Shalia's Diary Omnibus

by Tracy St. John

  Katrina sat at the middle of the table, her space taken up by a handheld and a half-eaten tray of food. “We’re getting a dance club on board the transport,” she called.

  “What?” I blinked. “Says who?”

  “Says Captain Wotref.” Katrina beamed from ear to ear. “After all the fun we had at the clubs on the space station, I decided we should have it added to our recreational options. The boys have their pleasure club, so why can’t we have a dance club?”

  That got a lot of happy agreement from the other ladies. Everyone seemed excited by the plan.

  “Wait, you set this in motion? It’s a done deal?” Candy asked. She looked duly impressed.

  Katrina nodded, still smiling. “Once we had Shalia back and we were on our way again, I thought we all needed something fun with no redeeming value whatsoever. The idea to install a dance club on board the Pussy ‘Porter was born.”

  That got a lot of laughs. After my awful night of scares, I was delighted to have something lighthearted to contemplate. “You talked to the captain, and he said yes? Just like that? You are amazing, my friend. I bow to you in awe.”

  Katrina shrugged modestly. “It was a more difficult than that, but not by much. First, I looked at our area of the ship to see if we had the space for a club. We don’t. I went to the main concourse and had a look. There are three large trading rooms currently not in use.”

  “The main concourse, huh?” Candy grinned. “Then we can invite all the guys to come watch...and maybe find a little company for afterward.”

  There were a lot of grins and giggles at her suggestion. Somebody else said, “Maybe we could even convince some of them that dancing isn’t all that unmanly.”

  “Good luck with that,” I snorted. “Unless we serve alcohol?”

  Katrina sighed. “The crew has tight limits on their drinking, even during their off-duty hours. They have to be ready for emergencies at all times. Still, we might be able to put in dispensers with consumption trackers for the boys.”

  “Oh yeah. All right, so what’s the rest of the story?”

  Katrina adopted on her modest face again, which told me she’d done a lot more to make this club happen than she was letting on. “I believed it would be nice to present the captain with good reasons to have a club beyond us having fun and attracting more men into our evil clutches.”

  “Yeah, like you need help with that, Katrina!” someone called.

  More laughter. Katrina waited for it to die down before continuing. “I discussed the club with that psychologist Dr. Feru. I told him how much fun we’d had on Xniktix and that he should sign off on it as being a good mental diversion for us gals. I showed him a few of the vids we’d taken of each other at the clubs to demonstrate how happy it made us. He agreed I had a valid point and would be glad to support the cause.”

  “He’s a big fan of our dancing, isn’t he, Katrina? Or was it your means of negotiation that he appreciated?” Megan teased.

  Katrina grinned at her. “I reminded him that he’d been seen attending the club, enjoying the entertainment. Nothing more, especially since his clan is busy wooing Samantha. Maybe Sammie did some negotiating on our behalf?”

  Everyone turned to a cute brunette standing in the group. She blushed and waved her hands as if to deny the allegation, but she wore a big grin on her face. “We’ve discussed it! With words,” she cried out in defense.

  “Sure you have,” Katrina called over our knowing laughter. “At any rate, I went to Betra and told him of our desire for a location to dance. He forwarded the request to Wotref, and I met with the captain for a round of – ahem – negotiations.”

  “Which have proved to be fruitful,” Bettina laughed.

  “Indeed. By the way, ladies, Wotref might not be as pretty as some of these boys, but he is an extremely good negotiator. As are his Nobek and Imdiko.” Katrina sighed. “I love the youngsters’ energy, but you just can’t put a price on men with experience who are used to working as a team.”

  “Now that you’ve put in all that hard work as our ambassador, what’s next?” Candy asked when we were done laughing.

  “We choose from the three available spots. Then we visit Acquisitions and see what supplies they might be willing to donate to our cause. I think I can rope some of our Kalquorian friends into helping us to put the club together.”

  “Nobody negotiates deals like you,” I pointed out. “Sheesh Katrina, by the time the dance club is up and running, you’ll be too tired to enjoy it.”

  That earned more laughter. Katrina picked out who would come along with her to choose the most likely venue for our fun place. Naturally, she asked Candy and me to be a part of it. Though we had planned to work on our ghost problem, we scuttled that to scout out our dance hall prospects instead. Why not, right? It was for a good cause.

  “Picking a room shouldn’t take very long,” Candy told me in an undertone. “We’ll have plenty of time to pull our investigative gear together.”

  “Investigative gear?” I asked. “What are you talking about?”

  She gave me a look that said silly Shalia. “You can’t hunt ghosts with blasters or butterfly nets. I think my handheld will cover it all, but I want to make sure.”

  I wanted to ask her why we would have to hunt the restless spirit when it kept calling on me without invitation. I kept my mouth shut, however. Candy had apparently put a lot of thought into the matter, and she claimed to have some expertise when it came to the supernatural.

