Universe of the Soul

by Jennifer Mandelas

  The two travelers followed the captain and his jittery first mate off the freighter and down into the spacious docking bay. Adri glanced around with mild curiosity, taking in the less-than-new paint that covered the walls, the stacks of crates and oddly shaped bins, full of necessary replacement materials for a ship that could be used – for a fee. There was a door on the far side of the bay that led to the rest of the mission, and by it stood an uthrib. The greeting committee, Adri surmised.

  This uthrib looked much the same as every other one Adri had encountered; a short, rounded torso, small, rounded legs with backwards joints, long and spindly arms currently folded across his middle. Its elongated neck was thin and supple, making what would have been a short, squat creature the same height as a taller human. Its head was smaller than a human's, and the entire creature was covered in a waxy-looking mesh of pale brown and gray scales, making its fist-sized white eyes stand out startlingly. This one's choice of garb didn't add much by way of color; it wore a white flapping coat over a faded gray jumpsuit.

  “Welcome to the Uthrib Space Mission.” he said in a bland voice. “Here we are dedicated to assisting all travelers from every path of life. I am Rekum. Captain Arkow, Bathus is expecting you.”

  “Er, yes. Um…about that,” Arkow stuttered.

  But Rekum's interests had shifted. “Who are these two?”

  “Just passengers,” Arkow said hastily, waving a shaking hand in a dismissive gesture.

  “Hmm.” Rekum turned back to Arkow and Jiko. “Bathus is in the casino. I believe you know the way. I will show your…passengers to the bar.”

  Arkow nodded quickly. “Great. Good. Jiko and I will be on our way!” He nodded awkwardly a couple of times, jerked his head at Jiko, and the two of them dashed out the docking bay door at a remarkably fast clip.

  “Good thing I was never one for long goodbyes,” Adri muttered.

  The uthrib turned back to them. “If you would follow me,”

  Adri followed Rekum's oddly flowing gait, Blair trailing behind. He led them through the door and along a wide, winding corridor that led away from the docking area and into the heart of the space mission. Here they were quickly swallowed up into the teeming mass of beings rushing to and fro on various duties; some heading towards the docking bays, some to the giant casino, some to the various hotels and pleasure houses that were stacked with the haphazard yet space efficient style common among space stations. A glanced back showed Blair trying his best to keep his stoic calm; he probably wanted to gawk. Adri and Blair themselves didn't stand out, which was fortunate. The clothes the junusarians had given Adri were faded enough to blend in well, and the poor fit worked well too. Blair stood out a little more in his monastic garb, but he wasn't the only one dressed so, and gained little attention from passersby.

  The bar was crowded when they entered. Adri gave the place a thorough study. There were various peoples scattered throughout the facility; more uthribs, quite a few humans and their close cousins, a tight knot of furred tukusans in one corner, and a motley assortment of gorgeyns. The latter made her grit her teeth. gorgeyns were large, scaled creatures whose anatomy resembled a humanoid's, but whose gray-green faces more resembled a lizard's. They were renown throughout the galaxy as being ruthless, short-tempered marauders with an intense dislike for humans. Their presence told Adri that the Commonwealth had very little pull in this corner of the galaxy.

  “Please make yourselves comfortable, and feel free to utilize what the mission has to offer,” Rekum said. He then gave a flowing nod to Adri and Blair before drifting back out the entrance to the bar.

  “Now what happens?” Blair asked, glancing around at the noisy crowd. A musician was playing some sort of quiet wind instrument similar to a flute, while her companion gave a bored vocalization in an obscure dialect.

  “We need to see if there's a transport heading into Commonwealth territory,” Adri replied. “The sooner we get out of here, the better. I have a bad vibe that says there's a fight waiting to happen.” This normally wouldn't have bothered Adri, save for the fact that she was currently unarmed and had none of her usual authority to back her up. Plus, with her new ‘gifts’ simmering under a closed lid, she wasn't sure what would happen under a combat situation. “Let's remain as discreet as possible. Try to blend.”

  “I'm open to suggestions, Rael.” Blair said blandly.

  Another quick glance gave Adri her course of action. “I'll get us a drink, chat up the bartender. They usually have a better grasp of what's going on and who's going where when. We'll go from there.”

