Paige kept on glaring at her uninvited guest until Trisha gave her a weird look and she relented. Paige’s eyes widened slightly when she realized what she’d been doing. She stopped making eye contact with Trisha, ashamed. Trisha had been looking out for her for a long time. She’d treated her almost like a sister, something Paige deeply appreciated. Though the spiky haired Ctarl Ctarl could be a bit uncouth and confrontational she was something of a role model for her. Paige often found herself wishing she had the older Ctarl Ctarl’s confidence and spunk. It seemed pointless and cruel to give her the cold shoulder just because she wanted some alone time with Jim.

Paige didn’t need to say anything. Trisha could tell by her eyes. She was apologizing, Trisha accepted. It only took her a second to realize what was behind it. It wasn’t the girl’s fault her hormones were raging and that she wanted some alone time with her new acquisition. In fact Trisha found it to be…….. kinda cute. Trisha looked at Jim, then turning back to Paige, pursed her lips and fanned her self. Paige blushed, extremely embarrassed. Thankfully Jim didn’t notice.

“So…….. this shore leave. How likely is it that it’s going to happen?” Paige asked trying to change the unspoken subject.

“I’ve got my fingers crossed. This isn’t so much a diplomacy campaign as it is spying on the two Terran factions, trying to find out which of them is weaker, than raid them for food and money. We’ll probably get a bunch of shore time on our terran ‘allies’ worlds, I’m sure. Hell, we’ll probably be allowed out on Blue Heaven when we get there in a couple days…….. Though I’d hardly call that a break. It’s just a floating hunk of metal with nothing to do but get shit faced, not that there’s anything wrong with that…….. er, pardon my language.” Trisha usually tried not to cuss in front of Paige.

Jim sighed, “I hope Aisha can convince the empire to side with Heifong. It was the Milky Way system that started this pointless war…. Besides, it’s my home after all.

“What do you know about the Milky Way system Jim?”

“Not too much; I know that it’s a relatively small system.”

“Really? I don’t know much about the Milky Way but I thought it consisted of millions of stars.” Paige scratched at her chin.

“It does, billions more likely. It’s also composed of many, many, solar systems. But 99.9% of it is uninhabited. The Milky Way system is just a name of a single solar system, and a rather vain one at that. I think they consider the whole of the Milky Way to be under their sphere of influence. That’s just pride talking though. They’re just a small system of eight planets, only three of them are populated. Also the third planet from the sun is known as Earth. It’s the cradle of life for us Terrans.

“So you originated from there…… Why would the Milky Way system attack the Heifong system? I would think you’d by allies simply because of your species and the hostility of…… other neighboring species.” Paige was going to say Ctarl Ctarl but there were other antagonistic races out there and if she didn’t have to single her own kind out she wouldn’t.

“I’d think that too. I…… Don’t know why they’d attack.”

“Three planets? Sounds like child’s play to me.” Trisha smirked, “Don’t worry Jim, the Ctarl Ctarl government will back Hiefong for sure. This war’ll be a joke.”

“I don’t know,” Jim shook his head skeptically, “They’re quite advanced tech wise and they’ve got a number of lunar and deep space bases and colonies. They’ve got a huge fortress orbiting Proxima Centauri. It’s a red dwarf star close to their sun.”

“How many of these bases and colonies could they possibly have?” Trisha tried to brush off Jim’s comment.

Uranus, one of the uninhabited planets, has at least 22 moons if I recall. There’s a base or colony on each one. The two largest moons, Titania and Oberon, have large military complexes and weaponry that can shoot down ships from a distance.”

“What kind of weaponry?” Paige asked in a hush voice.

Jim just shook his head, “No idea. All I know about them is what I’ve read online and in history books devoted to the advances terrans have made in space travel and colonizing new systems.”

“Well you seem well educated on the subject. The commander could really benefit from you’re knowledge…… Not that she’d care, the pigheaded hussy.” Paige huffed.

“Uh, she’s really not bad at all.” Jim lamely defended his big sis.

“Oh come now Jim, you don’t have to worry. She won’t be able to hurt you any more and I won’t get mad at anything you have to say. You can always be open and honest with me even if you think I might not like what you have to say.” Paige reassured.

