Tejeda was heading towards somewhere, and by saying 'somewhere', that is the most accurate way to put it. Simply strolling through an unknown ship with an unknown name. Unknown faces passed by him, most of them not even noticing his current persona.
"Hey, Karl, weren't you supposed to be on duty today?"
The voice came from a short olive-skinned man with small, apricot-shaped eyes who stopped right in front of him. Paying more attention to this man, Tejeda realized that he wasn't so short; Tejeda was too tall. Oh, right, he was Karl now!
The Nubilae giggled with a sheepish smile on his face. That face had such an easy way to make a fool's appearance, and those muscles looked like they were accustomed to make him look like that.
"I," he coughed softly, trying to alter his voice and tonality. Tejeda wasn't used to that low pitch. "It seems like that spoon hit me harder than I thought."
The unknown human's eyebrows furrowed as perfect cylinders. "Spoon? What is that?"
Tejeda shrugged. "Nevermind. Just point me in the right direction. I can't seem to remember where I was supposed to work today."
"You have clearly hit your head! Go up the corridor, and the last door on the right is Shayla's office. She gives the duties, and you are late. I don't want to be in your shoes now."
"You would stump and fall anyway. Besides, I can't possibly be late. The speed of time is a second per second."
Tejeda left the baffled man behind and went straight to Shayla's office. He stopped for a second before entering, arranging his ragged outfit. Was Shayla fond of muscle men, or should he change this body? That thought crossed his mind without any notice. He shook his head as if to toss away that idea.
After he entered the second in command's office, Tejeda went for an official salute. His body froze in the middle of the movement upon realizing that he didn't know what salute to use. There were no clear indications of what faction this vessel belonged to, no badges on people's chests. Most likely, these were hooligans or a rogue crew and, therefore, no salute was necessary. He remained slightly bent, with his right hand awkwardly half-raised in a dumb pose.
Shayla didn't see his gawky stare and posture as she didn't look at him at all. Instead, she greeted him with words thrown at him with harshness. "You are late. I put you on the exterior repair crew. If you die, there won't be any losses, and we are overcrowded anyway."
Tejeda nodded. He was able to get important information from what she stated. That was the reason they put people to fight when new recruits came in. As it turned out, Karl was on the bottom of the list of needed crewmen. He should work his way up the ranks if he wanted to avoid fighting or dying in the near future.
The perfect opportunity for him emerged sooner than he thought. A pair of bickering men in white suits barged into Shayla's office.
"I told you already. There is nothing wrong with it, biologically speaking. I have taken tissue samples, and there is nothing close enough to explain the problem."
The other man pouted and raised a hand. With a swipe-down movement, he opened a transparent screen in the middle of the room. A message appeared in red letters at the top left corner of the screen. "Welcome, Harland King, doctor in chemistry, the leader of the synthetic team. Species: Human. Security level threat: 0/10."
Harland opened data streams whizzing at light speed on the screen, mainly statistics and tables. "Shayla, please come and take a look. You haven't replied to any of our messages, and we are in dire need of you to decide if we throw all our carrots."
"What are the side effects of a non-carrot diet?" Shayla asked, rising from her chair and paying no attention to Tejeda.
"Well, the substances we take from them keep blood sugar levels under control, strengthen bones and improve eyesight."
Shayla nodded, crossing her arms over her chest. "We can make do without carrots for a while. Can't you find the source of this disease and cure the carrots we have?"
The two men shook their heads as their helplessness could clearly be seen in their eyes. "We tried everything. Testing various methods has been done in order to determine if something can delay the rotting process. Nothing worked."
When Harland King finished talking, he saw Tejeda looking at his screen over his shoulder. The blonde muscle man laughed. "I think I have an idea."
The Nubilae pushed the scientist aside and started working on the transparent screen in the middle of the room. Various data and formulas appeared as he continued typing. Shayla whispered into Harland's ear. "Do you know what he is doing?"
The man shook his head vigorously. "I have no idea."
Suddenly, Tejeda stopped and turned around to face the audience. "I have good news and bad news. Which one do you want first?"
Shayla smiled in amusement. "I will indulge you. Give me the good one."
"I have found a way to cure all the carrot stocks in the cargo bay and the hydroponics."
"Wonderful! I could applaud now if it weren't for the bad news."
Tejeda was lost there for a moment because of her smile. He recovered quickly and continued. "The bad part is that the carrots must be in a thermodynamic equilibrium on a descending vector from the orbit of a blue star."
Harland King burst into laughter. "This is the craziest idea I have heard in my entire life. And I work with people having underdeveloped brains. Yours is simply overflowing with muscles."
The doctor in chemistry touched the screen and swiped up, making it disappear. Tejeda wanted to stop him but wasn't fast enough. The Nubilae smiled. "Ha, I can do it too. I saw you doing it once before."
When Tejeda raised his hand and swiped down, the screen reappeared. This time the message in the top left corner was a bit different. "Welcome, Tejeda Hajar, Major in the Interplanetary Police, undercover expert for the Supervising Unit. Species: Nubilae. Security level threat: 10/10."
Tejeda whistled, the right corner of his bottom lip curled in an idiot stance. "Oops, I did it again!"
