Tiny and Fierce

by Margo Bond Collins

  I grabbed them, curling fingers around bumpy wrists and sending lightning bolts of pain into the other figure’s veins. My lubrication protected me, grounded me. They felt the full force of a summer thunderstorm back on my planet. It was not a power with an endless supply, and eventually, I would need to return to the sun and stars of my own world to recharge, but it had served me well, despite its limitations.

  The hands left my body, the croaking voice screaming in surprise and then groaning as the electric bolts moved through their veins to land in their heart source. It stunned them, jarring the beat of their organ.

  A soft thud told me that the guard had fallen to the ground.

  One down. Three to go.

  I moved through the storm and could still hear the fluttering of Evik’s wings. I hadn’t told him how long to keep us shielded. I hoped he kept going until I could take down the other guards.

  But, as if my thoughts had beelined to Evik and he’d misheard what I meant, the beating sound of his wings slowed… and stopped.

  In seconds, the dust cloud began to settle. I raced forward, seeing a figure not far from me. I slammed my hands into his body, once again using the lightning power. He fell.

  There wasn’t enough cover to hide me now though, and the other two guards bellowed, bent down on articulated legs to launch into the air to close the space between us fast. Their long, venomous tongues lashed out, trying to catch my skin. The lubrication was drying, it wouldn’t protect me from the pain their touches would cause.

  They came from opposite sides, bodies flying through the air.

  In a fit of genius, I rushed forward at the last minute, leaving them to slam into one another and crumple on the floor.

  The other captives cheered, clamoring for release.

  Bolting to the keys, I grabbed them… and the bag of stones on the table. Even if the game didn’t become a con, we could sell the stones for a pretty penny, I thought.

  Evik’s eyes flashed down to the leather bag as I unlocked the cage we’d both been in. Why must you take the game?

  “Always thinking of the payday, buddy.”

  “Help us! Help us!” Screams for release sounded from all sides.

  But the alarms were blaring again, and this time, I was sure they were sounding because of us and not because of some other unknown happening in the empress’s realm.

  I tossed the keys at the nearest cell, a man with long hair catching them desperately, and then I screamed at Evik to run.

  I hate running, was the last thing I felt from Evik before barreling through the exit to the slave pens and finding ourselves in a maze of tunnels.

  “Mother of a Crobrit,” I breathed out, realizing that the directions I’d gotten from the other captives were basically worth a pack of Old Earth salt on the planet Danesk. Which was, in fact, one giant salt mine.

  11

  Evik

  Alder skidded to a halt in front of me. With my upper appendages, I hit the panel to close the entrance behind us, shutting out any pursuers for the moment. In a coordinated move we had perfected long ago, Alder pushed some of his electric magick into the control system, shorting it out.

  Then he turned and examined the three hallways branching off from this point. He dropped his head down for a moment, cursing colorfully.

  At least this time his verbal words were tied to a scent—even if it was the rancid odor of his mammalian mating musk combined with sweat and frustration.

  What troubles you, my egg sac and chitin sharing warrior as one?

  He glanced at me, irritation shining in his eyes. “Those idiots back there had no idea how to get to the breeder auction from here.”

  I emitted a thinking scent to let him know I was considering the problem. As usual, though, Alder didn’t want to waste time with what he often called my “overthinking.”

  “We go left,” he announced, waving with the hand holding the bagged stone game.

  That way will lead us to Lise’s ship, I agreed. Perhaps we can hide there until we escape.

  “Wait. What? How do you know the ship’s that way?”

  Our scent trail leads back to it.

  “Oh, Flundavian hells. Why didn’t you tell me you can smell where we’ve been?”

  I clicked my mandibles in confusion. We never had need of the information before.

  Alder rubbed his upper facial area with one of his hands. “So tell me, buddy. What else can you smell?”

  From outside the door came the pounding of the empress’s guards—then, more ominously, the sounds of someone working to bypass the controls and open the door.

