Chasing Cthulhu (Urf Oomons #2)

One moment I am in the cafeteria, listening to Salhuteck’s lies and manipulations, and the next I’m waking from cryo-sleep.

This is the second time this has happened to me, and it is not any more bearable than the first.

The cryopod has been positioned vertically against a wall. I tumble out of it to spill onto the floor before I can get my bearings.

As I lay on the floor, I look around at this very bare room. There is nothing in here except for the cryopod and myself.

What has happened?

Where is everyone? Where is Gloria?

After taking a few breaths and gaining equilibrium, I find the door. It is locked to me.

This is obviously not a ship. Even if my implant is not allowed to interface, I could tell if there were ship operations.

So this is a planet? Or a station? It is unlikely that I have been taken by Seereechees again.

There is a fogginess to my thoughts. This is a regular thing, waking from cryo with impaired cognition. As it clears, one thought comes to the foreground of my brain: Salhuteck has betrayed us. Again.

I am now in agreement with Gloria. He needs to be killed, at the very next opportunity. As soon as I escape from whatever situation this is, I will find Gloria and then we will track down Sal and his human and kill them. They are a constant threat to us.

Gloria may not want Shawn to die, and if that’s the case, we can just transport him back to Earth and leave him at the mercy of their officials.

Worries keep popping into my head, pictures of what may be happening to Gloria right this instant.

There is absolutely nothing for me to do though. This is a secure room. I cannot escape until somebody opens that door from the outside. I can only hope that Gloria is in the situation as I, safely detained and not being abused in any way.

As soon as that door opens, I’m going to charge whoever is on the other side, toss them away and make an escape. I try to ready myself for this confrontation, but I do not know who may open that door.

Whoever it is though, they are holding me hostage, keeping me from my mate and they will be dealt with swiftly.

My color is darkening while I focus my thoughts on violence. I see red stripes pop up on my arm and it startles me so much that I lose that focus and they disappear.

This red coloring is new. I first experienced it at Sal’s when I raged and roared at him and his human.

It seems to correspond not with a change in my biology, but a change in my—mood? Personality? I am willing to do terrible violence now and my color reflects that propensity.

It is disconcerting.

There is a quiet whirring sound. That indicates that the door is about to open.

I crouch, ready to spring at whoever comes through.

But when the door opens, the person on the other side yells, ‘Lu!’ and lunges at me.

It’s Gloria! She’s clinging to me and squeezing me. I snake a few tentacles around her, holding her so she does not fall, and look out the door.

What is going on? How is she free from imprisonment? Do we need to run?

But on the other side of the door are Tiny, Seven, and Shawn.

Shawn.

I growl at him. He glowers back at me. Whatever is going on, I am sure he had a hand in it.

I feel Gloria grab my shoulder and give it a shake. ‘Cut that out. We need to get out of here without any more incidents.’

Cutting my growl off, I look down at Gloria’s face.

She is here. Safe. We are leaving.

I deliver my best approximation of a human kiss to her forehead and say, ‘Agreed.’

‘Awww.’ This sound is coming from Tiny. When I glance at her, I see Seven swoop in from behind her and kiss her forehead.

She laughs at him.

Everything seems to be alright. I am glad we are not in immediate danger, but this is all very confusing.

And why is Shawn part of this group?

‘Let’s go.’ Gloria is shaking my shoulder again. ‘We still need to get Ken and Sal.’

Moving out the door and following Tiny and Seven down the hall, I ask, ‘Why are we concerning ourselves with Salhuteck? Why is his human with us? They are liars and kidn—’

Gloria has her hand over my mouth silencing me. ‘I’ll explain when we’re safely back on our ship.’

We retrieve Ken, who has much the same confused reaction as I did. He also growls at Shawn. He receives the same admonishment to wait for an explanation until we are gone from here.

As we continue down the corridor to find Salhuteck, I notice that we are being followed. It is one of those blue furry people. Like the bodyguards Tiny hired, only male.

Gloria notices me noticing him and says, ‘Don’t worry about him. He’s just our escort. I’ll explain later.’

The more we walk around collecting people, the more disorientation sets in.

Where are we? How did we come to be here? Why?

Salhuteck also being detained contradicts my theory that this is a betrayal perpetrated by him.

Who then?

After we have retrieved everybody, we are a large group. The escort, Tiny, Gloria, Ken, Seven, Sal, Shawn, and Sal’s three bodyguards. A lot of good they did. Our bodyguards were obviously useless as well.

‘But—Tiny, what about your bodyguards?’

Her mouth presses into a thin line and her eyebrows lower. She looks angry. ‘What about them?’

‘We should retrieve them—’

‘No,’ Gloria interrupts, ‘They weren’t detained. I’ll explain later.’

I nod and give her a small squeeze where my tentacle is still wrapped around her waist. To let her know that we are in agreement. I will do whatever she needs me to do.

‘The shuttle is this way, friends,’ our escort tells us.

I hear Tiny make a disbelieving ‘hmmph,’ noise at the word friends.

‘Are we not friends?’ the escort asks as he guides us through multiple corridors, past many people.

‘You want to be our friend, Kenthack?’ Gloria asks. I do not like the familiarity. How well does she know this male?

‘I thought we already were friends,’ he answers jovially. ‘We have been through much together, after all?’

