Aliens were working hard in every corner, shouting out orders or banging on something. There were snake people welding pipes together without eye protection, staring straight into the arc like they didn’t see it and I wondered if they only saw infrared. Even with that, wouldn’t the light still burn their eyes? There were snakes using cutting torches to dismantle piping with others holding grinders working overtime shedding sparks over the top of us. Hover carts loaded with pipe joists, huge valves, cogwheels, bolts and nuts larger than I was, and a hundred other things I couldn’t identify passed back and forth followed closely by a snake person.
It was loud and hot and chaotic and each sound was a tick on my internal countdown clock. Destination: Mass murder.
“I really am sorry about this. Any other person and I’d have whisked you off to safety in a heartbeat but you have to understand, Rathal is insane. He’s a fair ruler and all that, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that he’s a violently homicidal hoarder and I’m not about to be the roadblock in the way to his matrimonial bliss. I enjoy my tail whole and not in bite size segments to be served to the Assembly Council.”
Uh huh.
Tick.Tock.
“I’m taking your silence and cooperation as consent and a rather gracious understanding of my predicament. I’m terribly conflicted about all this. The guilt will probably drive me into an early grave.”
How sad.
Tick. Tock.
“My mother is going to disown me if she gets wind of my involvement in this. The whole station knows about you, you know? It set the gossip aflame that Rathal had chosen a bride. That you were a whole new species we’d never heard of before was less of a surprise though. Everyone figured he’d end up with a harem of colorful and exotic variety, which I suppose you fit that bill except you being singular and all. I never figured he’d be a one female type of male, but from what I understand from the kitchen staff—they are the biggest gossips in the palace you should know and they never miss anything—he’s very possessive and seems to only have eyes for you. I’d be flattered if I were you… well in any other circumstance than the one you find yourself in, with the whole kidnapping and forced marriage thing. That’s unfortunate. But by all accounts, Rathal is a very attentive and considerate lover so you at least have that. I’m rambling aren’t I? Sorry. I’m just nervous. Terrified, really.”
Poor you.
Tick.Tock.
“Oh! Breena! Thank all the gods of the universe. I can’t tell you how happy I am that you’re here. You see, I’ve stumbled upon Rathal’s prize and as you know I called yourightawayandIreallythinkthatshouldbetakenintoconsiderationseeingashowIcalledyouimmediatelyandreallyIjustfoundherwanderingandIbroughtherstraighthereandthereisreallynoneedtoinvolveRahalatallandtrulyIthinkyoushouldjustleavemynameoutofthiswholethingentirely —”
“Quit your sniveling, Horak. I’ll take it from here. The human and I have met before, haven’t we?”
Breena? Breena… Oh! She was that guard on the first ship that had the incompetent partner. I’d sleeper choked her out. Hownice. A reunion. And just when my sanity was unraveling. Fun. Fun. Fun.
Tiiiick.Toooock.
I looked into her purple face, noting she’d shaved away her dark mohawk, and met her four pale blue eyes and smiled real sweet. “I wouldn’t touch me if I were you. I’m having a moment here and I think I’m going crazy. Do I sound crazy to you?”
To my own ears my voice sounded flat and devoid of life, but then with all the freaking noise down here who could hear anything?
Breena bared her teeth in a smile—which surprise, surprise weren’t sharp. How about that?
“I’ll take that under advisement, human. Let's go. Rathal is waiting and I’m going to be the one to deliver you. I had to shave my fucking hair because of you. Do you have any idea what kind of failure it was for me to let you escape?It won’t happen again.Don’t test me.”
She was about to have a really, really bad day.
The second her purple hand curled around my other bicep I exploded.
I jerked my arm free of Horak—who fell away from me with a little screech of alarm and body slammed into Breena, knocking her down and freeing my arm from her grip. I stood over her breathing heavily and waited. She snarled and kicked her legs up and jumped to her feet in a smooth, practiced motion. I grinned and beckoned her with a wave of my hand. To be honest, I’d never been much of a physical fighter. I’d always stopped any aggressiveness with a cutting remark and indifference. My father had always told me that the best way to win a fight is to not let yourself be drawn into one.
It was beneath me.
But something about being abducted by aliens, being in a starship crash and being hunted had set my usual calm onits head. Or maybe just being around so many ‘slash first ask questions later’ people was rubbing off on me. You are the company you keep was something else my father liked to say. I wonder what he’d say if he could see me now? Raging to tear this poor unfortunate bitch into teeny tiny pieces.
Breena pulled a black tube from the side of her belt—she was wearing a weird mix between a flight suit and a leather light armor—and flicked the tube so that it extended with a crisp whoosh into a baton. The countdown on my clock did a sudden stop and my mental rubber band snapped and armor flowed over me like a wave, the helmet clicking into place with an echo of finality heard even over the din of the industrial nose of the Undercity.
Breena lunged with near perfect fencing form, her thin baton driving towards my middle. It was thin and not that intimidating so I didn’t move out of the way, content to let her strike me so I could see the frustrated look on her face when my armor deflected her strike without receiving so much as a scratch.
Imagine my surprise when—with a crackling zap—her baton electrocuted me like I’d stuck my big dumb hand into a transformer. The current rendered me immobile, pain locking my jaw tightly shut and all my muscles into a rigid standstill.
Breena chuckled, low and viciously. “You didn’t think I’d actually fight you with nothing but a striking bat did you? Oh no, for you I have the Sting Stick. Lets see how that armor of yours handles the shock, hmmm?”
It handled it just fine. In fact, after the first initial freeze, the Rijiteran adaptive nanotech that made up the armor dispersed the current. I answered her question with a punch to the face. It rocked her back hard, blood pouring from her flatter than human normal nose. Satisfaction burst throughout my chest at having finally punched someone square in the face instead of just thinking about it.
She couldn’t see me smiling at her, the faceless facade of my helmet hid me from view, but she must have known I was anyways because she growled and attacked me with a flurry of strikes with her ‘Sting Stick’.
