Cohost writing prompt: @spy-thief-assassin-who — Smuggler who regrets circumventing so many live cargo regulations
"If anyone hears this," Chloe whispers into the commbox, wedged under the starchart table, "please, I didn't know. I, I've seen so many pictures of them, you know? People like them. I thought they were harmless. Don't — if you find my ship, they're in the air vents. You can't — I tried to contain them. I should never have let them get out in the first — I tried. I tried, but you can't. They're everywhere, and their claws are — they look so nice, in the pictures. So nice.
"I grew up on an Orbital, we didn't have any megafauna that wasn't purpose-engineered. It's all harmless, but none of it's — they looked nice, that's all, I wanted to touch one. I just wanted—
"I don't even know what they're capable of."
She stiffens and falls silent.
"I can hear one," she hisses into the microphone. "In the walls. I think it's — I think it's coming for me. I've diverted course for Helverton, but if I don't make it, I've marked the ship as Q-priority. Don't come in here without hazmats. Armour, maybe? I don't even—
"There are dozens of them. Don't come on board unless you're equipped to herd cats."