Lin's Challenge

by Mara Jaye

  Fuck!

  I don’t laugh at G’nar’s pain despite the urge to do so. Before I drop the chip, a thought hits me. Hold your hand over your neck to hide the removal process and to keep the implant. It probably tracks us.

  Not a problem.

  I don’t react in front of the guards but follow the new person ahead of me as directed. There’s a slight decline and warm air rushes against us. The smell isn’t bad. Like freshly dug dirt mixed with body sweat.

  That’s your idea of not bad?

  Okay, maybe not so great, either. People ahead of me looked back in my direction as if unsure. I figured we’d be hearing from the claustrophobic before now. Adding to my observations, I send G’nar, the light fades as we descend underground. Looks like I’m in the mines.

  Which way?

  I also glance back to see him at the doorway before I drop a little further and lose sight. Left.

  There’s a pause before he thinks to me, Shit. I’m going right. The air is already cooler, and I can see outside through an opening as big as a starcraft hangar door.

  G’nar was going to be as cold as I would be hot, I figured. Every few steps seemed to increase the air temperature. My internal system didn’t agree with my assessment even while my skin began sweating.

  This silence was unusual but not a surprise. Status check?

  Ow! Fuck! Fuckers need to recalibrate.

  Remember to keep your implant intact but deactivated.

  Hurts like a….okay. I’m good. Going to the right, outside. Looks like there’s tall….spiky mountains and…..trees…

  I frown when his transmission is reduced to every few words. I’m losing you, I think at him, trying to interrupt his report.

  Can’t ping the Alli…main data off…

  I tried a few more times to reach him but nothing. After a few attempts, I can’t hit the Alliance main datalinks, either. I’m worried but not panicked. We had protocols for any type of separation. In fact, our leaders wanted us to split up if possible. Two different sets of information would help the case exponentially.

  Still, I don’t like being cut off from my only backup like this. We were just supposed to get in, record evidence, and get out. No heroics and no arrests. Especially not when our supreme director wanted the entire government taken down and not just the peripheral bad guys.

  I press the crude translator to the back of my neck, wincing as the spikes break the skin. After a quick update to the bionans, the translator winds the nerve uplinks through my spine. The majority of the device’s systems are turned off in favor of my superior ones. I have my programming leave the tracking and integration algorithms intact. We’ll need to hijack their internal communications with our own when we’re ready. I’m looking forward to wiping the planet’s information.

  Without chatting with G’nar to distract my biological mind, I can look around at the people and environment. The mine we’re all descending into has switchbacks down the shaft. Along with hot air, voices float up. I can’t help but grin at fourth world people’s enthusiasm when realizing their translators work. It’s somewhat adorable. The deeper we go, the louder, hotter, and less supervised we seem to be.

  No guards? I don’t buy it. What’s waiting for us at the end of this tunnel?

  No way this many different people are tossed underground to work without adult supervision. I want to hit up G’nar, see if he’s noticed but unless I’m on the surface at the same time he is, not gonna happen.

  The shuffling line stops dead in front of me. I mumble a, “Sorry,” to the humanoid in front of me when I stumble into him. Mumbani, I think. He’s staring into the mine, so I do, too. A scuffle has broken out between two people, and I can’t help but watch. A much larger male is pawing at and slapping a smaller humanoid. She seems female even if I can only see her light colored hair and a little of her body. They shift and I get a better look at the two. I don’t know how the hell she came here. She’s too small and barely dressed for the work our director suspects is going on here. They need to calm down because if the enforcement systems the Vahdmoshi have in place works, all of us are targets.

  A low hum zips past my shoulder, and I duck, never taking my eyes off of the two. The security bot hovers above them. I don’t want to watch but need to for evidence. The bot shoots at the couple and around them. He falls over on top of her. From what I can tell, she and several other innocents are dead, too.

  The bot lifts a few feet, shoots again, hits a couple more people, and leaves. I don’t breathe or shut off my recording until the hum fades. The line began moving, slower and jammed where I know at least seven bodies lie.

