Alibi Jones

by Mike Luoma

Chapter Eleven

  The Helix nebula glows above them. Alibi looks out across the plain, trying to imagine the huge, silver Eldred ship descending from the sky to disappear below the blank gray sands before him. His vision of the planetoid back at Krish's apartment on Rigel Four returns in a deja vu moment. Alibi experiences a sort of double vision as he sees the image from his mind superimposed on the landscape.

  This is definitely the place he "saw" when he touched the scrap of alien metal. He bounces over to the small building. Piccolo follows, catching up as they near the airlock. Kit gets there ahead of both of them.

  "It is locked," Kit informs them as they approach.

  Alibi starts to examine the door when Piccolo pipes up beside him.

  "That's an easy one, that lock. Here," he says, nudging Alibi out of the way so he can pick the lock. Piccolo gets the door open as easily as he suggests he can. He stands back and lets Kit and Alibi go ahead of him.

  The three enter through the airlock and soon stand inside the building next to Masakov's transport. The man himself is not in sight. Alibi, Kit and Piccolo remove their EVA suit helmets and look around.

  The structure is single-leveled. There's enough space inside for the transport and a bank of two elevators, one normal sized, one extra large for freight.

  They make their way around the transport towards the smaller of the two elevator doors. Before they can press any buttons, it opens! Masakov stands directly in front of them, holding a chain in his hand. The chain leads to an attractive, brown-haired young woman in manacles standing captive next to Masakov. They're all startled, but Piccolo literally jumps.

  "Katie!" Piccolo shouts out. "My... my sister!"

  "Who?" is all Masakov gets out. The woman recognizes Piccolo – and recoils! She leans into Masakov as she pulls away from Piccolo.

  "No!" she screams.

  Masakov and the rest of them turn to her, momentarily stunned.

  "What the fuck?" is all a surprised Alibi can manage before Masakov lunges at him. Alibi dodges, gets out of the man's way. Masakov stumbles past Alibi and out of the elevator.

  "Whath are youth doinga her?" Masakov says. His words sound slurred and distorted. He looks confused for a split second. Then he turns and lunges at Alibi again. Alibi's confusion gives Masakov a momentary edge. He connects and sends Alibi sprawling across the floor. Kit moves to close the distance.

  "I'm not going back to Laveillur!" Katie shouts at Piccolo as she shuffles away from him and out of the elevator.

  Alibi gets up and lunges for Masakov.

  "Unha!" Alibi grunts as Masakov knocks him away into the wall. He ricochets off and stumbles onto his knees.

  Masakov advances on Alibi, reaching to grab him over the head around the waist, lifting him up to pile drive him. Kit leaps and pounces, closing the distance. He pulls Masakov off of Alibi and throws him into the wall.

  The man crumbles into a pile at the wall's base.

  "Who or what is this Lava lure?" Alibi asks the girl as he struggles to regain his feet. Kit stands next to him, growling over Masakov. Piccolo tries to grab his sister. She keeps trying to avoid his reach, scrambling to get away from him. Her eyes warily shift from Piccolo to Masakov, as if weighing the worst of two evils. Then she looks at Alibi. Her eyes catch his, and bore in, as if looking for something.

  "Who is Laveillur?" The girl mocks Alibi with her sarcasm. "Oh, that's good! What are you, a fucking actor? Bet he's the guy who signs your paychecks! I know for sure Laveillur is HIS employer," she tells Alibi, nodding and glancing over to indicate Piccolo. "he's paying that fuckhead for sure! For all I know you're working for him, too!"

  "I do not work for anyone," Kit says, answering the girl's accusations in a measured tone. Alibi stares back into Katie's eyes, trying to convince her silently.

  I'm not sure what the fuck is going on here, but I'm not the bad guy!

  "Everyone works for someone," Piccolo says. "Come on, Katie. This guy's carving people up! Laveillur isn't ripping women's fucking uteruses out of them!"

  Masakov stirs and begins to rise. Alibi looks away from the girl and down at the butcher lying on the floor. Masakov looks up at Alibi, a strange expression on his face. He leans toward Alibi. "Sometimes," he whispers in a different, clearer sounding voice than he'd just used, "sometimes... I am still I!" He says the last two words with heavy emphasis.

