Talyah took her original team, and went to the northern corner of the building’s front, which left Nero with the more southern front corner.
They walked in silence for a short while, before Onon interrupted the quiet. “Why did you rescue that kid, Nero?”
“Sevi? She was alone,” he said simply.
“Everyone is alone, Nero.”
He paused to look at her, seeing a hint of concern on her small features. “A few years ago, I was in the back alleys of the city. Looking for food, drugs, water; you know how it is. It was dark, and there was no one else around. Just me and the Scraper lighting to keep me company. I heard a scream then, a high-pitched shriek from an adjacent alley. I didn’t have any weapons, except for a small metal rod, so I was careful. I had a look around the corner, and there was this girl. She couldn’t have been much past six years old. And she was surrounded by these guys. Big guys, in long black coats. One of them was a vacso. They beat her, as I watched, for a long time. It felt like forever. They took the small amount of food she had, but they didn’t just leave her. One of them started to pull down his trousers. The others tried to stop him, at this point, but he just shot them. Right there in front of her. And then he started to pull off her clothes. I just stood there. I mean, I couldn’t do anything - he had a rifle, and I was small, and just had a piece of metal. And I couldn’t just run and leave her either. So I just stood and watched.” He paused for a moment, before continuing. “In the end, she struggled so much, I guess he just gave up. He shot her in the head, and left her there. He forgot to even take the food they’d stolen.” Nero finished with a slight shrug. “She was all alone there, at the end.”
“Nero...” Onon began, before he interrupted her.
“Anyway, that’s in the past. Right now, we’ve got a job to do,” he said, before turning to face Jerad. “You got the package, Jerad?”
“Uh, sure. Right here,” the other man said, retrieving a black bag, approximately thirty centimetres tall and vaguely egg-shaped, from his pack. He also pulled a small repulsor-catapult out of the pack, unfolding it to be able to slot in the black bag. “Ready.”
“Good, let’s send these guys a little message.”
Jerad emptied the contents of the bag into the catapult. There was a slight thump, as a head landed in the cradle of the catapult, dark blood still dripping from the severed neck. It was head of the alien they’d captured at the base, a horrified expression now permanently plastered over the alien’s features. Jerad fired the catapult, and the repulsor technology fired the head hard at the main entrance of the building. They heard a loud thump, accompanied by a crunching sound, as it hit the door.
It wasn’t long before that attracted some notice, and the door was flung open, to reveal a vacso looking out. It was a moment before it looked down at the doorstep, to see the head of its colleague. A strange, angry guttural sound came out of its mouth, and it grabbed the head, before looking for whoever had delivered it. Nero and the rest were well hidden, though, so it turned back inside with the head. A moment later, they heard a siren begin to sound in the building, and movement became obvious behind some of the windows.
“Brace yourselves,” Nero said into his comm unit. Then, turning to the large man beside him, he said “I think it’s time to give them the second part of the message, Abia.”
“With pleasure,” the older man said, pulling out a small electronic device from his belt. It had a small holodisplay on it. Abia swiped across the display a couple of times, there was a momentary delay, and then a huge explosion rocked the whole area. The shockwaves in the ground almost knocked them over, and plumes of dust rose up from under the building in front of them.
The effect on the building wasn’t immediately obvious, but then, slowly but surely, it began to disappear. It sank into the ground, collapsing in on itself, as it vanished into a vast hole. The dust plumes quickly rose up to obscure their view, but the rumbling and crashing sounds continued on for a long time. It was hard to see how anyone inside the building could have survived.
“Everyone good?” Nero said into the comm unit. He got affirmative responses from Nate and Talyah. “Look for survivors,” he continued.
They didn’t have long to wait. A large part of the building had collapsed into the underground cavern, but with the dust clearing, they could see a few areas were still standing. This included one area near Nero’s team, out of which stumbled a few heavily-armed Nostra. Nero smiled. “Looks like we might yet have some fun, Nate,” he said into the comm unit.
