by Mike Luoma
Chapter Three
The three fugitives run across the gravel surface of Tek'Ti'Karn, trying to put distance between themselves and the Tek'Tah compound.
"There's an old Domo enclave a couple of clicks up ahead," Kit informs Alibi and Piccolo. "Abandoned, but it will give us better cover than this wide open plain. We need to get there before they do!"
"Can we..." Piccolo starts, but has to catch his breath. "Can we stop..." he breathes heavily, "running yet?"
"Not yet. Keep running," Kit tells him.
"I'm... uh," Piccolo stops running. He falls to his knees, and then down onto all fours as he begins to vomit. "HHuuruurgggggglleeeaarrrgghhh!!" Bright yellow bile splatters on the gravel in front of him. Piccolo heaves, losing it again. "Huurggglleargh!"
Piccolo is on all fours. His head almost touches the ground.
"We must keep running!!" Kit says with urgency. "Get up!"
"Will try," Piccolo says in a weak voice. He straightens up onto his knees, and then pushes himself up onto his unsteady feet. He lurches ahead. "S'kay, lezgo."
Kit and Alibi run a few paces ahead of Piccolo as the three make their way across the desolation. Every few minutes they hear an echoing "FWAAASSSHHH!" in the distance as the Tek'Tah continue their pursuit. Piccolo lets out an occasional heave but manages not to stop or falter.
After running non-stop for what seems like hours they see the geometric, regular shapes of buildings off in the distance.
"The Domo enclave," Kit tells them, nodding at the buildings. "We will have cover. And we are closer to the port. We are almost there."
"Thank God!" Piccolo exclaims, as if he's been born again.
Domo architecture features rounded corners and Gothic-seeming embellishments – buttresses and looping, ornate decorations. The buildings in this enclave are no different. Alibi can make out the top floors of the four tallest buildings as they approach the abandoned settlement, until they get too close to see past its high wall. The enclave is surrounded by an imposing embankment about four meters high with a rounded top. They follow along it until they reach a sealed door in the barrier.
"You want me to shoot a hole in it?" Alibi asks Kit.
"That will not work on this. The surface is ablative. The wall is also too thick to burn through in a timely fashion," Kit informs him. He looks up at the top of the wall."A moment, please," Kit says.
Another "fwaaaaassshh!" echoes in the distance.
Kit paces a few meters backwards, and then runs, springs and jumps up onto the top of the wall, landing on all fours on the curve at its apex. Kit looks down at them. Alibi thinks he's smiling, but he really can't be sure. Then Kit disappears down on the other side of the wall.
The wall springs to life with clicks and whirring noises, sliding noises, and then more clicking. Finally, the door in the wall slides open, revealing Kit waiting on the inside.
"Get inside!" Kit breathes. Alibi and Piccolo run inside the Domo compound. Kit hits a panel built into the wall and the door closes behind them. "Alibi. The burner. Fire it here, at these controls," Kit tells him. Alibi aims the burner at the control panel Kit is pointing to and squeezes the handle.
FWAAAAAASSSHHHH!
The beam melts the panel face. Sparks fly from behind the drooping cover.
"How are we gonna get back out of here?" Piccolo protests.
"We will not be going back that way," Kit explains. "And we do not want to make it any easier for the Tek'Tah to get through. Do we?"
Piccolo and Alibi shake their heads.
"Let us go," Kit says. He turns and leads them into the settlement.
They walk by one of the tall buildings Alibi spotted from off in the distance. Buttresses line its side, making it look like a giant human church except for the oozing, dripping alien insulation material sprayed over the entire structure. The building has a flowing, liquid appearance.
Alibi looks around at the other empty Domo buildings in the small abandoned city. Most of the taller buildings have similar supports.
He doesn't have much time for sightseeing. Kit keeps the three of them moving through the settlement at a rapid pace, past Domo buildings and on toward the opposite side of the compound.
