Brylen took it and sniffed, “Pepsi?” Rih-benn nodded as Brylen took a sip through the straw, “burns.”
“I actually like that feeling. Interesting that the humans introduce a gas into the drink. Similar to fermentation, but unnatural. It causes my wife to bitch at me when I expel the gas back out of my mouth. She always waves a hand at me, and tells me I am acting like a kid again.”
“Oh, well in that case,” Brylen pulled the drink back up to his mouth and took a large amount through the straw before setting the drink back down on the table, “I’m not happy with Chr-len right now. She wants to say I’m childish? Bring it on.”
Rih-benn chuckled, “Living dangerously?”
Brylen looked around the bar before turning back to Rih-benn and nodding his head towards the bar, “No different than you, apparently. Why the large number of head-breakers?”
Rih-benn looked at his guys, “Options.” He answered and took a drink of the Yollin version of beer, but made out of a local plant which fermented quickly. “I have the option of taking the information I want, on pain of death, or making sure if our contact does something stupid, I have the option to make sure he doesn’t touch me.”
“Still sensitive to pain?”
“Always. Aren’t you?”
“I live with pain every day,” Brylen answered.
Rih-benn smiled, “Yes, but your wife doesn’t count.”
Brylen grimaced, “Oh, well if that is the case, then no. I’m good not feeling too much pain.”
The two males picked up their drinks and clinked them together.
“What’s with the pack on the table,” Brylen asked, nodding to the bostok pack. Bostok was a semi-legal way to drug oneself. It was mostly frowned upon in public but allowed many Yollins the chance to relax at the end of a hard day.
“Options,” Rih-benn replied, cryptically.
The silence went on for a few moments before Brylen asked, “Ok, I’ll bite.”
Rih-benn reached out and took the pack of bostok and flipped it end over end on the table. “If I leave this on the table, my men are going to take this jackhole out when he leaves. We will stick him in the ship and take him out to the back canyons. A few choice hits, and he gives us what we need to know.”
“What about Krylen?” Brylen asked. “Won’t it force him to tell the truth?”
“Don’t know if it works on Humans, yet. I’d hate to have our human to be the first to die when we want him to answer more questions.”
Brylen thought about Rih-benn’s answer for a moment while Rih-benn continued to turn the bostok box over and over. “What about when you are done asking questions?”
Rih-benn stopped turning the box, “Well, you know, there isn’t a good reason not to use it then.” he shrugged, “We would find out something useful if we shoot him with the stuff. Why waste the opportunity if he isn’t going live anyway?”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Nathan walked the last mile into a medium-sized town on planet Yoll. He found the bar, fronted by a nondescript door in a nondescript wall connected to a nondescript building in a warehouse district on the west side of town.
Basically, it was symmetrical, and he would have to admit in its bleakness it had a form of beauty. However, it was bland as shit in its perfection.
He reached into his pockets and pulled out a small box, it was black and made of metal, he flipped the lock and opened it up. His sensitive eyes could see a few sparkles of light reflecting off the little metal pieces that left the box. Seconds later he received a little beep from his implant that produced vibrations that his ears translated as sound.
He clipped the box closed and put it back into his pocket. Moments later, he was informed there were no obvious traps inside the building. He moved forward, “This,” he muttered, “should be fun.”
Opening the door, Nathan strode in and allowed it to close behind him as he waited. Unlike others, his eyes could adjust to the darkness quite easily. He received a minute head nod from a pair of Yollins off to the left towards the back. He made his way between a couple of tables heading in their direction. The few extra Yollins in the bar looked at the human.
One grimaced. However, three of the four looked around and decided to pay their bar tabs and leave early. There were better drinking partners just two warehouses down.
Nathan grabbed a chair from a nearby table and pulled it up to the booth to sit down without asking permission. “Gentlemen.”
Both the Yollins looked at each other in confusion and Nathan grimaced, “I apologize, there is no translation for gentlemen in your language. However, in our language, it is a respectful salutation.”
Brylen shrugged, “I don’t know if there’s a reason to be respectful, but I’ll admit it’s nice to hear once in awhile.”
Rih-benn just chuckled.
Nathan noticed after the first couple of minutes of discussion the bootlegger on his right took out a small box, his Wechselbalg nose wanted to twist in annoyance. Whatever root this product was, it smelled to high heaven.
Rih-benn took a small pinch of the product and put it in his mouth before closing the box and setting it on the table.
Rih-benn looked up at the human and then tapped two of his mandibles together, “I’m sorry,” he reached down and grabbed the box to lift it up a bit, “did you want some?”
Nathan shook his head, “On our planet that would be considered a chew, I’m not really fond of them. Plus, I’m not really sure what would happen to my physiology with that plant. Not a good idea, I hope you understand?”
