by Alyx X
"Come, Karon, you must see my wife. She's been hoping to run into you." Jarix was enjoying our little skit. He put his hand on my back and took one of the bags from ‘Karon’. "I'll get that, thank you." I contained my laugh, delighting in our little ruse. This was just one tiny way we could send a big ‘fuck you’ to the TerraLink Program.
“Why, I’d love to see her! It’s been ages!” I said flippantly, letting myself be steered by Jarix’s strong hand on my back. His English was impeccable. How had he learned it so fast? The night before when we'd run over this conversation, he'd stumbled quite a few times with pronunciation. "How'd you get the accent down?" I asked under my breath as we left.
"I repeated it all night while you slept." I hid my smile. We walked out of the grocer and into the street. Straight into the path of a Gurg. Shit. They were disgusting creatures. TerraLink had taken to hiring them to walk around The Glass City and keep people in line, as well as grunt soldiers on the ships they used to transport their human livestock. Slime oozed from this one’s pores and his breath was bad enough to make the people on the street avoid him—not that they weren't already.
He glanced at us, then turned to walk away and my heart settled back into its rightful place. The appearance of the Gurg had shoved it right into my throat. As we walked away I heard him slow down and turn, then his brain caught up to his eyes. "Hey!" he shouted. "Stop right there!"
Jarix and I exchanged panicked glances. I didn’t hesitate, I just reacted. I swung and hit the Gurg in the face with the bag of water bottles in my hand. The heavy bottles crashed against his skull, but the bag busted, and the bottles scattered. One of the human guards heard the commotion and ran our way.
"Come on," I hissed to Jarix, dying a little inside from the loss of the water. We took off running, trying to get to the next street over before the human guard caught up to us. The people on the street melted out of our way. Nobody wanted to be nearby when the Terran guards made an arrest. Unfortunately, the human soldier got close enough to grab at Jarix.
Jarix dodged, and the soldier grabbed the bag of food instead. It ripped, and the carefully selected items fell everywhere. Jarix punched the guard as I watched my lunch meat fly into the air. No. We’d already lost the water, and the idea of losing the meat was too much for me.
Lunging to the side, I snatched the package of meat out of the air and then switched it to my right hand so I could grab Jarix's hand with my left. The Gurg was heading our way and the human guard was on the ground. Jarix bent over and grabbed a handful of the food packages. Then, as the Gurg turned down the street we'd darted down, Jarix ran backward for a few seconds and pelted the packages at the Gurg as hard as he could.
The sight of meat as weapons was too much for my adrenaline-filled body and I laughed at him. I kept running, giggling and sounding like a crazy person, clutching my one meat pack close to my chest. Jarix ran backwards as fast as forwards, especially since I kept one hand on his arm to guide him. The Gurg shouted after us, and Jarix turned around to run faster with me. "He tripped," he said gleefully. I snorted, yanking us faster.
As we got further down the street, and farther away from the initial shouting, people milled about more. They hadn't realized there was a commotion this far away. We slowed and blended into the crowd, hearts racing. The guards must've alerted each other though, because another human guard stood on something in the street half a block away, searching the crowd.
I pulled Jarix behind an open-air cart. "We can't go that way."
Desperate to get away, we looked around the street. We were definitely in the wealthy part of the city now, and we stuck out in our threadbare clothing. When I was about to lose hope, I spotted a ladder. It was a fire escape for the nice apartments above the shops that lined the streets. "There," I hissed. "If we can go up fast enough, we can get to the roof." What we’d do then didn’t matter right now.
Jarix ran over and yanked on the ladder, but it wouldn't budge. "It's stuck. Here." He held out his hand. "I'll give you a boost."
"What about you?" I asked.
He laughed and looked around. "Hurry. I can get up there on my own."
I didn't argue anymore, just shoved my meat into the bag of medicine thankfully still on my back, then put my foot in his hand. He didn't boost me. I had to bite back a squeal as he launched me up and onto the ladder. If he'd thrown me any harder, I might've gone all the way to the roof.
