Battle For Earth

by Daniela A. Wolfe

  “Just how the hell am I supposed to convince you, Velspatt? I’m here to collect on my debt if you’re not going to repay me maybe it’s just better if I leave,” I said and turned away ready to leave.

  “I don’t believe that will be necessary. I don’t know what it is, but I believe you. It seems unlikely that another K’teth would find it’s way into another human.”

  “Well.” I spun back around and eyed the Ghrev crime lord suspiciously. Her turnaround seemed a bit too sudden for my liking, but I needed her help so I didn’t press the matter. There would be plenty of time to discover whatever secret motives she had later on. “I believe it’s time get down to business.”

  

  I looked down at the getup I was wearing and felt my cheeks burn. It would have been one thing if it had been something that skirted the edges of decency, but the sheer crop top and loin cloth I was wearing left nothing to the imagination. I might as well have been wearing nothing at all. Certainly the outfit matched the part I was going to play, but it was not what I had in mind when I’d gone to Velspatt.

  She of course had outright refused use of her ship, but that didn’t surprise me in the least. Fortunately, Scottsdale City had a space port which was what allowed me to fall back on my second idea and with Velspatt’s help I might just be able to pull it off. Assuming she wasn’t up to something with this little scheme of hers, but it was a risk I was willing to take if it meant getting my hands on another ship.

  “Damn,” Max said from the doorway. I spun around to face her and I think my face must have turned an even deeper shade of red when I caught her looking at my chest.

  After my meeting with Velspatt I’d returned back to our little hideaway and retrieved Max and Jokeb. Velspatt had been kind enough to offer us food and shelter, something which I could hardly refuse considering that we had virtually no rations left. The accommodations certainly beat the tiny little rat-hole we’d spent the last five days tucked away inside.

  I cleared my throat and quickly covered my chest as I fought down the urge to go scurrying away. Her cheeks looked about as red as mine felt and she quickly ducked her head behind the huge piece of snowy white animal fur she was holding in her arms. “Velspatt told me to bring this in to you. She wanted you to wear it while out in the city.”

  “How thoughtful of her. Now I won’t’ freeze to death,” I replied eagerly snatching the fur out from her arms and draping it over my shoulders.

  “Not to mention your modesty. If it was me I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing that.” Rodriegez bit her lip and shook her head. “You sure about this?”

  “About as sure as I can be. Believe me I’m none too thrilled about this outfit, but I’ve learned sometimes you have to make compromises to achieve your goals,” I replied pulling the ends of the fur together so that they covered my breasts. “I don’t think I have to tell you how beneficial it would be to have another ship, do I?”

  “No, but I don’t think I have to tell you the consequences if we fail. Tell me do you really trust Velspatt?”

  “No,” I replied grabbing fistful of fur with each hand. I wasn’t sure what animal it might have belonged to, but it was certainly soft. “I’d be an idiot if I did, but at the moment she’s our best bet so we’ll play along… for now.”

  “I’m not sure I can do that, Lexa. This whole thing has me on edge.”

  “How do you think I feel?” I grimaced and looked down at my ridiculous little outfit before I reached out to put a hand on her shoulder. “Look, I understand, I really do. You’re a soldier, right?”

  Max nodded and met my gaze, stiffening just a little bit as she stared me down. “I am.”

  “Concentrate on your orders. If this goes to pot it will be my fault. I don’t want you worrying about something that is out of your control. Do you understand?”

  She pursed her lips and nodded. “Yes, Ma’am.”

  “Good, now are you clear on what you have to do?”

  Rodriquez nodded again a slow smile gradually stretching across her face. “This oughtta prove to be one of the more interesting ops I’ve ever been involved in.”

  “Me too,” I grinned back at her then shuffled out the door and waved for her to follow. It was time for me to play my part.

  Chapter Nine

  The iron collar snapped around my neck and I clenched my fists at my side barely able to keep myself from smashing the head of my Ghrev taskmaster, a foul tempered Ghrev with pale white scales and strange all-black eyes. I hadn’t yet learned her name and given the way she treated me I had no interest in doing so. She was actually in on our little scheme which was why I became so angry when the bitch got rough with me. She clipped a chain onto my collar and yanked me forward all the while muttering under her breathe in the Ghrev language.

  Her initial jerk had been so unexpected that she actually managed to pull me forward a few steps, but the second time I braced myself and when she yanked on it I didn’t budge an inch. The bitch spun around, dropped the chain and came rushing toward me.

  “You are a willful and insolent hume,” she said getting right in my face and barring her teeth at me. “I have been dealing with this gray one for many years. He will find it very unusual if I am easier on you than other slaves. If he learns of my deceit and you fail it will be detrimental to my business dealings.”

  “And you wouldn’t want that, would you?” I met her gaze and when she started to turn away I reached out and grabbed her by the throat. The end of the chain she was holding went clattering to the ground as she reached up to try and pry my finger free, but my grip was like iron and her efforts futile.

  “I may look like another puny human to you, but I could end your life with just a little squeeze. Which I will do if you try anything funny. Understand?” I squeezed just hard enough to give her an inkling of how strong I really was and loosened my grip.

