by Trevor Scott
“Are you one of those few?” Saturn asked, intrigued.
Nix appeared uncomfortable, shifting his gaze between each of the crew. “At the moment, my only concern is for your safety.”
“Why help us?” Liam asked.
“I will not stand by and watch another race be used as bartering chips as we have been. I warn you to give you the chance my race has never had, at least in recent memory. If the stories are true, the Kurazon Throng will be a far worse evil than the Ansarans. An alliance between them cannot come to exist.”
“What will that mean for this world?” Saturn asked.
“If peace is garnered between Ansarans and Kurazon, the Dinari stand to suffer. But not only would the Dinari be in danger. The Ansarans would become an unstoppable force, free to take over system after system. I do not know where your world is, but this alliance could not be good for your race either.”
“Do the Ansarans or the Kurazon have the ability to open a wormhole?” Saturn asked probingly.
At the mention of a wormhole, Nix backed against the far wall, pressing his shoulder blades into the smooth surface. Nix’s expression changed; miniscule ticks appeared at the corners of his mouth. “There are stories,” he began, adjusting the hood on his cloak nervously. “But I worry they are only that. There is a Dinari in the city below who knows things. He is a collector of information and he distributes it as he sees fit. I will not lie, he is not friendly, but he’s helped me before and under the right circumstances he’ll help me again.”
Liam didn’t like the sound of this Dinari already. He sounded like any one of the countless mercenary leaders he’d dealt with in his time freelancing. They would do anything for a credit and cared only for themselves. It wasn’t so long ago that Liam felt the same way. Being on the mine, even just for a year, could change a person’s perspective.
Saturn shot Liam a frightened look. “If the Ansarans or the Kurazon Throng have the ability to open a wormhole, we need to put a stop to it. Earth wouldn’t stand a chance. Even if they’re stories, we need to follow up on this.”
Liam put a hand against the cold wall and leaned his weight against it. He brushed aside his hair, still stained with sweat and caked with sand from the day that wouldn’t seem to end. He looked between Saturn, Ju-Long, and Nix. “The first order of business is getting out of here. We’re no use to anyone if we get handed over to the Throng. Nix, can you get us out?”
Nix pushed away from the wall and raised his thick brown hood over the top portion of his face. Deep shadows cut under his eyes and a smile curved up from his long mouth revealing many pointed teeth. For the first time, he spoke confidently, “I know the way.”
16
Nix led the crew down the long corridor in the opposite direction of the main elevator. His long cloak fluttered behind him from a strange wind traveling down the hallway, which caused a hissing noise to fill Liam’s ears. The alien jogged down the passage, his clawed feet clicking on the stone with every step and echoing between the rock walls. Liam followed close behind, hugging the wall and using his hands to help guide his way in the dimly lit passageway.
“Where is he leading us?” Saturn whispered over Liam’s shoulder.
“Through the servant’s quarters to a separate entryway,” Nix replied.
Saturn bore a look of surprise. Her voice had been low, hardly loud enough for Liam to hear. Despite this, Nix seemed to pick it up just fine with his non-existent external ears. He was a strange creature, full of ticks and habits that made him appear more like an abused animal than a person. Liam felt for him. Even with all the problems on Earth, the plight of the Dinari stood out as an injustice.
The long corridor ended abruptly, capped by an angled window jutting up at an angle from the ground, spiraling toward the top of the tower. Nix stepped on a specific tile and the wall to their left turned transparent, as though it were never there. Before them was a set of stairs leading down and around the spire. Liam made a note to ask Nix how their technology was capable of such a feat. Though, with the things he’d seen in the past day, the parlor tricks of the walls seemed of little concern.
Nix shifted his head under his hood and whispered with a quiver of his mouth, “This is the servants’ staircase.”
