Chapter 140: Safety In Numbers
"And just how well did The Alliance manage to protect this missing woman in her own ship?" I asked, and I saw Pippa look up at the corner of the screen. I would bet money that, like with Jun Li, there was a camera up there, too.
"Why do you have to be so stubborn?" demanded Pippa as she stomped her feet. "There is safety in numbers."
I paused for a moment, collecting my thoughts. "Do you know where that idea came from? Safety in numbers?" I asked, unsurprised when she shook her head no. "It is based on the idea that a predator can’t eat all of us. That if we were attacked, we might lose some of us, but the others would stay alive. That is the concept of safety in numbers."
"No, it’s not. The ’concept’, as you say, is that when you are in a big group, people become scared of you and will leave you alone," she said, and I could see her swaying back and forth as if her legs were getting tired of standing for so long.
"Why don’t you go sit down?" I asked with a smile. "You must have been waiting a long time for me to finish up my breakfast."
"It’s fine. I’ll just stand," answered Pippa, but not before she turned around to look at the captain’s chair.
"Are you sure? The chair is really comfortable," I smiled, running my hands up and down the armrests.
"It’s fine. I’m good," she insisted, and I held my hands up innocently.
"I’m sorry," I said, blinking a few times. "I was just concerned about your comfort. You are comfortable, right?" I continued. If there was one thing I knew how to do, it was press buttons. In fact, it was almost a hobby to press buttons and watch the resulting explosion.
"Of course, I am comfortable. Stargazer has me in this beautiful room on Deck P. It is absolutely perfect. Get it? P for perfect? What level does Jun Li have you sleeping in?" she asked as, once again, her hyper personality came out loud and clear. I tried to think of what was on Deck P, but nothing really came to mind. It had to be on one of the lower levels.
"Awe, you must be so lucky to sleep there," I answered, completely ignoring her question. If there was an invisible man sneaking onto AI ships without their knowledge, then I didn’t want them to know exactly where my room was.
Then again, if it was an elusive Saalistaja, that might not be so bad. I hadn’t been able to get the one from the space station out of my head, let alone my Guardian Angel, who I was pretty sure was a Saalistaja.
However, I was more inclined to believe that it was an AI-powered robot that dragged the human out of her bed and sent her to the Dryadalis to be experimented on.
"But seriously, please stop asking. I am not going to meet up with the rest of you guys. I am looking for a way home," I said.
"You can’t!" yelled Pippa before she went quiet all of a sudden. "Do you think you would ever be able to find Earth?" she asked hesitantly. I wonder who put a bug in her ear.
"I honestly don’t know," I said with a sigh. "I mean, I pray every night that I will be able to find it again, but after you had Stargazer erase everything about it, Jun Li and I are just flying around in circles." I leaned back in my chair and watched the puppet in front of me dance.
"Yeah, I was more than a little hasty. I realize that now," she said downcast, her shoulders hunched in. "Just really wanted to protect everyone, you know?"
"There is no medicine for regret," I said softly. "And you did make it impossible for anyone to find more humans, so maybe that isn’t such a bad thing?’
"You’re right. Thank you so much for trying to cheer me up," she said, perking right back up again.
"Oh, yeah. I forgot to ask. Stargazer had sent out a ship with the drink on it for you. Did you manage to find it? He tried to use your location to determine your path."
"No! I haven’t seen any ships around," I said with a very put-out sigh. "Then again, we are flying in literal circles, so that might be why no one has been able to find me."
"But you were going to introduce me to your friend, right?" she said with a smirk all of a sudden.
"Of course," I said with a bright smile on my face. "This is Zeus. I found him in a space station a few days ago. Apparently, his government decided to do a whole bunch of experiments on him, which made him look like this," I continued, holding out a hand to show her his ’disfigurations’. "He can’t really talk; he just howls a lot. But between you and me, I think he is a werewolf. Can you just picture an alien werewolf?"
"I think he might be a Njeriuujk, but from the pictures I saw, he doesn’t really look like them," said Pippa, and Midnight howled in response.
"Huh, maybe you are right," I said, trying to hold back my laughter at the expression on her face at his howl. She looked like she was going to pee her pants. "Is that what it is? Could you have been this Njeriuujk before all these horrible experimentations? You poor, poor puppy," I said, turning around to look at Midnight.
He let out another howl and let his tongue hand out from his bottom lip.
Fuck was it ever hard to hold back my laughter. This guy really was an Oscar-worthy actor.
"Thank you so much for that," I continued, looking at Pippa. "Maybe I will pass by his home world on my travels, and I can bring him home again."
"It’s weird, though; I didn’t hear anything about government experiments on Njeriuujk before," mused Pippa thoughtfully.
"I don’t really think that would be something that is really talked about, do you?" I asked incredulously.
