“Fine.” I said. “Say all this is true and that I believe you. Just what is it that you expect me to be able to do? I mean, really do?”
“We had hoped you might be able to steal a copy of their data base. As an Alartaw, there would be no reason you would not be able to gain access to this information. Especially given your unique skills.” Here the Kievor paused a moment, then went on; “Any data you would be able to acquire would be a help to us; military structure and strength, weapons systems, maps, military objectives, anything you could get.”
“Yeah I’ll just walk in and ask for a copy of their Classified Military Database.” I said sarcastically. Did they really expect me to be able to walk into this completely unknown society, of the most technologically advanced species in the known Universe (according to the Kievors), and just waltz back out again with all their Top Secret data? Ridiculous!
“We think you are capable of accomplishing this.” The Kievor said.
“I’m sure you do.” I said. “It won’t be your neck on the line. You know, really, it sounds like a piece of cake. So what if they capture me and torture me for the next ten million years. My throat will get a little sore from screaming, but I’ll be fine!”
“I’m going with.” Tanya said. “It’s two million for me too.”
“I’m not going,” I said, “and if I did I wouldn’t involve you.”
“I wasn’t asking.” Tanya said. “If you’re going, I’m going with, to make sure it gets done.”
“Maybe we should all go.” Melanie said.
“I’m not going.” Bren said.
“You can’t all go.” The Kievor said. “I think we can find places for the two of you, though.” He meant Tanya and me.
“She’s not going.” I said.
“I’m going.” Tanya repeated, this time with slitted eyes.
“Then it’s all settled.” The Kievor said, I swear, with a tone of self-satisfied conceit.
“There’s still the matter of the additional two million Credits.” Tanya said, as if an extra two million Credits meant anything at all with the amount of Credits we already had. But Tanya is Tanya. She could never be anything less than what she is. “Nothing’s settled just yet.”
I looked at the Kievor with evident relief. It was never going to agree to the additional two million. So Tanya would not be coming. I did not want her in my way. I did not want to be responsible for her. It was going to be hard enough just worrying about myself, I did not need the additional stress.
“Agreed,” The damn grass-eater told Tanya without hesitation, “and well worth it if you succeed.”
“We’ll succeed.” Tanya swore. “We have no choice, do we!” It wasn’t a question.
“Our necks are on the chopping block as well as yours.” The Kievor said. “If you are captured they will wring everything from you. Do not even bother trying to keep it a secret if you are captured. We know what the risks are and we accept them.”
“Your necks were already on the chopping block.” I said. “Do not make it sound as if you are putting yourself out to do this, or that you are in some way helping us.” The Kievors did not do anything unless there was an angle. Unless there was something in it for them.
“Yes, our necks are on the chopping block, as you say.” The Kievor said. “But only insomuch as we would not be able to honor the alliances we have made. Among the Kievor we value honor above all things. However, we do feel that you have a better than average chance of success, but also, you must know, that we feel that you are the last option. The last chance of finding a way to resolve this that does not include all Kievors leaving this part of the Universe forever.”
“That’s comforting to know.” I said.
“It is not meant to be comforting.” The Kievor said. “Now that we have chosen a course, we must not delay. Further delay could be our undoing.”
Easy for it to say, I thought, since it wasn’t going to be turned into an alien and tortured for ten million years.
The Kievor got up again and trotted around its desk and out the door, leaving us to look at one another, wondering what to do next. The Kievors were actually very graceful animals, if animals quite correctly described what they were. It was hard for me to get around the word animal when I was thinking about them, but they are animals! They will always be animals, no matter how sophisticated they become. Prey animals, and I knew how much it rankled some of the races to be subservient to them, when it would seem more apt to be eating them than to be doing business with them, especially in a subservient position.
“Follow along please.” The Kievor said from the corridor after a moment. We got up and followed it. After a short walk it came to a different lift than the one we had used to come here, and the light on the wall lit up without physical manipulation. More Kievor technology, but if I were a Kievor and had to manipulate all my tools with my lips, from pressing the buttons for a lift to wiping my ass, I’d probably be in a hurry to invent the technology required to relieve me of those duties, as well. Imagine having to wipe your ass with your lips!!
“Say your goodbyes.” The Kievor said as the lift arrived. It was almost instantaneous from the moment the light lit up until it arrived. There was no delay when it was a Kievor who was waiting.
“Well,” I said, turning to them, “I guess if I don’t make it the four of you inherit, but Last Chance stays docked until I return. Or until I’m dead, whichever comes sooner.”
“There’ll be no docking fees for either ship nor problems opening my account to my crew?” I added.
“Of course not.”
“Then I guess this is it.” I said. Melanie came forward and gave me a hug. She smelled good and felt good, and made me think of Cheryl, even though I knew that Cheryl would never take me back now. Bren glared at me, but his fears were misplaced.
Manuel shook my hand. Janice nodded. Nobody paid the slightest attention to Tanya, but that was the way Tanya liked it. Always aloof, distant, strong.
“Are you done crying now?” Tanya asked. “Can we go?”
“Been waiting for you.” I said.