"We will follow a tunnel a few clicks long that leads to the main port. It starts inside this Domo enclave and goes under the wall," Kit informs them. "We may need to check inside two or three of the buildings near the embankment to locate the transportation hub. There we will find the tunnel entrance."
There's no need to worry. As they reach the row of structures in front of the wall, the building that houses the tunnel entrance becomes obvious. The self-evident transportation hub has a broad staircase descending from street level down into the dark, heading in the direction of the wall.
"Looks like that's the way," Alibi says, blurting out what they're all thinking.
"I don't know if I wanna spend a long time walking down a long tunnel," Piccolo protests.
Fwaaaaasssssshhhhh!
FWAAAASSSHHHH!
Tek'Tah burners echo in the near distance.
"They have reached the wall," Kit says. "We must go." He begins running down the stairs into the darkness. Alibi follows. Soon Piccolo is climbing down behind him.
"I hope my eyes adjust. I can't see anything!" Piccolo complains.
"We Dakhur can see in less light than you humans," Kit tells them. "There are no obstacles on these stairs, so you are safe to continue walking down them. There is a platform a short way down. I will warn you before you reach it."
"Great. Just keep going down into the dark? Great," Piccolo complains.
"Quiet!" Alibi barks at the man in a loud whisper. "Let's not give the Tek'Tah any help finding us, huh?"
"Platform," Kit says.
Alibi slows up. Cautious, he tests his footing. The stairs have ended.
"Wha? Unh!" Piccolo grunts. He sprawls onto the platform on all fours. Or at least it sounds like he's sprawled out on the platform. The darkness is all consuming. Alibi can't see a thing.
"Follow the sound of my voice," Kit says. "I am at a door." Alibi hears a scraping noise. Kit must be opening the door. "Stop now," Kit says a little more quietly. Alibi is now standing next to him.
"Say something!" Piccolo whines nearby. "I can't..."
"Here. Come here," Kit says. "Follow my voice. You are almost, unh!" Kit grunts as Piccolo walks into him. "Too close. Okay. Reach out and feel the edge of this door. We will need to squeeze through. It is stuck in position."
Both Alibi and Piccolo reach out and feel the door's edge. Alibi feels his arm bump against Piccolo's.
"Find it? Good," Kit says. "I will go first." He brushes past the two men and through the barely open door. "Come on," Kit purrs. "Alibi first."
Alibi squeezes through the door. Piccolo follows close behind.
"Watch your step," Kit cautions. "There are some guide grooves in the floor. Be careful not to trip on them. This was a travel tube tunnel from the enclave to the port."
"I can't watch anything," Piccolo grumbles. "I can't see anything!"
"Let's hope the Tek'Tah don't see where we've gone, either," Alibi halfheartedly jokes.
"Hey!" Kit calls, sounding further away than Alibi thought he was. "Come on you two! We have a long way to go!"
Alibi walks ahead, tentative, worried about the grooves in the floor. He hasn't come across them yet.
I don't want to twist my ankle in one, either!
"Fuckin' pussy cat," Piccolo swears under his breath, still close to Alibi.
"I heard that!" Kit says from a short distance ahead of them.
"The Dakhur have very good hearing," Alibi points out.
"Thanks for that news update," Piccolo says with heavy sarcasm.
"You're welcome," Alibi scowls.
The three of them walk on through the dark tunnel in near silence, hearing only their own footfalls. If the Tek'Tah have found their way down into the travel tube tunnel, they're being awfully quiet about it.
<
br /> Alibi finds his mind wandering as they walk.
Kit never did tell me what the Tek'Tah have against him.
"So, Kit," Alibi asks out of the darkness, "how did you end up in that Tek'Tah cell?"
"I ran afoul of the local Tek'Tah Overlord. He is not a lover of the Dakhur."
"Whadya do?" Piccolo asks.
"I ran afoul of..." Kit begins to answer again.
"No, no, I know, I just heard you say that," Piccolo interrupts out of the darkness. "But how'd you 'run afoul' of them?"