“Not with me though.” Trisha cut in, “Say whatever you want about Commander Bitch but if ya speak poorly of me I’ll tear you a new one.” She joked, “Er….. pardon my language.”

“That’s fine, I agree with you.” Paige giggled, suddenly she grew serious, “You didn’t need to help me Trisha…… I’m grateful, really.” Paige’s frowned but it quickly involved into a slight smile, “I’m so glad you only got stuck with night guard duty.”

“Yeah, I lucked out.” Trisha said distantly.

Trisha had lied. Though she wasn’t being dismissed or being demoted to the rank of ‘terran sex slave’ her punishment had been quite severe. She didn’t tell the duo because she was afraid Paige would volunteer to help. Trisha was now the ships permanent toilet scrubber (or at least until Aisha’s anger subsided). Not only was she required to clean ever toilet in every Ctarl Ctarl quarters (a huge task by itself considering the size of each toilet and the number of them on the ship) she’d have to do it with a toothbrush……… again.

Trisha had tried to protest but that only pissed off the commander even more than before, “You’re just lucky I’m not requiring you to use your tongue!” Trisha didn’t have much of a choice. She had to accept her punishment and take whatever she had coming to her.

“Yeah, well, do you want to meet and Allison for dinner before my night shift?” Trisha asked after shaking her head slightly and coming back to the present.

“I’d love to. Jim?”

“Er, sure I’ll eat with you girls. Thanks for having me!” He rubbed the back of his head and smiled.

“Oh, we won’t be having YOU. I’m sure there’ll be other Terrans to choose from. Thanks for the offer though.” With that Trisha got up and strolled out.

That was right! They’d recently captured 2 ships filled with refugees. Most of the Ctarl Ctarl would probably be feasting on them instead of standard food (there wasn’t enough cargo room for the crew to dine on Terran’s 3 meals a day). With the recent capture of the refugee ships though most crew members would be able to have more than one terran a day. At least for a little while. Paige suddenly looked uncomfortable; she fidgeted a little and patted her tummy.

“Um……. You okay Paige?”

“Huh? Oh! Yes, I’m fine.” She smiled at him.

Ugh, not good. Paige wasn’t too big on live prey though she did eat terrans. Looking back she couldn’t help but be embarrassed at how she’d first acted in front of Jim. She had first mistaken him for a snack, then she had him toss away her lunches clothing. Ohhhhhhh, she even picked at her teeth…… while he was watching! How could she have been so lewd? She was surprised she hadn’t grabbed him by the collar and burped in his face! Jim wouldn’t be interested in a nerdy girl with bad table manners would he? And how would he react if he saw her scarf up a young terran…. And then listen to her poop them out later?! He WAS her room mate now afterall and the process wasn’t exactly a quite one. Paige usually didn’t eat people, and usually only those who didn’t put up a fight (being a Ctarl Ctarl, albeit a weaker one, she could easily overpower the average fully grown terran. She just didn’t do it because it made her feel bad. She really only ate the complacent ones, or the ones who were rude or would have been devoured less mercifully by someone else. Though she didn’t eat them too often, now that Jim was going to be living with her, eating one in front of him would be inevitable. The only question was how would he react? Would he think she was a monster like the commander? Or a pig for gorging on someone the same size as her.

Suddenly feeling overly self conscious Paige decided to get clean, she suddenly felt dirty from the manual labor she’d performed earlier, “Well…. Um…. I think I’m going to take a shower now if that’s okay with you. Feel free to look through all of my books.”

“Thanks Paige, I’ll do that.” Jim selected one on the Ctarl Ctarl homewords Geography, “This looks interesting.”

“It sure is! I think you’ll be impressed by what mineral deposits we’ve got in certain regions. A lot of them can be found on Earth I here.”

The two smiled at each other and blushed. Jim felt almost as if he was flirting with the girl every time they discussed some topic on an intellectual level, “Well, if you enjoyed it I’m sure I will. Maybe I’ll finish by the time you’re done.”

Paige smiled and slipped into her bathroom with a fresh set of clothes folded neatly in her arms. She was quick to lock the door. Her heart was pounded like crazy. Jim Hawking was HER room mate….. it was a dream come true! She’d have to have a mattress moved in for him. She just couldn’t stand the thought of him sleeping on the floor…….. but him sleeping next to her! Paige shivered at the thought.