SIREN

Chapter Twenty-Five

'Oh, bloody Hell...' I whispered under my breath. I moaned as I pulled myself up and traversed down to the floor. I felt a twinge of nervousness run through me as I opened my mouth. 'It's a saying,' I told The Conductor as I rejoined my crewmates.

The alien peered at me. 'I have observed the phrases spoken by your kind. Many of them are perplexing.'

'I can explain what Jaq meant if you like.'

'That would be beneficial.' The Conductor bowed his bulbous head.

'The phrase, "don't look a gift horse in the mouth," means that if you're given something, it's bad manners to inspect it and find things wrong.'

'Manners?' The Conductor recoiled. 'They are part of social protocol, yes?'

'This thing doesn't know what manners are?' Sam scoffed, 'I guess that explains the gravity well, am I right?'

'The Conductor doesn't need manners. He's wonderful.' Hoshi boasted. She looked around; hoping one of us would react to her words.

I put my hands together. 'Manners are predetermined social behaviours, passed on from generation to generation. It's a way of exercising self-control and kindness.'

Sam came over and flicked my helmet. 'Or if you want a less complex answer, manners are what you're taught as a kid so you don't turn into a pri--'

'How interesting!' The Conductor roared, cutting off Sam's swear. 'So your engineer believes that I am not kind?'

Jaq barked out a coarse laugh. 'Insulting my engines isn't nice,' she hissed. 'I spent a lot of time on those.'

'I was stating fact,' The Conductor argued, 'your engines contain radioactive materials. You explained that to me. Radioactivity in large amounts is fatal to humans. I am merely wondering why you would create such dangerous engines and then ride on them.'

'Qui ne risque rien n'a rien,' Jaq fumed. She turned her hands into fists. The tension in the air was stifling.

'A complex response...' The Conductor said. 'Do humans purposely seek out adversity?'

'Sometimes I wonder that myself,' I confessed.

The hologram above our heads flickered and the blue light that flooded the room was replaced by a dazzling whiteness, just like the spotlight on the front of the Conductor's ship. My vision was impaired for a couple of seconds as everything was saturated with light. It gradually dimmed, leaving me with red and blue blobs swimming around my eyes.

'Success!' The Conductor yelled through his raised palm. 'The Vultures have repaired much of my internal systems. The results are better than I expected. We can start travelling right away.'

'Oh, how wonderful!' Hoshi clapped her hands and whimpered with joy.

The Pangaea was now little more than a steel cage with misshapen pieces of metal attached to the welded beams. The Vultures had wholly erased the emblem that decorated the hull, leaving a few letters behind. P, A and G.

The Conductor bumbled round his silver cigar-shaped machine, leering at the hologram from every angle. Under the lights, it was now impossible to ignore how ugly he was. His wrinkled and writhing skin showed a network of honeycombed veins and arteries. His sunken eyes never blinked, but endlessly stared at whatever was in front of him. Upon his slinky neck, the bumps of his spine rose and fell like warped speed bumps. I felt my toes curl as I caught sight of his protruding ribcage. Long dark scars lined his torso, leading all the way down to his scrawny legs. The pipes that ran around The Conductor's stomach had dried streaks of blue fluid caked onto them and I felt my lips turn into a pout as I turned away in disgust.