ERNIE 073

by Akktri

An autobiography of a Xenomorph.

123. Chapter 127: EOF

The moment she saw the blaster Dista drew her own weapon, raising it warningly.

The attacker was female and young looking, about thirteen in earth years, but Abreyas age differently, so she had to be closer to thirty or forty. She wore multicolored blue, green and red makeup, like a rainforest threw up in her face, her hair bleached titanium white, spiked on top, with more natural dangling sideburns and bangs.

Single sleeve glittering blue-black top in a toga style, with a shoulder wing and bands around the sleeve. Instead of pants, she had on an azkobzi, a puffy diaper-like thing that made me think of those baggy shorts actors wear in Shakespearean plays.

Although the makeup distorted her features, I recognized the dalmatian speckled fur on her legs and exposed arm, the Falcameer overbite. "Ayeni?"

"Poniki!" she cried. "I almost killed Dista!"

"We would have died at the same time." The Abreya cop put away her weapon. "What are you doing in here?"

Ayeni whimpered like a starving puppy dog. A tear rolled down her crazy hot and cool face paint, but didn't smear due to its `color stay' properties. "Those things downstairs...they grabbed Uncle Ginegna and Aunt Tama. I got scared and ran away."

She wiped her eyes, looking at Zero pleadingly. "You can save them, can't you?"

"I don't know," our veteran said. "Where were they last?"

"Oim Level. The Ring."

"What about Jidparc?"

She whimpered. "They got him too. I don't know if..." She couldn't continue.

"Where's John?" Matt asked.

She gasped when she noticed Matt and I. "Holy prophets of God! How unfortunate that this tragedy should befall you!"

"Please, Ayeni," my friend scolded. "It's just Matt. And David. Where's John?"

The female seemed...less frightened now. Like we could somehow walk on water and save everybody. "With the others, Great Prophets."

"Ayeni," Matt said. "Please. Call us by our first names."

I nodded. "The only thing that makes us prophets is sharing God's word. That makes you a prophet too."

Demoize grimaced in disgust. "Occult nonsense."

"We're all going to be dead prophets if we don't act fast," Zero grumped. "See any weapons around here?"

Ayeni opened a locker, showing him a small cache of blasters.

"How disappointing," Demoize said. "I thought for certain they'd have a large supply. Of course, Jafamu is prone to exaggeration."

We each grabbed a weapon.

Despite having possession of a good blaster now, Zero kept the makeshift drug blasting gun he'd built for extra protection.

Ayeni burst into tears and more puppy dog whines. My wife and I exchanged knowing glances. A situation had to be truly bad to wrench this much emotion out of the girl.

"Calm yourself, foquipi," Nabal said, putting his arm around her. "There is a chance they may still be alive. We have come to rescue them."

"Nerteg!" Zero protested, but Nabal waved his tail dismissively.

Ayeni grabbed the prince tightly, sobbing into his chest. Hanna gave her own affectionate nuzzles.

My wife pressed her ear to the door, which by now appeared to be safe from the dangerous molten chemicals. "It's too quiet out there. I don't like it."

"We should go," Zero agreed.

An adjacent locker contained a small array of tools, a laser cutter (useless for anything other than super close combat), an automatic bolt turner (for Abreya bolts - no fittings at all for flatheads, Phillips or octagonals), hammers and the type of manual `screw drivers' that would never appear in an earth hardware store. The rest of it was cables, bolts, protective gloves for the hands and feet, some semi-organics used in spaceship repair, and a light.

Zero used some of this equipment to pry open the floor.

"Wait," I said. "How do we know you're not going to hit the hull and get us all sucked into space?"

"Because the outer walls are quadruple reinforced, silent on the outside, and cold to the touch."

"That's why they pay you the big bucks."

"Ridiculous expression," he muttered, setting an inner panel on the flooring beside me.

He dropped into the shadowy compartment below, gesturing for us to follow.

I was nervous, but I trusted Zero enough to join him in this blind jump into the dark.

We crouched in a narrow crawl space between floors, filled with pipes and wiring, crawling beside the air pipes. Maintenance used this area to work on ceiling lights, life support and other important things on the ship. The air was thin, but present, due to the inter-floor air conditioning system, so we didn't suffocate.

"Wait," I said to Zero. "If Oim Level is down, shouldn't we just, I don't know, open up the floor and go down?"

"That's not the way to The Ring."

It seemed my wife had her misgivings about diving into this hole, for the shadow obscured female beside me was not Pillow.

"Did it work?" said the monotone voice. "Your...appliance?"

I blushed. "That's not something..."

"Please," she said. "I know you're human, but we've discussed this before."

"When my wife was present."

"You need a nennop."

"We just acquired one," Pillow said behind us. Apparently she was more courageous about the dark than I gave her credit for. "It's okay. You can tell her."

"It's uh, great," I muttered with embarrassment. "The, uh, delivery system is perfect."

"It is," Pillow said. "I even had him do a few test runs to make sure it adequately propels."

My ears felt like they were burning. "Anyways, a little awkward at first, but I've, we've gotten used to it, like it were an extension of me-"

A loose panel gave way under my weight, dropping me into the room below.

I landed on a long boardroom table, suspended by tentacular organic netjubi that kept the thing perfectly stable, no matter what was dropped onto it.

Surrounded by strangers, corporate executives cowering in fear, most probably due to the monster attacks, and the warnings I heard on their PA system.

The room had walls covered in monitors, displaying graphs and space scenes, but no one was looking at them now.

"What are you doing in here!" demanded a brown faced male with a golden coat and fancy frilly clothes. He kind of made me think of one of those crazy African guys from The Lion King On Ice.

"Sorry," I said. "I kinda fell in."

"Then fall your way back out," he snarled. "You've probably signed all our death notices."

"We've stopped a small army already. Believe it or not, I and my comrades may be your best bet of getting out of this alive."

The male drew his blaster. "Out. Before I blow a hole in your chest."

I had a blaster in my Weghesh, but he'd fire before I got it out, so I raised my hands in surrender.

"There will be a hole in your neck the moment you pull that trigger," said a monotone voice.

I glanced back and saw a hornet costumed figure dangling upside down by its tail, weapon trained on the male's head.

The stranger put his blaster away, but then I saw two blue faced Eskekza (business folk from Zeqsulox) pointing their weapons at my protector.

"We don't trust you, heretic," said one of the Zeqsulox, a female in a silken white jumpsuit.

The other, a male in black, nodded in agreement. "Take your mutant friend and leave."

I climbed off the table, backing toward Dista, but then the ceiling panels next to her came open, and the two Eskekza found blasters pointed at themselves as well.

"I'd put those away if I were you," Zero growled from one of the opened panels.

The Eskekza obeyed.

"We might as well go this way," my wife said, dropping down to join us.

Dista followed suit, keeping her weapon aimed and ready, even while shifting into an upright position. She waved her tail for the others to follow.

Seeing Nabal and Zero move away for a second, the male Eskekza tried to sneak his weapon on us, but Dista shot it out of his hand.

In addition to the three we disarmed, there were four other (for lack of a better term) `business Abreyas' present in the room, two kids that looked ten years old but were actually twenty, a male with owl-like but human facial features, and a bejeweled overweight female with a face like a humanoid bucktoothed cat.

"I am a Qedamem veteran," Zero said to the strangers. "If you want to live, I suggest you remain quiet and do exactly what I tell you when I tell you to do it. Now get in single file and prepare to move."

"That was amazing!" Matt whispered to Dista after he swung down to the floor. "You didn't even wound his hand!"

"It's nothing," she said, but she was blushing. "I have had much practice."

Ayeni descended behind them. "Admit it. You like her. At least a little."

Matt swallowed. "Any friend of Quana is a friend of mine."

"That's not what I meant."

"Okay, so maybe she's cute, but that's just me being male, and that isn't all there is to a good relationship. We've had some personality conflicts."

"They're not unforgivable personality conflicts, are they?"

"Well, no, not exactly, but I'm not going to just jump into bed with her, either."

"Correct," Dista said. "Marriage must come first. And only after we determine if Geigy Quana can still be rescued."

"Exactly," Matt groaned.

Hanna made gibbering noises as Nabal's nimble feet hit the flooring. "Let us make haste to help the princess, before we even think of such things."

"If you mean getting that thing out of her, then I agree," Matt said. "I don't want to help her...body snatching creature do anything."

