Bay's Mercenary [Unearthly World Book 1]

Chapter 1

“What is it?”

“The
Tonan
warrior I traded with said it was an Earth female.”

“What’s an Earth
female?”

Blu
looked at his commander with some
exasperation. “That is.”

Titus scowled at
him. “Yes I know, but what the hell do you do with it?”

“I
dunno
.”

“Then why did you
trade for it?”

“It looked so
pathetic lying in the tiny cage the
Tonan
had it in.
It’s harmless.”

“Is it
housebroken?”

“I hope so.”

“What are you
going to do with it?”

“I thought I’d
give it to Zane. He’s been a little unhappy since
Betta
died. I thought maybe if he had another pet to take his mind off of his toff’s
death, he’d feel better.”

“So, you thought
you could replace a massive, intelligent toff with a bald un-housebroken female
Earth thing?” Titus was scoffing at him.

The idea had
seemed right at the time.
Blu
hadn’t intended to
trade, but the poor little creature had stared up at him with odd-colored, big
brown eyes and looked so miserable, he hadn’t really the heart to say no. The
Tonan
was going to kill it anyway.

“Well, just don’t
let it loose on my ship. The last thing I want to be doing is stepping in piles
of female earth shit or piss.” Titus gave his head a shake and walked away.

Blu
hunkered down to gaze at the
little creature. It was funny looking in a cute kind of way.
Blu
had never seen its pink coloring before and he liked
it, but the black, blue and purple coloring was a turn-off and looked strangely
out of place. Especially around the throat, and he didn’t think it was dirt. He
had tossed an old blanket in the electric box with it. Poor little bald thing
must have been frozen; the air in the ship was cool. The box was turned off for
now; before he went, he would have to turn it on.
Blu
didn’t know if the being could climb over the walls or not; the box didn’t have
a lid, but it was three feet high. The Earth female had legs, but he had only
seen it crawl on its hands and knees, which made
it
look smaller.
Blu
wondered if it was able to stand
upright.

A smell emanated
from the female; it needed a good wash. Perhaps he should give it a bath; he
would have to do it by hand. The wash stalls blasted their thick hides, and
Blu
was afraid the pounding water would peel the soft,
smooth flesh from its bones. The little female, he was told, was harmless; it
had no way to defend itself. The idea was intriguing, but the
Tonan
had to be right.
Blu
made
an inspection of the little creature. The being didn’t look like it could grow
bigger for battle; he couldn’t detect one decent wrinkle. It had nails on two
of its fingers, but the others appeared shorter so they must be easily ripped
off; they felt flimsy.
Blu
lifted its top lip. Its
teeth were small, white and there were no spaces for expansion; obviously, the
female’s teeth couldn’t grow either. He ran his thumb under the tiny row he exposed—they
were all dull. Maybe the little creature was substandard; it had to be a birth
defect.

The Earth female
made a small, moaning, raspy sound as he examined it. When it rolled over, it
didn’t wake and
Blu
decided he could physically check
it over later. He didn’t want to wake it and set it off again; its alarm was
loud. The female had screamed when it had first laid eyes on him, the tone was
high pitched and hard on the ears. He didn’t blame it, the female was so tiny physically—vocally
it could bring a warrior to his knees.
Blu
was at
least six foot eight and he was considered a little on the puny side by his
warrior partners. His brother was two inches shorter and was teased mercilessly
until he learned to toss everyone on their asses.

Hopefully, Zane
wouldn’t think the little thing before him was a gag gift. Then
Blu
would be stuck with it. He studied the being and again
marveled at how bald it was. It was easy enough to see it was female by the
exposed breasts. The females of
Blu’s
species only
developed breasts when they gave birth, and then it was only for a short time.
Their little ones began eating solids at a month—their mothers no longer needed
the breasts and so those disappeared, at least that’s what Finn said and Finn
would know.
Blu
did his best to avoid the females as
did his many friends, and the females didn’t bother with the males of their
species until they came into heat every other year or so.
Blu
didn’t think this female creature was lactating for a young one. It must be an
Earth oddity.

There was a small
amount of hair between its thighs on its mound and
Blu
just shook his head at the sight. The fur covering stopped really before it
even began—there was so little fuzz to begin with. To
Blu
,
the little creature’s anatomy just didn’t seem fair—there was naked, but this
was extreme vulnerability. There was dark, matted hair on the creature’s head
and tiny lashes around its eyes and two eyebrows—each individual and really
only a fine line of hair. The female shivered and
Blu
reached through the deactivated electric bars and pulled the blanket around it.
He stood up and flicked a switch at the side of the box.

The box normally
held pet toffs; the bottom was a soft mat. Even if it touched the glowing green
sides of the enclosure, it wouldn’t be hurt. The tiny shock the bars held was
minimal; if it wouldn’t hurt a baby toff, it shouldn’t hurt this creature
either—it was just enough to keep them from trying to climb out. Baby toffs
were a bit smaller than this female Earth pet and their hides were thicker.
Blu
thought about that for a moment;
tofflings
were also covered in an unruly mat of springy blue-black fur.
Blu
turned the electric voltage down a notch, not wanting
to hurt it.

Blu’s
people were warrior mercenaries,
not slavers, and this was obviously a pet of some kind. There was a bowl of
water in with her and
Blu
felt there was no way the
female could get away. He needed to resume his post.

