Page 26 of Sway’s Peace (Delivery Service #2)

Grace’s gaze ran up and down, and up and down again, Loyalty’s body. He didn’t look dead. But ratchi really did not come in that color, and their quills didn’t glow like that. And that hole the plasma pistol should have carved in his chest was completely gone. How…

“I see you have a lot of questions,” Loyalty said, chuckling nervously at her obvious stare.

“I mean, yeah,” she admitted, cocking her head. “You’re… What does that mean that you’re a parasite? Like, are you a worm or something in his… your… that brain?”

Loyalty laughed at her confusion. “I am not a worm. Although, that’s pretty funny. Are you curious about what I am?”

“Well, of course. Like, are you purple because you took over that body? How did you heal from getting a plasma bolt through the chest? Did it hurt?”

“Of course, it hurt.”

“So, you can feel the things in that body?”

“Naturally. It’s mine now.” He lifted his hand, showing her the soft, mostly scaleless skin of his rough palm.

“The ratchi body is my host. It’s like a shell that I’ve adopted.

My body, my true body, is the blood that now runs through these veins.

The blood, the lymph, the spinal fluid – everything.

There is no brain in this skull. My body dissolved it when I entered through his veins.

What you would call my brain then replaced it, taking over all the open-ended neurons instead.

My body acts as the fluids in this body, powering all the cells and their activities.

It’s purple now because of the proteins my body creates in the process of claiming the host and the cell machinery.

It’s something like a calling card for my species.

We can take over the body of anything of a sufficient size, but in the process, they always turn this color. Makes it rather easy to identify us.”

Grace leaned in closer, looking at his palm.

Specifically, at the soft webs between his fingers, right where there were no scales at all, and the skin was thin to allow for free movement.

Humans were strange in the fact that their skin could be so thin in places that their veins were frequently seen, but that didn’t mean you could never see the veins of others.

She could see a little one right there in the space between his fingers.

But it was a dark, almost black, shade of purple. As she watched, it throbbed once, then twice, then began twisting like a tentacle waving hi to her.

“Oh, wow!” She breathed, leaning in closer.

Loyalty was the one who pulled back. Giving her a startled look.

“Sorry,” she said quickly, standing straight. “That was rude.”

He blinked at her, startled. “No, it’s fine. I just… expected you to be disturbed.”

“You did that on purpose, right? Like, you can control your veins? That’s incredible.”

Loyalty stared at her, surprised. Her cheeks burned and she looked away. Sway put his arm around her waist, pulling her in with a glare at Loyalty.

The xenom male chuckled at him. “I told you, I have no interest in your female. I have a mate.”

“I didn’t know your species mated.”

“How did you think we reproduced then?”

“I suppose I figured you must bud off like an amoeba. Isn’t that what your true body is anyway?”

“Sway!” Grace hissed, nudging his side.

Loyalty, however, laughed. Completely unoffended.

“I’ve a mate, and she’s beautiful. She managed to get the body of a lovely laral female.

We wish to have a large family. We only needed me to claim a body of a suitable size to breed her, and, of course, one she would enjoy looking at and laying with. ”

“A laral?” Grace frowned. “Your species can hybridize? I thought only my species could do that.”

“No. Not at all,” Loyalty assured her. “Like how my body dissolved the brain of this body, it also dissolved the gonads and replaced them with my own. The seed I produce is not of the ratchi body, but of my xenom body. The same is true of my mate. Her body dissolved the ovaries of the laral she claimed and replaced them with her own gametes. The young we shall produce will be xenoms; there won’t be anything ratchi or laral about them.

“That is why I wanted so badly to get my ship fixed. I left my home planet to claim this body after my deal with the previous owner was fulfilled. And now that I have done so, it’s time for me to return and start our family at last. But the ship I purchased came from a rather…

irreputable dealer. He was the only one who would work with me.

And he apparently took full advantage of that by selling me a subpar starship.

It won’t function at all anymore, and now I’ve just helped violate the only male who could fix it. So, now it appears I really am stuck.”

“But you’re under contract,” Grace reminded him. “I completed it myself.”

“Didn’t stop them from ignoring me before,” Loyalty said sadly.

“And unlike Sway, I don’t have a captain to threaten him with.

Or any friends. Or the likelihood that anyone will side with me.

