Mandy and the Tentacle Monster (Urf Oomons #1)

*BANG*

‘Smallest!’

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I wake up. Why am I awake? So very tired. I am just going to resume sleeping-

*BANGBANGBANGBANG*

‘Third! Open this door!’

‘What in Creation? Second, why-‘

As soon as the door slides up, Second is grabbing my upper arm with the clawed hand of his upper arm. Then he is pulling me out the doorway and down the corridor. At first, I am too shocked to speak. This is very strange. Second has never touched me. Not ever. What is he doing?

‘Second, release me,’ He does, but continues down the corridor. ‘What is going on?’ I inquire of him.

‘Your pet is awake.’ He yells over his shoulder. He’s rushing away from me now because I have slowed down while he has picked up speed.

I speed up to ask, ‘Why has she been removed from regen?’ I am snarling as rage suffuses me. Has Second touched her?

‘She has not been removed,’ now he is contradicting himself. Because if she has not been removed, she would still be unconscious.

‘Is she awake or not?’ I demand.

‘She is awake in regen. You need to remove her because she is very distressed.’ I catch up with him as he reaches med bay and I scoot ahead of him to enter first. I rush over to the regen tank and sure enough, there she is. Eyes wide open, her limbs are jerking about. She is definitely in distress.

I climb the tank and reach inside to snag her with my upper arms. I pull her up through the goo. When her face is clear of it, I brush bits of goo off. I remove the oxygenating matrix, then brush many strands of her goo-soaked mane off of her face. I climb down the side of the tank with the cups on all my tentacle working to hold fast and then release for a smooth transition. I do not want to jostle Tiny. She is already in distress. How could she wake up in regen? This is not how the tank is meant to work. When an injured person is submerged, they should descend into unconsciousness. Like stasis, but the goo works to regrow or heal any injuries. After the goo is done, the patient does not regain consciousness until removed from the tank.

Urshteck said that the Urf Oomons failed to respond properly to knock-out gas. They may have uniquely robust biologies that do not respond well to sedation? The regen goo and the knock-out gas have different mechanisms for inducing unconsciousness. How-

When her eyes meet mine, I’m startled. They are a deep, dark brown. So dark it is hard to make out her tiny round pupils contracting in the light of the med bay. She stares at me intently, undoubtedly taking in our many differences. I am likely as alien to her as she is to me, but lacking her disarming cuteness. Studying me, she sees my smooth head, ruffled ear flaps, eyes a bit larger than hers with vertically slit pupils. My nose is not so beak-ish as hers, it lies flat to my face with nostrils slit along the sides. And my lips are very thin compared to the plush, pillowy pink of hers. I’m sure my pointed fangs look horrifying to her compared to her kind’s harmless, flat teeth. Then she glances down to see my claws pressing into her pink flesh. I am holding her securely but not hurting her.

Her eyes are getting wider and wider as she takes in my attributes. Her distress growing with each detail until she turns to see First enter the med bay. She jerks in my arms, staring at his tentacle arms as they move about, bringing him through the door.

The next thing I know, she has gone limp and unconscious.

‘Third, why is there living cargo on our homeship?’ First asks with deceptive calm. Glancing at him I can see that he is more than a little angry. His chest is suffused in darker, splotchier gray than the rest of his form. The color is spreading over his neck and down his torso.

I lay Tiny’s unconscious form on an exam table and pull the built-in guard rails up on either side. I then turn to First and say, ‘I am sure Second has told you all about it.”

‘Second told me that Urshteck has tricked you into caring for his live cargo. That you are enthralled to this animal and are guarding it like a grinto-beast in rut. That you have turned into a mindless, berserking lunatic since you brought it aboard. He says you have put us all in danger of arrest and sentencing,’ he states. His flippant tone belies his confrontational body language.

Second huffs, ‘I did not say-‘

First holds up a taloned hand, silencing Second. ‘It is exactly what you said. Third and I are both well aware that you tend towards exaggeration.’

He turns back to me. I have moved around the table, blocking both of their lines of sight so they can no longer study Tiny. ‘I set up an alarm to notify me when you left your room so that I could come and ask you, Third. What is it exactly that you are doing with this creature?’