She only rolled her eyes.
“The creature is telling the truth,” Greenskin stated, nodding toward the device in his hand. “It is a symbiotic life form, though one we have not encountered before. I would like to study—”
The woman waved away his words. “Maybe later. Forget the donkey for now. We need to secure the ship.”
Without protest, Greenskin nodded and put away the device. The ginger giant was still chuckling as he bent to check the crew’s unconscious forms, and Harry watched in fascination.
“They will live,” Greenskin stated as he straightened from checking one of the crew. “What do you want to do with them?”
“Space ‘em,” Redhair suggested.
The woman in her massive power armor gave him a glare.
He shrugged. “What? No evidence. Like I’ve told you before.”
She stared him down a moment before turning to Greenskin. “We’ll secure them in the other ship. Bind them and leave them for now. We’ll make the transfer once we clear the rest of the crew off of this one.”
Greenskin nodded. “Affirmative, Captain.”
Harry’s ears perked up at the title. Captain! So pirates had captains, too. Was she captain of another ship, perhaps? If so, which ship would she captain? He wanted to go with her, wherever she went, definitely.
The slight, green-skinned pirate began going to each crew member, tying their wrists and ankles together with plastic cords.
The captain, however, thumped across the cargo hold to the doors that led into the rest of the ship. “Redbeard, with me,” she said as she passed. Then she drew up short. “Wait. Where’s Kitt?”
The man with the wild red hair sighed heavily and shrugged his heavy shoulders. “Arrr, ya know her, Cap’n. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to stay on the Girlboss or come on over ‘ere with the rest of us. I left her in the doorway. She’s prolly still back there tryin’ to make up her mind.”
The captain dropped her head into her hand and massaged at the bridge of her nose. Then she straightened. “All right. Fine. We’ll finish up without her, then.” She nodded toward the doors behind her. “Red, let’s go.”
“Arrr, aye, Cap’n,” the man muttered. All amusement was gone from his features as he scowled down at the unconscious crew. Shaking his head, he fell into step behind his captain, and the two of them disappeared through the nearest door.
Shortly after, the green-skinned pirate finished tying up the ship’s original crew and started toward the same door.
“Hey, wait!” Harold called out. He trotted along the fence to keep pace with the humanoid. “Where are you going? What about what I said? Can we be friends? Please?”
Greenskin blinked his large black eyes at Harry and pursed his thin lips, but made no answer. He paused at the doorway leading into the ship and looked back once, face expressionless, then stepped through and left the hold.
Harry stared after the pirate, heart sinking. Leftover smoke wafted around his legs, the dim red lights still flashing, the ship’s crew sprawled out beyond the fence. His herd circled and brayed all around him.
He was alone. Again.
5
Harry’s ears drooped. He heaved a sigh. And then he remembered Node, his new red-light friend. His ears shot up again, and he looked around at the hold’s blank walls.
“Node?” he called out into the empty air, loud enough to be heard over the other nervous animals. “Node, are you there?”
The red, pixelated eye blinked into existence nearby. “Of course,” came the disembodied voice. “I am always here.”
“Oh.” Harry glanced at the unconscious bodies. “You didn’t help them fight.”
“Why would I? I had a ship to keep intact. Besides, in case you couldn’t tell, they were Class A Idiots. I mean, you were there. Did you not see? The pirates, on the other hand…”
“The pirates,” Harry breathed, remembering the grand entrance they’d made into the cargo hold. “Pirates are so cool.”
The pixelated eye wiggled up and down, and a mechanical snort echoed out from the ceiling. “You think so? You may not think so for long, friend.”
Harry took a seat near the corner of the electric fence, as close to Node’s eye as he could get. “Why not?”
“Look what they did to the crew. Not that I’m complaining, mind you. As you might guess, I won’t miss that idiot bunch of Luddites. Short of blowing up the ship, there is little they can do to me. You, on the other hand … well, pirates don’t exactly have a reputation for being merciful.”
Harry cocked his head to one side. “Merciful?”