It would be illegal to break that contract, but he could argue he was scared of my kind, and the authorities would probably agree that it was reasonable to be afraid.

It wouldn’t be the first time that my species was discriminated against that way. ”

“That’s terrible,” Grace said, frowning. “What if I go back? I’m the dock master. I can force them to work on your ship.”

“And put you back in the grasp of that male? I would never ask that of you.”

“But you have to get home to your mate…” Grace said, frowning.

“How many credz do you have?” Sway asked, giving him a look.

“More than enough to buy my fare,” Loyalty said immediately, giving him a hopeful look. “Is your captain willing to take me on as a passenger?”

“We’ve not a travel company. We’re a delivery company. We’ve delivered people before.”

“How is that different from a travel company?”

“You’re not a passenger; you’re cargo,” Sway said simply. Like that explained it.

Loyalty gave him a long look before asking, “And your captain won’t mind you’re offering to ‘deliver’ a 108?”

“Your credz are as good as anyone else’s.”

“Yeah, that’s what Uver Prime said when they took them to repair the ship that definitely isn’t getting repaired. Not exactly a comforting reassurance.”

Instead of answering, Sway once again took hold of Grace’s hand and led them around towards the back of the inn. Grace blinked at his grip. He took hold of her so assuredly. Like he knew he had the right to hold her. And she wasn’t trying to stop him either.

His hands were warm and soft. Like the softest velvet.

They came around to the back of the inn where a pretty garden was waiting for the guests to take a stroll through. Back here, she finally spotted the large fountain that she heard before. It was dreamy and beautiful.

But they didn’t linger in the garden. Instead, Sway stepped into a plot of ferns and up to a window that he promptly knocked on. He then waited.

Grace cocked her head. Confused. “What are you doing?”

Sway knocked again.

The glass was tinted, not allowing them to see inside. So Grace jumped when the panes suddenly separated, revealing a gray skinned s’skree male, his quills all up, a ribbon wrapped around his wrists. He didn’t appear threatening, angry, or scared. Just sharp. Ready.

“Captain,” Sway greeted as he looked over the three of them.

“I take it this is how you dealt with it?” He asked, tone unreadable. It was the same voice as the guy who Sway commed earlier, asking for permission for something.

“Grace is the female who I went out with yesterday,” Sway said in the same kind of expressionless voice Grace used when she was giving reports at work.

“Her boss was assaulting her. The 108 tried to intervene. Got shot. We stopped him. I threatened him. 108 can’t get his ship repaired now, and Grace is out of a job. ”

That was, probably, the grossest oversimplification of what happened that Grace could imagine. It left out so many details and blunted so many others. There was no way that could make any sort of-

“Good work,” the s’skree said, nodding once. “I’ll send the twins to make sure he keeps to our contract and his mouth shut. How much work is left?”

Sway looked at her, and she realized a bit late that she was the one who had that information. It was very slow in returning to her, however.

“Er, well, the, er, life support system was replaced yesterday. Shielding was all replaced today. Everything else has mostly been completed and installed. The only thing left, really, would be the, er, subspace crystal installation due tomorrow.”

“Good,” he said again, praising her this time.

And maybe that should have been insulting, it wasn’t like he was her boss or she answered to him somehow.

But just the way he said it – calm and authoritative, with no hint at all of being patronizing – actually made her feel like she’d accomplished something.

It was strange, but not unpleasantly so.

Grace was aware she had a desperate desire for validation from authority figures thanks to never getting it from her parents, but surely it wasn’t so bad she’d be satisfied with any sort of praise from a halfway confident person.

But before she could grapple with that, Sway was talking again.

“The 108 wants to be delivered. He’s willing to pay.”

The s’skree looked to Loyalty. “You want to ride with us?”

“If you’ll take me,” Loyalty said, his voice pleasant but cautious. Like he would be more surprised by an agreement than a rejection.

“Where are you going?” The s’skree asked simply.

“My home planet. Xelfeter. It’s pretty far from here, even by swing.”

“Any danger getting there?”

“No. But not many in the Coalition are ever willing to go, even just to my star system. There’s no transport ships I can charter or ride. I tried before.”

“I’ve already picked our next job. They take priority over you. They’re paying extra for speed the moment our ship is done.”