We three got on the lift and I immediately saw why it had gotten there so quickly. This wasn’t a general lift. This lift had no controls whatever, was paneled in expensive wood (variety unknown) and was obviously for the Kievors use alone.
“Have either of you ever been below Level One?” The Kievor asked as the door closed and shut away our view of my crew, whom, I thought, there was a very strong possibility I would never ever see again.
“No. Never.” I answered.
“Once.” Tanya said. Both the Kievor and I looked at her. It was obviously news to both of us, but she didn’t elaborate and I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. I had never heard of anyone, of any race, ever getting to travel below Level One, but I also knew that Tanya was not one prone to exaggeration or lies. If she said she had been below Level One, then she had been below Level One. Yet somehow I did not think that she had been there by invitation, though that was, of course, supposed to be impossible. She smiled at us but did not elaborate.
Only a moment later, though I couldn’t tell that the lift had even moved, the door opened and we were in Kievor territory. It wasn’t what I had been expecting, though I wasn’t sure just what I had been expecting. Whatever I had been expecting, this wasn’t it.
We walked off the lift onto a grassy plain that stretched out before us as far as the curve of the Station would allow us to see. The moment we exited the lift the lift itself melted into the ground under our feet and was instantly gone. Herds of Kievor grazed upon the plain, eating the luxuriant grasses that grew here. There must have been tens of thousands of them in sight, literally, yet they seemed small and insignificant compared to the vastness of the plain. Soft white light glowed from the ceiling just meters above my head, bathing all in its warm, star like radiance. It felt warm on my skin. It was a stunning, picturesque scene.
“We wanted to share our world with you, show you th
e way we live, before we move on to the technological heart of the Station.” Said proudly.
“I’d never considered it,” I said, “but now it makes total sense. No wonder you don’t allow anyone else down here. They would only despoil it.” I had to admit that this view of the way they lived made me view them in a totally new light. How in touch with their heritage they were. How close to nature they lived, even if they had had to manufacture that nature. This was still a place of living things. A world alive, even if it were inside a fabricated construct. Humans had despoiled most of their worlds, of course. We had no respect for the living environment except as we could benefit from it in the here and now, and to hell with the future generations. This was a place to envy.
“We must go now.” The Kievor said, ending our tour as quickly as it had begun. I didn’t blame them for not wanting us there. They had seen how we treated our own worlds.
The lift reappeared and we boarded. The door closed and almost immediately began opening again. It took longer for the door to open and close than the trip itself, but I figured the slowness of the door was aesthetic only. I had no doubt it could open or close with the same lightning swiftness that everything else moved for the Kievors had they wanted it to.
Here now were the trans-metal corridors. The rooms with computers, electronic and other gadgetry that I had always associated with the Kievors. We only had a short walk and we found ourselves turning into a med-bay that seemed to have been designed with us in mind. Had been designed just for us.
This room was dominated by twin auto-docs that seemed little different than the docs in Last Chance. They didn’t appear to be made of trans-metal but I had a feeling that everything within the Kievor Trade Station could be manipulated the same as the trans-metal we saw in the upper levels. I believed that they could create, out of pure nothingness, except for the energy required, anything which they desired. It was as nearly close to godhood as any mere physical being could transcend. But not so close that they did not fear another race as technologically advanced, I could not forget. There would be no forgetting that.
Two other Kievors waited in the room, one by each of the docs. They were identical to the Kievor who had escorted us here, as far as I could tell, and both wore the disc communicators on their necks.
“We’re fully prepared to start your treatments.” Said the Kievor by the doc meant for me. I knew it was meant for me because the table had been molded to accommodate me. The second doc’s table had the same molding, except obviously for Tanya’s form. “You need only undress and lie upon the tables.”
Tanya was in no way embarrassed and was out of her clothes in only moments, but not until after disgorging a number of objects only some of which were obvious weapons. She put them all on the table next to her doc which had been provided, obviously, for that purpose. I couldn’t help my admiring glance as I too undressed. She was as catlike and lithe, graceful and confident without her clothing as with.
She made a hands on hips pose and smirked at me as I undressed, but I certainly had nothing to be embarrassed about. I smirked back when I stood there as naked as her, letting her know she had won no points, but inwardly had to admit that of the two of us, she looked the much better than I in the nude.
Without further thought to the horrific consequences we were letting ourselves in for, we climbed onto our individual tables and were immediately drawn into the interiors of the docs. The openings closed and there could be no turning back.
I felt a needle prick me and I was gone into dreamless sleep.
CHAPTER 8
The one thing I did like about going into a doc, when it was necessary, was that one minute you are going in, and the next, at least to the senses of the one affected, you are coming back out again, with no recollection of the time spent within. When I awoke I had to think about it for a moment before I was sure this was the tail end of the operation and not still just the beginning. It was like taking a nap sometimes, you aren’t even sure you had fallen asleep, until you looked at the clock. There was no clock inside the doc but I remembered the needle prick. I wouldn’t still be awake after that, so this had to be the end. Prick in the arm, eyes closed, eyes opened, it was over. Even as I considered this the end of the doc opened and I was assailed by brilliant light. Then I was sliding out.