He disappeared down the dark steps, his cloak floating up behind him with an unfelt wind. Liam and Saturn exchanged a concerned look before following him down the passageway. Ju-Long kept checking their tail as though certain they were being followed. Liam was starting to get that feeling too. Toras’ words kept coming back to haunt his mind, ‘Do not stray the path or I will know it.’
“Nix, wait,” Liam said.
The hunched alien stopped several steps ahead of him and peered back at Liam, the Dinari’s face obstructed by his hood, with only his blunt point of a nose showing out from under. “What is it? We must hurry.”
“Toras said something to me on our way inside the spire. He said if I strayed the path, he would know.”
Nix removed his hood, his golden eyes wide even in the half-light. “Did he show you a path? Telepathically I mean.”
“He used a device to communicate. It showed me images of where to go.”
Nix cursed in a way that Liam’s translator couldn’t discern. It made him wonder how close the Dinari and Ansaran languages were and just how good the translators could really be. Nix approached him, climbing a few steps before speaking.
“The link could well be active. Toras would be able to see everything you see if he liked.”
“Then he would have heard us talking?” Ju-Long asked.
“No, he would see only what Liam sees. It’s enough. We don’t have time. Toras will realize what we’re up to soon and sound the alarms. I cannot break the link here, we must move quickly.”
Nix took off down the stairs much faster than before. The occasional sliver of window lit up the passage with a faint purple glow from outside the spire. It was barely enough for the crew to keep their footing as they descended. Liam understood now why Nix was so muscular in his legs. If the Dinari never used the elevator, every step would have been torture on the feet.
Liam looked out the next window as they passed and noted they were far closer to the ground than before. By Earth standards they were still remarkably high. Working on the mine was a great source of physical activity, but it was nothing compared to descending hundreds of stories of stairs. He couldn’t imagine going back up.
“You really climb these every day?” Liam asked Nix.
“Gods no,” he replied. “There are servants responsible for each floor, hundreds of Dinari living here. I haven’t left the spire in ages and rarely leave my floor.”
Nix seemed to deflate after saying that last part, as though going outside was a source of pride for a Dinari. They continued their controlled descent down the stairs for ten more minutes before they neared the bottom. Nix slowed down until he only took one stair per step. Finally, he stopped, raising his hand to signal Liam and his crew to halt.
“The servant’s entrance is just below.”
“What are we waiting for?” Ju-Long huffed.
Nix turned his calm gaze to Ju-Long and replied, “Outside I’ve procured transportation, but when we reach them, I must cover his eyes. He cannot see where we are going or Toras will see.”
While Nix spoke, Liam placed his hands on his knees and sucked in air. He, Saturn, and Ju-Long were each breathing hard from the long descent, though Nix still seemed collected, if a little spastic. Nix reminded Liam of a gecko. Quick and a little odd by nature.
Ju-Long tugged at the material of his gray jumpsuit, his biceps bulging before ripping the sleeve clean off. He handed the piece of cloth to Liam and said, breathing heavily, “This should do.”
Nix nodded and continued down the stairs. As they rounded the corner, they came out into a large, open area where supplies were stored in crates made from a white polymer. Liam imagined it was where all the supplies were delivered to the spire. The four of t
hem continued to the bottom of the stairs, where the orbs of light that lit the room changed from a soft white to a purple. The abrupt change threw light into every crevice, the light showering each of their faces with brilliant intensity.
Nix’s face contorted as he yelled, “They’re going to lock down the spire, move!”
17
The massive metal doors slowly began to close as Liam, Nix, and the crew slipped through. Outside, a faint purple glow encapsulated the spire, almost liquid in nature and obstructing their view of the other spires and the rest of the city. Nix dug his feet into the gravelly sand and pushed off through the barrier. It didn’t seem to hold him back at all, so Liam and the others followed suit. The purple barrier made Liam tingle but it was anything but painful.
Twenty meters away were four vehicles which hovered half a meter off the ground, similar in design to the Earth’s hover bikes made for racing. Nix ran to the nearest one and made it jump to life, numerous controls lighting up blue and displaying information in an unknown writing system. The body of the vehicle was otherwise black against the night.
