by Vivian Venus
“Through here,” he said. “At the other side a man will be waiting for you. He will supply you with your transportation.”
“Thanks, Dex,” I said, crouching down to squeeze into the passage. It was barely big enough to fit me. “Consider your debt repaid.”
“Yeah, yeah. Just don’t rat me out to the MSE.”
I had to get flat on my stomach to crawl through the tunnel with Liliandra on her hands and knees behind me, and we made our way through. It wasn’t very long, and after about five minutes of moving we came to a metal door. I knocked on it, and it swung open. A man with a shaggy beard leaned his head down.
“Well damn. I ain't never seen a real Ezrok before. You’s really as huge as they say.”
I crawled out and then helped Liliandra, pulling her out and setting her on her feet. We were in a food cold storage unit, surrounded by crates of beer bottles. “Transport,” I said. “Where is it?”
“Better take you out through the side. Customers might not take to well to an Ezrok strolling through.”
He opened the door to the storage unit and the bustle and clamor of a bar greeted us. I could see down a hallway to the front of the establishment, all dark and dingy with an equally dark and dingy patrons seated at the counter. The man led us out to the back entrance that opened out into an alleyway littered with garbage and machine parts all covered in a layer of red Martian dust.
“Right here's your vehicle,” the man said proudly, gesturing to a rusting scrap bucket that used to be a transport shuttle. It had a small cockpit with a larger cargo area that could easily be used as a rest or work space – perfect for when Liliandra had her parts.
“This?” she said in disbelief.
“Will it run?” I asked.
“Well of course it will. I mean, most of the time.” He pulled open the passenger side door which ground on its hinge. “Here’s the key.” I went around to the driver’s side and sat down. I had to lean over to keep my head from touching the ceiling. Clearly the thing had been built before the Ezrok had come to Mars. I started up the engine, which puttered to life and jetted out a cloud of black smoke behind us, and then lifted the thing off the ground.
“Hey, it works,” I commented.
“A miracle,” Liliandra said, and I flew the ship out from the alleyway.
The border wall stretched away behind us as we flew out towards the outermost borders of the city where the columns of grey smoke rose up from the factories there. Liliandra’s eyes were glued to the city features below us, the buildings dilapidated and streets in no better condition. “I've seen it on the news, but being here is a whole other thing,” she said quietly.
I’d been to the outer city a few times on missions over the last three years. Nothing about the place really bothered me, though the people were less tolerant to Ezrok than in the Citadel. “The outer city feels more like home to me,” I said. “It’s more interesting here.”
“Home on Ezrok?” Liliandra asked.
I nodded. “Before I was taken for warrior training, I lived in a slum city on Ezrok. Would’ve probably become a criminal if not for being taken in by my master. Yet still never was very good at staying out of trouble, which is why I ended posted on Mars.”
“You were part of the team who was stationed here three years ago,” Liliandra said.
“We weren’t a team until after the Veldarians invaded and we fought them off. Grahf, my commander, took charge of the men and it was then that we became a formal unit. Before that, putting us on Mars was just way for the high command to deal with troublesome warriors too valuable to dispose of permanently.”
“You were sent here as punishment?” she said, sounding slightly shocked.
“That’s right. Each one of the Ezrok originally stationed here then had committed some type of offense.” I knew what her next question would be, so I didn’t wait for her to ask. “I was an elite warrior on the Veldarian front lines. Just a little over four years back. The general there called me in for a special mission. I was to be reposted to the Nela system, assigned to look after his daughter who had been posted there for her education. The Nela are a people who the Ezrok conquered shortly before coming to Earth. She was a handful. Always skipping her classes, finding ways to run away and escape from my watch. It was dangerous for her, the Nela were capable warriors and there were still conflicts with groups loyal to the old regime. People who would want her dead. Well, after some time I discovered that she had been running away to meet with a Nelan man. They had become lovers. After investigating I discovered that this man had been using her to steal Ezrok military secrets. He was a member of one of the rebel factions there, so I took it upon myself to exterminate him. Afterwards, the general decided to fabricate a story that I had seduced his daughter so that she would not be shamed with accusations of treason and betraying her kind by being with a Nelan. I was sent here.”
“Wow,” Liliandra said softly.
“I used to think I was stripped of my honor, being sent to Mars. But having served alongside my commander, Grahf. Having met you. I couldn’t have asked for anything better.”
Liliandra didn’t say anything. She fingered the pendant around her neck, rubbing it with her thumb and forefinger, and then rested her hand on my thigh, squeezing it softly. The factories were growing larger in the viewport window, and I flew past them towards the clusters of buildings that lay nearby – the markets. Nondescript buildings where you could find anything that came out of the factories on sale, legal or not. I had dealt with a few smugglers here in the past, and so I had a bit of a reputation. It would help make things quicker.
I flew the ship down to street level into a hover, moving down the cracked and potholed streets that were covered in a layer of red Martian dust that made everything look like it was rusting over. The factories now rose off just in the distance, their vents belching up fat towers of smoke. Some of the buildings had open fronts, where merchants had tables lined with various things for sale, mostly mechanical parts and scrap. The military grade technology, the tech straight out of the factories and what we needed, wouldn’t be on display for the world to see. It would be kept inside, available only to those who knew who to ask. Luckily, I did.
