Ready

I was in bed alone, naked, and unsure of how I even fucking got there.

And my head was killing me.

Sitting up, I groaned and rubbed my temples, eyes shut tight. Suddenly, I was glad that the ship was so dark all the time: the light would have just made everything worse.

"Wolf?" I yawned, looking around in the dark bedroom.

Nowhere. No answer. I sighed and climbed out of the warm bed into the relatively colder room. That discomfort didn't last long, though, as I headed out into the hallway where it was warm again. Even though everything was a bit fuzzy, I could at least figure out that I'd had a bit too much to drink after we left the clanship to have our meal. Mhalu must have kept bringing more drinks, or maybe made them on the ship . . .

The fruit juice she had added to the c'lnip had just made it too delicious and I couldn't stop drinking it. We were having so much fun talking, though I couldn't for the life of me remember what exactly we'd talked about.

"Wolf!" I croaked, peeking into a random room. "Mhalu?"

There probably wasn't a reason for her to be on our ship anymore, but I figured humans crashed at their friends' places during a binge, so maybe these aliens did it too.

No one answered me, though.

Well, neither of the two I called did, anyway.

"Ast'ni," Critter said, poking his head out from an adjacent room to the one I'd just looked in. He was hanging from the ceiling for whatever reason he did that.

"Critter," I greeted him in kind. "Do you know where Wolf is?"

"On ship," he replied cheekily, preening his antennae.

I put my hands on my hips and huffed. "|You're a regular comedian|. Think you are funny?"

He chittered with glee and I sighed. "|Okay, funny guy|. Where on the ship is Wolf?"

"Me not know."

Rolling my eyes, I made a gesture at him and said, "I have my eyes on you."

Critter whimpered and hid farther behind the open door.

I made the 'watching you' gesture again and took my leave. His strange insect giggling echoed behind me and let me know he realized that I was teasing. Would have made me feel bad if he thought I was actually cross with him.

Yawning, I rubbed my eyes. My head was throbbing, but there wasn't anything to be done about it. No space Aspirin.

"Wo-o-lf!" I whined, wincing when the sound of my voice made my head hurt even more. "Where did you go-o?"

No answer.

I gave up on my whiny act and just quietly moped through the ship. The whole time, I'd been making my way toward the bridge. That was where he tended to hang out the most, after all.

Well . . . Besides the kehrite. Or the armory.

Okay, so he hung out in a lot of places. The bridge made the most sense because of his contract. He would need a course, a heading, a lead.

He'd find all of that on the bridge.

It wasn't often that I went up to the bridge, mostly because I didn't need to. I knew where it was, though, so I easily navigated the corridors.

The whole ship was technically one "floor" with an underbelly where all the machinery was, but the bridge was up a level at the front of the ship. It also had the biggest window in the whole thing, which was the other reason why I didn't go there much—I didn't want to stare into that endless void any more than I had to.

Windows were basically useless because of the way yautja vision worked, but the ship design was not originally theirs. They tended to adopt technology from others, though there were innovative clans that made their own shit.

Wolf had bought his ship second-hand from a clan that took it from a planet they were "occupying", as they put it. A planet they visited sometimes, taking their shit as a tithe of sorts.

It was a real mobster's outfit—it was all in exchange for "protection". From what, they never really said, but if memory served what they really meant was "hand over the goods and we won't burn the place down".

The in'qua (Creature and Critter's race), were just collateral. They were a nomadic race that often formed symbiotic relationships with other races, offering manpower and labor in exchange for shelter and work. Creature and Critter just happened to have already been signed on with the ship when it had been procured, and they had stayed when Wolf became the new owner.

Just as I thought, he was on the bridge slaving away at the computers and consoles. He was sitting in what I called the captain's chair and if he noticed I came in, he didn't acknowledge me.

"Here you are," I said, coming over to sit atop the armrest of his seat.

He glanced at me. "Here I am. Are you feeling well?"

I grimaced and answered, "My head hurts, but I am fine. We left?"

The window outside was empty. No giant clanship, no planet, nothing. Just space and distant stars and galaxies swirling in the vast universe.

"Yes, while you slept."

My expression fell and my heart sank. "|I didn't get to say bye to Mhalu|."

Wolf finally looked up from his work after hearing my tone and faced me properly. "But you did. You said your farewells before I brought you to bed."

"|I don't remember,|" I groaned.

Actually, I kind of vaguely remembered. It was the same way you half-remembered a dream that you woke up from, unable to recall anything but the most basic of beats. I could kind of picture it in my head—me, tucked under Wolf's arm like a sack of potatoes, giggling the whole time while Mhalu walked through the tunnel to her ship and I waved.

"Well, we will return once I find the target and you can see her again. I am glad you made a friend," Wolf remarked, returning to what he was doing.

Leaving it at that, I watched what he was doing for a few seconds. There was a holographic display spread across the window in front of us. The glyphs and text were well beyond my comprehension: I could kind of speak the language but I was entirely illiterate.

"Have you found anything?" I asked after a span of silence.

He lounged in his chair and said, "He took a small excursion ship. The leaders gave me its serial and I have been trying to track it down. I have picked up faint traces of its signature on a planet in another system. We will go there and I will see if he is there."

"If he is not?" I asked, trying to make sense of the readings he was looking at, knowing full well it was futile.

"Then I will see if he left any clues behind and go from there. If he is there, I will find him, capture him, and we will return to the clan," Wolf explained.

I let a moment of quiet lapse, then carefully asked, "Anything I can do to help?"

"No," he growled. "You are not ready to fight a yautja who would kill you."

Arms crossed over my chest, I huffed. "Then what am I to do while you . . . |uh, play detective|?"

Wolf gave that a little thought and for a moment, I hoped that he'd tell me I could find something to trophy hunt. However, all he said was, "There will be good creatures to hunt for meat or fur."

