The door closes after the last man leaves the pub. Tejeda resumes his previous position and finishes his drink. By now, we are both soaking wet, but neither of us seems to care. My reason is the seven beers. I wonder what his is."Apparently, you're not leaving, and we've run out of time," he says as he turns to face me. His purple eyes sparkle. A chill goes down my spine. "These guys aren't going down without a fight. I might have to die to quench their hunger for vengeance. But the crystal I took is far more significant. It must be safeguarded."Tejeda leans forward, his hand reaching over the bar for the knife the bartender uses for the lemons. He sits again in his chair, gripping the handle with both of his hands, the pointy tip toward his stomach. I have seen this stance before in movies when someone performs seppuku.Filling his lungs with air, his chest expands, and he thrusts the knife right into his belly. I cover my mouth with a hand but not my eyes. I need to see what happe
Floating through the vacuum of space wasn’t Tejeda’s thing. Not knowing which way was up or down made him want to puke his guts out. But he couldn’t. Not in that spacesuit. That would have meant staying in his own puke indefinitely. The image made him want to vomit even harder.What was the point anyway? Weeks, months, or even years could pass till a spaceship would drop out of hyperspace in this god-forsaken part of the universe. It would have been best to take out his helmet and breathe in the void. But the cold touch of the spoon that hung on his neck strengthened him. Tejeda’s resolve was mightier than ever. He wasn’t about to let his poor lovely Carmen float in space forever.The Nubilae slowed down his breathing to preserve the oxygen and entered a peaceful state of meditation. His plan to pass as a human hadn’t worked out too well for him and led him into this predicament. Tejeda sighed. He should have known better than that a
The muscle man looked at Carmen and laughed. Tejeda holding out the spoon in a melee stance was also pretty amusing. The crowd created an echo like pieces of dominoes falling. Everyone laughed, Tejeda included. He had learned long ago that laughing when everyone else did was good, even if he didn't understand why the amusement.Suddenly, the blonde pack of muscles stopped, his blue eyes shooting Tejeda. “Why are you laughing?”That question put the Nubilae in a really tough spot. He had felt this way only once before when one of his tentacles emerged during a conclave of the Universal Consensus. Their Grand Admiral was an important man. It was well known that he didn’t possess tentacles or otherappendages.All things considered, Tejeda gave the same answer as back then. “It is one of my hidden abilities. That is how I stretch my face muscles. Do you like it?”His opponent wasn’t impressed or amused by the response
Tejeda was heading towards somewhere, and by saying 'somewhere', that is the most accurate way to put it. Simply strolling through an unknown ship with an unknown name. Unknown faces passed by him, most of them not even noticing his current persona.“Hey, Karl, weren’t you supposed to be on duty today?”The voice came from a short olive-skinned man with small, apricot-shaped eyes who stopped right in front of him. Paying more attention to this man, Tejeda realized that he wasn’t so short; Tejeda was too tall. Oh, right, he was Karl now!The Nubilae giggled with a sheepish smile on his face. That face had such an easy way to make a fool's appearance, and those muscles looked like they were accustomed to make him look like that.“I,” he coughed softly, trying to alter his voice and tonality. Tejeda wasn’t used to that low pitch. “It seems like that spoon hit me harder than I thought.”The unknown
The green sky of Nubilonia, his homeworld, was a sight for sore eyes. As usual, the red dwarf star shone in the sky. Tejeda lived on the side of the planet that faced the sun all the time. The scorching heat was something he was accustomed to as evolution was extremely generous with his species.Nubilonia was tidal locked to its star, meaning that the planet revolved around its axis once every revolution around its sun. Thus, it was forever facing the red dwarf with the same part. The planet was a perpetual desert on one side and a never-ending glacier on the other side.Both parts of Tejeda's planet were dear to him. He was a Nubilae after all, so he could adapt to any extreme temperatures. It was the simultaneous exposure of his body to different extreme temperatures that posed the problem. As it was happening now when Tejeda awakened from his sweet dream regarding his homeworld.Stretched upon a table, the muscular man was gripped by strong chains that pulled
The darkness inside the air duct wasn’t a problem for Tejeda. Once his eyes returned to their usual purple hue, he was able to see extremely well even at night, as well as through objects if there were any signs of life he was able to lock onto. In the end, the Nubilae were predators, and hunting provided them with camouflage and vice versa. Evolution was what threw Tejeda’s race into this unending circle of transformation.After crawling through the vent for a couple of minutes, Tejeda spotted the wall panel he was looking for. The subspace communication network had a ramification node there. It was one of the things he searched for while doing the calculations for the carrots disease. Hiding information in plain sight was another one of his skills. Even if he resented technology, he was rather good at it.Once his message passed through the communication array and was successfully streamed into the subspace, Tejeda sighed, taking a well-deserved break bef
Tejeda’s vision blurred on her face. He raised a hand and rubbed his eyes. A gentle hand caressed his cheek. When he could finally open his eyes, he saw Shayla’s jade glare. His head was on her lap. His body felt different and a weird metallic taste fouled his mouth. The Nubilae clicked his tongue in displeasure. “Shayla, have you given me to drink blood? I am not a vampire, for fucking out loud!”Her gaze hardened. “This is what I get for saving your life? Would you prefer a dead man’s saliva?”As Shayla leaned over him, Carmen fluttered above Tejeda’s nose. He turned it to look at himself in its reflection. His bald head was shining, enhancing his high cheekbones and amber eyes. He had a short beard that had not been shaved in a few days, which gave him a distinct masculine look while letting his strong jaw stand out. That was the face of Kalden Deltak, the leader of the Syndicate of Cosmic Freedom.Still watchin
Kalden Deltak’s shiny head leaned over technician Trong Kell's desk. The captain circled his fingers in the air above a tiny device. “Oh, what does this do?” Kalden’s fingers went straight for an even tinier red button in which all the circuits converged.At the last second, the technician grabbed his wrist. His index finger was grazing the top of the button. “Captain, that is the self-destruct button. It will blow us to bits, and it will take half of the ship with us too.”“Aha, so this is a bomb!” Tejeda grinned as if he was the smartest being in the universe. “Why do we have this here?”Trong Kell moved his glare toward Shayla, who was standing a bit further away near the door. Following his gaze, Tejeda understood its meaning. “Don’t worry, Kell. Shayla is on board with everything. Now, answer my question.”“Well,” the technician mumbled, “it's one of the b