  It takes a good ten minutes before I pass by the corpses. Only five, which is odd, and now I’m curious. As we walk further into the mine, natural light gives way to dimmer artificial lighting. I increase the infrared and scan where I think the female would be by now. If she’s where I suspect she’s from, to hell with the illegal mining. The Vahdmoshi are going down for primitive contact violations.

  While I’m looking for her, I examine the other workers. They weren’t important to catalog because we were after the offenders. Now that I match characteristics to known primitive races, I’m stunned. Not only are there fifth worlders, but a couple of sixth worlders are also milling around. Considering their lack of tech, it’s a miracle any of them survived the trip here. Despite the emotional movement dampers, I shake my head with a sigh. This is far bigger than our orders hinted. The addition of primitive races will impact Alliance leadership up to the Emperor at a time when the stability is already threatened by an assassination.

  It’s been a long time since I’ve been this worried.

  The path has widened enough for us to walk two or three across. An intense line of heat on someone up ahead catches my eye. The person, I think it’s the female who fought with the dead guy, turns to look behind her.

  Holy pless of Tunsa. It’s an Earther. I mean, she’s an Earther. Part of me wants to hurry and catch up to her. She’s a sixth world person and rare. Her race is infinitely collectible to more advanced species, and I wonder why they’d dump her here. Earthers’ various appearances make them valuable on the black market. They’re one of the youngest races of humanoids in the galaxy and are already reaching for the stars. Only seventh worlders are newer and less developed. While I enjoy learning about the seventh world civilizations, I find speech evolved Earthers and their planet infinitely interesting.

  I thought the Vahdmoshi were doomed at the fifth world level. Now I know they’re fucked. Even without the illegal mining charges, stealing her means the Alliance members of the Vahdmoshi are finished. Now, all I need to do is gather evidence and get back to my home world.

  Chapter Four

  Lin

  My upper arm is killing me, but I can’t take the time to cry. The pain flows in a line straight to my neck. I glance at the wound for the first time. There’s a burn mark cutting across my pajama sleeve and down into my arm. Damn. It’s not bleeding so I do what I can to ignore it. The crowd of humanoids flows around the assailant and me. I climb to my feet, fall in line, and try to ignore the deep stabbing burn as I go. Like last week, month, whenever my first time here was, I grab a pickax.

  My second time deep underground in a sweltering mineshaft fills me with dread. I look up the switchback path and to the cavern’s opening. One last gathering of natural sunlight before there is none.

  An exceptionally tall male stands between me and the sun. The light is too bright for me to see him. Reminds me of looking into an oncoming car’s headlights. I miss driving, fast food, and television so much. The man’s shape would get him laid back home, but with the movement downward, I’m pushed to face forward and follow along.

  I’ve learned a lot more about the mining system since I arrived. Each shaft is like two lanes in a divided highway. One goes down, and the other comes back up. The rooms to our left going down stay on our left when the shaft makes a u-turn and goes back up to the surface. Th
e tunnel between the lanes every so often is where the mine used to end. If the prior u-turns are like the current one, the conveyor brought food and extra tools down while carrying the bodies and ore back up to the surface.

  We pass the point where I spent the last time down here. Not that it was so long ago. They ordered us up to the surface to mingle with everyone else. Fun, if you like pushy crowds and being grabbed at by males of all species.

  So no, not fun at all.

  The line slows and stops quite a ways further down. I turn to the rock wall and hit the rock using both arms. My left vibrates with the blow, and I cry out from the pain. I let my arm hang limply while hacking at the rock in front of me. The pick misses a couple of times and the point arcs down towards my legs.

  After the third time of a near miss, I let the ax fall and rest the handle against my thigh. The flyaway hair clings to my face thanks to the hot damp down here. I brushed it away and glanced to my right to see how close the Greek god ended up being from me.

  He’s one man over and staring right back at me. His eyes are black pools of obsidian to go with his honest to God metallic skin. If I didn’t know better, I’d say someone spray painted him with bronze. The practical side of me knows it’s sweat coating him but still. He’s fine.

