Still, Jet saw nothing in him that she recognized from her brief glimpses of him before, when she watched him from afar at her demonstration.
“She is exquisite,” the Ringmaster said, bowing to Laksri once he’d finished looking her over from head to foot. “You are quite fortunate,” he added to Laksri. “…I’m afraid the virtual screens did not do her justice, and I thought her quite unique, even then.”
Jet frowned. He’d seen her before. Had he really forgotten that?
She’d caught him staring at her then. More than once.
If Laksri knew that as well, it didn’t show.
“Thank you, honorable friend,” Laksri said, bowing.
“I don’t suppose either of you is open to share… or perhaps an exchange…?” Trazen added, nodding towards the female standing to his left.
At his words, Jet turned, looking at the other human for the first time.
In the same set of seconds, she realized the woman standing with Trazen was absolutely beautiful. Maybe twenty-something-years-old, she had long, blonde hair that framed an oval face with deer-like eyes and full lips. Her body, draped in less cloth than Jet had ever worn in her life outside of a shower, looked more voluptuous than athletic, reminding Jet of those videos of parties from Old Earth with the women with the curvy bodies and tight dresses.
The fabric looked unlike anything Jet had seen worn by any of the Nirreth; a pale blue, it barely seemed to cover her skin.
Before Laksri could answer, Richter laughed.
“You’re kidding… right, Trazen? Aren’t the brain scans enough? Do you really need more intel on our girl?”
“I had thought she belonged to the Royal Father,” said the muscular, disconcertingly handsome Nirreth. A faint thread of irritation touched his voice, perhaps because he was forced to acknowledge Richter, when clearly he addressed his question to Laksri.
“…Not to trader scum like you,” he added coldly. “And I was not asking you, mammal. I ask her lawful companion.”
Laksri’s arm had already tightened around Jet, before Richter even opened his mouth.
“No,” Laksri said in Nargili.
The meaning seeped through his skin to Jet’s mind.
“No, we do not share,” Laksri clarified. “I am sorry, for I honor your position. And your consort is quite tempting…” Laksri added politely, indicating towards the clearly multiply-stung girl with the dyed blonde hair. “Is she a recent acquisition? I don’t recall seeing her at any of the royal functions before…?”
“She is new,” Trazen said dismissively.
His eyes continued to linger on Jet.
“We had thought perhaps to sell her for the Rings, too, now that the Boards have opened it to female mammals for sport. She is aesthetically pleasing enough for such a placement. But sadly…” His lips twitched in a small smile. “…She is not a fighter.”
Jet caught most of this through Laksri’s touch.
Again, her eyes drifted to the other girl.
Even though she was probably a few years older than Jet, something about the softness of her face made her appear younger, and frighteningly vulnerable.
The girl frowned as she returned Jet’s stare, and through the make-up she wore, she looked like a doll dressed up in adult clothing. Her dark skin gleamed under the greenish light of the room, and Jet felt a sudden wave of compassion as it occurred to her that the girl was deeply unhappy under the effects of the Nirreth venom.
She looked full-blown depressed.
Jet wished she had enough money to buy her from the muscular seer.
Laksri glanced at her, and she felt a pulse of empathy through his fingers. His voice, when he addressed Trazen, remained polite.
“I am sorry about that,” he said. “I am sure you will find another suitable candidate.”
Trazen’s eyes grew colder as they flicked over the blonde girl.
“Don’t be sorry. She has other… talents. And as you say, we will find another female for that purpose.” Giving Jet another appraising stare, he added, “A pity you are guarding this one so jealously. Not that I blame you. Still, if you change your mind, let me know. I may be able to ensure her safety in other ways… if you were feeling so generous.”
Still smiling, Trazen bowed to Laksri and Jet, ignoring Richter entirely as he swept away, nearly knocking over their glasses with a final lash of his tail as he left.
Jet found herself thinking of the feral cats that hung around skag town, especially the toms.
Still, the strangeness of his bothered her.
She couldn’t decide exactly what it meant.
When he’d gone completely, Laksri’s worry seeped through his skin.
“I do not like that,” he told Richter quietly, glancing at Jet in the same breath. “He might have been serious. About his interest in her. It did not strike me as an idle ask…”
Richter frowned.
His eyes shifted back to Trazen, who now stood over a different table, his tail coiled around the blonde’s waist as he spoke to an older Nirreth.
“He’s screwing with you, Laks,” Richter said, waving a hand dismissively. “…with both of you. He had to remind us of our place. He can’t enter a girl in the Rings, not when he’s the operator. He can’t sleep with a contestant, either… much less take another Nirreth’s mammal off him… or fix the games. No matter how many threats he lobs your way.”
Richter grunted, taking a bite of what looked like a small squid as he glanced at Jet.
“He pretended he’d never even seen her before,” he added, rolling his eyes. “The asshole tried to buy her off me, before her demonstration. He tried to get me to halt the demonstration, and take her off the market.”
Grunting again, Richter shook his head, gesturing between Jet and Laksri.
