Perdition's Child

Chapter 7

Mehk settled quickly into a reasonably comfortable rhythm on the merc vessel. The ship had more humans than any other species with five total, but they weren't the majority of the crew. Besides Tes the Klitch'tit and the parasitic hive-mind-fungus Bob, Quara's mom and brother were also on board and there was another nanuran in addition to Derak. He was a little surprised at the size of their group, but it made sense to have redundant specialists in such a dangerous career.

They didn't allow him to leave on the shuttle when they went ground-side or to the orbiting space station, even with a promise of good behaviour(smart on their part, he would certainly bolt if the opportunity presented itself). Apparently reassured that the rumours of his species' doormat nature were true, he was allowed a surprising degree of freedom. True to the stereotype, he couldn't bring himself to do anything that would break that trust. It helped that they were nearly all much scarier than him.

It was boring though, and he spent a lot of time just talking. The crew regaled him with stories, of which the mercenaries had plenty. He had a few tales that could compete as well, but he kept the best of them to himself. It was better to be underestimated, even if Irika kept yanking both his metaphorical and literal tail to try and get a reaction out of him.

Quara was kinder than she had come across at first, particularly alone. She spent hours upon hours hunched over computers in Tes's lab, calling him in several times each cycle for quick tests and experiments and samples. If Tes wasn't around to get defensive of her lab he liked to stay and chat.

They'd stuck Bob in a closet to give Mehk their room. He'd squirmed uncomfortably at that, but they assured him that Bob had no personal possessions and slept on its feet. Derak said that if they'd known that when they picked them up, they would have given it a closet to begin with.

And apparently the parasite preferred the smaller space. Upon moving in they had soon torn out the overhead light, covered the walls with spun griebo silk and little LEDs, and spent much of their free time crooning softly and incomprehensibly to themself behind the locked door. They used a form of 'I' Mehk had only ever heard from movie monsters and ate their meals from sealed gelatinous packages.

That was more the kind of incomprehensible weirdness that Mehk had expected from aliens, and he was relieved that Bob was an exception rather than the rule.

He paced off the restlessness of his first on board sleep cycle, thankful his headache had finally abated. He mentioned it to Tes and Quara, and they ran more tests. They'd all hoped the parasite was running down on its own, but the extra lines were just as bright as ever on his scans, if slightly redistributed.

Quara slammed said scans against a table dramatically, although the gesture lost something when the papers floated off. "If I can't think of an answer, it's probably impossible. How do you feel about spending the rest of your life on an undeveloped world, Mehk? Explore the desolate reaches of some hostile planet in solitude. We'll still visit you on holidays, of course."

They were in the common room, and the gravity was acting glitchy so they'd turned it off for awhile. The only thing more nauseating than freefall, Mehk had discovered the hard way, was randomly fluctuating gravity. Freefall you at least got used to.