  Alibi punches Masakov in the side of the head, knocking him out.

  He searches the unconscious man, looking for the keys to the girl's manacles. He finds a ring of release sticks in the man's jumpsuit pocket.

  Alibi looks over at her as he straightens up.

  "I'm not sure what's going on," Alibi tells her. "But I do not work for anyone named Laveillur!"

  "He does," she says, gesturing at Piccolo.

  "He's not your brother?" Alibi asks.

  She stops in her tracks.

  "My brother? You're kidding me, right?" she says, shaking her head. She turns to Piccolo. "You told them you were my fucking brother? You piece of shit!"

  "I don't work for anyone named Laveillur!" Alibi says again.

  "WE do not," Kit reinforces.

  "So what are you doing helping HIM?" she asks, gesturing at Piccolo.

  "He said you were his sister. He was trying to rescue you. We were trying to help. I was trying to find an old friend, but..." Alibi trails off, thinking of Miss Kay partially dissected back in the other building.

  "If he told you I was his sister, he's lying! He's a fucking bounty hunter!" she rants. "He works for Laveillur! He's been trying to take me back to that fat old fuck to collect the bounty!"

  Kit and Alibi turn and stare at Piccolo.

  "Is that true?" Alibi asks the man.

  I really don't know him from a hole in the head, do I?

  Piccolo shrugs. He looks around and tries not to say anything.

  "So," Alibi asks her, "is your name even Katie?"

  "Yeah, I'm Katie. Short for Katerina." For a moment she gets a distant look in her eyes. "There are more people down there in that shithole of a ship," she tells them, coming back to herself. "If you're really here to help, you've gotta help them, too!"

  Their attention focused on each other, no one notices Masakov regain his wits, stand and lurch into the elevator. He hits the controls. Before they can stop him he disappears behind the closing door as Kit, Alibi, Piccolo and Katie look on.

  The sound of the building's outer airlock door opening behind them makes them all turn their heads. The airlock cycles. The inner door opens unleashing the first of a score of Eldred. The vicious aliens start pouring out of the airlock, swarming their way, pointy teeth gnashing. Not the mellow, intelligent creatures of the history files, these are more of the rabid creatures they ran into in the other building, and these are armed and dangerous. They begin firing at Alibi, Katie, Kit and Piccolo. The four of them scramble for cover behind the transport. Alibi punches the buttons to call the elevator, dodging their rifle fire.

  "Masakov must have called them!" Alibi figures. Kit nods, but he's focused on something else. He dives underneath the transport in front of them. Suddenly, the lead Eldred fighter moving along the side of the transport disappears underneath. A strangled cry rings out in between shots fired by the other Eldred. Kit pops up on the opposite side of the transport, an Eldred rifle in his hand. He begins firing over the transport at the advancing Eldred, managing to nail two of the creatures before the rest drop back, retreating into the airlock.

  "Grab one of their guns," Kit calls over to Alibi. Alibi edges around the transport and grabs a rifle from one of the Eldred bodies on the floor. An Eldred leans out of the airlock and rips off a shot at him that goes wide and hits the opposite wall harmlessly.

  "Grab me one!" Piccolo calls over at Alibi from next to the elevator.

  I don't think so.

  Alibi remains silent as he drops back to where Katie and Piccolo crouch next to the elevator door with just the one rifle in his hand
s. Eldred rifle shots rip around him as they shoot at him from the airlock.

  The elevator door opens thanks to his earlier button pushing. He crouches in the elevator doorway, keeping it open. He sights with the Eldred gun and lets rifle fire rip back towards the airlock.

  FWAAAASSSSHH!

  "Come on! Into the elevator," he calls to the others. "We'll go downstairs and see if we can free some captives. I wouldn't mind punching Masakov again, either," Alibi admits.

  "That is not very progressive of you," Kit observes as he falls back next to Alibi in the doorway, firing back at the airlock.

  "What?" Alibi mock protests to Kit. "Saving captives is progressive!"

  "I was referring to the punching," Kit says.

  "Punching helps," Alibi insists, straight-faced.