Disappointing!

"I am ready to do a real hunt," I insisted.

Wolf snorted. "That is real hunting."

"You know what I mean."

He idly tapped at the console before replying. "No. Not yet. You have more bad habits to unlearn."

"Like what?" I demanded.

"You need to be more cautious."

"I am always cautious."

He made a derisive sound.

"I am!" I yelped. "Mostly."

Wolf tapped my forehead with his knuckles. "You do not think when it is important and think too much when you do not need to. When you can prove to me that you can act without impulse, then I will let you hunt for a trophy."

I pushed his hand away. "I never act without impulse. I am being brave, like you."

"Ah, little one, bravery and stupidity are sometimes interchangeable. Unfortunately, you lean toward stupidity."

I glared daggers at him. "That is untrue!"

He laughed and patted me. "Lean toward, yes, but there are times your courage shines. You still need more training, though."

Not willing to let it go, I pressed the issue, falling back into English in my impassioned state. "|I don't have to hunt something big, it could just be a small trophy! Just something that'll leverage me above the average newly blooded and give me something to talk about, something that| . . ."

Wolf had looked ready to refute, but his curiosity got the better of him. "That what?"

"|That . . . doesn't reflect poorly on your choice to have me|."

His mandibles clicked sympathetically and he tugged me toward him. "It seems those young bloods said some things that stung."

"Yes," I said, trying not to pout. "|But it's not just them, I want to hunt something. You've been teaching me and teaching me . . . I don't have to do something big and flashy. Surely I should be able to do something a step above the xenomorphs|."

Wolf remained silent, listening intently and deep in thought.

"|Anything will be a cake-walk compared to them|," I finished, hoping that something I said resonated with him. Anything.

"Perhaps," he said, "you are ready. But I am not."

"What do you mean?"

"Fear is a part of you humans. It is what makes you capable of great things. For us, it is shameful. We do not fear, we approach everything knowing it could be our last breaths we draw and take strength from that," he explained. "We do not get scared."

I didn't understand where he was going, but I nodded anyway.

For a moment, though, he was quiet and simply stared at the text still scrawled up on the window. I almost thought he was waiting for me to respond, but then I realized it: the way his claws idly tapped, the faint sound of his mandibles fidgeting against his mask . . . Whatever he wanted to say, he was having a hell of a time admitting it.

Hoping to reassure him, or maybe bring him back from wherever he was, I gently placed my hand on his shoulder. I wish I could have better read his face, but I didn't dare ask him to take his mask off. Not when he was already feeling vulnerable.

That probably wasn't something he was used to feeling.

He growled softly, kept his gaze averted, and said, "But I was that night."

". . . What?"

"Pulling that thing off of you, watching you panic, thinking about what came next . . ."

My chest tightened. He was talking about the night the hybrid had gotten me. I hadn't realized how it had impacted him. I hadn't thought much about it. I guess I assumed he'd handled it with the same amount of poise and rationality he always did.

His claws tapped harder on his armrest. "Even after your procedure had been successful, your rehabilitation had been on a razor's edge for so long. If Mhalu hadn't given me the information, I doubt that I alone would have been able to keep you alive."

Finally, he looked at me. I couldn't take it anymore, so I raised my hands toward his mask, hesitating long enough to seek his consent. He nodded and allowed me to remove his mask. I set it on my lap and used it to keep my idle hands busy.

"Why did you?" I asked quietly. "Why . . . me?"

As if unsure, he studied the ceiling like he might find the answer up there.

"Perhaps because I had been glad to receive your call. I was invested in how you might have grown since I had last seen you, and then eager to see how you would continue to grow under my watch."

Wolf paused and I waited, knowing he had more to say.

"Without realizing, you had grown on me more than I had thought. And then there you were, in so much pain. I am not eager to see you like that again," he finished.

I smiled slightly to myself-not out of happiness, but I was rueful. He was doing all of this out of true concern, not because my abilities weren't there yet. I was touched, I was a bit frustrated, but my heartfelt lighter.

Setting his mask aside, I sought to comfort both of us and embraced him. He seemed caught off guard at first but soon gave me a warm squeeze.

"|I'm okay now. I feel great, and I feel confident. Please, let me try|," I murmured.

Somewhat reluctantly, he let me go and heaved a sigh. "I understand. Once I have finished my business on this planet, I will supervise your first trophy hunt. If I do not, what was the point of me taking you in the first place?"

Before I could get too excited, he cut off anything I was going to say.

"You must wait, though. Until I am done with seeking my target, you are to remain close to the ship," he insisted.

I nodded. "Yes."

"You can explore and do what you like, but keep the landing area within your sight," he continued. "This is a criminal I'm hunting, not a beast. The serfs can help if he shows up so long as you are close."

I almost protested but decided not to. Instead, I said, "You know, I was trained on Earth to confront dangerous criminals."

Wolf chuckled. "Yes, other human criminals. Dealing with ours will be a bit difficult. But, perhaps one day you will be able to help."

"Yes!"

"Then," he added, "once I have completed my work, we can find you a trophy. One that we can hunt together."

"Together?"

He nodded. "Yes. That way, I can be close and see how far you have come. After that, we can talk about your own solo trophy. Is that fair?"

"More than fair," I quickly agreed.

His tusks clicked in bemusement and he swiveled in his chair to slave away at the console again. "Good. Now, go and entertain yourself. I must work."

Despite the crisp tone, I knew he wasn't being mean. It had probably taken a lot of emotional energy for him to open up like that and he wanted to be alone. I could relate, so I bid him good-bye and stepped out into the hallway. As the door slid shut, I lingered for a moment and smiled to myself. A weight had been lifted, at last, giving me a bit more room to breathe.