“Alright...Look left...Now right.” Blitz held a tiny light in one of his tentacles. “Fascinating!” He clicked the light off.

“What’d yah learn Blitz?” The wolf girl was sitting on a cluttered desk in Blitz’s lab. Her right leg folded over her left, her arms crossed accentuating her breasts.

“His eyes react to light!”

“...” The wolf captain stared at him in silence. “...Most creatures do.”

“I’m just saying I just confirmed that he is quite like you.”

The captain pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. “Just like me?”

“Correct, he seems to be almost exactly like you except...lesser.”

Gabe stared at Blitz unsure of what to make of him, it was a look of disgust and intrigue. When had first heard Blitz over the intercom It was assumed that it was an A.I. or something. He had never been more wrong. Blitz was a squid-like creature that had a smooth surface for a face and big, round pupil-less eyes that looked like they were filled with mercury. Blitz’s body was very similar to a snake combined with a squid. Ten tentacles squirmed around on its back. The varying tentacles increasingly got longer the as it went upward.

To be completely honestly just looking at the exterior of Blitz’s anatomy was a good idea of why he might have become so enthralled with becoming the ship’s primary scientist.

Blitz slithered a tentacle to the head of the examination table, pressing a button, turning on a screen that showed the inner workings of Gabe. “Fascinating!”

The captain uncrossed her legs and sat slightly more upward. “Is that… A heart?“

“Yes, Cap.” Blitz emotionless face turned to face her.

“There is only one?” She looked pretty unimpressed. “Seems the similarities ends at the skin.”

“Ow! Fuck!.” Gabe exclaimed as he felt a prick. He had failed to notice one of Blitz’s tentacles that had grabbed a syringe and had drawn his blood. He removed the vial from the syringe and placed it into a machine.

A chart appeared on the screen, probably displaying the contents. Gabe wouldn't know since the words are not in English.

“Now this is strange. His blood is very high in metals.”

“So...”

“So, Captain Anaya, his blood is valuable to the Sellophans, Cartollians and the Oozes of Zendraks seven.”

“I hate doing business with every single one of them.” She snarled. “Especially the Sellophans, They don’t know when to stop with their tentacles.”

“Gross.” Gabe found that he really disliked tentacles, sneaky little things.

“What.”

“Remarkable!”

Blitz’s tentacles cupped Gabe’s face and began slightly turning it at different angles. “It seems it is happening faster than expected!”

“Explain.” Captain Anaya crossed her arms again.

“The translator must have finally begun to pair his language with the data it had of our language. I suspect in a few hours it will sync with his and allow us to fully understand.”

“Captain Titties, Can you please tell this squid to get its nasty suckers off my face?” Gabe tried to pry the tentacles off his face. Gabe felt his head swirling with a whole lot of well basically everything. Every now and then the ringing he first heard would return and the touch from the tentacles at the moment was beginning to irritate him.

“Blitz.”

Whether or not what he said was translated didn’t matter but to his fortune, the creature was told to stand down.

“Right. Protocols.” Blitz removed his tentacles from his face and moved one to where his mouth should have been and gave a fake cough.

Captain Anaya slid off the desk and walked over to him. Her height was imposing considering that she was still tall compared the table that sat more than a meter off the floor combined with Gabe’s. She bent slightly forward which helped slightly in making her shorter, slightly. Her shirt revealed a massive valley in between her cleavage. “It’d inconvenience me to call yah a slave in Vorlan territory. So tell me your name.”

Gabe had to force himself to tear away from her body. He looked up to meet her face. She had this horrid smile. If she was trying to look friendly she was failing horribly. In fact, she looked like more like she wanted to gobble up a baby.

“Gabe.” He said.

“Gabe?.” She pulled back from the boy giving her chest a little bounce. She looked at him confused. The name Gabe in her language was apparently really close to the word ‘Gavve’ In her native language. Which roughly translated to “Ass.”

The squidy snake man slithered in front of the captain. “Gabe, I have a few questions for you to answer. For legal purposes.” Even if he was a part of a group of mercenaries he was still a scientist first. So logging information made sense.

Gabe guessed that if he spoke one word and they understood, they’d definitely ask him questions to test how far it went.“Keep your tentacles away from me and I’ll answer whatever you like.” Gabe said leaning back on the table in an attempt to get away from the featureless face that continued to get closer to him.

The Blitz didn’t stop his advance, he must not have understood. Gabe nodded and agreed but not before pushing his face back.

Gabe nodded seems it was easier to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and using gestures since the captain and the scientist both pretty much learned that much of English.

“Excellent.” He wrapped a tentacle around a metallic item that flickered a hologram of a screen. “What is your species and where do you come from?”

Gabe had no problem telling him that he was human but hesitated on the second part of the question. Simply shrugged on the last question. They didn’t have to know where he was from.

The captain came back to relevancy. “Do yah have any particular skills?”

“That isn’t one of the questions I require.”

“It is one of the questions I require if he’s gonna stay on board.”

Gabe lightly scratched at the metallic collar on his neck as he thought. And an idea came to his head. If he was going to be here he might as well get fuck with them a bit. “Alright, Captain Titties. Prepare to have your ears blown off!” He covered his right hand’s thumb with two fingers and tucked his left thumb. He connected the two hands and slowly pulled away.