  “I will attempt to restraint myself,” she replied letting out a long drawn out hiss and backed slowly away. She bent down to pick up the chain and pulled on it. She wasn’t as forceful as before, but there was an urgency to the way she was yanking.

  She led me through the streets and I certainly drew a lot of attention. I pulled my fur as close to my body as I could, but there was only so much of it and I showed a lot of skin no matter how I tried. It certainly didn’t do as much to keep me warm as I would have liked let alone preserve my modesty.

  Everywhere I looked eyes were on me, most of the men and a few of the women looked on me with hungry expressions, but there were a lot of people who looked at me with contempt. My outfit identified me as a croucher, and there were few things slaves hated more than a human who so willingly served the Qharr except perhaps the gray skins themselves. A part of me longed to call out and tell them that I was not what I appeared, but sanity and reason kept me from acting out on that impulse.

  Fortunately, the trip through the city, while humiliating and more than a little chilly, was brief enough that it didn’t scar my dignity too deeply. The space port was massive monstrosity of a structure, whose interconnected insectine domes spanned three entire city blocks and stood as a stark contrast to the towering skyscrapers of the city.

  My Ghrev escort led me into a side entrance that was barely visible from the street and down into a dark and dank tunnel. We took so many twists and turns that I don’t think I could have made my way back on my own. Though I’m not sure it would have mattered, if everything worked out, I’d be taking a different way out.

  “Eurunteso,” a deep voice said the moment we stepped into yet another access corridor.

  I glanced about and watched as a tall dark-skinned Qharr stepped out from the shadows. I had to do a double take when spotted the prominent belly hanging from his massive frame. Not once in my twenty-four years living as a slave had I ever met an overweight gray skin. Our invaders prided themselves on their physical appearances to the point that anyone who deviated from the norm was looked on as less than desirable.

/>   “Portmaster Myndurk,” Eurunteso replied clenching a scaled hand atop my shoulder and pushing me forward. “I’ve brought you another treat.”

  I bit my tongue and fought down the urge to smash things before I bowed my head and fell down onto my knee in front the portmaster. I slowly raised my head and put on my best vapid expression. He knelt down and reached out to my cheek, his fat calloused hands slowly messaging it and it was all I could do to keep from punching the bastard in the face.

  “Beautiful,” he whispered in Qharr before jerking back to his feet.

  “Eurunteso, you always come through for me. This hu-man female may very well be the most luscious sampling yet. Tell me, where is it that you find these girls?”

  “If I revealed my methods, I’d be out of business, would I not?” Came Eurunteso’s reply. “I really must leave; I have business to attend to. If you would be so kind as to pay me, I’ll let you get to your pleasures.”

  “Very well, if you so insist.” Myndurk messaged the underside of his jaw, a gesture which indicated he was irritated, but either Eurunteso didn’t pick up on the cue or else she didn’t have as good of a grasp of Qharr body language as I did.

  He produced a small satchel from his gun belt and tossed it to Eurunteso who snatched it out of the air and let out a long hiss. “Enjoy,” was all she said before she dropped the chain and disappeared back down the corridor. It was probably because she was looking right at me, but I got the feeling she hadn’t been talking to Myndurk when she said it.

  “Come, precious one,” my new ‘master’ said as he reached down to pick up the chain. I didn’t say a word, but once he turned his back I permitted myself to give off the slightest shudder just before he led me away.

  

  The door clicked shut behind us and I slowly backed away from the portmaster, until the chain was completely taut. He yanked on it and I let myself be pulled toward him until he had his massive arms wrapped around me. “Human women are so soft, so warm, and so very different from Qharr females.”

  I pursed my lips and looked up at him . The Qharr were a rough, and hard edged people, but surely the Phyrr Lesch must have left something resembling humanity within their psyche. It was just enough to stop me from killing Myndurk right there and then, but only just barely. It wasn’t however enough to keep me from beating the fat bastard senseless.

  I broke loose from his grip, and slammed him into the wall. He crumbled collapsing to the ground at my feet and I bent down wrapped the chain around his neck and pulled it just tight enough that I’m sure it was more than a little difficult to breathe.

  “Alright,” I gritted my teeth staring him down. “I’m only going to say this once. I need the access codes to open the side bay ports on the north end of the building.”

  He didn’t answer, but I hadn’t exactly been expecting him to be cooperative. I tightened the chain and batted his hands away as he flung them up to try and forced me away. “You ready to give me an answer or will I have kill you? I don’t care either way. I’m sure I can find another way to get those bay doors open and I certainly would not mind ridding the world of another gray skin.”

  Again he was silent and I slammed a hand into his head. “No? You disgust me you know that? It’s bad enough that you people enslaved us. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been beaten by one of your kind, and I hate the whole lot of you, but you, your worse than all of them. The Qharr have taken our freedom, but that’s no enough for you, is it!? You want our fucking bodies too! What would your friends think if they found out you liked getting a little human nookie? You’d be regarded as a sexual deviant, and I’m sure I don’t have to tell you what your people do with deviants. Now, are you going to tell me what I want to know, or will I have to kill you? I’ve killed more Qharr than I can count, believe me I won’t be shedding any tears once you’re gone.”

