“So where’s this place then? I thought it was meant to be close.”
“It is. Apparently they’ve set up in a small place near the outer Scrapers, near Scraper 259.”
The two aliens continued along the street for a few more minutes, before stopping outside a three-level building, on the boundary between the Scraper-dominated area of the city, and the wastelands where the industrial buildings were.
“I’d say this looks like it,” the first alien said, stopping outside, and looking at the place with a glint of malice in its eyes. “What say we go and pay them a visit, eh?”
“Sounds like a plan,” the other responded, pointing its own rifle at the door. “Ready?”
The first alien fired one shot at the door locking mechanism, melting it instantly, and letting the door swing inwards. The two aliens quickly pushed the door all the way open, and strode into the building’s interior, glancing around for any threats.
There didn’t appear to be any. Then they heard a faint noise, that sounded like it came from the back of the building.
“Did you hear that?” the second alien asked. The other nodded, and both strode towards the rear of the building, to discover a room that looked to have been recently abandoned. There was no sign of anyone now, though. What they did find, however, were a few crates mid-way through being loaded up with small red pills in plastic bags. Qiameth.
“Well, I think we found the right place,” said the second alien, again resting its weapon on its shoulder. “Shame we missed them.”
“Idiot,” the other alien muttered. “Go check out the back, see if there’s any sign of them out there. I’ll take a look around in here.”
When the other did as directed, the first alien checked the remaining rooms briefly, finding no signs of anyone. It then returned to the prep room to find the other stood there waiting.
“Why are you just standing there?” the first demanded.
“What? There was no sign of anyone.”
“Then get packing these drugs up. We’ll bring them to the boss. It’s better than bringing him nothing... or do you want to face him and say we missed them?”
The other hesitated, a nervous expression clouding its features, before it responded. “I’ll start packing them up.”
“Good idea.”
There weren’t many crates to fill, and it wasn’t long before the portable hover-board the aliens had brought with them was loaded with the crates of qiameth. They pulled it out of the building, and only thirty minutes later, they were back at what served as one of their bases above ground.
“Report,” came the abrupt order when the two aliens were inside the unassuming building.
“It was empty when we got there, signore. We did find these drugs that were kept there, though,” the first alien said, handing over the hover-board to the boss.
“Very well,” the boss said, after taking a look at the crates of qiameth. “You,” it said, pointing at the more senior alien in the pair. “I need help with an inquisition. You, take this to the store,” it continued, pointing at the other alien.
Both hastened to obey, the more junior alien jumping to as if it had been given an electric shock. It veritably ran away with the hover-board, not wanting to spend any more time than was necessary in the presence of the boss. The first alien, the more senior one, waited for more instructions from the boss. It didn’t have long to wait.
“Follow me,” the boss ordered.
“Yes, signore.”
He led them through a maze of rooms and corridors, too many for the lackey to remember his way back, turning left through this living area, right through that eating area, and straight on through this communal space, before stopping in front of a door.
“You’re just to be a grunt. Stand there, look sinister, but don’t say anything. Understood?”
“Certainly, signore,” the alien responded, composing its features into the most aggressive look possible. The boss then opened the door, and they entered the pitch-black room. As the door slid shut behind them, the boss turned on the blindingly-bright room lighting. Sat in the centre of the room, blinking its eyes in response to the bright light, was a human male.
There was nothing particularly remarkable about it, but the alien could guess as to why it was here. Sure enough...
“You’re to tell me about this Nero,” the alien’s boss said, its voice brokering no argument. When the human didn’t respond, the alien continued. “Fine, it’s more fun this way.” It opened an elaborately-designed metal box, inside of which were a variety of metal implements, all of which looked very painful to the alien watching.
The boss continued, partly talking to the human, and partly to the other alien. “You really can’t beat the classics. I’ve tried lasers, I’ve tried psychological tricks, but these things never fail to work. It’s just a matter of how long it takes,” it said, running a hand over some of the implements. “And I’ve got a lot of time today.”
The screams lasted for hours, but weren’t heard by anyone else. Just the two aliens that remained in the room with the human, one of them silent, the other asking the occasional question.
****
Nero slowly walked along, listening to the man next to him, but watching the sky above. It was rare to have such a clear night, and he could see the many constellations of stars above him. There was the Yeb, and to the north of that, there was the Barrel. The Cre was west of that.
“... they do respect you,” Jerad was saying. “But the Nostra are getting to them. They’re worried.”
His attention brought back to their discussion, Nero looked away from the stars, and towards Jerad instead. They were outside their base in the mountains, walking over the rocks and sand that surrounded the area. Occasionally they would pass a small animal that bolted away from them, soon lost in the darkness. Otherwise, there was no sign of life whatsoever, except for a very faint glow on the distant horizon.
“They shouldn’t be, Jerad. The Nostra are aggressive, but they’re not as big as they used to be. They have their informants, I’m sure, and I have some of my own. I keep telling you guys they’re no real threat.”
