Lucky 13 (NaNoWriMo 2017)

Chapter 16: In the eyes of the Beholder...

"Captain," Ren interrupts. "I've secured the prisoner and..."

I break away from Connor and glare at my pilot. "Good work," I retort. I turn back around, but Connor has moved off and is being pestered by Nyan. I mumble something unflattering about Ren and walk over to the now handcuffed Shike.

Ren has stripped them of all obvious weapons. Their gun isn't anywhere near them, their knife is gone and many of the other pouches and blocks that studded their armor are now missing. I kneels next to them to get a good look at them.

A Shike helmet thuds to the ground next to them. "Doesn't look like there's any life support systems in there," Ren comments. I glance up at her. "I know you're not happy with me," she says.

"And why would you think that?" I say.

"Your tail, you've thrashing it back and forth ever since I interrupted you and Connor." She sighs and kneels down next to me. "It isn't for me to judge, but you need to keep your mind on the things that can kill you before worrying about people's injuries. That can be just telling me to secure the prisoner while you check on Connor, but you didn't do that. While you were undressing him our friend here could have woken up and taken a shot at now defenseless Connor."

"Ren, you're getting awfully close to insubordination."

"You don't get it," she says. "Connor survived with nothing more than a broken arm, but you proceed to remove his armor before ensuring that his shoot was incapacitated. He could have died."

"But he didn't." I say it with an attempt to push my confidence, but the resolve I'm trying to project is crumbling inside.

"I'm sure that makes you feel better, you know what makes me feel better, double checking that all the people trying to kill me are dead."

She pulls the helmet off of our shike. My question about the fins on their helmet is answered. They have bony white plates that sweep back from their skull at an angle. Their skin is a light brown with white stripes mirrored across it. They have five slits across their face, I can't determine which are their eyes, nose, and mouth, but I assume that they are arranged similarly to thee other species.

"What are we going to do with them?" Ren asks.

"The sky is going to come crashing down in twenty hours, we're going to get them out before then."

"I mean, how are we going to do that? Stretcher, travois, do you want to wait for them to wake up and then force them to walk?"

"A travois sounds like our best bet," I admit.

"Good." She glances at me after a few seconds. "This is where you give orders," she says.

"Ren, start construction on a travois," I tell her.

"Yes, captain." She starts climbing the nearest tree, attempting to get ahold of branches long enough and strong enough for the travois.

Nyan joins me in looking at my newest prisoner. "Have you ever seen anything like them?" I ask them.

"Anyone."

"What?"

"Have I ever seen anyone like them, not anything," they correct. "And the answer is no."

"Captain." Ren returns with two long branches. "Help me with this." She begins strapping them in between the sticks while I hold them steady.

"Connor," I call out, sending him running to me. "Are there any other nearby?"

He closes his eyes and concentrates for a second. \\No, they are the only ones I can detect.//

"Good, that means we're not going to walk into a firefight." I stand and start walking in the direction we had been following before the fight. "Ren, Nyan, begin transporting the prisoner back to the ship."