Node sighed. “Mer-ci-ful, adjective, showing or exercising mercy. Synonyms: forgiving, compassionate, lenient, humane, mild, kind, softhearted, tenderhearted, gracious, indulgent, generous—”
“Okay, okay!” Harry interrupted, springing to his feet. Language had never been his favorite thing to learn, and he had a sense Node could go on endlessly. “I get it. So … you think these pirates are dangerous?” His host’s heartbeat quickened, reacting to his own fleeting notion of fear.
“Undetermined.” Node’s eye disappeared, replaced by two columns of red text, one labeled DANGEROUS and one labeled NON-DANGEROUS. “The data gathered so far on these particular pirates is contradictory. They nearly destroyed this ship outright trying to disable it. For reasons beyond my comprehension, however, they did not kill the crew. I have been listening in on their conversations and comm chatter. So far, their intentions are unclear.”
Harry squinted at all the text and shook his head. He wasn’t entirely sure what all that meant, but it couldn’t be all that bad, could it? The bottom line was that they hadn’t killed anyone yet, and—even better—they were totally badass. He wished they would come back so he could talk to them again.
Buddy’s extensive peripheral vision alerted Harry to a flash of movement over by the breached entrance to the hold. He turned to look, but all he saw were dark shadows and faint tendrils of lingering smoke.
Buddy doesn’t imagine things. Unless…
He wiggled against Buddy’s spine, making sure he had a solid connection to the donkey’s nervous system. Satisfied, he squinted into the darkness, straining with all of Buddy’s senses to detect anything suspicious.
But there was nothing else there. “Hello?” he called out again. “Is someone there?” Could it be another pirate? If so, their entrance was not nearly so impressive as the others’.
There was no reply and no movement from the doorway. Well, that was weird.
The columns of text on the wall were replaced by Node’s red eye.
Harry looked toward it. “Did you see that?”
The iris of the eye rolled around. “My friend, I see everything.”
What’s that supposed to mean? Harry dismissed Node’s cryptic response and returned to watching the area by the cargo ramp, staring at the shadows till his eyes burned. Still nothing.
About to give up, he started to turn back toward Node with a question on the tip of his tongue.
At that precise moment, a large white shape shot from the breached doorway, darting across the space of the hold faster than Buddy’s eyes could track.
Buddy, for his part, startled and jumped straight up into the air. Landing in an awkward tangle of legs, he turned to flee to the other side of the pen, hooves skittering against the smooth metal floor.
Harry clamped in tighter and wrestled his host’s body back under control, attempting to sooth Buddy’s surging adrenaline.
There, there, Buddy, that’s a good boy. Never you mind that frightful white thing. Wait, frightful white thing?!
The combination of fight or flight reflexes and Harold’s attempts to soothe Buddy led to a twisting mass of limbs. He sprawled on the floor, more or less pointing in the right direction, just in time to see the lightning-fast figure duck through the door the other pirates had gone through. Just like that, it was gone.
With Harry sufficiently distracted, Buddy chose to cl
imb to his feet, with a stomp of his hoof and a swish of the tail. He gave a mighty snort, as if he were indignant at the idea of being frightened.
Harry was indignant, too. Why had that thing been sneaking about like that? How rude! Buddy could’ve had a heart attack!
“What,” Harry finally managed to speak aloud, “in all of the Overlord’s creation was that!?”
“A Homo lyncis sapius,” Node answered, seemingly unconcerned.
Harry resumed control over his host and shuffled back over to the corner, close to the pixelated eye. “A … what?”
“Please hold. They’re coming back.” The red eye disappeared once more. “Play dumb. Shouldn’t be hard for you.”
Harry sat down heavily at the words, hurt. Well that’s not a very nice thing to say. I thought I was his friend?
But his sulking was all but forgotten as the door across the hold opened, pirates filing through. First came the captain in her power armor, massive rifle strapped to her back as she dragged two unconscious crew members across the floor by the ankles. They were both larger than her, yet she moved them with ease.
Harry followed along the edge of his holding pen, trying to get a better look at the pirates, nipping at the flanks of any jacks or jennies unfortunate enough to be in his way.