  Expert or not, she was not prepared when it showed up. Nope, you don’t need blasters or butterfly nets when it comes to stalking spirits. Just Shalia.

  Ten of us went to the common area of the ship, the central part where there are shops and diversions for the Kalquorian crew who had to spend long stretches in space. It’s a big, circular area referred to as a ‘promenade’. In the middle of it is a hologram of the Kalquorian Empire. The sun, bigger than Earth’s, is in the center, around which 15 planets orbit. The tenth one, blue with a strong green tinge, is Kalquor itself. It is the only planet in the system that supports life without requiring terraforming or containment domes.

  At the edge of the promenade are the shops, dining areas, and entertainment clubs. It’s similar to a military base’s exchange...except no military base that I’m aware of had a sex club. Kalquorians are not inhibited in the least when it comes to sex. In the pleasure club on board the transport, you can watch, be watched, and participate in wild acts if you wish. I don’t know of any Earther women who have dared step in there, though Katrina has tried to convince several of us to go at different times. So far, she’s had no takers. She pouts over that.

  Today she did not pout. She was too busy being excited that we were going to have a dance club. Standing in the middle of the promenade, she pointed out our choices.

  “That spot next to the custom-made blade shop is the smallest, I believe. Over there by the armor repair stall is another location that was once a lounge. It does have a bar area already in place. The last and largest is butted up to the pleasure club. If the boys watch us dance, they won’t have to go far to work off their frustrations.” Katrina’s eyes twinkled.

  “The ones we don’t take to our rooms, in any case,” Candy giggled. That got a round of knowing smiles from the rest of us. On the transport, if you’re a woman searching for companionship, you can have your pick of willing males. The dance club would afford us all plenty of opportunities for workouts of the carnal varieties.

  Not me, though. I’ve got more than I can handle with Oses and Betra. I don’t need any more companionship than that.

  “Let’s have a look,” Katrina said.

  We went first to the smallest site available to us. It had once been a shop of some sort and was empty now. It was almost immediately obvious this would not work as our dance club. With a few hundred ladies who have discovered the joys of moving wildly to music and a couple thousand men potentially coming in to watch, we need a lot more dance floor. Of c
ourse, we can’t fit everyone in any of the spots we were offered, but there should at least be enough space to accommodate maybe three or four hundred at any time. That’s how many the pleasure club can handle at once, from what we’ve been told. Katrina was already wondering about rotating a schedule to allow all the women at least two visits per week. The guys who wanted to come in would be on a first come, first served basis. This was for us, not them.

  We moved on to the second largest spot. This was better, we agreed. There were some small tables, the type that we could pile floor seating cushions around to sit at. They were stacked in a corner. The bar, about chest-high to me, ran along one of the shorter walls. It still had the empty beverage dispensers.

  “The sound system is intact as well,” Katrina reported. She activated it and the shriek of violent lemanthev music barreled out at us. “Shut down!” our fearless leader shouted over our startled cries. It shut off immediately, thank goodness. My ears rang in protest.

  The ten of us exhaled laughter. We’d all crouched down, our hands plastered to our ears in defensive postures at the aural assault.

  “May I suggest substantial changes to the playlist?” black-haired Marta said.

  “Please!” Candy chuckled.

  “This is great,” was my opinion. “Put the tables and some seating cushions along the walls, fill up the dispensers, change the system’s tune, and we have a club.”

  Katrina wasn’t quite so convinced. “It’s a little small yet. I doubt we could get more than 250 bodies in here at once, and that will be crowding us.”

  “We aren’t going to be dancing every single night,” said a blonde whose name I didn’t know.

  “Speak for yourself,” Candy giggled, and swayed to the music in her head. “I live for doing this now.”

  “The novelty will fade for most,” Katrina said. “It could be doable. We’ll keep it as a potential option. Let’s go visit the other space.”

  We approached the final candidate for our fun place. That meant walking close to the black door that opened into the Kalquorians’ pleasure club. A couple of men, Nobeks from the looks of them, were approaching as we neared our destination.

  They grinned at us gals as we came within speaking distance. “Please tell us you’re coming in to sample a taste of our fun,” the bearded fellow invited. He reminded me of a prize fighter in his prime; scarred with experience but at the top of his game. A younger version of Oses, even. Yowza.

  His friend wasn’t bad either, especially when I contemplated a smile that promised pure evil...the kind of evil I enjoy. My hormonal soup was instantly at a simmer. Temptation is a brutal bitch. Thank goodness I need some emotional tie to the men I roll around with, or my libido might have swayed me.

  We giggled at our flirtatious suitors, more similar to a bunch of teenage girls rather than the grown women we were. Those guys were delicious to contemplate, however.

