by C. F. Harris
“You aren’t going to give up until I give you permission to go out into the city, are you?” I asked.
“The way I see it you’re not giving me permission to go out into the city,” she said. “You already gave me your permission when you agreed to that little trial by fake combat. Now I’m collecting my winnings.”
“The emperor is far more dangerous than you could imagine, Talia,” I said.
She shrugged. “Something tells me his majesty has bigger fish to fry than yours truly. Never mind that he already tried to take my life once. I’m sure I could handle him if he did it again.”
“Assassins are surely going to come for you,” I said. “It will happen whether or not the emperor has it in for you, as you put it.”
“Tough. I don’t care if there’s an entire army in hover tanks out there waiting for me to walk out your front door. You made an agreement and you’re going to stick to it,” she said. “And I know you’re not the type of person to go back on an agreement and risk bringing dishonor, are you?”
I growled again. It was the only thing I could do. She had me well and truly cornered and she knew it. The self-satisfied smile on her face was enough to make that obvious.
“I should never have agreed to those terms,” I said.
“Maybe not, but you can’t complain. You had one hell of a handicap this time around with all those extra simulated fighters running interference.”
“You cheated!”
“You failed to appreciate the full boundaries of the simulation and I used that against you,” Talia replied.
I raised my arm and pointed to the door. “Go, but stay out of trouble.”
Talia smiled and leaned up on her toes once more. Her lips brushed against mine and there was a stirring between my legs. I desperately desired to have her now, but I didn’t dare move towards her. Not and have her take a step back again and deny me. That denial was more frustrating than the fact that we hadn’t enjoyed the pleasure of one another since that first time in free fall over the city.
She pulled away and wagged a finger at me. I’d learned that was a human gesture that meant she thought I was being a “bad boy,” whatever that meant. I failed to see how misbehaving children had anything to do with me trying to keep a dangerous human from getting herself in trouble because she didn’t appreciate the gravity of her situation on my world.
“None of that,” she said. “The last time you had me overwhelmed by that bond, but I’m still getting used to all of this.”
The thought flitted through her mind that she was still getting used to the idea of having such strong feelings for someone who by all rights was her sworn enemy. I frowned, but I could understand the feeling. It was something I wrestled with daily.
I knew she still wanted me, though. I could feel the lust and desire pulsing beneath her outward appearance of innocence. It was there, waiting for me, and I knew that all I had to do was bide my time and she would be mine once more.
It would be a fun chase in the meantime.
Talia smiled at me one final time then moved towards the doors. They opened silently to let her out to the lift that led down to street level. It would take her several cycles to make that journey down. Even with the fastest and most powerful lifts in the Ascendency the sheer size of this building meant it was a long trip.
I smiled. More than enough time for me to prepare to follow her and make sure she didn’t get into too much mischief out there.
3: Intrigue
Talia:
It never ceased to amaze me how the sights, sounds, and smells of a city were the same no matter what world you were on. I’d been through the towering skyscrapers of the earth capital in New New York which had been built over at the burned-out remains of old New York which had been destroyed in the second Great Sino-American war before humanity realized there were far greater threats out there in the galaxy than each other.
There were towers in that city that made the burnt and melted remains of the Freedom Tower where the former World Trade Center had been seem positively miniscule in comparison. And even those buildings were nothing compared to the massive towers at the equator where giant skyscrapers that reached into space itself had built up around the space elevators that routinely moved material between the earth and the skies above.
The feeling was much the same now that I was making my way through the capital city on the Livisk homeworld. All around me there was the sound of technology being put to work to continue pumping the lifeblood of an advanced civilization.
Commerce. War. Everything that made the galaxy go around and it was all based here.
How I wished I could blow this place up in reality and not just in the simulator Jorav let me divert myself with from time to time. If ever there was a place that deserved to be destroyed it was this city, though admittedly some of that genocidal feeling might’ve been irritation because I was well and truly lost.
“Of course it would be impossible for me to find a single fucking thing on this planet,” I muttered to myself. “Why would I expect to find anything when I can’t read the damn language?”
I muttered, but I didn’t bother to cover up my anger or what I was saying. After all, I was surrounded by Livisk who’d stayed on the homeworld. Unless there were some old warriors in this crowd of aliens there was a good chance they wouldn’t be able to understand a single word I was saying. Only the warriors were forced to learn Terran Standard, but even then it was more of a formality since they weren’t supposed to take prisoners or allow themselves to be taken captive.
Not to mention that there didn’t tend to be a many old warriors amongst the Livisk to begin with. In my experience the Livisk, with the exception of a few such as Jorav, tended to have two settings when it came to fighting. Going balls to the wall and killing everything that came at them, or dead.
In the past I’d been more than happy to assist them in reaching that second state, but I was starting to feel differently now that I was getting closer to Jorav. Now that I was conflicted due to my feelings towards him, and towards the Livisk in general.
