The cuffs around her wrists he left in place.
Jet sat up slowly, cautiously, rubbing her feet together and wincing as the circulation returned to her legs and arms.
Still, she couldn’t entirely suppress another exhale of relief.
She hated being trapped. She was okay being underground of course, so couldn’t call herself a true claustrophobic, but she still had an issue with being trapped, especially in tight spaces. She'd had nightmares about that kind of thing.
Again, Richter seemed to be studying her expression.
“We’re here,” he told her, that smile hovering on his lips.
Jet fought to keep the anger out of her voice, but didn’t really succeed.
“Here, where?”
“The Green Zone.”
Jet nodded, her jaw tightening.
If Richter noticed her reaction, he ignored it, handing her a bar of compressed protein and some kind of shake. Like the night before, Jet forced herself to eat, surprised when both the bar and the shake, which had a tangy fruit flavor, tasted far better than they looked.
She finished both in a matter of minutes.
After he’d blown out the metal juice container with the compressor, Richter motioned towards the ladder to the upper deck, and told her to climb. When Jet showed him her cuffed hands, Richter told her to figure it out, or Laksri would sting her, and continue stinging her the rest of the day.
He told Jet her other option was for Richter to shoot her in the foot, and drag her up the ladder himself.
From the look on his face, Jet found herself believing him.
She believed him even more when he pulled out a handgun, and told her it wouldn’t affect her sale price in the slightest. According to Richter, it was common practice among the Nirreth to “hobble” new humans they brought into the Zone.
Since every new acquisition required a few months of training and education anyway––part of Nirreth attempts to assimilate and “raise human cultural sophistication”––it wouldn’t even affect their overall usefulness.
Jet didn’t see Anaze until they were outside the ship.
There, standing on the landing pad, he gazed straight ahead, his face utterly blank, his body surrounded by three giant Nirreth.
Laksri remained by her and Richter, so those three, Jet didn’t have names for.
She supposed it didn’t matter.
Anaze’s dead-eyed expression told her more than she wanted to know. She couldn’t look at him for long. Something in his expression, the way he stood there, swaying slightly on the tarmac, made her physically sick.
Anyway, a lot of other things wanted to pull her eyes.
The sky.
A huge, blue, beautiful sky––something Jet had never seen before in her life––stretched overhead, so large, so breathtaking, she struggled to look away.
That sky and a mountain view closer to the horizon looked like something from the old vids she’d seen of Earth before the invasion.
No, before that, even.
It looked more like historical vids she’d seen, the ones documenting the world before the environmental disasters that started roughly a century before the Nirreth arrived.
Tall, green-leafed, white-barked trees swayed in a light breeze, a forest of them ringing the nearest of a cluster of multi-story buildings. Jet’s eyes tracked shockingly colorful flowers in rich soil beds, with colors from purple to yellow to a deep scarlet; they filled symmetrical flowerbeds, and dotted fields across from the buildings in a swaying mosaic.
The sky overhead was a deep, fathomless blue, dotted with white clouds.
She’d never seen a sky so large.
The very blueness of it fascinated her, even without the sun filtering between branches and the flat, green leaves of trees. How could they have blue sky here? How could they change the sky in only one part of the planet?
It wasn’t possible, of course, but it made Jet wonder where they were, exactly.
The trees, too, seemed like a different species of flora altogether. She didn’t see any blackened or bleeding trunks, any leaves bleached a tired gray. The shockingly bright colors of the flower petals made them look more like a painting than the real thing.
Even the buildings looked more alive than anything near the skag colony in Vancouver. Built with oddly rounded corners and deep, spreading, root-like foundations, they had blue and green-tinted sides of some smooth, skin-like material.
Some bubbled out of the ground like boulders, their outsides featureless, seemingly without windows. Others looked more like mushrooms, with smaller stalks below large, bulging formations on top.
On the nearest of these, Jet noted entrances at the bottom, ringing the lower half like a beehive, or an anthill. Otherwise, she couldn’t tell anything about what lived inside those walls, or inside the buildings beyond it.
Taller structures rose to the sky in the distance, only slightly less featureless, and bent into odd shapes. They made Jet think of giant anthills, the ones with the inch-long black ants that stung when they bit you, and could even kill you if you fell into a nest.
These buildings reminded Jet of those same, odd, mud-sculpture homes, only they stood high enough to be small mountains.
The only thing that convinced her they weren’t natural structures, or somehow created out of the dirt of the valley where the culler ship landed, was their odd, physics-defying layouts and strangely symmetrical protrusions. Some had spires at the top while others reminded her more of upside down trees, or even layer cakes turned on their heads.
She saw more of those mushroom-shaped buildings too––their heavy, bulbous ends balanced atop thin spires of that same, white, stone-like material.
The weight distribution of some of these really looked impossible; they looked like they should collapse under the imbalance, but somehow, they didn't.
Jet heard running water then, and noticed a deep crevice in the white rock just outside of the circle of tarmac.
She wanted to walk over and look at that, too, but Richter still held her by the arm, and her wrists remained cuffed. He no longer held her casually, either, but kept a firm grip above her elbow, standing close enough that her back brushed his side and chest.
