Chapter Ten

"My head hurts."

Eden peeled back her eyelids slowly. Her head throbbed like angry woodpeckers were drilling at her temples. Rubbing her face above the nose, she hefted herself off the ground. She had been lying on a mattress on the cold cockpit floor of Thiago's ship. She looked down at herself and gasped at a sharp jab that shot through her ribs.

She wore a black robe with a warm, woolen lining. Someone had bandaged her waist and left arm with a breathable brown cloth. The bandages didn't cover all her wounds. She had other scratches around her body. A bright pink salve coated her scratches; it felt cool when she touched it.

Most of the scratches looked superficial. Even the deepest wound running across her stomach was nearly healed already.

She glanced over to her right at the cockpit. The spaceship was on auto-pilot, steering itself through the surreal imagery of rolling clouds tinted with the rising sun's rusty amber hues. Thiago sat in the driver's seat, hunched over the screen and looking at his dashboard.

"Hi," said Eden, shrugging the robe off her shoulders to look at the cuts on her back. "How long was I out?"

Fully absorbed with the profile of his next target, Thiago didn't answer her.

"Hello? Thiago?" said Eden, her forehead wrinkling in annoyance. She twisted her lips thoughtfully. "Holograms aren't a thing here, are they?" "

The sound of a heavy object hitting something repeatedly rang against the steel floors beneath them. Stools and tables around the ship rattled from the hits. A cupboard door swung open from a particularly hard blow. Eden shrank up against the wall of the vessel instinctively. She slid up to the side, peeking out the window of the cockpit door. She didn't see anything unusual. Hercules, however, circled an old rug centered on the floor, snapping his pincers and growling.

"What was that?"

"Your mouth seems to be working fine. Relax," said Thiago stonily, without lifting his eyes from the screen. "He's properly restrained and encased in a 2-meter thick slab of concrete. He can try to escape, but no one's ever managed to break out of our cell."

Eden's eyes widened in sudden realization. "Are you out of your mind? Is Krypt under us? How did you do that? Never mind. I thought we might have giant space termites."

"These low-lifes have to be transported to the authorities one way or another. They won't come aboard my ship willingly."

"I guess you're right. I never thought about it," Eden muttered, grumpily tying her robe around her waist. "I feel like things are getting a little tense here, so I'm just going to go upstairs and cool off. I'm glad you and Hercules are okay."

"We are. No thanks to you."

"What was that?" said Eden, stopping midway to the cockpit doors. "I don't think I caught your meaning."

Thiago glanced over his shoulder at her. He was puzzled, but he could follow directions. "I wasn't whispering, and I think my intentions were clear. Did you not hear me? I said, no thanks to you."

"I know what you said!" Eden snapped. "I wasn't looking for a thank you or anything for having your back out there in that gross, old warehouse, but at the very least, you could not blame me."

"Why would I thank you? You broke your word and came running after me when I explicitly told you not to. You had no training and no plan. I'm beginning to doubt whether you people on Earth were born with common sense. That was wildly irresponsible. Krypt might have killed you."

"Not only was I in the martial arts club in high school, but I've completed a total of three hour-long self-defense classes as an adult. It's not like you aliens are any better," Eden shot back, one hand firmly planted on her hips. She raised her voice over Krypt's floor-shaking antics in the other room. "You're all surly and ungrateful, and I was born and bred in New York City! I don't know how Hercules stays sweet and cuddly after hanging around with you all day. I didn't see you for over an hour. What was I supposed to do? I was worried sick."

"I had everything under control until you showed up."

"From where I was standing, it sure looked like Krypt was about to maul your head."

"Shut up!" roared Eden and Thiago in unison, glaring heatedly at each other.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

They turned their attention to the windshield, currently overlaid with a grid map and blinking red coordinates. The craft began a smooth, slow descent. The floor rumbled as the spaceship released its wheels and hovered over the landing strip of a pod suspended above the ground. Behind the landing strip was a prestigious government building. It was grandly regal in contrast to the heavily-manned prison guard towers and drab walls surrounding it, garnished with spikes that expelled threatening sparks.

Eden muttered to herself as she followed Thiago out of the cockpit. "Stay back," Thiago warned.

