Rogue Sign

by Elin Wyn

  One wrong word, and over we’d go.

  “Not too many people even know the word,” he grunted.

  Scro. I certainly hadn’t before we took the job to pick up ice near their system, but now it seemed like just the knowledge painted a target on my back.

  He tapped the paperwork but didn’t seem to be paying attention to it anymore. “What do you know about that shipment?”

  I rolled my shoulder, thinking. “I don’t know anything. But rumor was, they ended up here and left just before…” and this was where the risk came in. “Just before Dominion arrived to retrieve them. Is any of that true?”

  He hit me with a stare that damn-near made me drop the subject and leave.

  I held my hands up, hoping that nonchalance would work. “I just wanted to know what sorts of trouble my sister and I should be on the lookout for. We don’t need any hassle.”

  “You say it was rumor?”

  I nodded, not sure what he was thinking. Better to stay silent now.

  “You heard it on Katzul?” he asked.

  Another nod from me.

  He leaned back in his chair and I could hear the metal groan under his considerably muscular bulk. How the chair hadn’t already broken was beyond me. After what seemed like forever, he took a deep breath and leaned forward. “I didn’t know that bit of info had traveled that far.”

  “Yeah, the whole thing seemed surprising to me, too. Just weird. It was circulating around in the back alleys and the underground, if that means anything,” I said.

  “It is sort of true,” he said. “If reports are correct, there were human women here at Qasar. One of my men, Hurd, went to go see. He said he found them.”

  So, Hurd was the name of the bastard that had attacked us. I was happy that bastard was dead. “What happened?”

  “If they really were the human women, he was supposed to stop them so we could move in.”

  “I’m assuming, since you used the words ‘supposed to,’ that he didn’t?” I asked.

  Skud nodded. “Hurd disappeared. He said that he had found a way onto their ship and that he would stop them. Never heard from him again, and no one in Enclave has the human women.”

  One last piece of information, and I’d stop. My gut clenched. This was risky. This was stupid.

  But I had to know.

  “Did he ever tell you where he’d found them? Seems like a long shot to me.”

  If Hurd had told Skud about the Rogue Star, it was only a matter of time before one of his men told him we were here.

  I held my breath until Skud shook his head, scowling.

  Unless he was lying, he didn’t know about the Rogue Star or that she was docked just a few spaces away from his own ship. And while Skud could be a vicious bastard, he didn’t seem to have an aptitude for dissembling.

  “You don’t seem to be too upset over Hurd’s disappearance,” I remarked.

  He shrugged. “Eh, Hurd was a pain. He not a hard worker like your sister, or you.” I nodded thanks. He seemed to be over my ‘mistake’ and seemed to be willing to treat me like a member again. “I have assignment for you later.”

  “I’m up for it, as long as I’m not carrying spiked podell, that is,” I cracked. His laughter echoed throughout the room and eased my own reservations. He still scared me a bit, even when he was in a good mood.

  “No worries, we not deal with those painful bastards,” he laughed. “Whoever decided to make those things is terrible person, huh?”

  I laughed with him as I nodded. Podells were essentially a ball of spikes with feet, claws, and a tail. They could shoot their spikes out nearly thirty feet, and they secreted a terrible smell that stuck with you for days. It was a nauseating smell, and I had only been within a few feet of someone that had tangled with one.

  He grew a serious again as he started stacking his paperwork together. “How long ago did you hear rumor on Katzul?”

  “Uh,” I took a deep breath as I tried to retrace how long it had been since we were there. I needed to make sure I took some time off that to make sure I didn’t raise his suspicions. “I heard it maybe a day or two before we left for here.”

  “Did you fold here?” he rumbled.

  I shook my head. “No. Didn’t have the credits for a ship that folded. Took the slow way.” It wasn’t exactly a lie, we did take the slow trip, up until Maris and Orrin finally put aside their issues and worked together to fix the engines so they wouldn’t leave behind a trail.

  “So, it take three days to get here,” he said more to himself than me. “That mean that someone else know about that ship and know about girls. Enclave not be happy about that.”