  I waved my antennae in the air, gathering the molecules around me and pulling them to my maxillary palps, taking a moment to sort through the variety of information I gathered.

  “Hurry it up, would ya?” Alder tapped his foot on the ground. “They’ll be through the door any moment.”

  There are predators in that direction. I waved one appendage toward the hallway that stretched out to our right. That is also the direction we should go to find many females.

  “The breeding quarters?” Alder took two steps, then paused. “Wait. Can you tell which way they took Morpheus?”

  I fear not, my egg sac and chitin sharing warrior as one.” The scent of my sorrow at my failure surrounded us.

  “Jeez. Quit spraying, dude. Okay. Ship’s that way, girls are this way.” He pointed right. “Let’s go kick some ass and free some ladies.” Alder darted down the hallway to our right.

  I dropped to horizontal so I could use all my legs, overtaking him quickly. I think perhaps we should focus on rescuing Lise at the moment.

  Alder sped up in response to my comment—but for the first time since we escaped the slave pens, his joyful teeth-baring expression had returned. “Sure. But if we can sow confusion as we go, why not do it?”

  Mindful of Alder’s dismay at my scents, I attempted to keep my worry to myself, instead leading my overeager companion toward the feminine traces I tracked through the air.

  Here. There are many females behind this door. Lise is not one of them, I answered his question before he could ask it.

  Alder examined the panel. “We don’t have time for finesse.” He turned to me. “Think you could…?”

  Of course. I grasped the edge of the door with a claw, peeling it back far enough to take hold of it with my mandibles. Once I had a good grasp on it, it was the work of an instant to rip the door off completely.

  Inside the room I revealed, females from many planets huddled together, not moving until Alder bounded into the room.

  “What are you waiting for?” he all but shouted. “It’s time to get the hell out of this place. Unless you want to stick around to be sold as breeder slaves? Head straight down this hallway until you come to the bright blue ship docked there. We’ll meet you back there.”

  The females poured out of the room around us, most carefully steering clear of me. For some reason, I often intimidated or offended mammals. But one, a bright red biped with tentacles atop her head, stopped to speak to me, leaning in close.

  “Thank you,” she whispered, her tentacles waving toward me, stroking the air a mere dulat from my exoskeleton, sensitizing the stelae, the tiny hairs that covered my outer body.

  This female knew Chilchek physiology. Her almost-touch was perfect, leaving me reeling with sudden, unexpected desire.

  “Okay, okay,” Alder said, ushering her the rest of the way out of the room. “There will be time for all kinds of thanks later.”

  Why did you send them to Lise’s ship?

  “There needs to be as much confusion there as possible.” Alder headed down the hallway again. “And they’ll definitely cause that. Maybe it will keep the empress’s guards busy and focused on something besides us.”

  But that would mean the guards would be heading toward the ship, as well. I scuttled to catch up with him.

  I don’t believe you.

  “Yeah, I can smell that.”

 
I believe you wanted to save those females. Maybe even take them with us when we escape.

  “Don’t be an idiot. That’s a terrible idea. It would cause no end of trouble.” But Alder rubbed his olfactory organ and failed to make eye contact with me as he spoke—and if there was one thing I had learned from playing games of chance with him, it was how to spot when he was being untruthful.

  You stink of lies.

  “You’re one to talk.”

  I started to reply, but a new scent flowing through the air caught my attention.

  Stop. I sense Morpheus. And Lise is with him.

  “Morpheus has Lise?”

  Indeed he does, and unless I am misreading my signals, they are headed our direction. We should meet them. I released a cloud of pleased pheromones, and turned my attention to Alder, expecting to find him joyfully baring his teeth at me. Instead, he stood with his hands clenched beside him, his facial features scrunched up, and his eyes focused intently down the hall. Anger rolled off him in waves—more than I had ever sensed from him before.

  “I cannot believe that metal-winged son of a smallus-fairy fuck-smear got to her first.”

