Sisterhood of Suns: Pallas Athena

by Martin Schiller

  The terminal came on, and promptly informed her that the very act of activating it had just cost her two credits, but again she was not surprised. The Xee charged for everything--including information, and overcharged at that. Angry, but helpless as the terminal billed her for every search that she initiated in the local ‘plexi, Maya quickly looked over the various fortified inns near the port, and reviewed their prices.

  Her heart sank. Prices had been steep before she had left, but now they were reaching for the spacelanes. What little she had in her account simply wasn’t enough to afford the lodging and the protection that the inns provided, and she laughed bitterly to herself as one of the establishments described not only its armored, blast-proof building, but proudly listed the many amenities that it offered to its guests.

  Might as well promise me Corrissan champagne in a diamond glass, she thought sadly. Plain drinkable water, suited for human consumption, would be expensive enough, and she wasn’t even certain that she would be able to afford that. The inns were plainly beyond her budget.

  This left her with only one other choice while there was still light in the sky; the Necropolis. As a child, she’d used the vast cemetery as a place to hide and to sleep in in relative safety.

  But back then she hadn’t been alone. Instead, she had had her fellow urchins to watch her back. Lacking that thin measure of safety, she knew that she had to find a way to get out of the port unnoticed and locate a hiding spot for herself deeper in the ruins than she had ever gone before. In the absence of friends, solitude and concealment would have to suffice.

  Fortunately, only the spots closest to the city tended to be occupied, and few beings, human or otherwise, ventured very far beyond them. This was both out of convenience, and fear.

  Like any graveyard, the Drow’Voi Necropolis was supposed to be haunted, and Maya recalled many a night when she had thought she had heard the dead, wailing mournfully out in the darkness. Now that she was older, she understood that the eerie cries had actually been the wind, finding its voice in the multitude of crevices, cracks and holes that existed throughout the vast pile of stone. Ghosts didn’t frighten her any more. Instead, it was the living that worried her.

  As the light continued to fade, she headed away from the port towards a street that she recalled led to the outskirts of the city, and the wide, open expanse that separated Ashkele from the Necropolis.

  Three blocks into her journey, an argument spilled out of a tavern, and Maya dodged the two humanoid combatants. One was a T’lakskalan. The dark reptilian creature was arguing with a large furred beast whose race completely defied identification. Whatever the pair was disagreeing about was shouted in alien tongues and equally impossible to determine, but it was obvious that their quarrel was a serious one.

  The T’lakskalan gave the furry creature a hard shove, and Maya tried to squeeze by them and gain some distance from the fracas. By now though, a crowd was gathering. It was a mixed group of races from everywhere including the Sisterhood, and her exit was blocked.

  Then the T’lakskalan produced a hand-weapon. To his credit, the other humanoid pulled something from under his fur that resembled a gnarled stick and started to bring it to bear on the reptilian. Neither creature got the chance to do anything more than this, though.

  A dark, metallic arm pushed Maya aside, and she looked up to see one of the Guns. The matte-black machine had a vaguely humanoid configuration, and a single glowing eye that was fixed on the pair.

  Both aliens turned to face the machine and the Gun said something to them on its speakers, but only the furred creature had sense enough to drop its weapon and back away. To Maya’s astonishment, the T’lakskalan hissed a challenge at the Gun and stupidly tried to raise its sidearm.

  Instantly, a bright, cyan-colored beam shot out from the Gun’s eye, hitting the creature squarely in its center mass. The T’lakskalan screamed in agony and attempted to shield itself, but it was a useless gesture. In seconds, its entire form had evaporated into nothingness, leaving only a wisp of smoke and a greasy smudge on the sidewalk to mark where it had once stood.

  The Gun pivoted smoothly on its hip-axis, and ranged its deadly gaze over the crowd. It spoke in several languages, ending its message in Standard. “Disperse now,” it ordered flatly, “or be subject to disintegration.”

  Maya didn’t need any further incentive, and got away from the scene as fast as possible. Fortunately, the fight had drawn all of the nearby foot traffic to it, and although the crowd was frantically trying to obey the Gun’s command, the streets leading away from the tavern were reasonably free of living beings.

  After a little searching, she was able to locate the road she had sought, and made her way down it without encountering another soul. With a final glance to see if she was being followed, she stepped off the pavement and onto the soft white sand that stretched from the city’s edge out to the ruins.

  The Necropolis itself was a gargantuan collection of carved stone towers and walls, many of which had collapsed eons before the Xee had colonized the world. The cyclopean blocks from these ancient catastrophes rested in great piles at the feet of the surviving towers, and where the sands permitted them to exist, roads or giant paths were still visible, leading off towards unknown destinations.

  The place had no end. The cemetery covered much of the planet, and where the towers opened up around a square and created an open space, Maya’s eyes could see nothing except another group of towers, and another beyond those, until their ranks were lost in the haze. Only the circular area that surrounded Ashkele itself afforded any kind of definite horizon, or open sky.