“Hurry,” Nix said, gesturing with a clawed hand before instructing, “Put on the blindfold.”
Liam took the piece of gray cloth and covered his eyes, tying a knot over the back of his damp blond hair. Saturn took his arm and led him to the back of one of the bikes, getting him situated before hopping on in front of him.
“What about the fourth bike?” Ju-Long asked as he powered on his vehicle.
“Leave it,” Nix replied. “It can’t be traced back to us.”
Liam felt the vehicle suddenly zip off and he grabbed hold of Saturn’s waist to hold himself steady. Saturn’s ponytail blew back into his face, her smell wafting into his nostrils. The feminine curves of her waist were intoxicating and he found his hands sliding down, unconcerned with the whipping of the wind or the forces meaning to throw him from the bike. Saturn took one hand off the controls and placed it on his, gentle for a moment, before peeling it off and placing it higher on her waist.
From the rush of the warm air around him he could tell they were traveling at blistering speeds, perhaps two or three hundred kilometers per hour. Though, he could have been imagining it. Liam heard Nix’s voice come over their radio, somehow loud enough to hear over the din of noise from the whooshing air. “Veer left at the next spire and be prepared to stop.”
Liam had lost track of time, but they could easily have been traveling for several minutes. Whatever link he still had with Toras needed to be severed immediately, if only so Liam could enjoy the landscape in peace. Liam felt the hover bike turn to the left and Saturn’s abdominal muscles tightening as she maneuvered past what must have been the next spire. A minute later Saturn eased back on the throttle, slowing them down until finally they reached a stop.
“Are we there yet?” Liam asked woozily.
“We’re close,” Nix replied from his left, “But we need to take care of your little problem first.”
Saturn got off the bike and helped Liam find his way to solid ground. He immediately noticed that the ground was more compacted there, as though years of foot traffic had flattened it. Liam was led into a building, of that much he was sure. He could hear Nix and Ju-Long chatting quietly behind him, their footsteps changing from the crunch of compacted soil to an echo off of smooth stone. Saturn stopped him after taking several paces over the stone. He heard a door slam closed behind him before someone loosened the knot of his blindfold and tore it off.
Even the dimly lit room made Liam’s eyes strain after becoming accustomed to the darkness. They were inside a small shop of some sort, with broken devices littered all around in a half-hearted attempt at order. Saturn’s hand found its way to his shoulder in comfort, though Liam wasn’t sure why. Ju-Long stepped up to the glass counter and touched a broken square device. It popped up on tiny metal legs and danced around, spitting out an obnoxious sound at far too high a volume. Ju-Long was taken aback and started hitting the device frantically.
A female Dinari came out from a back room and touched the device lightly on its underbelly, silencing it and returning it to its previous state. The Dinari’s features were softer than Nix’s, but the scales were far darker, appearing burnt by a persistent sun. Her raiment was fashioned from the leather of multiple animals, stitched together poorly, with a thin cloak draped over her shoulders and clasped together at the center with a metal pin in the shape of an avian creature, resplendent with the outline of its wings burning in flame. The cowl of her cloak was adorned with dark feathers and thick spines ridged with black and white detail. She held out a hand, which Nix promptly took and kissed.
“Sestra, it’s been ages,” Nix said, bowing his head. “I’d like you to meet my new friends.”
She raised her nose up and sniffed the air, her nostrils widening along with her golden eyes. “They are not Ansaran, nor Dinari or Kurazon. So, what are they?”
“The caretaker called them human. They’ve come from afar and need our help.”
“What help could a lowly shopkeeper such as myself provide?” Sestra asked in a tone that suggested she was neither lowly nor really a shopkeeper.
“This one,” Nix said, pointing at Liam, “has seen the Inner Eye.”
