Scott thought about the answer, “A little blunt, but that is the basic message. Now, don’t fuck up.”
The two left the prison and got aboard a ship that was floating above the ground. It had a Yollin symbol next to one that, he took a guess, was an alien skull with pointed teeth.
E’kolorn looked out over the city and the stadium in the distance that had been the end of King Yoll.
And the Kurtherian that was using the Yollin body like a puppet.
“Where are we going?” he asked.
“The new government leadership’s building. We will land on the top, and then go down from there. You will be seen on news video, so it is up to you if you want to walk like a hero or a prisoner.”
“No beating me to make sure I walk a certain way?” He asked.
“That’s up to you. However, we have a saying on our planet ‘act like you want to be treated.’ So, if you want to be treated like a prisoner, feel free to act like it, and I imagine I can facilitate your act. I have already reviewed your records. You are treated well, and not abused. It isn’t a hotel, but killing many of our people when we asked for safe passage doesn’t rate you a king-sized bed, either.”
E’kolorn didn’t argue he was under orders, the aliens knew it.
Moments later, the Pod landed on the new Government building, and the two got out. They went past the guards stationed at the top. He looked up to see the massive ship the Empress used hovering not that far above them in the sky.
A warning that idiots flying around wouldn’t be permitted to live, he imagined. He wondered for a moment about their method of propulsion. What he wouldn’t give to know if the Ixtalis had their hooks in them already. Or had the Ixtalis got their hooks in the aliens before they showed up in his planet’s backyard?
The two of them went down five floors, and when exiting the elevator, passed by more guards.
When they finally arrived at the last set of doors, there were two more aliens in red armor, like Scott was wearing. One had skin color somewhat darker than Scott, and the other was significantly darker than Scott.
Neither one seemed to be carrying the wounds that being blown out of a fifth story window would cause.
The two entered the meeting room and walked up to Kael-ven and Bethany Anne, “My Empress, I would like to introduce you to the former Defense Minister, E’kolorn.”
Bethany Anne stood up and reached over, holding out her hand as his guard had. He took it, and she shook before releasing his hand. “How was the meeting with your wife?”
“That was you?” he asked. He had wondered if she was the person who had helped make the meeting happen.
A Yollin was standing next to the Empress, he held out his hand in the same fashion the Empress had. “No, that was me, my name is Kael-ven.”
Perhaps it was true, she had a docile Yollin standing in for her?
Kael-ven continued. “I could not confirm for a while why you obeyed King Yoll’s orders, but then capitulated, or encouraged him to fight Bethany Anne when you did.”
“That was an easy decision. She,” and E’kolorn pointed to Bethany Anne with his head, “could have easily killed those on the Space Stations or pummeled the planet with kinetic weapons. As the Defense Minister, my job was to defend the people. It seemed an easy decision once she requested to fight for the role of King.”
The Empress pursed her lips. It was odd to see someone with no mandibles, “What if we had decided to start with those types of attacks?”
E’kolorn shrugged, “Well, then I would have fought you tooth and nail.”
The Empress seemed to withdraw into herself for a few moments as E’kolorn wondered if he had just messed up.
“I think you will work well, E’kolorn. I think you will work well, indeed,” she told him.
Work well on what? he wondered.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Eubos System, Station 182
Yollin Station Master Denigh closed his eyes, then tapped his mandibles, twice, before turning in his chair and stabbing the call button, “Yes, comms?”
“Station Manager, we are being hailed by aliens, sir.”
“Coc’li,” Denigh answered slowly, “there are hundreds of species that we happen to know about, ourselves. Do you have a particular type of alien race, or are you going to make me play five-questions-before-I-put-my-clawed-foot-up-your-ass?”
There was a moment as Coc’li seemed to parse his comments, “The Humans, sir.”
“You imbecile!” Denigh stood up, “I’m coming to communications, you should have said that first!”
Denigh slammed the button again and grabbed his tablet.
It seems his boring time was officially over.
So was his curiosity about whether or not the humans would show up in this backward area of Yollin space.
—
“Well,” Tabitha looked at the clock, the seconds increasing as she watched it, “the bet is now between Ryu and Hirotoshi as to who wins. We still haven’t heard from the station master.”
“That was a sucker bet.” Ryu commented, “The manager over there is going to want to be in the communications room. It was unlikely he was sitting in there, and now he is trying to figure out where we are.”
