Chapter 224: Order of Priority
The creature and I stared at each other, neither one of us moving an inch. The guys, not realizing what was going on, continued their discussion, but their voices faded into the background, my entire being focused on the Istar bunny hanging from the ceiling.
The entire room was dark, even with the added lights coming from the stars outside the ship. The tables and chairs of the cafeteria were nothing more than darker objects against a dark grey backdrop.
But the eyes of this Istar queen were so bright, I was surprised that the guys didn’t notice her at all. She blinked, causing herself to completely disappear into the shadows before opening her eyes again and continuing to stare at me.
Why wasn’t she attacking me?
My entire body seemed to be tense. I now knew how a prey felt when it was in the eyesight of the predator. I didn’t know if I should run away, get ready to fight, or simply stay frozen in place, hoping that the bunny from hell hadn’t noticed me. Flight, fight, or freeze. I was experiencing it now for the first time in my life, and I really wasn’t happy about it.
I watched the creature shift subtly, her attention still completely focused on me.
"Uh, guys," I said, not too loud or too softly. Right now, I was the only one without some type of weapon in my hands. Sure, I had on a bulletproof catsuit, but that wasn’t going to help if the thing took off my head. If I was going to survive this, I needed light or the guys to figure out what was going on.
And the major source of light was still 55 minutes away.
"Yes, Star beam?" asked Midnight, his voice in a low purr. At the sound of his voice, the creature stiffened and disappeared once again into the shadows. "Do you need something?"
"There was an Istar creature in the corner," I said, pointing to where the creature had just hung, the claws of its four feet gripped into whatever material this ship was made out of.
The three guys stiffened, and Midnight pulled me back into his arms while Da’kea and Au’dtair stood as a barrier between me and where I was pointing. This was a bit like closing the barn door after the horses got out, but their concern was comforting.
"It’s gone," I added after a long minute of silence. "I think. Either that, or it is blinking for a really long time."
There was a soft swishing sound as Da’kea pulled out a collapsible spear and allowed it to lengthen. It looked like the one that was in his had previously, but there were some obvious differences. The main one being the design of the spear tip itself.
He slowly approached the corner, somewhat crouched down as he put one foot in front of the other. His right hand, the one carrying the spear, was behind his body as if to hide the weapon from sight. I wanted to open my mouth to tell him that it was too little, too late, but thought that it would be a waste of my breath. Let him figure out the hard way.
"Everything okay in there?" demanded Jun Li, coming in over the ship’s speakers. "I detect an elevated heartbeat in Mei Xing."
"I’m good," I assured him, never taking my eyes off of Da’kea. "Just have a queen in the room with us, and I forgot to curtsey."
"I don’t understand," grunted Jun Li. "But I can only assume that it is a human thing. I still can’t get a hold of my ship," he continued, not at all caring that we were potentially dealing with an Istar queen right now.
"Okay," I replied, not sure where he was trying to go with that. I already knew that he couldn’t get a hold of his ship; it was one of the main reasons I was still cursing the fact that I let the X96 fighter craft go back to the ship. Life would have been so much easier if we still had it.
"But I think the reason for that is whatever is jamming the communication systems," he said, continuing as if I had never interrupted him. "Da’kea, did your female offspring have something on her ship that would have essentially made it invisible to sensors or communications?"
"That technology is illegal for any Saalistaja to have, especially during the mating hunt," answered Au’dtair. Da’kea ignored everyone as he continued to advance on the corner.
"So is having one of those Istar queens; it didn’t stop her then," muttered Jun Li, loud enough for everyone to hear. I mean, he did have a point.
"Anything is possible at this point," I answered, not wanting to offend Da’kea. After all, it must have been hard knowing that it was his daughter that was doing all this shit. He was supposed to be the above-the-board diplomat, and yet this happened under his very nose. "But we are going to tackle one problem at a time."
"We are?" asked Jun Li, and I could practically see him raising an eyebrow at that comment.
"Not all of us are as perfect as you are," I sighed with a roll of my eyes. "All I meant was that we will get to the sun, hopefully, use that light to kill off or weaken the Istar bunnies and then find out what has been hiding in the ship. But it is a death sentence to wander around looking for a jamming device while the demon Easter bunny is closing in from behind."
"I suppose that does make sense," mused Jun Li. "I will try to keep that in mind for the future. All tasks will be done in order of priority."
"You are so kind," I laughed just as Da’kea jumped up, bringing his spear upward into the ceiling.
There was nothing but silence as the Elder removed his spear from where it was lodged in the ceiling. "It’s gone," he grunted as if I hadn’t just told him that very same thing.
I nodded my head in agreement. The queen was gone, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t lurking somewhere else. We really needed to get to that sun. Until then, we were nothing more than sitting ducks.