“Don’t be a tease, man,” came the response. “I haven’t got anyone over here yet.”
It looked like ten Nostra had made it from Nero’s part of the building. But the number didn’t matter. Nero, Jerad, Onon, Abia and Cauld calmly walked forward to meet them, laser rifles out and aimed at the Nostra aliens. When they were close enough to be noticed, they opened fire, punching numerous holes in the bodies of the aliens. They fell before they even raised their weapons.
At the other end of the building, Talyah’s team walked forward to meet a few survivors, and at the rear, Nate brought his team into the building, finding a few aliens still breathing, but unconscious. Their breathing was promptly halted.
****
“What happened, Nero? We were meant to meet nearly an hour ago.” Ami looked at the timepiece on the wall, as if to emphasize her point. They were sat in a private booth in a club, in the basement of one of the Scrapers. It was a club where the only access was from the Scraper above, and as Nero was becoming accustomed to, it was filled with a different sort of clientele than he was used to.
“And what happened to you?” she added, looking back at Nero.
“What do you mean, Ami?” Nero took a sip of his drink, the heady fumes helping him to forget about the day’s events.
“I mean,” she said, her voice dropping to almost a whisper, “is that blood on your arm?”
Nero looked down at the arm she indicated, noticing a few spots of blood on his clothes. He hadn’t noticed them before. “Oh, it’s nothing Ami,” he said, half-heartedly trying to brush the spots of alien blood away. It didn’t work.
She didn’t look convinced at his explanation. “Look,” he continued, “it’s probably best you don’t ask me about it, okay? You might not like the answer.”
For whatever reason, she didn’t ask any more questions, but instead settled down into an uncomfortable silence. Nero took another sip of his drink.
A couple of minutes passed, before he tried speaking again. “On another note, Ami, you mentioned your brother was having problems the other day?”
“With the Nostra? Yes, I remember, Nero.”
“Well, he shouldn’t be bothered anymore. Not for some time, anyway.”
“You...?” she looked at him askance, not knowing what to say.
Nero just nodded, finishing the last of his drink. He ordered another from the holodisplay in the wall of their booth, getting Ami another drink as well.
“Pill?” he offered, changing the subject. Hesitating only momentarily, she smiled as she took one of the proffered red pills, and Nero took one for himself. They popped them into their mouths, washing them down with a drink, and let the club’s bass-heavy music wash over them. It was the small hours of the morning before they left the club, to return to Ami’s apartment high up in the Scraper.
****
The rubble shifted, small pieces tumbling down the small mound in the darkness. Larger pieces began to move too, until a hand - the skin pitch black in colour - broke through the rubble. An arm followed, and eventually the entire body of the vacso was free. Its tough skin was broken in many places, leaking dark blood out onto the stones, but it was alive.
It looked around, at the devastation surrounding it. It knew who was responsible for this, and it knew that they would pay. But not yet. The alien wasn’t stupid. It knew it had taken a big defeat, and would need help. And it knew just where that help would come from.
Takin
g a final look around the remains of its headquarters, the alien walked off, over the rubble until it reached a street. From there, it navigated its way through the various alleys and streets that finally led to a small deserted shack. The alien ran its finger along a particular piece of metal, which was followed by a slight hissing sound. A deep clunk followed that, and then the small shack appeared to fall apart. The roof split in two, and retracted into the walls, which in turn vanished into the ground.
What was left when the shack had disappeared was a ship. It was a small one, only a single-seater, but it looked fast. The canopy of the ship opened when the alien stepped nearer, and it leapt up into the cockpit, in a graceful move that would have been impossible for any human.
Before it fired up the engines, it retrieved a small cube from an inner pocket. It was entirely unremarkable, except that it was made of carbon, and had a strange, almost-triangular symbol on one side. In the alien’s hand, however, the symbol immediately lit up a deep red in colour. It pressed the symbol, and a haunting voice filled the ship’s cockpit. The alien didn’t intimidate easily, but this voice sent chills down its spine.