“That whole little thing just now?” Richter said. “That was performance art. He was bullshitting from the moment he walked up here. And I strongly suspect he’s drunk. Did you noticed his balance was off?” Richter scowled, staring at the Ringmaster on the other side of the room. “I just wish I knew what he was playing at.”
“But you heard his words,” Laksri said in a low voice. “I do not think that was idle threat. He may approach the Royals themselves… see if they will pressure me. Or make a formal request. This puts me in a very bad position.”
“It’s a power play,” Richter repeated, waving it off. “I’m telling you, the political fallout would be huge if he bedded her. The Royals would never allow it, even if it wasn’t against the queen’s law. It would look too much like they were trying to curry favor.”
“Power play or not, he will use her, if he can.” Laksri’s dark eyes flickered nervously to Jet, then to the Ringmaster. “He has a reputation. You know this, Richter. The Royals overlook it, due to his stature, but he is not kind to his… charges. I am not the only one who notices this tendency of his, to go through consorts.”
Jet felt a shiver on his skin, even as her jaw clenched at his words.
Richter told her that about Trazen, too.
Trazen might just be a serial killer. Because he apparently only killed human women, the other Nirreth let him get away with it, by looking the other way.
“Don’t worry about it, Laks,” Richter said again, giving him a warning look, right before his eyes darted to Jet’s. “We talked about this already and it won’t come to that. Things will move too quickly for him to make a move like that––”
“You had better be right. It is no joke, about Trazen. He is clever, but he made it to his position because he is a killer, Richter.”
“He won’t touch her, big guy. You have my word.”
Laksri’s expression grew harder. “Just be sure it is worth more than other ‘words’ you have spoken to me in the past,” he retorted, his voice a near growl. “…Or it may not be only Jet who is fighting in the Rings.”
Richter gave him a narrow look.
Then, after a too-long pause, he smiled faintly, making
a conceding gesture with one hand. “Planning on falling on a sword for our girl, Laks? That’s admirable. Really.” His smile turned harder. “All right, friend. This conversation is over. I heard you. I heard you loud and clear. I’ll keep him away from her.”
“You had better.”
“I will, big guy. Calm down.”
Richter handed Laksri the new drink the waitperson brought him, smiling diplomatically. Then he drained the last of his own beer, and gestured for the server to bring him another.
Their food arrived not long after that, and Jet found herself thinking through their words, wondering what Richter had really meant when he’d said he’d take care of it.
She also wondered what Laksri meant by his threat about the Rings.
From both conversations, two words vibrated the longest in Jet’s mind.
Moving fast.
What, exactly, was moving fast?
25
Not An Earthquake
Jet was awakened from the sleep of the dead, her mind frighteningly clear.
She didn’t know what had woken her.
The room felt empty.
It also looked and felt faintly smoky, but Jet couldn’t smell smoke, and she didn’t see anything on fire. She gazed around the dimly-lit room and the fake stars overhead, and tried to slow her heartbeat, her breathing.
Had it been a nightmare?
She had no memory of anything like that, either.
Then the walls, the bed, the floor… the whole room… vibrated, knocking more chips and paint off the ceiling, even a few chunks from the VR panel that stretched across the space over her and Laksri’s bed. Powder from the eggshell-colored walls turned into a dense cloud in the air, explaining the mystery of the smoke.
It wasn’t an earthquake.
She knew an impact concussion when she felt one.
She’d experienced enough of those underground, while growing up, she’d recognize that exact feeling anywhere.
The compound was under attack.
Jet didn’t waste time when another string of vibrations shook the room, shaking more material off the walls and ceiling. The floor trembled, along with the rest of the room, and she heard an explosion in some part of the compound overhead, setting off what sounded like larger explosions on the floors directly above hers.
She had to move.
There might be danger of a collapse here.
Black was in her hand almost before Jet remembered where she was, and well before she remembered to look for Laksri.
Rolling to her side of the mattress, she crouched against the bed to protect herself from the falling ceiling chunks, fumbling on the floor for her clothes. She called out to Laksri when she realized she couldn’t see or feel him anywhere.
“Laks? LAKS! Where are you?”
No one answered.
“LAKSRI?” she said, louder. “LAKSRI! YELL, IF YOU’RE HERE!”
Dressing hastily, she ducked down again when another round of shaking began.
More chunks fell from the curved ceiling above Laksri’s bed, coating the surface of the sheets with white powder and dark blue pieces of virtual screen.
The screen continued to spark and show images even after it broke; now it was stars and clouds and the moon again, as opposed to the daylight view of the sun and blue skies. The chunks that fell to the bed continued to shimmer with those stars, as if the sky lived in each separate piece.
Crouching low as she ran, Jet made her way to Laskri’s living room, right as the building trembled again.
She paused just long enough to hit the trigger-switch that opened the bedroom door. After looking for Laksri and again not finding him, she tried to get into the main storage closet, but the sensor spot on the wall wouldn’t trigger the mechanism, even when she hit it with her knuckles.
Heading barefoot for the door when another blast hit, Jet grabbed the scabbard Laksri had given her a week earlier and strapped it around her right shoulder so that it settled across her back in a diagonal line. Thanking the stars they hadn’t taken her sword away after the match, she sheathed Black, then hit the panel that opened the door to the main corridor.