  Although I was fairly certain the words were not intended for me, I could not help but reply.

  I thought Morpheus was our egg sac and chitin sharing warrior as one. Did you not wish to save him, as well? Were we not planning to find him after we rescued Lise?

  Alder’s anger turned to frustration. “It’s not that.” He began moving down the hall to intercept Morpheus and Lise, but more slowly than before. “Of course I wanted to save him. He’s our partner. I simply…” He paused, then huffed out a breath.

  Realization dawned on me. You wished to save Lise yourself. You imagined yourself her savior. My mandibles clicked in delight. You were hoping she would turn to you. You wanted her to copulate with you in thanks. I tried to clamp down on my amused scent, but I could tell some of it had escaped when Alder turned his glare on me.

  “Yeah, so? You have to admit, I am the most similar to her, physiologically.”

  I pondered that. And yet, you have often said that physiology is not compatibility, I pointed out. When there were other females who interested you.

  Alder opened his mouth to say something, but never finished the thought, as Morpheus came barreling around the corner from an intersecting hallway ahead of us.

  Lise was indeed with him, but not running beside him as I had expected. Instead, he carried her in his arms, where she remained unmoving, for all the universe appearing as if her entire endoskeleton had been removed—a look I suspected did not bode well for her.

  “There you are!” Morpheus bellowed as he charged toward us. “One of those leaping monstrosities got her with his venom. We have to get to the medbay on Blue. Now.”

  Alder turned to race ahead of them, and I pushed back against the wall to let them all pass, falling in behind to watch our rear for the predators I had scented from this direction.

  I might not always understand my egg sac and chitin sharing warriors as one, but I trusted them. If Morpheus said Lise needed help, then it must be true.

  And for Morpheus to be this worried, she must be in mortal danger.

  If we did not get Lise to medical assistance immediately, she would die.

  12

  Morpheus

  Lise was limp in my arms. If she’d been on my ilk, I’d have declared her flightless by now, ready for the burial grounds that fed into our food supplies. That’s how it was on our planet, our remains part of a cycle that grew the flora of our planet, providing us with the nourishing nectars that kept us healthy, thriving, and fertile.

  Bufo Alvarius toxins are fatal. How long has the human one been immobile? Evik clicked and scented, gnashing his mandibles together nervously as the space around us filled, yet again, with an acrid pungent scent. Somehow, even though he was behind us, the smell wafted in our direction.

  “Evik, I’m going to lock you in a small room on the ship if you don’t stop spraying like an Old Earth skunk.” Alder took the time to slow down and hit Evik lightly on the hard exoskeleton approximation of a shoulder.

  I always found it amusing how Alder pushed his more human tendencies onto other species. Though he himself was not technically human, having evolved from generations on a settlers’ world.

  I cannot help it, my egg sac and chitin sharing warrior as one, Evik protested, rising to two legs and slowing down to try and give more distance between us and his distinct communication smells.

  “It’s easy, just… concentrate. Say it. Don’t spray it.” Alder poked at our shipmate, huffing and puffing as we ran. I glanced back, concerned over the sounds he was making. He was in shape, but the fae were used to an atmosphere with a different concentration of gases. The Bufo planet was nitrogen-heavy, even more so than Old Earth. Ninety percent. It caused ammonia to swirl, and the waters to be phosphorus-rich, which encouraged algae growth. Amphi-type creatures were in paradise. But we winged creatures not so much.

  Thankfully, I had no problem adapting to different atmospheres. The experiments done on me changed the way I breathed and processed elements in the air and water. Evik, to his credit, could hold his breath for a very long time and avoid most side effects by breathing intermittently.

  You are being unreasonable. Evik made a few ticks, showing his displeasure. I cannot change my physical reactions.

  “If I can, you can. Just tuck the boner between your legs and walk funny.” Alder laughed riotously and I glanced at him, noticing the color and dryness of his skin. The running was causing his brain to go giddy with the influx of nitrogen. All we needed now was iron ore to really make him go space crazy.

