He walked to the Varg who’d addressed him, his SIG extended.
The Varg ran his eyes over Taza’s details, and surprise registered on his face. “You’re the guy Lady Lerosse has been waiting for.”
“She’s expecting me?” Taza said, figuring the bouncer was toying with him. Maybe they’d mistaken him for someone else. He rested his hand near his right thigh, feeling his holster just under his coat.
The Varg ignored Taza and grunted something to his companion. Taza guessed he was the guy in charge.
“Nook!” the other bouncer called through the open door. “Nook, get your pimpled ass back out here!”
The burly Varg who had tossed the Yalore to the curb appeared in the entrance again, his bulk taking up every inch of space in the doorframe. “That Yalore bothering you, Grox?” he growled.
“Never mind the Yalore, you lump,” Grox said. “This Terran’s the one the Lady wanted.”
Taza didn’t know how he felt about being wanted by Marquette Lerosse, but these Vargs seemed to have a better handle on Galactic than most he’d met.
Nook looked down at Taza from under a heavy, bone-crested brow. “Come with me, Terran.” He cocked his head and disappeared back into the club.
Taza was about to follow Nook but hesitated, looking to the bouncers outside.
“Better hurry, Terran,” the Varg who read his SIG warned. “Nook has less patience than brains, and that’s saying something.”
Both Varg erupted with laughter.
“If you ask me, he should be more worried about the Lady,” Grox said, as though Taza wasn’t there. “She doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”
Taza followed Nook, leaving the others outside with their fits of cackles.
Loud exotic music pounded his ears and heady perfume struck his other senses like a wall. He shook his head from side to side, suddenly feeling a little lighter. His worries and concerns partially melted away, and remaining alert became difficult. “A bit heavy on the perfume.”
“Helps customers relax,” Nook groaned, leading him through a second set of doors.
“Indeed.” Taza was no stranger to places like Dreamz. Patrons were more likely to part with their coin when they were relaxed as the Varg put it.
He was relieved to find the scent much milder inside the club proper. Walking through the club plucked at his memories and a sense of nostalgia washed over him. Though the outside had changed over the past decade, the club’s interior was as Taza remembered it, if a little less crowded. He recognized the tacky, upholstered seats, the fake-wood panels of the booths, and the uneven, dim-lit bar. Even the red-tinted, spherical lamp covers were the same. The curtains on the stage looked different, but otherwise the place looked like it was stuck in a different time: a better time.
Nook led him between two long rows of curtained booths—some of them occupied by patrons making all manners of sounds—before exiting into a hallway next to the bar.
Taza shielded his eyes as bright ceiling lights activated, almost blinding him given the contrast with the main bar. The doors snapped closed behind them, dulling the music.
“Your buddy said Marquette Lerosse was waiting for me,” Taza ventured.
“You fit the description,” Nook sized him up. “Shady-looking, middle-aged Terran. Graying hair. Long coat. Blaster concealed on his right hip.”
Taza smiled innocently. “Could be anyone’s description.”
“Not in Dreamz. We don’t get many Terrans around here anymore, especially ex-security and military types.”
Taza ran his hand through his hair. “You and your buddies aren’t just any old bouncers, are you?”
“We’ve got a better eye than most,” Nook growled, opening another door. “This way.”
“How does the Lady know who I am?”
“Lady Lerosse knows many things.”
Taza had to stop himself from giggling for no reason, his head still a bit giddy from the pervasive perfume. “Why do I get the feeling you’re trying to avoid my question?”
“I’ve already said too much.” Nook shot him a stern look. “You should consider yourself lucky. Her ladyship hasn’t met with anyone in quite some time, yet she’s been asking about you daily. She even told us to let you keep your gun as a gesture of goodwill.” He looked at Taza’s hip as though he disagreed with the good Lady on that front.
“Thank you…I think.” He didn’t know what else to say. Taza was confused as to why Marquette Lerosse was interested in him or how she knew who he was, but the Varg wasn’t in the mood for answering questions.
