Page 3 of Pirate by Parrot (Terran Reset #9)

MEL WATCHED THE VESSEL approach and be slowly settled onto the floor of the cargo hold.

Marko flew out and settled on Mel’s shoulder. She was given a quick look into everything Marko saw via an implant Ves had installed.

“Well, Marko, it looks like we have company. Are you adjusting to the lighter gravity?”

“Shut up, bitch!”

“Thought so.”

She scratched Marko under the chin as the ship went through a decontamination protocol. Marko hadn’t touched anything, and there wasn’t any atmosphere.

Bots rolled forward and opened the ship, splitting it and then rolling the container with the Terran in it out onto the deck.

“I will wake her. You may want to appear smaller, Mel.”

Mel frowned. “What? Oh.”

“Get on your knees, cunt.”

“Really, Marko? That is a little crass, even for you.”

Marko ruffled her feathers and settled in.

They watched the bots start the waking protocol.

The container began to show glyphs that indicated it was warming the occupant. Mel crouched and waited. The lid exploded upward, and a woman with glowing fists and a wild expression hovered above it, one glowing fist pointed at Mel.

Mel grinned. She said in English, “Well, fuck me.”

The woman paused. “Say that again.”

“No, but I can say I love your outfit and would kill to meet your tailor. All I get is industrial spandex. My name is Mel. I am one of the Terran Resets. You are...”

“Norel. Specialist Annabelle Norel. What year is it?”

“Ves? What year is it?”

“Annabelle Norel disappeared sixteen years ago, according to Citadel records. I have been in contact with them, but they wish to speak to her.”

She sank and sat on the pod. “Sixteen years. Oh, god.”

Annabelle put her face in her hands and started to sob.

“Be quiet, bitch!”

Annabelle lifted her head in astonishment.

“Marko, not helpful. Sorry, Specialist Norel. My parrot was part of my volunteer agreement, but I didn’t expect to run into too many others who spoke English.”

Ves said, “Mel, Marko now speaks nineteen languages, all of the Nyal Imperium.”

“Aw, fuck. That isn’t going to be awkward at all.”

Annabelle chuckled. “So, you are actually human.”

“I was. My alterations were a little more physical and less psychic. Marko was adjusted to fit my new size. I was supposed to be a mail-order bride of sorts, but no one wants me, and then Marko is claiming that she selected my current colouration. I am the same colours she used to be.”

Marko fluffed herself up.

“If you would like to go to the com room, I can take you there, but don’t freak out if I stand up.”

“I can’t promise,”

Annabelle said.

Mel shrugged and stood. Annabelle gasped. “Holy shit!”

Mel smiled. “Yeah. Big girl problems. So, come this way, please.”

She led the way through the ship, and Annabelle flew behind her. “So, were you in training to be a guardian?”

“No. I was a hired bodyguard, but my last client sold me. It got ugly for a year, and then, it was decided that I was too much trouble. They passed me around and finally sold me with my spotted history over and over again.”

“I just want to give you a hug.”

“That would be good. The first year was... horrifying.”

“Oh. Shit.”

“String ‘em up. Cut their balls off.”

Annabelle chuckled weakly. “So, the parrot understands?”

“The parrot and I are linked, so I can see what she sees if I try, and when we were talking, I had images come to mind, and Marko interpreted those.”

“Marko? I thought you said it was a girl.”

“Marko was named decades before she came into my care, and I had no reason to believe it wasn’t a he.”

Mel grinned even though Annabelle was behind her. “That is also where the language was acquired.”

“Filthy bitch!”

Annabelle chuckled. “Got it.”

They entered the com room, and Ves was already dialling the Citadel. Annabelle perched in the Mel-sized chair and waited.

“So, how far out are we?”

“The ass end of the Nyal Imperium. This station was set for a gravitational force of five. Like Jupiter plus.”

Annabelle looked around warily. “What happened?”

“Ves welcomed a guest, so I am in a suit to keep me together. Marko doesn’t care because she has transcended protein-based feathers.”

Ves spoke. “The ladies insisted that we bring you on board.”

Annabelle swallowed. “That is the station?”

“Yeah. Sounds kind of sexy, but he’s too much man for me.”

Ves clicked open his mic, paused, and said, “Mel, you have to stop flirting with me.”

“Why? It’s a fun hobby.”

She didn’t mention that her food had gotten exponentially better since she started.

The screen sprang to life, and a Citadel logo filled the screen.

A being with flared-out ears and a soft-green complexion filled the viewer. “Specialist Norel, you are found and very much alive.”

Annabelle nodded and leaned forward. “Yes, and I am eager to get back to the Citadel.”