"Guep. After we stop her, perhaps something can be done to alleviate her condition. You are not the only one who would be crushed by Geigy Quana's death."

"Yeah," I said. "I mean, if you kill the head vampire in a vampire story, the other vampires become normal people, right?"

"I don't know any more than you do about that."

Nabal glanced up at the ceiling. "Demoize? Are you coming along?"

Our associate glanced around his darkened surroundings as if he considered staying there and hiding, but then his fear got the best of him and he came down.

"Ah, Demoize," said the male Eskekza. "I suspected your bumbling was the cause of this unpleasant disturbance."

"Don't blame me, Kusfexa!" Demoize protested. "These cultists broke into my office and took me prisoner!"

"If that's how you truly feel," Zero said. "You can climb back up in the ceiling and take your chances with those murderous beasts."

Demoize fell silent.

The doors on that level were shaped like sphincters. Zero pressed his ear to the metal sliding piece in the center, listening for a moment. "Clear."

He opened the door, creeping into the outer hallway, one surfaced with that same scary wallpaper stuff I'd seen in the upper floor. Nothing unusual.

It all seemed pretty quiet, so Zero gestured us out with his tail, drug weapon at the ready. "Fall behind me. No talking. No noise."

The business Abreyas gathered silently at the rear, off to the left side of the door, while Zero crept along to the right. Once he'd gone a few yards, Zero waved his tail.

We moved.

I glanced back at the seven strangers. Although they murmured to one another, they otherwise kept quiet, obeying Zero's commands. The blue ones had their weapons out, but they aimed them at the opposite end of the corridor, as if the big bugs could come rushing down there any minute.

Something splattered Demoze's pelt. He frowned and touched his neck.

We all looked up, but by then it was too late. Four of the shadowy bug beasts came down from the ceiling, dripping steaming saliva as they surrounded us.

A male Abreya with gold colored fur and an elfin face stepped around the corner, his pink weghesh whirling around his legs.

We froze.

"Not so bold without the Aqsarki backing you up, are you?"

"Chaz?" Matt cried in alarm.

During Matt's first visit to Quana's planet, he and his soon-to-be wife had traveled to the Takofuea, an alien monastery, to seek answers about how Jesus relates to Quaceb prophecy. Chaz had been one of the friendly monks that helped Matt get adjusted to life in the Takofuea. Matt had converted Chaz, encouraging the monk to explore the outside world. Chaz eventually got a job as a tech support guy in a big communicator company, probably why he was on the station at all.

Now the male was possessed.

Chaz gave Matt a nod. "I used to answer to that name, but I have joined a thing greater than myself."

"Is it greater than Jesus?"

A troubled look crossed the ex-monk's face. "Y-yok. Guep. Here is not the place to discuss these things. You must meet with the one known as Quana."

"Where is Bixok Tama?" Zero asked.

"She is safe. Come with me to Oim Level and you shall meet with her as well."

"I do not believe you."

"A pity. You must come with me or die."

"Why can't we have this religious discussion here?" Matt asked. "God is everywhere. He can hear us no matter where we are. You're my friend, and among other friends. Certainly we have no need to go anywhere else to have a simple discussion on things of spiritual importance."

"It's a trap," Zero said. "He will not discuss anything with you."

"I concur," said Nabal. "Chaz, can you not speak without a puppeteer pulling your strings?"

Hanna growled.

"Here is not the place to have this discussion," Chaz repeated.

My wife waved at him, but he didn't respond. His eyes were vacant, cow-like in their dullness of expression.

Dista looked at him with worriment. Matt wasn't the only one who was close friends with him.

"Enough games," Demoize grumped. "Hand me a blaster. I'll remove his head."

Zero glared at him. "Not...yet."

"Not ever!" Matt added.

"Shoot him," Ayeni said.

"Ayeni!" Matt cried, appalled at the suggestion. He and Chaz have always been `besties.'

Zero, however, seemed to think this an excellent idea, for in the next instant, he blasted Chaz in the face with a load of Zimwi.

On reflex, we all donned our masks, if we had one.

Chaz staggered in reverse, eyes rolling back in his head as he let out a string of clucking, churring sounds, like some kind of frisky mutant squirrel.

The big bugs behaved similarly, too distracted by their own misbehaving bodies to threaten us.

"Let's go," I groaned as I watched the ex-monk writhing on the floor. "This isn't something I want to see."

"Oh I don't know..." Dista said with a smirk.

I rolled my eyes.

"Humor and titillation aside..." Zero discarded the Zimwi paraphernalia, now all used up and empty. "We must leave this place immediately." He reached into his qixip bag, loading the weapon with another illegal substance.

A moment after he said this, a female with a neon green speckled green face disappeared around the corner, one clad in a cape, a winged rubbery black top and an azkobzi. Her fur had the color and pattern of a snow leopard.

I pointed at her. "Hey! That's-"

"...His better half," Matt finished.

Bonbon. Chaz's wife.

Zero nodded to Dista. "Catch up with her. I need to command this group."

"Yes, bilo." And off she ran.

Zero led us down a passage with a ripped ceiling, dangling wires that sparked, threatening to start a fire, damaged ventilation pipes that blew steam at us.

A couple yards down through this dimly lit spooky corridor, Dista returned to our group, dragging Chaz's spouse along with her.

"Why did you run?" Zero asked.

"You blasted my husband in the face. That's why!"

"It's only Zimwi. He'll live."

Bonbon looked indignant. "You gave him drugs?"

"Would you prefer I kill him? He's possessed!"

"Yok," she whimpered. "I...I don't know what to think."

"Why didn't he possess you, you know, to make you like himself?"

I saw tears. "He's still in there somewhere."

The muadwomp growled.

"Calm yourself, Hanna," Nabal soothed, stroking his pet's fur. "Bonbon is a friend."

"Nerteg," Bonbon said, then nodded to Matt, addressing him in English. "Fayer Price."

Okay, so it was broken English. Matt had been trying to teach her to say `fair prince', since she insisted on an honorific. Big on formalities, that Bonbon.

Matt smiled. "Close enough."

"Bonbon, has Chaz injured you in any way?" my wife asked.

"Oh no. Never me. Himself, though, frequently. There must be something of his old self in there. I doubt that body possessing creature would have the same habit of flogging himself when it feels tempted to sin."

"Poor old Chaz," Matt muttered. "Still can't wrap his head around that `grace' concept."

"We move too slow," Demoize said. "Your queen has to be dead."

"Don't say that!" Matt cried.

Demoize only shrugged.

"He has a point," Zero said. "We waste time."

A lounge lay along one side of the passage. Zero led us in.

Our business Abreyas refreshed themselves with food and drink from dispensers, conversing a little too loudly about building plans, mergers and other trivialities, until Zero shushed them, indicating the entrance, which had no door, and easy access for anyone who chose to attack us.

Despite Nabal's protests, Hanna jumped onto Kusfexa's shoulder, snatching a bag of crispy puflub chips (baked Shoktar reproductive fluid) out of his hand. Nabal scolded his pet, but Hanna downed half the bag before he could stop it. The business Abreya didn't want it back.

Frankly, I wouldn't even touch those bags, but that's just me. They're as popular as Doritos around here.

Suddenly, Dista started crying.

"Pull yourself together!" Zero said. "There is a time for emotional release, but not now, when we still have a chance to save the queen."

Matt gave her a hug, which quieted her right away.

The two gazed into each other's eyes for a moment. I thought for sure Dista would pull something flirty, but she instead just rested her head on Matt's shoulder and held him.

Pillow offered to get me some Buvca, a caffeinated beverage that tastes like Starbucks Iced Coffee with a bunch of fruit and tapioca pudding in it, but my nerves were jittery as it was.

"I forgot that that doesn't relax humans." She pointed to another beverage, but I shook my head. "Not in the mood for alcohol, either. I need to keep my wits about me."

Ayeni, however, had purchased and cracked open a bottle of the caffeinated stuff. I hoped she wouldn't get drunk off her ass and drop off a ladder somewhere.

Demoize must have had a similar thought, for he stared at her, prompting the girl to offer him a sip. He shook his head no, looking disgusted.

Him. A teetotaler! Such self contradictory behavior!

The floor panel led into the `banana' part of the space station, sloping dangerously downward...or maybe upward depending on your perspective in space. It definitely combined my agoraphobia and acrophobia into one package.

