by Layla Stone
One shot, and the door was sealed.
He was about to call for Sci to see why he didn’t see any more images in his mind, but then he saw Shady turning down the hallway for him a second before she did.
“Commander, we have an issue.” Shady’s cybernetic limbs were back to being arms, but her pants and shirt had blood stains on them. The same as he had on his hands. He wondered if she needed help with her Krant. Just as he opened his mouth to ask, Shady continued, “806 is down. Clalls can’t get ahold of Yon or Vivra.”
Pax’s mind took a few seconds to process the words. “It’s down?” Someone blew it up?
“As in no response from the ship and nothing from Vivra’s contact. I also know that Rannn and Clalls have tried to ping both her and Yon’s Minky pads.”
Pax cursed. “We have to get there.”
Shady followed him out, and they both made their way to the bridge of the ship. A sudden sharp gasp at his side had Pax stopping and turning. Shady had a hand against the wall as if it were holding her up, her mouth open, her eyes wide.
“What is it?” Did something else happen to Vivra and Yon?
Red lettering ran across Shady’s eyes. “Byalo, he’s gone, and so is team one.” The red letters continued to run, her voice more robotic than female. “The mine exploded, took out the cyborgs inside, and pilot inside 502.”
Pax’s skin tightened. The moisture in his mouth dried up. “Rigged?”
The red letters stopped, and her irises turned to him. Eyes that blurred for a second before she responded. “It would make sense why all of them died at the same time, even though they were in different parts of the mine.”
The blur returned to her eyes before it departed again. The anomaly almost looked like tears. He wondered if she had been close with any of them, or if this seeming pain was from her first real-life experience with death.
“Is this going to set you back? Do you need to sit out for the rest of this?”
He watched as her shoulders squared, her entire being filling with a mixture of rage and the need for composure. “I don’t sit out. Ever.”
She was good, he could see how someone like her would do well in the mock trials. But getting her to calm the stars down to fight in the real battles was probably going to take more than this heart-to-heart.
He didn’t have to say anything, she followed him up to the bridge and saw that a Grach was sitting in the chair. When he saw Pax, he said, “I’ll take a Yowler’s Jack.”
Pax couldn’t help it. He glared at the young male. He was barely in his thirties. “Those extra hormones must make the flavor better. I’ve never had to buy a Jack made on the immigration planet Marnak. Don’t you know the best whiskey is from Terra? Specifically, that made by the Scots.”
The Grach shook his head. “The chemicals we release have no effect on our taste or smell.” Probably not his, Pax thought, but on the Grach’s sexual partners it might. Pax wasn’t sure.
But that was irrelevant to the current issue. To Shady, Pax said, “Get us hooked in with the captain and Sci.”
To the Grach in the captain’s chair, he said, “What’s your name?”
“Lynn.”
“You’re in my seat.”
Lynn stood up graciously and walked to the navigation screens. Screens that blinked while Shady made the connections. Both Sci and Rannn accepted the calls at the same time.
Lynn moved to the control panel and started pushing buttons. Pax wasn’t sure what he was doing, but he had something more important at present. “Captain, we’re going to wrap things up here, but I’d like to request cargo transporter 809 to pick me up and take me to wherever Yon and Vivra’s last known destination was.”
Rannn lifted his finger. “Amevi is already heading to pick you up.”
“New pilot?”
Rannn answered, “He’s flying a galleon. 107.”
Shady nodded, and he saw red lettering in her eyes again. “Big enough for a few of us to come with you.” Then she cleared her throat. “And it would be good if the Cerebral came, too.”
The male in him wanted to go in alone. But experience said to bring backup. Always. “Fine, you can come.”
Lynn brought up a screen with a message addressed to An-Kor. It read:
An-Kor,
I have a rogue team that has taken my product from Brica. You’ll find them in hiding on Keagha. Find and return my product, and I will double your going rate.