Redhair—no, wait, it was Redbeard—trailed the captain, dragging a third unconscious crewmember by the ankles as well. Two more pirates trailed close behind: the slim, green-skinned male humanoid, and a furry white alien Harry had never seen before.
Huh, what is that furry thing that walks upright like a God?
Belatedly, he realized it might have been the thing hiding in the shadows. Whatever it was, it was clearly another member of the pirate crew.
Bipedal like the rest of the pirates, the being looked less like a human and more like a walking cat. It had a short snout tipped by a small, delicate pink nose, with pointed ears and a curling tail that almost reached the floor. Silky white fur covered the being from head to foot.
Its alert eyes, large and yellow with slitted pupils, flitted about the cargo hold as it walked with a purposeful, slinking gait.
“Whoa,” Harry breathed again. Then he snapped his mouth shut. Shhh! You’re supposed to play dumb, remember?
He tried to contain his excitement as the captain and Redbeard unceremoniously dumped the unconscious bodies with the rest of the still-bound crew.
“Now wha’?” Redbeard’s flushed face blended in with his hair. Like his captain, he had his rifle strapped across his back, though its size was much less impressive than the captain’s weapon.
“We finish stowing the hostages,” the captain replied.
Beside her, Greenskin and the cat alien both had handheld devices out. Greenskin said, “Scanning the air of the hold now. Appears to be stable.”
Redbeard regarded the vast hold for a moment, then threw his arms out to either side. “I know ya said ta stow ‘em on tha Girlboss, but wouldn’t it be more fun ta stick ‘em with tha livestock?” He nudged the foot of the nearest crewmember with his boot. “Be kinda funny, seeing ‘em root around with tha pigs.”
Harry blinked. There were many kinds of animals on board, but he wasn’t aware of any pigs, come to think of it. He almost said as much out loud before biting his tongue. Buddy brayed in protest. Sorry, Buddy.
The captain shook her head. “Nah. I don’t want them aboard this ship. Too much potential to cause trouble.”
Redbeard hooked his thumbs in his belt, which held an impressive array of knives. “Like I told ya earlier, we should space ‘em, then.”
The captain stared him down. “And I told you, we’re not spacing anyone.”
Harry noted Redbeard’s disapproving scowl.
The captain brought her right wrist close to her mouth and pushed a button. “Djerke, Captain Cass here, do you read?”
“Yeah, I read ya just fine,” a lazy drawl crackled back from the captain’s wrist.
“We’re bringing over the crew of the SS Bray. They’re incapacitated, but alive. Stand by for their arrival. We’ll need you to take them back to Haven while we commandeer the Bray and complete repairs. Understood?”
“Yeah, sure,” the drawl answered. “But, I mean, why not just space ‘em?”
Redbeard threw out his arms again in a “told you so” manner.
But the captain shook her head, frowning. “Not funny, Djerke. You’re to take the hostages back to Haven. If for some reason they aren’t on the ship when you get there, I’ll report you in violation of Pirate Code Order Two-Oh-Five. Got me?”
The sound of a heavy, annoyed sigh came over the speaker on the captain’s wrist. “Fine, fine, I was obviously kidding, okay? Yes, I understand. Take the crew to Haven. Aye, aye, Captain.”
What’s this Haven place? Harry wondered. It sounded an awful lot like Heaven. But that didn’t make much sense, did it? Was Heaven where pirates lived? If so, they couldn’t be that bad.
“Thank you. Captain Cass out.” She hit the button again with force and mumbled, “Jerk.” She pierced Redbeard with a glare.
Redbeard dropped his eyes to the unconscious bodies on the deck and cleared his throat. “Right. We’ll get ta haulin’ this crew over, then.”
“Damn right. I want you and Spiner to take them over to the Girlboss. Kitt and I will discuss repairs to this ship.”
“Aye, arrr, Cap’n.”
Redbeard waved at Greenskin, who put his device away and trotted over to help drag the crew down the breached ramp and into the darkness beyond.