  Out on this flat, the wind blew continuously. It altered the shape of the clean white sands in a constant dance of air, led by the dust devils, which patrolled the place like stray ghosts who had wandered out from the Necropolis. Despite this, Maya was still able to spot some fresh footprints in several places, leading away from the city into the ruins. Someone or something (in the case of the less recognizable tracks) had come the same way, she realized, and recently. More alert than ever, the girl pressed on, hoping that whatever had made the prints was merely seeking shelter for the night like her, and not planning an ambush.

  When she reached the edge of the ruins, she picked up the only weapon that she could find, a chipped piece of rock that was lying on the sandy ground. It was better than nothing at all, but only just. Hefting the stone, she moved into the rubble piles, listening carefully to the sounds around her and watching for anything that indicated a threat. But with the exception of tiny rock falls, and the occasional cry of an unknown creature, the Necropolis was silent, and nothing moved within its precincts.

  Because this was the outermost edge of the Necropolis, and so close to the port city, the stones around her were covered with graffiti written in several alien languages. These were either sprayed on with paint, or had been etched into the surfaces with tools or energy-cutters. Maya followed the markings, working her way deeper into the shadows.

  When the graffiti could no longer be seen, she knew that she had reached the limits of the inhabited areas. From that point on, the only blemishes that she spotted were lichen mottling the stones, and the sandy path ahead of her was unmarred by tracks of any kind except what small animals had left behind.

  She was alone at last, but it was nearly full dark by now, and she looked around her for some form of shelter. After a few minutes, she found a triangular opening in the base of one of the nearby towers. It was taller than she was, and the interior was hidden in darkness. From the outside it was impossible to tell how deep the chamber actually went, but the vanishing light offered her no other alternatives. Listening above her for the rumble of an impending collapse, she stepped inside cautiously.

  Reaching what she thought was the center of the space, she rose up slowly, and carefully explored the ceiling with her fingers. It proved to be just above her head, but still high enough to allow her to stand upright. In the far wall, illuminated by the feeble
light from the entrance, she spotted another triangular hole that led deeper into the tower. With no hand-light to explore it with, she was reluctant to venture any further, and stayed where she was. For better or worse, the anteroom would be home for the night.

  It was cold in the chamber, and the thin jumpsuit that she wore did little to retain her body heat. Having no means to make a fire, or warm herself, she sat down in a sandy corner, and drew her knees up to her chin instead. To add to her discomfort, she was also ravenously hungry, and deeply regretted not buying some food for herself when she had had the chance.

  Time had not been on her side though, and she made a promise to herself that she would make up for the missed meal in the morning. In the meantime, the night looked like it was going to be a very long one, and she wondered just how much sleep she was actually going to get.

  Her question answered itself with brief periods of dozing, interspersed with wakefulness when anything around her made a noise. Despite her fitful slumber though, dreams still managed to find her in the darkness.

  They were strange visions of the stone towers around her, but eons before they had become ruins. In one, Maya saw the Drow’Voi themselves. The non-humanoid creatures were huge, with irregular forms, and single central eyes that looked out onto the universe with unblinking stares. These great orbs were ringed by smaller secondary eyes, which she somehow knew gave the creatures the ability to perceive bands of light that she could only guess at.

  As she watched them, the Drow’Voi flowed up and down the sides of the towers, seemingly in defiance of gravity, and manipulated strange machines with tentacles that sprouted anywhere on their bodies that they willed them to appear.

  An eerie collection of sounds emanated from the devices that they controlled, and from the Drow’Voi themselves. They were a series of pure tones that came close to being music, but also seemed to be a form of speech. The sounds were also oddly familiar, and as she listened, she realized that the Xee and the rest of the galaxy were completely wrong about the Necropolis. The ruins were not a graveyard at all, but something else that was just beyond the borders of her ability to comprehend.

  Before she could resolve the mystery however, the dream shifted and changed, and Maya suddenly found herself running between the towers. They were ruins again, and something was looking for her among the crumbling piles of rubble. She crouched low, terrified that this unknown force would find her, without knowing exactly why she felt this fear.

  Finally, she hid herself behind a pile of stone blocks and risked a glance through a gap in the shattered masonry. A great eye, this time clearly human, took up most of the dark sky above her, and she knew instinctively that it belonged to something terrible beyond reckoning. Then the eye turned in her direction, and to her horror, Maya realized that whatever it was, had found her at last.

  She awoke with a start, thinking that another rock fall, or an animal moving nearby had disturbed her fitful sleep. But she was wrong.

  Instead, a red beam of light played across the stones, issuing from a spot across from her on the opposite wall. Then Maya realized that the crimson ray was actually shining through the wall from somewhere outside and her overtired mind finally recognized it. It was the seeker beam that T’lakskalan slavers used to seek out hidden life forms and it possessed the strange and fearsome ability to penetrate earth and even solid stone to locate its targets.

  With only seconds to spare before it found her, she threw herself sideways and scrambled on all fours towards the opening that led deeper into the tower. She had just reached it when the very edge of the beam touched the heel of her shoe.

  T’lakskalan seeker beams posessed another unique quality. They not only located living beings through solid objects, but also paralyzed them wherever they made contact with flesh. Her foot went numb instantly, and a triumphant cry issued from a reptilian throat off in the darkness. Maya let out a squeal of terror, and crawled forwards into the passage that led deeper into the tower, dragging her useless foot behind her.

