Mandy and the Tentacle Monster (Urf Oomons #1)

Something is wrong with Seven. For two days he’s been avoiding me. That first day, I thought that he needs some space. He’s been through a lot, what with being frozen, then thawed out wrong and almost dying, then being resuscitated, then getting in a fight with Baht. Baht, who turned out to be the scariest fricken thing I’ve ever laid eyes on.

Picture a spider, like one you see around your house. Except for all black. Now make him huge! With a body roughly the same size as a human’s, but great long spidery legs. Instead of a head like a spider though, he kind of has the shoulders, neck, and head of a person. Kind of. It’s hard to make out his features because his coloring is a deep, flat black. And his glowing red eyes kind of obscure things too.

It was all very startling. And horrifying. And kind of amazing too.

I did a good job of not running away screaming in fear or passing out. I figured that that would be pretty rude after all the ways that Baht has helped me. I do wonder though how long Baht is planning to stick around. Not that we could get rid of him. He proved that when he pinned Seven to the floor like a bug. The last thing I want to do is offend him, But has he just moved onto our ship? Does he plan to stay forever?

I’m not going to bring it up while we’re still trying to get Lu and Ken back, but I am worried that he’s made himself very at home here.

Maybe that’s why Seven has been avoiding me? Because Baht is always around? I have a deep-down worry that it’s because of what we did before he was kidnapped. Maybe he’s embarrassed that we had sex and he doesn’t want me to be all over him, making him uncomfortable.

It might be that I’m jumping to conclusions. But if a guy fucks you silly, then flees your very presence the next time he sees you, that says something doesn’t it?

I need to shake myself out of this. I shouldn’t be hanging around the corridors hoping to encounter Seven. I have a lot going on right now. I should be working with Baht to get Ken and Lu back. And apparently, I own a fortune in coin-credit things. Those could be put to use rescuing enslaved humans. If Seven is avoiding me because he doesn’t want to be bothered with me anymore, then I could use those credits to buy my own ship. The tricky part is flying it. You need an implant to interphase with a ship, unless you have a natural affinity like Baht. I don’t have either. And I don’t want to be alone on a ship, even if it’s my own. I’ve experienced that recently and it was no fun. If I’m rescuing humans though, some of them are bound to want to stay with me. They can’t go back to earth.

And what am I going to do about this alien-human-hybrid pregnancy? That’s my most pressing issue, isn’t it?

I’m contemplating all the things I should be worried about besides Seven while I’m eating my new favorite kind of noodles. They are sprinkled with salty-crunchy things, like tiny croutons, and covered in a spicy-citrusy dressing. Yum.

That’s when I see a movement out of the corner of my eye and I turn toward the doorway, but whatever it was is gone. I speed over as fast as I can to stare down the corridor, and I see Seven, that cowardly sneak! Moving so fast his tentacle arms are a blur.

“Seven!” I yell at him, “Get back here!”

He stops, holding still. I can feel his indecision. He might decide to speed away and I wouldn’t be able to catch up to him.

“Don’t you dare! We need to talk!”

He hangs his head, all his tentacle arms stilling for a moment as his torso starts changing from a light grey to a deep, dark blue. He turns and starts moving back towards me, and he looks so miserable. Not just the blue color, but also the way he hangs his head and slumps his shoulders in defeat.

Why is he acting this way?

When he is directly in front of me, he doesn’t say anything. He just stands there looking like a sad puppy.

“Seven,” I start, but then stop because I hadn’t really planned what to say to him.

Huh.

Well, I need to say something.

“Come eat some noodles,” I suggest as a stalling tactic, “Isn’t that why you came to the dining room?”

He nods, “I do not want to bother you. I can come back when you are not here.”

“I’m not bothered.”

He nods again, then goes and gets himself some noodles. He then sets his bowl down on a completely different table than the one my bowl is on.

I make an exasperated sound and grab up my bowl and go sit right across from him.

He starts twirling noodles around his claws and eating quickly and neatly.

“Are you upset with me?” I ask.

He shakes his head but doesn’t look up at me.

“Look, Seven, we can’t go on forever with you avoiding me all the time. Tell me what I did, so I can apologize. Then we can just pretend like it never happened,” now he’s looking at me in a way like he doesn’t know what I’m talking about, “Maybe you feel like I pressured you into something? And if that’s the case, I’m sorry. I won’t do it again, I promise.”

“I do not-,” He cuts himself off, shaking his head, “To what are you referring? I do not recall you pressing on me,” his skin starts to lighten and it’s turning the faintest pink. Then he says “If you are talking about the strange human mouth-pressing you instigated, you need not apologize. I enjoy your human customs.”

He turns a sparkly pink-purple color as he’s talking and I’m glad to see it. I know that these are happy colors so he’s not upset about my “strange human customs.” I smile at him in relief.

“I thought you were upset about all that,” I explain, “what are you avoiding me for if not that?”

“I do not-“ he suddenly leans over toward me and audibly sniffs, “Tiny are you-“ he moves around the table, right near me, “Your scent has changed.”

“Oh, well, there is probably a good explanation for that…” I stall. Because I’m pretty sure I know what has changed my smell and I don’t know how Seven will take the news.

“You smell divine,” he purrs and starts petting my hair as if he can’t resist.

Well, I guess we’ve made up. He just needed to smell me, and now we’re good.

Aliens are freakin weird.

“So, Seven, remember when we had sex?”

“Mmmmm,” his purr deepens, “I remember breeding you. I remember you begging for it and yelling my name in pleasure-“

“Yeah, that, well I think that the reason why my scent has changed is because you implanted four eggs in me when we did that.”

His hand stills in my hair and his purring stutters to a stop.

“Eggs?” He asks, blinking at me, “By the Void.”

He sits back and looks at me, moving his eyes over my whole form then back up to my face.

“You are hos- I mean carrying my young? Four?”

I nod, “Are you happy about it?”

“I am amazed. But, is this safe for you?” He is a riot of blues, purples, and pinks.

“Not really. Humans give birth to live young and aren’t meant to carry eggs. I don’t know how I’m going to manage it.”

He’s slipped a few tentacles around me and snuggled me up to him, petting my hair and purring in my ear.

“Let us go to the med-bay. I would like to see.”

“Ok, but do you need to carry me?” I like being snuggled up to him, but I don’t want to revisit the old days when he thought I was a cuddly pet and insisted on carrying me everywhere.

He moves his arms like he’s about to put me down, but then seems to think better of it and holds me tighter.

“I would very much like to carry you, with your permission.”

I sigh, and snuggle back into the hard plains of his chest, “Fine, but just this once.”