2. The Happy Place

He knew he'd escaped because when Gary woke up . . . well, the fact that he woke up at all told him a boatload of stuff, but he was warm and the room was quiet. It had always been cold in the monstertorium, like the Lord Commander was too cheap to pay his oil bill and the heat got cut off, or something. The noise had been constant, too - animals and beings of all sorts sent up a constant din. Now that it was gone, Gary realized how thoroughly annoying it had been. He woke up in an actual bed with blankets and oh, sweet galaxies, a pillow. A real pillow. For him. After more than a year rotting in a cage on Tera Con Prime, he'd forgotten what comfort felt like. It was worth getting shot for this moment. He hadn't been this close to heaven since . . . well, he'd never been this close to heaven, period.

And then it got better as he realized he wasn't in pain.

That had been one of the side effects of the el-cheapo robo arm they had given him on Tera Con Prime. It hadn't been made for humans and the vets at the monstertorium were faced by so many different species that the best they could do was their best. Proper care and treatment were not guaranteed despite the rarity of the creatures the Lord Commander collected. The electrical feedback from the arm had been constant, and it had never fitted properly, leaving Gary in a steady state of discomfort he'd gradually tuned out. Until now. He could feel something on his shoulder. He shifted, raising his left arm from beneath the covers to see a smooth, silvery hand and arm all the way to his shoulder. Whoa. Suddenly excited, he sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. He stared at the new limb, fascinated, and wiggled his fingers before he held up his other hand to compare them.

It was perfect. A mirror image. Not too big. Five fingers (as opposed to four). It felt like part of him, not a major appliance strapped onto his side.

"Holy crap," he heard himself whisper in awe.

He looked up as the door chimed, then opened. A tall, slim figure was cast into silhouette by the bright lights behind him, but Gary recognized that Ventrexian outline from the shuttle, even beneath his long uniform coat. He was speaking softly to an attending officer, and Gary caught a faint assurance of, ". . . be fine," and, " . . . won't be long," before he faced Gary. Entering the room but leaving the door open behind him, he looked down with hard, intelligent eyes and studied Gary a moment before he said,

"I'm General Avocato. My son says you helped him escape from Tera Con Prime."

His voice was deep and resonant, with the tone of someone who was used to being in charge. And the rest of him?

Crap.

Teal fur. A creamy white blaze down his face. Large yellow eyes. Strong hands. Military bearing. Uniform. Jackboots. Tail.

Heaven help Gary Goodspeed, because this man was unfairly attractive. Strike that. Upgrade that to drop-dead gorgeous.

Double crap.

He was doomed.

That was Gary's first thought. He was doomed. Not, Oh, this must be Little Cato's father he adopted or This must be the son of a bitch who shot me, or even, OMG, he did make it in time to save us! No. His mind went straight to His nose is pink and all was forgiven. Getting shot? Worth it. He even began revising his list of favorite colors because suddenly teal, white, and yellow made one hell of a nice combination.

It took a moment for him to remember Avocato was waiting for an answer.

"Y-yeah. I did," he stammered, blinking like he'd just woken up. Which he had, but in all fairness, he hadn't expected to be confronted by a furry dream boat with a deep voice and a tailored uniform.

"Why?"

It was less a question, more of a demand.

"Well," he began, deciding honesty was definitely called for, not that he had a reason to lie. The general could easily chuck him out an airlock without any air if he wanted. "I wanted to escape as much as he did and I knew we'd have a better chance of getting away together, but . . . Little Cato's my friend. I couldn't leave him. No way, no how, man. He's just a kid and the Lord Commander is a monster."

"My son speaks highly of you, though some of the officers and rebel leaders think you're a plant by the Lord Commander."

His blood boiled at the suggestion, even though it was a perfectly valid one. "I hate that fun-sized abomination! He thought my first name was The. He did this to me!" He gestured at his left arm. "Well, not this this, but what I had before. That this. He ripped my freakin' arm off, yo!"

"Why?"

"Okay . . . quick history of me, Cato. Can I call you Cato?"

"No."

Unaffected, he shrugged and plunged onward. "I'm Captain Gary Goodspeed. I got arrested by the Infinity Guard for impersonating a pilot to impress one of their super-spicy officers and ended up blowing up ninety-two imperium cruisers and a small, family-owned Mexican restaurant."

This was all said very fast, as if to get it over with as quickly as possible. Avocato blinked at so much action packed into one event and one sentence, echoing, "Ninety-two?"

He nodded, liking that Avocato sounded impressed. "One shot. Chain reaction. Kablooie. Since my dad was a big-name Infinity Guard hero, they chucked me into isolation onto a ship and dumped it an me into the middle of freakin' nowhere for five years instead of keeping me on earth. Infinity Guard is -"

"Corrupt. I know."

"I was going to say afraid of bad press and with zero sense of humor, but corrupt works, too. Right before the five years was up, I found Mooncake. Or, Mooncake found me. Either way, I got Mooncake."

"Which is?"

"Oh, best face hugger you ever met! About yo big around, big eyes, antenna, chirps a lot-"

"Green?" Avocato demanded sharply, his eyes widening in alarm.

"Yeah!" Gary smiled. "You know him?"

"Tell me you didn't name it."

"Mooncake?"

The general closed his eyes and leaned his forehead into his hand. "That's E35-1. That thing's a planet killer!"

"What? No! Not my little buddy! He'd never do that!"

In silent pain, Avocato drew a deep breath, let it out slowly, and said, "Keep going."

"So, a bunch of bounty hunting jerks led by some mega-jerk named Terk show up for Mooncake. He got away, they got me. Then they blew up the ship I was on and took me to the Lord Commander. He wanted to know where Mooncake was and didn't like that the best I could tell him was gone." He sighed. "By the fourth or fifth time he hauled me in for questioning, he was really pissed and looked really sick. He got so mad he tore my arm off. Like, off! I almost bled to death. The vets at the zoo gave me that super-crappy arm. And now . . ." He looked down at his arm again and wiggled the silvery fingers.

Avocato lowered his hand to brace it against the doorway, watching Gary keenly. "Our engineers made the new limb based on your existing arm. We took advantage of you being unconscious to replace it. If there's anything you need changed, the engineers should be able to accommodate you. It has additional features the last one didn't."

"It doesn't hurt," he said, awed.

The Ventrexian blinked. "It's not supposed to."

Gary raised his hand, already perfectly comfortable with it. "It's . . . wow. Amazing. Thank you."

"I also want to apologize for shooting you. The shuttle's beacon was drawing more Tera Con forces, and we had to get in and out as quickly as possible. There was no time to explain. We had to destroy everything that came from Tera Con Prime, including your clothing and old arm, just in case of tracking beacons."

"I get it. Good riddance." He smiled, astonished at the difference in a properly fitted prosthesis. "Thank you."

"I'm the one who owes you thanks. You saved my prince. My son," he said, sounding as if he wasn't quite used to the word in that context. "And your actions saved a lot of my forces. We were poised to invade Tera Con Prime to get him back, and the death toll would have been astronomical if my plan hadn't worked."

"Well, good. Glad to help. So now what?"

"Now you'll stay with us until I decide what to do with you."

There was a god. Gary couldn't have asked for a better outcome. "Does that make you my host or my jailer?"

If he had thought Avocato was over-the-top-handsome before, it paled by comparison to the slight smirk and tilt of the head he directed at Gary. Deal sealed. It was all over. Here was a tall, cool drink of water and Gary Goodspeed was dying of thirst.

"That depends entirely on you, Captain."