by Ellen Mint
“Aren’t you… Aren’t you angry?”
“Angry?” She laughed, her beak snapping at the thought. “Why? Sometimes you win a hunt, sometimes you lose. That’s how the job goes.”
“Mommy!” tiny voices cried from the seats, drawing me away from the murder squid to the audience. My weary legs nearly gave out again as I found every chair filled with bodies and even more aliens crammed into the aisles between. When did they arrive?
I tried to turn to Nolan to ask when a pile of baby octopi leaped about on their tentacles to the stage. Shiban bent down and scooped all ten of them up with both her tentacles and hands. The children crawled over her, chattering so fast I couldn’t understand a word while the Kirkan nuzzled them all.
“Yes, I will get you all a vat of skrillan worms, if you are good,” she said to her babies while hustling them off the stage to the promised squid equivalent of a Happy Meal. But before Shiban left, she said, “Good luck to you, human. It was strange meeting the one honorable Yaxha in the galaxy. I pray that nobility holds out for you.”
And with that, the bounty hunter that began this entire ordeal vanished into the crowd leaving me standing beside the new question before me. What came next?
Nolan swept a hand over my shoulders, his wide fingers thrumming against me as he stared up at the screen. Symbols that I assumed were numbers kept appearing then vanishing. It drew his attention so, when the trashcan robot greeted us, Nolan nearly jumped out of his skin.
“A thousand pardons, Title Owner,” she said to me. “Rooger would like to see you.”
“Who?”
“Oh, shit,” Nolan whispered as five of the gorilla-centipede guards swarmed the stage from every side. I tried to turn to him, but they’d already yanked him away. Without saying a word, they began to march me toward a massive glass elevator leading to a solitary viewing port above everything on this station.
It didn’t take any brains for me to know I was being taken to see the big boss in the sky.
“This is it,” one of my guards said, his biceps cradling a probable rifle with two sharp prongs sticking out of the barrel. I paused in a disconcerting waiting room where the walls continuously shifted color and pattern. Where was this Rooger that had everyone scared? And where did they take Nolan?
A slug draped in silver and crinkly fabric slunk out of the only side door. I moved to stand up straight, prepared to introduce myself and demand he return my companion. Reaching my hand out for introductions, I flinched when the slug grabbed it with tiny arms and plunged a sharp needle through a finger.
“Ah!” I cried, trying to yank my arm back, but its tiny fingers had locked tight.
The box on wheels at its side began to unfurl on its own. I watched, terrified that a Decepticon would snap out until a pair of scanners rose at the top and bottom. Pinned by the slug still nursing more blood from my fingertip, I was helpless as the lasers ran both up and down my body. Shit. They’d know I didn’t belong here. That I was smuggled off-world. Were they already shipping Nolan off to work in the asteroid mines?
“There, you’re all registered with the bank,” the slug said, pushing a button and causing the box to close in on itself. I watched dumbfounded as it slimed its way back inside wherever it came from.
“You look perturbed,” a voice smooth as silk whispered from behind me.
Whipping my head around, I came face to face with a massive spider. Size of a pony spider. Eternal nightmare-fuel spider. Instead of being hairy, the eight very large legs were a shiny black with a white stripe running along the inside. Oh, because it was also wearing clothes. The body was segmented in three places, with the back part resting upon a couch while the head… Yep, there were eight eyes all glaring at me without pause.
The shifting colors of the room kept changing them from shades of dark blue to red and back. But I knew they were all focused on the only stranger in the room.
“Are you…?” I began, and the spider interrupted.
“Rooger, purveyor of this unique depository,” he said and lifted what I’d thought were antenna on his head. But they came away in his hand along with what was clearly a black felt hat, revealing a bald patch on the top of his head.
“And stealer of my blood,” I said trying to not fall into an endless scream at the giant spider talking to me.
