"What was that?" Quinn murmured, roused from her sleep by a dull thudding sound. "Artie, babe? Did you hear that?"
"What? Are we under attack?" Artie said, waking up suddenly, grasping frantically for his glasses, which were nowhere to be found.
"Shhh," Quinn whispered, gently rubbing his arm. "No, I don't think we're under attack. I just heard something, and I wasn't sure what it was," she said, finding his glasses and handing them to him, before pushing a button in the headboard of their bed, turning on a light.
"Oh," Artie breathed a sigh of relief. "Good. I was just in the middle of having a dream about…that, and then you woke me up and things got a little blurred."
"I don't hear it anymore," Quinn said, running her fingers through his hair. "It's ok. Go back to sleep."
It didn't take long for her husband to be sound asleep again, but Quinn stayed awake. She kept hearing the dull thudding, but she couldn't figure out what it was. Probably just some of the garbage floating around space hitting the hull, she figured, as she tried to go back to sleep. That was it. They weren't under attack. They weren't in any danger, she thought, finally drifting off again.
…
It didn't take long, before their sleep was interrupted, by an alarm sounding somewhere on the ship.
"The alarm is going off!" Artie said, his voice panicked, as he reached for his glasses again. "Quinn, where are you?"
"I'm right here," Quinn said, in the middle of zipping up her jacket, before throwing his own at him. "It's freezing in here. Put this on," she added, before going over and grabbing a couple of weapons out of the cabinet on the wall, and handing him one of those once he was in his wheelchair.
"I hear voices," he hissed, as he zipped his jacket. "Stay here. I'm going to go look."
"Oh, stop. We're going together," Quinn insisted, leaning down and giving him a quick kiss. "If we've been boarded, it's not the first time, and it won't be the last," she added. "But we'll deal with them like we always do, and carry on," she added, winking at him.
It wasn't that they made a habit of cruising around the galaxy, shooting people, but occasionally things had to be done, and they would protect their ship at all costs.
…
"Is that Snergolian?" Artie whispered, trying to keep his chair silent as it glided along the corridor. "Are there Snergolians on our ship? Really? I'm going to protect the Lady Q if it's the last thing I do!"
"It sounds like it," Quinn whispered back, nodding, as something started wailing somewhere just beyond where they had stopped.
"Are they killing each other?" Artie hissed, his eyes growing wide. "What are they doing in there?"
"I think that was singing," Quinn said, drawing her weapon as they got ready to round the corner.
She peered cautiously through the doorway, staying close to the wall, and caught sight of five Snergolians, their acid green skin bright in the ship's fluorescent lights, mohawked heads all turned away from the doorway.
"Hey," she called out, nodding to Artie, who then came into view beside her, his weapon pointed at them. "Just what do you think you're doing here?"
"Dude, our ship broke down, and we have a gig, so we thought we'd just take yours," the tallest of the Snergolians said, taking a bite of the piece of precious fruit in his hand. "And then we got hungry. Damn, you're fine," added, raising an eyebrow, before winking at Quinn. "You with that pale little dude, or you open for business?" he asked, moving closer.
"She's married to that…pale little dude," Artie said, holding his weapon higher. "Get off our ship." There was something oddly familiar about the Snergolian, but Artie couldn't quite place it.
"You got an army back there that I can't see?" the Snergolian said, smirking a little. Right. Like these two humans had an army on their tiny little ship. "Wait," he went on, as he got closer. "Artie. Dude. Is that you? It's me, man! Puckzilla!"
"Puckzilla?" Artie asked, his eyes going wide as he immediately lowered his weapon. Puckzilla, his childhood friend on Rothdor…hijacking his ship? Really? "You know," he said, catching himself before something accusing came out of his mouth. "If you wanted to see me, you could have just called. No need to board my ship unannounced," he said, a grin on his face.
"Wait…you know this…guy?" Quinn asked, raising an eyebrow.
"The A-Man and I went to school together back on Rothdor!" Puckzilla said, striding forward and embracing Artie. "Dude, we did not know this was your ship, or we would have at least knocked," he said, straightening up again, reminding Artie just how much taller the Snergolians were than most others he came into contact with.
"Noathor, aren't you going to introduce us?" the shortest of the Snergolians said, marching forward and holding out her hand. "Hello," she said, shaking their hands. "I'm Rachelda, and we are Rachelda and Singing Snergolians!" she announced. "Noathor is actually the leader of our band, but he insisted that the group bear my name."
"More like he's whipped," one of the others said, snickering.
"Finntreon, be quiet," Rachelda said sharply, turning around. "Mercedania, I told you to keep him in line! We must be polite if we're going to ask someone to be our host!"
"Girl, we ain't their guests," Mercedania said, chuckling. "Puckzilla just told you that so you'd quit your squealing and we'd be able to get on board without gettin' shot!"
Quinn and Artie watched the exchange between the two, which then turned into Rachelda scolding Puckzilla for being "untruthful and rude!" They tried not to laugh, as Mercedania started pulling things out of the food storage cabinets.
"Um…are you going to cook something?" Quinn asked, going over to her. "I'm Quinn."
"Mercedania," the Snergolian said, holding out her hand, her fingernails painted bright red with what looked like diamonds studding the tips. "Thought I might as well make you guys a little Snergolian cuisine, seein' as we've interrupted you in the middle of the night!"
"Oh, you don't have to do that," Quinn insisted, watching as Mercedania pulled some more things out of the cabinet. "Can we take you somewhere?"
"Got a gig on one of the moons of Zrathnok," the one Quinn had heard Rachelda call Finntreon said, sitting down at the table in the middle of the room. "We need to get there."
"That is not how you ask someone to take you somewhere!" Rachelda said, marching over and smacking his arm. "Apologize at one, Finntreon!"
"Sorry," he murmured, looking down.
Meanwhile, Artie rolled over to Quinn, putting an arm around her waist.
"I was just talking to Puckzilla, and we're going to take them where they need to go. Is that ok, babe?" he asked, looking up at her. "I hope you don't mind."
"No, I don't mind," Quinn said, smiling down at him.
"Great!" Artie answered, before gesturing to everyone else. "Looks like the Lady Q will be taking you where you need to go!"
…
As they headed towards their destination, Mercedania finished preparing the meal, which she then served to Quinn and Artie. As they hurtled through space, Rachelda and the Singing Snergolians performed a medley of their biggest hits, none of which Quinn or Artie had ever heard. The Snergolian language wasn't the most beautiful, but the mixture of voices in the group made it almost tolerable. And really, even if it had been hundreds of times worse, Quinn and Artie would never have said anything to them about it, because it had been so long since they'd been serenaded, and it was kind of romantic.
A/N: This was written for day 4 of Quartie Week on Tumblr (quartieweek . tumblr . com)
The topic: Sci Fi Quartie
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