All right, don't make fun. Sure I played around with my wife on the back of a Grunk, but that's a Grunk. We were crawling into this cavernous sloping metal thing, and it was horrid, like that shaft Luke Skywalker fell down in The Empire Strikes Back. If the gravity shifted and we got thrown off of whatever we gripped, we'd be dead.

Slick, apparently seamless chrome walls all around me. Even the ribbed areas and recesses had no place for gripping. A random ladder or a utility box stood out here and there, but that was it.

"That was kickarse, what you did with Chaz," Ayeni said to Zero.

She glanced at me questionably. "Did I say that right?"

I shrugged. "Yeah."

"I for one do not think it was kickarse at all," Bonbon said. "As necessary as it may have been."

"Kigo," Ayeni apologized.

Zero climbed down a ladder, waving us on with his tail.

I stared at Matt as he climbed after him, headfirst, if you can believe it.

"I heard you were afraid of heights."

"Me?" he laughed. "This is nothing compared to the shit I've been through."

Dista smiled as she watched him climb. "Do you want me to hold your tail?"

"This is no time for play," Zero said. "You need to tend to our business officials."

She sighed and pushed past me, watching the opening with her weapon drawn.

I responded to my fear with humor. "Looks like a super fun happy slide."

"More like that elevator shaft in Star Wars," my wife said.

"Don't remind me," I whimpered.

"I always thought that scene excited you. Your hands sweated."

"That was fear."

"Nala!" Pillow breathed. "That explains so much! The insight it gives me into your psyche! We both know that wasn't the only time it happened..."

I blushed. "Okay, so I'm not really a macho stud. I'm just a fraidy cat."

"I wouldn't say that, but you do find security in me." She paused. "And fear. Rejection perhaps?"

I nodded bashfully.

"Stop wasting time." Demoize said. "In our situation, fear is actually healthy."

"I never said it wasn't," Pillow giggled, giving me a kiss.

I frowned. "The problem is, I'm scared shitless."

My wife kissed me again. "Better?"

I looked down and shuddered. "That trick doesn't-"

She yanked me forcefully down the ladder.

Hanna, as afraid as I was, burrowed into Nabal's hood.

"How many drugs do you have left?" Nabal called down. "Our mutual friend may stir..."

"You mean recover," I said. "Chaz is stir crazy right now."

I heard Zero swearing. "I'm coming back up. Dista, you take my place."

The ladder was narrow, but we had just enough space to let him through, so they switched places.

A moment later, a sudden shriek echoed through the chamber.

I looked up in time to see a pair of black claws dragging one of the twenty year olds through the hole we'd just left. He screamed like he were being dismembered or eaten.

"I thought the drug was going to hold them off!" I cried.

"It's not the same species of body possessor," Pillow said. "We know next to nothing about their physiology or how they react to substances."

"His dosage did seem to be a little weak," Ayeni agreed.

"And how would you know?" Pillow and I said at once.

"I watched a program. They caught someone using it as an aerosol. That didn't work, either."

Zero pulled out his blaster, firing off a couple shots.

Pillow shoved me into the ladder rungs just seconds before a large black body went hurtling past me, disappearing into the lower depths of the shaft.

Despite that momentary victory, I heard more screams, Owl Face and Kusfexa disappearing from the chamber.

And then I see Zero's blaster flying through the air, just a little too far out of reach for any of us to grab it.

One by one, Zero shoved the remaining kid, the female blue face, Lion King and Fat Cat down the the shaft, ordering them to hold their breath.

And then disaster really struck.

As a huge bug descended, Zero aimed his homemade weapon, pulling the trigger, but then its seals burst open, surrounding him in a cloud of brown-orange gas.

Like us below, Zero had his mask on, but in between the exploded pieces of the weapon and the flaws in the mask's design (it wasn't made for heavy duty gas grenades and such), something must have seeped in, for our defender broke into a giggling fit.

Soocjop. `Dream sand.' Not such a good thing to inhale while standing at the top of a deadly sloping shaft.

In the grips of the drug, Zero giggled, grabbing hold of the bug thing's neck.

For some reason, he found it oh-so-hilarious to hurl himself and the monster over the edge.

The bug thing opened its mouth, drilling some sort of black spear through our warrior's forehead, ending his life.

The big insect then erupted into purring giggles as it dropped into the depths of the station.

"Zero! No!" I screamed, but it was no use. He was gone.

The blue female, also under the power of the gas, found herself unable to hold it together as she witnessed this. She laughed so hard that she stumbled off the edge.

The remaining three business officials, although suffering from similar giggling fits, still seemed to have enough sense to press themselves against the metal and wait out the effects of the drug, the cat faced one even sensible enough to make an effort to climb to us.

It was a long, sorrowful climb down to Oim Level, and when we got there, I briefly wondered how the hell would we get out, as Zero had all the tools.

We faced a security door with a complicated looking lock.

"I don't get it," I said as I scowled at it. 'Why would you lock it from the outside? You'd think a better safety precaution would be to keep it easy in case something happens to the maintenance

guy."

"It's a safeguard against depressurization. Here." Ayeni placed her communicator against the door lock, pushing buttons.

Not on the lock, of course, but on the communicator, as it had some kind of hacking program built in.

A secondary panel popped open, revealing a lever, which she yanked outwards. A moment later, we were stepping through the opened hatch, into The Ring.

The Ring reminded me a little more strongly of those big plastic tubes they have at McDonald's Playlands and kids' fitness clubs. A long cylindrical corridor in a bright orange color, though not as obvious in its modular design (you couldn't even see the seams - aliens are good at that). Also, unlike those play tubes, these tunnels were immense enough that you didn't need to crawl, and there were shops and restaurants across the corridor from us. A fountain enclosed in a transparent tube recirculated water in a picturesque spray, there were even a couple of small tree-like plants in mounted floor planters to provide much needed oxygen.

"I'm not as stupid as you think I am," a voice called.

When I saw who it was, a cold chill ran down my back.

Norenio, Tanelle, and their army of toothy white imps. "I knew you'd come down here. It was simple logic...Where's Zero?"

I told her the bad news.

"Pity," she sighed. "He was the true object of my fury. If anyone deserves punishment for acting out against the Aqsarki, it was him."

"Punishment? For what? It sounded like you were...enjoying yourself."

She only scowled. No sense of humor. "He attacked us."

"He's suffered enough," I said.

"Suffering wasn't the whole agenda. I also wanted him to join us."

Quite unexpectedly, she burst into tears.

Alone.

As in, by herself, and not with a chorus. "Zero..."

"Norenio!" I cried. "You're acting independently! Have you found a way to free yourself from that thing?"

"What are you talking about!" Norenio snapped. "You ripped me away from the only thing that gave my life meaning!"

"And what was Zero?"

"Zero..." she sobbed. "Why did you have to die? You could have been part of us..." And then, it was like a completely different personality had taken over. "You did this! You got me high! You separated me from the Aqsarki!"

"You're welcome." I was pleased that narcotics finally did something positive, instead of just the usual internal organ damage.

"You introduced illegal drugs into the Aqsarki!"

The toothy white things and Tanelle snarled in anger.

"Look," I said. "We didn't shoot you. We didn't cause you pain...it could have been worse."

"You violated me. You introduced an impurity into the group mind!"

I liked how she was saying `me' instead of `us.' "But you're still okay."

Her larval companions froze, as if in thought. Tanelle furrowed her brow.

"Where is that device now?"

"It's gone. It's just as well. I hear Zimwi is addictive."

"You weakened the connections between our minds," Norenio said. "I felt individuality. I wanted things for myself."

"So you know what it feels like to lose it."

"No, I know what it's like to have it."

"Is that a bad thing?"

Norenio frowned, not responding to the question. "You gave me drugs. Drugs can damage my host body!"

Her entourage nodded in agreement.

"Maybe. Would you have preferred us setting you on fire?"

"No. It's just...I've never had a Jikurno before. I mean, the Aqsarki hasn't."

"I'm sorry. It must be traumatic for you, having all those sexual pleasure centers going off at once."

"How am I supposed to respond to this? I feel violated! I feel wronged!...But yet not."

"A simple thank you would suffice."

"I feel...as if...I am the wronged party, yet have wronged myself, and enjoyed it. There is guilt, yet enjoyment."

Tanelle seemed to be thinking the same things as she stared at us.

"That experience sounds familiar," I said.

"What do I do?"

"Do what comes naturally," Ayeni suggested.