  He pushed himself up from the table, grabbed his paperwork, and headed towards the door. “Clean up,” he said as he put his hand on the door. He hesitated a moment, then looked back at me. “Keep your mouth shut about this, I don’t want others to hear.”

  I nodded hastily. “Understood,” I said, making sure to put a little bit of fear into my voice to let him know I understood completely. He nodded and left, the door slamming shut behind him with a resounding boom.

  I spent a few moments getting my breathing under control before I grabbed my plate, and his, and went into the kitchen to clean them. He had never mentioned the Dominion, only Enclave.

  Could that mean that the Dominion wasn’t involved, and that Enclave was merely using stolen Dominion uniforms and the Dominion’s name to push their operation forward?

  Was there a chance that whoever Aryn had seen dealing with Skud wasn’t a Dominion official? Was there a chance that what had happened at Outpost Nine was simply a terrible misunderstanding, that the Dominion really was going to take the women home and we had raided them by mistake?

  But that didn’t explain the way the official had pulled a weapon on Kalyn and the others. Kalyn had almost died. Aryn could have...

  My mind spun with possibilities, none of them good.

  I had to find Aryn.

  Aryn

  I sat in our room alone, stretching my sore arms from another round of cleaning this pigsty. Kovor was out and about, hopefully earning his way back into Skud’s good graces.

  Ordinarily, that would’ve made me nervous. However, Kovor had proved to be a quick learner. He wouldn’t say anything stupid that would blow our cover.

  I should’ve trusted him from the beginning.

  Now that Kovor wasn’t here, I found the silence of the room strange. I hoped he’d be back soon.

  The silence made me uneasy. It was too quiet outside the room, as well. Usually, I heard voices and footsteps, but the Enclave members must’ve gone out.

  After ‘losing’ the Mermian women, Skud hadn’t kept me or Kovor in the loop, apparently while we worked through his version of probation. The fact that we were allowed to stay at all was a good sign.

  The information we’d found on the dark ship, the Terror, was interesting. I wished we could take that whole sheet of paper back to Captain Dejar, try to break the code, see what anyone else noticed.

  But it was too risky, Skud would notice something like that missing from his papers. Well, he should if he was worth anything as a syndicate leader.

  But the more time I spent in the compound, the more I began to suspect that Skud made things up as he went along. This was a small-time operation, its only real value being how far out Qasar was on the fringe of things.

  If we were on Mars, Kovor and I would be dead by now. I guess the stakes weren’t as high here.

  Either that, or I was much better at this deception business than I’d ever given myself credit for.

  And I gave myself a lot of credit in that department.

  One disappointing aspect of the Terror’s little sheet was that it didn’t link Enclave to the Dominion. All that paper proved was that Enclave had knowledge of a ghost ship and the coordinates to meet with it. If Kovor and I spoke out about what we saw, about the figure in the robe marked with the sigil, it would be our word against the Dominion�
�s.

  I lay down flat on my back and stared up at the splotchy ceiling. I tried not to think about what liquids made the stains. Closing my eyes, I tried to visualize everything Kovor and I still needed to do before we made our escape. I hadn’t come up with a solid plan for that yet. If Skud kept us quarantined within Enclave headquarters, an escape would be challenging.

  At some point, my endless mental to-do list faded away into dreams. I dreamed of golden eyes, a stunning smile, and large hands, warmer than I anticipated. I heard his laugh. I felt his arms encircle me. His hand traced down my arm. It felt so real, heat pooled in my belly.

  My eyelids fluttered open as I sucked in a breath. I turned my head, expecting to see Kovor grinning at me from the side of the bed.

  Instead, I found an intruder.

  One of the Enclave members crouched by the side of my bed, his thick fingers tracing up and down my arm.

  I yanked away from him.

  He looked at me, realizing I was awake. There was no shame in his eyes.

  He looked excited, leering at me with sharp yellow teeth.

  “What the fuck are you doing in here?” I demanded, then clamped my mouth shut immediately. ‘Fuck’ was a human word.