A human woman who was passing by did overhear me. She was pushing some sort of hovering dolly that was filled with material that would be far too heavy for her to lift on her own. I suppose even on a world like this slavery wasn’t as terrible as it could be. It’s not like the people in this city were being forced to work in mines or anything with primitive tools. They had technology to assist them.
I shook my head. What the hell was I thinking? My mind had been going to that dangerous place a lot lately. A dangerous place where I found myself trying to justify what the Livisk were doing to humans on this world.
That was a very dangerous line of thinking. One that was subtle and seductive, which was all the more reason to avoid it.
“What are you looking at?” I snapped at the woman.
“Are you crazy?” she hissed. “What if an overseer hears you?
I cocked an eyebrow. Was this woman crazy? And why was she acting like even talking was dangerous? “What the hell are you…”
“What are the two of you doing?”
The voice boomed from down the way and it was speaking Terran, but that was no human voice. I looked up and blinked. I was used to seeing Livisk who were the equivalent of civilians back on earth. It was an odd feeling, but one I was getting used to from exploring the city. It was only natural to assume that their civilians wouldn’t be the buff warriors I came in contact with up among the stars. Or that I’d come in contact with before I lost my ship and found myself captured.
Damn it. I didn’t like thinking about that.
The Livisk who came barreling through a crowd that parted around him was nothing like those civilian Livisk I’d grown used to though. He was tall with broad shoulders, and his face was contorted in fury. That was a look that was pretty much the same between the Livisk and humanity.
“No humans talking on the streets!” he roared.
He held up a sm
all black box with some sort of screen and his thumb touched something that I couldn’t recognize because I couldn’t read their damn script. Something I hadn’t noticed before started blinking on the woman’s neck and she cried out in pain as she fell to the ground twitching as though she was having a seizure.
I stared, dumbfounded. Meanwhile, the Livisk who had raised the device was looking down at it in confusion. Then up at me with equal confusion. He slammed the device in his massive palm a couple of times as though to double check that it was still working, a gesture that was, once again, common across both species, and then he looked at me and raised an eyebrow.
“How did you get your controller removed?”
“Controller? What the hell are you talking about?”
“You didn’t drop like a dog like your chatty friend here,” he said. “I want to know who took out your controller. They will be executed for their crime, and then you will be sent to the pits where you will learn what it means to defy the will of the emperor.”
“I have no idea what the hell you’re talking about blue boy,” I said. “Jorav never said anything about…”
Immediately the muscular Livisk went pale. At least as pale as he could go with his bright blue complexion. Going pale for him was really turning more of a light blue color that sort of blended with the sparkly dots all over his skin.
“Jorav?” he asked.
I sensed that I was in something of a position of power here. Obviously Jorav’s name carried some weight. I wondered if I could use that to my advantage. I’d take any advantage I could get on this hellhole of a world.
“Yes, Jorav,” I said in my sweetest voice. Though I wasn’t certain that a sweet tone from a human would register with this one. Even Jorav was bad on picking up on tone from time to time. He seemed to rely heavily on that mental link to figure out what I was really feeling. “The general? You might say I’m his guest of honor right now.”
It was probably a bit much to call our relationship one of guest and host, or a bit too little considering how close we were now, but this guy didn’t know that and I had no intention of telling him. He shook his head and took a step back.
“I don’t want any trouble with the general,” he said. “Move along, and don’t let me see you again.”
I stopped to spare one final look for the poor woman still on the ground twitching and crying out in pain, but I didn’t move to help her. I felt horrible for not helping, but what could I do? Jorav’s name had been enough to get me out of immediate danger, those pits this guy talked about didn’t sound pleasant at all, but I had a feeling that if I pressed my luck I would only end up getting both of us in trouble.
Besides, the last thing I wanted was for this overseer asshole to actually summon Jorav. Things would fall apart quickly from there, and I might end up with one of those controllers like what that poor woman was wearing. I didn’t even know those were a thing or that it was an option for me.
No, the best thing I could do was continue what I was doing. To gather information about their defenses and figure out a way to liberate the humans in this city, on this world, and maybe destroy a little critical infrastructure while I was at it.
It was a tall order, but it’s not like I could sit back in the gilded cage Jorav had built for me and accept my lot in life. Not when I’d been given such an opportunity here in the belly of the beast.
It was good to have a stark reminder of how utterly alien and inhumane the Livisk could be. Not that an alien could, by definition, be humane.
No, running from that woman and her predicament did have some use. It hardened my heart. It made me remember exactly what I was doing down here. Exactly why I was trying to find a way to escape and do as much damage as possible on the way out.
Jorav would probably kill me if he knew exactly what my intentions were, but I was being careful to try and hide my thoughts from him. At least where insurrection and rebellion were concerned. That had been a useful trick I learned early on. A funny way of masking my thoughts. I first thought of doing it when I realized Jorav was getting angry at me but I wasn’t getting the usual advance warning I usually did through the mental link. From there it had been simple enough to figure out how to hide my own thoughts from him through a bit of trial and error.
