Lila was an inquisitive child on a doomed ship. The name “Iceship” was just dooming it to a Titanic kind of fate. However, this is space, so an iceberg was not the danger.
Instead the danger was Bizmo. The bizarre toy led Lila to find out things she was not meant to know: that the ship was carrying weapons, that they were courting attack, etc. However, Captain Dan assured her they were in no danger from the Rigellians. As Rigel was not actively their enemy, this seemed puzzling. Still, she knew he was in love with a Rigellian and feared relations with them would deteriorate. So he told her not to blab what she knew to anyone to keep this news from affecting that.
However Bizmo’s prime goal was to serve Lila’s mom. It told her and she told everyone. There was panic, outrage, political scandal, etc. Then the news spread to Rigel. Rigel was in fact not an enemy but felt humans threatened galactic stability. Likewise, many Earthers felt bigoted toward Rigel because of their stance and their odd religion. Putting weapons on the equivalent of the Love Boat finally put things to a head.
Still Captain Dan had always loved the Rigellians so he figured he would salvage things. He was wrong. One after the other crew members were sacrificed to their eight-legged goddess. Lila and her mom tried to heal their wounds, but being disemboweled was hard to treat. Bizmo almost made matters worse by pointing out “again” i.e. that he wanted the child to see no more carnage.
Finally the Captain himself was sacrificed. However in his case they took his heart, as he was Captain. After their chants they dropped the heart into the girl’s hand. And she represented what was left of the feminine on the ship, as they had killed her Mom earlier. Then we get to...
“again,” said Bizmo, unable to take his eyes off of the grisly sight. “Shut up, Bizmo,” said Lila. She was still clutching Captain Dan’s heart in her good hand, watching intently as the blood streamed down her forearm. It pooled on the underside of her chubby elbow, the bubble growing hypnotically large in the low gravity of the ship. Twenty seconds passed in silence. Finally, too obese to hang on any longer, it fell to the deck and splashed on Lila’s feet, staining her white shoes an obscene shade of green. Lila twisted her dimpled cheeks into a sneer. “Mom always told me never to trust a Rigellian.”
So in this version she did not kill Dan. Instead she is giving a message to Captain Dan’s heart. Chiding it that even her Mom knew “never trust a Rigellian.” and mocking his willingness to see the good in others.
As for why Dan’s human blood turned her shoes green it’s a chemical thing. Her shoes had some kind of coating that makes blood turn it green.
Copyright © 2003 by Thomas R.