Before I knew what was happening, Norenio pulls me close and French kisses me (well, technically Abreya kisses, since her tongue split into four parts and roved all over the inside of my mouth.)

Tanelle looked envious. I think the larvae didn't know what to do. Ayeni was giggling.

"Express your gratitude to someone else!" my wife shouted, shoving Norenio away from me.

"Wow," I stammered.

Pillow slapped Norenio across the face.

Norenio, flushed with anger, and hormones, swung at my wife, but I moved her aside.

Pillow came in with an attack of her own, but I shoved Norenio away, getting punched for my troubles.

Norenio froze, just staring at me. I saw something like admiration on her face. "You did that for me?"

I fumbled awkwardly for a response. "Well..."

She pulled me in for another kiss.

I pushed her away. "I'm sorry. She's right. You need to find someone else to kiss."

"I'd be delighted," said Lion King Guy.

"I'm sorry," she said. "Who are you?"

"I am Dafnure."

"A pleasure to meet you." She planted her lips on the male's and made out with him for a whole minute.

Ayeni stared at them, then suppressed a laugh, tiptoeing away.

She didn't get far. A yard away from the two, the larvae closed in around her, coming nearer and nearer the further she went, growling and bearing their teeth.

Tanelle hissed something to them in their tongue, but they only stopped threatening Ayeni when she retreated back to our group.

The twenty year old and Fat Cat crept back inside the maintenance hatch, out of fear.

Bonbon gave the kissing couple a nervous glance, but made no move.

"Squawk! What in Beptot is going on around here!"

I looked away and found myself staring into the face of a one eyed bird.

My alien ladybug friend came waddling up to us. "I was about to ask that myself!"

"Thonwa!" I said. "Thank Ponai you're safe!...Have you seen anybody else? The king and queen perhaps?"

Thonwa shook her head sadly. "I found Bixok Tama and Ladnar Ginegna, all right, but you're not going to like what you find."

She gawked at Norenio. "Wait. Isn't she...?"

Nabal waved his tail, away from the two lovebirds, hinting that they should leave while the going was good, but the larvae growled at us, blocking our passage. Hanna growled back, but that accomplished nothing.

"Oh dear," Thonwa said. "What are we going to do now?"

"Die, I believe," Demoize said. "Unless our acquaintance stops kissing long enough to let us leave."

Norenio didn't respond to this. She was too busy undoing the zipper on the back of Dafnure's outfit.

"Ahem!" Matt said.

And then, when another ahem didn't get her attention, he tapped her on the shoulder, yanked her tail.

Norenio pulled away, semi-breathless.

"Look," said Matt. "What you do with your body is between you, God and him, but could you at least do us the courtesy of letting us go?"

"We don't mind so much what you're doing," Pillow agreed. "I mean, we believe marriage should precede sex, but Ponai gives us free will, and we're not going to impose on you. We would just like to leave, if that's not too big a favor to ask."

"Yeah," I said. "There's an earth expression I'd like to familiarize you with. `Get a room.'"

Norenio stared at us, then at the male, who only shrugged.

"You can do anything you want," Dafnure said to her. "Just don't kill us."

"Why would I want to kill you? I love you!"

"We just met. I'm not sure...wait. That's good enough for me!"

"What about us?" I asked.

"I also love you," she said to me. "Not so much your wife..."

"We really need to check on the royal family and the others, and make sure everyone is okay. And we don't want your...friends to kill us while we're doing that...so..."

Norenio grabbed Dafnure's hand. "Lead the way."

"Okay," I stammered. "This is weird."

"This is good," Dista said. "Thonwa, show us what you found."

"We took the roundabout method to reach you," the ladybug thing said. "Out of fear of attack. Queen Tama is in Bid Dock."

As she started off in the direction she had come from, Norenio said, "Why don't you go the other way? It's shorter."

"It's dangerous," Thonwa argued.

"The Aqsarki still has some power over this station. They, I mean, we, can see where their Gubkoya hosts are lurking."

"The what?" Demoize said.

"The big bugs that tried to kill us."

"Sorry, I don't trust you," Thonwa said.

Norenio shook her head. "Individual wills can be so frustrating."

The larva blocked Thonwa's passage. The Grunk raised a foot to stomp them, but Thonwa told her no. "There's too many of them. Let's do what Norenio says, Kuqloz."

The bird nodded. "Kuqloz no like this. Kuqloz scared."

"I know." She rubbed our feathered friend's head. "Me too."

And so, against our better judgment, we ended up traveling the short route, through a long corridor strewn with bodies, half devoured or cocooned, depending on what the Gubkoya felt like doing. The shops and restaurants, once inviting and quaint, now had a gloomy silent quality to them that made us all want to quit the place and keep moving.

One of those Gubkoya things came down from the ceiling and growled at us, but Norenio spoke to it in gurgling hisses and it left us.

We arrived at the entrance of a docking bay. A pair of dismembered corpses lay on the ground nearby. Robed monks, one with black hair, one with red.

When Matt saw them, he moaned and rubbed his face. "No!"

"You know these two?"

"I...I married them," he sobbed. "I meant, I presided over their wedding. Gave them a good Christian ceremony."

"They are still married to Christ," Pillow said.

I sighed. "C'mon. Let's find the king and queen."

The docking port appeared to have been damaged in a conflict. Weapons had been used. Nothing that pierced the hull, apparently, but enough to really screw up the works.

The lights flickered on and off at random times, the orb didn't rotate like it was supposed to, so dead bodies and globs of green and purple blood drifted through the air.

Our Grunk's good eye bugged out in horror. She balked at the entrance.

"C'mon, Kuqloz," I said. "I want out of this place as much as you do, but we gotta do some things before we can leave."

"Kuqloz no like."

"I know."

Due to microgravity, we climbed ladders instead of walking. The Grunk's claws clamped on them like a perch, making the traveling somewhat easy for her. Also, birds are used to using air currents to fly, so she got used to it quicker than we did.

My Abreya companions, likewise had a simple time walking horizontally across the rungs, on account of there being opposable thumbs on their feet, and shoes that allowed full articulation of them. That and the handy tail grips on the bars.

Me, I had to kinda crawl until Pillow started dragging my floating ass through the air like I were a balloon.

We found the king and queen in one of the empty parking pods. A massive female with a bob hairdo, black fur and Samoan facial features (she had an underbite rather than an overbite, curiously enough) and a sun cracked little guy with rodent teeth. As her husband, the man must have had considerable upper body strength.

Still together, even in this horrible predicament. Their nennop may have been too good.

"Mom?" Ayeni whimpered.

The two were breathing, but dully unaware of their surroundings, like those civic officials on Wuxrinus. Hanna hissed and hid within Nabal's robe.

"I am unsurprised," Demoize said. "This was a wasted trip."

Ayeni started crying.

"I've had just about enough of you!" Matt snapped at Demoize. "You were rude to me at the school, and now you do nothing but get impatient and complain!"

"I haven't begun to tell you what I think of you!"

Matt let it pass. He gave Norenio a pleading look, his voice tightening with emotion. "Is there nothing we can do about this?"

Norenio shook her head. "They're incubating larvae. Judging by the physical signs, the eggs have already worked their way into their internal organs."

Matt was crying now. "You're saying this can't be reversed."

"Can you reverse pregnant?"

My earth friend grabbed a nearby railing, sobbing uncontrollably. Tears floated through the air like pearls

Pillow hugged him. "I'm sorry."

"It's not just them, it's my wife! It's Chaz! Everyone!"

Dista took his free hand. "It is okay to cry. I am sad too." She puppy dog whimpered as she stared at the cocoons.

"Wait." Norenio ran her finger down Ladnar Falcameer's cocoon. "This one is incomplete. I sense no egg inside him."

She slapped the king on the face, and a look of terror crossed his features. "Get me out of here!" he hissed.

She clapped her hands, and the larva took apart the cocoon in a matter of seconds.

"Ladnar Falcameer!" Matt cried. "Where is Jidparc and John?"

"Safe," he groaned. "I secreted them away with a trusted servant during the attack."

Matt cast a nervous glance at the royal ship. "My egg!"

Supica 2 was a large egg shaped vehicle with a hull textured like a hedge apple. Its wings were long and scimitar like, but devoid of any visible means of propulsion. Also noteworthy was the apparent lack of windows.