  Blair nodded. “If you say so.”

  Adri wound through the crowd with the ease of long practice. She elbowed her way to the bar and waited for the uthrib barman to notice her. But before she could catch his gaze, she overheard an argument brewing by her left elbow.

  “Why don't you and your bloodsucking friends go back to your toy boat and wait for us to finish the job then, eh?” a gorgeyn was leering into the face of the man standing next to Adri.

  “Go back to your drink, you're boring me.” the man replied, his tone mild.

  The argument could have ended there, except at that moment, another gorgeyn had noticed Adri and was jerking his clawed finger in her direction. “Here's a newcomer! Didn't I just see her come in with Rekum? She must be one of Arkow's buddies!”

  “You're right!” Another gorgon shouted.

  “That means Arkow's here at last!”

  The first gorgeyn grinned at Adri, his previous argument with the stranger forgotten. “You know what lads? I think we should take some late fees…”

  Uh-oh. Adri's mind whirled. Apparently whatever Arkow had been shipping was late. And Adri was going to be the fallout victim. Deciding quickly that retreat was her best option, she made a quick about-turn and headed right back out the door, shoving Blair ahead of her and muttering, “Change of plans!”

  It was too late. Behind her Adri could hear the squeal of moving chairs and the loud voices of the gorgeyns in pursuit. They hadn't made it more than five feet from the bar entrance before the way was blocked by the gorgeyn's large, predatory bodies.

  “Rael?” Blair said in a soft voice. “I'll be standing well to the side.”

  “Gee, thanks,” Adri muttered, watching as the gorgeyns spread into a loose circle, pinning Adri with her back to the bar wall. The blocked thoroughfare that ran in front of the bar became riotous as people skittered to and fro to avoid the looming fight.

  Adri sighed judiciously. “And here I wanted a quiet visit.”

  The gorgeyns began cheering as the leader threw the first punch.

  They say that those with gifts are given heavy burdens. I doubted that statement for many years, since, apart from the disappearance of my parents, my life carried no unordinary weight. It was peaceful and fulfilling. I was never plagued with visions, or a sense of doom, nor even much by way of premonition that was not connected with common sense. My gifts gave me nothing but a keen sense of self, and if I was a little smug about them, I was only a child.

  Things change so quickly sometimes, it leaves the mortal mind reeling.

  The first time I had the dream, it was on the eve of my ascendance ceremony, where I gained my gem to safeguard my journeys into the Spirit Realm. I am not a visionary, nor do I have the gift of foresight, like some of my brethren do, so when it came, I was not concerned with memorizing details, as I would be later.

  I was standing in a beautifully lit courtyard, with a strange moon rising over the distant hills. At first I thought I was alone, until a soft sound alerted me to another's presence. It was a woman, dressed in a long, flowing dress, staring off at the moon like I had been. I was surprised to see her so close, only a hand span away. But the surprise was quickly lost as she turned to me, her eyes wide with knowing. She didn't speak, nor has she ever spoken since, but there was a sense of… awareness between us.

  I woke knowing that I had just seen my destiny, although I had no idea what the dre
am meant. Nor did I come any closer as the months passed with nothing to break the monotony of the monastic life I had always known. The dream came again periodically, with no new turn of events.

  Until one night, as I looked at the sky in the dream, the stars wavered and changed to a familiar view, and the moon became the one that shines softly down on Junus. Suddenly the woman was with me, pointing to the sky. I followed her view, and saw a meteor shoot down, burning its way through the atmosphere.

  The next morning, an Adept crashed into my world.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Adri managed to duck the first swing, but there was no avoiding the second. She absorbed the punch to her face, allowing the motion to fling her head back. Reaching behind her, she grabbed the high bench that sat in front of the bar window. In a lightening fast move she whipped up her legs in a double kick, scattering her adversaries. Adri completed the move as a flip, landing feet first on top of the bench. She barely noticed that the moves were far smoother than any she had performed before, almost effortless. Seriously outnumbered as other gorgeyns joined the fight, she wished vainly for her ATF. Or a blaster. Or a heavy stick. Or even a stunt double. As it was, her best weapon was her feet, so she leaped over one pair of reaching arms, kneed a face that got too close, kicked a second, then leapt over yet another, pushing off from his shoulders to land a short distance away. If all this superb acrobatics were connected with being and Adept, she thought, then she was seeing the first upside.