The green sky of Nubilonia, his homeworld, was a sight for sore eyes. As usual, the red dwarf star shone in the sky. Tejeda lived on the side of the planet that faced the sun all the time. The scorching heat was something he was accustomed to as evolution was extremely generous with his species.
Nubilonia was tidal locked to its star, meaning that the planet revolved around its axis once every revolution around its sun. Thus, it was forever facing the red dwarf with the same part. The planet was a perpetual desert on one side and a never-ending glacier on the other side.
Both parts of Tejeda's planet were dear to him. He was a Nubilae after all, so he could adapt to any extreme temperatures. It was the simultaneous exposure of his body to different extreme temperatures that posed the problem. As it was happening now when Tejeda awakened from his sweet dream regarding his homeworld.
Stretched upon a table, the muscular man was gripped by strong chains that pulled his limbs. Tejeda's hands were in an enormous kettle with boiling water and his feet in a basin with frozen water. There was someone who had been doing his homework. The best way to incapacitate a Nubilae was to do this.
A glare of annoyance rose from Tejeda's eyes as he tilted his head to one side. With her arms crossed across her chest, the woman was leaning against the desk. Though his ears heard nothing sweet, Tejeda could not fail to be entranced by her voice. "You are awake, I see. I hope you enjoyed your rest because you will need it. How are you feeling?"
The Nubilae's lips stretched as his usual sheepish smile appeared. "Hot on one side, cold on the other. Hmmm, I would say I feel good on average."
"We have read your file. I know everything about your excellent observation skills. So, I can assume you figured out that I have a soft spot for intelligent and funny guys. Your ruse won't work on me and I won't fall for you. Are you prepared for interrogation?"
Tejeda's grin spread even wider, while he stretched his limbs in an even more uncomfortable position. "But I am really an intelligent and funny guy. I can't help myself."
Shayla clicked her tongue and started the list of questions. "What is your mission?"
"That is a tough question and I will need to kill you if I tell you that. Let's just say I was sent in an undercover operation that went wrong."
She leaned more upon the desk. "You can bet it went wrong. Major Tejeda Hajar is powerless and ready to confess all his secrets to the Syndicate of Cosmic Freedom."
"Haha, the Syndicate of Cosmic Freedom? That is where I am now? Sorry, honey, but I have bigger fish to fry than you. Well, since you apparently already hacked the Interplanetary Police Database and know everything about me, I see no harm in feeling in the gaps."
Tejeda winked at Shayla before continuing. "I was sent to infiltrate a meeting between the Alpha Pirates and the Universal Consensus. I was discovered before finding out anything of great importance. Hmm, somehow that happens quite often these days. The short version is that I got a spacesuit and threw myself into the arms of destiny to save my life. And fate brought me to you."
Shayla wasn't impressed. "Are you telling me that you got here by chance? With no ulterior motives at all? And what is with this? Is it a new kind of weapon developed by the Supervising Unit?"
She had Carmen in her hand, tossing it up and then catching it like it was a toy. Tejeda's right eye twitched, his smile vanished. "Can you please give me Carmen?"
Now it was Shayla's time to smile and glow. "Is this your weakness? I mean, except for the extreme temperature difference."
Tejeda's eyes turned from blue to purple. It was such an unnatural color it sent shivers down Shayla's spine. The Nubilae yanked his limbs from the chains, smashing them into pieces. He tried to rise but his feet were blue. His hands were red with huge blisters covering them.
"Evolving on a tidal locked star, the Nubilae had to fight, to do anything in order to survive. That drove my race to become cowards and lunatics. This is highly imprinted in our very essence. But I found a way to fight through the cowardness and relinquish any self-preservation instincts. That is what makes me a security level threat 10/10. That is my weapon. That is Carmen."
Shayla was stunned and didn't know what to do or say. Tejeda was still on the table, looking at her with an understanding gaze.
The Nubilae continued. "There should have been a temperature difference covering all my body, not only the extremities. This prevents me from shapeshifting or reverting to my normal form. But once I remove the affected parts, I should be able to regenerate in a matter of minutes. Keep this in mind for the next time you catch me."
Tejeda shoved his hands in the cold water. After that, he took the chains that had held him in place, wrapped them around his hands, and smashed his frozen legs. Looking back at Shayla, he saw that the woman was terrified.
"You have nothing to be afraid of. I did all this for you. I am a mad creature and I always get what I want. Unfortunately, there are only a few things I care about. You are one of those."
Shayla's eyes widened in disbelief. Her eyeballs almost popped out of her head when she saw a purple tentacle coming out from the stump of the Nubilae's right leg. It came straight for her, wrapped around her waist, and brought her face to face with Tejeda. Her breathing halted as his lips approached hers. The kiss was short but ravaging, and Shayla closed her eyes, enjoying it.
The air coming out of his mouth was hot when he whispered. "All the things I said are true. You know I would never leave you, my dear Carmen."
The tentacle dropped Shayla onto the floor and snatched the spoon from her hand. Another purple tentacle appeared. It removed the cover over the air vent and went into the dark tunnel, pulling Tejeda and Carmen after it.
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