Aalyxh dropped to the floor in front of the container and wove her legs and arms into a complicated knot, her favourite position for an extended session of brainwave detection. Her opaque outer lids clamped shut over her eyes, allowing her maximal concentration. Distressed, I grasped her shoulder. "Girl, this box might explode any moment, step back."

"It's not exploding, it's thinking. Trust me."

I silently cursed her stubbornness. A glance in Ben's direction promised no help from the human. At least he was shaking himself out of his stupor, and his face had regained an almost natural colour. Half a click later, he even found his lost voice. "Lyxh, can this be a cryogenic unit?"

Ben had a point. I picked up the scanner he'd dropped and ran it along the top of the quivering box. The tiny display remained as empty as the brain of an alcassian sun diver bent on breaking the speed record.

"Hijac was right, it's shielded. Are you sure it contains life?"

Aalyxh's one-eyed stare signalled desperation. "Definitely. And Squishy-brain has grasped it, I'm sure we're dealing with a cryogenic device. That's why I can't get a clear picture of the occupant's thoughts yet. Whoever they are, they are coming out of stasis, and their brainwaves are still slushy."

Great. The Tanencha had sent us on our way with an unknown entity in cold storage, an obvious break of the planetary quarantine. No wonder the space patrol tried to stop us. And instead of handing over the cargo like the law-abiding citizens we pretended to be, we'd launched on an erratic flight through one of the most ominous sectors of the galaxy.

I opened comm. "Hrrovr, Hijac, intruder confirmed. The case we loaded on Tyrin contains a sleeper. Or an ex-sleeper on its way to becoming an awake visitor, according to Aalyxh."

A soft hiss told me Hrrovr had received my announcement. "Bad news'ss, Captain. On the plus'ss ss'side, no ss'sign of the patrol or the ss'severills'ss. Yet."

That was a relief. "Thanks, hold the bridge, Hrrovr. Jac? How's your status?"

"I'm finished with the panels, coming back in now." The passing of the airlock would take a few clicks, but I'd be glad to have the karjkan here. Their near-indestructible, chitinous body armour would be an advantage if our guest turned out to be hostile.

Ben finally shook his paralysis and inspected the box with a frown. The quivers subsided under his worried stare. Instead, the grey surfaces emitted a rainbow sheen, forming concentric circles like waves travelling outwards from a stone thrown into a pond of liquid hydrogen oxide. Ben's frown deepened. "Permission to fetch a blaster, Cap?"

"Yes. And please bring sanitiser and the power net we used for the sihanattan lightning tigers. Who knows what we're dealing with." I checked on our pilot, still sunken in a communicative trance. "I stay with Aalyxh. Please hurry, Ben."

He did. But the few clicks of waiting beside our immobile telepath made me age at least a decade—measured in good old oolian days, sunset to sunrise. Perhaps it was time to retire, find a mate, and spend my days far from the dangers of the outer space-ways, unpredictable adventures, and sentient cargo.

A strong, peppery whiff of curiosity tickled my gills and announced Hijac's arrival. They lowered themselves into a crouch beside Aalyxh and studied the iridescent container. "What initialised the thawing process?"

"No idea. The storm, perhaps, or the trundling of the ship. Or it's fitted with a timer." I didn't care. What worried me was the fact we had an unidentified, possibly dangerous life form aboard. "Please back off. Whoever hides in this box might be venomous or worse."

"This is a sentient mind, Kali, they are mainly curious, and, if I'm not mistaken, they have no intention to call us their next meal." Aalyxh's statement didn't reassure me at all.

"And how is your potential non-cannibalistic friend going to leave their package?"

As if on cue, the box turned black, and the top surface lifted on a micro force field. Cool blue light leaked from the opening crack, throwing our shadows across the deck. Hurried footfalls made me whirl around. Ben dragged the heavy power net with his left hand while he pointed a monstrous blaster in the general direction of the box, including Aalyxh, Hijac, and me in its potential cone of destruction.

"Careful with that death-squirter, buddy. We don't want to get fried here."

He dropped the net with an apologetic grin and used his second hand to stabilise the hand weapon. "Sorry, Cap. I feared you might be in trouble already."

I picked up the net and switched it on, ready to launch the constraining device. "No guarantee we won't be in a few clicks."

A soft hiss from the cargo box caught my attention and prevented me from elaborating. The blue light intensified, and the lid lifted a bit further. Aalyxh hummed a quiet melody that reminded me of an old oolian lullaby. It did nothing to dissolve my tension, though. To the contrary, an assault of mixed scents from Hijac made me gag. I recognised anticipation, curiosity, and a bitter hint of fear.

Aalyxh opened her eyes and snorted. "Stop it, Hijac, You know I can't concentrate while I drown in your fragrances and pheromones."

