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Olivia suddenly stopped as she came around the corner toward sickbay. Two bodies lay slumped on the floor. For a moment she froze, before her mind caught up. She had been there when those two had died. She had watched the AI drone kill them.
The sounds of voices drifted from the door to sickbay.
“Your lipid ratio is incredible.” Mesu chirped.
“Thank you; I have been watching my diet lately,” Javi said.
“I meant incredibly high. How are you even alive?”
“I’m Slu, our ratio of lipids are higher than most species. As a medical drone, you should know that.”
“I do know that. These are high for a Slu. This would explain why you’re so droopy. You don’t have enough muscles to keep your body rigid.”
“I’m droopy because I was electrocuted.”
“Electrostimulation of your muscles might be necessary since you appear to have never exercised in your lifetime.”
“I’ll have you know I was once a member of the Royal Marines.”
“I assume that was some kind of ceremonial organization.”
A moment of silence hung in the air before Javi said, “Mostly.”
Olivia took the pause in the conversation to come all the way into sickbay. Mesu had several arms extended and was running scanning devices over Javi. Behind them, Vlasa lay motionless in the central bed. A health monitor beeped periodically.
“How’s Vlasa?” She asked.
“Alive.” Mesu said enthusiastically, “I calculate his odds of survival to be significantly higher than Javi’s.”
Both Olivia and Javi frowned at Mesu. She didn’t like the idea of an AI on the ship, but if Vlasa would live because of it, she had to force herself to get over it. Putting the drone aside as best she could, she focused on the other thing bothering her.
“Javi, what happened over there?”
The old Slu turned one eyestalk away from Mesu to look at her, “On the station?”
“Yes.”
“We were taken before some scum lord. He and Noah had some history. Then he tortured us. It was not particularly enjoyable. Captain pulled us out not a moment too soon. How did you find us, by the way?”
“She forced Serene to give her the transponder codes of the slave ID bracelets.” Olivia explained picking up the collar Mesu had recently removed from Javi. “We locked the teleporter onto those as recall devices.”
Javi nodded, “Ingenious thinking. I would expect nothing less from Ari.”
Hesitantly, Olivia asked, “So they were really slavers?”
“They appeared to be.”
“How did they know Noah? When they captured us, it sounded like he owed them something.” She as hesitantly.
“I did not learn any particular details. But a person like Noah is likely to have a lot of colorful history with unsavory sorts.”
Olivia crossed her arms, and her frown deepened, “That is not very comforting.”
“If you are looking for comfort, I can engage my psychology subroutines.” Mesu hummed.
An involuntary shudder went through Olivia’s shoulders, “No, definitely not.”
Another shudder came up through Olivia’s feet. She turned to see Squee approaching. When he reached the dead bodies outside of sickbay, he bent down and hefted them both up onto his shoulders. The dead Slu slid right off and fell back to the deck with a sickening slurp.
“Lacking bones, when my people die, we become very gelatinous,” Javi said.
Dropping the dead Slu for the second time, Squee grunted, “That is not an understatement. At least it remains in one piece.”
“That will not last long.” Mesu said happily, “Slu decompose at an exceptionally accelerated rate. Part of your trouble is due to the outer layer breaking down. Within a few hours, the mass will consist of mostly liquid and chunks of muscle and sturdier internal organs. I’ve always liked that about Slu. Their bodies seem aware of how fragile they are, and wither away quickly.”
Olivia shuddered again, “I’m going to go find you a bucket. Or something.”
Taking the opportunity to get away from the dead bodies and psychotic medical drone, Olivia ran down the corridor. As she ran, she valiantly tried to keep her lunch down. Today had already been quite trying. The last thing she wanted was to hurl on the captain’s shoes again.
Passing by the mess hall, she heard another set of voices drifting down the corridor. This time, she intentionally paused to eavesdrop. She had to know what Noah and the slaver Serene were discussing, now that they were alone.
“While you’re strip searching me, I could strip search you.”
“As fun as that may be, I’ll keep the cuffs on you and my gun in my hand.” Noah said with a heavy sigh.
“Who said you had to stop doing either of those things? After all, I did give you these.”
“No, I lost those cuffs. These are new.”
“And here I thought you were sentimental.”
“I kept the gun didn’t I?”
Olivia changed her mind, and continued on her way to the cargo bay. She had heard enough to know definitely that Noah had a close relationship with slavers. She wouldn’t be caught unaware around him again.