32. Chapter 32

Chapter 32

Into the space cheese.

My first impression of the ship was: God, this is boring . There was nothing besides endless dull white corridors. No windows. No doors. No people. Nothing. I saw absolutely positively nothing. I poked my head around a curve, and more nothing. Damn, this ship wasn’t worth the freak-out it brought about.

Over the years, I’d seen numerous ships and vessels, but this was by far the most uninteresting one. It was a hunk of white cheese floating around space scaring the shit out of people.

Well, if the ship was empty and non-threatening, then I could leave. Fyn would like that. A heat bloomed in my gut at the thought of getting him naked, and arousal filtered through my mind. I reveled in the feeling that pulsed dimly in my soul. I shook my thoughts off. I needed to thoroughly search the ship before Sunshine and I could have fun. But then we would have lots and lots of fun. He would not leave the bed for days if I had my way.

I skipped down the hall, whistling a lively tune, and searched for any signs of life. The longer I wandered, the more relaxed I became until I was as calm as a Sunday drive.

Smiling, I rounded a corner and skidded to a stop. An alien who came to my waist appeared before me. The alien’s four pupilless eyes widened, and their coral pink skin turned to a sickly pus yellow. An ear-piercing shriek ripped out of them, revealing their two forked tongues and square teeth.

I pointlessly covered my ears to try and block the sound.

Like magic, doors appeared on the smooth walls and aliens poured into the hallway. As one, they turned toward me and began screaming as they ran around. Some crashed into the walls, and their jello-like bodies bounced off and sent them to the floor, where they continued to shriek at a mind-numbing decibel.

“You can see me,” I shouted over the racket, which made another round of screaming start.

Something pulled me to the left, and I looked down to see an alien had come up behind me. One of their tentacles, I guessed, or jelly-like appendages curled around my forearm. They were touching me. They were touching me! I yelled in pure fucking joy. These aliens could touch me.

The alien turned frightfully white and shrieked back at me. All the other aliens screamed and raced around the hall. One bumped into me, and I released another cry, and seized them around their middle, squeezing as hard as possible.

I could touch them. I didn’t have to focus. I didn’t have to struggle. I squeezed even harder, rocking the alien back and forth like a big, jiggly, jello baby. Probably a bad decision on my part, but I was so excited to touch something, even if it was an alien.

The alien trapped in my embrace released such a racket that the others desperately tried to get away from us, but they rammed into each other and the walls, landing on the floor in heaps. I released the alien from my grasp, and they turned into a gelatinous puddle at my feet.

“You can see me,” I shouted, pumping my fist in the air. “Booyah!”

More shrieks came from the aliens.

Aliens came down the hall in a line carrying bubble-shaped squirt guns that were bright green with pulsing lights. One raised their weapon at me, and a red beam whizzed past my shoulder, burning me. Not squirt guns. Definitely not squirt guns. Whoever these aliens were, they not only saw me, they could injure me.

I clutched my throbbing shoulder. My shirt and skin were fine, but whatever they did burned. I bolted around the corner. So the aliens weren’t friendly (good to know), but some scared easily. I pressed against the wall, but there was nothing but empty hallways, screaming aliens in the distance, and other aliens bent on destroying me.

Time to abandon ship. I relaxed, as hard as it was, and began to slide through the floor. The armed aliens came around the corner, and I willed myself to go faster. The aliens paused, guns lowering.

“Please don’t shoot me,” I said on the off chance they understood. “I didn’t mean any harm. I was shocked you saw me.”

One of the aliens raised a shapeless appendage. “Peace, Spirit. We will not harm you.”

I froze, half in and out of the floor. What a sight I must be on the next level. I fought a chuckle at the thought of blob aliens screaming from a pair of floating legs. Swallowing the inappropriate reaction, I asked, “You won’t?”

“No. We thought you were an intruder coming to harm us, not a lost soul,” the alien answered in a warbly voice.

I rose out of the floor. “Well, I kind of am an intruder, but I have no plans to attack you.”

All of the blobs moved in unison; they tilted to the side. Maybe it was the equivalent of cocking their head. They didn’t really have heads. Or necks. Or bodies. They were like pink blobs of ooze.

“Why are you here?” the lead alien asked, extending their gun again.

“No, no. I mean no harm. I swear,” I said in a rush, lifting my hands, then lowered them, afraid they would perceive it as a threat. I didn’t know. I wasn’t an anthropologist. “I’m with the other ship. The drakcol want to make sure you’re not here to hurt them.”

“Why would we harm them?”

“Why would I harm you?” I asked, and they did the tilt thing again. “I’m new, scary, and you have no idea of my intentions. You are the same to them.”

“Boobaas never threaten. We are peaceful.”

I stifled a laugh. Boobaas. God. I’d never wanted to laugh so hard at a name, but I swallowed it. I wasn’t twelve anymore. “Excellent,” I said, unable to stop bouncing. “So are the drakcol. We can be friends.”

A literal ripple went through the aliens. “They wish to be friends?”

I hoped friends meant the same thing. “They wish to know you and for peace between your two species.” At least, I thought they did. I really didn’t want this to dissolve into a fight. I had a bad feeling these pink blobs, boobaas—what a name—would win.

“Friends,” the blobs said as one.

Were they a hive mind? That might explain the screaming. One had started panicking and so did the rest. When the lead blob spoke, the others followed.

“Yep, friends,” I said. They bobbed up and down, and I frowned until I realized they were copying me. I bounced harder, and they copied, jiggling like jello. “Do all of you see ghosts like me?”

“Yes, Spirit. We exist between the planes. Both are seen and touched by boobaas.”

“Awesome.”

“Awesome,” they parroted.

“Can we be friends?” I asked.

The lead alien said, “That is up to Tatas.”

I snorted. First boobaas, and now Tatas. What was a guy supposed to do?

“Tatas will decide if we shall be friends or we shall disintegrate you.”

“Right.” Well, that wasn’t terrifying or anything.