They arrived at the end of a hallway and Nook operated his SIG. Taza was about to ask what they were doing there when the entire wall slid away to reveal an elevator. “Don’t thank me,” he muttered, eyeing the lump at Taza’s side again. “Thank the Lady. If it were up to me, I’d have already confiscated your toy. We might live on the city edge, but we have a strict no-weapons policy at Dreamz, especially when someone meets with the Lady in person.”
The elevator doors closed and the box, barely big enough to hold them both, descended for much longer than Taza had expected. “It’s a long way down, huh?”
Nook merely offered a grunt. He didn’t strike Taza as the brainless Varg the other bouncer had claimed him to be. Taza was surprised by Nook’s eloquent speech and the way the Varg carried himself. He didn’t amble like most Varg but kept his shoulders squared and his back straight as though constantly at attention. Something shone in his beady black eyes and Taza realized it was a kind of intelligence he hadn’t seen in many Vargs. Taza suspected that Nook was much more than a mere guard or club bouncer.
A click sounded as the elevator stopped, and the doors slid open to reveal a hallway, the ceiling lights casting a vivid orange glow. Taza stepped out of the elevator and found the absence of perfume a relief. Despite the short exposure, he already felt more relaxed than he had in as long as he could remember. He tried to force his awareness back to the surface.
They made a sharp turn and arrived at a door guarded by two Vargs in rhino-class TEKs holding heavy phase repeaters.
Nook nodded to them, and the guard to Taza’s right punched a combination into the door’s control panel. It scraped open like a claw dragged across stone, revealing an unlit room.
“The Lady awaits,” Nook growled.
Taza wasn’t sure what was going on, but he suddenly felt at ease again, and throwing caution to the wind, he half-stumbled into the alluring blackness.
The door crunched closed, shutting him in a tomb of utter darkness. Alarm gnawed at the edges of his mind, but a soft, nostalgic warmth drifted through the back of his head, suffocating all dismay. Taza activated his SIG’s flashlight, and the gloom swallowed the beam almost entirely, as though there was substance to the shadow. He waved his hand in front of the light and black wisps recoiled as though alive. On closer inspection, he found a roiling, tar-colored mist suspended in the air before him. Something rattled behind, and he spun on his heel, the mist swirling and waving in answer to his movements.
“Hello,” he called, but the black stuff seemed to consume his words just as it did the light. Taza took a step forward, and something caught his eye. A small, gray dot—no bigger than a human eye—appeared ahead, but he couldn’t tell how close it was through the obscuring fog.
The dot glowed brighter the bigger it grew, and Taza realized the shape was a light source. Eventually, the luminous, white circle emerged from the black clouds, floating close to where the ceiling had been. The light pulsed, and four naked Thandrall males appeared below, the powerful light casting a sheen across their brown-green skin. Save for the knotted crest around their crowns and their black-slit eyes, the Thandrall could have passed for oddly-colored humans.
The smog around them dissipated, revealing long poles upon their shoulders. The poles supported a large, golden sphere—big enough to house a person. Elaborate glyphs etched in the golden surface made unusual patterns that converged on the white light eman
ating through a window from inside the device.
A white mist spilled out from under the sphere, and the black fog repelled as though in horror. The white cloud flowed forth like something between gas and liquid. It stopped within arm’s reach of Taza, and he reached out with his right hand.
“I wouldn’t touch that if I were you.”
A dull ache spread through Taza’s skull. His fingertips stopped inches from a bubbling puff of white cloud, and he looked around as the soft voice echoed all around like he stood in the center of a great hall. At first, he thought one of the naked Thandrall had spoken, but squinting through the mist, he noticed that their mouths had been stitched closed. “Where are you?”
