Tom Hughes
New Chapter
Waj the Slj Joins Our Crew
Bo slammed the airlock door behind me and helped me haul Waj over to an open space on the deck. Back in gravity, Waj was easily over 250 pounds and about seven feet tall. Like I said, she looked like a sleeping praying mantis with a slight bluish tinge to her deep black skin.
I noticed that she also had several scars across her forehead, each with a different color. The top slash, was a bright red, the middle was a deep forest green and the bottom one was a light purple.
“Where the hell are the releases to her helmet?” asked Bo as we worked to get air to Waj. She seemed to have a seamless suit from helmet to body wrap.
“Break the visor. She must have air,” advised PK.
I nodded and grabbed a heavy tool from the nearby console to smash the clear covering. Two things then happened. First, Waj took a deep breath as the life-giving oxygen flowed into her lungs, and next she grabbed my throat by one clawed hand.
“Crazk crazk Onrao Pl!” yelled PK at the now wide-awake Waj, who was staring up at me with incredibly sapphire-like eyes.
Slowly she loosened her grip and abruptly sat up.
Bo was standing in the corner pointing a wide-beam T gun at her.
“What did you say to her?” I croaked as I rubbed my throat and watched Waj slowly climb to her feet while swiveling her head 180-degrees in quick, sharp motions.
“I said we were friends and had saved her life. Give her the translator to wear so we do not have any more problems, and Bo, I think you can put down your weapon. Waj lives under an honor code.”
Nodding, Bo put down her gun and walked toward Waj with the translator, which looked like a large pendant on a golden wire. Bo handed it to Waj and the two females shot visual daggers at each other. Waj slipped the translator over her neck.
“You have saved my life. You have the gratitude of myself and
my House. I shall protect your lives, as we are now bonded.”
Waj’s voice sounded like a silvery flute. It was almost musical.
I was stunned to hear a Slj speak in such a beautiful way. Always before when they addressed me, or any human, it was in a rough rasping voice and sounded like a series of compressed growls and coughs.
“My god but you have a beautiful voice,” responded Bo, looking directly at Waj. “Do all Slj speak this way?”
“Only to another Slj. We use a special voice modification when we speak to you Lessers, but the now that we are bonded you are an honored member of my House, and you hear the true voice of the Slj as we hear each other.”
“Permit me to introduce ourselves. I am PK, the ship’s computer, and you are speaking to the female Bo, and the male Ranko, who is the one that brought you in from the void.”
Waj turned and looked down at me, her bright scintillating blue eyes boring into mine. She then slowly leaned forward like a toppling building.
“You have my special thanks and that of my House. I give apology that I may have hurt you. Do you feel pain?”
I shook my head while massaging my throat. “Nope, I’m okay.”
Waj listened to the translation and nodded. “Good.” She then strode forward to the view screens and studied the instruments, all the while shaking her massive head.
“I do not know where in Slj space we are. I only remember everything blurring and a strange type of sound.”
I glanced over at Bo and we both nodded our heads. We were not about to let Waj in on our little secret. I noticed that PK was also keeping quiet.
To fill in the sudden void in conversation, I piped up, “We’re as stumped by what happened as you are, but right now we need to figure out how to get into normal space before we run out of life support.”
“I detect that we are moving, although the engines have been powered down. I am firing a flare to determine our speed.” Once again PK sounded like a worried computer with an English butler accent.
A flash of light suddenly appeared about five kilometers from us and soon was drawing to my left, then was completely out of visual range.
“We seem to be caught in a kind of space current,” commented PK with a slight bit of awe to its voice.
“Like a stick in a river flow,” agreed Bo.
“I’m firing up the engines now, the hell with conserving our power,” I said as I lit her up and we proceeded to barely move, even at full G power.
“It’s like we are stuck in glue or something.”
“More like molasses, Bo, from what I can sense.”
Waj had been listening to our conversation and watching the screen.
“I believe we are now moving faster, and it seems it has also caught my ship.” Her silvery voice sent shivers of delight down my spine. It was as though a musical chord was playing with very pleasing notes.
The screen showed nothing by which we could at least fix our position, other than a new flare fired by PK which disappeared twice as fast as the first one. The three of us looked at one another. No one said a word.
Wherever we were being taken by the space river, we were being
hauled along at an ever-increasing speed.