  “Door was open,” he snarled.

  I knew for a fact that it was not.

  “Get out,” I hissed, scrambling away from him.

  He made a grab for me, but my arm slipped out of his grip.

  He bared his teeth and I prepared myself for a struggle, but something distracted the intruder.

  He stared at my arm with a perplexed expression.

  I looked down and tried not to gasp.

  My true skin, flushed and prickly, was stark against the silvery dye.

  The intruder looked at his silver-smeared palm, eyes narrowed in confusion.

  “Who are you?” he demanded, standing up to his full height. “What are you?” he shouted, advancing on me.

  I needed to shut him up before everyone in Enclave headquarters poured into the room.

  But I couldn’t make myself move. I could only stare, wide-eyed and terrified, at the alien moving closer to me.

  The door kicked inward. I yelped and pushed myself into a corner. Kovor stood in the doorway, his face a mask of rage. He looked at the intruder, then to me, and finally to my exposed arm.

  “Scro,” Kovor swore.

  “Are you like her?” the intruder shouted. He lunged for Kovor in an attempt to swipe at his skin. Kovor was quicker by far. He swung around behind the intruder and put him in a headlock.

  “I need you to be quiet,” Kovor said, his voice unnervingly calm.

  The intruder struggled in his grasp, but Kovor tightened his grip, and kept tightening, until the intruder went slack in his arms.

  Kovor released him and stepped back, panting.

  “Is he dead?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

  “Not yet,” Kovor replied.

  “What do you mean?”

  Before I even finished the question, Kovor grabbed the man by the head and gave his neck a sharp twist. Bones popped and crunched and I clamped a hand over my mouth to keep from screaming.

  Kovor released the dead intruder and stepped towards me, his arms out like one would approach a spooked animal.

  “I had to,” Kovor said quietly. “He saw your skin. He would’ve hurt you.”

  “I know,” I shuddered. “I didn’t re-apply after cleaning. I was so tired, I just didn’t think, and now, and now-”

  “Please, don’t be afraid of me,” Kovor pleaded, a tiny muscle jumping along his strong jaw.

  I blinked in surprise.

  “Afraid? You just saved my life.” I closed the distance between us and stepped into the safety of his arms.

  He crushed me against his chest, hands stroking down my back, easing and soothing. My pounding of my heartbeat in my ears calmed, then sped up again in time with his movements.

  “Kovor,” I whispered, then stopped, shocked at the need in my voice.

  I pushed away, mostly sure I could stand without falling.

  “We have to move him.” My voice sounded cold, strange even to myself.

  Kovor only nodded in agreement. “I have an idea, but it’s risky.”

  “What hasn’t been?” I asked.

  “We carry him out,” Kovor replied.

  “We can’t! Someone will see us!” I exclaimed and fell back onto the bed. Maybe I should have stayed in his arms longer. But that didn’t take care of our little problem.

  “Hardly anyone is in the compound,” Kovor said. “Hang on, let me grab something.” He disappeared and returned a few moments later carrying a green bottle half filled with liquid. He splashed a few drops on the dead alien and the room suddenly smelled of alcohol. He carefully wiped clean the silver dye from the limp hand without a single shiver.

  “We make people believe he drank too much?” I asked.

  “We carry him out like he passed out in our room,” Kovor shrugged. “Nothing else comes to mind.”

  “I don’t like it, it’s too risky.” I’d never felt so shaky in my life. What was wrong with me? My hands trembled uncontrollably, so I sat on them.

  “I know,” Kovor sighed. “I don’t like it, either, but I don’t know what else to do. Let me take care of it. You wait here.”

  I forced myself to nod.

  Kovor looped the dead alien’s arm over one shoulder and hauled him up. His head hung limp but, honestly, it didn’t look unnatural.

  If I didn’t know the truth, I’d think he was simply unconscious.

  “I’ll be right back,” Kovor promised me. I forced another nod as he dragged the dead alien out of the room.

  I’d done some highly questionable things in my life, but never murder. Hark was the closest I’d ever come but that was a spur of the moment act, choosing the lives, the futures, of the Mermian women over his.

