Chapter 221: I Held Grudges
"And you are in the system now?" I asked, needed to know exactly what was going on. I let the water from the shower wash away as much as it could, not yet wanting to touch anything that I may or may not have puked on.
How Midnight could stand holding me right now, I had no idea. It was truly a testament to his devotion.
"I am," replied Jun Li, his voice no longer coming through my earpiece but rather through the overhead speakers. "Although there are some systems that seem to be too damaged for me to fix."
"What type of systems?" I asked, curious. Midnight gently set me on my feet but brought me in closer so that my head rested against his chest. I felt his fingers running through my scalp, and I shuddered. "You might not want to do that. You have no idea what is in there."
"It’s fine," he said, and I could feel some type of soap working its magic in my hair.
"Electrical and environmental," said Jun Li, cutting through the pure blissful state that Midnight’s talented fingers managed to put me in.
"What?" I asked, blinking rapidly. "You don’t have access to those systems? But if there is no electrical, then how are things still working on the ship?"
"I said electrical in the very general sense of the word," sighed Jun Li, like I was purposefully trying to make his life harder. "I can’t turn on any of the lights on the ship, but everything else is working just fine."
"Lights?" I asked; that seemed like a very random thing to not work. But lights. "Jun Li," I said, snapping my head up, knocking Midnight’s hands off of my head. "Can you use the Earth’s internet to find the answer to something for me?"
"It’s not like I am doing anything else right now," huffed Jun Li. "I am only trying to fly two ships, do all the repairs on this ship, and—"
"Yes, yes, all very important things, I am sure. But I need you to look up three rules. The second one is don’t get wet, the third is don’t feed after midnight." Since this riddle was driving me crazy, I might as well get Jun Li to figure it out.
"That’s it? That is what you want me to look up?" demanded Jun Li, clearly not impressed.
"Please and thank you," I replied, resting my forehead back on Midnight’s chest; I let out a long sigh. "I think it has something to do with this situation. Especially when I watched the bunnies multiply after getting wet."
"I can assure you, feeding them after midnight is not advisable either," came a low voice. I peeled open one eye and watched as Au’dtair walked into the shower stall with us and pulled me into his arms. "Feeding them turns them from small, easy-to-kill younglings to queens."
"Found your answer," said Jun Li, cutting into the conversation. I leaned the back of my head against Au’dtair’s chest and once again closed my eyes. "But this doesn’t make any sense. The rules are based on a movie, an urban legend."
"The Easter Bunny is a myth, an urban legend," I countered, letting the water pound on my face and eyes, cleaning the puke that got crusted over my lashes. I really believed that I was never going to get clean again.
Have I ever mentioned how much I can’t deal with vomit? Because I really can’t.
"And you are suggesting that just because something is a myth on your planet, that they have some basis in reality," mused Jun Li.
"Look, as far as we humans are concerned, the Easter Bunny doesn’t exist; there are no such things as Aliens and spaceships that talk are only found in television shows," I said, no longer in the mood to be debating with Jun Li. If there was something in Earth’s movies that would help the situation, I would take it.
I was done dealing with queens. They weren’t even on my list of priorities until Sha Shou contacted us. We need to hurry up and kill them so we can move on to destroying the Alliance. The fact that I also wanted to talk to a certain pirate captain, not at all withstanding.
"Fine," grumbled Jun Li, "The first rule is don’t expose them to bright light. The second rule is don’t get them wet, and the third rule is don’t feed them after midnight."
"I am going to assume that the first rule has a lot to do with why none of the lights on this ship are working," said Da’kea from where he leaned against the countertop. Ye’tab and Tha’juen were in similar positions on either side of him.
"More than likely. It says here that bright light kills them," continued the AI. "Becoming wet makes them multiply, and—"
"Feeding them after midnight, causing them to morph," muttered Ye’tab. "Yeah, we got that one."
"And no matter what we do, we have to protect Pumpkin and Princess from the bright light. I don’t want anything to happen to them," I said, blinking rapidly. Finally, my eyes were unstuck, and thanks to Midnight, my hair was cleaned. Now, all I had to do was get dried off, and I would be able to leave this shower and kill the queen that made me puke.
I held grudges. Not my fault.
As if my words made them appear, Pumpkin and Princess jumped up onto the counter behind the other men, using their shoulders as leverage to pull themselves up higher.
"It’s funny. The other bunnies I wanted to kill as soon as I saw them. These ones, not so much," mused Tha’juen as he stretched Princess under her chin. "I just wonder where they have been. We haven’t seen them since you were kidnapped."
"Abducted," I muttered under my breath. "Let’s figure out a way to either get the lights working on the ship or a way to get big enough lights brought over so that we can kill these things and get on our merry way."
"About that," said Jun Li slowly. I tilted back my head, banging it off Au’dtair’s chest, and let out a sigh.
"Yes, Jun Li?" I asked, dreading whatever was going to come out of that AI’s mouth.
"Something is preventing me from accessing the outside. I have lost contact with my main ship."
