back at the salivating ape.
“More like it knows who it wants to mate with,” Daniels said.
Alexa pursed her lips. “It and the rest of the males in this room will soon realize they’ll be dead if they tried.”
Raul laughed again and clapped his hand on her shoulder. “We’re just teasing you. Don’t need to get yourself worked up. We’re family now. Don’t you know that?”
“Are you going to do your jobs, or do I need to fire you all?” Hysterian said, shooting them all a withering look. “Keep your hands to yourself, Raul.”
Raul dropped his hand from her shoulder. “Yes, Captain.”
Her crewmates went to help Hysterian with the new crate. She moved to join them when Pigeon, the ship’s manager who’d also lagged behind, stopped her.
“Ms. Dear, if you ever feel uncomfortable, please don’t hesitate to come to me,” he said as if to make her feel better. As if she didn’t know what she was getting herself into. “I’ve been on many ships, traveled through space most of my life, and I know how hard it is to be a female in this field, alone with men for long periods of time.”
Pigeon was the oldest among them. Nearly wizened with gray whiskers and white hair, he had the appearance of exactly what he said he was: a lifelong crew worker. His face was thin with shallow wrinkles, and his nimble hands barely hid age spots and their decreasing elasticity, Pigeon looked like he’d spent years working hard, yet hardly in sunlight.
“You come to me if anything happens, even if you’re unsettled. It’ll come to an end, I promise. I may be old, but I’ve championed many women in my time.” He smiled. “And our Captain made it a point to look out for you, knowing your unique situation.”
“My unique situation?” she asked, not sure she should be offended. Men like Pigeon, feeling as if they needed to help the poor females in their industry, were all too common. Alexa couldn’t count them on two hands. Whether in training, or in the field, there were always a few.
And why had Hysterian asked someone to look out for her? Did he think she couldn’t take care of herself?
Alexa shook her head. It didn’t matter. His opinion was less than nothing.
“That this is your first job. It’s not easy, spending long spans of time in space. Your circadian rhythm gets all jacked even if you follow the health guidelines, you’ll see. Your feminine cycle—”
“Is none of your business,” she snapped. Alexa stopped Pigeon again when he grew flustered and tried to apologize. “I don’t need your apology. I appreciate your concern and will come to you if something should happen that I can’t take care of myself, but this is hardly my first time traveling through space. I can watch my own back.”
Pigeon smiled. “Good to hear.”
“You two coming or what?” Raul called.
With one last glance at the locust, whose creepy gaze followed her every movement now, she joined the others at the new crate.
The rest of the afternoon went on without incident, and by nightfall, Alexa was certain that her first meeting with Hysterian and the crew wasn’t something that would often be repeated. She could still manage to make herself relatively invisible.
Except to Raul, who was always where she was.
He’ll be a problem, she mused when she hauled a bushel of leaves to the male locust’s enclosure. It was feeding time, and even though the creature had calmed down after the tranquilizer spray from earlier, it was still very much alert. It’d only acted up again when he saw the female locusts being placed in their enclosures.
The females, unlike the male, were less aggressive. After their initial fear, they settled easily into their spaces. It gave their enclosures time to replicate a small, simulated habitat for them. Raul was feeding them while she took on the male.
A stream of drool fell from the side of its mouth as she placed her bushel into the drawer. Whether it was hungry for food or her, she had no idea.
She didn’t care to know.
She didn’t like the locust either way. Alexa closed the drawer and let the food drop into the space. The male grabbed it with its four arms and tore into it, crushing chunks of bark with each bite.
If they could see it now… She thought of Horace and Daniels. As she stared at the locust feasting with a violence that didn’t make sense, since there was nothing it needed to