Chapter 138: A Different Relationship
Tha’juen’s wrist unit chirped with an incoming communication. "Yeah?" he answered gruffly, not checking to see who it was first. There was a pause for a moment before the growling voice of a Njeriuujk came through the link.
"Is this Hunter?" the male asked, and Tha’juen could hear the hesitation and suspicion in his voice.
"What do you want?" he replied, not caring about the other male’s thoughts.
"I need information," came a snarl from the other male.
"I am not in the business of information," replied Tha’juen as he returned to his quarters onboard Vraev’ox’s ship.
"I am well aware. However, when I contacted my informant, he told me to contact you." That caused Tha’juen to pause. The only informant that he could think of with knowledge of how to get a hold of him was Ye’tab. But why would Ye’tab send this male to him instead of contacting him himself?
"What do you need?" asked Tha’juen, now intrigued.
"I need to know where I can find a Hive ship," answered the male. That stopped Tha’juen cold as he tried to link the pieces of information together.
"Why do you want to know where to find a Hive ship?" he pushed, not understanding how Ye’tab could have anything to do with the Hives.
"Can you tell me or not?" demanded the male.
"I can," said Tha’juen. "Give me an hour."
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Tha’juen sat down at the console inside of his room and started to quickly type out a series of codes. Sitting back to let his program do the rest of the work, he tried to figure out what Ye’tab had to do with anything.
The male hadn’t been answering his communications for the past few rotations now, and Tha’juen had begun to get worried. However, he was able to answer the communications from a stranger. Was the stranger somehow located close to where Ye’tab was?
If he was to assume that that theory was true, then was Ye’tab trying to tell him where he needed to go next to meet up with him?
With thoughts spinning in his head and his computer working on trying to track down a Hive ship, Tha’juen rose from his chair and went to find Vraev’ox and Cruz’uts. Maybe they would be able to shed some light on this particular problem.
Entering the bridge, Tha’juen nodded his head to the other two males. "We might have a problem," he said, not bothering with any pleasantries.
"Explain," said Vraev’ox as he turned to the other male.
"I was just contacted by someone looking for information on how to find a Hive ship," started Tha’juen before going into a complete report, including his thoughts on the matter.
"So, you think that Ye’tab was this male’s original informant and that he is trying to pass you a message using the male?" summarized Cruz’uts.
"Yes," grunted the other male.
"Then we find him a Hive ship and follow. If it is Ye’tab, then at least we have found him," said Vraev’ox, making a decision.
"And if it is not?" asked Tha’juen. After all, he couldn’t be sure that the other male had anything to do with this.
"Then it’s not. Better than floating around trying to find a single L-series ship in the vastness of space," shrugged the male, not at all concerned that they might be chasing a false lead.
"Understood. I’ll let you know when I am able to find a Hive," said Tha’juen before turning around and going back to his quarters. Hopefully, his program will have found the elusive Hive by now.
----
"The annoying one is calling again," said Jun Li, interrupting Midnight’s and Mei Xing’s breakfast. Midnight turned to look at his mate, absolutely fascinated with the expression on her face.
"Should I ask who the annoying one is?" he asked with a smile. Mei Xing turned to look at him, her eyes narrowing onto him.
"Don’t worry, Wolfie, you are going to find out," she grumbled as she cut into the food in front of her. She called it pancakes and bacon. The pancakes were much too sweet for him, but he more than approved of the bacon.
However, he decided to go with the steak tartare without the egg, as she suggested. He didn’t quite understand the need to add different flavors to the food, but she seemed to enjoy it. In fact, this was the third time she took some of the food off of his plate.
Normally, there would be no way he would let someone take the food in front of him to eat it themselves. There was a hierarchy when it came to his species and eating, and the only ones to steal others’ food were the ones that were more dominant than the ones they stole from.
However, he enjoyed the idea that she was eating his food. It left him feeling satisfied that he was somehow able to provide for her, even if he didn’t hunt the food himself.
"Let her know that I am eating breakfast, and I will get back to her," said Mei Xing, waving her fork in the air in a dismissive manner.
"I tried that, she said that she’d hold. What does it mean to hold?" grumbled Jun Li as he walked into the dining hall where they were eating.
Mei Xing snorted at that. "It means that she is going to keep the link active with the understanding that no one will be there to talk to her," she explained, taking a piece of bacon and holding it out to him to eat.
A feeling passed through Midnight that he had never felt before when his mate offered him her food. Taking it gently in his muzzle so he didn’t accidentally bite her, he quickly ate the offering.
"That seems stupid," grumbled Jun Li as he sat down at their table.
"It’s not like she has anything better to do," scoffed Midnight’s mate as she ate the last bite of her pancake.
"True," grunted Jun Li, leaning back in his chair. "The relationship between Stargazer and Pippa seems to be different than the relationship between us," mused the android, and Midnight watched Mei Xing freeze for a split second before returning to her usual expression.