“Why do you contact us?” the voice said, booming out of the small cube.
“I think we may be able to help each other. I have some information for you,” the alien said, an unmistakable note of fear in its voice. It was a moment before the booming voice answered.
“Very well,” it said. “We are listening.”
As the alien outlined its information, it turned on the ship’s engines, and accelerated hard into the night sky, flying through the layers of atmosphere and out into the blackness of space.
-- PART TWO --
CHAPTER EIGHT
FREIGHTER
Three years later
Time passed, and things changed. The first thing Nero had done after the Nostra had attacked his cave was to find a new base. One that was actually in the city, and easier to get to. He had also bought, with money, an apartment in a Scraper. It had been less effort than he had thought. It had basically involved handing over a large quantity of bonds to the building’s owner, who then didn’t perform any checks on Nero. Currently, however, he was to be found in the new headquarters, the latest delivery of qiameth having just turned up.
“Shit!” came Nate’s voice from across the room, which was shortly followed by him sticking his finger into his mouth, and then jumping around on the spot. Everyone around him started laughing uproariously, which earned them all dark looks in return. Nero wandered over to see what Nate had managed to do, giving him an inquiring look as he stood in front of him.
“Oh, don’t just stand there, Nero,” Nate said, taking his finger out of his mouth for just long enough to speak. “You could get me a bandage.” Nero, grinning, sent one of the other guys off to get one as he stayed with Nate.
“You know, you really should be more careful with this packaging, Nate. I didn’t think I needed to warn you that metal can be sharp, but evidently...”
“I was just checking that it was sharp, actually. And it is. So now we know, okay?”
“Right...”
Nate took his finger out of his mouth, and sighed. “Do you miss the old jobs we used to do, Nero? Breaking into a Scraper, stealing shipments, that sort of thing? That was fun. This...” he said, gesturing to the packages of qiameth, “this is just admin work. Profitable, yeah, but oh-my-god it’s dull.”
“It has its moments, Nate, and there’s a hell of a lot of money in it. But I know what you mean. I’ve been thinking about the old days recently.”
“Got any plans in mind?”
Nero smiled. “I may do, Nate. I may do. But for now, we need to get these sent off,” he said, indicating the packages of drugs. “Assuming you can use your hand, of course.”
“Don’t you worry about my hand. I can still do amazing things with this hand.”
“I’m sure you can. But let’s not go into any detail.”
Nate grinned as Nero walked away, back to supervise the different distributors’ allocations. It wasn’t a glamorous job, but he liked to be involved in the little things.
****
She watched the water flow under her feet, beneath the layer of transparent glass on which her chair sat. It was strange to watch such a large quantity of water, though she found it very peaceful. That was why she always chose this restaurant, when she could.
“Miss Martano?” came a voice from what seemed like a vast distance. “Ami?”
The voice shook her out of her reverie, and she looked up to see her waiter, dressed in his finery, standing beside her table. He had already put down another drink on the table.
“Would you like to order?”
Ami glanced at her timepiece. Forty minutes late. “I shall give him a few more minutes, I think,” she said, giving the waiter a half-hearted smile.
“Certainly, signora,” the waiter replied. “Do let me know when you are ready.”
Ami watched as the man walked away, to attend to another table. The restaurant was almost full at this time, couples sat opposite each other, staring into each others’ faces. She looked away, up at the grand chandelier that hovered in the centre of the room.
It was another fifteen minutes before he finally turned up.
“Ami!” Nero smiled as he walked up, as if nothing was wrong. Ami just looked up at him, staying sat in her seat.
“What’s the matter?” he asked, taking the seat opposite her, and having a look at the virtual menu displayed on the table. It was just a formality; he already knew what he’d order.
“‘What’s the matter?’” Ami quoted back. “You do realise you’re nearly an hour late? Again.” Nero glanced up at the almost-transparent holodisplay over his eyes, at the time in the corner.