  Naturally, all she'd done was made them angry. Their scaly hides were as tough as their tempers were short. They whirled around, eyes gleaming, and rushed towards her. Now she had her feet on the ground, and some room to maneuver. Adri braced herself, fisted her hands, and prepared for a hell of a fight.

  Five minutes later, the thoroughfare was littered with rubbish, bodies were strewn in heaps on the ground and over the bench, the bar window was shattered, and Adri felt as though Kobane had beaten her bloody again. With a solid thwack, she knocked her last opponent to the ground with the longer half of a service pole that had broken when she'd landed on it. Blood partially obscured her eyes, but a quick swipe with her arm cleared it up. A glance around had her whistling. So much for passing unnoticed. The fight had become pandemonium as some of the more rowdy patrons had left the bar joined in on either side.

  Movement from the far corner by the door had her head jerking up in time to see that one of the remaining gorgeyns had finally cornered Blair. She ran towards them, not pausing as she bent to scoop up a blaster pistol someone had dropped in the confusion.

  She needn't have bothered. The moment the gorgeyn raised its fist to begin pummeling, another figure appeared between the two. Adri skidded to a halt and blinked to bring him into focus, realizing it was the man who had been sitting next to her at the bar, the man who'd been the object of the gorgeyns’ ire right before they had switched their sights to Adri.

  “That's quite enough of you,” the man said softly. Even Adri, still several feet away, could hear the menace in his tone. “I suggest you stop now before you find yourself in worse odds than one human female and a handful of drunken idiots.”

  The gorgeyn gaped. Adri didn't feel less surprised. The area had suddenly become full of men who looked very similar to the first. All tall humanoids with long hair either white or black, all with dark intense eyes; and all held postures that screamed predator. They had moved so silently that even Adri hadn't heard them. At last it clicked. The earlier taunting by the gorgeyns, the swift and deadly silent movements, and the human build with the exception of the elliptically shaped eyes. They were undarians. The gorgeyn must have realized the fact too, because his stance immediately became less aggressive and he took a hasty step back from the man and Blair.

  Adri really couldn't believe her own assumption. Undarians weren't known for their space faring. In fact, she had never heard of anyone seeing an undarian so far from their homeworld, which was located on the other side of the Galactic Commonwealth. Yet here they were, looking sleek and ruthless enough to live up to the legendary reputations they had earned over the centuries as relentless predators and sleek, silent killers.

  Whatever might have happened next was averted at this moment by the arrival of a small entourage of uthribs, who glided up to the poor excuse for a street without comment. The leader sighed loudly before calling out, “What's this? We can't be having such unpleasantries here!” His tone was easy, almost jovial. “Draen, didn't we have a talk about intimidating the patrons of my establishments?”

  The undarian who had intervened on Blair's behalf gave an elegant half bow. “Bathus, you flatter me, but we were not responsible for this… interesting bit of entertainment.”

  Adri recognized the name as the uthrib Arkow and Jiko had gone to meet. She didn't see them anywhere, however.

  Bathus made a tsking sound and turned to the gorgeyn, who was blocked from any kind of escape route by Draen's men. “Quarreling again, Hrkelk? You know I hate having to replace the entire facility every time you boys get a hankering for a fight,”

  Adri could have laughed at the fatherly reprimanding tone being used towards such a vicious creature as a gorgeyn. No one else in the bar found this to be particularly amusing though, so she refrained. The gorgeyn didn't think it was funny either, because his eyes began to glow fiercely amber in his reptilian head when he replied. “It was a provoked case, Bathus! Here we were, minding our own, waiting for our shipment that you promised us. Is it our fault that it was late? Can we be blamed for wanting to discuss the tardiness of its arrival with Arkow's little space fly? How were we to know she'd rather do us injury then talk the matter out like civilized creatures?”

  Bathus glanced around the room, spotted Adri, still holding the blaster in her hand, and said, “This little agazi attacked you? Provoked a fight?”