Tabitha smirked. There were twenty seconds to go before Hirotoshi lost and Ryu won.
“Well, let’s test that theory, shall we?”
“Wait, Kemosabe,” Ryu interjected, “That wasn’t instruction to suggest…”
“Achronyx,” Tabitha spoke out, “Please cancel the cloaking provided we are in no danger.”
“There is always a danger,” the EI replied.
“Danger more than one percent,” she clarified.
“Uncloaking,” Achronyx confirmed.
“This is Station one-eight-two,” came a voice over the comms.
Ryu groaned behind her as Tabitha, Katsu, and Shin chuckled. She could hear the small gold coins that were being used as legal tender in the Etheric Empire jingle as they were taken off of the table by Hirotoshi, no doubt.
“This is the Etheric Empire’s QBS Achronyx,” Tabitha replied, “Ranger Tabitha speaking. Please provide instructions on how to dock, the internal atmosphere, and an opportunity to speak with the Station Manager.”
“We do not recognize,” the voice came back, “the ship design. It seems based on a Yollin scout vessel, but it is not the same size.”
“True,” Tabitha replied, “But the connections are standard, I assure you.”
“Well,” the Yollin voice came back, “I would like to confirm…”
This time, Tabitha overrode the person speaking, “Look, here is how it is about to go. This is Her Majesty’s Ranger. You will provide docking instructions, or I’ll shoot a hole in the nearest surface in order to dock. Keep dicking with me, and when I get on the space station, I’ll make sure to look three times as hard for infractions. When I find those infractions, I will immediately implement justice. Since I don’t have any serious jailing facilities, I’ll just throw whoever fucked up off the station, without a suit. Have I made myself clear?”
There was a pause.
“Please use docking location B-14, it seems we have a few ships leaving quickly.”
“I’ll just bet you do,” Tabitha murmured to herself. “Achronyx, are there any issues locating B-14?”
“No.”
“Then take us there, maintain active defenses.”
“Understood,” he supplied.
—
“Well,” The station manager thought about the discussion after the call disconnected. “I guess that answers the question about whether they are friendly, unfriendly, or willing to put a clawed foot up my ass.”
“We have four different ships requesting immediate departure,” Comms spoke to the station manager, “We will need to unlock those ships at the right time for balance issues.”
“I guess the r’cklickn are leaving before the light gets shined on them.” He rubbed his mandible.”
“Sir, did you see the image of their ship?”
“Just a glance, why?”
Coc’li pulled the station's video up and dialed in the magnification.
“That’s,” the station manager paused a moment, “a lot of guns.”
“That is not a normal scouting vessel,” Coc’li agreed.
The station manager pointed to the screen, “Dial up the magnification on the ship emblem.”
Coc’li leaned forward, “Are those pointed teeth?”
Denigh stood up, “They aren’t herbivores, not with pointed teeth.”
The station manager started walking out of the comms’ room, heading towards berth B-14 and called out over his shoulder, “Next time Aliens that conquer our own world show up, how about start off the conversation with that information?”
—
Tabitha checked her guns, made sure her equipment was in each pocket and confirmed she had plenty of ammo.
She dialed the gun down to three. For now, she didn’t want to blow any unnecessary holes in the Space Station’s walls if she could help it.
She grabbed her soft helmet and stuffed it into one of her pockets. It would help if she was in a bad place, and needed air.
She considered kicking out her spurs and then decided not to. Those should come out, she decided, at opportune times.
“Achronyx,” she called out, “Are we good with gravity and air?”
“Yes, gravity is three percent above the norm, air is acceptable. The additional trace gasses are not detrimental to your physiology.”
Tabitha reached up to pat between her breasts, just confirming her Ranger’s medallion was lodged there. She had other identification, but it was decided that there would be one medallion that every Ranger would carry. It had chips embedded in the casting that could confirm the validity of the medallion, as well as tell if the wearer was the correct Ranger, and whether that Ranger was alive, or not.
If not, it would send information through the Etheric to the Merideth Reynolds. That information would be used in the future to locate the Empress’ Rangers that died, and facilitate locating who killed them.
Tabitha left her cabin and walked up to the bridge, “Katsu, when we dock, make sure you work on their computer systems with Achronyx. I want to know, and have, everything sucked out of their system and any other ships you can get by the time we leave.”