Jet could smell his sweat, and the scent of that fruit shake on his skin and breath.
She felt eyes on her and turned.
Anaze had noticed her finally. It seemed to snap him out of his trance, enough that he stared at her now, not the distant horizon.
His dark skin appeared oddly pale under the shocking sunlight, like it had under that manhole cover in Vancouver––which had been the main reason she hadn’t put it together that it was him signaling her. His green eyes looked larger than usual, and glazed, probably with lizard-skin venom, Jet thought grimly.
He still wore the necklaces of teeth he’d made of his hunting kills.
His cheek swelled in a red and purple lump under his left eye, but he didn’t seem to be in any immediate pain.
The Nirreth holding him was one she’d seen before, she realized. It wasn’t Laksri, but another one she’d fought in the cargo hold.
Even as she thought it, she turned, and found Laksri watching her from her other side. The expression on his midnight blue, catlike face struck her as almost curious.
Anaze appeared far more puzzled by her. He looked at Jet like a math problem he was sure he should know the answer to, but couldn’t remember.
“Anaze?” she said. “Anaze… are you all right?”
Richter glanced at her, frowning.
She ignored him, keeping her eyes on her friend.
“Anaze!” she said, louder. “Anaze, it’s me. Jet.”
Anaze just stared at her blankly.
Then he jumped a little, as if prodded from behind.
Before Jet could speak, she saw Anaze nod, glancing up at the Nirreth holding him. The look in his eyes was something like relief.
Jet glanced at the Nirreth too, frowning.
Richter, who’d been watching the exchange, chuckled from behind her.
“See?” he said. “Right as rain.”
Jet turned, glaring at him.
Seeing her expression, Richter sighed. “He’s fine, Jet. As fine as he can be under the circumstances. Don’t worry. I didn’t let any of them play too rough with him last night.”
Not wanting to know what that meant, Jet grimaced, averting her gaze. She went back to studying Anaze, trying to understand what she saw, looking for some trace of recognition there, something she could reach.
Truthfully, though, she barely recognized him.
Whatever lived there, she’d never seen it before. He looked nothing like sharp-eyed, hyper-intelligent, wary Anaze, or any of the expressions he normally wore on his high-cheekboned face.
Even more than most skags, Anaze had a feral quality to him––probably from his mother running with bandits when he was too young to do anything but follow along.
Remembering that, Jet realized something else.
She could have kicked herself for not thinking of it before.
“You know him,” she said dully, looking back at Richter. “You knew his mother.”
Richter shrugged, his expression indifferent.
“You really don’t give a damn about anything, do you?” Jet said.
Richter’s eyes hardened, right before he looked away.
Realizing she’d never reach him that way, Jet bit her lip, forcing herself silent. She knew from experience it never did any good, trying to make people like Richter feel bad. You couldn’t pull on empathy when there was nothing to pull. Richter had no conscience to prick.
Swallowing, she looked back at Anaze.
He looked like the shell of Anaze, not the Anaze Jet knew.
She felt Richter’s eyes on her again, and forced her gaze off her friend.
Giving Richter even more reason to think he could use Anaze to get to her, wasn’t going to help either of them.
Again, the bandit-traitor seemed to read her mind.
“Don’t worry, kitten.” Richter smiled, and she saw that harder, more veiled look behind his eyes. “They’ll treat him fine… as long as you behave.”
He began pulling her towards the nearest building.
Jaw clenched, she followed the pull of his fingers, walking faster to keep up with his long strides. Glancing to her side, Jet saw the Nirreth pulling Anaze along, too. The Nirreth’s long, jointed fingers gripped her friend’s shoulder, steering him purposefully across the tarmac.
The other three Nirreth, including Laksri, followed behind, walking nearly in formation.
Jet couldn’t help but be hyper-aware of their tails.
Laksri had his raised in a loop behind his back, as if poised to strike. It reminded her of guards holding guns on prisoners, and she had no doubt he was there in case she tried anything they didn’t like. The ones with Anaze didn’t bother with that––probably because Anaze was clearly venomed already.
It wasn't until she looked all the way behind her that she realized one of the Nirreth held her sword, Black, in one of its jointed hands. She was still staring at it when Richter shook her arm, forcing her eyes forward to keep herself from falling.
“Pay attention, kitten,” he muttered, his lips close to her ear. “Eyes on the prize. At least until we get you placed.”
Jet didn’t want to know what that meant.
Anyway, they were nearing the white, boulder-shaped building and now they were surrounded by tall trees. Jet looked down, seeing the deep blue, glacial-clean water of the stream she’d been hearing since they disembarked.
They passed over it on a footbridge without stopping, walking across on a number of flat, evenly-spaced, transparent steps. The steps rose up from the bed of the canal, like lilies with thin stems, the water flowing between them.
The effect was simple, completely natural-seeming, yet dizzying.
Jet stared down, watching the currents of the stream flow beneath her feet. The stream fascinated her so much, she wanted to stop and stare at it, especially when she glimpsed gold, white, and orange-colored fish flicking through the water below, leaving iridescent trails.
