Total pages in book: 51
Estimated words: 46803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 187(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 187(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)
And then I was shot.
When I look down, I see the wound on my leg. It has scarred, as one might expect. Through the refractive qualities of the water, I can see it there. A permanent reminder of the one time I was stupid enough to put myself at the mercy of anybody else. It’s weird now, being looked after by an entity I thought of as my enemy from the very first moment we laid eyes on one another.
The warmth of the bath washes around me and sinks into me, the little cramps and tension that have been threatening to become deeply unpleasant start to melt away, and I close my eyes just… for… a…. moment.
Suddenly, there’s a splash and a sudden blast of cold. For a second I am absolutely disoriented, and then I realize I have been bodily hauled out of the bath, naked and exposed to the cool air. Kahn is already wrapping me in a towel, tight wraps of thick, long, plush fabric that goes all the way from my neck to my toes, turning me into a Stella burrito. These towels were not made for creatures my size.
“Unbelievable,” he growls as he works, simultaneously being very nice and very mean at the same time.
I have no idea what the hell is going on. Last I knew I was having a nice warm bath, but nothing feels nice and warm anymore, and I have no idea why he is so very grouchy. It is very confusing to be simultaneously swaddled and lectured.
“What is happening?”
“You almost drowned. I found you falling asleep in the bath!”
“What?”
His ice blue eyes sear down at me. “You truly cannot be left alone for a single moment, can you?”
“Of course I can. I spent an entire lifetime looking after myself before you showed up. I wouldn’t have drowned in the bath.”
“You were sinking below the water while asleep.”
“YoU WeRE SInkINg…” I start to mock him, because I’m out of arguments that explain why I wasn’t in mortal danger, but the look on his face as I get even partially through the sentence is enough to make me stop. He takes this seriously. He takes me seriously.
“Sorry. I guess I was tired.”
“It is not your fault,” he says, sweeping me up in his arms. I couldn’t walk now if I wanted to with the way the fabric is wrapped so tight around me. “I should not have left you unsupervised.”
“I can keep myself alive, you know.”
“There is very little evidence to support that claim. I think it best if you stay in bed.”
At this point, I’m not listening to him at all. I’m smelling food. Good, hot, fatty, salty, sweet, delicious food. Everything a body needs.
Kahn
She has freed her arms from her towel and is sitting propped up in bed, her toes waggling back and forth happily as she consumes her nutrition. She is, I realize, absolutely adorable.
“This is so good,” she says. “I bet a burger would go really well with this. You know, meat and vegetables, and cheese between two buns.”
“I’ll get you a steak,” I say. “Stay there.”
She’s not going anywhere, not in that cozy, blissed-out state. I feel very much the protective provider. I want to keep her nice and safe and well fed. I want to bring her the best of everything, and to see her deeply happy.
I have to remind myself that I never wanted to have a human pet, and that becoming attached to this one is a bad idea. My job is to keep her alive and stop her from adding to the overall chaos of the ship. And now, to get her some meat.
The ship’s stores always contain a generous amount of human food, but I have to ensure the source of it. The villagers who occupied the ship for a short period of time have contaminated some of our stores because of their feral habits when it came to consuming certain types of flesh. Those humans, simple and silly as they seemed sometimes, considered our species a potential food source. I spent hours going through removing what they considered to be fine flesh and giving it a proper send off. Euphorians are not food, especially not for a lesser species.
Are humans a lesser species?
Again, I feel a little twinge of misgiving.
Humans are dangerous. They may look soft and sweet and simple, but they contain multitudes. They are predators without tusk or fang or claw. They are wickedly intelligent, and their ability to function in groups makes them almost unstoppable.
Once upon a time, we considered our forays to Earth a type of conservation. We were attempting to save this species from what appeared to be almost certain destruction. Now I am beginning to wonder if they ever needed our help at all. Perhaps we inserted ourselves where we did not belong, and in doing so, sowed the seeds of our own destruction.