone who would dare try to reach inside.
Because the trap had been sprung.
Something had crawled into his trap and in so doing, they’d locked it off so that nothing could get in or out.
Vytln started shaking, mouth dry, belly dropping as he came to grips with a horrible truth. Because only something big could trigger that trap to close. No one on the crew, not even the females, would dare to climb inside. He’d made sure no one would be comfortable enough in his workroom that it would even be a danger. That trap was never meant to be triggered.
But something was in there. In hismatingtrap.
And already he could feel instincts starting to rise to the forefront of his mind. As strong as the ones that demanded he build it in the first place. Instincts he couldn’t ignore. Couldn’t fight. Couldn’t resist.
Mate?
No.
No, it was an animal. It had to be. Sometimes, something other than a female crawled into a trap. If it was set off for that reason, his mating bond wouldn’t trigger. In fact, such an accident was worthy of mockery on his home planet.
Yes. He’d caught a beast. Or maybe the trap just failed and sprung around nothing. That could happen too, and maybe wasn’t as funny as mate trapping a beast, but would certainly earn a few good jabs from other lvlt males.
Yes. That’s all this was. He didn't need to fear.
But his heart was pounding as he stepped in closer. Slowly, cautiously, he peered past the spikes, through the now tiny hole of the entrance.
It was empty. It had to be empty.
Except when he looked through, it wasn’t empty.
Curled into a little ball on the soft nesting material tucked inside, sleeping with an unconcerned expression on her face, was a human female he’d never seen before.
Mate.
