Chapter 9:
Margie was utterly terrified. The city was filthy, for starters. Packs of mongrel beasts that resembled a cross between a bear and a dog roamed about, their teeth showing and their eyes glittering. Beings from all different galaxies and star systems also hovered near them. Weapons were everywhere, and the air was one of rich copper and tension.
The buildings had been built from recycled ship parts and other space refuse. Nothing looked sanitary, and it certainly didn’t look safe. The very bowels of the mountain served as both street and flooring. That stone was slick, and she feared she would fall more than once. The darkness was lit by some sort of techno-lighting, but she couldn’t discern the source of it. There seemed to be some type of air circulator system in place as well because cooling air met her body and face, but it was thin, and she felt like she couldn’t drag enough into her lungs to keep from hyperventilating or starving for oxygen.
The buildings on the left side were obviously gambling and dance halls. To her horror, she saw females and males of all species standing in windows, their chains marking them as slaves. Many of them looked beaten down or drugged, and terror rose up inside her. She had nearly ended up in a place like this, may have very well ended up in a place like this if the four brothers hadn’t come to her rescue. As inadvertent as the rescue was, she was now gladder for it than she had ever been since that day.
Talon led them onward, through twisting streets that snaked, serpentine and shining with refuse and garbage, to a series of small buildings hunkered up against one stone wall. These buildings seem to be cleaner, and there were none of the wolf-bear creatures about, thankfully. Those things had made her adrenaline level race so high she was sure she was going to faint at the sight of them.
A voice rang out from the darkness behind the building. “Stand or die, stranger.”
Jeval spoke softly. “No stranger. It is I and my brother Talon. These women are our mates. We seek an audience with Blade.”
A figure moved out of the darkness. He was human, of that she had no doubt. He was tall, very much so, and very well-built. He had wide shoulders, a lean waist, and long legs, all of it shown off to great advantage in some sort of ragged uniform. His hair was a thick shock of flaxen locks and his face, despite the dimness and darkness there, held a slight wash of color. His lips parted to reveal strong and even white teeth. “So it is you. What can I do for you?”
Talon said, “We need to speak with you. Privately. This is a matter of great urgency, and you are not going to like what we have to say.”
Blade, and it must be him that they sought, answered, “I never like much of what anybody has to say. So there’s that.” His eyes roved over Jessica and Margie. “Those are your mates?”
The words that Jeval had uttered earlier and the way his hand came up and rested lightly on her shoulder made something dissolve and melt away inside Margie’s heart. He had claimed her, and there was no doubt about that now. His voice was soft, deceptively so. She heard the steel below it. “Yes. We will not have them touched.”
Blade chuckled. “I can see why but I would advise you to keep them close. Many of those here tired of the ones they’ve held prisoner for far too long.”
Margie blurted out, “Why do you not release them then?”
Blade ran a hand through his hair. “Because they are not mine to release. Here, touching another man’s possessions is death. I choose not to die for them. I have larger fish to fry.”
Disgust raised its head within her heart, but she shut that down. They needed his help whether they liked him or not, and she really didn’t like him.
Blade said, “You may enter. I cannot guarantee that you shall leave breathing though.”
Talon said, “No being can give that promise, not here in End-World.”
That seems to be a standard form of greeting, so Margie disregarded it even though unease drifted upward into her heart. Blade opened a door, and they stepped through into a fairly well-appointed open room that held long and rather luxurious sofas as well as a long table set with several chairs. Blade said, “I have drink. It’s not pure water, but it’s fit for human consumption, and yours as well.”
Jeval and Talon both said they would take it with thanks. Blade poured from a strange pitcher system, passing the cup to Talon first. Talon sipped and then passed it on to Jeval. Jeval sipped and handed it to Margie. Margie handed it off to Jessica, who drank a mere sip and then passed it back to Talon again.
Talon handed the drinking vessel back to Blade and he set it aside. His hands went to his lean hips. His eyes, shrewd and appraising, leveled on their faces. “Speak now. I have much to do before I depart the planet.”
Talon said, “We need to go to war with The Federation. Not just rebel, not just a small uprising. We need full-on warfare. We need your help. You command an army. You command most of these here whether you admit it or not.”
Margie held her breath. Her eyes slid to the side, and she appraised Jessica’s face. She had decided that she would take her cues from Jessica. However Jessica acted, that was how she would act as well. Right then, Jessica stood silent and unmoving; her face betrayed nothing.
Blade burst into laughter. “Have you lost your minds? Open warfare against The Federation is a death sentence.”
Jeval said, “So was the rebellion that you have engaged in. So are the uprisings that you have helped put into place. So is supplying the rebels with weapons and water. All of that you have done. So is harrying Federation ships and wrecking them. Also something you have done. So is disrupting their supply lines and forcing them away from planets that can no longer sustain them. Also you.”
Blade went tense. His body was rock-hard, and Margie could see the lines of tension running upward from his neck and into his face. “We are speaking quite plainly then, aren’t we?”
Jeval said, “Not many here would live to tell what they overheard, and you know it. And those who would live to tell would have their lot cast with yours anyway.”
Blade’s fingers drummed at the thick weapons belt around his lean waist. “So you say. How dare you come here and bring this into my life.”
Talon said, “We have no choice. What we are to tell you now, it seems unbelievable. Yet it is true. We’ve heard whispers and rumors. Jeval and Margie there went on a spy mission and learned a small part of it before they returned. The intel we got after they returned is good, the best. My sibling assures me, after having walked about the informant’s mind, that there are no memory blocks or implants in that mind. What that informant told us is the truth.”
Blade asked, “And what has that to do with me?”
Jeval asked, “What do you know of The Federation’s new wormhole?”