J
Pax stepped closer to the message and saw the date. Over a month ago. “Can you find anything more recent.”
On another screen, Lynn was skimming notes to An-Kor. A few seconds later, he brought up another one.
Jaccy,
Product is dead. Rogue team said they died in transit—not their fault. Confirmed all 1,543 bodies deceased. I took care of rogues anyways. Payment to same place as usual.
An-Kor
Pax asked, “Anything else?”
“Only one more.” Lynn moved the message to the screen.
An-Kor,
More product on Brica. Will pay fifty-thousand keleps to bring product alive to Keagha. Need them healthy and able to work. Do not abuse my merchandise.
J
Everything summed up in three messages. The bridge was silent for a sullen three seconds. Then Shady broke the quiet. “Keagha is not registered on my memory chip.”
“It’s in the OutWorlds,” Sci answered over the Minky screen, and Pax instantly saw a star map in his mind with several systems. In those systems were a few habitable planets and their main races. In that moment, Pax learned that several races he’d fought in the arena were, in fact, OutWorlders, like the Fire Furvors and the Crippelaeans.
Sci was giving him a visual snapshot of all the systems in both the Federation and OutWorld space.
“We have no jurisdiction in the OutWorlds,” Shady advised.
“Amevi arrived. Time to exit the bridge, Pax, I’ll see you in a two minutes.” Sci said quickly.
Chapter Seventeen
A Glittery Death
Hours ticked by as Vivra sat on a small cot in a dirty room that smelled of Mish. He’d taken the Minky pad she had been holding but he didn’t think to pat her down. If he had, he would have known that she had a pixy pistol in her pocket. Small and compact, it fit perfectly in her palm.
Her leg shook like a leaf in the wind. It refused to settle even though she knew she couldn’t do anything for Yon while she was locked in a room. Death seemed to cling to her like static on a dress.
Two quick beeps, and the metal doors opened. Mish, the Red Demon, had a wicked smile on his face. “Now that I’ve taken care of the others, I’m free to indulge in my best negotiation yet.” He rubbed his hands and then grabbed the back of his shirt to pull it over his head. It dropped to the floor.
Vivra’s hand squeezed the pistol in her right hand. She tried to calm her heart because she was afraid that Mish would hear it and know she was planning something.
The Red Demon’s chest was smooth, his belly fat.
Mish grabbed his belt and unfastened it, slowly pulling it from around his waist. He was being deliberate, his smile turning from wicked to outright menacing.
He slowly undid his top button and unzipped his blue pants. His short, fat dick popped out, and Vivra had to fight her instincts not to outwardly react to the nasty, dark red blob.
Mish used one of his hands to stroke himself once and then twice. “Come here and taste me.”
She didn’t move.
Mish’s upper lip curled. “I’m not above tying you down and forcing you to choke on me until I come in your sweet mouth. It’s your choice, sugar.”
Vivra knew how fast Pax moved. She didn’t know if Mish moved as quickly, and she feared that her one defense would be knocked out of her hand, taking her escape with it.
Her chest hurt. She had forgotten to breathe.
Inhaling, she decided to let
her knees fall to the ground. Please, let him not notice. Please, let me get out.
With great effort, she opened her mouth and waited to see what he would do. She couldn’t turn toward the demon, he might notice her hand in her pocket. She wanted to keep it out of his line of sight until it was too late.
“That’s more like it,” Mish said and moved quickly to stand in front of her. He lifted his crooked, maggot-looking cock, and she purposely leaned back on her calves, opening her mouth wider.
His eyes focused on her mouth, he bent his knees and went to slip his member between her lips.
She pulled out the pixy pistol, aimed it at his knee, and shot.
“What the tarq?” He backed up and saw the blob of silver-grey gel scattered with all colors of glitter. The glob was increasing in size rather quickly.