“That was a simple registration, so no one but you can claim your commission as Title Owner,” he said, making far too much sense for a talking spider. Rising off of his sitting couch, the eight legs skittered over the floor. I had to fold my hands into tight fists and clamp down to keep from screaming.
Rooger had enough space manners to pause in his crawling before touching me. “You are an intriguing one,” he said. “An unknown, unregistered genius who arrives with none other than a Yaxha in tow.”
“Nolan?” I cried, whipping my gaze directly into the array of eight eyes. Oh, God, why did I do that? Focus. “Where is he?”
“You must answer for me a few inquiries. The Yaxha--”
“Dra’id,” I said with a clenched jaw.
Rooger barely flinched, but I felt the two gorilla-centipedes shift closer and flex the muscles as big as me. Don’t piss them off, Trini.
“Did he assist you in arriving at this Bank?”
What did I say? Was it illegal for him to have taken me here? Would they torture him for breaking the law? Or for answers? Was that scan really meant to determine if I told the truth or not?
“Yes,” I said, biting on my lip.
Rooger barely dipped his hairy face, the mandibles in front of his mouth swiping back and forth. Don’t look at that either. Stare above his head so you don’t vomit on him or the giant armed guards.
“Do you approve of the Yaxha receiving the bounty for your contribution to the galaxy’s understanding?”
Why would they care who got the bounty? “Of course,” I said without pause.
That answer did surprise Rooger. He twisted his head to the side and whispered to someone standing just outside the door. I tried to catch a face, but as I leaned further to the right, a massive hand wrapped around the entirety of my arm and yanked me back.
“Most interesting. We like to take precautions here given the amount of interest accrued across the stars. One last question for you, if you please. What is your name?”
Raising my head, I declared to everyone within earshot, “Trini Martinez.”
“And recorded,” Rooger said as if this was all completely normal. “Congratulations, Human Martinez. It’s not often that we’re surprised here at the Galactic Bank and you certainly pulled off a web tingler in the end. I am afraid you also made many enemies today.”
“What?” My legs began to shake as my gaze whipped between the two guards who both grumbled to themselves.
“Most bet on the Kirkan winning, but what is the joy of life if not experiencing the unexpected?”
What in the wild hell was…? “Nolan!” I shouted as the door opened wide, and he hurried inside. His head lifted and nearly bounced into the ceiling as he stood stock still between me and the giant spider. But I watched his lips raise in a smile. It looked like he tried to brighten his skin, except the color kept shifting as if to keep up with the ever-changing walls.
Oh. That was why this room was a migraine nightmare.
They really did hate Dra’ids.
“Congratulations to you as well, Yaxha,” Rooger said as he began the arduous task of trying to turn to face Nolan. “You’re going to be the richest of your kind.”
Nolan licked his lips, his eyes darting over to me before landing on the important man before him. “Thank you, Sir,” he said and bowed at the middle. Even half crumpled over, Nolan still towered above the pony-sized spider. But that seemed to be enough to appease Rooger.
“Though, you’d be richer if you’d taken the Title Ownership as well,” he said as if all that mattered in the universe was money.
“I…” Nolan rose from his half-bow, his gaze sweeping only
to me, “I hadn’t thought of that for a moment.”
A small chuckle broke as I realized he said that to me. I wanted to run into his arms and back to the ship. Celebrate with him. Fully. Learn how Dra’ids come and watch Nolan shift a hundred colors in a single night.
“When will the funds be transferred?” Nolan asked, seeming to be on the same train of thought as me.
“Soon,” Rooger said with a hand wave. “Bureaucracy and all. There is one small matter remaining, however. Human?”
I raised my head and was about to take a step forward when I couldn’t. It was as if someone glued my feet to the floor. In a panic, I whipped over to find both guards had stepped back from me.
“You were removed from your planet without the proper papers filed. And, in accordance with the Poaching Act of Guld Fifteen, you will be returned to your place of origin.”