Parts of the hull were like two way mirrors, when you weren't relying on monitors for visual information. A single piece of what looked like glittering mica provided the pilots with an analog view of the outside world. The hull constantly changed color from red to green to yellow and back again.

Matt hurriedly clambered across the ladders and railings to the parking pod it stood inside, pressing the intercom button near the main entry hatch. "Knocky! Are you there?"

No answer.

"Knocknaser?"

With a frustrated sigh, Matt unlocked and opened the hatch. We climbed up the craft's boarding ramp.

Overall, it was a cozy setup inside. A walk in kitchen, a living room area with couches like swollen lips, a chrome table reminding me of a Man Of War jellyfish, and moving glowing lamps that had the appearance of anemone.

Matt darted from room to room, checking for his nennop, but we were alone. "Wonder where he went."

"Based on observation," Demoize said. "To his eternal abode. I reserve judgment on which particular abode it is."

Matt frowned, but said nothing.

"We've got to end this," said Dista. "The thing possessing Quana must be stopped!"

"You're right. But this strike needs to be carefully calculated. There are some with us that will be a liability in battle." Nabal glanced uncomfortably at the king. "My apologies, Ladnar. Although I would never consider you a liability, you are much too important to be put in such danger."

"Understood," Mr. Falcameer answered.

"You're right," Matt said. "Obviously, Norenio and her...people need to come, but..." He pointed to Fat Cat. "You, ma'am, I think you need to hide someplace safe."

"I should be offended at the sexism. But you are correct."

"The same goes for you," Matt said, indicating the kid.

No disagreement there.

When Matt gestured at Dafnure, Norenio grabbed his tail possessively. "He's with me."

"And what about Tanelle? Is she still part of your hive mind?"

"I'm not afraid," said the little girl.

"I'm going," Ayeni said.

"No you're not. You're the only..." Matt swallowed a sob.

"Falcameer heir. I know. But I don't trust your fighting skills."

Matt rubbed his face, giving the king a pleading look.

"I am your father," the king scolded. "You will remain with us in the safety of the Supica!"

Ayeni showed him her blaster. "I am armed, and I am in the company of Dista Tonber."

The king frowned, giving his ex-palace guard an uncomfortable sideways glance.

After a long pause, he sighed. "You will not leave her sight, even for a minute. Those large insects are dangerous!"

"Yes, father."

In a lower, kinder tone, Mr. Falcameer added, "I really wish you wouldn't. I worry for you. First my daughter, then my wife...there's not many of us Falcameers left."

"I'll be careful."

"I must come along," Bonbon said. "If there's any hope of saving my husband..."

Matt nodded. "I understand." He turned his attention to his alien father in law. "Have you seen John anywhere?"

"Knocknaser has him," said the king. "It would gladden my heart to see him alive and intact. You must hurry and find him!"

Matt crossed his arms. "Demoize..."

"Guep, nerteg of heresy?"

"As much as I dislike you, I don't want your death on my conscience. Stay here."

"With pleasure, you insufferable turbak."

I wanted to go, but Pillow pushed me back the moment I made a step toward the ramp. "Stay here."

"Pillow. You saw all the blood and bodies. This is a man's job."

My wife rolled her eyes. "David, I'm a doctor."

"Yeah...But I'm a man, and you're carrying my...you might be carrying my son."

"You can't even climb across a ladder without crawling."

"Oh yeah, rub it in," I groaned.

"I think your mate feels that his maleness is being called in to question," Thonwa said.

"That's silly," said Pillow. "I still find him sexy and utterly male."

"Your taking the role of his hero makes him feel emasculated, possibly that you will seek another male who can fulfill a stronger protector role. Am I correct in this assertion, Bilo Barnes?"

"Yeah," I admitted with some reluctance. "That's exactly it."

Pillow sighed. "It's not like that, David. In fact, by staying behind here, you still play a role as my hero. It will be your duty to guard these innocents and the ship while we're out, to ensure they stay alive, and we still have a means of escape."

She kissed me, then smiled at Thonwa. "Excellent session, nennop."

"How's your egg?" I asked Matt.

"Funny you should ask. The incubator hasn't been switched on, and no one's tending it. Would you do me a big favor?"

Pillow giggled. "My husband would be honored to warm your egg, wouldn't you?"

I reddened in embarrassment. "Pillow!"

"Consider it practice, for when we have one of our own."

My blush deepened. "All...right. Fine. I'll just...stay here and practice."

Matt burst out laughing, patting me on the back. "Thanks. I needed that."

As most of our group marched down the ramp, Thonwa stayed put.

"Someone should watch Kuqloz. She keeps getting into trouble."

"Kuqloz protect Food Girl," said the bird.

"Please don't," Pillow said. "You are too big. You will get me hurt here."

"How can Kuqloz hurt Food Girl? Kuqloz is big!"

Pillow put a soothing hand on the bird's head. "Kuqloz, I want you to accept my...mate as Food Boy, okay?"

"Wait," I protested. "What are you telling her? You're about to die and you're bequeathing ownership to me?"

My wife took both my hands, pressing her tail between them, a sign of earnest communication. "David, I don't intend to die, or want to. This is just insurance in case I don't make it. Think of it as our little rite of Remvuaf. I mean, I'd hate to leave you alone when there's this big beautiful female just longing for your affection!"

Kuqloz blew a raspberry in disgust. I know, they don't have lips, but she made the noise anyway.

"She's a handful," Thonwa said. "I should stay and help."

"Kigo," my wife said. "But we need you with us. My husband wouldn't be here right now if you hadn't stepped in and aided him. David can watch the bird."

Thonwa giggled. "You sure you don't want me to stay behind and protect him? And the egg?"

Pillow paused and thought for a moment, then addressed me. "Would such an arrangement be considered an affront to your masculinity, my Jedi Knight in shining armor?"

I frowned. "You're right. Wrangling a Grunkiahu is a two person job, isn't it Thonwa?"

I thought the criticism was rather stinging in a playful sort of way, but she was ready with a snappy comeback. "And your husband needs another session to repair his bruised psyche."

Pillow nodded approvingly, then gave me a parting kiss. "Be careful, my love."

"You too. Hua chikalat."

"I love you too."

Out of respectfulness, I guess, Bonbon had lagged behind, but she too wanted to join Nabal, Dista and the others.

"Bonbon," Matt said. "I hate to do this, but, well, I don't think anyone else here will be willing to, um, walk David through what he needs to do."

"Is my advice not good enough?" Thonwa asked.

"No offense, but this is something an Abreya needs to show him. And I don't think any of his charges will volunteer."

"I certainly wouldn't!" Fat Cat agreed.

"I promise we'll try our best to bring your husband back. He's my friend too."

Bonbon took a deep breath. "I go where the Lord can use me the most." But then she added, "Why do I keep getting in awkward situations with humans?"

"Hazard of the faith," Matt said with a grin.

And so I got left with babysitting detail.

I know. Most exciting part of the story and I'm not even in it. But that's how real life is.

Matt's egg was kept in its own bedroom on the craft, one specially prepared for egg hatching, the walls and ceiling covered in thick sticky padding, to ensure the egg wouldn't break or go anywhere during an accident. One area featured an incubator, a human baby sized one.

The floor of this place contained several donut shaped cushions, pads that you placed eggs inside.

Matt's egg sat in one of these donuts, a mottled green, brown and pink thing that made me think of something I'd seen in the caverns where those killer monsters had been lurking. Alien eggs.

Once the outer hatch to the ship had been shut, and locked with a new security access combination that only us passengers knew, I stood frozen in front of this egg, feeling like a bundle of confused emotions, incompetence, and social ineptitude. "What do I do?" I asked my insect nennop. "What do Abreyas do?"

Thonwa burst out in churring laughs. "Sorry. That reminded me of a joke. A Zeqsulox had just laid his first egg..."

"Just the instructions, please," I groaned.

"You're going to have to take your clothes off," Bonbon said.

I blushed. "Excuse me?"

"You may need to hold the infant once it hatches. The smell of its mother may keep it from crying. You also don't want to puncture the egg with fasteners or any otherwise abrasive pieces on your clothing."

"So I need the...slime on me."

"It is roonwub. You wouldn't call some of your fluids slime, would you?"

I smirked. "I don't know. I can get pretty gross." I paused, rethinking what I was doing. "Wait. How am I going to do that and watch everyone else?"

"I'll take care of it," Thonwa said. "The child needs a warm body, and you need practice."

"You should probably start right away," said Bonbon.