Harry was shocked to watch Greenskin, who wasn’t near the size or bulk of Redbeard, drag two men just as easily as the captain had, but without the assistance of power armor.
Harry silently admired Captain Cass as she and Kitt Ten paced the cargo hold. Where the captain’s steps were stiff and mechanical, the white cat person’s steps were soft and deliberate.
The stories of his people told that there had once been predators on Cern to help keep the ecosystem in check. But, the tick-ridden donkeys were so effective at maintaining order, that the Overlords had decreed the predators no longer necessary. Kitt Ten’s gait reminded Harry of those storied predators. A shudder ran down his spine.
Kitt stopped in front of the breached ramp. “Looks like this is the only area in the hold with structural damage. Still, we’ll need to fix this before we can separate from the Girlboss.”
Captain Cass regarded the damage impassively. “Very well. How long do you need?”
Again, Harry was struck by her cool, calm demeanor. She was as badass as any of the heroes or villains on DS-9. He couldn’t help but stare openly from the edge of his holding pen.
Kitt’s strange, predatory gaze flicked toward him briefly, causing Harry to freeze. But then she looked back at the captain. “It shouldn’t take long. Two hours, tops.”
Should I talk to them? Yeah, I should talk to them. I mean, they’re Gods and they’re from Haven which could really be Heaven. Still, Harry hesitated to speak up.
“Two hours? That’ll have to do. We should check out the rest of the ship, make sure Redbeard didn’t shoot it up too badly.”
Kitt’s tail flicked against the cool metal of the floor. “Good plan.”
They turned away from the damaged ramp and walked past Harry’s pen. If he was going to speak up, he wouldn’t have a better chance than this.
The first sound to escape his lips was a nervous bray. “Hee-haw-aw-aw.”
Umm, that’s not what I meant to say.
Captain Cass gave him a cursory glance. “We’ll have to figure out what to do with all this livestock, too.”
Kitt’s padded steps paused. She turned to squint at Harry. “There’s something off with that one. Look at that drooping face. And, why does it keep staring at me like that?”
“Hee-haw, hey, I’m not stupid.” Harry wasn’t going to sit around and take an insult quietly. Node may have told him to play dumb, but that didn’t mean he had to play stupid.
The captain, for her part, frowned down at Harry with a hand on her chin. “Spiner mentioned that one’s been infected by a symbiont-class lifeform. But, I’ve never encountered or heard of such a thing before.”
Harry opened his mouth to reply, but paused when he saw the massive form of Redbeard striding back into the cargo hold, followed by Greenskin.
“Cap’n, the prisoners arrr secured,” Redbeard announced with a satisfied grunt for punctuation.
The captain gave Harry another look, her brows drawn low. Then she pivoted toward her approaching crew. “Come over here. I need your opinions on something.”
Redbeard’s frown was scarier than anything Kitt Ten might manage, Harry thought. “Aye, arrr, Cap’n. What seems to be the trouble?”
Greenskin strode up to the pen without comment.
Captain Cass swept her arm out in the direction of the livestock. “Is it possible that this ship wasn’t on a normal livestock run?”
Redbeard grunted and spat in Harry’s direction. “Looks like livestock ta me. They’re just as noisy and disgusting as I remember ‘em.”
“Captain, if I may,” Greenskin interjected. “Are you referring to this donkey with the cohabitant symbiont?”
I always knew I was special, Harry thought with a thrill of satisfaction. Even they can see it.
The captain gave Harry another sideways look. “I’ve never heard of a sentient form of symbiotic life before. Why is it here? Are there any other symbionts in the hold?”
Redbeard squawked an unpleasant sound, spittle flying out of his mouth. “If these symbiont-infested animals are so smart, why are they walking around in their own shite, eh?”
“Hey, I don’t walk around in my own…” Harry paused to peer down at Buddy’s hooves. Had he stepped in something when he wasn’t looking? He lifted each hoof carefully. “Nope, I’m clean. See?”
Kitt continued to inspect Harry, giving him the impression of being the strange cat being’s next meal.
Of Donkeys, Gods, and Space Pirates Page 3