The karjkan didn't find time to respond. Outlined by the searing blue light, two tiny, round turquoise spheres appeared at the rim. I held my breath while the grip of my fingers tightened around the handle of the restraining net. The first impression of the intruder was not frightening, but I wasn't ready to discount the possibility of an immediate danger. I glanced at Aalyxh who squatted beside me, eyes closed, an angelic smile on her features. 

"Lyxh, what is it?" I didn't dare to raise my voice. The lack of odour from our karjkan was so asymptomatic it stressed me. Then the two balls moved higher, and suddenly I knew what I was looking at. A gasp from Ben confirmed my suspicion. "Cap, that's one of those baby slugs."

Aalyxh opened an eye. "This is a tyrinan, not a slug. Watch your vocabulary. Also, her name is Ajs."

"Um." I searched for a diplomatic approach. Seemed the Tanencha gifted us with one of her children, hidden in a cryogenic unit. Was this the reason she'd urged us to deliver fast? Perhaps the waking process should only have been initialised upon our arrival at Sqia'lon seven. Whatever the motivation of the tyrinan elder-mother, her plan showed a serious flaw. I swallowed the bile in my throat. "Welcome aboard the Topsy-Turvy, I guess."

The eyestalks swivelled in my direction, and the top of the tyrinan's head appeared above the rim of the container. To my surprise, it looked cute and a bit frightened. Hijac reached out a limb holding his scanner, their eyes glowing in the light from the box.

"Captain, the case contains several hundred organic capsules. One of them is broken, the others seem all intact and remain in stasis for the moment."

"Several hundred baby tyrinan's?" For a moment, a picture of the Topsy flashed before my mind's eye. The ship was in the same state as the Tanencha's breeding chamber, hundreds of luminescent slugs leaving their colourful trails on our nice clean bulkheads. Ben gagged. "Lyxh, please convince your protégé to go back to her siblings and sleep a while longer."

I wasn't surprised the tyrinan seemed to take the engineers suggestion as an invitation to leave the unit for good. She hesitated only for a moment on its rim before sliding down the smooth side at the head of a sapphire trail of slime. "Right. So much for respecting our wishes. I doubt our guest will follow the captain's orders. Jac, is the cooling unit functional? Can we close the case?"

A short musky affirmation was all I got: The karjkan was busy analysing our mysterious cargo—now he finally had gained access.

Comm cackled and reminded me of Hrrovr on the bridge. "Captain, do you have new information? Are you all fine?"

"Yes. Unless you count a crate with several hundred frozen tyrinan slugs a problem."

"Froz'ssen ss'slugs'ss? Are they edible?" Rrss'h'ss' loved their proteins. Aalyxh's eyes flashed open in distress.

"Probably." I had to prevent an imminent fight. "But I guess Ajs would object. She's sentient and seems to understand standard lingo well." At least she'd shrunk back at Hrrovr's remark, flattening herself to the surface with quivering eyestalks.

"Oh. Then you better as'ssk her if she can navigate. We're ss'still los'sst like a ss'single ss'sperm in outer ss'space."

Trust my Number one to remind me of our other major problem. If we didn't find out where we were, we couldn't deliver the cargo. If we couldn't deliver the cargo, the next set of complications threatened to swallow us whole. The vision of a tyrinan takeover of my beloved ship was back. A decision was needed. "So, let's send the tyrinans back into stasis and continue as if we didn't know about the nature of that cargo."

Hijac confirmed with a musky whiff and connected his analyser to a port on the lid I'd not registered before. But Aalyxh called them back. "Wait, what about Ajs?"

"Didn't you hear the Cap? We're sending her back to sleep." His remark earned Ben a scowl from the pilot.

"We can't send her back into stasis. She is in a critical phase of mental development. It might kill her." Aalyxh squatted between Ben and the juvenile tyrinan, reminding me of a protective mother wimot defending her chicks against a roaring groaghargler.

"So, what do you suggest?" My friend's stare told me I should know better than asking. I rubbed a hand over my tired eyes. "Okay. Jac, please ensure the rest of the cocoons remain frozen. One active and developing tyrinan is enough for this ship."

For a short moment, I was engulfed in a stifling cloud of agreement while the karjkan busied themselves with the settings of the cryo-box. At least someone still listened to me.

"Aalyxh, back to the bridge. We need to establish a location." I interrupted her protest with a raised hand and turned to Ben. He wouldn't like my suggestion, but there was no other option. "You're in charge of our guest, Ben. Prepare one of the spare cabins for her and check what kind of food a growing tyrinan requires."

The glance I earned from the engineer could have burnt through the heat shield of a planetary landing craft.

(1780 words)