Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 44440 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 222(@200wpm)___ 178(@250wpm)___ 148(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 44440 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 222(@200wpm)___ 178(@250wpm)___ 148(@300wpm)
I have lost the human somewhere on the ship. This is incompetence in the extreme. I cannot believe that this has happened. The room I put her in is basically a cell. It is not easy to leave. And yet, she appears to have done just that. Did I forget to lock the door? No. That’s not possible. She must have…
I do not have time to think about what she must have done, because my king is summoning me. I hurry to his chambers, making my way through the wall veils which become entirely translucent when I approach, their particles politely shifting out of the way to allow me to pass through. I look for signs that the human has passed this way, disturbances in the matrix of current reality, but I see nothing. It is as though she has vanished, though I know humans are not capable of such feats.
He has barely allowed me five Earth minutes to locate her, and knowing that it should only take a matter of seconds to bring her to their location I can hardly stall.
Or can I?
* * *
My king is not pleased to see me without the female.
“Terrible! Where is the human? Tania is hungry, and she wishes to share a meal with Lucky.”
I lie to my king, smoothly, easily, and shamefully. “She is not feeling well, sire. I think it may be advisable to quarantine her for a few days at least. One never knows what pathogens she brought with her.”
“That is a good point,” my king frowns. “I should have thought about this. Very good. Go back and ensure that she is well. If she were to confer any human pathogens to my mate…”
“Yes, because they were in the middle of a plague.”
“I know they were in the middle of a plague,” he snaps, rather testily. Kings do not like to have it pointed out that they have been careless with the ones they love most in the world.
“I will inform you at the soonest possible moment when I have been able to confirm her safe status.”
“Do that,” Tyrant growls.
“Yes, my liege.”
* * *
I have bought myself the chance to find Lucky, but there is still the chance that somebody else will. Or worse, that she has somehow found a way off the ship. I may have completely lost her. That barely bears thinking about. I know Tyrant will hold me absolutely responsible because I am absolutely responsible.
I have underestimated her. I have not taken the time to get to know her enough to be aware of her capabilities. I am cursing myself inwardly, regretting the moment I left the room because there was too much emotion in it and I was unable to handle it.
This human is already muddling my mind. I should have been more careful, especially after seeing what the accountant did to my king. If such a tedious little female could land a monarch, then one as bright and feisty as Lucky… I stop that train of thought the second I realize that I am mentally complimenting her even as she makes good her escape.
She is infiltrating my thought processes with her wiles. I must be especially careful to avoid anything resembling a positive feeling, especially while she remains suddenly at large.
I find myself wandering the walls of the ship, passing through aimlessly, trying to emulate the path of a human, perhaps. Lost deep in thought, I barely notice the clanking coming from storage cabinet zed alpha bee, until I remember that nothing on this ship clanks. We hum and we purr and occasionally there may be a hiss of some kind, but nothing more than that.
I throw open the door and find the human sitting inside a cleaning machine. She is small enough to actually fit inside the bulbous clear material of the collection chamber, and is attempting to operate the machine by poking her fingers out through the vents. At first, I am so stunned by the sheer insanity of the sight, I cannot muster all the righteous anger which should be emitting from me.
“What are you doing?”
She looks up at me, full of all that human arrogance and rebellion. “I am going to escape, just as soon as I open the portal and fly this out…”
“What portal?”
She points at a series of cleaning instructions on the wall. They are written in concentric circles and punctuated with brilliant blue imagery, so I can see how she might consider it to be some kind of window.
“That’s not a portal. It says ensure device is fully charged before turning it on.”
“Oh.”
“Get out of that,” I snap, coming to my senses far too late for my liking. “You’re sitting in a deionizing chamber. If you had managed to turn it on, you would have turned yourself into sentient goo. You would have been fully aware of being in a boneless, formless state, but unable to communicate it.”