“Isn’t that illegal?” He asked as he started bringing up the necessary screens to work on her request.
Tabitha tapped herself on the chest and smiled, “Interestingly enough, we are still under Etheric Martial Law in these areas, so the answer is ‘no.'”
“And when we revert back to normal Etheric Law?”
“Then the choice is left up to the Ranger when said Ranger is on an operation. So, since I am the Ranger in question…”
“The answer will still be ‘suck it all dry,'” her Tonto responded. “Yes, Kemosabe.”
Tabitha left the bridge and worked her way to the docking area. The connection between the ship and the station had been established, and Hirotoshi was waiting for her. Tabitha looked out of the ship to find Ryu and a Yollin waiting for them on the deck of the space station.
“Shall we, Number 1?” she asked.
Hirotoshi harrumphed, and Tabitha walked out of the ship with him following, the ship’s door irised closed behind them.
“Welcome to Station One Eight Two,” the Yollin spoke first, “My name is Denigh, how can I help you?”
Tabitha held out her hand, and the Yollin looked down at it, then up to her, “Do I take your hand?”
Tabitha nodded, “Yes, in our world it is a customary greeting. The practice goes back in time where it showed we didn’t have a weapon to stick into the person who we were meeting.”
Denigh reached out and grabbed the smaller alien’s hand, “I assume, since your hand is so soft that squeezing hard would harm you.”
Tabitha raised an eyebrow, “How about we give it a try? The first one of us who says ‘uncle,' has to buy the other a drink?”
Tabitha grinned, the Yollin didn’t answer, he just started squeezing. Tabitha continued smiling as his mandibles started making an almost imperceptible noise like two horns rubbing against each other. Denigh looked at her, as she calmly accepted his effort.
“Now, Station Master Denigh, it is my turn,” she told him and started to squeeze.
The larger Yollin, whose hands still had minor levels of chitinous armor protecting his fingers, looked down in surprise as the smaller hand started to cause him substantial pain. “I’m not sure if you need your hands, station manager, but I guarantee I will continue squeezing until you say uncle or I break through your hand’s tough outer shell, to get to the squishy insides.”
Denigh’s mandibles started tapping together quicker and quicker as he put everything he had into squishing the alien’s hand. “YIELD!” He screamed.
But, she didn’t let up.
“Benkle!” He yelled as he went to his knees, the first cracking of his hand’s armor loud in his ears. “No, UNCLE!” he cried out and the pressure released.
“I hope you have some good drinks,” Tabitha told him. “You owe me. What say we go get some now?”
Denigh was rubbing his hand, “Sure, it will probably help me with this pain.”
Moments later, Ryu walked ahead of the group and Hirotoshi brought up the rear as Denigh and Tabitha walked through the space station, the manager explaining what they were seeing as he rubbed his hands.
“Down this hall,” he pointed left, “are the quarters for most who live and work here. We are a smaller station, with docks for twenty ships. If a ship is too large, we have two shuttle craft that can each hold twenty Yollins. We use them to ferry crew and passengers back and forth.”
“How many work on this station?” Tabitha asked, “From the outside, it looked like this station had to be at least a hundred stories tall.”
“What are these tales you talk about?” Denigh asked, “and how do you use tales to figure out size?”
Tabitha thought about her comment for a moment, “Sorry, stories in our world also speak to levels of a building. I’m suggesting a thousand feet tall.”
The Yollin worked the height difference out in his head, “We are actually about twenty percent taller than what you suggest if my translation is correct about your feet to Yollin units.”
Tabitha whistled, “It should be, and damn, that is huge.”
The Yollin puffed out his chest, “Well, we aren’t the largest station in the Eubos area. We are sixth, those that are larger than us exceed our size by a large margin.”
“Why so many?” Tabitha asked.
“Well,” Denigh started warming up to the conversation, but then pointed off to his right, “down that way is my office, if you should need me.” Finally, he continued the explanation, “This solar system doesn’t have a decent world to inhabit. It’s smaller, considerably smaller than Yoll, and has had a significant amount of bad meteorite impacts that took out a large part of the population. So, the local species never got off planet. However, for those of us who can mine in space, it is like going around and picking up precious metals off of the ground.”
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