The clarity of the light was affecting me strangely. Everything was clearer somehow, than I ever remembered. More acute, as if my vision was now different. They seemed to adjust out of the darkness more swiftly than I could ever remember them doing before. The brightness of the light only bothered me for a moment and then the discomfort was gone and I was seeing normally.
I got off the retractable table in a sinuous movement that startled me with my own grace and ease. I felt coordinated and strong, terrible, powerful, deadly.
I have always considered myself fast, coordinated and strong, but this was new and amazing. I stretched and moved through two complicated Katas as the two Kievor technicians warily looked on. I thought I could fight an enraged Kirisha lizard with my bare hands and win handily. Whatever else happened, I was keeping the autonomous reflexes I had just been given. I might even keep the fangs my tongue now encountered. I had never, ever, felt so alive.
“I begin to see why these Alartaw feel so superior.” I said, but I wasn’t expecting an answer because the two Kievor now in the room (I had no idea if they were the same who had been before) were no longer wearing the disc neck translators.
“They are a very dangerous species, in every aspect of the word dangerous.” The Kievor closest to me said, startling me. The Kievors speech always startled me anyway. You just didn’t expect speech from an animal that reminded you of dinner on the hoof. The way their lips had to twist around crazily to form the words. Plus they had not been speaking Galacta when I had gone under.
“How long was I out?” I asked, but before the Kievor could answer the second doc opened and Tanya began to slide out. Or at least what I had been expecting as Tanya.
If I had thought Tanya beautiful before, she was now twice so. She flowed from the table like water, all grace and prowess and confidence, reminding me of a big cat more than a biped. The overall structure was the same. She was built like a human woman, except much more muscular. Curvy. I felt the muscles enhanced rather than detracted from her femininity. She smiled at me, at ease in her nakedness, showing wicked fangs, and looked me over as closely as I was doing her.
“You were unconscious for five human Standards.” The same Kievor said. That meant five twenty-four hour periods. It seemed a long time considering the Kievors technological level. The changes must have been profound.
Most animals, including sentient ones, have a better sense of smell than do humans, and to my regret my new Alartaw sense did not seem any more acute, which was kind of a letdown. I guess it didn’t matter. Evolved humans had never needed their sense of smell and it had slowly been removed from the species. Humans had no need of early warning devices because we had just stood and fought anyway. We had been too slow to escape most carnivores, and so we had learned to fight, carving our legacy through the other great carnivores of ancient Earth, as obviously the Alartaw had done on their own home world.
“Now that you’ve turned us into these Alartaw, how do you propose to integrate us into their society?” Tanya asked. “I’m guessing you have some plan.” She began stalking around the med bay now like some restless predator on the prowl, forcing the Kievors to move nervously out of her way. They looked like herd animals now more than ever and I was half expecting her to leap upon one of them and begin tearing at their flesh.
Watching her gave me the sudden feeling to do just that as I watched the Kievor’s hides ripple in nervous fear as they sidled out of her way. The Alartaw were definitely predators and no wonder the Kievor did not let other species down here with them.
“Yes, we have a plan.” The second Kievor said as it retreated behind a desk that the nude stalking predator who used to be Tanya loo
ked as if she might just follow it right behind as well (and chaos would undoubted ensue). The first Kievor now looked longingly at the space behind the desk its fellow had taken as Tanya now turned towards it, looking as if it might consider fighting its fellow for the spot.
“Knock it off, Tanya.” I snapped as she continued moving towards the first Kievor, whose flesh literally began to crawl. I saw images in my mind of frantic Kievors trampling us under their hooves, but I knew that of course it would not happen like that; they were guarded by their technology and if Tanya sufficiently angered them we would feel its bite.
“Hmm!” Tanya mused, but she turned from her games to face me, her nudity proudly on display. “The dominant Alartaw male marks his territory.”
“You didn’t seem to inherit any of the female Alartaw submission.” I commented sarcastically. “Let’s be about our business.”
“Yes, dominant male.” She said, but smirked to show I had won no points. It wasn’t as if she had planned to leap upon the Kievor, I hoped, she was just having her usual fun.
With a wink of her eye she desisted her amusements and slinked over to the table next to her doc and began dressing in the clothes that had been laid out there. I began dressing in my own.
“There are two Alartaw who run a bar here.” The Kievor who was still behind the desk began again, now that the atmosphere had settled. “They are the only Alartaw who reside herein, and as we understand, had a hard time acquiring the permissions from their government to do so. We, of course, were eager to accommodate them, for the opportunities it presented us, to study them, to engender relations, or failing in that, for the opportunity to infiltrate them. We believe we can safely switch the two of you for the two of them. Then it will be up to you to find a way back aboard their ships and into their data base.”
“Cut and dried.” I said harshly, suddenly very much regretting my decision to do this. “You have to be kidding. That’s your plan? It’s pure improvisation. It will never work. You expect bartenders to somehow get access to their military data-base? I must be out of my mind!”
Chronicles of a Space Mercenary Page 18