I giggled at his show of strength and how hot it was, then climbed as fast as I could. The ladder shook, signaling that Jarix had made it onto it. I didn't let that stop me, and soon I climbed on top of one of the taller buildings in this part of the city. It wasn't like the skyscrapers of the corporate buildings, but it hid us from the view of anyone in the vicinity because we were so high up.
Lucky us. We collapsed on the ground and leaned against the side wall that lined the roof, tucking into a corner in case a ship flew by. As we caught our breath, the laughter and adrenaline faded, and I began to feel more and more hopeless. "I'm so tired of this," I whispered.
Jarix took my hand. "I am, too."
We sat for a few more minutes until my stomach growled. At least I had one thing to look forward to. "Oh, I managed to save this." I pulled the meat out of the bag and opened it. Sticking it close to my nose, I inhaled the fragrant aroma of fresh deli meat.
"A delicacy," I whispered. "Try some."
Giving Jarix the honor of the first bite, I peeled off a piece and rolled it up. He bit into it, then closed his eyes and moaned.
I crammed the rest of it into my mouth. "Oh, lovely," I whispered.
"You're lovely," he replied. "We'll figure something out, okay?" He grinned. "I have something for us, too." He reached around and into his pants. "I grabbed this."
My jaw dropped. It was one of the smaller bottles of water. "How?" I asked.
"When I bent to grab the food to throw at the Gurg," he explained. "I figured we'd need it." I opened the bottle and took a sip. It was almost better than the meat. Crisp and cool, it slid down my parched throat. I was careful to only drink a few sips, then offered it to Jarix. He took a few and closed it up. "We'll want that later, I'm sure."
The city was in the coolest part of the world, and the midday sun only got hot enough to break us out in a light sweat. The coolest night back at camp was hotter than this. If we hadn't been indoors during the night here, we might've gotten truly cold.
"We have to figure something out, or we might as well turn ourselves over to the Gurgs," I whispered. We couldn't hide on the roof much longer. They were sure to find us eventually if we didn't move. Jarix nodded, still chewing. I gazed at his beautiful face, glad at least that we were doing this together. "I'm exhausted. I've been hiding and running my entire life." I sounded bitter as I ate one more piece of meat. Strangely, I was so full I couldn't manage another bite. The feeling was nice, but I worried my full belly might slow me down in the impending chase. I held the package out to Jarix. "Better finish it."
He ate the last chunk in one bite. When he finished, he wiped his mouth on his sleeve. "We need a ship."
"There's only one place to get a ship," I said and nodded toward the big skyscrapers. I’d been running through the possibility of stealing a TerraLink ship a few times over the day we’d been in the city. Even though it seemed like our only option, I was desperate to find another solution. Well, I had been before that chase through the streets.
"What do we have to lose?" he asked, his golden eyes begging me to take one last leap with him. It was hugely risky. Even more so than repairing the pod out in the desert all these last weeks. However, Jarix was right. I gazed into those incredible eyes, amazed we’d even made it this far, then nodded.
“Let’s steal a ship.”
20
Jarix
"You're amazing," I whispered to myself as I watched Evvie through the glass storefront. She spoke to the cashier in the clothing shop. She'd had to climb down the building after we’d decided to steal a T
erraLink ship. We hadn't been able to find a ladder on the other side, and the other buildings were too far away for her to jump. I'd considered throwing her, but wouldn't risk it.
I'd jumped to the next roof, then worked my way down the street quickly before I was spotted. At the base of the building we'd hidden on was a clothing shop. We needed new clothes if we hoped to get anywhere with our plan, and I’d lost my hat in the fray. Evvie had planned to find a new hat for me, saying my hair was still too different. It wasn't unheard of for the wealthier men of the city to wear stylish headgear, so we just needed clothing to match.
I'd doubled back once I made it to the street, heading for the store in the opposite direction Evvie had. She'd climbed down and gone straight in. She'd been worried they would kick her out immediately, but seemed to think she could talk her way into getting our clothes.