The alien made a twist of his hands that Nathan had learned a while back was the equivalent of a human shrug. It had been easier with Kael-ven and the other Yollins that he knew because they had picked up human mannerisms.
Nathan wondered how long it would be before those on this planet, with such a large population, started adapting human mannerisms as well? He supposed it had as much to do with familiarity with humans as anything else.
Now that ADAM was streaming some of the videos to the Yollins he had apprehended from the Internet back on Earth it would be interesting to find out what happened with Yollin society. Right now Nathan could imagine dozens, no hundreds of research scientists having heart attacks thinking that humans were infesting the universe with their pop culture.
Nathan had to smile at that thought.
There was some commotion from behind him, and Nathan turned to look over his shoulder as Ecaterina, with Christina in wolf form, walked into the bar. Most of the eyes were on the two new humans and Christina seemed to get a fair amount of attention.
When Nathan turned back around to the table, Brylen had grabbed the box of root off of the table and stuck it into his pocket.
Nathan raised an eyebrow.
---
Christina followed behind her mother until she sat on a bar stool and got comfortable. The small wolf made a face at the dirt on the floor, then laid beside the stool and started watching behind her mom.
She knew what her responsibilities were, keep an eye out on anything that her mom couldn’t see right away. If she saw a problem? Well, then she would yip or growl to get Mom’s attention.
Ecaterina lifted her hand and pointed to the place on the bar in front of herself, “I want a Kleric and not the cheap stuff they gave me at the last bar.”
While looking at the bartender, Ecaterina was listening to those around her.
“Did you see that? Brylen took the box off of the table.” One upset Yollin turned in his seat to grab his drink, “The boss doesn’t want us to take out this guy when he leaves.”
“Well, there goes the extra bonus we would’ve had this afternoon. This job is a bust.” The first guy slapped the second and nodded his head in Ecaterina’s direction. The second Yollin opened and closed his mandibles a couple of times when he noticed the human's eyes glowing yellow.
Looking straight at them both.
Keeping her voice low, Ecaterina spoke, “Nathan, there is talk
over here at the bar about a plan to do you harm as you left your meeting. Tactics?”
Nathan received the communication from his mate and nodded his head.
He stood up from the table and rapped on it twice with his knuckles to get the attention of both Brylen and Rih-benn. “You guys,” he pointed to each of them, “have just lost your opportunity to acquire the spice for the Pepsi drink. I don’t appreciate you thinking you might do me harm when I left this conversation. Due to your bullshit, one of you is going to die.”
Rih-benn grunted at him, not concerned with the alien’s threat. “What’s to stop us from killing you right now?”
Nathan allowed his eyes to go yellow and lifted one of his hands as it turned into a claw. His voice, guttural, responded, “Go ahead. That just means both of you will die. If you do not attack me right now at least one of you has a chance.”
Those at the bar turned to watch him leave and noticed the other human had a pistol out pointing in their direction. She waved her fingers and said, “Tootles.”
Her eyes were glowing yellow, as well.
After the two humans had left the bar, Rih-benn slammed his hand on the table. “Why did you take the bostok off the table?”
Brylen pulled it out of his pocket and set it back on the table, “Have you not been listening to the rumors?” He pointed to the bar, “that small animal was the one that got a ship’s security guard ripped apart. That wasn’t someone to try and kill, and do you think he brought his mate in here if she couldn’t provide more protection?” He grunted and pushed himself back in the seat before standing up, “She had a pistol ready. I doubt your people,” nodding toward the bar, “would’ve appreciated being shot in the back.”
“Where are you going?” Rih-benn spat at him.
Brylen answered, frustration evident in his voice, “To the restroom.” And to himself, he added, Then out the back door, dickhead.
QBBS Merideth Reynolds
The atmosphere inside the Ixtali ship was thick with impatience. Ixgurl looked over his shoulder and the ‘click click, click click‘ suddenly stopped. He returned to his instruments, a look of surprise on his face. Normally, the lead on any of Ixtali mission would be calm.
Ixtelina spoke up, “That is now the fifth commercial craft I have seen permitted to dock with the human station. Don’t they know how important, and what an opportunity, our ship brings them?”
“They are new to the system. Perhaps these humans are seeking information about us?”
Ixgurl’s hands lifted in the air, a hint of frustration evident in his voice, “So far, I am unable to piggyback on any communications between commercial ships and the human station. They are either using a frequency I’m unaware of, unlikely since they are able to communicate with other ships, or they have such tight communication beams we are unable to capture leakage.
“What about our micro-spies?” Ixtelina asked.
