Blood and Profit: Chapter 36

Mew watched as Toll and Rusty piloted their stolen cruiser into the active slip ring. “Come back here you rat bastard!” She yelled futility at the thick pane of clear plasteel. The electric blue energy of the ring dissipated as she hammered her fist into the wall cursing his name. She could feel her hand going numb and stopped punching the wall because the pain was pushing the black walls of fury out of her vision. She rubbed her knuckles of her throbbing hand and felt the warmth of fresh blood. Her gaze dropped to her hand. “That immature asshole isn’t worth breaking your own hand.” She chastised herself. When she looked back through the clear plasteel window again she thought she had lost her mind.

The energy of the ring had dissipated and yet emerging from the ring like a cheap magic trick on a grand scale were what she could only describe as giant tree leaves. Each leaf must have been the size of a star fighter. He jaw dropped in shock and she rubbed her eyes with her wounded hand, then checked the window again. The number of leaves had grown beyond a number easily counted, they resembled a cloud more than any tactical formation, and they were still emerging from the powered down ring. She watched as the ever growing cloud headed for the planet.

She completely missed the leaf that broke off and headed straight for her space station, and was shocked when the station’s proximity alerts went off. She reached for the tablet in her jacket pocket but was thrown to the floor when the leaf crashed hard into the side of the station. She sat up to see the ceiling lights flickering and watch as the metal of the station wall was forced inward by what looked to much like sentient branches and vines for her to assume it was anything else. When the hole was big enough a humanoid tree figure appeared. Leaning with one bark covered hand gripping the destroyed wall of the station, the other holding the right side of its tree like chest area.

“Please…” The figure gasped, attempted to take a step forward into the hallway, stumbled to its knees and caught itself with its free hand before it face planted into the floor. “I am Rootan of the Galacticseeds. We need, I need, your help.” He tried to stand up right while on his knees, grunted, doubled over in pain and passed out.

She saw the wound in his chest begin to seep freely between his loosened fingers. The station’s sensors were screaming about the hull breach but she barely even heard the sirens and the computerized voice didn’t even register in her mind. She was running down the hall looking for the nearest emergency med kit. She reached the closest one and found it completely empty, she tossed it violently down the hall and raced to the location of the next one. She didn’t know what this race was, which didn’t really matter at this point she figured as she reached the second emergency med kit and knew it was full just grabbing it off the wall. As she ran down the hallway she realized she didn’t know how they could use the Slip Gate when it wasn’t even on. As she knelt at the side of the bloody unconscious tree person and rushed to stop the sap like blood from rushing out of the deep gash in the bark that went deep enough to reveal the exposed ivory colored muscle fiber beneath his this protective skin, all she knew was that from here on out her life would never be the same, and she would never forgive Toll and Rusty.