When I walked in, she had a pile in her arms and was ready to go. She tugged on her earlobe to let me know. We pulled the same scam again. Me pretending to recognize her as I forced the computer to mark her purchases as paid. Then, instead of walking out together, she went without me and I browsed the selections. I grabbed a pair of pants that I thought might fit me and headed to the register. It was risky to do the same scam twice in a row, but I managed it. Besides, what hadn’t we done that was risky lately?
We didn’t walk out of the store together. We planned to stay separated and change our clothing, then meet in a cafe she remembered from her time in the city. She'd said she’d seen it when she went to the TerraLink headquarters to sign up for their program. If the cafe was gone, our backup plan was to meet at the headquarters, walking past every quarter-hour until we ran into one another. Together we were conspicuous, but separately we blended easier.
She had walked around the building and dropped the bag with my other clothes behind the dumpster there like we also planned. I ducked behind it and changed as fast as I could, then threw my old clothes inside the dumpster after cleaning off my black boots as much as possible. The shop hadn't sold shoes, and we didn't want to risk another trip to buy some. I also had a sneaking suspicion that the humans wouldn’t have shoes to fit me. Perks of being an alien, I guess.
I still had the bag of medicine, but there was nothing I could do about that. We had to keep it. At least it was an inconspicuous black bag.
Finding the headquarters was simple. They were the enormous glass towers. They formed a clear path to the front. It was better for security that way, though in the event of a fire they were screwed. One way in and one way out. The cafe was right where she remembered it, and she sat in the corner with a cup of brown liquid. It looked terrible, but the shop smelled amazing. As I approached the cashier, I thought her drink might have been coffee. I'd heard of coffee, a liquid that humans used to give them energy, but I'd never tasted it.
"A coffee, please." After smiling at the cashier, I turned to point at Evvie. "And has she paid for hers yet?"
"No, sir."
"Put it on my tab. I haven't seen her for years." I gave the cashier my most winning smile, then touched the register with my fingertip while she scanned the ident band. After a slight pause, the register beeped, and a receipt printed. "Thank you."
I took the mug of steaming brown liquid and walked to the table, repeating my Karon routine one more time. We sat as if we had all the time in the world. She sipped the coffee and hummed in pleasure. "I missed this stuff," she said, sounding far away. I could tell the events of the last few days—weeks—were wearing on her, and I vowed to bring her to a place she could truly relax. Even if Haltrean wasn’t real, I vowed to find her somewhere similar. My little human deserved at least that much.
Watching her tired smile, I tried a sip of the liquid and nearly choked. It was bitter as hell. Definitely one of the worst things I'd ever tasted—and I'd spent years on a prison ship! "How can you drink this?" I hissed.
"I love it, but it can be an acquired taste. It's still water, though, so drink it all."
I nodded and choked the liquid down, gulping the hot coffee as fast as I could stand. When it was gone, I sighed in relief. "At least that's over."
She giggled. "Okay, are you ready?" We had to go into the headquarters together because I needed to mask our entry in their computer systems. If there was facial recognition software, I had to manipulate it. Otherwise, I could've just touched someone else's ident band and duplicated the information in ours.
"I could go first and try to keep my hand on the system long enough to erase our facial recognition," I said quietly as we exited the shop.
She shook her head. "No, we already said that might take too long. Stick to the plan, weak as it is."
"Tell me again what you know about the building," I said.
She'd only been in it to sign up for their lottery, so as soon as she'd entered she'd been shuffled off to the lottery payment area on the first floor. "The first floor is the lottery office. The second time I came, after being notified I'd been selected for the lottery, they took me straight to the top floor. The roof of this place is covered in ships, and from what I saw as we took off, there are ships on landings that jut out from the building on different levels. The only ships that I know are space-worthy are the ones at the very top."