“I’m here.” A shape coalesced inside the white mist and moved toward him. As it got closer, Taza realized it was the form of a female, her body swaying seductively. Unlike her companions, the female Thandrall’s skin was pale—only a few shades darker than the mist around her. She stopped at the edge of the cloud where white met black. Her lips moved. “I’m here,” she said, gesturing to her chest. Without moving her mouth, she spoke again. “But I am also here.” She pointed an elongated finger at her temple. It occurred to Taza that the words didn’t bounce off the walls in the room, but the walls of his mind, if there was such a thing.
“You must be Marquette Lerosse?” He thought the sentence more than said it, yet the words rang out loud, if not quite as clear as the Thandrall’s.
“You learn fast.” Her words sounded like music and her amusement poured into him and spread through his body. “We would expect nothing less from the legendary Ghost.” She ran her eyes over him.
“I haven’t been called that in a long time.” To his surprise, he wasn’t worried that some stranger knew his old alias.
“Ah, but we have been waiting for a long time. Waiting in the darkness. Waiting in the light,” she half-sung. “But to answer your question, I am not Lady Lerosse. I am her…translator...A kind of relay, if you will. My name is Na’li.”
Taza took a deep breath and steadied himself. “You can speak to the Lady on my behalf?”
“You may speak with me as though I were the Lady and I will speak with you as though she were me. We will exchange gifts.”
Taza cursed himself for coming empty-handed and couldn’t help but shrug. “I don’t see what I could possibly give you.”
“The Lady will happily accept your information in exchange for…answers,” she said, licking her lips. Her eyes suddenly refocused, like she could see right through him. “Turning the disrupter off will make the…exchange easier, you know.”
Taza felt more than a little disoriented. “Disrupter?”
“The anti-psi system on your neck. The longer we communicate with it activated, the more it will hurt.”
“Of course,” he said, absently reaching over his shoulder. “I wouldn’t want to hurt you.”
A lyrical giggle washed through him like a song. “Not us.” Na’li continue laughing. “It’ll hurt you.”
Taza switched off the APS and the pain in his head subsided instantly. “I see.”
“Much better.” Na’li’s words rang much clearer and no longer sounded or felt like echoes in a great chamber. “We’ll be able to hear each other better.” Her words swept through his soul like a breath of fresh air.
“I thought the APS was supposed to stop Thandrall from getting inside my head,” he projected.
Na’li’s rich laughter spilled forth again. “It’s a crude piece of equipment. It could probably fool some certain species and perhaps other Thandrall too, but not I.”
“Other species?” He asked with unintentional child-like curiosity. “Thandrall are not the only Psionics?”
Nal’li chuckled inside his head. “Thandrall are not the only Psionics, however, we are the only species who remember the psionic ways from birth. Now, tell us what has brought you here, Ghost.”
“I seek information on a Thandrall Psi Commando here on the Sentinel.”
Na’li threw her head back, and enticing laughter tore from her elegant throat once again. She eventually stopped laughing and sighed. “The lady is happy to provide you with this information, but she would like to speak with you directly. Despite my warning, she believes your mind can handle such an exchange. Do you wish to proceed?”
Taza was surprised by the sadness that accompanied the thought of no longer speaking with Na’li. He felt like a smitten schoolboy. “I have no other choice.”
Na’li shut her eyes, wrinkling her nose. “Remove your clothes.”
Taza almost choked. “Excuse me?”
Na’li fought down another chuckle. “You must become one with the mist. Your clothing…inhibits your body. Anything that inhibits the body also inhibits the mind. You must be free.”
Taza reluctantly pulled off his coat and started undressing, leaving his gear and his clothes in a pile by his feet.
“Come forth,” Na’li urged.
Taza extended his left arm and stepped forward reluctantly. The white mist reached out and wrapped around his hand like a cool, refreshing breeze.
“Good,” Na’li said softly. She closed her eyes, and her hand reached into the black fog and clutched his forearms, her touch warm and inviting.
Taza allowed Na’li to lead him and he stepped completely into the mist, taking a sharp breath as its cold enveloped him.
She slowly eased Taza forward until her eyes were mere inches from his.
