Star Trader Update .017

017.01

Boy, do I have motivation to find the perfect outfit and the best haircut my chits can buy. Forget that I would like to rumple the sheets with this dude if he is anything like his portrait - I don’t want to look like a frump beside him. I am going to buy whatever outfit I choose a size smaller. I’ll work out harder then I have in my lifetime between now and the delivery in another two weeks. I will have to advise Moby of my goals and have him adjust the menu to accommodate. He can pick up some fresh produce from the colony. It seems right to have a goal, something to shoot for even if it is a bit silly to think a guy like him might take a liking for a gal like me. But alas, a girl can dream…can’t she?

Star Trader Update .016

016.01

“I’m going down to the planet,” I announced.

“I wouldn’t advise that,” Horus replied immediately.

“Nor I,” Sam chimed in, “you risk coming in contact with whatever he is spreading below and bringing it back on the surface of the pod to contaminate the entire ship.”

So, I stayed on board Ma-rye-a and my crew and I were witness to the largest genocide of this century. Attalla released biological death from his little black box and the iisadsu fell from the sky like rain. He must have told the oacoco to stay below the surface during the release. Ma-rye-a told us she could still detect their life forms.

We tracked the movements of Attalla’s pod as he rendezvoused with the battle cruiser for a hull clean up.

We saw the cruiser’s crew deliver the body containment and disposal units to the surface and tracked their meticulous clean-up of the iisadsu species.

I collected Attalla’s personal items from his cabin and placed them in a capsule that Sam jettisoned into space.

Star Trader Update .015

015.01

“Sam? Get them off of us, now!” I yelled from the bridge. The iisadsu were not afraid of Ma-rye-a. They had attacked the ship as soon as she entered the level of the atmosphere that the iisadsu inhabited. I didn’t think they could do much damage, but I was in a pissy mood. It was as though they had expected us.

What they didn’t expect was Sam’s electrical pulse coming through Ma-rye-a’s outer hull. When he fired, their stunned bodies were blown off her like shooflies off a bug zapper. That action kept the rest at bay until we landed. There were a horde of them. The sky was full of the winged beings circling over Ma-rye-a like so many vultures over a carcass, but we weren’t dead yet. Not by a long shot.

“Ma-rye-a, now that we are down can you locate Attalla?” I asked.

“He is approximately 50 yards in front of us and 100 feet down,” she replied without hesitation.

I looked out the viewport in front of us. All I could see was a slip of the sandy beach and then the ocean.

Star Trader Update .014

014.01

Attalla sat at the table in the mess with his head in his hands. When I placed the cup of tea in front of him he flinched at the sound.

“Sorry,” I said. He had already told me that his head felt like a cracked egg this morning after being tranked last night.

Chee lay curled in her pouch on the table. She came out and approached Attalla for a pet or a bit of breakfast.

He pointed to her pouch without even looking up. “No, Chee. Pouch.”

The little mahserg turned around and returned to her pouch. I took pity on her and slipped her a grape.

“How much tranquilizer did Sam have in that dart?” he said into his hands.

“He loads them according to weight,” I answered plaintively.

Star Trader Update .013

013.01

I was so exhausted. I ached all over. To breathe was torture and he was sitting across my waist with his knife in his hand. Klaid had my hands pinned up above my head. He flashed his knife in my face.

“How about a little breast meat?” he threatened.

I screamed out in excruciating pain as he cut into the top of my left breast.

“3su, wake up,” Attalla said in my ear. “It’s a dream.” He soothed back the hair from around my sweat dampened face. “It’s all right. I’ve got you.”

He was sitting on the edge of my bed. I was still in my clothes from the night before, but he was in some sort of pajama bottom and nothing else. I must have awakened him from a sound sleep. Chee sat on his shoulder her tail curled around his neck. Her dark round eyes were bigger than usual from watching me struggle with my rampant sub-conscious.