Outer Rim - The Biting Disaster
Outer Rim. This biting habit was a disaster. I hadn't realized it when Eve was bedridden with a fever. But now, with her body in perfect balance and the latent xenoform energy fully fused with her flesh... Eve's stamina was nothing short of catastrophic. Sure, I'd swallowed that black stone myself and shattered my physical limits. Back in my soldier days, I'd gained superhuman strength beyond imagination, a steel body that never tired without sleep. But Eve was different. An inexhaustible beagle. That endurance went beyond a child's—it was something else entirely.
And one more thing. A newly developed, utterly troublesome habit.
"Waaang."
Thud. A heavy pressure settled on my right arm. A familiar sensation. Warm, moist, blunt pressure. I didn't need to look to know. It had started again.
Munch munch. Slurp.
I slowly raised the arm gripping the controls. Eve, clinging to my forearm like a cicada, came up with it. Her eyes wide, she looked up at me without letting go. Like a giant dog holding a chew toy, begging play with me with those eyes.
"...Eve."
"Hm?"
"Let go of that, would you?"
"No way."
She was firm. Her teeth clamped down harder. Lately, Eve had been biting a lot. At first, I thought it was affection. A playful nibble, like coquettish teasing. It was cute back then. Maybe because she'd eaten and slept well on F-33 Farm Planet, her plump, rosy cheeks and munching lips made it impossible to get mad. The grubby, skeletal girl we'd rescued from the lab was gone. The current Eve was undeniably the cutest thing in the universe.
So I let it slide. It didn't hurt, and most importantly, when she was gnawing like that, her nonstop chattering stopped.
Go ahead, bite away. If it makes you happy.
That complacency was my downfall. And this was the result.
The devil of biting.
The queen's dignity had vanished, replaced by a gum fiend treating my forearm like her personal chew toy.
[Tsk tsk. Look at you.]
Nahibi, floating idly beside me, clicked her tongue. That arrogant slime was thrilled it wasn't her problem.
"Don't just watch. Why's Eve doing this again?"
[Growing pains. Or instinct.]
"Instinct?"
[Predator cubs bite their mothers to build jaw strength. Practice for ripping prey apart properly.]
She said the creepy stuff so casually.
"So my arm's prey now?"
[You're the toughest, chewiest meat on this ship.]
Ridiculous, but I couldn't argue. Still, yanking Eve off by force felt wrong—those clear, innocent eyes would shatter. Scolding her sharply? She'd just chomp harder with an ang! Training her like a puppy wasn't an option either. I needed a drastic measure. At this rate, my right arm would swell from saliva poisoning or end up tattooed with bite marks.
Then, inspiration struck. No dying alone. Shared pain is halved, right?
"Eve."
"Uung?"
To Eve, who answered around my arm, I nodded toward the white blob floating in the air.
"When you bite my arm, you don't really use any force, do you? Right?"
"Uh-huh... a little?"
Eve nodded, glancing slyly. She was holding back to avoid hurting me. Such a good girl.
"But look at that. Those smooth, white curves."
I poked Nahibi's body. Boing. A springy bounce transmitted through my fingertip. Nahibi wasn't mere liquid. She was the pinnacle of chewiness—more elastic than premium jelly, chewier than fresh rice cake, softer than marshmallows.
"That's the real deal. The chewiest body in the universe."
Eve's eyes wavered. She alternated between my hairy, bony forearm and that jiggly white mass.
[...?]
Nahibi twitched, sensing trouble.
[Hold on, lowly human. What are you thinking...?]
"Hey, Nahibi. You can harden up, right?"
[I can, but why...?]
"You said it's instinct, right? She needs jaw training. My arm's no good for practice—I'm a living thing, could get hurt."
I kneaded Nahibi's body, showing it off to Eve.
"But you're different. What do you think, Eve? Feel that bounce. Bet it'd melt your stress away."
My arm popped free from Eve's mouth. A smile spread across her saliva-glossed lips.
"Squishy... chewy...?"
[Eek!]
Nahibi recoiled in horror.