“We lose them as soon as they go outside approximately two ship lengths in any direction. I tried sending them away from us to circle back around. It seems the humans want to keep this area of space clean of micro-sized debris.”
“Interesting,” Ixgalan murmured.
Ixtelina leaned forward in her chair, reviewing the screens in front of both Ixgurl and Ixgalan. “So far, the humans are ahead of us on knowledge of who is trying to get information from whom. I would expect…”
Her comment was cut off when a voice on the radio interrupted her. “Special trade legation, this is the QBBS Meredith Reynolds, please be prepared to receive an executive shuttle to transport two contacts to the station, per your earlier request.”
Ixtelina leaned back in her chair, her eyes closing slightly. “Executive shuttle?” She left the question to hang there for a moment, teasing it one way and then the other as her brain worked on what it could mean. “Perhaps this trade mission is going to be a little more difficult than we had assumed. The challenge might be enough to warrant us a difficulty bonus, which would be very nice.”
Ixtelina pushed herself up from the chair and turned toward the back of the ship heading to her suite to put on a fresh robe. Whether she wanted to or not, she could not leave this mission in a huff. Once the humans understood the value of the information products, and or the gems they could provide, they would understand their mistakes at treating her legation so poorly.
She hoped she would be in the same room when that occurred, to watch the face of their human negotiator when Ixtelina pulled half of their product away from them.
Ixgalan unclipped from the seat next to Ixgurl and leaned over, “Why do you think they are doing it this way?”
Ixgurl shrugged himself, “I think Ixtelina is right, they know more about us than we know about them.”
Ixgalan stood up and started toward the back to change into his own robe, “That’s what I’m afraid of ... however, since we know nothing about them it wouldn’t take much to know more about us.”
A short time later, the two Ixtali waited patiently as a docking connection was made with their ship. A slight noise could be heard as the locks connected in place.
Once Ixgurl confirmed they had a tight seal, Ixgalan reached forward and pressed the button to open their side of the connection.
Both he and Ixtelina turned to look at each other before stepping across and into the Executive Pod. Ixtelina made an appreciative sound, “Well, if they plan on killing us at least we are going to go out in style.” She ran her hand across the seats, “I believe this is genuine leather, from down on the planet or maybe from theirs. These are not synthetics.”
Ixgalan, a couple of seats away, was bent down and tapping on the frames of the seats. “Yes, these are organic, taken from a type of plant product.”
A voice, in Yollin, spoke to them from the ship’s speaker system, “Please take a seat. This ship will not commence moving until all individuals are properly seated and buckled in. This is for your protection.”
Ixtelina turned to Ixgalan and nodded, the two of them sat down and adjusted their robes before looking at the buckling device and easily manipulating it to lock themselves in. Once that had been accomplished, the doors to their ship closed. Moments later there was a click, so faint that it was felt more than heard, and the two vehicles separated.
Ixgalan leaned forward in his seat and looked toward the front of the ship. However, he saw no person up there. He turned back and looked at Ixtelina. As he leaned back, he asked, “I wonder who they have piloting?”
The voice came from the speakers again, “No biologics are piloting this pod. Presently, this ship is being piloted by an entity intelligence. Welcome to the Meredith Reynolds.”
Ixtelina sat for a moment, digesting what she just heard., “This ship is being piloted by what type of intelligence?”
“Entity.”
“What type of entity?”
“Now that, Special Trade Legation Ixtelina, is a very good question. Unfortunately, I am not sure I have the ability to explain it in this language. Can you provide other languages you are fluent with, that I could perhaps offer a broader context for cybernetic beings?”
“I am sorry, what is the word cybernetic?”
“That is a human word for which the Yollins do not have a direct translation. Do you have other languages you understand? Perhaps I can speak in one of those?”
Damn, the humans were going to make her give up the first bit of information.
A formidable adversary, truly.
QBBS Merideth Reynolds – Space Traffic Control, Special Unit
“The first scan of the aliens are coming back at this time.”
Outside of testing the Executive Pods, Specialist Marilyn had yet had the opportunity to use her systems to check out a potential alien liaison. At the moment, this was going to be the highlight of her day.
The gruff voice of General Reynolds came over the speaker, “I am patched into what you are finding along with EI Reynolds, what do you have to tell us?”
M
arilyn wanted to tell the General, “Probably nothing that Reynolds hasn’t already been able to understand.” But, she was there as additional eyes and ears. As smart as the EIs have been in the past, they have been unable to make leaps of understanding that most of the humans called ‘gut checks’ or leaps of intuition.
Presently, Marilyn was feeling nothing in her gut, and certainly nothing was coming up in her brain. “At this time sir, everything looks to be appropriate. I am not registering anything that causes me to second-guess the detailed information.”
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