“What?” I tried to reach out, to cry for them to stop, but my stomach began to float and vision faded to white. “Nolan. Wait! Nolan, don’t let them…”
Vibrations rumbled under my trapped feet, bouncing up my limbs and knocking them to sleep. I felt my center of gravity pitching forward, only for a tube to slide into place around my body. Staring manically, I tried to focus on Nolan who stared back at me. Was he surprised? Angry? Or did he know this would happen the whole time?
Did he plan on it?
“Thank you for visiting the Galactic Bank,” Rooger said as the last of my vision faded away. I felt the same kick in my stomach from when I left earth, only a thousand times stronger. My brains scrambled and shuddered, unable to comprehend what was happening to its meat shield.
Force pressed on my feet. That was the first change that told me time had passed. Cool liquid sluiced off my body, freeing me from the prison and letting air in. My mouth dropped open, gasping in oxygen as if I hadn’t breathed in a month. Pain spidered through my lungs and up my chest as my eyes opened.
Stars outlined by the shattered roof of a cheap shed filled my vision. Home. I was back on earth, back where I started from. Back as if nothing happened.
“Nolan,” I whispered, growing more insignificant with each second. “Where are you?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
SILENCE.
Astronomers once recorded the light signals between stars and, using that, created the sounds of the universe. A thumping, crackling and popping beat that slithered through a listener’s veins exchanging every electron in their atoms with the first hydrogen born in a star.
But in my backyard, staring heavenward at what I knew to be a universe full of life, I could only hear silence.
“Diego, where are you going?”
“To get a drink. Since when do you care?”
“Damn it,” my sister cursed out our brother from inside my house. Their voices carried out the window she wouldn’t close to keep an eye on me. “You need to stay here with her. Someone has to watch her after the…you know.”
Kidnapping.
When I stumbled back to civilization in strange clothing ripped apart from the brittle woods, everyone jumped straight to abduction. Not of the extraterrestrial kind, but the typical type found in a buried webpage for the local news. I’d been gone for an entire week, leaving my family in a near panic. After seventy-two hours the chance of recovery was slim. Tears from all sides fell when the sheriff’s truck door opened and my sibling’s arms enveloped my stunned body.
They blamed Shiro Andersonn for my abduction thanks to a security camera catching his attempt to strangle me. There wasn’t any footage of the tentacle monster hidden within or the handsome alien bounty hunter who saved me. All they knew was that the lab was trashed, I was strangled, but neither my body nor Dr. Andersonn could be found in the aftermath.
Not knowing how to answer any of the questions from the police, my boss, and my family, I said nothing. Eternal silence bored into my skull.
“She’s fine,” Diego insisted. He’d been forced to sleep on my couch for two days and was already chaffing to run free. “Your worrying is making it worse.”
Ava cursed at him in a sharp tongue and kicked the backdoor open. In shock at the outburst, I twisted my head around to stare at my completely opposite twin. “Hey.” Her voice lightened to cotton candy from the one that chewed up our brother.
Dropping to a crouch beside my lawn chair, Ava glanced at the blanket on my lap. It was a warm night for early spring, but my sister insisted I have it. Giving in to her exuberant mothering was much easier than fighting it.
“How are you feeling?”
“I’m not a child,” I said.
Diego stuck his head through the window to shout, “What did I tell you?”
Ava snarled at him and turned her gentle care back on me. “Listen, I have to head out for a couple of hours to a meeting. Diego’s going to stay with you. Yes, you are you!”
“Cluck cluck cluck,” Diego said, snapping his finger and thumb together at the mother hen pecking at me.
After shaking away our brother’s nonsense, she asked, “Do you need anything? Maybe some wine? No, the doctors said alcohol wasn’t smart right now. I could get ice cream.”
I shivered, remembering that version of me or Ava as a child cruelly cutting into me while she devoured her ice cream cone. The first day of my return to earth, I waited on tenterhooks to hear news of an unidentified craft spotted in the sky. As the weekend grew on with only my family around me, I thought perhaps he’d returned to the same shed to wait for me. I’d slipped Ava’s grip to scale the mountain alone, only to discover that no one but a family of chipmunks had been there.