‘Not at all,’ Gloria responds.

‘And you shared so many of your experiences with me. Does that not engender closeness? Friendship?’

He seems to be teasing Gloria. I do not like it.

For her part, Gloria has a confused look about her face and her scent conveys this. Understanding seems to dawn over her features and with it, embarrassment clouds her scent and colors her cheeks and neck.

‘That’s not what that was! I was just giving you shit!’

Kenthack gets a disgusted look on his face and says, ‘Please do not.’

‘Ugh, jeez, not literal shit—’

Tiny holds up a hand. ‘It doesn’t matter. Thanks for your help, Kenthack.’

We have arrived at the shuttle and Tiny is dismissing him.

‘I must accompany you onto your homeship and ensure your safety. That is my assigned task,’ he responds.

‘Oh, fine. Whatever.’

It is a very crowded shuttle ride to our ship. Everybody is quiet, though. I wonder at Salhuteck’s silence. He has not said a word since we retrieved him from his cryopod.

There is some commotion when we finally dock. Our own bodyguards wait for us.

Tiny immediately dismisses them, but they try to negotiate. Until they see Kenthack at which point they all hiss and snarl at him. He snarls and growls back and then spits at them. Or more precisely, spits on the floor in their direction.

Our former bodyguards leave the shuttle bay.

Kenthack turns to Tiny and tells her, ‘You should consider hiring them on permanently. That is what they wanted to discuss with you.’

‘But they betrayed us! Kidnapped us!’

He shrugs. ‘They were hired to collect a bounty and they did. They were very fair and considerate in the way they did it too.’

‘They called my children filthy spawn.’

‘I do not aim to prick your feelings, but everyone in three whole galaxies will react to your progeny thus. Homeworlders are universally reviled. Anyone who knows of them, hates them.’

I squeeze Gloria and she pats my tentacle where it has remained cinched around her waist this whole time.

Not everyone hates us.

‘This is just—’ Tiny shakes her head. ‘I just can’t deal with it. Gloria, you decide about the bodyguard situation. I’m done.’

And then she stomps out of the shuttle bay, Seven right behind her.

Ken looks at me, then Gloria. ‘We do need permanent bodyguards and they come highly recommended. They do not have to like us to work for us.’

‘Okay,’ she agrees. ‘If that’s really how things are and they’re the best we could hope for then…’ She waves a hand in the direction they went.

Ken follows her unspoken command and leaves, saying, ‘I will renew their contract.’

It is now Gloria, Shawn, Sal, Sal’s three bodyguards, Kenthack, and myself.

‘Thanks for your help, Kenthack,’ Gloria dismisses him.

He gestures to Salhuteck. ‘This male and his entourage need to leave first. And after I depart, you should fold to an unknown point in space so that he cannot follow.’

I growl, Shawn gasps, and Gloria crows, ‘I fuckin knew it! I told you guys he’s out to get us! We can’t trust them.’ She waves toward the whole group including Shawn.

‘But you said I could stay!’ This is the first I have heard Shawn speak since waking from cryo.

Sal looks at him, startled and aghast.

‘Not if you’re conspiring against us!’ She waves toward Kenthack. ‘He’s a mind-reader. If he says you guys are out to get us, then you are!’

‘Not the human,’ Kenthack corrects.

We all look at Sal, but he’s looking at Shawn.

‘You wish to stay? You are not coming home?’

‘You have always said that I could leave if I wanted to. That it’s my choice. Well, I’m choosing.’

Sal dips his chin in acknowledgment. ‘Of course. Of course, I honor your choice, Small One.’

Sal snaps his clawed digits at his associates, and they all move toward their own shuttle.

‘Gloria, why are you allowing Shawn to stay with us? We should send him with Sal,’ I advise.

Gloria shakes her head.

‘But he held you prisoner. Why would you want to keep him?’

‘He was a captive the same as I was. A prisoner minding another prisoner is kind of a morally gray area, I think.’

I cannot believe I am hearing this from her.

‘I do not want him here.’

‘Sorry Lu, but I already told him he could stay and I’m not going back on it. It’s a big ship, you guys can just stay away from each other.’

‘I do not want him near you!’

‘You’re not in charge of who I hang out with.’

This is so frustrating! How can I keep her safe if she insists on allowing this ill-behaved, untrustworthy male into her life?

Before I am aware of it, I rumble a growl.

Gloria’s eyes widen and she slaps the tentacle I have wound around her.

‘You struck me!’ I accuse.

Why is she being like this? This is all Shawn’s fault.

‘You growled at me!’ she yells back.

She pulls my tentacle off her waist and steps away from me.

‘C’mon Shawn, I’ll give you a tour.’

They leave the shuttle bay.

Turning back, I see that Sal had paused his exit. He quickly resumes climbing into his shuttle and leaves with his associates.

I am left with Kenthack. Surely, he will leave now.

‘Sal is not any kind of threat to you without Shawn. He was determined to acquire a human companion for him.’

I tilt my head in understanding.

‘And Shawn is not a threat to anybody now that he has decided to stay on this ship.’

I perform a nod but realize this male does not know about human nods and so tilt my head in agreement again.

‘I will be going then. Good parting, Lu.’

‘Good parting, Kenthack.’

I am soon alone and free to track down Gloria.