But to Vivra, not quickly enough. She rose from the floor. The sudden change drew his eyes to her and then to the gun. He snatched it out of her hand and flung it against the far wall. He grabbed her neck. “What the hell was that? You think you can shoot me with a gel gun?”
Yes?
She took both hands and held onto his arm, keeping herself up. With one foot, she tried to kick his junk, but he moved too fast. “Not today, Bolark,” Mish sneered. “I’ll be honest, I prefer an unwilling partner over a willing one anyway. You will be so much sweeter now.”
He pushed her down onto the bed, and she saw that the glitter had already encased his left leg and his sex. When he looked down, he noticed it, too. It was now creeping up his stomach.
“What the tarq is this?” He swiped his hand through it to brush it off, but it didn’t move. Instead, it coated his hand and started growing around his arm.
“Seth. No.” He stood back and vigorously tried to get the glitter gel off him.
Vivra jumped back, making sure not to get any on her, but she also knew that it would keep growing until it fully encased him. She stayed still as he fought. When he tried to move, he noticed at the same time Vivra did that his leg was stiff and hardened.
Vivra jumped off the bed, then moved to the door, quickly unlocking it.
Inside the room, she heard Mish scream. She locked the door from the outside and left him to die via glitter asphyxiation.
Ignoring his shouts, she ran out of the storage room and onto the dock. Her ship was no longer there.
A man was standing on the side of the storage hangar. When she noticed him, she turned and walked around the corner of the building. After that, she ran. Three minutes later, she heard footsteps behind her and was taken down by two strong arms wrapped around her chest.
“Quick little green gurk, aren’t you?” the male said.
He grabbed her by the hair and pulled her up then slowly walked her back to the motor vehicle. “I didn’t think Mish would be done with you so quickly.”
She didn’t know if they were loyal to one another, so she decided not to tell the male that Mish was dead. It would be her secret.
“But then again, you have all your clothes on, so I assume you escaped.”
“Which is just fine for us. We were planning to double-cross Mish in a half hour anyways.”
As they drove, the male kept a tight hold of her hair. By the end of the five-minute drive, her scalp stung, and she had a headache. He dragged her out of the vehicle and into another large hangar. This one was the same size as Mish’s.
Inside this one, however, were not boxes of supplies but cages and a single transporter.
Taking a quick scan of the room, Vivra counted at least ten large enclosures. Each one was filled with grimy and filthy people of all different races. She wondered how long they had been kept captive to get that dirty.
“That was fast,” the other male said, walking up with a dark weapon that looked much like the old rifles the Terrans used to use.
“Yep,” the first Terran that had ahold of her head said while dragging her to one of the cages. Her face was shoved in between two bars, and it felt like the bones of her face might cave in. “Back up, or I’ll have Hank unload a round in the front,” the male said.
The people in the cage quickly complied.
The lock on the enclosure was opened with an actual key, not any biometrics. This was old technology.
The door swung open, and the male pulled back on Vivra’s head and then shoved her face-first inside. She landed hard on the concrete floor. She rolled to see the cage door slam shut and watched as the lock clicked into place.
Vivra scanned the people in the enclosure and saw Yon near the far back. Two females were hovering over him.
She rushed through the bodies and dropped to her knees. Looking for his wounds, she asked, “Are you medically inclined?”
Both females looked at each other. “We were looking to see if he had a Minky device,” one said.
They were trying to steal from an unconscious guy? Really? Vivra grabbed the closest female’s hair and pulled her to the floor. “Did you hurt him?”
The other female cried out, reaching for her friend. Vivra slapped her face and then moved her attention back to the one on the floor. “Did. You. Hurt. Him?” Her fierceness shocked her, but Yon was a crew member, and they always outranked non-crew members.
“No. No. He’s still alive. I swear,” the one whose face was near her boot said. Vivra let up and shoved the female away.
“Come near us again, and I’ll kick out your teeth,” Vivra hissed, and they both backed up and made their way to the other side of the container.
