Free tea, eh?
The port rumbled. Kat turned to see a jet black ship descend from the sky and the giant vehicles that drove out to meet it. It looked like a bullet with spindly legs. A spider. A terrible, black widow of a spider.
“Oh, monster-man is back! Have you ever seen a Trentian in real life, deary?”
Monster man? Trentian?Kat glanced at the scarved woman. “What? No?”
“We get them here sometimes, they walk by my shop. Once, a diplomat stopped and ordered a drink. Scared me he did. Ordered chamomile of all things. Handsome bugger, though. John was on break that day, and the Trentian asked if I’d join him. You know, out there.” She pointed to the sky. “Thought I could be his bride, he did. Me? An old woman on the arm of someone like him? Shoo’d him off and told him I’m married to my teas. John doesn’t believe me. I wonder if monster-man brought us any monsters today?”
Kat turned back toward the ship. It landed with power, a visible plume of smoke and dust shot away from it as it settled onto the ground. There was a sudden stillness, a sudden silence and her eyes were stuck to it. Nothing could pull her away from the spider.
It looked like a bug.I hate bugs.Her hands twitched.
Other people came forward to watch. The shopkeeper next to her turned to someone that appeared at her side.
“Think we’ll see another El’Mook? I love their ears.”
The back of the ship, or what she thought was the back, opened and the huge vehicles lined up to it. A group of armed men closed in. It was below her and in the distance, but she could still see everything.
A man walked out. Decked out in black, black and unsettling like his ship. They matched.
“Who is he?” Kat asked absently.
“Monster-man? A Cyborg. Scary guy, he works for the government, capturing and containing creatures and plants from all over the known galaxies. He’s well-known here. Oh, what do you think that is?”
A huge cage was unloaded, glass and metal barricades enclosed whatever was inside. The Cyborg-monster-man was overseeing the process. Dozens of guns pointed at the beast. The cage shook with a violent impact from a creature nobody could see.
Whatever it is, it really wants to get out.
Someone murmured, “Nothing I’ve ever seen before. Don’t know how he captures beasts four times his size.”
Kat couldn’t take her eyes off the man. A black dot in the distance. She was curious about the creature but the Cyborg commanded her attention and she gave it to him gladly. She just wished she was closer so she could see him more clearly.
A tingle rushed through her. Her hands clenched at her side. More cages were taken off and loaded into the trucks. Giant plants. Glass tubes filled with strange liquids. Even a cat-like creature with a tail that stretched out in yards was led out by a leash.
It was all over too quickly. The Cyborg and those that had met him walked toward the port and out of her sight.
Kat picked up her bag when a hand landed on her arm. She turned back to the old woman.
“Deary, the job is yours if you find your way back here. Could always use a pretty face behind the counter. I’d sell more tea with you pouring it.” And then the woman was gone.
Kat stood up and looked at the tea stand. Her body leaned toward the comfortable prospect of an adventure of being a tea seller, meeting humans from all over the universe, people traveling to exotic places, all while surrounded by good drinks. The thought of going to sleep at night with a cup of tea next to her.
A heavy thud and a gasp stopped her from choosing that future.
“It’s a Cyborg.” A tourist stepped back, alarmed.
Kat saw the pathway open up as everyone, not many, backed away.
A man in a grey suit walked beside the large, imposing Cyborg: The monster-man from the spider ship. A woman trailed behind, writing notes. The Cyborg looked like a Cyborg, larger, taller, and perfect with a face that could’ve been carved from stone. It was angular...sharp.
So very sharp. He looks angry.
It made it all the more frightening with his thick, arching eyebrows and midnight hair, not quite black, almost a deep, dark blue that bordered onto black. It was slicked away from his face to fall down his back, held together by a loose string.
He was white. Not like human white but white as snow, white as a wraith, and the Cyborg almost glowed against the dark clothing he wore.
Monster-man looks like a killer.
