by E. A. James
“I wasn’t leaving here without it,” Kira replied, a wide smile crept over her face as plasma fire from the guard’s assault rifles rained down around her.
Again, another loud explosion rang out, this time at the entry point to the flight deck and the doors were blown open by the violence of the explosion.
“Let’s move!” Thor yelled at Kira, who didn’t waste a moment and was up on her feet and sprinting towards the opening. Thor fired at the guards with precision, keeping their heads down and allowing Kira a clear path.
Kira made it to the door and planted herself behind the bulkhead next to it and provided covering fire for Thor, who leaped up from his position and with a few quick and graceful strides was right behind her.
Just as they moved together to cross through the torn open door, two hooded figures entered the room, wielding gauss cannons and letting loose another explosive assault.
“Get back!” one of them yelled, grabbing onto Kira’s arm and throwing her out into the hall as he continued to fire on the guards.
Thor followed close behind as they broke out in a run to escape. Close on Thor’s heels were the mysterious individuals who had come to their rescue.
Thor and Kira ran with their guns at the ready, clearing the area in front of them as they went, side-by-side, through the winding passages of the pirate’s ship. The two hooded figures continued to fire on anyone who tried to flank them from behind.
The group of four navigated their way back to the landing bay area of the ship and quickly slipped out and into the hot and polluted air of Vandor.
One of the hooded figures stopped and threw two small objects back down the corridor. After a moment, there was another explosion and a great quantity of smoke billowed out of the corridor hanging thick around the ship, concealing their escape.
“See?” Kira said in between breaths as they continued to run. “I told you that would work.”
CHAPTER NINE
“We’re not safe yet,” one of the hooded individuals said from behind them as they ran.
They could hear the commotion as the Roughnecks poured out of their ship, looking for their lost prisoners as they coughed and waved their hands trying in futility to clear the smoke. Without speaking, the group dove into the constant crowd that seemed to engulf the market on Vandor.
Kira’s heart was pounding in her ears, and her hands clung tightly to the stolen assault rifle. Glancing quickly over her shoulder, she saw the Roughnecks crew making their way through the crowd in pursuit not far behind them.
“Follow me!” one of the hooded individuals took a quick, sudden turn down one of the side-streets, leading them into a less congested but still cramped part of the market.
As they pushed past different people, some Terran, some Arkadian, some Bandurian, the men pursuing them continued to gain ground.
The hooded figure leading them took another sharp turn, then another. When one of those turns took them into a small, crowded bar, the group quickly moved to the back. Through the bar windows, Kira saw their pursuers run by, still searching for them.
“We don’t have long, they’ll know they lost us shortly,” Thor said, also watching as the Roughnecks bolted by outside.
Most of the tables were occupied, but they were able to find a small section in the back of the bar that was more or less vacant. They leaned against the wall, catching their breath and letting the blur of events that lead them to that spot sink in.
“Who the hell are you two?” Kira spoke first. She pushed herself up off the wall and eyed the two individuals.
Slowly, their rescuers lowered their hoods, revealing their faces. One of them was a Telani woman, a beautiful, pale-skinned, bright blue-eyed young woman with near platinum long flowing hair. The other was an older Terran man. Kira gawked as she saw his gray hair and dark, wrinkled eyes. How had a man of his age been able to move with such agility and endurance?
She was about to ask, but Thor spoke first.
“Marner?” he asked, shocked with a look of anger descending upon him.
The old man opened his mouth to respond when Thor bolted towards him, throwing him back against the wall and clutching the collar of the man’s black cloak. The swiftness with which he moved once again left Kira amazed and slightly afraid. His muscles tensed as he lifted the man off his feet slightly and leaned in, staring at him with a look of accusation.
Although Kira was shocked by Thor’s sudden outburst, what amazed her more was the nonchalance of the other bar patrons. Vandor was always a hectic place, filled primarily with criminals and black market dealers. The diverse crowd turned to eye them for a second, but quickly lost interest and returned to their drinks and dubious affairs.
“What are you doing here?” Thor asked. “How did you find me?”
The man opened his mouth to respond but was unable to given Thor's tight grasp on his throat.
“Put him down!” demanded the Telani woman.
“Not until I have my answers,” Thor said to her quickly and aggressively over his shoulder.
“Perhaps, if you put him down, he would be able to answer your questions,” the woman continued in a disarming manner, undeterred by Thor’s combative tone.
Thor relaxed his muscles, letting the man slide down the wall, but kept his hold on the man’s collar, ready to once again pin him up if he felt it necessary.
Dr. Marner coughed a few times before he spoke. “Thank you Alaria,” he addressed his companion first. Turning his attention back to Thor he said, “Thor, why don’t you release me and give me a chance to explain? Surely the fact that we came to your rescue shows you that we mean no harm.”