"I'm going to kill him," I muttered.

I glanced back at the entry hatch. "All right...could you guys clear out, then? This is kinda private."

Thonwa chuckled. "Your wife told me about your bashfulness. I hear it is a `human thing', but I believe this is an issue we can work on. Plus we can't very well coach you if we can't see you."

"What, you want me to disrobe here, in front of everyone?"

"This is technically an Abreya household. You do realize what that implies, don't you?"

"Yes," I said, red faced. "But it doesn't make as much sense to be clothing optional when you don't have a body covered in fur."

"No one's judging you. And if someone doesn't like what they see, they can always leave the room."

"This is for the baby." I unzipped my weghesh, stripped and approached the egg. "So what do I do, sit on it?"

"No," Bonbon giggled. "You wrap your legs around it and hold it. Here. I'll show you."

And then she strips off her clothes.

I'd be lying if I said she wasn't beautiful. I caught myself staring and looked away, only to be told to look, so I could see what she was doing.

The female seated herself on the cushion, wrapping her legs and tail around the egg, her breasts pressed against its top portion as she embraced it with her arms. She started crooning to it, some strange atonal song I'd never heard before.

After a minute of this, she straightened and said, "Now you."

The whole thing was uncomfortably sexual. Bonbon made it worse by pointing to my briefs and asking, "Is your wumloq supposed to be doing that?"

"Only with my wife," I answered.

She covered her mouth to suppress a giggle.

I frowned. "Is this going to be a joint egg warming, or what?"

Bonbon's face flushed green. "Kigo, bilo. I do not wish to induce impure thoughts." She stood up, gesturing to the pad with her tail.

"Sometimes it is a joint effort," Thonwa said. "Over time, when the parties adjust to the semi-nakedness and no longer view the incubation as something sexual..."

"It is very time consuming," Bonbon agreed. "Many use the time to catch up on their reading."

I settled around the egg like Bonbon showed me.

"I see you're not overly body conscious," Thonwa muttered. "That's good!"

"Oh no. Pillow cured me of that."

"Nice rejoinder about the wumloq. You were firm yet polite."

I shifted into a more comfortable position around the egg. "Please don't talk about things being firm."

She laughed.

I pretty much sat there, reading Odd Thomas and warming the egg until my legs fell asleep.

Demoize and Fat Cat glanced in the room from time to time, but then walked off in disgust. The kid, however, took a seat in the corner of the room, playing with his communicator. I'm not sure he approved of what I was doing, but he tolerated me for some reason.

Strangely enough, the thing that most embarrassed me was the Grunk peering in and watching me brood. She was actually smiling and giggling at me, her remaining eye wide in curiosity. "You make a good mate for Food Girl. Mate of Food Girl warm eggs that are not his own. Perhaps Mate of Food Girl warm Kuqloz eggs too?"

"Pillow did say you were my Remvuaf."

The bird actually shuddered.

Moment's later, the baby's shell cracked open.

Yeah. Great. Just my luck. The baby hatches on my watch, so I'm the one holding it with my naked chest all covered in slime, er, roonwub.

Okay, so it's not an it. It's a girl. Poor thing, I don't know how she's going to have kids when she grows up. Not quite human or alien. It makes me a bit worried about my own...if and when I have any.

She didn't have a full coat, either. It was like a bikini of naturally growing fur. Slimy fur, from whatever you call that stuff inside an Abreya's egg.

Anyway, the baby came out surprisingly quiet, no screaming and stuff, but she breathed, at least. Everything looked good and healthy.

Of course, I had to tell Matt. As Bonbon wiped the baby clean with the alien equivalent of hot wet towels, I called the prince on the communicator, telling him the news.

"Capamfe! That's wonderful!"

I held the baby to the screen and let him see. "Wait. What about you? Have you stopped Quana yet?"

He sighed. "Unfortunately, I have some bad news."

I frowned. "Who died?"

"Norenio and Dafnure, for starters. And worse..."

He turned the communicator around, showing me the giant bloated thing occupying the room with him. "Quana brought Zobaruc along."

"Good Lord,"I moaned. "Now what do we do?"

Matt's face appeared on the screen again. "I got an idea. Meet me at the maintenance area across from Dool Dock. Bring the baby."

I paled. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Positive. That baby means the world to us both. If there's anything left of Quana in there at all, we'll know."

And then he turned away from the screen, speaking to the possessed. "Quana...Our girl has finally hatched!"

The screen went dark.

Despite the comforting slime on my body, the baby began crying.

At first, I didn't know what to do, but then Mr. Falcameer took her from me and actually breastfed her!

He told me that he'd once done this with Quana, and Ayeni, and every once and awhile he'd still have to pump things out a little. I know, TMI, but the baby shut up. That's what's important.

I raised an eyebrow at Bonbon. "Hey, why can't you feed her?"

"I've never been with egg. At least, not yet. My husband and I have made attempts, but the time of egg has not yet arrived."

I caught her glancing at my briefs again.

She blushed. "I will get dressed."

Despite her putting her outfit back on, I couldn't easily get the image of her unclothed body out of my mind.

I put my weghesh back on, over the...roonwub, as I gathered my strongest, most dependable allies at the hatch, Thonwa, Kuqloz and Bonbon.

I cast Demoize a sideways glance as I whispered to the king. "You sure that guy won't steal the ship and leave without us?"

"The ship requires a specially coded palm scan in order to operate. Since I never pilot, nor do I want to, there's no chance of anyone leaving without us."

The moment I opened the ship and lowered the boarding ramp, I found Chaz and a pair of cracked and battered Gubkoya staring back at me.

The bug at Chaz's left whistled three notes.

From what I heard much, much later, while I'd been egg warming, Norenio faced down Quana in this chamber, her larvae against Quana's big monsters, each party inflicting a lot of pain on the other. Her new boyfriend died almost immediately.

The larvae Quana had hatched from Abreyas on the station outnumbered Norenio's Aqsarki possessed, and in between that and Quana, Norenio died in a couple minutes.

Whistler was missing an arm, but the bugs still looked deadly enough to rip us to shreds before we could attempt any sort of escape.

"Come with us," Chaz said. "You will take the infant to Zobaruc."

"No," I said. "I will take the infant to her mother."

"And I will accompany him," Bonbon said. "For I still believe I'm speaking to the husband I love. I know he's in there somewhere."

Chaz did not respond.

Mr. Falcameer closed up the ship, and we marched, or rather floated our way back to The Ring. The still unnamed baby cried, seeing all the blood and bodies, but I bounced and held her until she got quieter.

The tunnel across from Dool Dock contained offices of a political nature. General access, the boring stuff. The more restricted stuff lay upstairs. We therefore made it down its corridor without too many electronic barriers. All around us, though, we saw the dead and cocooned, several individuals in charge of security.

After passing a long row of these offices (rather bland gray things that all looked the same, closed doors, windows displaying conference tables, and such) we came to a set of doors marked `Station Systems/Life Support/Restricted Access Beyond This Point'.

The doors had been left wide open. Someone with the right security credentials had bypassed them, for an alarm would have sounded otherwise.

Beyond we saw a steel gray tunnel, pure function with no artistic form. Kuqloz balked at the entrance, but Thonwa calmed her down.

Upon entering, Chaz got in front of us, blocking our passage with the larvae.

"You may give us the baby now."

"No way," I said. "This baby goes to her parents, or she goes to me. That's non-negotiable."

"How about I just kill you and take the baby to her myself?"

"This isn't you, Chaz," Bonbon said. "Be the male I married. Please."

"Who hatched this female?" he asked her. "Was it you?"

Bonbon shrugged.

"Why does he hold her then?"

"He's human. He didn't know how to brood."

"You exposed your nakedness to him?"

"I was a guest in Matt's household."

Chaz took out a short whip and flogged himself. "Zobaruc! She is too strong!"

"Then go, my love," Bonbon said. "Distance yourself from this thing while you still can."

Chaz gave her one last apologetic glance, then fled from there. The larvae dispersed.

We continued on to a big round silo. A tall missile-like string energy generator provided power to the station. The plating of the station's hull provided supplemental solar, so the generator wasn't as powerful as some I'd seen in documentaries. Thick cables snaked off in all directions above our heads and below the catwalk, supplying power to every unit in the station, including the hydroponics wing, a giant algae filled tank I could observe through the super thick glass of a porthole.