  Ducking the rifle fire coming from the aliens back by the airlock, Katie shuffles on all fours past Alibi and Kit and into the elevator. Kit keeps the Eldred busy with covering fire. Alibi turns back to Katie.

  "Going down?" Alibi asks her once she's inside the elevator and out of harm's way, making a lame joke. She gives him a withering look. "I've got the keys to those manacles," he says cheerily, holding up the release sticks as he tries to get on the girl's good side. She holds her bound hands up to Alibi. He removes the shackles from her wrists.

  "Give me those," she says to him, motioning for the release sticks. He hands them over and she unlocks her ankles. The chains fall to the elevator floor. "They're keeping everybody in the cells on the ship below," she tells Alibi and Kit as she stretches, now free. She looks puzzled. "You're really gonna go in after them?" she asks.

  "Yeah," Alibi answers, now puzzled himself.

  "That wouldn't be normal bounty hunter-ish behavior," she says, looking at Alibi and Kit intently.

  "Neither is letting you out of your chains," Alibi helpfully points out.

  "Yeah," she says, thinking. "You've got me. The thing to do now would be get out of here and get your money from Laveillur."

  "If we were bounty hunters," Alibi says. "I told you, we're not. We're not working for this Velour, whoever he is!"

  FWAAAAASSSHHH!

  Kit fires another shot at the Eldred in the airlock as Piccolo slithers awkwardly into the elevator. He trips over the manacles and falls onto the floor just past Alibi. Alibi steps in out of the doorway so the elevator doors can close. As it begins to descend, Katie looks down at Piccolo as if she's going to spit on him.

  "He works for Laveillur," she says in the sudden silence of the small descending room. "I know that for sure. Fucking slime ball bounty hunter!" Piccolo looks up at Alibi, Kit and Katie from where he lies curled up on the floor, small and strangely pathetic, like a worm squirming in the mud. He and Alibi lock eyes. Alibi wishes he could fire lasers from his eyes and melt the other man into a puddle of goo.

  "What?" Piccolo protests. He tries to get to his knees to stand back up, but is bounced back down when the elevator reaches its destination with a lurch and a thump. "Unh!"

  The door opens, revealing a huge underground cavern. It's eerily quiet. Piccolo gets up off the floor, and the four of them leave the elevator. They look around for any sign of Masakov as the door shuts behind them, the sound of it echoing in the vast silence of the underground chamber. It appears to be a natural formation, an underground cave sealed up and turned into a giant hangar. The lighting looks dim at first. The space itself consumes the light, the vast distance to the other side of the chamber prevents them from even seeing the the far wall. The large silver ship parked in the underground hangar also gets in the way.

  Enormous silver sheets of material are stacked along the wall off to their far left. Structural beams are stacked along the wall as well. On the right side of the cavern, assembly structures are folded up and stored away against the rock wall. The material and means for making the Eldred's ships is arrayed around them. Alibi takes out his Wand and records the sight, capturing the footage for later.

  They walk cautiously into the wide open space of the hangar. An Eldred ship like the one they saw back on Junzias sits in front of them. Next to the ship sits an ornate, apparently complex machine with a clear capsule at its center.

  What the hell is that thing? Never seen anything like that before.

  Is it Masakov's or the Eldred's?

  Questions run through Alibi's mind as he surveys the scene. Several thick cables run between the ship and the strange machine. They don't appear to be completely hooked up, as several of the cable ends dangle or rest on the ground next to the device. There's no sign of Masakov.

  Alibi, Kit, Katie and Piccolo make their way carefully past the new machine over to the side of the ship. The silver oblong of the fuselage curves up above them as they walk between the landing gear to the ship's elevators. The elevators sit in a thick column stretching down from the belly of the ship fifteen meters overhead to the ground in front of them.

  Alibi calls the elevator and they ride up into the ship. Even in the elevator the ship smells foul, as if the recycling systems have failed. Kit grimaces as they rise up in the elevator and enter the ship.

  "Oh no," the cat man says. "I don't know if I can keep going with you. It smells..." he pauses, " ...like something has died and rotted." When the elevator opens onto the interior of the ship, the smell gets worse. Kit almost stumbles.