  But Kovor hadn’t wanted to kill anyone, either. He was just protecting me. I started to shake again. Who would have thought my easygoing playboy was the tough one?

  When I heard voices on the other side of the door, I thought my heart would stop. There was no yelling, no sounds of fighting, just conversation, but it still made me uneasy. I was ready to bolt when the door opened again. It was only Kovor.

  “I heard voices.”

  “It’s okay.” Kovor walked over to me, then guided me to the bed. “I ran into an Enclave member, and he gave me a hand with our friend.” He stared fixedly at the door until I nodded. “Apparently, it’s commonplace for him. We put him outside for some fresh air."

  “I think we overestimated this group’s intelligence.” I tried to joke but there was no humor in my voice.

  “You’re trembling,” he murmured. I didn’t say anything back. If I opened my mouth, I would start crying. I hadn’t cried in years and I wasn’t planning on breaking that streak.

  He sat beside me on the bed, arms around me, and leaned back, carrying me with him as he whispered nonsense into my hair.

  I felt something crack open inside me. Before I could stop myself, I was crying into his neck. He held me tightly, stroking my hair and skin.

  “Is trusting me really so awful?” he joked. I shook my head.

  “No, it feels amazing,” I whispered. “I haven’t trusted anyone like this since my best friend turned me in for reward money.”

  That was the first time I’d ever said those words out loud. Kovor must’ve realized that, too.

  “Thank you for telling me,” he said. I tipped my face up to look at him. His mouth was so close to mine.

  I realized how much I craved contact like this. A life without had left me wanting.

  As if he’d read my thoughts, Kovor lowered his lips to mine and kissed me, gentle and slow, until his firm lips became demanding, forcing me to answer a call that had been building between us.

  I melted against him, opening eagerly as his tongue ran against the seam of my lips. The ridged strangeness of his tongu
e as it wound against my own caused me to gasp.

  My hands knotted in his shirt as I hung on, every breath of air in my lungs feeling on fire, heat spreading through my body.

  One broad hand wrapped against my hip, pulling me tighter to him, and I felt his hard body press into mine.

  Something else pulsed hard against my core, sending bright sparks through my belly until finally I rocked against him, groaning.

  This was madness.

  He was madness.

  But for the first time in my life, I felt sane.

  Kovor

  Her lips were the softest, silkiest, most amazing things I had ever felt in my life, and I grew up in a world where everything was soft and silky.

  Every inch of her skin called me to touch, to taste.

  But as the fire built up inside me and my need for her grew, I forced myself to pull away.

  “We have to get out of here,” I whispered, her lips only a breath from mine.

  She brushed her lips against mine, granting me one more taste of sweetness, before she pulled away and nodded. “I know. It’s only going to be a matter of time before they go to check on our ‘drunk’ and realize he’s dead instead.”

  I grinned, my happiness entirely, utterly, inappropriate for the situation, but undeniable.

  “Yeah. That’s not going to look good for us. It’s really hard to explain an accidental snapped neck.”

  “No shit.”

  Scro, I automatically corrected.

  I wanted to kiss her again, but we had to get out. “Any ideas on how we get out of here?”

  “Well, you said that there weren’t a lot of people here, right?”

  I nodded.

  “Then let’s sneak out now. I think we have all the information we’re going to get.”

  As simple as this building looked from the outside, inside was a large maze of twists, turns, and corridors. I had lost track after about the tenth intersection down in the bowels of the building. That left three other exits that I knew of—the one that I had carried our dead drunk through, the ‘main’ entrance, and one of the side doors out through the kitchen.

  “Get cleaned up,” I said. “We need to fix the makeup he took off your arm.” She nodded and grabbed her stuff from under the pillow. As she started to re-apply the makeup, I grabbed our clothes and packed them up. It was going to be hard to explain why we were carrying our gear if we were seen, but if we left it here, they would undoubtedly go through it. While I didn’t believe they could find anything incriminating in our clothing, I didn’t want to risk it.