Vivra hovered over Yon and gently searched for where the blood was seeping from. His jacket was still sticky, so she unbuttoned it and pushed it open. The dark grey shirt underneath didn’t help at all in discovering his wounds. She lifted up the material, looking for the injuries, but she found nothing but blood.
Skimming her fingers over his chest, she worried that he might be dying because she couldn’t stop the bleeding.
Yon’s throat moved, then he coughed and rolled his head to the side. She saw the dark black, and grey swollen skin around his left eye. The bastards that had attacked him must have punched him in his face so many times, half of it was totally swollen and shiny. One eye slightly opened to look at her. “Your fingers feel like ice cubes.”
“Casualties of being a cold-blooded Bolark,” she said back, making a joke. “I’m glad you’re alive.”
“I’m hard to kill…apparently.” Then he looked around. “I thought the Red Demon took you?” He moved his one good eye back to her. “Where are we?”
“On a half-pint cargo ship. The Red Demon did take me, but I escaped for about three seconds. I’m new to this whole kidnapping business, but I think I figured it out. The trick is to not get recaptured.”
“If it makes you feel better, this is the second time I’ve been captured,” Yon said.
“Not sure if that makes me feel better.”
“My job’s done, then. I like to spread the hopelessness of reality.” Just when Vivra was wondering if he were serious, she saw the sides of his lips curl up.
A dark sense of humor. A rarity with Yunkins.
She readjusted herself from her knees to the floor. “I can’t find any wounds. But you’re covered in blood.”
“I’m a fast healer,” he said lightly. His one seeking eye scanned behind her. Then it narrowed. “Am I…hallucinating?”
She turned and saw… they glowed. Or, more accurately, the artistic lines all over their skin looked almost luminescent. So, technically, their markings emanated a soft, white light.
“Are they…glowing?” Yon’s tone was hushed.
A female nearest to Vivra chuckled. Vivra turned to look at a tall, sinewy female with a thin, threadbare shirt, her pants ripped in several places, and a heavy coat of black, sparkly dust covering her body.
The female had her knees pulled to her chest, and her head pointed away. “You’re not imagining it.”
“How are you glowing?”
Yon asked.
The female turned her head and laid it back down on her knees. Her eyes were solid black, no other color, unnatural, and an easy distinction that she was an Allus. Vivra couldn’t tell if she was being looked at or not.
“We were turned into Flourgs, or at least that’s what the female called us.”
“What female?” Vivra asked.
“A Numan named Veeda.” The female closed her eyes as if resting.
Yon kept his good eye on her. “Interesting story.” His deep baritone mocked the words. “Would have been a better one if you knew why she created you. For fun, or for a particular purpose?” Yon said below her.
The female opened her eyes, and Vivra assumed she was looking at Yon. “Lobash is a phosephenite mine. We were designed like this so our core temperatures are lower, and the light we emit doesn’t give off any heat. Phosephenite is sensitive to heat and will explode if the temperature rises above ninety-one degrees.”
Vivra eyed the dark dust. Pointing, she asked, “Is that phosephenite?”
“No. Phosephenite appears as hard, white bits with green, blue, and purple lines running through it.”
Below her, Yon didn’t take his eyes off the Allus. “How old were you when you were brought to the mine?”
“Twenty-six.”
“You don’t look a day over it.”
The female didn’t register the compliment. “Alluses don’t age quickly.”
Yon said, “Neither do I.”
“Are you held in these cages until it’s time to work?” Vivra asked, wondering what all the people were doing in the long series of twenty-by-ten cages.
The dark-eyed female shrugged from her crouched position. “Our mine closed down. These guys say they have a buyer for us.”
Vivra looked back at Yon to see what he thought about that. Because there was no way he could have missed the hopelessness in the mine worker’s voice. But she didn’t get a chance to say anything because she noticed that both of his eyes were open. And the swelling had gone down considerably… fast healer, indeed. Unnaturally so.