While Aisha and Hojoma had been talking, Jim had been slowly getting out of bed. Their arguing had awoken him almost immediately and it took a lot for Jim not to scream when he saw the male Ctarl-Ctarl in the room. Memories of being eaten by Sara were still fresh in Jim’s mind and although he trusted Aisha, he just couldn’t muster up the courage to even look the foreign Ctarl-Ctarl in the eyes. Jim cared for Aisha and knew he could count on her to never turn on him. He didn’t share this faith with other Ctarl-Ctarls, Much like John, Jim believed that most Ctarl-Ctarls were evil and Aisha was the exception the proved it. His biased thinking might be caused by his recent touch with death, but right now, he couldn’t see it. If he had been thinking clearly, he could rationalize that judging a whole race bad by just a few examples was ridicules, but for Jim it made perfect sense.

Slowly, Jim crawled under the blanket and tried to slip out before he was noticed, but before his feet could touch the ground, Hojoma turned to him. His slitted eyes narrowed on Jim and a cold sweat kicked in at once. Jim felt completely frozen under the stare and couldn’t move a muscle. “Stay,” was all he said and Jim complied.

“Keep your eyes on me, traitor!” Aisha said with the intent to get Hojoma’s attention back on her and away from Jim. The only reason she hadn’t rushed him yet was the fact that Jim was only a few feet away. In the scuffle, all Hojoma would need was one second to rip Jim in half. There was nothing to hide behind and the only exit was behind Hojoma, Jim was trapped like a rat cornered by a cat.

“Traitor?” Hojoma said with amusement. He pulled his head back and laughed like a mad man. Holding his sides, he leaned over and continued his hysterical laughter. When his laughter stopped, he opened his eyes and grinned savagely at Aisha. Baring his pointed fangs he took on a confident and easy going pose, as though he had nothing to fear from Aisha. “If anyone has betrayed the Ctarl-Ctarls, it is you my feisty wife.”

Aisha stagger back in disbelief, while Jim looked wide eyed at Hojoma in astonishment. Aisha was passionate about her roots to the Ctarl-Ctarls and had proven time after time how much she is honored to be apart of them. Sure, she was thrown out of her last job as diplomat and defied them when she was asked to eat him and Gene, but Aisha would never betray her race. Aisha had a list of priorities in life and one of the two top ones on the list was her race, some times Jim even doubted that Aisha put him ahead of her people. Aisha loved her people and no one had the right to call her a betrayer, especially not this slave trading scum.

“How can you say that? Aisha never betrayed her people,” Jim screamed in Aisha’s defense. His fear of Hojoma was being overcome by his resentment of having his best friend called such an insult.

Hojoma decided to ignore Jim for now, he wasn’t important. After all, he was just meat. “No, my precious, you have never betrayed our people. You have betrayed something far more important, your heritage.” Aisha refused to answer; she stayed still and looked on at Hojoma indignantly. It looked like she wasn’t being affected by what he was saying, but Jim knew better. Every slanderous word he spouted, gave Aisha a little bit more rage and with every bit of rage she got, the stronger she became. Jim was quickly staring to lose his fear of Hojoma and start fearing for his safety, no one said things like this to Aisha and came out of it alive.

“Would you like me to elaborate my love?” Hojoma didn’t wait for her to answer, he just started talking. “Since the first meeting between our races, the strong and mighty Ctarl-Ctarl and the puny, but delicious terrans, we have been the alpha race, our technology is better, our weapons are more deadly, and our race more blood thirsty. We should be ruling the universe like the great Ctarl-Ctarl God intended, but instead we live among these rodents. We flaunt our power occasionally by eating with in their laws, but we fear to eat freely. How often have you seen an innocent piece of meat walk down the street like a blind, deaf and dumb animal? Have you wanted to run up to it and grasp it in your iron hands, then as it is struggling and screaming, ram it into your mouth and taste its so appetizing fear? To feel your throat stretch over their flailing body and greedily gulp it down in front of the eyes of others? Then when you stand in there city, on there planet, with there people inside your stomach, you can look them all in the eyes and say, ‘any time, anywhere, at any moment, you can be mine’. At that instant, you will bring to an end your unfaithfulness and embrace the true Ctarl-Ctarl within. But you have failed to do that because you have been house trained by these pests. Yurned into what you should never be, a fat, lazy, house cat.” He was out of breath and panting for air. He looked gleefully at Aisha with those cruel eyes that had paralyzed Jim, Aisha took a moment to collect her thoughts, but what she said shocked Jim and delighted Hojoma.

“You’re right.” An instant of fear hit Jim; only this fear was not caused by Hojoma, but Aisha. Jim held his breath and waited to see what was going to happen. It seemed like Aisha had come to some groundbreaking decision and was about to announce it.

“I have just wanted to jump these little creatures and eat them like rats. To prove that I’m better as a race then them and make them fear me like our ancestors were feared. However, I don’t and you know why?” Jim and Hojoma waited for her answer, both being held in suspense by what she was going to say.

“Because I ain’t a fucking psycho, like you.” Aisha threw caution to the wind and attacked, She knew that she was putting Jim in danger, but he already proved that he could take care of himself after their fight with the Kei pirates. She just had to try and end the fight as quickly as possible and not give Hojoma any chances to use Jim.