  I didn’t expect to get anything out of him, the Qharr were notoriously difficult to intimidate and even harder still to interrogate, but Myndurk didn’t seem to be made of very stern stuff because he crumbled like dried dough. “You can open the ports from the adjacent computer terminal, but you will never make it that far. The guards will kill you before you make it halfway through the building.”

  “I think you’ll find I’m a little harder to kill than your average human,” I said reaching up to my collar and snapping the hinge in two before tossing the two pieces aside. “I guess now there isn’t much reason to keep you alive, is there?”

  I pulled my fist back ready to deal a devastating blow, but as I stared back at Myndurk, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. Sure he was an evil, disgusting excused for a gray skin, but I was sick and tired of all the killing. I snatched one of the collar halves from where I’d thrown it and slammed it into the side of his head. His eyes rolled into the back of his skull and he slumped down to the ground, blood dripping from the side of his head where I’d hit him.

  I took a moment to compose myself, and felt my cheeks burn anew as I looked down at the ridiculous outfit that I was wearing. The thought of traipsing about through the spaceport wearing almost nothing at all wasn’t exactly the most appealing idea in the world. I’d never fought naked and I really didn’t think I wanted to give it try. Stealth seemed like it was probably the better choice.

  Still a weapon would have been nice. I glanced around the room, spotted a phase pistol, and retrieved it from where it had been left atop the table. A layer of dust covered it and I wiped it clean as best I could with my hands. All the Qharr I’d ever known were meticulous to the point of obsession when it came to caring for their weapons, but it seemed Myndurk was more than a little careless in that sense.

  A part of me wondered how a deviant could rise to such a high position as portmaster, but no matter how I spun it I just couldn’t think of a reason. Then the answer came to me, it was corruption. I’d already witnessed signs of it within the ascendancy. The Qharr were always beating their chests declaring how honorable they were, but there were at least a few that had proved they could go against the very values and principles that supposedly motivated every action a gray skin warrior took.

  I shook my head and bit my lip, glancing down at Myndurk’s unconscious form. I probably should have killed him, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. He’d given me enough reason, but I was becoming more and more convinced that the more beings I killed the more like the Qharr I became.

  I spun away and hit the door running at full speed. I had avoided killing one slimeball, but I very much doubted if any others of his kind tried to stop me I’d be able to be left with a choice. My mission was just too damned important to let it go to pot because I couldn’t do what was necessary.

  

  I dove for cover behind a patrol ship, and bit my lip as I craned my neck to glance around the corner. I’d spent the last hour navigating the maze like corridors before finally finding my way to the main hangar bays and it hadn’t exactly been the easy finding my way through. There were guards everywhere, most of which I’d managed to evade, but the two I’d run across just a few moments ago hadn’t been quite so lucky.

  I’d made short work of the pair, but there hadn’t been any good places to stash the bodies so it was only a matter of time before they were discovered. Worse still, there were at least thirty gray skins lurking about the hangar. I didn’t know what they were all doing there, but there were more than enough of them to give me trouble if I chose to take a direct approach. I needed to think of something more subtle, but for the life of me I had no idea what that could be.

  I almost laughed out loud when I realized what I was going to do. It wasn’t exactly subtle, but it would get the job done… or so I hoped. I dashed across the empty space of the hangar and leapt behind the next ship. I jumped behind a second and third before finally finding what I was looking for a guard close enough that I could grab him without anyone seeing. Which is exactly what I did. I slammed the butt of my weapon in the sid
e of his head and managed to render him unconscious before he made much sound.

  The next part of the plan was a little more difficult. I had to get into the fighter without being seen all the while dragging my captive along with me. I was getting really tired of the Qharr and their god damned bio locks. The bastards just couldn’t make it easy could they?

  With the unconscious guard in tow I edge around the back of the patrol ship and found my way to the door on the side. I glanced around making sure that none of the other gray skins had caught sight of me or noted the absence of their peer, but the coast still seemed to be clear. I placed the guard’s hand on the door panel and once the door slid open I immediately dragged him inside.

  From there it was just a matter of getting the ship up and running. Unfortunately, it didn’t go unnoticed and before it was even off the ground I spotted a half a dozen guards making a beeline for my position. As luck would have it, the weapons were one of the first systems to come online and I opened fire with the phase cannons blasting the bastards to hell before they could get close enough to pose any threat.

  Once, I got the ship up off the ground I panned left then right firing additional volleys to take out the other guards.

  “So much for minimizing fatalities,” I said letting out a long sigh before spinning around to face the northern doors. I paused, then panned left and right again, disabling the other ships before turning my attention to the hangar bay doors. Opening fire on them probably wasn’t the best of ideas since the plan was for the others to wait on the other side. So I set the ship down, and scrambled back out a phase pistol in hand fully ready for whatever trouble might come my way.

  I made it all the way to the control panels without meeting opposition. I worked quickly using a hand print of a fallen warrior to disengage the biolock and activate the panel, but I felt the prick of something sharp against my neck and froze before I could actually work any of the controls.