He grabbed onto the edge of his wall of weapons and lifted it over his head, revealing an extra storage space stuffed with broken junk. Casually throwing a few objects over his shoulder, he reached in and pulled out a rectangular wooden box with an antenna loop protruding from the side. He swung the pivoting wall down and set the box onto a podium. He lifted the cover of the yellow switch next to his weapons, retreating as the floorboards pulled back.

Eden gawked as a horizontal cell raised from the ground. Krypt lay flat on his back, his wrists restrained with a unique set of strong black handcuffs. There was a metal contraption fitted over his head like a middle schooler's over-engineered headgear. His flashing eyes balefully monitored every one of Thiago's movements, bits of frothing drool collecting on the sides of his mouth.

Thiago remained composed even as Krypt began hurling obscenities in his direction. He proceeded to fiddle with some knobs and twisted out the other antenna of the rectangular device to its fullest.

Raising his hand like a conductor, he waved a hand in front of the antenna. A haunting, high-pitched note emitted from the instrument. The beautifully serene chord was received with equally intense animosity as Krypt cried out in his cage, writhing in his headgear.

"That was on the lowest setting. We can do this all day. Or you can choose to cooperate and make this easy for both of us. We'll walk into headquarters together, and you can keep the dignity you have remaining. I'll drop you off at the office, collect my credits and be on my merry way. Which will it be?"

Krypt turned away from Thiago. A hateful look in his eyes was still present, but subdued. The criminal focused on a stain on the floor next to him. Thiago flashed a triumphant smile, nodding.

"Wise choice," said Thiago, keying in a security code to unlock the cage. He stepped aside just in time to avoid a collision as Krypt pitched forward. Shaking his head, he helped the criminal to his feet as Hercules bared his pincers from the sidelines. "Hurry up now, off you go."

As Eden opened the front door, Krypt lumbered past her, leering one last time before ducking his head under the doorway and exiting the craft. Thiago slung a navy-blue satchel over his shoulder, turning back to Eden before slipping out the door.

"I'll be back in half an hour. 45 minutes at most. If I'm not back in 46, don't worry. Stay put!"

"Could you be more annoying? Get out of here!" Eden rolled her eyes as the door sealed shut in Thiago's grinning face.

She winced as she felt a hot, stabbing sensation on her back. Her wounds had not healed as much as she thought. Holding onto her back with one hand, she wandered into the kitchen for something to cure her hunger and take her mind off her pain. Hercules trotted along behind her, happily wagging its broad, forked tongue.

"Are you hungry?" Eden cooed. She ruffled the top of Hercules' head, the creature purring agreeably under her touch. "I'm hungry too. Let's raid your master's cupboards and see if he's got anything edible around here."

She retrieved a dusty, half-open box of what appeared to be alien cereal. The box had a picture of colorful marshmallows shaped like tiny, sweet humans. When she opened the box, a whiff of mold and neglect waved into her face. She swiftly dumped the box in the trash, fanning out the air in front of her.

"Bachelors," gagged Eden, rolling her eyes. Hercules nudged her from the back, guiding her forward. "What's up, Herc?"

The creature led her in front of a small oven, blinking back at her expectantly. She unhooked the latch of the oven door, pulling out a tray. She felt her chest warming at the baked dish waiting for her. It looked suspiciously like macaroni and cheese, only the homemade macaroni shells were as purple as yams, marinating in a green sauce. An extra coating of crispy, edge-burnt cheese lay on top of it.

"Did he make this for me?"

Hercules nodded in reply, beckoning toward the refrigerator with its hairy legs. Eden opened the fridge, a gasp of astonishment lodging in her throat. The top two shelves of the fridge contained cans of pomado-honeyberry pop. Unable to suppress a smile any longer, she beamed to herself, grabbing a soda can and cracking open the tab.

"Are you saying I'm a little too harsh on him? Or is he making it difficult for me to leave?"

Hercules made a small noise, raising four of its legs as if to shrug at her. Eden grabbed the dish and reached for the cleanest utensil she could find before joining the creature in its nest. She tucked her legs underneath her and rested her head against the warmth of Hercules' torso. Unleashing a long, drawn-out sigh, she began to dig into the dish.