I turned the ship down an alleyway where a skinny dog with three legs was gnawing at a pile of trash. It looked up in surprise to see the ship and dashed off, not inhibited at all by the lack of a limb. “This is the place,” I said, stopping the ship. “Stay close by to me. This place is a little unsavory.”
“I figured as much,” she said. “I’ve still got this, anyway.” She held up the pistol that the MSE sergeant had given her.
“Good.”
We got out and walked up the alleyway to the street, and the three legged dog reappeared to dig through its pile of treasure. Ancient, dilapidated ships puttered down the street, the sidewalks sparsely populated with a just a few wanderers perusing the merchant fronts, inspecting greasy parts and bartering with the vendors. The street corners were host to groups of men who looked around with tough eyes like they were hunting for trouble. Gazes drew to Liliandra and I as we walked down to the street. I had expected it, it wasn’t anything out my usual experience to be stared at, but it wasn’t extra attention that we needed at the moment. Still, I knew my name would be making its way on waves of whispers to the ears of the woman we were going to see.
“People seem to be noticing us,” Liliandra muttered to me. A few of the merchants had even pulled down the shutters of their shop fronts before we walked by, and people crossed to the other side of the street to make way. “It feels like we’re some outlaws or something.” She sounded amused.
“The last time I was here was to investigate a potential smuggling operation. People exporting weaponry to Ezrok enemies.” I pointed across the street, to a hollowed out building blackened by fire. “That’s where they used to run their game.”
“You did that?”
“Well, technically Commander Grahf was responsible for v
aporizing the place. They tried to trap us in and ambush us. I’m sure everyone around here remembers that. Down this alley.”
We turned down a narrow alleyway. Looking straight ahead I had a clear view of the smoke rising up from one of the factories, the sun weakly shimmering through the charcoal cloud. The access door to Magna’s den was an old, dark metal thing with huge rivets going around the sides. I had heard that it had originally been a part of one of the first Martian colony's habitat units, just another one of Magna’s eccentric purchases she had made with the shiploads of money earned from illegal transactions. I wrapped my knuckles on the door and moved Liliandra so that she was behind me out of harms way. I was pretty sure Magna wouldn’t provoke an Ezrok warrior, but then again I hadn’t seen her since the incident across the street.
I knocked again, and then a crackled voice came out from amplifiers hidden in the door. “Who’s the woman?”
It was Magna. I shifted my stance with a slight awkwardness. The old hag was one of the few people who I couldn’t intimidate into doing what I wanted. I had tried in the past, and it ended up backfiring on me. She knew that I couldn’t just shut her down, she was too valuable to me as a contact, and today was just proving her right again.
“No one to be concerned about, Magna,” I said, hoping she would just let us in.
“Are you sure? Because if I’m going to be opening my door to you I think I would be concerned. Or I could just leave this door shut, and there’d be nothing you could do about it.” She cackled.
I sighed and glanced at Liliandra, who shrugged at me. “She’s a scientist under my protection,” I said.
“Protection! Bullshit! You two are lovers.”
It wasn’t easy to get an Ezrok to blush, but I felt my face go hot like my very own grandmother had pulled my braid and teased me about a mate. Liliandra was grinning, and I frowned at her. The mechanisms in the door ground noisily to life, and the big heavy thing slowly swung open a crack. “Well, come on,” Magna’s voice said.
I pushed open the door and we walked inside a hallway lit only by tiny lights along the ceiling. Her voice sounded out again. “Follow the hallway to the end.” We started walking, Liliandra moving from my rear up to my side. With her pistol slung at her hip, she looked more like a warrior than a scientist. She was an amazing woman, and I felt a welling of excitement and warmth for her, a feeling I had only ever felt before a battle. She really was incredible, and she was mine.
“I’ve seen this woman on the underground information net,” Magna spoke. “Doctor Liliandra Cast. The MSE is frantically searching for you. Both of you. Think you got killed by the Veldarian.”
“So you know what we’re fighting,” I said. “The MSE have been useless thus far. I decided to go off grid.” The fact that I hadn’t been contacted by Commander Grahf or the high command meant that the Ezrok knew exactly what I was doing and had decided to go incommunicado with the MSE in the interest of keeping my position secure. It made me smile. It meant that they were starting to develop some respect and trust for our abilities as a unit instead of just seeing us as the Martian delinquents.
“And so you come crawling to me, again.” Magna let out another cackle of a laugh. We reached the end of the hallway where there was another door, which hissed and pulled aside. I was greeted by the huge, stocky form of a Nelan man, his huge arms crossed over his chest.
“You didn’t have him before,” I called.
“I’ve had to beef up on security.” Magna squeezed by the huge Nelan. She was a tiny old human woman, shorter than Liliandra and so she was completely dwarfed by myself and the Nelan security guard.