A useful trick. Especially since I had no idea exactly how far out that mental link extended. Would he still be able to sense my thoughts while I was on the other side of the planet? On the other side of the galaxy? I just didn’t know, and I didn’t like not knowing. Human experts didn’t know anything about this curious trait the Livisk had never shared with our scientists, and that meant I needed to proceed with an abundance of caution.
After that encounter I also did something else that I hated. I kept my head down and made sure not to draw the attention of any other Livisk. If there were aliens down here whose sole job was to keep an eye on human slaves and make sure they weren’t getting into trouble then I needed to steer clear. I hated that I was doing that, that was policing how I acted, but I was in enemy territory. I told myself I was going undercover.
Very deep undercover.
I glanced around at the signs hanging above various shops. Some were lit up electronically like something you’d see in a big city on earth while others were simple non-electronic numbers that boasted that damned Livisk script I had such a difficult time reading.
This whole thing would be a hell of a lot easier if Jorav let me wear something that had an overlay that translated things for me, but apparently he was reluctant to trust me with any technology that wasn’t hardwired into his palace. I smiled. Not that it had done him a damn bit of good. I’d still managed to find a way out.
Maybe.
The shop I was looking for was supposed to be around here somewhere, but I didn’t see the specific symbol I was looking for and I couldn’t read any other symbols to know whether or not I was even on the right track so it was difficult to tell if I was in the right part of the city. All I had to go on were words and pictures I’d managed to dig up while I was doing research. Research that Jorav thought was simply me brushing up on their written language. Something that he seemed to think was very important for me to know if I was going to be his…
Whatever the hell I was.
I constantly glanced over my shoulder as I made my way through the city. I was no fool. Just because I was masking myself mentally didn’t mean Jorav wasn’t following me out there somewhere. If I was him I wouldn’t allow me to go out into the city on my own. Down here between the massive buildings that made up the Livisk capital it was easy to get lost in the shadows, but that meant it was equally likely that there was somebody out there following me in those shadows.
I patted at a bulge behind me hidden by the top of my shirt. I’d deliberately worn something baggy this time around to help hide a couple of surprises I’d stolen from Jorav’s study just in case I ran into trouble or someone following me around who ought not to.
Only I didn’t see any signs of a tail. So I continued on. I turned a corner and smiled. I finally saw the shop I was looking for. I didn’t recognize the strange flowing Levesque script on display over the side, but I did recognize the emblem. It was the sign of a baker. Breaded baked pretty much the same on any world, and it was something that had been introduced to the Livisk at some point. Probably from some enterprising slave who got tired of eating the food on offer on this world. Apparently the Livisk loved the stuff. There’d be one hell of a trade starting up if our two species could ever put down the guns long enough to get along with one another.
Not that I thought that sort of thing was very likely to happen.
I stepped through the door and the shopkeeper smiled at me. Being in here felt like looking at some fucked up fun house mirror version of a bakery back on earth. There were all sorts of products like donuts and bagels and whatnot, but they were all twisted with an alien touch. About what one would expect going to a store run by locals that specialized in food from anoth
er country. It wasn’t exactly authentic, but it was a close approximation that incorporated a bit of local flavor.
I frowned and suppressed the urge to puke. I’d had Livisk cuisine since getting myself captured. I was in no mood for sampling their take on a donut or a bagel. The thought made my stomach heave.
The shopkeeper smiled and opened his arms wide. He was about the most un-Livisk person I’d ever seen on this planet. At least if we were going by the standards of the Livisk I was used to fighting off world. The muscled monstrosities with skin that couldn’t be pierced by our typical weapons who had to be fought off using power armor because they were so powerful.
No, this one was short and round. Very round. Obviously he was the sort of baker who enjoyed sampling his own wares. He had a ready smile on his face which was also something I wasn’t used to seeing on the Livisk. Usually they were so dour and serious.
“A pleasure to have a human in my humble shop,” he said. “How can I help you today?”
I moved over and made a show of looking at some of his offerings. There were donuts that glowed with a strange green paste that they seemed to think was a great delicacy. I thought it tasted like snot that had been dipped in the untreated tanks in a ship’s sewage system.
I really hoped I wouldn’t be expected to taste his stuff and tell him how wonderful it was as part of this farce. I’d gotten word that he was more amenable to humans than your typical Livisk, though, and that he could find information.
For a price.
“I understand that you might be able to get me a good deal on some traditionally baked earth goods,” I said. I fixed him with a sharp look to see how he would react. “Would you be able to help me?”
The smile stayed on his face but everything about his expression changed. I tensed as he tensed. His shoulders squared and his eyes darted around as though he was looking for some sign that we were being monitored.
I braced myself to run. If it turned out this was a honey pot then I wasn’t sure even Jorav would be able to get me out of trouble this time around. Finally the baker moved out from behind his counter and hit a button near his windows that caused them to tint slightly. That seemed like an odd bit of ostentation down here where the already weak red Livisk sun never reached the surface because of the massive buildings all around us.