“Yes, I believe you Nero. And so do Tal and Nate. But the men, well, they just hear about the ones that go missing, and then they get your assurances that they shouldn’t worry. It doesn’t bring back the ones that go missing, Nero.”
They came up to a large boulder, and by mutual assent turned around to head back to the mouth of the cave. “Okay, Jerad. I’ll do something about it. We’ll see if we can’t send them a message, okay?”
Jerad nodded his approval, and both of them carried on to the cave in silence, each savouring the rare moment of peace and tranquillity.
When they did finally get back to the cave, Nero left Jerad to have dinner with the men, heading to his shuttle himself. He had found his thoughts returning to Ami repeatedly since spending the night with her, and earlier had finally decided to call her. Somewhat to his surprise, she had answered, and had sounded pleased to hear from him to boot. They had promptly arranged to see each other again, with Ami suggesting they visit the ‘theatre.’ Not wanting to reveal his roots, Nero had agreed without having a clue what it was.
Climbing up the boarding ramp of the shuttle, Nero went over to the flight controls and punched in the city as the destination. It didn’t take long to get there, and soon enough Nero found himself landing on the Scraper that Ami had directed him to.
It was unlike any other Scraper Nero had seen. Instead of having a simple flat roof, this Scraper had what looked like giant, multi-hued wings reaching up and over the building. They were made of some sort of semi-transparent material, flexible enough that they moved slightly in the strong gusts of winds. Where these wings swept down to join the building, there was a grand entrance, with a curving staircase made of some sort of grey-white material that Nero wasn’t familiar with. In all, the effect made him feel a bit out of place.
With the engines off, he descended
the boarding ramp, and headed towards the entrance. Walking between some of the other ships parked on the roof, Nero couldn’t fail to note the craftsmanship of the vehicles. Though most of them were of a similar size to Nero’s own - after all, Nero had borrowed his from a Scraper resident - some were much larger, and looked as if they were designed for flying long distances in space. The sparkling-clean hulls suggested they weren’t used for that purpose, though, and they were so finely designed it looked a shame to subject many of the ships to the dirtiness of space travel.
Once Nero had descended the grand, curving staircase, he emerged into a large foyer. Hanging from the ceiling were great lighting units, each a few metres across, which illuminated the room. Compared to the scale of many Scraper buildings, however, the foyer had quite an intimate air, with a few separate areas dividing the space up. To Nero’s right, as he stood taking in his surroundings, was a restaurant, and to the left was a bar.
It was to this that Nero headed, having seen what looked like Ami’s back, once more perched on a bar stool. The bar itself was pretty crowded, and Nero had to squeeze his way between the guests dressed in their finery, mumbling an apology here and a ‘pardon me’ there.
“I’m feeling a little under-dressed,” he said when he was finally stood behind Ami. She turned to look up at Nero, a welcoming smile on her face.
“You know, it’s customary to turn up to these events a good hour beforehand as well. Looks like you’re getting it all wrong today,” she said, the sly look in her eyes taking any sting out of her comment.
“Yeah, well, I like to do things differently. Makes life a bit more interesting, wouldn’t you say?”
“Quite,” she replied, turning around to order Nero a drink.
There wasn’t much time for him to savour the drink - a pink concoction that immediately sent his head spinning - before a loud pinging sound filled the foyer. Initially it sounded to Nero as if his morning wake-up alarm was going off, but it looked like the people around him heard the sound too. He gave Ami a quizzical look, to be met by a small laugh.
“The show is about to start, Nero. Never been to the theatre before?”
“Something like that,” he replied, swiftly getting up to avoid the conversation going down that route. He held out his arm for Ami, who graciously accepted it. He was still none-the-wiser as to what the event was, though.
The crowd of people seemed to know where they were going, however, so Nero was able to be swept along with the crowd. They were led through the foyer, passing through a gigantic set of carved metal doors, held open by attendants, and entered a second, smaller, foyer. In this room, just visible over the heads of the other guests, were ten doors. The group of people divided as people made their way to the different doors. Nero gave Ami a glance.
“We’re on level seven, Nero,” she answered, in response to his unasked question. Turning back to the doors, one on the right of the room had a large, glowing ‘7’ above the door. They headed that way. Once the crowd had slowly moved out of the way, they were greeted by a projected screen of orange light covering the doorway. The people in front of them passed through with no issues, however, so Nero didn’t hesitate when it was their turn.
“It checks for registered guests,” Ami explained, guessing at Nero’s uncertainty. “I registered myself plus one.”
“Sure, I knew that,” Nero replied, glancing at Ami. She laughed in response. “Of course you did.”
The corridor they were in circled downwards, taking them down for what felt like a few levels in the building, finally opening up onto one of the more astonishing sights Nero had seen. In front of them was a gigantic circular chamber, at least ten stories in height. Around the outside were rows and rows of seating, all looking out into this chamber, and already nearly filled with the other guests. Filling the chamber were swirling multi-coloured lights and small figures, hovering in the air with seemingly nothing supporting them. Looking closer, it struck Nero that they must have been holographic projections filling the chamber.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Ami said as they walked forward, along the level to find their seats. “I couldn’t find any words to describe it the first time I went to the theatre.”
