Ben 10 - Annoyance

When you’re traversing the galaxy, the distinction between morning and evening become nonexistent. The stars twinkling in the endless void of space become navigational tools as opposed to the timepiece of planet-dwellers. But even without the visual cues of daybreak and dusk, aboard Tetrax Shard’s ship, there is another way to keep track of the time.

The Petrosapien keeps himself on a strict schedule of when to sleep and when to rise on his days off aboard his ship. One merely needs to discern Tetrax’s whereabouts to learn if it was day or night.

At present, he is in his bed, garbed in little more than simple cotton pants and his blanket. He sleeps silently, deathly still save for the rhythmic rise and fall of his broad chest. Deep as his slumber may be, his warrior’s discipline enables him to bolt upright at the slightest disturbance, arms sharpened to dangerous points.

With a tentacle, Gluto nudges his captain’s aim away from his gelatinous body, synthesized voice apologizing for waking the mercenary from his sleep. Solid, crystalline daggers gradually retracted back into five fingers as the pilot explained the Petrosapien’s presence was required on the bridge.

It does not take long for Tetrax to don his armor and exit his quarters to see what it was that demanded his attention. Displayed on the massive monitor was the Galvan genius Azmuth. The miniscule alien’s face, magnified several times over on the screen, was contorted to showcase his ire. There were tight ridges where brows would have been, eyes were tapered into tiny, vertical slits, and the facial growth that many mistook as hair (which was ridiculous as male Galvans had no such thing) twitched every so often.

“And what business do you have with me, Azmuth?” Tetrax asked formally.

“I want to know where you’re hiding my assistant.” The genius snapped.

Crystalline lids blinked, confusion slowly burrowing into his mind. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. We escorted her all the way to your location.” Tetrax is careful not to mention any details lest someone was listening in on their frequency.

“You escorted someone alright,” Azmuth growled, “She’s a convincing doppelganger, but that, that female is not my assistant!”

Before the dumbstruck expression could form itself on Tetrax’s face, Azmuth moved off screen. The sound of diminutive feet hopping from one surface to another preceded a faint, vaguely familiar melody.

As the volume grew louder, Azmuth reappeared, mouth pressed into a grim line. He barked, “Listen to that and tell me what you hear.”

Tetrax turned to his partner questioningly only to receive a bewildered shrug. Clearly neither knew what the eccentric paranoid was on about. It was one of the rare moments Tetrax would allow himself to speak with doubt, “I hear humming?”

“Precisely!” Azmuth nodded, “And do you know who it was doing the humming? Hmm? Do you, Shard?” Despite its rhetorical nature, the Galvan gave the mercenary no chance to respond to the question, “It’s that female you’re trying to pass off as Myaxx!”

Blank stares from the captain and his pilot is all the answer Azmuth gets. “You two don’t get it do you? Myaxx has been working for me for years and all I’ve ever heard from her are complaints and curses. This whoever you brought here, she hums, she sings. Myaxx is not musically inclined, not unless it’s a war song and she has explosions accompanying her in the background!”

“So where is she right now?” The deadpan question does little to betray how utterly amusing (not to mention absurd) Tetrax found the situation.

“She’s in her room, reading a cookbook I think. Told her I wanted something special to eat for tomorrow’s breakfast. Which is another thing that proves that she-alien is an impostor!” Azmuth declared with much frenzy, “She’s willing to make me a meal without promising intentional gastrointestinal harm!”

Gluto resisted the urge to laugh, but barely. To cover up the snickers, the gelatinous alien queried “Did she know you happened to be in the room while she was humming?”

Galvan eyes blinked, “Well, no, I was in my private study reviewing the surveillance footages. But that proves nothing!”

“I think you just managed to catch a glimpse of what Myaxx is like if she’s happy about something.” Gluto shrugged.

“Happy?” the genius gawked, “What is there for her to be happy about?”

Gluto wisely kept himself from sneaking at glance at his captain.

“None of the designs she came up with are up to standard, her calculations have been way off the mark, and her recent attempts at poisoning me with her food have all failed.” Azmuth counted off as the tendrils on his face twitched violently.

“Azmuth, cut to the chase.” Tetrax narrowed his eyes, arms folding across his chest. “Why did you really call at this hour?”

The Galvan grew silent, large eyes ascertaining he was indeed alone before admitting with much obvious reluctance, “I want to know what you did at that interstellar watering hole that got Myaxx to act...” he struggled to articulate his thoughts as if such a notion could not have ever existed, “With the semblance of being almost pleasant. Mind you, she’s still every bit the whiny, obnoxious brat of an assistant prior to her incarceration. And she’s been spending more and more time in the training room I built as an afterthought.”

Tetrax shook his head in apology, “I’m sorry, Azmuth but the events of that night are a blur at best.”

“Would a few million credits clear the fog?” the scientist offered.

“I don’t see why I have to tell you, so just keep your money, Azmuth. If you really want to know, I suggest you ask your assistant.” The Petrosapien frowned.

“What and give Myaxx the impression I care?” Wide eyes narrowed to vertical slits, promptly ignoring the glowering of chiseled features. “No, I’ll figure this on my own. How hard would that possibly be?” And with that the monitor blinked into darkness.

Tetrax found his hands balling into fists, not entirely certain why the Galvan’s words incited the desire to cause bodily harm to the diminutive alien. He was in no mood to go back to sleep now. Growling, he stalked past Gluto, “I’ll be in the training chamber.”

The gelatinous pilot waited until his captain was out of earshot before throwing his mechanical arms up and muttering, “Clueless, the whole lot of them.”