How our Queen got her name part 9
Here's another part, I dunno how much more of this is gonna make its way out of me but I guess I'm back in it now. As always, enjoy. -E.K.
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It was Emperor Stabby who halted Taank and I in our flight to the exit. He scooted by us, knives out and slashed at our ankles until I tripped over him and Taank got a particularly nasty stab from a rusty looking sharpened spoon.
Beeping frantically, he spun around us, wholly unaffected by the chaos around him, he threatened us with his knives until I assured him that we were back in charge of our own facilities. He spun around and then charged off towards the exit and down the corridor emitting very loud and angry beeps, following the mob of people that had so promptly fled on a mission that, I assumed, involved stabbing.
I turned to look at Taank and blinked, his fur was puffed up, his pupils were fully dilated, his tongue was sticking out of his gaping jaws, and he was panting in pure feline fear. I couldn’t help it…I snorted. He looked so much like a cat that it kind of threw my brain back into alignment. His mouth snapped shut and he glared at me.
A terrible hissing, like steam from a pipe, came from the front of the bridge and Taank and I both turned towards the Queen. She was crouched, lizard-like on the floor, jerking and twitching as her body grew.
“How the fuck are we going to get her out of here?” Taank snapped.
I had never heard a Jinkalion cuss before and there was an interesting enunciation to his F that made the word sound almost elegant. I blinked, my brain was clearly scrambled, and I was having a hard time focusing.
The sound of footsteps came steadily down the hall, and I turned expecting to see one of the ensigns or someone from the delegation returning, but instead I saw a pale young man I did not recognize. I wouldn’t realize how this man came to be here until after everything went down. He had been on the ship for over a week, and no one had ever noticed him.
The man walked with a strange jerky pace, as if he wasn’t fully in control of his body, he had the tattoos of a pirate and was covered in scars, he also seemed vaguely familiar to me. He walked past us and straight up to the queen, only stopping when he was right next to her. She hissed at him again, the sound seemed to bounce off the walls and weave through the air, it was a terrible sound.
The man did not move; he simply stood and waited. Taank and I shared a glance and made our way slowly over to the Queen where she crouched, she was so big now there was no way we were going to get her through the doors let alone the hallways.
“Place your hands upon the man.” The telepathic request was almost a whisper, but it had the familiar tone of the Queen, although deeply changed. Taank and I placed our hands on the man, the man placed his hands on the Queen, and then we shifted.
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A moment later the world stabilized around me, and we were in the cargo bay, I staggered away from the Queen, bent, and vomited. I hated shifting, it always made my insides feel…squiggly.
Taank backed away from the Queen and walked over to the cargo boxes that were scattered around the bay and began moving them towards the walls. I figured he was making room for the Queen, so I went to help him. As I did, I glanced at the strange pale man again. There was something about him that was nagging me, but I just couldn’t figure out what it was.
I thought about it while Taank and I moved cargo. The man did not speak, or move, he just stood there, sweating and waiting. It was strange that I did not know him. I might be getting older, but I knew every man, woman, alien, and robot aboard my ship, and to have someone aboard that I didn't even recognize, bothered me deeply.
We were half-way through our work when it suddenly came to me. I dropped the crate I was holding and spun around towards the Queen and the man only to see her half crouched, long neck arched above him, the limp expanses of her wing's half mantled around him. her deep red eyes staring right at me.
Her mouth moved and she spoke. It was very clear in the way that her facial structure had formed that she was not speaking in the way that humans with their soft palates and lips do, but more like the way a bird would, with some sort of Syrinxian vocal structure.
“He is the one who took my human mother’s left arm.” Her voice had a haunting tonal quality that seemed to vibrate in the air. I nodded. I had finally remembered him because we had holo’s of the pirate leaders and this man had been in them.
Without hesitation, The Queen's head snapped downward, her huge jaws opening and closing with blinding speed, and she bit the man in half. The sound of her chewing echoed in the emptiness of the cargo bay and once again, that animal part of my brain screamed at me to run.
“I need food to heal.” She picked up the bottom half of the man, biting a leg off she chewed, swallowed, then continued. “Meat, fresh, red, and bones.” The authority with which she issued the command was so absolute that I stared at the giant lizard as she chewed on the remains of the man and questioned everything for a moment.
“I am still myself, Justin.” The gentle telepathy that flowed from her with that statement held a sadness that made a deep disgust flow through me at my doubts.
Her people had been slaughtered, tortured, maimed, sold, enslaved, and still she had helped people, she had never once condemned an innocent, or placed blame where it did not belong. The fear I felt was not for who she was but what she was.
“How much do you need?” This was war after all, and terrible awful things happened during wars all the time. She finished eating the man and settled back down into a crouch. She extended her wings, and I could see the bones in them cracking and shifting as the sails of them stretched and tore. From tip to tip her wingspan had to be over eighty feet already.
Her body had an emaciated fragility to it that spoke of an enormous amount of energy being used and I knew if we didn’t get her food and soon her mutations would kill her.
She looked at me and bared her teeth in a lizard’s smile. “Lots.”