  “Enough of this talk Bathus,” another gorgeyn called from another corner of the room. Adri's adrenaline perked at the sound of his voice. While the first gorgeyn was dangerous, this one was obviously the leader. “This little agazi laid out my entire crew present. That adds injury to the insult of the late shipment. But we're willing to overlook that if we can get our shipment. At a reduced cost for the inconvenience.”

  This was obviously not the time for cajoling. The underlying menace in the gorgeyn's tone had been very much in evidence. “Yes, yes, we can talk cost in my office. Arkow is unloading the shipment now, so feel free to pick it up at your convenience.” Bathus spoke in a conciliatory tone, quickly waving the gorgeyn and his conscious followers away from the bar. Adri hoped that would be the end of the matter, but the moment the gorgeyns had disappeared, Bathus turned to her. “Now, young lady, why don't you follow me? I believe we have damaged property and other fascinating topics to pursue.”

  With a resigned sigh, Adri jerked her head at Blair to have him follow, and walked with Bathus out of the bar. She wondered just how much the uthrib would charge for damages, and if she could possibly pay him off with her lack of funds. She also wondered if Arkow had used her and Blair as his excuse for the late shipment, and if Bathus would have the need to cast blame. It couldn't be easy to deal with the gorgeyns in any sort of business transaction – a snag could bring them down like a pack of man-hunting jackals.

  “I must say, you caused quite an uproar for such a small agazi.” Bathus commented breezily as they walked.

  Adri narrowed her eyes slightly at the derogatory term for a human. “I tend to bite back when bitten.” she replied. It was as much a statement as a warning.

  “I see. And what is your name, my dear? I really must say I am in a bit of awe, if you really did take out an entire street full of gorgeyns by yourself.”

  “Adrienne Rael. And I did, for the most part.” The latter statement was another warning. Adri wasn't beyond the suspicion that Bathus would try something underhand to get back at her like the Gorgeyns, or try to recoup losses. Human slavery was very popular in some corners of the galaxy.

&nbs
p; “Adrienne, what a lovely sounding name, yes?” Bathus replied gushingly. He stopped outside an unmarked door. “This is the private entrance to the casino. Unless you have a very large amount of credits stashed somewhere on your person, I advise you to make use of it – by tomorrow morning. Three thousand should satisfy me for the damages,”

  The amount nearly made Adri choke on the indignation of it all, but she held her peace. There really wasn't another way out of it, unless she and Blair miraculously managed to find a captain leaving port today who didn't mind the prospect of gorgeyns on their trail.

  “I might remind you that I have just saved you from gorgeyn retribution, sweet. You owe me for that little favor as well.”

  Both Adri and Blair watched as the uthrib drifted away. “Was that a threat?” Blair asked, speaking for the first time.

  “In his way,” Adri replied dryly. “I'm sure he'd like us to remain in his debt for a good long time. Let's hope we have better luck with the cards than we have had so far.”

  Blair frowned slightly. “I do not know how to play cards.”

  “Right. Of course you don't.”

  The casino was filled with all manner of species, all bent on playing the various games the uthribs had to offer. Adri could see that many were professional gamblers, the kind that went from one gaming den to another, making fortunes only to turn around and try to make more. Unfortunately, most of the best gamblers gravitated towards the high-end tables, and it was to those tables that Adri had to go if she was to gain as much as she needed by the following morning. So Adri split the measly amount of credits she and Blair had between them, and prayed that the doctor could hold his own.

  The uthrib dealer announced that the game would be Whimsy, and after a quick run through of the rules (which Adri hoped Blair caught), dealt the cards. Whimsy was a tricky game, as the rule changed continuously depending on what cards were placed down. It was no game for amateurs, and a few players were forced to fold within a few hands. Luckily, nine years as a soldier had taught Adri every gambling game and strategy known to the Commonwealth, and even a few of the Coalition. She was vaguely satisfied to see her chips multiplying at a steady rate, but not fast enough to draw unwanted attention. Blair, after losing steadily for over twenty minutes, suddenly had a turnaround, and while not doing as well as Adri, did better than many at the table.