Our plan was thin. Basically, it was to get inside and find a ship to steal. We didn't have time to do anything else. It’s not like the city would give us refuge. Even the most sympathetic of people would only be able to hide us for a day or two. It was a city that didn't know the meaning of rebellion. The corporation squashed them too quickly and without regard for life or liberty. It made me angry, but not enough to risk our tentative plan. My priority was getting Evvie the hell away from this shithole of a planet.
We walked a few feet away from each other as we approached the front entrance. Evvie went first and joined the queue to go inside. We waited while three people in front of us were cleared, then when the guard scanned Evvie's armband, I touched the base of his scanner, on a table beside him. As it scanned her information, I changed it to the details I had in my head, giving her the name Karon Waldir. I held the ident Hank had given me out, as if bored. He scanned it, and I added my information into the system. The guard nodded and I walked into the building, hoping my face didn’t betray my nerves. Evvie was already inside, walking purposefully toward the elevators.
That had been the easy part. While I'd had my hand on the machine, I'd searched the databases for facial recognition software but hadn't found any. That was suspicious. This planet was primitive, but not that bad. Evvie adjusted her shirt in front of the elevators, looking bored and elegant. I didn't know how she'd gotten her hair into a sleek bun, but she looked like all the other wealthy women here, except for her tan skin. I stopped beside her. "Karon, how are you?"
She looked at me in surprise, our routine down to a science now. "Well, thank you. I trust you are too?"
"Yes. Busy day. I need to get to the bigger network repairs today." Rocking on my heels, I looked around and hoped she understood that I was fairly sure the scanner hadn't been connected to the bigger network. If we were going to destroy any facial recognition, it would have to have been from their main network. She looked at me curiously for a moment, then nodded subtly. The elevator opened, and we filed in along with several other people.
I had no idea what floor I needed to get to. A man that had been standing nearby looked at me with his eyebrows raised. I floundered for what he could want me to say. Remembering the strange handshaking custom, I realized I was not equipped to have normal conversation with any humans besides Evvie.
"Going to the computer lab?" the man asked, talking slowly. He thought I was an idiot. In this instance, he was right.
I nodded, relieved. "Yes, thank you."
He pressed the number seven and turned away. Evvie and I ignored each other as the elevator stopped on every floor with humans in nice suits and other professional clothing got on and off. When the doors opened on the seventh floor, I stepped off and t
urned left as if I knew the way to go. I had to hope it was right. Ideally, I hoped to be able to get back on the next elevator and go straight to the top floor this time. I'd been stupid and talked about computers, which had resulted in my current predicament.
Evvie followed me out. Her light footsteps gave her away, like an animal on the hunt. I smiled at my little warrior, bolstered by her presence.
A man with a clipboard walked out of a doorway in front of me. "Oh, I'm glad to see you," he said, and I jolted to a stop. "There's a massive water leak on the fourteenth floor." He gazed up at me, and I averted my gaze, hoping he wouldn’t notice the color of my eyes.
Evvie walked past me, then stopped and smacked her head. "I forgot my bag." She rolled her eyes and nodded at the strange man and me as she went back for the elevators. I wished she would have stayed to help me out of this conversation. I didn’t know what to say next.
The man gave her a puzzled look as she retreated. "She looks familiar."
I shrugged. "I don't know her. I'll go straight for that leak." I hoped that was the right thing to say. He nodded but continued looking back at Evvie with a puzzled look on his face. I turned and walked swiftly towards the elevators and slipped on as Evvie did. It was full of people, as it had been before.
"Hey, wait!" the man suddenly shouted. Ignoring him, I reached forward and jabbed my finger into the button for the highest floor, then hit the button to close the doors.
"I think he wanted on," the woman beside me said.
"Who?" I asked as if I hadn't heard him.
She squinted at me and looked away with her nose in the air. Too good to explain, I guessed. The elevator skipped two floors, getting us closer to the top, but when it opened on the tenth, a bell sounded within the elevator. It startled me, so I stepped quickly off and went to the right. Evvie caught up fast. "Why'd you leave?" she hissed.