Flash Fic Redux - The New Kid

 

Michelson jerked back a little as the pseudoarthropod thrust the bundle into his arms, chittering rapidly in what was obviously fear. The alien ran rapidly down the street, away from the mercenary squad currently holding the intersection. "Hey, wait!" he called out to the retreating form, prompting a chuckle from Papas as the squad's heavy weapons expert trained the tri-barrel down the opposite direction. Feeling deeply confused, Michelson looked down at the bundle as it started to squirm.

The Kk'rth'tlln brought to mind a bizarre crossing of wood louse and brine shrimp to most humans. The small rounded face looking back up at Michelson with six bulbous eyes didn't fit any conventional standard of human beauty. Yet there was something inexplicably cute about the small alien. Michelson looked back up helplessly at the squad leader. "Sarge, what the hell do I do?"

Nicollette Kuznetsova looked back at her comms weenie, her harsh angular features impassive. "Don't drop it," she said flatly.

*    *    *

"I know it's a pain in the ass,"McTiernan said over the tightbeam, "but the ROE is clear and spelled out in the contract. We're obligated to help civilians get to refugee camps as soon as physically possible."

"Shoot legal officer next time," Kuznetsova growled.

McTiernan chuckled. When "Nicki the Knife" started dropping definite and indefinite articles out of her Standard English, it was a sign her emotions were fully engaged. "Sorry, nozh. We need him to make sure we don't work for free. I'll send Tseng to relieve you. Central, out."

"Govno," spat Kuznetsova. "Michelson, you caught football, you carry to end zone."

"I don't know anything about human babies, let alone Pillshrimp babies!"

"Learn quickly." Kuznetsova looked over at the squad's combat engineer. "Benton, I need nearest refugee camp, distance and direction."

Nodding, Benton brought up the map book. "Thirty klicks, south-southeast, if we're going straight-line." He looked over at Kuznetsova with a moue of disgust. "On the other side of Spinal Alley."

"We go at nightfall. After relief arrives."

"Uh, Sarge," Michelson said anxiously. "I think it's making a mess. Oh sweet Christ, what the hell did this kid eat?!" He began to laugh uncontrollably.

"Pull yourself together!" snarled Kuznetsova.

"I'm trying, Sarge, really!" replied Michelson, tears streaming down his flushed face. "But I think he farts nitrous oxide!" 

*    *    *

The intake officer at the refugee camp couldn't believe what he was seeing. A squad of mercenaries were approaching the camp, weapons slung, and one of them appeared to be carrying a Kk'rth'tlln infant in a jury rigged sling. They approached the desk calmly and the squad leader, a hard featured woman with arctic blue eyes, looked down at him.

"This child was left with us in...rather a hurry," she said quietly. "We are fulfilling our contractual obligation to get civilians to refugee camps as soon as possible. We have no identity papers, no name, nothing."

The intake officer nodded. "Not a problem. We're equipped to find the parents. Thanks for getting them this far. Just hope those jackals north of here won't get any ideas."

"They will no longer be a threat to this camp," the woman said tonelessly. "We had to go through them to get here. So we went right through them."

The intake officer's eyebrows rose sharply, a million questions crowding the tip of his tongue before simply nodding. He stood up to take the infant, but was stopped by one of the other mercenaries.

Kuznetsova reached up and tore the unit patch off the right shoulder of her fatigues, tucking it into the infant's blanket to make sure it didn't get loose. "Welcome to company, rebenok," she murmured with a slight smile. 

(Originally written on r/humansarespaceorcs)