"I do not wish to say," Kit answers. He doesn't say any more.
With Kit's non-answer, the silence grows between them. Time is hard to keep track of in the quiet dark. They walk for what are probably hours but seem like days.
Gradually, Alibi realizes he can see again. He's beginning to make out dim outlines, to see variations in the depths of the shadows.
"Hey, I can see! Kind of. A little," Alibi notes aloud.
"It is getting brighter," Kit says. "I believe we are nearing the port."
"Finally!" Piccolo exclaims.
"Hold on," Kit says, stopping to look for a sign of something in the wall of the travel tube. "I need to find a maintenance door. This tunnel connects up with other travel tube tunnels just ahead of our location. It may not be safe to walk any further in the tube itself. Not many transports come this way anymore, but just in case... we need a maintenance access door. We need to get out of the tunnels."
Kit scans the side wall of the tunnel. Alibi tries to get his eyes to adjust to the meager light. He realizes he can now make out the transport grooves in the tunnel floor. Squinting ahead, he sees their tunnel connects with another one perpendicular to it. Piccolo grows bored as Kit's search continues. Alibi watches him wander up to the intersection and walk into the other tunnel.
"I would not do that," Kit calls over to Piccolo. "I believe I hear a transport coming."
"You hear a wha..." Piccolo is cut short, forced to dive back into their tunnel as a transport screams by in the other one.
"Damn!" Piccolo curses his luck from the tunnel floor.
"Ah. Here we go," Kit says. He opens a door onto a well-lit access tunnel. Bright light flares up around them, blinding Alibi and Piccolo for a moment.
Kit calls to them.
"Come on!"
Alibi and Piccolo both squint at the new light as they join Kit in the smaller maintenance tunnel. Their eyes adjust as they follow the access tunnel to a door at its end.
The main plaza of the port is partially visible through a panel in the door. The three wait, observing the crowd in the plaza as they decide on their next course of action. As bad luck would have it, a group of Tek'Tah are perched a few meters from their door. There are some Flaze nearby. A couple of humans and other aliens Alibi doesn't recognize mingle in the plaza as well.
"See anybody you recognize?" Kit asks Alibi.
"No. Should I?"
"We could use some friends..."
"Are those the same Tek'Tah as the ones in the compound?" Alibi asks.
"They are all related," Kit tells him. "They may be on the lookout. Best to be careful."
"Is there a screen here?" Piccolo asks. "Maintenance computer? Access?"
Kit examines the wall next to the door.
"Here," Kit says as he pops open a panel. A screen is revealed.
"Nice," Piccolo says. He begins to punch in commands. "There we go," Piccolo says to himself. "And here we are!"
Piccolo backs away from the screen, smiling as he looks from Kit to Alibi.
"I've got us a ship!"
"You? A ship?" Alibi asks, incredulous.
"You own a ship?" Kit asks him.
"Not technically. It's... kinda mine. Well, now it is. It's in bay 23," he says. "Let's go!"
Piccolo turns and pushes past Kit. He opens the door onto the plaza and darts out before the other two can stop him.
"Shit," Alibi snaps, and he heads out the door after Piccolo.
Kit shrugs and follows the other two into the plaza.
Alibi tries not to look at the Tek'Tah. He walks with a quick step past the reptilian aliens in the plaza. Once well past them he looks back. At first, he doesn't see Kit. Then the alien reappears, straightening from picking up something from the floor of the plaza. Alibi looks ahead and sees Piccolo dodging and weaving through the crowd.
Stupid ass!
Alibi curses under his breath as he follows across the plaza.
The Tek'Tah in the plaza don't seem to be attentive. Alibi can kind of "feel" it when someone's watching him. It's one of his "talents". Right now he doesn't feel anything. He reaches the other side of the plaza and sees Piccolo ducking down an alley next to a building up ahead.
Kit catches up with Alibi as he leaves the plaza.
