Chapter 169: The Master Plan
"Um... Sweetie, I hate to break it to you, but I don’t think that you are actually the crystal," I said slowly, trying to figure out what Jun Li was stressing over. It was like someone was speaking French to someone that only spoke Spanish. The other person might understand a bit, but a lot would be lost in translation.
"Excuse me?" demanded Jun Li after a moment of shock. "I think I would know what I was."
"And normally, I would agree. However, I think that, although you might have been inside the crystal initially, it was also acting as your prison, keeping you contained. But now that you are freed and fully ’uploaded’ into both the ship and the android, I really don’t think that you need the crystal anymore to survive."
"Great theory and all, but let’s not put it to the test," snapped Jun Li, and I nodded my head, not pushing the issue. Once again, it could just be yet another example of how my brain worked differently than others. I saw Jun Li as an idea or a soul. One that couldn’t be contained to just one object.
"We have company in Hanger Bay A. The Sisalik have disembarked and are now trying to figure a way out of the Hanger Bay," announced Jun Li, changing the subject. I heard three distinctive grunts as my invisible mates headed toward the shuttle.
"And what should we be doing, little human, now that we are alone," smirked Midnight, wrapping his enormous arms around me. Pulling me in close to him, I was completely enveloped in his massive frame.
"Are we really alone?" I chuckled as I rubbed my face across his hard pecs. "We have a toddler AI that listens in to every conversation, afraid to miss out," I started right as Jun Li interrupted me with a very disgruntled, "I object to that statement."
"Point taken," grumbled Midnight as he leaned down and rubbed the side of his muzzle all over the top of my head. "But knowing that you are willingly putting yourself in danger is... upsetting. The fact that you don’t have my scent all over your body while you do it is more so."
"You need your scent on me?" I asked, curious. I mean, he smelled good, but my olfactory senses were nowhere good as his.
"That would be an understatement," he growled as the sounds of approaching footsteps softly echoed in the distance. "I might go onto a murderous rampage if you are not bathed in my scent for much longer."
"Well, may I suggest the first ship that you can turn your rage on? Oh! And did you get that breathing device from Jun Li?"
"You mean the PBD? Yeah, I have it," he assured me.
"Perfect," I replied as I reluctantly stepped out of his embrace as the footsteps got even louder. "Just make sure that nothing happens to you." The idea of something happening to any of the guys who were following me willingly into a trap made my blood boil.
The rage that I felt would have definitely concerned me if I was normal. Unfortunately, the idea of destroying a galaxy or two over my guys didn’t phase me in the slightest. In fact, it seemed like an excellent way to pass the time.
"Freeze!" shouted a male voice behind me. I heard Midnight growling in front of me, but I simply placed my hand on his chest to get him to stop.
"What’s going on?" I asked, turning around to see eight males standing in front of me, their blasters raised. "I thought I was getting on a shuttle?"
"You are. He is not," hissed the male in front of me. I could see the look of fear in his eyes as he looked up at Midnight.
"I am sorry," I answered with a shrug. "But he has made it quite clear that I go nowhere without him. But if you want to fight him, by all means. I can just step over your dead bodies and get on the shuttle myself."
I watched the males exchanging a glance before turning their attention back to me.
"Fine," grumbled the one that had to be the captain of the team. "But he is to remain by your side the entire time."
"Zeus would have it no other way," I assured them as I made a gesture with my hand. "Shall we? I am sure that your commander is absolutely dying of fear if a small female like me is his only chance of survival. It would be better to not keep him waiting too long."
The male just grunted; something that I was learning was a universal language in and of itself.
"This way," he said, nodding his head the way he came.
"Thank you so much for your help. I am sure that I would never have been able to find my way around my own ship without your guidance," I answered with a smile on my face. I needed to bide my time. There was no point in killing these males on my ship where I would have to clean up the mess afterward.
No. I would wait until we were all back on their ship before doing that. Then, cleanup would be somebody else’s problem.
I started to walk in the direction where the Sisalik guard had pointed, Midnight close on my heels. He towered head and shoulders over the tallest Sisalik. I could practically feel the nervous tension as the lizard surrounded us.
"I feel like I am being led to my death," I joked as we all piled into one of the lifts that would take us to the lower levels and Hanger Bay A. "Is someone going to shout, ’dead man walking’, or should I do that myself?"
There was silence inside the elevator.
Sheesh. My sense of humor was really lost on these people.
We continued down in silence, and I made a mental note to ask Jun Li if he could add some music to these things.
"There is nothing for you to be worried about," whispered one of the smaller males beside me. He tipped his head to the side so he could speak without moving his eyes. "And thank you for helping us out like this."
I looked at him, startled, as a huge rush of panic raced through my system. I wasn’t engulfed in armor, thinking that that would surely tip them off that not all was right in the land of OZ, but I did spray myself with some anti-pheromone thing that Jun Li had found in one of the lockers.
He claimed that it should suppress any pheromones that I might be unknowingly sending out for roughly four hours. Since none of my males mentioned anything either way. I didn’t think much of it. However, now I was worried that maybe it wasn’t working. Why else would the Sisalik be so nice to me?
I turned to look at him to see if he had changed in any visible way. Luckily for me, he appeared to be the exact same as the other males on his team, if not a hair smaller and thinner, so there was no visible sign of him being chosen.
"You think I am nervous?" I asked, cocking my head to the side. I mean, I was talking a lot, but that was more to make sure that their attention was on me and not the three males trying to sneak into their ship.
"I think any sane person would be nervous, given the situation. It’s not like you really had much of a choice in the matter," he shrugged his shoulders, his eyes still trained in front of him.
"I think you are in the wrong line of work," I said, completely seriously. He almost made me feel... guilty...
"I know I am," he nodded, his voice still low enough that the others around us couldn’t really hear. But I knew that Midnight could. "However, on my planet, there are only two options, and I failed out of the scientist selections."
"That seems stupid," I muttered. What planet only had two professions for their people? "Are the females forced to choose between the two?"
"Of course not," he assured me. "They have no choice in the matter. They are to remain home at all times and wait on the males."
"Huh," I grunted, completely surprised by his response. Then again, I guess I shouldn’t have been. In the entire time, I had been their prisoner, I had never once seen a female Sisalik. I had just assumed that that was because they looked so similar that I couldn’t tell them apart. Now I know better.
"Yeah, my sister hates it. Me, on the other hand, would much rather be farming than out in space. But what can you do? I have to support my sister in some way. Without me, she will end up starving to death."
I think I should have stopped talking to him a long time ago. Now, instead of trying to get my captors to see me as more ’human’, I was starting to feel pity for them. Not a good way to start this whole thing.
Especially when my master plan was still to kill them all.