* * * *

The little female
was sitting up and rocking back and forth with the blanket pulled over its head
in the very middle of the toff box, well away from the bars. Two other warriors
were crouched down looking at it. The female was shivering and making tiny
pathetic sounds. Its water bowl was empty, which was a good sign; she was
drinking. Sometimes pets had a hard time when they changed owners.

“How long has it
been awake?”
Blu
asked and crouched down to join his
friends.

“Not long, we
really just got here. Thorn and I were curious. Titus mentioned you had a bald
female thing as a pet for Zane. He’s going to kick your ass. Gag gifts are not
smart.”

“It’s not a gag
gift,
Jax
.”
Blu
practically
growled the words. “I was hoping to cheer Zane up.”

“Yeah, with the
way it smells I’m sure he’ll be thrilled to pieces,”
Jax
said and rolled his eyes.

Blu
sighed. “It does smell doesn’t
it? Maybe you could help me wash it.”

“No way,” both
warriors yelled simultaneously.

“It’s not
that
bad,”
Blu
said.

“
Blu
, you can’t put that tiny bald thing in our wash stall,”
Thorn said. “You’ll kill it. Nothing says ‘cheer up’ like a dead pet.”

“I already thought
of that. I’ll use one of my drawers and fill it with water.”

“Gross,
Blu
. You’ll have to sterilize it when you’re through, who
knows where this thing has been,”
Jax
said in disgust.

“Maybe I should
feed it first,”
Blu
muttered.

“What does it
eat?” Thorn asked.

“How the hell
should I know?”
Blu
scowled.

“Well, why not try
vida
bugs? Toffs love them,”
Jax
said and they all nodded.

Blu
went to another electric box that
was more oblong than the toff box, except somewhat smaller than the box the
Earth female was in. He scooped out a handful of huge hard-shelled creatures.
The critters were about six inches long, basically all black except for two
white, oval patches on their back.
Blu
remembered the
female’s teeth were dull, but it should be able to break the hard outer shell
to get the meaty, green moist innards. The furry long pincers clawed at his
hand, but they couldn’t penetrate his hard skin. It tickled.
Blu
hunkered down near the female earthling.

“Look, little
female creature, I have food for you,”
Blu
crooned
while smiling.

The electric force
field was off and
Blu
tossed the
vida
bugs in with it. The bugs seemed to be drawn by its smell and were soon all
over it. The Earth female screamed and jumped up, stumbled and kept screaming.
The female’s hands flew over its body trying to rid
herself
of the bug-eyed, beetle-like critters. The blanket the pet had wrapped itself
in fell to the ground and tiny fine lines of a red substance began appearing on
its white-pink flesh.

“Shit,
Blu
,”
Jax
yelled as all three
warriors jumped to their feet. “The food is eating your pet!
Do something
.”

As
Jax
yelled, the Earth female was climbing over the side of
the box to escape its attackers.
Blu
scooped the female
up into his arms, away from the bugs that were now climbing up him to get to
their meal. Thorn and
Jax
swept them off
Blu
and crunched them under their boots, making small
splattered puddles of goo on the floor. The female continued to scream and was
now pushing at
Blu
trying to make him release it.

“For fuck sakes,”
Titus bellowed as he entered the room. “What the hell is going on? And turn off
that pet, it’s too loud.”

“It doesn’t appear
to have an off switch,”
Blu
yelled to be heard.

“What do you mean—no
off switch?”

Titus stormed over
and twisted the female around in
Blu’s
arms. He
squeezed at its breasts, poked at the hole in its belly, yanked on fingers and
toes, and when he looked in its mouth, shiny white teeth clamped down onto his
fingers.

“Damn it, this pet
bites,” Titus said, snarling as he disengaged her teeth from him. “You can’t
let a pet that bites near young children; they could get some kind of disease
from it.” Titus smacked the female on its nose sharply.
“Bad,
female, bad.”
The female yelped and went limp.

“Aw, you hurt it,”
Blu
said.

“Maybe that’s how
you turn it off?” Titus leaned forward and checked its pulse. “I hope I didn’t
kill it.”

“No, I can hear it
breathing,”
Blu
said and lifted her a bit higher in
his arms, listening. He then wrinkled his nose and held it away from him. “Toff
shit smells more pleasant.”

“Maybe you should
have Finn check it over,” Titus suggested when the little bald creature
remained as still as death.

“I think Finn
would be annoyed if you asked him to look at a pet,” Thorn said, his look
decidedly skeptical.

“I’ll clean it up
first; maybe if it smells better, he won’t try and kill me,”
Blu
said.

With his pet held
in his arms, away from his nose,
Blu
strode off into
the ship hallway and headed for his chambers. A black door slid open into a
large room;
Blu
set the female down on a scrap of
floor covering and went to retrieve a drawer. He set the drawer down in his
washing chamber and let the blasting water fill the
squarish
,
leak-proof box. He stuck his hand into the water and frowned.
Blu
didn’t mind freezing cold water, but the little
hairless female might be chilled. He tried to warm it up a bit, but didn’t know
if it was now too hot—he didn’t want to cook it either.

“Damn, this pet
thing is trouble. I don’t know how to take care of it. I should have asked for
an owner’s manual. Damned
Tonan
could have given me
some instructions.”

Determinedly,
Blu
marched into his living quarters and snatched up the
female. When he set her in the cool water she stirred—and then things went from
bad to worse.