“Weapons,” he grunted.
Liliandra looked at me, and I held my hand flat to tell her to hold on. “I think we’ll keep them,” I said firmly. The Nelan let out a rumble from the back of his throat and stepped closer. I felt a press on my knee – Magna was between us, pushing us apart. “Okay, okay, you big meatheads. Durza. It’s fine. I know this one.” He grunted again and reluctantly stepped aside.
“I could deport your ass,” I said to him as Liliandra and I passed him, following Magna as she led us into her complex.
“Don’t do that,” Magna said over her shoulder. “He’s useful to have around. Scares the competition away. Though soon everyone will have a Nelan guard and we’ll have to move on to something bigger and scarier.”
“And at that point I’ll just shut all of you down,” I said.
“You won’t be shutting me down, and you know it. So what’s a respectable young professional like you doing with this Ezrok meathead?” she said to Liliandra.
“Well, I didn’t have much of a choice,” she replied, smiling at me.
Magna turned a corner and stood on the tips of her toes to pull open another door, which led into a large warehouse with rows of ceiling high shelves packed neatly with huge crates. Hovering bots zipped around, pulling crates from shelves and moving goods. “Gone full automated have you, Magna?”
“Mostly. It’s the only way to work these days. Can’t trust anyone. So. What is it that you need?” Magna walked over to a wall and activated a holo-display board.
I looked at Liliandra, who walked up to the board and transferred over her diagrams. She spoke rapidly, listing off a bunch of technical names that made no sense to me at all, and so I just watched as Magna stared at her nodding.
“I can see why you’re protecting her, Rey,” said Magna. “You, my dear, are no ordinary scientist are you?”
“I have my moments.”
“Mhm. Moments.”
I stepped forward. “Do you have what she needs?”
“I do. Of course. But the costs will be more than you can afford. This is top of the line stuff, Rey. Not your run of the mill farming tools.”
“I’ll put it on the high command’s tab.”
She smiled. “The Ezrok are becoming my best customers. Oh the irony.” A bot hovered up to her, a floating orb with a circular display on its ‘face’ that flashed different colors. “Gather these components into a processing bin,” she commanded. “Bring it to the workshop.”
“Yes ma’am,” the bot said, it's display glowing blue, and it zipped away.
“I presume you’ll need to assemble the parts,” Magna said. “Well. Since you’re such a good customer of mine, I’ll let you use my private workshop for no charge.”
“Thank you,” Liliandra said. “God, I was afraid I’d have to put this thing together in the back of that rusted old ship we’re flying.”
“I owe you, Magna,” I said, gratefully.
“Nonsense. You’re paying me.”
She led us to the workshop, a room that was clean, pristine and modern, not unlike something I would’ve expected to see in the EzRan building. Liliandra wandered around it, looking impressed.
“Will this work?” I asked her.
“This will more than work.”
“It had better,” Magna said. “I paid good money to have this imported from Ezrok. Rey, you don’t want to know what kind of illegal shit gets built in here.”
“I have a feeling I’ll find out on my own someday.”
The loading door opened, and the hovering bot moved in a huge crate which it set onto the ground. “What the hell are you going to build?” I said, and then the bot opened up the side of the crate and then hovered back out, the loading door closing behind it. The inside was practically empty, with a tiny box sitting in the middle of it. I looked over at Magna, who shrugged.
“I’ll leave you two alone,” she said, and left.
Liliandra scooped up the box and set it on one of the white work benches, which had a lineup of various tools all neatly organized in a row. From a dispenser she pulled out two face masks and handed one to me. “The parts are very small,” she said. “One wrong breath and we could send them flying across the room.”
I pulled the mask on, which barely covered my mouth and nose. Liliandra snorted and squeezed my hand. “You look like an idiot.”
“Great.”
She slowly opened the box, setting the metal top aside onto the table, and then picked up the repulsor manipulator glove on the table and pulled it on. She slowly raised each of the tiny components out of the box using the glove and set them neatly in order on the table. I leaned over to get a closer look, and Liliandra put her hand on my chest and gently pushed me back. “Give me some space, big guy,” she said. “This is complicated work.” She bent over the table and pulled up a magnifying lens and began to work, the tiny components floating around in front of her as she moved the fingers of her gloved hand and worked with the other tools on the table with her other.
I walked off and looked around the workshop, but nothing here was familiar or interesting to me so I pulled up a too-small chair, fished a chip of wood from my pocket and started to carve at it.
It was over an hour later when Liliandra finished. I knew she was done because I felt a tug at my robe and I looked and saw her making a sly face at me from where she sat across the room. She had her repulsor gloved hand raised. I felt the fastener of my top pop open.
“What are you doing?” I said.
“Testing my work,” she replied smugly. “I put the chip into this glove. Let’s see how sensitive it is. And how powerful.” She twisted her hand and my robe yanked off from my body. I stood up, my burning desire for her rising.
“You are something else,” I said, grinning. I held up my hand and with a flick of my fingers, had her top fluttering off onto the work bench. Another flick, and her bra was sliding down over her shoulders.