"The Tek'Tah do not seem to have noticed us, or do not care," Kit tells Alibi as they hustle towards the alley Piccolo disappeared down.
"Do you think we can trust –" Alibi starts. He's cut off by coarse screaming. At the edge of the plaza a few meters behind them, a Tek'Tah threatens with his burner weapon.
"Hey! You two! Stop right there!"
Alibi shoots a look at Kit and starts running.
FWAAAASSSHHHH!
Alibi can feel the heat from the burner's blast on his back as he and Kit round the corner of the alley. Piccolo is about a block and a half ahead of them. He disappears around the side of another warehouse just after Alibi spies him.
"Up there," Kit says, pointing to the corner where Piccolo was a moment earlier. He runs fast, reaches the corner while Alibi is still half a block away.
"Duck!" Kit shouts at Alibi. He points a power rifle in Alibi's direction. "Get down," he yells. Alibi dives to the ground. The beam from the power rifle passes over Alibi's back.
SSSHHHHHWAAAAARRRR!
He raises his head off the ground and looks over his shoulder to see where the beam hit. There's a small, smoking crater and severed, twitching tentacles where the Tek'Tah used to be.
"Where'd you get that rifle?" Alibi calls over to Kit.
"I grabbed it in the plaza when its owner wasn't looking. Now run!"
The cat-man sprints out of sight. Alibi jumps to his feet and races ahead to follow Kit around the corner. He's about a half a block ahead of Alibi as they run down the alley between the warehouses.
"There they are!" a Tek'Tah calls out behind them. "Murderers!"
FWAAAAAAAAAASSSSHHHH!
FWAAAASHHHH!
Two burner blasts singe the ground behind Alibi's heels as he runs. He tries to duck around the side of another warehouse, following Kit, and stumbles into the wall. He trips, falling flat on his face as he careens around the corner.
"Stay down," Kit hisses at him from a few meters away.
Kit raises the power rifle and fires over Alibi's head.
SSSSSSSSSSSHHHHWAAAAARR!
SSSSHHHWAAARR!
"Okay! Up again!" Kit says.
The Dakhur takes off running. Alibi gets to his feet and starts running after the receding figure of Kit.
Kit rounds another corner. He's waiting for Alibi as he comes around the building. A busy thoroughfare buzzes with activity at the end of the alley, about fifty meters ahead of them.
"I believe Bay 23 is just ahead, across Port Way, the street at the end of this alley," Kit tells Alibi. "I lost track of Piccolo, but recognize the neighborhood."
Alibi squints as he tries to see the bay in the distance through the traffic.
"Let us go," Kit says, nudging him.
They run down the alley but stop short of the busy roadway, staying in the shadows. No more Tek'Tah have materialized behind them, but there are Tek'Tah mingling in the crowds making their way in either direction down the busy thoroughfare ahead. These Tek'Tah don't appear to be looking for anyone, but Alibi remembers the ones in the plaza didn't seem to be interested, either – and those Tek'Tah were just chasing and shooting at him.
"I will
cross first. You follow about a minute later," Kit says to him. Alibi gives him a look, folds his arms across his chest. "What?" the alien asks.
"I'm not used to taking orders," Alibi says frostily. He leans back against the building.
"Are you used to staying alive?" Kit asks him with an edge in his voice. "I have saved your human ass twice already now. Not bad for someone who was served to me as a snack!"
Alibi shrugs, "Sorry. Thanks for that, I guess. I mean, the not eating me and saving my ass parts." Kit looks at him, almost a stare down. But the alien blinks first.
"Fine," Kit says, "be that way!" He leaps away from Alibi to cross the street to the bay. Alibi stands by himself in the shadows. He waits for an extra minute as a lumbering Tek'Tah slithers by, and then he follows Kit. He dodges a Snakt convoy and two Flaze merchants guiding an auto-pallet along the Port Way as he crosses the street to the bay doors.
A strange, alien logo hangs over the sign, evidently indicating that this is the 23rd Bay of the Port and it belongs to Someone Important. The numbers are clear enough to Alibi, so he enters and looks around for Kit and Piccolo.