“Impossible. Your debt load for search efforts is extreme. Unless you can come up with seven hundred fifty thousand credits, we can’t take you back.”

Mel blinked and whispered, “Ves, how much did Norel make in a year?”

“Fifty thousand.”

“Fuck me.”

Annabelle’s eyes were streaming. “You don’t understand what happened. What they did to me.”

“We understand that you were abducted while on duty, which meant we had to send a replacement. Then, there were the efforts to locate you and the reward offered.”

Mel paused and whispered to Ves, “See if the reward is still standing.”

There was a pause and a whisper, “Yes. To be collected by delivering her alive and well to the Citadel or any Sector Guard outpost, even Guardian bases.”

“Who pays more?”

“Guardian bases. The Imperial court supplements them. They are paying over a million for her safe return.”

Mel chuckled. “Neat. Ves, are there any functioning vessels on this station? Something that fits me?”

“Why do you ask, Mel?”

“Because Annabelle wants a home and deserves to be somewhere she feels safe. So, we bring her to a safe place, collect the reward, pay off the Citadel, and she is a free woman.”

“Unusual train of thought. You want to free her.”

“Once we pay off the Citadel, she will be free to choose her path, and with her basic skills, she can take a position in planetary defense or in law enforcement.”

Mel watched as Marko waddled up to the seat where Annabelle was begging.

“Fuck off, you poxy cow!”

Marko slammed her beak down on the console, and the connection was cut.

Annabelle looked at the bird, and Marko looked back at her. “Ask the tall bitch!”

Annabelle looked around, smiling through her tears. “That would be you?”

“That would be me. Ves is making a few calls, and we are going to get you a reward for being alive and a place that you can call home and get some healing.”

She stood up. “Come on, we are going to discuss my plans over food. You have been out for a while, and Ves does a particularly nice herb soup. Hope on, Marko. Time for snackies.”

The bird thudded to her shoulder, and Annabelle stepped toward her. Their little trio headed off for some food.

Mel explained her musings and left Ves to work on getting them some transport.

“So, you just asked the station for transport?”

“Yeah. I mean, he’s a space station. He has to have a vehicle stashed somewhere, and I can’t image creeping around in a standard shuttle. I am kinda hard to fit in the back seat.”

She ordered food for all three of them, and since Marko’s came out first, she set her bird on the perch near the dispenser and put the bowls in the loops included on the perch. Marko hopped around happily and nibbled away.

“Were the stands and such always here?”

Mel laughed. “No. Marko started making demands as soon as she was in here. Getting me out was one, and making herself comfortable and getting snacks was another. I have a bedroom, the common spaces, and a gym to work out in, and Marko has everything else: perches in every room and a supply of snacks she can summon at will, but she prefers to have them summoned for her cuz she’s a pretty girl.”

Annabelle looked at the tray that Mel brought her. “Wow. This is a lot.”

“I will eat anything you don’t. I require three of these trays as I need more stuff.”

She smiled. “They don’t make fruit with extra density.”

Annabelle asked, “You really mean to collect a ransom for me?”

“A reward. I will collect the reward, pay your bill at the Citadel, and then you have a number of places that will do wonders at helping you work through your trauma and become more yourself again.”

Annabelle blinked. “What? I thought you wanted the money.”

“What would I do with money? I can’t settle on any world with normal gravity. I have no idea what species I am compatible with, and I have my bird for company. I am good with Vendari Station. It’s quiet. I can exercise without someone staring at my ass, and Lunar Base sent me all of my favourite music. I am really content here.”

She smiled. “I know I look weird, but I really want you to be somewhere and happy. I... know what that kind of trauma can do to a person, and to experience it more than once would send you into a spiral. So, Ves has been looking at Guardian bases and spas since they are closer, and a few look likely as good places to get yourself therapy, healing, and decide on your next move.”

“Just like that?”

Annabelle was sipping at her green soup. “This is really good. My compliments, Ves.”

“Thank you, Specialist. Marko and Mel are honest critics.”

Mel chuckled and began to eat in earnest.

Annabelle smiled and continued with the soup, moving on to the bread and then the other dishes. “Why did you turn the gravity down?”

“Because I don’t want my first human contact out here to be in flatland. I need way more gravity than you to function normally.”

She got up and picked up her second tray, putting the firsts in the cleaning slot.

Mel sat and continued eating. “I spend about an hour and a half per day just consuming food. None of the denser offerings sit well with me. Apparently, there are fruits to help with that, but we don’t have them here.”

“Well, if this works, I will help you do high-gravity research.”

“Thanks.”

Ves said, “I can tell her what she needs to know.”

Mel snorted. “But, sometimes, I am in the middle of things before I think to ask.”