  “Both of you shut your eating holes,” I growled, my voice making a whirring sound on the end of each as the humming in my brain grew stronger as it tried to process what to do.

  Lise was all but dead, Alder was becoming insensible, and Evik was a neurotic mess on a good day. And this wasn’t a good day.

  “Can’t believe you got to Lise before me,” Alder hiccupped. “I was making my way there. Damn slave cages. Air wasn’t like this,” he came to an abrupt stop, bending over and cupping his knees with his oversized hands.

  “Evik, grab him,” I ordered, yelling back over my shoulder and trying to keep a steady hold on Lise and not rock her around too badly.

  I didn’t glance back, knowing that Evik would follow orders and pull Alder onto his back. He was faster on all fours anyways. He’d only lifted to two legs to reduce his speed.

  Seconds later, he was overtaking my stride, crawling nearly up the side of the cavernous tunnel to get around me.

  “How close are we to the ship?” I watched Evik scurry, legs working furiously as an air-drunk Alder clung to his jointed armored back.

  We are mere moments from reaching the docking station.

  “And we’re moments from losing Lise. We have to go faster.”

  Evik didn’t need encouragement. He pulled away from me, and no matter how fast I moved, using my wings to wave in a reverse motion to propel me forward, I could not keep up.

  A commotion greeted our auditory functions seconds later. Dozens of voices, all shouting in different languages, too many at once for the translators to process.

  “What in the bloody space hell…” I muttered as we exited out into a carved-out space larger than our worshiping cocoon in Chrysalis City. It was too wide to see the opposite wall, too tall to discern the ceiling that was hidden by a sort of noxious-looking fog that clung to the stalactites.

  “There’s Blue!” Alder laughed out, nearly falling off of Evik.

  “I see that, Alder. Just hold onto Evik and stop talking!” I launched around them, seeing what was causing the din.

  At least thirty females of different origin were standing around our ship. Even more guards were stalking towards them, their long venomous tongues darting in and out of their mouths as they threatened the escapees.

  “They made it!” Alder pointed
and, once again, almost nosedived off of Evik’s back. “We’re saviors.” He pumped a fist in the air and snorted.

  Evik seemed to focus on one particular female. A crimson two-leg with a spray of tentacles waving from atop her skull covering. She waved, her expression fearful. He clicked anxiously, rocking back and forth as if preparing to launch himself clear across the room and over the wall of Bufo soldiers.

  “Don’t even think about it.” I pitched my voice low, not knowing if any of the females had advanced hearing. “But care to explain why our escape vehicle is surrounded by breeder slaves and the enemy to boot?”

  Alder—Click. Click. A prolonged grinding of mandibles. Click.—claimed he wished to create a diversion. However, I believe he sent them to the ship to save them.

  “Son of a Red Dwarf…” I stared at the scene, grateful we hadn’t been spotted yet. “I’ll fly over them, enter from the topmost hatch. We can’t delay getting Lise to the medbay. Hopefully Blue has enough programmed medical skill for humans that she can keep her alive.” I flexed my wings slightly, a worried gesture, but also to test out their readiness. I hadn’t properly flown in a long time. Jumping high and sailing downward didn’t take the skill necessary for sustained flight.

  Are you sure you are up for that, my egg sac and chitin sharing warrior as one? The metal wings have never been natural for you.

  “Tell me something I don’t know.” I didn’t bother to hide my displeasure. Even if I did, Evik would smell the anxiety seeping from my pores.

  Lise stirred in my arms, a groan of pain escaping her lips. Her eyelids fluttered erratically, and her breathing was almost indiscernible now.

  I had to do something.

  Unfurling my wings, though it was less an unfurling motion now and more a metallic scrape of rainbow-tinted alloy folding outward into a wingspan double the size of my original spread, I gripped tighter onto Lise, bent my knees, and launched upwards.

  I flew high, nearly into the fog cover, and headed toward the ship.