His words were soft but had a sincere quality about them. Still, Thor seemed to doubt him. He continued to hold the man's collar, eying him with suspicion and anger.
“Thor,” Kira said, stepping forward and resting her hand on his shoulder. “What’s going on?”
Kira’s hand on his shoulder diminished his anger slightly and he loosened his hold on Dr. Marner and turned to address her. “This is Dr. Dario Marner,” he began to explain. “He’s was one of Grimm’s lead scientists—one of the experts working with him to push the Modessi Limit.”
“Marner?” Kira said, a sudden realization coming to her. Dario Marner was the name of the man who had left the cryptic message for her before she set out to rendezvous with Grimm’s transport. Confused and also wanting answers, she said, “I’m going to side with Thor on this one. First, tell us what you’re doing here, then we’ll consider being a little friendlier.”
“We’ve been following you,” Dr. Marner explained looking at Kira, “since you set out to rendezvous with the transport. We nearly lost you when you were picked up by the Roughnecks. Thankfully, we packed properly for the occasion and we’re able to break you out.”
“How did you track us?” Kira asked, stepping towards him. “The mission didn’t exist. How did you…”
Her voice drifted off as she noticed Dario Marner’s eyes shift up to the screen hanging over her head in the corner of the bar.
“I promise that we will discuss all of that soon,” Dario said, looking quickly back at Kira and Thor, “but for now, I think it's best that we find a less public locale to discuss these matters.”
He pointed to what had caught his attention. Turning slowly, Kira saw her face filling the screen and a second later the image shifted to a picture of Thor. And there, flashing brightly under their names was the bounty that had been placed on their heads.
“Still want to be famous?” Thor asked, releasing Dr. Marner and looking around the bar quickly.
“I’m beginning to have second thoughts,” Kira responded wryly.
The screen flashed information on their wanted status and they were denoted as extremely dangerous. Kira’s heart started to accelerate as she turned her attention back to the odd pair who had rescued them from the Roughnecks.
“You’re right, we should probably get somewhere less public,” Kira agre
ed.
“Now,” Thor added.
CHAPTER TEN
The group pushed their way out of the bar, nudging past the other patrons, trying to keep a low profile. Thor led the group, followed by Kira, with Dario and Alaria right behind them.
Once they re-emerged onto the crowded street, Thor turned around to face them all. “Where do we go now?”
“Follow us,” Alaria suggested. “We managed to dock not far from here.”
“Good thinking,” Dario said, stepping forward and leading the way.
Thor remained at his side and continued to look down at the man with mistrust. They walked quickly through the crowded market. They passed the merchants’ stalls, filled with a variety of goods—everything from food to weaponry was on display. The air had a stale scent to it, and the crowded streets made it difficult for the group to walk side-by-side.
As Kira scanned the others around her nervously, she couldn’t help but notice that almost everyone was carrying some sort of firearm. The burly men and surprisingly burly women called out their sales, and the onlookers wandered slowly up from one stall to the next. She wanted to run, to hurry to safety. But, she knew that any sudden movements would draw attention to them, and attention was the last thing they wanted.
They walked past a group of Arkadians. Their green skin and immense size made them stand out among the group of Terran merchants they were bartering with. Up ahead, Kira saw a group of Bandurian men. Although from a distance they may have looked like oversized, very dark-skinned Terran men, the closer they got, the more defined the ridges running across their faces became. They were mixed in with a group of Rengar—the oversized rodents who dealt overwhelmingly with nefarious affairs, the galaxy’s quintessential opportunists.
Everyone she saw had a rough, dangerous look about them. Kira was thankful for the gun in her hands and Thor’s presence. At least their group had their own version of rugged that they could contribute to the scene, helping them blend in with the others packed in around them.
“We used an Arkadian vessel that Alaria was able to get her hands on to track you,” Dario’s voice broke into her thoughts and observations.
Thor continued pressing him for information, and the accusatory glances he continued to shoot in the old man’s direction seemed to be working because he was talking.
“We had planned to intercept your ship before the drop could be made—before you could be turned over to Nico Rax.”
“Why?” Thor asked harshly.
"Our hope was to convince you to testify in Terran High Court, against Grimm. We want to shed light on his dark experiments. We want to stop him now before his sadistic plans are able to play out."
“What sadistic plans?” Kira asked, pushing herself forward to hear their conversation better.
Just then, they rounded the corner to the docks. What they saw in front of them made Thor freeze in his tracks. He spread his arms out at his side and took a quick step back, pushing the group back with him. As one, the group ducked behind the wall of a roughly constructed brothel.
Walking along the docks, continually pausing and pacing in front of a smaller military vessel, was a small group of large men. While they had attempted to blend in with the hustle of the others around them, their almost mechanical movements and focused, direct glances gave them away, at least to Thor.