Norenio lay dead on the floor with a blaster hole in her chest. Her larval companions looked like large exploded sausages, their acid blood melting holes in the metal flooring.

Zobaruc sat at the far end of this energy silo, oozing into an electrical transformer. My friends all hung cocooned along the walls.

The moment Kuqloz saw the monster, she squawked in fear, galloping out of the chamber, away from us.

"Kuqloz!" Thonwa cried.

"Leave her," I said. "We'll try to pick her up later."

"If there is a later."

Upon seeing all my friends, and Pillow in cocoons shouting for help, I regretted watching all those Elm Street movies. Associating the scene with mental images of dead souls trapped in a dream killer's body was not something I wanted to do at this particular moment.

Tanelle, also cocooned, was the only one not screaming.

Matt's sheep faced nennop, although also not yelling like the others, wasn't a zombie. I could see him pleading with his eyes.

I ran to my wife as fast as a baby laden man can run. "Pillow! Are you okay?"

"I'm...fine. They haven't laid eggs in any of us yet. Shali fled in a ship a little before Zobaruc came onboard. She took a number of survivors with her."

The trusted servant the king mentioned, I thought.

I kissed her. It tasted strange because of the sticky membrane the monsters had oozed over her face. "I'll get you out of here. I promise."

"You shouldn't promise things you don't know you can keep."

I placed a hand on her cocoon. "C'mon, baby. You know how I like to be the hero."

"And what am I exactly?" Matt was the only one who hadn't been cocooned, for obvious reasons.

As we entered, I had seen Quana standing over a control console, pushing buttons, but now her attention centered solely on the infant. "Give her to me."

Quana was missing part of her tail, a chunk of her mousey ear, lots of hair, and now had a jagged bloody cut running across her face.

"No," I said.

Her face flushed green in rage. "Dammit, that's my baby! Hand it over now!"

"It's a she, Quana."

The bug things, big ones and the larvae growled threateningly, closing me in on all sides, but I only pressed the child closer to my chest.

Thonwa picked up a blaster that had been left on the floor.

"You won't be able to fire it," Quana said. "We removed the things that make them fire."

My nennop pulled the trigger, then threw the weapon down when nothing happened.

"David," Quana said. "My baby. Now."

"Say please."

"Please."

"Say pretty please with sugar on top."

Quana was livid. "Give me my baby!"

"What's the baby's name?" I challenged.

"It doesn't matter. I want my baby!"

The infant girl started crying.

"See what you're doing?" I said. "You're getting her all upset."

"She'll stop being upset when you had her to me."

"I don't think so. Not until I see the Quana that originally produced this child."

"What do you want me to do?" the princess whimpered.

"For starters, I want you to name this baby."

"Her name is Zobaruc-na."

"No. That isn't what her real mother would name her. The real Quana would come up with a good Christian name for her, wouldn't she?"

Tears streamed down Quana's cheeks.

"There she is," I said. "I think I see the real Quana now. Why don't you talk this over with your husband?"

The expression on my own wife's face was priceless. Try as I might, I've never quite been able to recreate that expression of breathless swooning again. I couldn't blame it all on the cocoon, either. I was her hero, if only for a moment.

"He's right, dear," Thonwa said. "You have to fight this. This is a nennop talking."

"You're not Nevixtah," Quana said, indicating that my nennop is not legitimate, not certified.

"I know. But I understand your relationship, possibly better than you do."

"You're trying to trick me!"

"It's working, isn't it?"

"Then listen to what I say then!" Knocknaser called from his cocoon. Matt always said his hearing was excellent. It couldn't be truer over the noise of the machinery. "I've observed your struggle, Quana! The person you once were still remains in there. You must fight against Zobaruc's power!"

Matt smiled at Quana. "I know this is a little strange, but I thought Miranda would be a good name. It's not actually in the bible, but it means `wonderful' in Latin."

"The Tempest," she chuckled. "And you make fun of my choices."

"Then what do you suggest?"

After thinking about it for a moment, Quana said, "Zobaruc." The princess hit herself in the head. "I'm sorry. It's fighting for control. Call her Mary. Or Ruth."

"I like Ruth," Matt said. "That was my aunt's name."

Quana turned her attention to me, her expression desperate. "I know what you're doing, and I respect you for it, but please..." She held out her arms, beseeching me.

I frowned, handed the baby to Matt.

The princess trembled as her husband approached her with the child.

She reached for the baby like it were made of hot coals that could burn her.

I cringed as Quana scooped the baby out of Matt's hands. I clenched my fists out of reflex.

For a moment, the princess cradled the child, rocking her back and forth, but then something evil flashed across her face, and she rushed toward the giant oozing thing with the baby. "There is an infant Zogmardu within Zobaruc! I will pass it into her at once! She will be the perfect unification of our two species! She will not be able to resist the power. Zobaruc will grow into her, and she into Zobaruc!"

A small, eel-like growth emerged from the giant monster's mouth, reaching for the child. The baby screamed and would not calm down.

"Quana!" Matt shouted. "Don't do this!"

"You're stronger than this!" Knocknaser shouted from his cocoon. "Remember your faith! When you are weakest, Ponai is the strongest!"

His wife stopped what she was doing, but didn't move away from the blob.

Matt stepped in closer, preparing to grab the baby from her. "Miranda, Ruth, is the most unique baby in the universe."

"Zobaruc will make her doubly unique."

"No. Uniqueness isn't Zoby's bag."

Quana smirked a little. "You earthlings and your ridiculous slang terms." Her expression darkened. "Take her, Matt. Take her now."

Startled, her husband snatched Ruth out of her clutches.

The infant kept crying and crying, despite his best efforts to calm her.

Matt passed the baby to me, and I calmed the child.

"Looks like you're her godfather now."

Quana's emotions seemed conflicted. She looked at me with what appeared to be both admiration and contempt.

Nabal suddenly climbed out of his cocoon. If there was one thing a muadwomp was good at, Matt had told me, it was chewing through tough materials imprisoning one's body.

The prince immediately snatched up a laser cutter, helping Dista out of her cocoon, his muadwomp and Bonbon aiding his efforts.

Quana tensed up, but made no move to stop him.

Nabal released Knocknaser. Black cocoon material clung to the nennop's blue and gold weghesh and gray squirrel colored pelt.

One by one, Nabal freed all the captives. The monsters and their larvae growled threats in their gurgling language, but didn't attack.

Although her entire body seemed to resist her speech, Quana forced herself to say, "Take the baby and leave while you still can."

"Go, Knocknaser," Matt said to his nennop. "Get everyone out of here. We'll catch up."

"I fear you may be changing that from a plural to a singular."

"Not if I can help it."

Quana rushed to the keypad, pushing buttons.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Zobaruc has been sending out messages abut rich minerals and business ventures that will draw Abreyas here in droves. She's going to join with me, then put the excess in as many other bodies as she can acquire. My body will burst just like hers."

"And the electricity?"

"It's the only thing keeping her shell intact."

"Shut it off, then!"

"I can't! It could cause a catastrophic meltdown!"

Her body went rigid. "Go. Now."

Pillow tugged on my arm. "She's right. We shouldn't stay."

"I'll leave as soon as Ruth's father leaves." I nodded to the exit. "Go. I'll be along soon."

Pillow placed a hand on my chest, gazing into my eyes. She seemed to be awed. "Don't ever doubt your masculinity again."

She left the silo.

"Dear," Thonwa said to me. "You've impressed her. You've shown yourself to be a hero. You really should go now."

"Being a hero doesn't matter right now. What matters is being a friend to Matt, and keeping Ruth's parents alive. Go. Watch my wife."

The alien ladybug gawked at me. "Is this the same male I rescued on Wuxrinus?"

The sirens blared. "It won't be if we don't get out of here soon."

She gave me a nod, hurriedly waddling off.

Bonbon lingered with me, but I waved her away as well.

"I can't go," Matt said to me. "My wife is still here."

"I know. It's a problem."

I tried to get Tanelle to move, but she didn't go anywhere until I dragged her by the tail, then passed her tail to Nabal to keep her moving. It seemed her connection to the Aqsarki had weakened so far that she had become sort of a vegetable. She only spoke to me once, to ask for more zimwi.

I heard warning sirens going off. Green lights flashed danger. You'd think they would have been red, but to Abreyas, green means stop and danger. A male voice warned us of an impending reactor meltdown.

"David! C'mon!" Pillow kept shouting from the hallway.