  For once, Katrina was the sensible person in the group. “Thanks, but we’re in the middle of a project.”

  “Maybe some other time,” Evil Grin said. “We come over from the destroyer every four days at this hour. If you’re nervous, we’d be glad to be your escorts.”

  Candy goggled at him, a moth to a flame. “Every four days? What are your names?”

  The two were delighted that one of us might be interested, especially pretty cheerleader-looking Candy.

  “I am Nobek Ama.” The prize-fighter bowed deeply.

  “And I am Nobek Mihi.” Evil Grin bowed as well.

  Katrina rolled her eyes and went into the potential dance club. I stayed behind long enough to hear Candy introduce herself to the two Nobeks. Getting the idea she wanted some time alone with the amorous pair, I trooped into our would-be dance spot with the other girls.

  The location certainly seemed cavernous compared to the others we’d been in. It was dark too and lit only by the illumination coming in through the open door. Apparently, the power had been cut. We could discern quite a bit from the spill of light that filtered in.

  Katrina appeared rather pleased despite the emptiness. “Now this is a party spot,” she announced. Her voice echoed.

  “But the other room had all that stuff we could have used,” someone pointed out.

  “Acquisitions will get us what we need, right? Besides, maybe we can move the goodies from the other venue into this one,” I said. “It can’t be that hard to wire it for a sound system, either.”

  “I’ll find out what I can make happen.” Katrina seemed pleased. “Ladies, I think we have our dance club.”

  We gave a cheer. All of us, except a freckled redhead named Heather. Instead of looking happy, she had a confused expression on her face.

  “Heather?” I asked as we settled down.

  Fear began creeping over her face as she stared over my shoulder, towards the door that led out to the promenade. “What is that?” she whispered to us.

  We turned at once. Someone screamed. I couldn’t breathe.

  A figure, moving Kalquorian fast so that it was just a dark blur, ran back and forth on that end of the room. It raced from wall to wall, crossing in front of the door and barring us from getting out.

  My lungs gathered air all at once, filling up so I could scream with the others. Then the dark blur abruptly vanished.

  I don’t even remember running out with the rest of them. One moment I was staring where the figure had disappeared, and the next I was back on the promenade, huddled in a knot with the rest. Cries surrounded me.

  “Did you see it?”

  “What was it?”

  “Was that some sort of alien? Shalia, was that the thing that kidnapped you before?”

  “Where did it go? Did anyone see?”

  More questions, coming from pale, terrified faces. A couple of women were crying.

  Candy rushed over. “What happened? I was just about to join you, when you all came running out. What’s going on?”

  I grabbed her. “The ghost. The ghost was in there, blocking the door so we couldn’t get out. Then it disappeared and we escaped.”

  I was jabbering, breathless with dread. The entity was following me, and now it was threatening those around me. It had tried to trap us.

  Candy’s eyes were as big as saucers. “It was in the place we might turn into a club? Are you sure?”

  “Damn straight she’s sure.” Katrina acted pissed off as well as anxious. “I don’t believe in that shit, but – but unless one of our guys is playing a hateful trick on us, there was something messed up in there.”

  Naturally, the sight of nearly a dozen women running and screaming had attracted plenty of attention. Kalquorian men surrounded us, trying to get us to settle down and talk some sense to them. Many showed fangs, reacting to our fright.

  A familiar voice boomed, quieting everyone. “What is this? What is going on?”

  “We don’t know, Commander,” a Nobek answered Oses as he strode big and bad into our midst. “The Mataras think they’ve been threatened, but we haven’t been able to get them to tell us what happened.”

  Oses’s gaze found me, and his jaw went tight. “Shalia, tell me what you saw.”

  I swallowed. “We went into that space over there. That venue by the pleasure club.”

  He peered where I pointed. “That facility is empty. There is nothing in there.”

  “We know,” Katrina supplied. “We were planning to renovate it into a dance club.”

  “But there was something in it,” I said. “Something bad.”

  Even with eight others there who had witnessed what I did, I hesitated to say the word ‘ghost’. I thought Oses would react the way Betra had. It was bad enough that one of the men in my life thought I was still batshit crazy. It would be even worse if Oses thought I was descending into madness again, because he already blamed himself for what had happened to me on the Ofetuchan ship.

  Oses turned to a couple of the Nobeks nearby. “Go search it. Check if there is anything amiss in there.”
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  They quickly obeyed. Meanwhile, Oses scanned my shuddering group. “Did you all witness an event of some sort?”

  They nodded, with the exception of Candy. It gave me courage. Oses couldn’t call me nuts if others saw the same thing.

  He asked Katrina, “What exactly did you see?”

  Our eldest member was standing straighter, marshaling her courage. “I saw what appeared to be a Kalquorian running at full speed, back and forth. In fact, I’d swear that was exactly what it was, except it disappeared from sight.”