“...”

“Amazing?”

Anaya and Blitz both had mixed feelings about the situation. The captain decided to just stay quiet with a confused look on her face. Gabe was having a pretty good chuckle at their reactions, maybe living on a ship going to who knows where wouldn’t be so bad after all.

Then Gabe’s stomach started to growl. He had not eaten since breakfast which was pretty much just eggs and bacon.

“We’ll continue this later. Gabe, follow me”

Corridor after corridor. The whole place felt like one could easily get lost. They eventually came to a small room with a large table in the center complete with another wolf girl eating at the end.

“Captain Anaya!” She gave up a two-fingered salute with a fork still in between her fingers… Gabe started to second guess this whole eating thing once he saw the food on her plate move. Noticing the metallic collar around his neck she asked. “Got ya self a new toy?”

“Shut it Rhenixa.” Captain Anaya shoved Gabe closer to the table.

From the closer perspective, Gabe took in the sight of the similar colored wolf girl. Except her chest was nearly flat and her hairstyle had one bang going down the side instead of two. Her feral eyes were also a noticeable red. Her outfit consisted of a slim combat vest with a tight undershirt and shorts that barely went down her thighs.

“Well, Potentially new crew member. I’m Rhenixa Anaya.”

Gabe was hesitant for a moment but ultimately decided to sit two chairs and across from her. needless to say they sat there in an awkward silence.

In the silence of the room, he continued to watch the girl dig into the still squirming food. Even the fork she used to stab into the gelatinous goop didn’t seem to kill it.

Before he hurled up whatever contents that might have still been in his stomach. He asked a question and hoping it would translate.

“Sisters?”

It looks like his question didn’t translate very well. Damn, looks like he's going to go for a while without that answer.

Before she put another fork-full into her mouth she said. “I’ve been all over this galaxy and that ain’t a language I ever heard.”

Captain Anaya had slammed a tray filled with things of every color underneath the rainbow. Giving him a bit of a spook making him jump.

“Christ!”

“He’s new, new.”

Rhenixa didn't even flinch from the noise instead she made a finger gun and winked. “Got yah.” and turned back to the food.

Feeling a bit ignored he picked up a spoon and began playing with the lightest colored goop. Which was pink. He tried to imagine that it was a salmon smoothie. Just not in a cup.

His stomach growled again. In the war of food. His gut was winning against his mind’s decision to not eat.

He took a spoonful and brought it close to his mouth. But then he felt something begin to burn in his ear. Actually, the burning was coming from the translator itself. Gabe dropped the spoon in place for the ear. In his efforts of pulling at it, he managed to only move it slightly. It began to smoke heavily.

“Oh fuck!” Rhenixa stood up so fast the chair she was in fell to the floor lying on its back. She nearly sprinted to the side of him.

Anaya sat there continuing to eat. He technically wasn’t anything more than just someone she slapped a collar on anyway.

She turned the side of his head to look at the device, yup it looked like it was ready to explode. Surprisingly when she started to tug on the device and thanks to her races natural strength allowed her to rip the earbud piece out.

Landing on the ground the device arced electricity and promptly exploded.

Caressing his ear Gabe turned to face Rhenixa and muttered: “Many thanks to you.”

Rhenixa nearly choked. “DID...DID YOU JUST SPEAK CALORIC!?”

Gabe hadn’t noticed at all that he didn’t speak that in English. “Did I?”

Anaya burped. “Yup, The accent and the structure is a bit weird, But that’s basic Caloric.”

Rhenixa was standing with both her hands on the table. She began shouting. “Blitz! Come quickly!.”

Seconds later the creature slithered into the room. Gabe thought to himself that he got here relatively quick. He must’ve known some shortcuts to make up for his slow slithering speed.

Rhenixa pointed and shouted, “HE’S SPEAKING CALORIC!”

“Interesting.” He slithered closer. Noticing the smoking wreckage on the floor. “I did have a theory of the slow translation of his language.”

“Go on.” Anaya propped her boots on the table while tipping her chair back.

“Very well. Instead of doing the intended translations, it did the opposite. Due to the complexity of his language it caused a dump of the knowledge it contained of the Caloricean tongue.” He moved closer to Gabe. “The programming must’ve chosen to do so in the case that it couldn’t perform its basic tasks as a fail safe.”

Now that he mentioned it Gabe had stopped feeling like his mind was being clouded by a thick haze. He actually felt clear, more in control of his thoughts.

He spoke again in Caloric. “Guys. Remove can?” He started to fiddle with the collar.

“Unless Captain Anaya says so, that stays on.”

“It stays for now.”

“Tough luck...Also don’t play with it so much, its rigged with explosives.”

Gabe froze in the middle of his actions.

“Alright! I’ve decided our next job!.” Anaya said taking her legs off the table. “We head for Eos station.”

“I require a more in-depth look into his mental functions.”

“Waaah!” He wrapped a tentacle around Gabe’s leg and dragged him towards the lab.”

When the two left Rhenixa turned to Anaya

“Eos?” Rhenixa questioned. “That’s controlled by Zelgrek’s clan.”

“I know the danger.” She paused. “But it’s the closest station with slave trade in refueling distance.”