WIP Wednesday - Clans of Kalquor 12: Alien Outcast

Imdiko Ulof, ship's cook, has his first encounter with Piper, the woman taken off a Bi'isil cruiser.

              When he was certain he wouldn’t commit carnage in the next few moments, Ulof triggered the automatic door into the brig. A single step in, and all the delicious aromas of his excellent cooking were buried beneath the reek of rancid Tragoom.

              “Son of a bitch! It smells like a sewer in here! You could have at least hosed that fucking piece of shit off—”

              “Ulof.” Nako didn’t yell, but he spoke with command. It stopped the Imdiko’s complaints, long enough for him to notice the woman.

              Further angry words, only temporarily derailed by Nako’s warning, stopped in their tracks. Ulof gazed into blue eyes and forgot the mountain of crap that life had heaped on him.

              Oh. She’s—oh. Hair. Pretty. Tiny. Lips. Kiss lips. Breasts. Legs. Legs. Legs. Oh.

              Inside his head, the ocean roared. Nako could barely be heard over it. “Say hello to Matara Piper.”

              Ulof fought his way to the surface, where he could speak to the goddess before him. “Hello.”

              “Ulof is my Imdiko clanmate and the ship’s main cook.”

              Her pastel pink lips opened. “Hello, Imdiko Ulof. Thank you for bringing us a meal. It smells amazing.”

              The room tilted as he absorbed his name spoken in her drawling, twangy alto. “Of course. My pleasure.”

              Somehow he approached and offered her the trays. Only one was for her, but he couldn’t remember for the life of him what he was supposed to do with the other. No matter. She took them with a smile.

           Ulof's heart pounded. Her heart-shaped face beamed up at him for a bare instant before turning aside.

No release date set.