Na’li’s eyelids parted, her slit pupils suddenly burning with an intense light. Taza threw his head back as ecstasy, such as he had never known, all but overwhelmed him. He fought for control and brought his head forward again. Na’li’s lips latched onto his, and a scorching flame poured down his throat, burning away the mist’s cold.
A quiet voice in his head told him to run, but a raging passion overtook him and drowned the voice until he could no longer hear its whispering words. Taza pulled Na’li close, her breasts pressing against his ribs.
His eyes closed as a dynamic presence penetrated his mind like a cold blade. Panic struck his consciousness, and the thought-blade pressed further inside him, blazing with overwhelming pleasure.
“It won’t take long to adjust,” a new voice whispered. The words soothed him as Zora’s words had.
With eyes closed, Taza felt the universe rock back and forth, and every worry drifted free like dust carried away by the wind.
The cold knife gradually warmed and a woman’s form materialized in his mind’s eye, amplifying the comforting calm.
“That’s better.” The new voice was not unlike Na’li’s, yet it had another dimension…like two voices woven together. “It’s so nice to speak with someone new face to face like this.”
“It’s a strange way to communicate,” Taza said, finding his ethereal feet.
“Strange but necessary.”
“How do you know who I am?”
“We Thandrall know a great many things. I can see things,” the Lady’s sultry words fell upon Taza like silk. “I can see things that were and things that are yet to be.”
“You can predict the future?”
“That’s a very crude way of putting it,” Lady Lerosse whispered. “The universe speaks to me in colors. Many, many, colors.”
“A friend of mine can do that.”
“Ah, yes. You speak of Zora. The Omnion agent is…different, but it is along the same lines.” The words filled his head like light would a room.
He felt no need to hide anything from the Lady. “You know about Zora?”
“I do not know her as such. I have seen her…reflection. When she touches the universe, she leaves impressions; she creates tiny ripples. She is a beautiful woman. I understand why you love her.”
“Love her?”
The voice tutted gently. “You do not fool us, Taza Arkona. If we understand one thing above all others, it is love. Zora might be misled, but the universe needs her, and she needs you. Be gentle with her heart.”
>
“What do you mean she’s misled?”
“It is a pity that her masters are such fools. The Omnion might not be as benevolent as they seem. They force the music rather than joining it in harmony.”
Taza remembered how he felt when he first met Mr. Wu. “Ever since meeting an Omnion many years ago, something about them wanting to help humanity struck a strange chord with me.”
“You are wise to be wary, Taza Arkona. Every species puts its own people first. I detect much uncertainty in you. You are…like a child who has lost his parents.”
“I’ve spent years without purpose. But I think I know what I must do.”
“You seek to return to the Omnion. You have an ancient artifact that will lead you to them. But there are…barriers.”
“I should have a safe way off the Sentinel soon, but I’m not sure whether going to the Shroud is the right thing...”
The Lady went quiet for a moment and her warmth faded noticeably, as though she was mulling something over.
“You are correct to be cautious. However, you must use the Fist of Orinmore to enter the Shroud as your inner voice suggests. There, you will find your path.”
“We need access to The North Star.”
“Yes.” Lady Lerosse’s voice trailed off into a breeze.
“We need to track down an assassin first—a Thandrall here on the Sentinel.”
“The beast…Chimera. They are dangerous, they seek to open the forbidden way. The Thandrall child who works for them almost extinguished your Captain friend. We are happy the child did not succeed in this endeavor. Your Captain friend balances the universe on his shoulders. He is an important part of the puzzle. As are you. It is rare that so many important pieces converge on one place. Great changes are afoot.”
Taza’s head swam under the overwhelming wave of information. “What puzzle?”
“All pieces fit together,” the Lady said, sounding somewhat surprised. “All paths converge.”
“What does that mean?”
“It simply means that all paths converge.”
The Galactic Sentinel: Ultimate Edition: 4 Books with 2000+ Pages of Highly Entertaining Sci-Fi Space Adventure Page 48