Sestra hissed and raised her sharp cowl until it obscured her face. “Fool! Why bring them here? Close your eyes, Outsider.”
Liam looked to Saturn and Ju-Long, who both nodded silently.
Saturn’s grip on Liam’s shoulder tightened. “Go ahead, we’ve got you.”
Liam closed his eyes and Sestra’s hissing ceased. There were a few hushed whispers between Nix and Sestra. Several moments passed and Liam was about to say something, when Nix said, “Sestra has agreed to help, but for her assistance, she will require payment.”
“We don’t have anything to trade,” Liam said. “Our ship crashed and is in Ansaran custody as we speak.”
“Oh, but you do,” Sestra replied.
Saturn’s grip on Liam’s shoulder tightened even more and she asked the Dinari in a piercing tone, “What do you want?”
“What every Dinari wants. To be owed.”
There was silence while Liam considered the implications of the proposal. “What do you mean exactly?”
Nix spoke up first. “In Dinari culture, and with the outer colonies of the Ansara Alliance largely lacking in currency, most of our trade is predicated on favors. The level of service provided dictates what kind of favor will be requested.”
“What did you have in mind?” Liam asked Sestra, perplexed.
“You may be right that you have nothing I need at the moment, but it is my guess that you will. I would require one favor to be given at my pleasure in the future. You would be honor-bound to oblige.”
“We don’t have to listen to this,” Ju-Long said. “A favor without limits is a blank check.”
“Nix, what do you think?” Liam asked.
“This kind of contract is common among my people. By taking away Toras’ sight over you, she is saving your life. It is likely her favor would entail a similar arrangement, should the need arise.”
Liam opened his eyes, prompting Sestra to cower behind the glass counter. Liam had spent most of his life in debt to someone and he didn’t want to start a new life in a new solar system the same way. But if Toras found Liam and the crew because of him and turned them over to the Kurazon, their escape from the Asteroid Belt would have been for nothing. Once again, it looked like Liam didn’t have much of a choice. He needed Sestra’s help, and a promise to save her life at some unknown point in the future didn’t seem so bad, for now. At least he couldn’t be charged interest on such an intangible debt.
“Done,” Liam said. “You’ll have your favor if you can break the link between Toras and myself.”
Sestra’s eyes widened, revealing a line of black around the gold. She covered her mouth with one clawed hand. “Toras is your link? Gods.”
Nix explained, “Toras’ exploits are
legend among my people. Many Dinari have died by his hand for trifling matters.” Nix turned to Sestra and continued, “He is but a tool for the Caretaker, though, we must remember that.”
Liam took note of Nix’s words. He didn’t seem as skittish as he did in the spire. Had it just been for show?
“Let’s be done with this,” Sestra said, interrupting Liam’s thoughts.
Sestra turned and disappeared behind a tattered cloth curtain which led to the back of the shop.
Nix followed her behind the veil.
Saturn frowned, releasing Liam’s shoulder and taking a few steps toward the counter. “This is a bad idea, Liam.”
“If we don’t break the link, I’ll endanger all of you. They’ll find us eventually and we’ll be traded to the Kurazon Throng. At the least we’ll have to deal with the Ansarans.”
Saturn stopped when she reached the counter and put a hand on the dusty glass surface. “What if there is no link and Nix is full of crap? How would you ever know? Even if he’s right, Sestra might be able to help us now, but someday this is going to come back to bite us in the ass.”
“One step at a time,” Liam said as he walked past her toward the back room.
Ju-Long joined Saturn at the counter, putting his elbows down on the glass and checking out his reflection. “For the record, you’re right,” he told her. “But if it’s the way things work in this system, it’s better we owe a friend of a friend than a stranger.”
Ju-Long pushed up from the counter and walked past the curtain to join Liam in the entryway to the back room.
With her finger, Saturn drew the winged figure emblazoned on Sestra’s cloak in the dust of the glass surface and said under her breath, “You forget, they’re both strangers really.”
18