Page 138 of I'm Not Your Pet

They’d rounded a corner and I watched, stricken as the three pirates made garbled, pained sounds, and in quick succession their bodies hit the floor.

“Ay-hteen dow-n, only twehlve more to go!” a chipper voice said in human-speak.

I’d recognize that voice anywhere.

Huu-goh.

What—

What was he doing in the hallway?—

Did Huu-goh just kill three pirates?

“My god, Captain,” Mala said from beside me. I hadn’t realized he’d been there at all, as focused on the pirates as I’d been. “You sure know how to pick them, don’t you?”

“Wha—”

“How are we on few-ehl?” Huu-goh asked the other two blobs. One looked Sahrk-sized, which relieved me. And the other—no doubt, was Briar.

“Ai-vah got six more vai-els,” Briar answered.

“Ruh-n back and get more from Ushuu,” Huu-goh replied. There was command in his voice I’d never heard before. I didn’t understand what they were talking about, but it was clearly something dangerous enough to incapacitate the pirates.

If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed it.

The large Sahrk at Huu-goh’s side abandoned him to accompany Briar to the lab, and I shook as I stared at the single, solitary blob that was my mate. I couldn’t blink for fear he’d disappear. He hummed our song under his breath—totally unaware that I could hear him—and yet somehow…soothing me anyway.

When the Sahrk and huu-man returned, Huu-goh directed them down the hall away from the bodies they’d just created.

He’d picked a good spot to fight back, as this hallway was the longest on the ship and the only direct route to the cargo bay and “the lake” at its deepest levels.

For the next hour, I watched as Huu-goh murdered pirate after pirate in cold blood. One by one, section of the hall by section of the hall. When they ran out of what he called “few-ehl” he’d send the others back for more.

The pirates that had not encountered the little group yet were confused. I could hear their chatter through the speakers. Confused as to why their comrades were not answering when they tried to contact them. But none…not a single pirate stood a chance.

Not when they were pitted against Huu-goh’s brain.

It was silent for a while as Huu-goh and his entourage waited at the entrance to the corridor they’d worked their way down. They’d just felled what I was certain were the last of the pirates.

“That was thih-rty, I theenk,” Huu-goh whispered into the otherwise quiet hallway. “What now?”

My head swam.

“I…cannot believe that just happened,” Mala sounded flabbergasted. He’d been enraptured the entire time. “I…feel like I am dreaming.”

I couldn’t get a single word out, so I didn’t try. I simply continued to stare.

“How do we get the lai-ts back on and the dohrs to open?” Huu-goh asked, turning his attention to the Sahrk beside him.

“We wihll need to detaa-ch the shihp that has bore-ded,” the Sahrk that was with them responded in the same odd tongue the huu-mans favored.

“Kewl.” I didn’t understand why Huu-goh was saying his own last name, but I didn’t try to. He often did that when he was excited. My thoughts were swimming as it was. “Can you do that?” he asked. “Briar wihll come with me to the he-hlm.”

Where was he going?

I could understand most of what he said, but that last word, “he-hlm” was unfamiliar.

“No—” the Sahrk tried to argue. “Briar comes with me?—”

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