“Right. I will have a vessel prepared for you in twenty hours. I have received several answers to our query, but you will be forwarded the reward, and Specialist Norel will have a place to recover on Rai.”

“Why is that familiar?”

A display projected in front of her and Annabelle as an aerial shot went in on a lush green world with minimal tech. When the population was highlighted, Annabelle blinked. “Is that...”

“It looks like a combo of Admaryn and a very powerful species. The pointy ears give the elves away every time. There are two Terrans on the surface, now related by marriage, more or less. One is a Reset like I am, and the other is from the first wave.”

The women were highlighted in what were more kimono-like clothing than anything else. Each was standing with a local that had the stamp of the Guardians, and Fade had four children, all grown and standing near her.

“Wow. Those are tall kids.”

Annabelle stared. “I have seen a few Terrans with kids but never with them already grown.”

“The file says that Fade’s children are in Guardian training for planetary and extra-planetary defense.”

“What file?”

“Uh... Ves, are you doing that thing again?”

“I am.”

“Oh, Annabelle, you are seeing the image, and I am getting the intel from the files that Ves has accessed. It’s something he’s been practicing.”

“How?”

“Oh, I was lying on the deck, and before they woke me up, he jacked my brain full of implants. It’s an attractive arrangement on a scan. Even Marko thinks so because two of them are hers, but the ones between us are a little awkward and at will.”

Annabelle blinked. “They did what?”

“Ves needed to communicate with me, and I didn’t speak his language, so he had to download mine from my mind. By the time I woke up, I had a headache but was speaking what I thought was English but turned out to be Vendari.”

Ves spoke. “It was necessary. She was not rising, and I could not communicate with her. Marko suggested direct intervention, so I downloaded a map of a Terran brain, scaled it up, and put in the filaments. They have mostly absorbed already.”

Annabelle cleared her throat. “Do you think they will let me stay on Rai?”

“They do have a retreat there that the other Reset is working on, and they specialize in getting Guardians the help they need and finding out what their heart needs.”

Annabelle paused. “That is what she does. She helps them open up what their soul wants.”

“That is what they say. So, do you consider Rai a possible destination?”

Annabelle smiled. “I think it’s a good start. I am already wearing the robe.”

They giggled and finished their meals, talking about Earth, changes, and society moving forward as one in slow starts and jerks. Some countries still tried to flail around and impose their will, but that faded quickly when the benefits of the Alliance were withdrawn from all warring nations. Minerva may not be acknowledged by all, but Gaia was making her presence felt. Having a Lunar Base that no government could claim was also a handy thing. It kept the Alliance moving along smoothly.

Ves directed Annabelle to her quarters where a terminal had been set up, and Alyla’s face was bright and smiling, her monochromatic patterns bright and her grin wide.

“Hi, Annabelle. My name is Alyla, and you have met my mother, or maybe her alter ego, Recruiter Norz. She has things to work on, but she asked me to talk to you as long as you need until you are comfortable, no matter the topic.”

Annabelle walked to the chair and took a seat. Mel listened to her start the conversation, and then she left the Terran to her conversation.

Mel went to bed, and Marko came in and chortled on her covered perch. She didn’t need the darkness, but she liked to be close when Mel slept.

Mel had one question for Ves regarding her companion, and the answer was that processed foods became fuel and made Marko a self-contained unit that needed fuel for an input. No messy base of the stands aside from cracked seeds and splashed water.

Mel settled for bed in her bodysuit; a solar shower was fine for the small amount of time Annabelle would be with her.

She muttered, “Whatever kind of vessel you are cooking up, Ves, can you give me instructions on how to fly it?”

“It will not be necessary. I am going with you.”

“What?”

“I am sending myself, bots, and a link to this station with you so that you are not unguarded.”

“Why is that a thing?”

“Because your people are worried about you and wish to make sure that you are protected. I will protect you.”

“You are a space station.”

“Who knows how to fly a ship.”

“Ouch. Mean. So, do you have a robot or something?”

He chuckled. “Or something. Rest. Relax. Tomorrow, you will get to see the stars.”

“I can see them from the station.”

She yawned and settled to try and sleep.

“Not like this. The Rai system is particularly beautiful. You and Marko will have fun.”

“Why are you so concerned about us enjoying ourselves?”

“I am concerned that you and your companion have not seen the best of what the heavy worlds have to offer. Rai is not a heavy world, but it is near several. They see your people often.”

“My people?”

She yawned again.

“Heavy worlders. Rest now. I have to fit the ship with rations.”

She chuckled and closed her eyes. The light in her room dimmed, and she heard, “Night, you cow.”

“Back atcha, Marko.”