[You madman! How dare you treat a queen's guard, a noble xenoform, like this! I'm not a chew toy!]
"Harden up and it won't hurt."
I blocked her escape, driving the wedge home.
"You regenerate anyway, and can toughen up. The queen wants some jaw exercise—can't you serve that much? Loyal guard and all?"
[T-That's twisted logic! Even hardened, you think I can't feel the chomping? Who'd enjoy getting gnawed like that!]
"Won't do it? Guess I'll keep getting bit. I collapse in pain, who's flying the ship?"
[...Grr.]
She was stumped. Only I could pilot; without me, those two couldn't even reach xenoform territory beyond the Outer Rim. Perfect checkmate.
Meanwhile, Eve pounced. Target: white jelly.
"Squishy! Aaang!"
[N-No, stay back! Eve! I'm not edible! Dignity... Gyaaah!]
Nahibi dodged frantically, but the cramped cockpit had limits. And loyalty prevented attacking Eve. Inevitably...
Grab.
Eve's hands clamped Nahibi's body. Without hesitation, she opened wide.
"Waaang!"
[Kyaaaah!]
Nahibi's scream blasted my mind. She hurriedly hardened the contact point, but Eve chomped away heedlessly. Crunch. Chewy. Crunch.
"Fun!"
Eve beamed at the unique texture. Nahibi's eyes spun into X's. Such a drama queen. Hardened, it shouldn't hurt.
I massaged my freed right arm and gazed out the viewport. Far off, the rough, desolate void. Paradise for outlaws. The Outer Rim landscape unfolded.
The start of a peaceful voyage.
The Outer Rim wasn't some barren wasteland devoid of life. In some ways, it bustled more than Federation space. Just... a different kind of bustle.
Compared to Federation territory, one word summed it up: chaos. That was the Outer Rim.
No orderly lanes from Federation stellar domains, no twinkling guide beacons, no rhythmic trade ship lights. Instead, my view filled with death and destruction's remnants. Half-wrecked ship hulks, skeletal frames from battle. Rusty satellites drifting like ghosts. Cargo containers, ownerless and frozen in the vacuum.
A river of space debris. Where Federation law didn't reach, only the law of might ruled. Lawless frontier.
Entering the Outer Rim.
Crackle—hiss—
The comm panel spat static like a seizure. Every frequency scan brought distress calls, curses, or encrypted black-market deals.
A sea of waves mixing truth and lies. Follow that distress call, and you'd end up skinned by raiders. Here, "help" meant plunder.
My grip tightened on the controls. Tension thickened the cockpit. But shattering it was an incongruous presence.
"Whoa! Look at that! Bigger than the ships before!"
Eve hung on the viewport, chirping innocently. Her finger pointed to a half-melted massive freighter wreck, drifting grotesquely.
[Tsk. Federation fools. So wasteful with resources.]
Nahibi clucked her tongue.
[Dumping scrap like that. Absorb it all, and you'd power a legion.]
She sounded disdainful, but with bite marks dotting her body, who looked more ridiculous was debatable.
"Quiet. Focus on the radar. Enemies everywhere."
The radar scope swarmed with red and yellow dots. No telling safe paths from minefields. Worst, our ship's state.
Ding.
A new alert on the comm panel. Not a specific frequency—a wide-area broadcast over the sector.
Two billion credits. Apex Industries played big, vying for top corporate bounty. Enough to buy a Federation destroyer. A sum most Outer Rim pirate crews could never touch in a lifetime—on my head.
[Hoh, two billion. Big number?]
Nahibi, now floated down, peered at it.
"Enough for a prime mansion on a decent Federation colony world."
[That's it? The great xenoform queen and her guard worth a single house? Apex knows nothing of true value.]
Nahibi grumbled, pride wounded.
"Shut it. That's enough to light a fire under every bounty hunter in the galaxy."
Sure enough, post-wanted notice, the quiet radar screamed like mad.
Beep-beep-beep! Beep-beep-beep!
[Multiple lock-on signals detected.]
[Approaching vessels: Modified Pursuit Craft x3, Armed Freighter x2.]
The hyenas lurking nearby had caught the scent.