“No...” Nero muttered, struggling to find a coherent response himself.
“Wait until you see the show itself. This, this is nothing in comparison.”
Nero looked Ami in the eyes, seeing the excitement there. It was a strange world he was in at the moment, he reflected. Nothing like the rest of his life, nothing like what he grew up with.
“Are you okay?” Ami asked, apparently seeing something in his eyes.
“Fine. Are these our seats?” Nero asked, Ami having paused beside a couple of vacant chairs. She glanced at them, nodding, and they both sat down, looking out at the flowing streams of light before them. The humanoid figures hovering in the chamber appeared as if they were riding the streams of light, controlling them somehow. The effect was strange, and a bit magical, even if it was all artificial.
“What is it you do, Nero?” Ami asked, a strange look still on her face. Nero glanced at her, carefully looking into her eyes.
“Why do you ask?” He returned his gaze to the chamber in front of them.
“I’ve never met anyone like you before, Nero. You’ve never been to the theatre before. You have these augs. You’re... different.”
“Different. You could say that.”
“You mentioned you were in the trade business when I met you, but, my brother has interests in that arena, and he’d never heard of you.”
“Checking up on me, were you?” Nero asked, a slight grin coming to his lips. “I probably trade different things to your brother. What does he do?”
“He runs a robotics factory, and trades metals, electronics, that sort of thing. When there’s no trouble, of course,” she said, tailing off.
“Trouble?”
“You must know how it is. The, er, the Nostra. They always want a share of things. My brother sometimes struggles to run things with them... interfering. You aren’t troubled by them?”
“Sometimes. But I often avoid their notice, as it were,”
“Right, because you trade in a different area.”
“Right.”
“So you’re not going to tell me what it is you do?”
“I think it’s best you don’t know, Ami.” He gave her a significant glance. “But maybe I can help your brother. Sort things out for him, you know.”
Ami gave Nero a piercing look in return, before directing her attention back to the chamber. The ambient lighting was beginning to dim, with most of the patrons now having found their seats. “He would certainly appreciate any help, Nero. I would too. If you can.”
“I’ll look into it.”
With the production starting, they sat in silence, their attention now focused on the chamber, on the streams of light that were now retreating to the sides. It made the chamber look like it was a giant tube lined by light. Nero felt inside a pocket, in search of a small transparent packet he’d placed there. Finding it, he dug out it out. Inside were a small number of red pills.
Nero took one out and placed it in his mouth, before offering the packet to Ami. She looked down, a questioning look on her face.
“Try it,” Nero whispered. “You’ll like it.”
She reached into the packet, and retrieved a red pill for herself, giving it the once-over before placing it in her mouth. Nero put the packet away, and returned his attention to the show in front of him. He settled back, ready to enjoy himself.
CHAPTER SEVEN
NOSTRA
The midday sun blazed down on the desert, reflecting back up from the pale sand to intensify the heat even more. There was nothing living down there, except for a few small creatures that managed to escape the harshness of the sun. Above the ground, an old shuttle flew a few metres above the surface. It was going slow enough, and low enough, to avoid too much notice. The occupants didn’t know what sor
t of defences might be set up, and they weren’t taking any chances.
The ship itself was nothing remarkable, with a battered exterior that looked as if it had seen many decades of use. The ion engines at the back were emitting some sort of vapour that suggested they hadn’t been maintained well, if at all. It was still flying at over seven hundred miles an hour, though, so the four hundred mile journey hadn’t taken very long. The ship was now approaching where the occupants expected their destination to be, however, and had slowed down to only a couple of hundred miles an hour.
At last, the ship’s pilot saw the mountain range up ahead. This was it, the alien thought as the ship approached. It was a large mountain range, stretching off into the distance both left and right. Glancing at the holodisplays around the cockpit, the pilot couldn’t see any signs of danger. No weapons were locked on to them, and there was no sign of any surveillance. “Perhaps they’re not as advanced as we thought,” it muttered.
Once the ship was near the mountains, the pilot banked to the left and flew parallel to the mountain range. The mountains were remarkably featureless, with almost nothing growing on the slopes. It was just sand, interspersed with a few sand-coloured rocks. After a few minutes of flying alongside the mountains, the pilot noticed what appeared to be a small hollow in the side of one of them, some distance up the slope. Angling the ship towards this area, the hollow turned out to be a gaping hole in the side of the rock. “Ah,” the pilot said. “There you are.”
Slowing down, the pilot directed the ship near to the cave’s entrance, and carefully brought it down onto the sand and rocks nearby. The ship’s computer fine-tuned the maneuver, preventing the ship from landing awkwardly on any of the rocks and boulders strewn about the area.
The pilot cut the engines, and opened the boarding ramp, allowing the hot desert air to flood into the cabin. It turned around to face the twenty vacso aliens it had brought with it.
“We’re here,” it announced, a gleeful smile spreading across its alien features.
On Galaxy's Edge: Ascendance Page 14