“Initial scan complete,” Alred said. “I don’t detect anything dangerous or harmful. It’s not a bomb, at least. What did he say was in it?”
“Treasure,” Tanin responded, touching the console.
It came to life with a soft beep, immediately asking for a passcode. Tanin pulled out the remote and hit the button to open it, bypassing the request. The console beeped again before the entire chest hissed. A rush of warm air hit his chest as the lid was lifted.
“Ooh, shiny,” Alred remarked in an unimpressed tone.
The chest was full of gemstones. Each the size of his fist, all of them perfectly cut and shined to perfection and all in a rainbow of colors. Tanin wasn’t a gemologist, but he didn’t think there was anything so common as a diamond in this chest. The multitude of gems – there had to be at least thirty – sparkled on a bed of golden velvet. There wasa lotof credz sitting there.
“Think he’d miss one?” Alred asked, chuckling. “Be a lot easier to buy a new subspace generator if we sell one of those.”
“I don’t think he’d miss any of these,” Tanin said, frowning.
“I wouldn’t be so sure. Scans indicate that some of them are really rare.”
“I’m sure they are.” Tanin reached in, grabbing a deep, dark red one. He held it up, turning it in the light, watching the way light played off the facets. “But there’s no need for total discretion for this. There’s no need for our services. Any halfway decent delivery service could haul these for him. And Holivair is a planetfilledwith gemstones. He has no need to import them. Besides, look how deep this is.”
Tanin put the gem back in its place. He didn’t have to reach far. Despite the fact that the chest was up to his elbows, the bed was barely deeper than the length of his hand. That left a lot of empty space between the golden velvet and the ground.
“You think there’s a hidden compartment?” Alred asked, clearly excited.
“I think you don’t need an environmentally sealed chest for gemstones. Go in there yourself, Alred. Tell me what’s inside.”
Alred laughed before winking out of existence. A wire came down from the ceiling and Tanin grabbed it. He placed the flat end on the base of the chest. It stuck in place as he stood straight. The chest began beeping frantically, but there was nothing it could do.
Alred wasn’t a scanner. He wasn’t a program just trying to read another program. He was a sapient, sentient being made of code. Pushing his way into a computer program was as easy for him as it would be for Tanin to walk through a dense jungle – very possible with a little effort.
“Oh, captain,” Alred laughed, his voice now coming from the console speaker on the chest. “You’re right. Those gems were just a distraction. There’s life support in here. Something isalivein this chest.”
“I don’t traffic people,” Tanin grumbled, annoyed. “That’s not my business. Open it.”
“One moment… This is a very stubborn little- Got it.”
The chest hissed again. The gemstones, all laid out on their bed of golden velvet, winked and flashed in the light as the second lid opened, raising to meet with the first.
“Vekt,” Tanin cursed.
In the soft, pale blue light of the life support, Tanin looked down into the belly of the chest. Laid out side by side, curled into each other, sleeping peacefully, were two absolutely beautiful, identical females.
Human females.
Treasures indeed.
Chapter 2
Garnet
Garnet was having a really weird dream. She wasn’t sure exactly what it was about, and the harder she tried to focus on the details, the further they slipped from her grasp. Her sister was there. Goldie was often in her dreams. Her identical twin sister, with her happy smile that hid a steely determination under a layer of cutesy sweetness, was such a big part of her, it was a given that she would be there. But aside from that, she couldn’t recall anything else. The dream was fading more and more as she slowly came around.
It was taking a long time to wake up though. Her mind was foggy; her limbs were heavy. Like she’d just gotten over a really bad flu. Had they been drinking last night or something? That would be weird since neither of them really drank. Had they been celebrating something? Oh, right, they’d been drinking to toast Garnet getting rid of her ex! No, wait, that had been like two months ago. Three months ago?
Why was everything so hazy? So hard to remember? She wanted to fall back asleep, but there was something nagging at her deep in the back of her mind. She had forgotten something important. She needed to wake up and remember.
Oh, but it was so comfy…
Distantly, Garnet was aware that she was moving. Why was she moving? What… Who was…
That nagging feeling was getting louder. Turning into an alarm in her head. Something shrieking at her to wake up. To remember! Tofight back!