“Arcanum,” Thor said, his voice low. “Looks like you’ve been compromised, Dr. Marner.”
“Well, we can’t go back to the ship then,” Dario pointed out. “We need other options.”
“I know a place we can go,” Alaria spoke up again. Everyone focused their attention on her as she explained, “I know the owner of a small establishment here on Vandor. I’ve known her since my youth, and I’d trust her with my life.”
“As much as I want to get off this foul smelling planet, I think that might be our only option at the moment,” Kira said.
Thor glanced back at the docks, watching the soldiers as they attempted to blend in with the crowd. “Yes,” he said nodding firmly and turning back to face them. “It’s our best option, we need time to think.”
Alaria took the lead now, guiding them through the winding streets and deeper into the Vandor marketplace. Down one alley they saw one of the Roughneck guards interrogating a Rengar merchant aggressively. They doubled their walking pace after that. It felt like an eternity before she finally led them through the dilapidated door of a seedy, grungy hotel.
To Kira’s surprise, it wasn’t overly crowded. Although, the more she thought of it, it wasn’t much of a surprise given the condition of the place. The lights strung up overhead were dim and the air had a sort of dampness to it that made her skin fill with goosebumps. Still, she was thankful for the low-profile location, and the lack of any large screens on which their faces could once again appear, compromising them.
Alaria continued to walk further into the establishment, scanning the handful of faces around her. When she found who she was looking for—an older Terran woman, with wrinkled skin and dark, heavy bags around her eyes—she let out a squeal of excitement.
The woman appeared to share Alaria’s excitement. She hurried over, faster than Kira imagined she would be able to, as Alaria rushed in her direction. They embraced tightly, and the squeals of joy continued to ring out.
Dario followed Alaria to speak with the woman, leaving Thor and Kira hovering by the door, ready to make a quick escape if the need arose. Thor glanced nervously out the door, looking for any signs of their pursuers.
“Can we trust them?” Kira asked once they were alone.
“At the moment, we don’t have a choice,” Thor replied.
She turned to look up at him. There was still a burn mark visible on his neck from where the pirate captain had pressed the baton into his skin. It was faint, but the sight of it brought the dire reality of their situation crashing down on her quickly.
“That’s always a good reason to trust someone—no alternative,” Kira replied sarcastically, shifting her gaze up to his eyes.
He looked at her with a somewhat amused expression on his face. “That’s why I trusted you, and it seems to be working out well.”
“Oh, yes. It’s going great. This is just how I wanted to spend my time off—running from pirates and bounty hunters in the Galactic Bazaar.”
“Again, I’m happy to oblige.”
She couldn’t help but laugh at the dynamic that had somehow formed between them. Few people rarely followed her banter. At least they provided each other with some sort of temporary relief from the impending doom that seemed to follow them everywhere they went.
“We’re good!” Alaria’s voice called out to them.
They both turned to face her. She was smiling at them excitedly and waving them over. For a small woman, she had a lot of energy surging through her. Her petite frame and delicate features didn't seem to match her spirit, which, apparently, was locked into a perpetual high.
Thor and Kira followed their new companions over to an isolated corner of the room, where the group settled into a booth. Shortly after sitting down, the owner of the establishment came marching towards them, juggling four plates of warm, albeit questionable looking, food in her thick, stocky arms. With a toothless, gummy smile, she set the plates down in front of them one-by-one, insisting that they let her know if they need anything.
Although the food in front of her was a collection of things Kira would have normally tried to avoid—parts of animals that simply were not meant to be eaten and a collection of vegetables blended together to make a mushy, liquid sort of puree—the hunger churning in her stomach convinced her to dive in.
“Time to tell us what the hell is going on,” Thor said to Dr. Marner as he shoveled a fork-full of the off-white mush into his mouth.
"Well, as you know, I'm a medical doctor. In medical school, I specialized and excelled in genetic and cybernetic medicine, believing the field to be very exciting and fruitful. My interests were research based,
and I published a number of papers in the field over the years. Little did I know, there were those who were following my work with great interest. Five years ago, one of those interested in my work—Colonel Grimm—showed up on my doorstep to offer me ‘the opportunity of a lifetime'. He recruited me to work with the Arcanum and paid me very well to do so. The only caveat was any discoveries we made would remain classified per Arcanum protocol.”
“At first, the opportunity was too much to pass up and I was overcome with professional excitement to work on the cutting edge of my field,” Dario continued.
“As time progressed, it became clear to me and my colleagues that Grimm’s desire to improve the soldier’s under his command was beginning to trump the laws in place to preserve human life. He continued to ask us to push beyond the Modessi Limit in an attempt to speed progress.”