Chapter 11

Chapter 11

I t took Daedalus three days to clean moths and larvae out of the galley cupboards. Lothario happily chased the moths all over the ship, but he ignored the caterpillars and their cocoons.

Daedalus didn’t even know how the robot moths had managed to breed. They were robots, for stars’ sake. But as he cleaned up, he realised that not only were they eating his protein bars, but they were munching on the foil wrapping, too. Somehow, they were using the organic material to create more caterpillars, before using the metal to make more nanites.

Lothario ate the moths, waited until his digestive fluids had thoroughly dealt with the nanites, then hawked up the useless components, along with the moth wings. Daedalus set the ship’s computer to tell him every time Lothario vomited up another nasty, smelly mess, so he could make it disappear before Primula saw it.

One thing Daedalus knew for sure, though, was that Lothario hadn’t eaten a single bite of those delicious fish.

But he wanted to…

When Daedalus had emptied the contents of the final cupboard into the recycler, he wished he had a drink to toast his victory. But there was no food left on the ship – the moths had destroyed all his protein bars. Their only food source was the synthesiser, though it now had a bumper crop of raw materials from the recycler to work with.

Lothario had moths and meowl mix, so he’d be fine. Even now, he was coasting through the ventilation system, seeking out hidden pockets of moths to devour and destroy.

Primula was in her cabin, ignoring him. Actually, at this time of night, she was probably asleep.

Which meant there’d be no one to see him catch dinner if he headed down to the cargo bay right now and was really quick…

Daedalus bolted for the lower decks.