“I’m sorry, Ami. I didn’t realise what the time was. Here, let me get you a drink,” he said, looking around for the waiter.
“Look at me, Nero,” Ami said, with more force in her voice than usual. Nero looked. “You can’t just turn up late to everything, treat me as if I’m not important, and just expect to buy me a drink, or a piece of jewellery, and expect me to forget everything. It doesn’t work that way.”
“That’s not what I’m trying to do, Ami. I don’t mean to ignore you. But I’ve got a lot on at the moment. There’s a big opportunity coming up soon, and it’s taking a lot of planning, and I need to supervise things. When that’s over though, maybe I’ll be a bit less busy. We could visit another planet, perhaps? You’re always saying you want to travel.”
“You’ve said that before, Nero. But something else always comes up. Or you come back from god-knows-where, with blood on you, and in a foul mood, and refuse to talk. I don’t know who you are, Nero. We’ve been together for, what, four years now? And I hardly know anything about you. I don’t know what you do for a living. I don’t know where you go in the day. I don’t know where you go when you disappear for a week at a time.”
Nero glanced around the room, uncomfortable with this line of questioning. He looked back into her eyes. “You must have an idea what I do, Ami. And you also know it’s best you don’t know too much. It’s for your own good. I don’t want any harm to come to you.”
“And there’s that excuse again. Can’t you tell me anything Nero? There’s nothing you can tell me?”
“Look, what do you really want to know, Ami? What’s this really about?”
“What’s it really about? I don’t know you Nero! You buy me nice things, when you turn up, and that’s it. I don’t even know who your parents are, Nero.”
Nero looked down at the table, contemplating what to tell her. He knew he needed to give her something, but so many years of not letting anyone in was a difficult habit to break. “I grew up with my mother,” he finally said, still not looking directly at Ami. He idly picked up an empty glass on the table. “We had a small place, in the city. It wasn’t much, but it was all I knew. We didn’t have much food, or much of anything, really, but we got by.
My mother always told me how lucky we were, to have a place like ours. I never believed her, always hated the place, but I can understand what she meant.” He stopped.
“Go on,” Ami prompted, when the pause dragged out.
“Well, one day, I came back from getting food. And I entered the house. And she was dead. On the floor, in a pool of her own blood. I had to leave, then, ‘cos I was still too young to defend myself. But I was old enough to understand that. So I did, and that was that for family life.”
“Oh, Nero,” Ami said. “I’m sorry. But where was your father?”
“My father?” Nero said. “Dead. Long gone. I never knew him. My mother said he was killed shortly after I was born. Got into a fight with some gang members, and they killed him.” He shrugged. “So there’s the fascinating story of my life. Fun, wasn’t it?”
Ami watched Nero, the pain still evident on his face, try as he might to hide it. “You know, Nero, I don’t believe I ever told you about my childhood.” He looked up at her. “My mother died when she gave birth to me, so I never knew her. I was raised by my father, instead. Now, this was a man who never expected to have to raise a child on his own, and I think he blamed me - maybe subconsciously - for what happened to my mother. So he was a very tough father. If I didn’t finish my work on time, or to a high enough standard, he’d beat me. And if I wasn’t up in the early hours of the morning, in the exercise room, he’d beat me. And if he was just in a bad mood, he’d beat me.
“I couldn’t wait to leave home, and him, to be honest. I got my own apartment when I was sixteen, in a different Scraper, and I’ve never been back to my old home. It’s difficult to never see him, though. He’s Governatore of the city, so if there’s one person you can’t avoid talk of, it’s him. And it means if he wants to see me, he will see me. He’s pretty busy with his job most of the time, though, so thankfully it’s a rare event when he wants to see me.”
Governatore of the city. Nero raised his eyebrows, amazed that Ami had never mentioned that before. The Governatore essentially ruled the city, or at least the elements that were willing to be governed, and was one of the most powerful figures on the planet. “I never knew that,” he said, at a momentary loss for words.
On Galaxy's Edge: Ascendance Page 17