She scoffs, then looks down to the soft coral waves tangled up in her naked limbs, the color a striking contrast to her cinnamon skin tone. She picks up one long lock and then flings it away. "Couldn't even get the texture right."
I blink, surprised at how calm she is. "I'd share my name, but they punish us with the gas when I try. I've just been calling you Coral and myself Indigo"
"Fuck that shit. My name's Kira."
I cringe, but I like her spirit.
Thankfully, the slimes seem to be ignoring us. "I'm Ree. It's a relief to not think of you as a color anymore."
She lets out a muted dark chuckle. "Oh, I'm used to that."
I'm too agitated to fully appreciate her dark humor, though she reminds me a bit of Tamina. If Tam was a complete badass.
I look back over to the slimes as a wave of homesickness passes over me.
They must be distracted today, or we'd be coughing by now. They're sharing nasty jokes and Kira wrinkles her nose.
"They aren't speaking English."
I shake my head. "No, we have translators."
"What else?"
I take a deep breath. "We heal faster. Adapt to new environments. We'll keep changing, somehow, depending on who we're around. Who, uh, buys us."
She pulls a face, but doesn't comment and I go on. "That belt around your waist will expand to clothes but if you do it they punish you. You'll be aroused and can't control it. There's a live feed."
I look toward the camera and she follows my gaze. The three slimes let out a chorus of honking laughs after a particularly gruesome joke and both of us focus on them again.
The slime in the middle moves forward to press against the glass, leaving disgusting blush-colored mucus smudges in order to get a better look at the rest of the women.
I assume that's the one who seems to have a particular interest in Ruby. Like all the women, she is beautiful and her red hair sets off her porcelain skin to good effect. She is tall and willowy. The type of woman I assume is a dancer or a model.
The slime on the right seems bored and is picking at the short claws rising from his webbed fingers.
I wonder if the rest of the ship is full of water, since their features suggest they are at least partially aquatic. I have seen noevidence of gills, but since my xenobiological experience is nil, I recognize that means very little.
Left Slime turns to Middle Slime. "We're nearing the hunting grounds."
This causes Middle to shift his bulbous eyes away from Ruby to join the conversation. "I hear they stocked it with a whole new range of species this year."
Left seems to shiver in excitement. Or something. I don't really know if I understand their non-verbal communication, even after dozens of observations.
Right sounds less impressed, but still shares what he knows. "They did. After rumors started up about how easy the prey was they focused on much deadlier challenges this season for the southern hemisphere. Some of the most terrifying and grotesque they could find."
Left breaks in, no longer able to contain his excitement. "I heard they caught a manticorid."
"You lie," shoots back Middle, which earns him a gurgling hiss from Left.
"There was a vidfeed about it," whines back Left. "Apparently the beast took out two traders trying to sedate it in transit. They placed it in the southern continent along with the rest of the more dangerous prey."
"Won't it just kill all the rest?" Right asks this with the same bored tone I had picked up from his body language.
Maybe I'm getting better at reading them after all. Kira and I share a look.
Left rises and his voice sounds annoyed. "Is your head dry? Don't you watch any of the feeds? They are loaded with blocks against killing other prey. No one wants to pay millions of credits to capture and transport them just to have them destroy each other before they can be taken as a prize."
Right makes their equivalent of a grunt in response. "They made a mistake adding a manticorid. What stops them from forming an army?"