  I give a smile in greeting, and he scowls before turning back to his own section of the wall. Not friendly, huh? I pick up my handle and resume what busting I can. There are sensors in the ground. Or at least I think so based on what’s happened when people took too long of a break during work hours.

  Even cranky, the god’s face was beyond handsome. He’d be on every magazine’s cover back home. The slight scruff of facial hair would leave them swooning on social media. I sneak a peek again. He makes busting the semi-soft stone around here look like breaking up dry bread.

  Which makes me hungry and I don’t want to think about food. Yummy, perfect in every way Earth food. Heck, I’d even eat beef liver at this point. Anything but the literal slop they feed us here.

  Lost in how perfect fast food was, Mr. God breaks up my trance with a wave and a nod toward the wall in front of me. I roll my eyes before resuming the work. It’s nice he cares, though. After a solid tap, the cakey stuff falls away, and a tiny bit of a blue stone glows. My first, as small as a grain of rice, and it’s beautiful. Everyone stops digging around me, and we all stare. I need to remove some of the rock around the gem so it’ll fall onto the conveyor belt.

  As soon as I lift my ax, someone bellows to my right.

  “Don’t! You’ll kill us all!”

  Mr. God pushes aside the two men between us and jerks away my ax. The pull jostles my whole body and my injured arm stings. I yell at him, angry from the pain. “Son of a bitch! Warn a girl next time, would ya?”

  He threw the ax onto the ground and edged to the gem. “You have no idea what metal does to proth do you.”

  “Uh, yeah. How do you think I got all of these scars?” I point to my left side from last month’s burn. “The guy who hit the last gem died next to me.”

  He glanced up before going back to tenderly digging out the stone with his fingers. “Scars? You’re lucky you look so good. Hitting this will leave nothing left of you.”

  “Oh?” I like how he thinks I look good. There are zero reflections around here, and Mr. Gorgeous God is obviously very smart. “I can’t tell. I’ve spent the past month, if they have months here, hoping I’m not disfigured.”

  He glanced up for a moment and examined my face. “There’s some healing left to do, but you’re not too scarred.”

  Hmm, no let me take you in my arms, you gorgeous woman? Shit. “Good, okay.” A familiar buzzing begins, and I look towards the tunnel opening. “Look, you’d better get back to work. They know we’re slacking.” No one says anything. I turn back to the crowd, and the god has uncovered a blue gem as big as a baseball from the dirt.

  His hands are really something. Big, strong, sexy. If he actually smiled at me once, I’d bet his strong and sturdy fingers could play me like anything otherworldly. He gently coaxes the gem from the hard but spongy ground as if tickling a baby. “Wait, that’s how big it was?”

  “Yes. You next strike would have been your last.” He pauses to breathe for a few seconds before going back to the stone.

  I don’t want to admit it, but he’s right. The entire mine could have caved in over my scattered body. “I promise to be a hell of a lot more careful.”

  “You have no idea how dangerous this is,” he growls before wiping his forehead with the back of his hand. “Work in my place. There’s no more for you to find and we can switch back when I’m done.” He glanced up for a second. “Go, now.”

  “Fine.” I take my ax and begin working in his spot. Wonder how he knew his place has no gems for me to kill us with? I glance at him between hits. If there weren’t already several men here vying for the term Mr. CrankyPants, I’d give him that name. Giving a few blows hard enough to keep the enforcements away, I sneak peeks as he works.

  The work I’m doing now is so lax because I’m just watching his arms flex with tension as he more than gently places the gem on the belt. I sigh when he stands, his height perfect for his proportions. I’d read somewhere about how thinking of sex decreases pain. He’s the first man here who could take away a lot of aches for me.

  When he comes over to me in his former area, I step back. “Thank you, Mr. God-, um, mister. I appreciate your help and owe you one.”

  One of the hairy faced guys between us gurgles a laugh. “If that’s all it takes to get your ass, baby, let me dig your stone next time.”