Boy did that set off my sister, who woke early from her nap to find me gone. She’d all but chained me to my house in fear since. As far as they knew, my kidnapper was still at large. Technically correct, but the chances of them finding Shiban seemed remote.
I glanced at my fist which I kept closed around the disc containing all of my data and the algorithm. A million-dollar idea, proof that it was possible to chip apart convoluted problems into small, workable ones and solve anything.
But here I sat, watching the stars climb out of the clouds.
You made him rich. So rich that alien bosses in charge of giant stations were shitting themselves at the idea. What’s the first thing a man with loaded pockets would do?
Not swing back to some podunk planet and pick up his small town squeeze. He could have anyone, an entire gaggle of women at his beck and call. Buy a space actress her own planet, or a beautiful singer a fleet of ships. No one on planet earth with that kind of money would pick the dumpy girl who helped him get there.
It’s not fair to expect more from him just because…because he believed in you.
“Listen.” Ava rose to her feet and checked her phone in what she thought was a sneaky way. “I’ve got to get going. Love you so much, Trini,” she said and threw her arms around me in a big hug.
At first, I hung limp in her grip. She was worried, so was Diego in his special way. They cared. They loved. Raising my hands, I swept around Ava’s back and hugged her too. Whatever came next in my life, at least I knew I’d always have my family.
Dangling her car keys in her hand, Ava rose to her immaculate feet and dashed inside. Before she vanished out the front door I heard her shout one more time, “And don’t you leave this house, Diego!”
Ava’s car was barely out of the driveway before my brother waltzed into the yard. He’d abandoned his requisite leather jacket for a t-shirt with a distressed environmental logo that parodied a popular band. This one was about saving the trees.
Pausing beside the chair, he gazed up into the endless unknown, vapor puffing from his lips.
“You know that’s bad for you,” I said.
He shrugged. “If it ain’t this, it’s cigarettes. Did you pick up astronomy or something?”
“What?”
Diego squinted at the night sky, then glanced down to me. “Every night you keep staring up at the stars.”
I paled at
the thought, but I knew it to be true. As if there’d be some sign amongst the night sky, some signal to tell me…that I had to let go. Everything I experienced, it was all a bad dream. A delusion created in my fevered brain to survive in an insane kidnapper’s dungeon. Put it in a box and lock it away.
“What do you think is up there?” Diego asked, shaking my nerve. “Big place and all.” He scratched at the bow in his lips with his thumb and took another drag on his vape. “So, family genius, what do you think the odds are there’s something out there as smart as us?”
The clouds shifted, blanketing away the pocket of stars I’d been watching. “Good,” I said. “Pretty good.”
Diego laughed and slapped me on the shoulder. “Anyway, I’m off. Spotted a pub down the highway and wanted to check it out.”
Shifting in my chair, the old wood cracking at the abuse, I called to him. “Is that smart?”
He froze from grabbing the latch on the screen door and turned to me. Funny. As long as I knew him, nothing could keep Diego in one place. But there he stopped, staring as if I only had to say one word and he’d plop down onto my couch for the whole night.
Smiling, I said, “What if Ava catches you?”
In an instant, the concern wiped away as if it’d never even been there. “Come on, Trin. When’s Ava ever caught me?” With that, he yanked on the door and began to slip inside. Before he did though, he shouted, “And try to not get kidnapped by any crazy doctors, okay?”
I laughed at the absurdity. My sister danced around the subject like a ballerina in a mousetrap factory. My brother just barreled on through it like he was drag racing. I wished I could tell them that I wasn’t distraught or suffering from PTSD.
Fingers clamped to my neck, pain seizing up my shoulder!
Okay, no, terror and pain from my ordeal lingered whenever I tried to sleep. But it wasn’t what kept me silent and chained to the chair on my back porch.
I couldn’t stop thinking that I failed him.