Flowers bloomed on flat, green stems on the canal's shores, and water seemed to come from all over––from pipes on the canal walls, from a waterfall she could see further down, from more tributaries she glimpsed upstream.
She realized the canal led out from the building itself.
It came from inside the building.
She was still staring when Richter once more jerked insistently on her arm.
Stumbling, she moved her feet to regain his side.
He barely glanced at the water, pulling her along until they were over the bridge and on the other side, heading for the buildings doors.
“The Nirreth like water,” he said.
It told her he’d been watching the direction of her eyes at least.
That harder expression returned to his eyes when he added,
“But they don’t swim. None of them do. Not built for buoyancy, I suppose. Still. To surround yourself with water, and not be a species that likes to swim, that would die in minutes if they tried it? It’s odd.”
He glanced at her, quirking an eyebrow.
“Most of them don’t even drink water,” he continued. “Funny, eh?”
“Most humans don’t swim anymore, either,” Jet pointed out.
He shrugged. “Only because the water’s toxic. Not because we’d sink like a stone if we tried it.” He looked at her, smiling as he studied her eyes. “Do you swim, kitten?”
The question, though delivered lightly, struck her as a real one.
Jet frowned, not wanting to answer him really, but unable to think of a good reason why she shouldn’t. In terms of picking battles, it didn’t seem like a hill worth dying on.
“Yes,” she said. “Why? Does a swimming pool come with my exciting new life?”
He chuckled, pulling her closer.
“It might, kitten,” he said. “It just might.”
He sounded pleased, though, by her response.
The flicker of jubilation she saw in his eyes made Jet look at him sharply again, but Richter didn’t return her gaze. Before she could think of some way to ask, a shadow fell over their party.
Glancing up, Jet realized it was from the building itself, which was also smaller on the bottom than it was on top, though in less exaggerated proportions compared to others she’d seen in the distance. The effect of the lopsided architecture created a wide, patio-like area shadowed by the upper part of the building, decorated with different-colored paving stones.
Jet didn’t get much time to look at that, either.
In seconds, Richter walked them through a cave-like entrance, and into a dimly lit tunnel stretching deeper into the rock-like substance than she would have expected. The path it carved sloped up and down in a slight arc, making it impossible to see very far ahead.
Jet glanced backwards, watching Anaze’s blank, disturbingly contented expression disappear into shadow as he, too, got swallowed by the stonelike structure.
Then it really was too late.
The feeling came to her strongly, without reason, without doubt.
She had no way to rationalize it, but that didn’t matter, either.
It felt true.
Waiting time was over.
There was no turning back now.
7
The Tunnel
The tunnel wound on and on, further than the width of the building’s base.
She noticed after they’d been walking for a few minutes that it also sloped downwards, taking them under the boulder-like building she’d seen from outside. Running lights gave the walls a sickly blue glow, as if illuminated by a gas flame.
It reminded Jet strangely of being inside the Longhouse during one of their blackouts. They used gas then, with stoves where they could, and sometimes even old blowtorches if they needed to heat extra food or boil water. Gas
tended to be one thing they could still get relatively easily, and tended to stockpile at the underground settlement.
There was no shortage of methane, so once they got the converters running, it was easy enough to collect and refine for the burners.
They’d been walking a long time.
Jet wondered about that, after a few more minutes of winding deeper under the structure.
She hadn’t seen or heard anyone else, not since they landed.
That also struck her as odd.
Laksri and then Anaze walked soundlessly behind her and Richter, and Jet saw the other three Nirreth with their tails curling and whipping behind their backs as they followed behind Anaze. The Nirreth nearly disappeared in that sickly blue light, all but their reflecting eyes.
After they’d walked a little further, Richter finally spoke.
“Each of these tunnels goes to a different level,” he explained. “We’re heading to the lower floors, kitten. Processing. Permits.” She saw him grin at her in the dim light. “You need to be declared, my little fighting skag. Then I’ll take you to meet the buyer.”
“Buyer?” she said.
The word sank in a few ticks later.
“You said buyer?” she clarified. “As in only one? One buyer?”
“Sure,” he said, smiling. “I told you I was looking out for you, kid.”
Jet gave him a disbelieving look, and Richter rolled his eyes.
“…I also told you I went out to your shit-hole settlement for the sole purpose of culling you. I even told you I was working from a specific client request. Why would I have said all that, if I didn’t have a particular client lined up?”
Jet felt her anger return, stiffening her shoulders.
“Before, you made it sound like––”
“Like I’d be auctioning you?” He smiled at her again. “Sure. Well, that’s a lot scarier-sounding, isn’t it, pet? Being auctioned?”
“Compared to being pre-sold?” she said, quirking an eyebrow. “On what universe is that better, Richter?”
He laughed, then gave an indifferent shrug. “Well, it’s not entirely in the bag, kitten, if that helps. They still need to approve the product. There’ll be tests, of course. And the formal demonstration. But I have no doubt you’ll pass all of them with flying colors, my dear, and it’s unlikely anyone will outbid a Royal.”
The Complete Alien Apocalypse Series (Parts I-IV Plus Bonus Novella): An Apocalyptic, Romantic, Science Fiction, Alien Invasion Adventure Page 8