  “What? No. That’s not what I meant.”

  “Too bad.” The fox guy didn’t stop his steady bash of the wall opposite us. “Owe me a fuck, and I’d make you see the stars and cry out for your momma.”

  Men like the fox guy are why I sleep out in the main tunnel when I can. It’s horrible and exhausting, but anything to avoid rape. He tilted his head toward the hole in the wall behind us. “How about next rest period, you let me take my thanks in advance?”

  “Really think she’s worth it? I don’t.”

  I roll my eyes at the bronze guy as he takes off his shirt and I go back to my spot. “Good. You’re not worth a lot, yourself.” Not that he cares, given what Mr. God looks like half dressed.

  After a peek at the bare-chested Mr. God, who might have had a chance before his previous comment on my worth, I frown. Not even if he were the last fur-free humanoid on whatever rock this is. Not happening, either.

  The two men chat, and I try to ignore them. Smashing rock drowns them out a little but not enough. I hear the deep and lust stirring voice of Mr. God speak.

  “You like being watched, huh? Everyone has their kink but as for me? I don’t think poking her is worth dying for.”

  My ax pauses as I realize he means me. Before I can even think about how pissed I am, Fox replies to him.

  “Just wait. You been here as long as I have, you’ll start looking at those food packs with a hungry dick.”

  “Oh gag,” I muttered as the two stayed focused on what soft foods were the best to screw. I just wanted to drown them out with my pickax. At least the disinterested Mr. God is a safe guy to sleep with, as in actually sleep with tonight. Or day. I have no idea how long the sunlight lasts on this planet. Yet another reason to weasel my way into the planting area instead of this sauna hell.

  The new best friends ever seem to have run out of shit to talk about if going by their silence is anything. I sigh and wipe the ever-present sweat from my brow. My stomach is growling, and I wish they’d send the food bin downstream to us. The conveyor belt runs slower during dinner time.

  Hack, hack, hack, until finally, the belt slows. Everyone cheers without stopping the work. I can tell who the new guys are due to their lost expressions. At least, I think that’s what a new frog guy’s face looks like. Their eyes are always too big for their faces.

  The bin full of food packs makes its way
to us. I can’t see any at the angle I’m in so I know a lot has been taken. I have to hurry and reach way inside to grab one for myself.

  “Break time is 20 sectars.”

  I’d love it if the time were longer. As I take my seat between the bronze guy and his new friend, not giving them a chance to drag me into a room alone is fine, too.

  “So this is my new lover, huh?” Mr. God squeezed the bag and sniffed. “What is it?”

  Fox spoke before I could. “Whatever they’ve grown up top. We plant and pick leaves for the mush before it’s served to us.”

  “Huh.” He takes a bite or sip and makes a face. I can’t help but laugh because I did the same thing my first time. He glances at me with a grin. “Tastes like something a pajii shits.”

  I have no idea what a pajii is but suspect it eats grass without chewing. I also don’t say anything but finish my meal. His earlier remark still rankles my ego.

  “Hey, Earther, ever have anything like this at home?”

  He gives me a shit-eating grin, and it’s gorgeous. I’m a little thrilled he’s paying attention to me, but still, I want him to work for me. I give him my best raised eyebrow stare. “You talking to me?” I say even if no one has a clue about the movie reference. Or what a movie even is.

  He glances around as if really searching for someone. “I don’t see any other Earther here, so I must be.”

  I ignore what his smile does to my insides and snort a laugh, wishing these guys knew the context. “Yeah, only it’s a lot like something a cow would shit.”

  Mr. God sits up and leans forward. “Herbivore with several stomachs? Raised for its meat?”

  This guy has been around the galaxy, and I grin. “That’s the one.”

  “Wait?” Fox blocks us. “Earthers raise animals for food?”

  His revulsion is a bit puzzling. Foxes at home ate small animals, I thought. Or did they? Maybe not with the way this guy has his snout wrinkled. “What, you all don’t?”