CH9

“It’s ready…” Ilmine said, his body slightly trembling.

“Well,” I fixed my gaze on him. ”If you don’t have anything better to do at the moment I would suggest you to start the show.”

His face became more bluish once again, I noted. Nerves? I was long past the point where killing could affect me much, but that does not mean I completely lacked empathy. It was too useful of a feeling to throw away.

“I-I will do it, but… But I have a condition.”

I looked at Draco and saw his surprised expression. Even Blaze seemed mildly amused. I must say, I also did not expect that.

“We’re listening.” I said cautiously.

“I want part of the ship!”

What?

“Which part?” I did not hide my confusion. Maybe I heard him wrong.

“No, not like that… I want to have a vote about what happens with the ship. When this is all over, I mean.” It was not the most heroic speech I have ever heard, but… Hell, I could see he was nothing, but determined.

Not that we were unable to test his determination with a little bit of force. But that was always a one-time trick. You should never trust someone you had tortured, unless you wanted to know how a knife between your ribs may feel. Besides, we were on what looked like an alien ship, God knows where and with hostile aliens craving for our blood. Turning the only living being here that decided to cooperate with us, into an enemy, might not be the best course of action.

“You will help us get back to Earth. After that you can take this boat and shove it up your blue ass, for all I care. Take us home and we’re even, promise. Deal?” Maybe it was a mistake, but in that moment I could not care less. This whole situation was just insane.

“…Deal,” he nodded and I saw his hands running over the touchboard for the last time.

“Ok, I think we‘ve got them all,” I said looking at the row of corpses neatly arranged on the floor. One from the freighter, one from the bridge and a dozen of fresh newcomers.

The plan worked out perfectly and I could not help myself from feeling ounce of pride - or maybe satisfaction would be a better word - seeing job well done. When Ilmine said the gas was gone and we came out, we saw spiders surrounding the entrance and I thought, at that moment, that it may have been the last mistake in my short but eventful life. But no. They did not move even a millimeter on their spindly legs as we stood there.

So, when I was fairly certain I would be able to control my sphincter, we moved on to search the ship. Lucky for us, the former crewmen – crewalien? - were easy to find. Almost all of them ganged up in what Ilmine called “entertainment area”. The place was a large hall with dome-like ceiling and not a trace of furniture; just bare walls. Damned if I knew which part of this place may have been entertaining for those creatures.

Another two we had found farther down the tunnel connecting to the bridge. They probably wanted to see with their own eyes how their pet robo insects dismember us, one by one, while we wallow in agony and pain. That, at least, was a kind of entertainment I could appreciate myself.

“Now, is there someone else we have to kill before we can get our answers?” I turned to face Ilmine standing near the entrance and looking with horrified fascination at the corpses. ”No? Good. Then let’s get down to business, shall we?”

“Here?” He seemed sick just by the bare thought of staying here even a second longer.

“Well, you’re the host. Lead the way.”

He went to the opposing wall, with what looked like a paper thin tablet in hand, and started murmuring something. I could not recognize if he was cursing or praying. Maybe both. After what appeared to be a complete system shutdown caused by that Teo we needed to bulldoze our way through every hatch on this boat, so I could understand our creepy-eyed friend’s frustration.

“Come,” he waved for our trio when the door slid open.

Another tunnel. Not as long as the first one, but it was still incomprehensible for me why anybody would have designed it like that. I was no expert at building alien spaceships, and yet I saw literary no practical reason for such an approach. Tunnels and passages connecting one room to another… You would think they should have been more considerate when designing a space capable vessel. For all I knew, every centimeter of available space inside such ship should have been invaluable. That is why everything on human spaceships was so tightly packed. But those guys either never heard of this rule or just did not give a damn…

We entered the next room. This place was smaller, with equally Spartan décor. Before I could say anything Ilmine once again used his tablet and the floor slid open. At least, part of the floor. What looked like a round table and couple of benches had appeared in the middle. Nice trick.

“Sit down, please.”

That is what I did. I had a feeling it may be a very long conversation.

“Ok, I’m sure we’re all burning with curiosity… Anyone wants to start?” I asked looking at my siblings.

“Yeah, me,” Blaze said, before Draco even had a chance to open his mouth. “Are you a guy or a chick?”

“W-well,“ Ilmine seemed taken aback. ”The social and biological aspects of gender in the society of humans and Korniks is—“

“Different question,” Blaze waved her hand. “Do you have a dick or not?”

“…excuse me?”

“It’s a simple question. Do you have one? Or maybe more than one?”

“N-no, I do not. I certainly do not!”

“Congrats then, you’re a girl! Welcome to the club, meetings every Saturday. Remember to bring some wine.” Blaze turned again to her impassive self, as if there was nothing more worth her attention.

Right. On the side note, I once more checked out his-, nah, her body. Nothing spectacular, must say. Because of what looked like a weird combination between motorcycle suit and some kind of medieval armor she was wearing, I could not tell for sure to what extent she resembled human woman. Sure, I noticed her rather feminine demeanor, but if that was a reliable method of determining one’s gender these days, than people on Earth would avoid a lot of nasty surprises; not to mention lawsuits.

“Now, if that’s clear, maybe we could discussed more pressing matters?” I rubbed my eyes, fighting with weariness. “Just tell us what you think is most important right now, and we will ask if we have additional questions, ok?”

“Yes, that’s a good idea,” she tried to regain her focus. “First thing you must know, is that I don’t wish you harm. I’m an anthropologist, a scientist. I’ve been hired to gather data about your planet, species, culture… Everything. What happened here… I…”

She seemed as if she was going to lose herself again.

“Who hired you? This midgets we killed?” I needed to get her attention.

“What? No, of course not. I don’t know who is my real employer, the only think I have is the name of the company and even that may be fake. And Teo… he is- was a Sa’der. He was here on a contract, just like me. They are known to be the best programmers and engineers in the whole Empire,” maybe Ilmine was still shaken, but at least her tone changed. It became more calm and lecture-like. “It’s because of their religion. Sa’der believe in the power of words, written words. For them, whole universe was created out of words that are in constant movement, thus changing our reality. Their whole society is built around those believes. Whole generations of Sa’der dedicated their lives to better understand the nature of words. They were probably the first ones to create a full working AI, but that’s not really important. For them, AIs are the closest things to gods. Besides that, they are also known for being unreasonably greedy and chauvinist. The status of a female Sa’der…”

“Ok, ok. I understand. Crafty little religious bastards that really like money,” we needed to speed this up or we would sit there for another week, listening about their mating rituals. I knew that type. “Basically, we just killed a bunch of space-dwarfs.”

“More like Interstellar Jews,” Draco murmured, but I ignored him.

“Now, let’s get to the most interesting part. How do we go back to Earth?”