"Not without Matt!" I said.

Quana's hands trembled at the keypad. "Dista. Help me. It's too powerful."

Dista pulled her away from the controls. "What are you doing! This will obliterate the station!"

In a complete reversal of her previous personality, Quana shouted, "No! Zobaruc must live!" She rushed back to the keypad, trying to reverse the button sequence.

Dista shoved her away, but the princess punched her in the face. "That's for trying to steal my husband from me!"

"And you made me your Remvuaf!" Dista knocked her to the floor with a tail sweep.

Quana picked up a pipe, brandishing it threateningly. "So you're killing me to step over my dead body and steal my male? Is that it?"

"No, I'm incapacitating you, so you can destroy Zobaruc like the good part of you wants to do!"

Quana swung the pipe. "You'll have to kill me first!"

"We'll both die if we don't get off this station now!"

"Zobaruc has priority! If she doesn't leave, I don't, and nobody else will either!"

"Then you will die with Zobaruc!"

Dista caught Quana around the leg with her tail, using a martial arts move to slam the princess into a wall.

Quana raised the pipe, knocking Dista unconscious.

She rushed to the panel, but by then it was too late. She could no longer stop the meltdown from happening.

"No!" she shrieked, banging the panel with her fists. "It's not fair! It's not fair!"

Quana turned to face me, looking longingly at the baby. She cried.

The green lights kept flashing, making me feel like I were on a game show instead of in danger. The voice kept giving its dire warnings.

"It's over, Quana," Matt said. "It has to end here."

"It doesn't have to. Join Zobaruc, Matt. Please."

"You know I can't do that."

She looked crestfallen. "Go," she blurted. "The meltdown will take care of Zobaruc."

Matt became hopeful. "What?"

"You should go. I've done all I can. Ruth needs a father."

Matt sighed. "You can come with me."

She shook her head. "You know I can't. I'm a part of it now."

"We can try to save you. It doesn't have to play out this way."

"There's not much left of me, Matt. I'm fighting to keep even this part of me talking to you. Our baby will never be safe."

Matt's tail fell limp. "I can't let you go! I can't!"

"You must, Matt. It's the only way to end this once and for all."

Matt pulled her into his arms, pressing his lips to hers.

"Don't. It'll take you too." She pushed him away. "Please. Don't stay here a minute longer. There isn't much time left before meltdown."

She grabbed Matt's hand, pressing her palm to it as she made the Spock salute, roughly the way it was done at the end of Wrath of Khan.

"Quana," Matt said in a nervous laugh. "What?"

"You have, and always will be, my friend."

Matt smirked. "I love you."

Nabal grabbed me by the weghesh, dragging me out of the silo.

By then, just about everyone had cleared out and made it to the ship. Only Nabal and I remained in the gray corridor, and Matt with Quana.

I gave Nabal a questioning look.

"There's no time to argue with him! We need to go now!"

We ran. Kinda awkward with a baby, but I did it.

"Wait for us!" Matt called out.

I glanced back and saw the earthling half leading, half carrying Quana's bosom friend Dista, who still reeled from the effects from the blow to the head.

But then he changed his mind. "Actually, the station's going to blow. Don't wait up, keep going!"

Every second counted, and with Ruth in my arms, I felt like I were a runner in a fat camp triathlon. Still, we neared the end of the government corridor in good time, I mean, we were still alive, right?

We screeched to a sudden halt when he saw what lay at the threshold to The Ring.

Chaz and two big drooling Gubkoya. blocked our passage.

Nabal drew his blaster. "Get out of our way, Chaz. This place is about to detonate."

Chaz crossed his arms. "Give Zobaruc your ship and the kid, and I'll think about it."

"Yok." Nabal raised the weapon and pulled the trigger, but nothing happened.

"Did you forget that we destroyed the firing mechanisms of those toys?" Chaz mocked.

And then we got surrounded by larva.

"Take me onboard the ship," Chaz insisted.

A huge feathery body stomped the ex-monk into the floor with a mighty squawk. Her reptilian tail whipped out, knocking aside one of the Gubkoya. "Kuqloz save Food Boy and Food Girl's friend! You go now!"

"But Kuqloz!" I cried. "What about you?"

"Kuqloz know that Food Boy need Kuqloz to save him. Kuqloz distract. You go!"

"But you'll die!"

"Kuqloz know," the bird sighed. "Food Girl believe in Chisda heaven for souls. Kuqloz believe too! Kuqloz will wait in Chisda for Food Girl and Food Boy!"

She stomped several of the little monsters, clawed at a big one, getting splashed all over with acidic blood.

"I love you, Kuqloz," I called as Nabal and I ran away. "See you in Chisda."

"Kuqloz hope not for a long time!"

Pillow awaited me at the docking port. "David! Praise God!"

She kissed me on the mouth, but understood we had no time, so quickly dragged me ahead.

The ship hovered in the center of the port with its hatch open, boarding ramp already lowered. It seemed someone had unlocked the security devices. We rushed in as quickly as we could, hurrying into the control room.

The ship was an enormous bubble, its walls one continuous monitor, broken only by the polygon corresponding to the `mica' I'd seen from the outside. The chairs were the usual Abreya pilot seats, track balls on the arm rests, tail yokes for acceleration, computer panels on attached stands for additional control.

Pillow pressed her forehead to mine, gazing into my eyes. She opened her mouth to say something, but I guess she was at a loss for words, so she just kissed me longer this time.

"It seems we'll be joining Kuqloz sooner than anticipated," said our pilot.

The disturbing comment caused me and my wife to pull apart.

Apparently we couldn't leave. We stared in apprehension at the closed gate leading to our collective freedom.

"Now what?"

Ayeni pressed her communicator to a computer, fingers flying at the buttons.

For a few breathless seconds, we watched the gate do nothing, listening to the PA system giving what could only be the final meltdown alert.

At last the gates groaned open, wider, wider, until it looked like we had enough space to get out.

Nabal's tail pressed the tail yoke back, and sudden G-forces pressed us all into our seats. The vehicles in the garage whipped past.

His tail moved back, further and further, the garage becoming one indistinguishable blur of color.

I heard a loud crack, one that resonated throughout the ship and shook everything so hard that our teeth rattled.

"What was that!" Demoize shouted.

"Oh?" Nabal muttered. "Just the ends of the wings breaking off."

Matt's college associate started uttering prayers.

A brilliant flash filled the room, a powerful sun-like illumination that reduced all monitor views in the aft direction to a blank white. An earthquake-like rumble traveled through our vehicle, playing our bodies like a tuning fork.

By the protective tail of Ponai (or the hand of God) we safely escaped the blast radius, zooming past the red-gold planet of Oltosma. Nabal slowed us down, and we stared ahead in numb silence, silently grieving for all we'd lost.

In the back of the control room, on one of the swollen couches, Matt and Dista held each other and cried.

Knocknaser sniffed and said, "Very good. If you don't release the emotion now, it will be more difficult..."

Instead of finishing his speech, he burst into tears.

Thonwa hugged him the best way an insect thing can, which he appeared to appreciate.

We all had something to cry about. Pillow had lost most her family, and her favorite Grunkiahu, Bonbon her husband, the king had lost his wife and daughter, Ayeni her older sister, and I and Nabal had lost beloved friends.

Even Demoize didn't look particularly happy. He and our other two surviving business Abreyas excused themselves to the living room, to grieve their own people, or maybe, lacking that, their things.

Although Tanelle looked unphased by all of this at first, I could see her catatonic demeanor developing cracks. Tears rolled down her face as she whimpered like a puppy and climbed into Pillow's arms. She might have climbed into mine, but I was holding Ruth.

Nabal absently stroked his pet as he held it to his chest, perhaps unconsciously envious of the baby.

We stopped the ship and, in the control room, had an informal memorial service for all the departed, comforting each other the best we could, praying for each other in this time of loss.

We summoned the Tevqoro, a government agency that handles national and space disasters of this type, then flew down to the nearby planet of Qoblezz, where we hoped the small but lively city of Isorgob would be able to take us in and provide for our passengers and crew until Tevqoro arrived.

So far it's been a week. Two more months and Tevqoro will arrive to inspect the wreckage and speak to us about the incident in person. Everyone is in good health, and although we will never forget the Abreyas we've lost, we have sufficiently grieved and begun the first steps of moving on.

Some say those first steps are the hardest.

END OF FILE