She sent up another silent prayer when it opened.
In retrospect, it crossed her mind that maybe that part should have surprised her.
At the very least, it should have prompted a few questions.
At the time, all Jet could feel was relief.
She didn’t like the idea of being trapped during an attack. She didn’t like it at all––no matter who or what was out there.
At the same time, she realized how much the Rings were messing with her mind. It had already crossed her mind to wonder if this could be another simulation.
A test, maybe, to see how she would react if the Royal Palace fell under attack.
While she stood there, checking both directions down the corridor, her mind ran over that possibility again. She tried to scan through her memories of the night before, starting with the interaction with Trazen at the city center restaurant, and the conversation between Richter and Laksri afterwards.
She remembered the anger and urgency on Laksri, that feeling of indecision… or maybe what she’d felt on him was a decision, one he simply had misgivings about making.
She remembered those odd, gold-rimmed eyes on her from different parts of the room. She remembered trying to decide what was wrong with them, with him.
She remembered talking to a few more Nirreth officials.
She’d even met one or two members of the Board.
None were as unnerving or as strange as Trazen, and the rest of the afternoon passed mostly with small talk and attempts to make Jet seem celebrity-like and docile and apolitical, given everything Richter seemed to think she’d done wrong in the Rings.
As a part of that, Richter and Laksri kept their discussions to safer, less-confrontational topics… such as Jet’s upcoming training sessions, now that she had access to the main arena.
They discussed who they thought the Boards might offer up as candidates for Jet’s permanent training and support team. They threw around names, all of them meaningless to Jet, outlining the pros and cons of each. They discussed getting Laksri himself named as one of her official trainers, since the Royals would now undoubtedly want her stung regularly as a part of her training.
Whatever indulgences they might have granted Ogli in terms of his infatuation with his new pet would have evaporated as the news of Jet’s test scores hit the main channels. The Royals would not pass up an opportunity to hitch themselves to a new champion, especially given her novelty status as a female, and a human.
Woven into that discussion was talk about the unrest in the Green Zones of late.
Challenges to royal edicts were starting to be heard in different corners of the kingdom, mostly around economic issues, but also around colonization codes and the caste system.
Richter and Laksri didn’t come out and say it, but Jet caught a few hints that the Royals were anxious for good publicity.
Jet was one way for them to accomplish that.
Listening to them talk, Jet couldn’t help thinking how isolated she was from real news, whether human or Nirreth, just from living within the royal compound.
Jet knew more in the skag pits, at least in some respects.
She’d also spent at least some of lunch and the trip back observing.
She couldn’t help noticing differences in the treatment of humans in the main areas of the Green Zone, as compared to the Royal Palace. Humans were hardly free in either place, but in the main city of the Green Zone, they walked around much more freely. From what Richter said, they lived more freely, too, if in segregated enclaves.
Jet saw a group of them in a park playing a game on the sidewalk, laughing and throwing Nirreth coins back and forth as they wagered.
Women and men made up that group, and Jet didn’t see any Nirreth interfering with them, or even paying much attention.
Jet watched them laugh
and throw comments back and forth for several minutes, until a few of them nudged one another when they noticed her, and then all were staring, their eyes holding an eager shine that marked her as a celebrity.
There were children in that group, too.
One of those children saw Jet and waved frantically, giving her a face-splitting grin when Jet waved back and smiled.
She saw other humans sitting at cafes along the Nirreth streets, and in the sailboat-like street cars. All of them had to be owned, of course, but Jet still found their relative freedoms bewildering. She even saw a human couple holding hands as they walked down the sidewalk, the woman laughing at something the man said as they headed for one of the giant outdoor parks.
Richter had been right.
The Green Zones were more complicated than anyone in the skag pits could possibly imagine. Jet hadn’t seen enough yet to be able to draw any real conclusions, but she wanted more than anything to talk to some of those humans, to find out what their lives were like.
They certainly seemed to have more freedoms than she did.
Seeing them together, talking and laughing and watching the sunset inside the dome, Jet felt lonely, too, and uncomfortably isolated.
She felt like she was living inside a bubble.
You are, Laksri had told her at the thought.
When Jet looked at him, the Nirreth stroked her arm, gazing out the window of the sailboat-like vehicle with her.
Most Nirreth are not so hard on your kind, he thought at her. Nor are they unsympathetic to your plight as a conquered race. It is why the Rings match worries Richter. The Royals know things are changing… they fear a loss of their empire, and they fear what they view as “extremism” on both sides.
Sighing in a near purr, Laksri added,
They do not fear humans so much as they do their own kind. They fear the Nirreth who demand equal rights, but possibly even more, they fear Nirreth on the opposite end of the spectrum… those who prefer to enslave and subjugate your race totally. After years and years of living together, many Nirreth want freedom for their human lovers and friends. They want to explore other options for co-existence.
The Complete Alien Apocalypse Series (Parts I-IV Plus Bonus Novella): An Apocalyptic, Romantic, Science Fiction, Alien Invasion Adventure Page 43