Total pages in book: 46
Estimated words: 43339 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 217(@200wpm)___ 173(@250wpm)___ 144(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 43339 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 217(@200wpm)___ 173(@250wpm)___ 144(@300wpm)
I do not know from whence it comes, or if it will survive the rigors of my world, or me. What I do know, is that I am coming to truly enjoy this human in so many ways. She is smart, but she is stubborn to the extent that sometimes she behaves stupidly. She is brave, but she believes this darkness in her to be weakness.
I think it is something else, but I am alien to her and I know better than to project my own experience onto another species. When she cries, I want to tear whatever makes her sad into pieces and destroy it — but this time it is something inside her. Something I cannot fight. Something only she can do battle with.
“Are you sad now?”
She looks at me with concern, and I am momentarily overwhelmed by her capacity for care. She is caught in her own pain, but she is also afraid that it will infect me somehow.
“I am not sad,” I tell her. “I am here to defend you against all ill.”
Ariel
“We are almost at the space station. You will be able to obtain more suitable food there.”
This is supposed to be good news, but I don’t know if it is. If I don’t need to feed from him anymore, will he let me… want me?
“Come and look,” he says, leading me to the bridge, where a massive wall to wall window opens up into the depths of space. There are multiple crew members there. I feel slightly shy around them still, because I know I am the weird one out.
“King Brawn…” The captain greets him as soon as we step onto the bridge.
“Wow, look how pretty!” I am staring at what looks like the universe’s biggest glitter display, rainbow dust spreading throughout the darkness. It looks fucking awesome.
“The space station has been detonated.”
The captain says the words to Brawn behind me and I barely notice them until they sink in a bunch of conversation later. I don’t know what’s going on with me. I used to be so sharp, so anxious. I’m not anymore. I just look at the very pretty things and leave the worrying to Brawn, until the meaning sinks in, and I can’t ignore it anymore.
“Sorry, what?”
“That dust you are looking at was the space station we were supposed to be going to.”
“That dust?” I point at the rainbow display.
“Yes. That dust.”
“What the hell happened?”
“War happened. Life happened. The universe happened.” He sighs and unzips his pants. “I’m sorry. You will have to feed from me.”
I’ve never been so happy that a space station has been destroyed before. Then I feel bad about the fact I’m somewhat celebrating the destruction of god knows how many souls.
“I’m, uhm, thank you, but I am not hungry.”
“The colors you are displaying say differently.”
I forget that he can see my moods and my needs through the mysterious extra dimensions. But whatever he’s seeing, there’s no way I’m sucking his cock on the bridge with all these solemn crewmen standing around. If the station is gone, that means lives have been lost, and that’s sad, no matter who the lives belonged to.
“I can’t suck you off and enjoy your seed while bits of alien people float by the window.”
“Why not? They won’t mind.”
He’s just so eminently practical. And I suppose he’s right, but it just feels wrong.
“I’ll wait to eat again. I can wait a few hours.”
“The space station cloud could extend for many thousands of miles. I know you are hungry. You were saving room for the station food.”
“Then do the spaceship thing that makes it go thousands of miles in a second.”
“Oh. Do the spaceship thing. Okay. Good idea.” He turns around. “Helmsman, spaceship immediately, thank you.”
“You’re such a big fucking goof.”
“I am endeavoring to lighten the mood,” he says. “This has been a most distressing encounter for all concerned. This station was one of the oldest and largest in the entire quadrant. It contained spices from across the galaxy and foods from over a thousand planets.”
“Sounds like it would have been really cool to see in some form other than its composite elements.”
“It would have been. I am sorry you are disappointed.”
“My disappointment doesn’t matter compared to the massive loss of life and what sounds like one of the universe’s commercial treasures.”
Things are bad. What we don’t realize is that things are about to get worse. Disappointment turns to fear when the bright bath of rainbow dust shimmers and is replaced with a really big, huge fuck off television style screen which blinks into existence out of nowhere. Some ancient instinct makes me hide behind Brawn. In the past, I would have called it taking cover. I’m losing the lingo of my past life.
“Incoming transmission, my liege,” the captain says. I am impressed by how calm he sounds because what is appearing on the screen looks like the stuff of every human nightmare combined.