  The corridor proved to be narrow and extended only six meters before it abruptly terminated. Back behind her, the seeker beam was swinging around again, and there was the sound of alien feet rasping on the floor of the outer chamber.

  At any other time, Maya would have employed her talents to defend herself, but she knew that they were useless against the T’lakskalans. For some unknown reason, the creatures did not react to any form of psychic coercion, and this left her without the only real weapon that she had. As the aliens came nearer, she searched frantically for any means of escape.

  Then a high-pitched ping echoed down the corridor, followed by the sound of something metallic bouncing and skittering across the stone. Maya looked down and saw the gas grenade just as it rolled to a stop at her feet. There was a steady hiss, and the passage became choked with a pungent, chemical smell. Dizziness, and then a wave of unconsciousness followed this, and as everything faded away, she became dimly aware that some kind of commotion was taking place in the passage. Before she could form a coherent association however, she had floated off into nothingness.

  ***

  The business card that Maya had been given was more than just a form of advertisement. It also carried a tiny tracking chip that had activated itself the moment she had put it away in her pocket. This had made the job of protecting her all the easier for Skylaar tau Minna.

  As a member of the Assassin’s Guild in Ashkele, the Nemesian made her living by tracking humanoids, eliminating troublemakers, and sometimes like now, keeping vulnerable targets safe. Having the little tracker to work with had almost made the favor she was doing for Sarah seem like a vacation—until the T’lakskalan’s had shown up. For a brief period, she had hoped that the reptilians were after other quarry, but when she saw them use their seeker beam and enter the tower, she knew that her respite was over. It was time to go to work.

  She left her hiding place and entered the tower just as the reptilians were approaching the girl’s unconscious form. There were three of them, and they were so intent on bagging their catch that they didn’t hear her coming up from behind.

  Before they could react, she triggered a spring-loaded steel spike attached to the underside of her forearm, and plunged the weapon up and into the back of the nearest T’lakskalan’s skull. The spike penetrated its brain, and the other two humanoids finally realized that they were in danger and spun around. But Skylaar had already thrown herself into a shoulder roll.

  Landing between them and coming back onto her feet, she slashed out with a knife-hand strike across the throat of the creature to her left. Simultaneously, she dealt a palm strike upwards and sideways to the jaw of the creature’s partner. Both of them went down immediately, one strangling on a collapsed windpipe, and the other dead from a broken neck.

  Even though they were well beyond posing her any threat, she still kicked away their side arms. Then she used her wrist spike a second time to ensure that they were in fact, safely removed from the universe of the living.

  After that, she checked on Maya. The girl was unconscious, but otherwise unharmed, and she knew that the effects of the gas would pass after a few hours.

  Leaving her where she lay, Skylaar got to work removing the bodies. Sarah had been quite specific about this. Maya was never to know that she had been followed, or that she had had a protector watching over her.

  Finally, when the task was complete, and all traces of the T’lakskalan’s had been erased, the Nemesian returned to her hiding place and resumed her silent vigil.

  ***

  Maya sat up, not entirely certain where she was or how she had gotten there. The sight of the corridor and the pale sunlight beyond it brought everything back, and she wondered why she wasn’t in the belly of a slaver ship. The effects of the gas grenade made her thoughts fuzzy and difficult to organize, but she was certain that the T’lakskalans had been about to take her prisoner.

  The only answer that she could come up with was that something
had either frightened them away, or had caused them to shift their hunt elsewhere. What that might have been was a complete enigma though, but she had learned never to argue with good fortune. She was free and that was what counted.

  She was also determined not to spend any more time in the ruins, and fought off a wave of dizziness to get on her feet. It took a few deep breaths to bring herself under control, but she managed to force the worst of her symptoms back, and stumbled out of the tower.

  Even though it was now daytime, this was no guarantee of safety by any means, and she made her way out of the ruins cautiously, alert for any sign of the T’lakskalans, or any other enemy. Her way was unobstructed however, and she reached the sandy border that encircled Ashkele without incident.

  When she stepped off the sands and back onto the street, her hunger reasserted itself. It gnawed persistently at her insides as she walked along the pavement and finally, when it became too severe to ignore, she stopped at a street vendor’s stall and spent the last of her precious credits on some food.

  Her breakfast was a small and expensive piece of unknown meat, impaled on a skewer, and washed down with an equally pricey bottle of water that tasted strongly of chemical disinfectant. The tiny meal proved barely enough to rejuvenate her, but it was all she had the means to purchase.

  With her funds now completely exhausted, she headed back to the port. However, once she got there and resumed her hunt, her luck deserted her again. She found herself talking to more glass runners and captains of other ships that she would not, or could not, serve aboard. By the time Ashkele’s sun had reached its zenith, she had gone through every ship in the port with nothing to show for her efforts.

  Another hungry night in the ruins was all that awaited her. It was either that, risk death by committing a crime, or accept Sarah’s offer. Exhausted down to her core, Maya sat down on the same bench that she had occupied only the day before, and wept. She was hungry, and completely out of alternatives.