"Over here!" Kit hisses at him. He's hiding in the darkness a short way inside along the front wall of the bay, on Alibi's left.
"What's the matter?" Alibi asks Kit. "Where's Piccolo?"
"I do not know," the feline alien says. "Did you see the sign outside?"
"Yeah, didn't recognize it. Is it a problem?"
"Yesssss! This bay belongs to the Devrizium!" Kit explains in a whisper. "They do not mingle with other races. If you thought the Tek'Tah got upset about trespassing... it is a capital violation among the Devrizium. You soil their territory with your presence, you die. They meet you, they kill you, it is very simple. They are not a social species."
"The Devrizium?" Alibi asks. "I've heard of them, heard they were pretty belligerent!"
"Isolationist. Xenophobic. Deadly. Powerful. And warlike, yes. They were cowed only by the Eldred."
"Hey!" Piccolo calls out in a loud voice from somewhere out of sight. "Is that you guys? Where are you?"
"I believe he is no longer drunk, but perhaps he remains intellectually challenged," Kit whispers to Alibi.
"The Devrizium aren't here, it's okay!" Piccolo calls out. "C'mon, I know you both made it in here, I heard the bay door!"
Alibi decides to risk it. He steps out of the shadows and looks around the bay.
"Alibi? That you? Over here!" Piccolo calls to him.
Alibi spies a human ship parked in a corner of the bay, an old, beat up Stinger Transpace ship with a commercial paint job over the old SAIF markings. Piccolo leans out of an open door on the side of the ship.
"See? Like I told you, I've got us a ship!"
Alibi saunters over to the ship, cautious, looking around for signs of any other aliens.
Don't know what I'm looking for.
Don't even know what Devrizium look like!
"So, this is your ship?" Alibi asks Piccolo.
"It is now. Its previous owner no longer has a use for it," Piccolo says.
"Probably because he landed it in a Devrizium port bay," Kit says, materializing just behind Alibi's shoulder. Piccolo glares at Kit, then turns and heads into the ship.
"We should go," Kit says. "The Tek'Tah won't venture inside this landing bay, but our being here could be deadly if we run into the Devrizium."
Alibi and Kit board the ship. Kit closes the airlock behind them and they head up to the ship's bridge.
"Wow, you can sure tell this isn't a military craft!" Alibi says, struck by the grunge in the corners, the dirt and dust buildup in the cracks and crevices of the ship. When he gets to the bridge, there's a strong, funky smell, like sour onions and pepperoni. The deck chairs are re-covered in colorful fabric. The walls and ceiling are painted dark blue and covered in day glo yellow dots in an attempt to make it look like a starfield.
"Customized," Piccolo says, when he notices Alibi taking in their surroundings.
"Not the word I would use," Alibi mumbles.
"Aaaarrrrooooohhh, the smell!!" Kit complains.
"Sorry, man, not mine," Piccolo denies. "You get used to it, though."
"I do not think so! Dakhur senses are more sensitive than human senses!" the cat man argues.
Alibi notices no one has sat down.
"Are we going to get out of here?" Alibi asks.
"Sure," Piccolo says. "One of you guys can pilot a ship, right?" He looks helplessly around the ship's bridge, clueless.
"I could probably figure out the controls," Kit says, starting to look in curiously at the bridge configuration.
"I've flown old Stinger ships," Alibi says, pushing past the other two to head for the pilot's seat. He sits down in the captain's chair and turns back to Kit and Piccolo. "Strap yourselves in. We're leaving!"
Piccolo and Kit sit down and fasten their seat belts. The ship's controls haven't been customized, so they come easy to Alibi. He powers up the engines and lifts the ship off the ground.
He hovers the ship over the bay for a second or two before punching in a steep ascent path. The three of them are pressed back into their seats by the G forces as the Stinger ship blasts up and away from the rocky planet below.