  "I will go back down and guard the base of the elevator," he tells them, and quickly ducks back inside the elevator, disappearing as the door closes.

  "Wimp!" Piccolo tries to joke. Alibi and Katie look at him with disgust. "Now we only have one gun," Piccolo complains to Alibi, referring back to Alibi's failure to grab him a gun earlier.

  "If I had a gun I'd shoot you. In a heartbeat," Katie tells Piccolo, matter-of-fact. "You're lucky we only have one gun," she tells him, her eyebrows arched and menace heavy in her tone of voice. Piccolo shrinks back from her. As they start down the corridor of the ship he skulks behind Katie and Alibi, hanging back.

  Smells like the recycling system has broken down on the ship... gross!

  Alibi makes his way down the ship's corridor, methodically opening cell doors and letting captives out. Seems like the smell gets worse with each cell door that he opens.

  The poor people. They were given food and water by Masakov and their Eldred captors, but little else. The cells are filthy, excrement in the corners, disgusting. Alibi helps an old man up out of the filth of his cell, holding his breath as he does.

  "Something is draining the ship's power!" the man raves at Alibi. "The recyclers stopped working when something began draining all the power!" Alibi thinks of the strange machine outside next to the ship.

  Think I know what might be causing a power drain...

  "Head for the elevators," Alibi says between gasps. "Take the elevators out."

  As he, Katie and Piccolo open more cell doors, letting more victims out, a group of armed and vicious Eldred arrive on scene from elsewhere on the ship. They have smaller weapons, designed for shipboard combat.

  SHHHHHEEEEEAAAHHHH! SHEEEAHHHH!

  They fire at Alibi and the freed captives.

  FWAAAASSSSHHHH!

  Alibi shoots back, quickly leveling two of the fuzzy threats. The surviving aliens fire back.

  SSSHHHHHEEEEAAAHHH!

  Piccolo runs up to one of the downed Eldred and picks up a ship's pistol. He lifts it and fires at the other Eldred, pushing them back.

  SSHHHEEEAAHHH!

  Alibi moves up next to Piccolo. They fire into the group of hostile aliens, driving the remaining Eldred away from the newly released prisoners.

  SSSHHHHHEEEEAAAHHH!

  FWAAAASSSSHHHH!

  Katie calls the stunned victims over to her. She sends them on, down in the elevator and out of the ship.

  The last surviving Eldred retreats, leaving Alibi, Piccolo and Katie standing alone in the corridor in sudden silence.

  "Okay, back to it!" Alibi says, trying not to smell the air he's breathing. He holds his
nose and then opens cell door after cell door.

  He directs the former prisoners down the ship's corridor. Katie puts them on the elevator and on their way out of the foul Eldred vessel.

  Alibi opens every door he can find as he walks down the hall.

  Reaching the corridor's end, Alibi yanks open a door that won't slide automatically. He's startled as he comes face to face with a small group of Eldred. They're unarmed but turn and attack, each of the aliens grabbing at him with sharp-clawed hands.

  Damn! They could rip me to shreds with those handhooks!

  FWAAAAASHH!

  FWAAAAASSSSHHH!

  He fires at them at point blank range. It takes only two sweeps with the blaster beam to cut them all down. Alibi's heartbeat is racing as he drops the rifle to his side and looks around the small room. It looks like any other cell. No apparent strategic reason for the five Eldred to be in the room.

  Must have been trying to hide in here. Wonder if they were the ship's crew?

  Piccolo walks up behind Alibi. He looks over his shoulder at the still-smoking alien corpses.

  "Damn," Piccolo mutters. "Hey Alibi," he asks, recovering, "do you think there are more prisoners on the upper deck?"

  "I don't know. Should have a look, huh?"

  Alibi steps out of the cell past Piccolo. He looks around the corridor to see if there are any more Eldred. None in sight. He spots an access tube door.

  "All clear. Come on! This looks like the way up!" Alibi tells Piccolo.

  Alibi climbs the access tube up to the ship's second floor. Piccolo follows. The deck appears empty. No sign of any Eldred nor prisoners. It also smells better. They open all the cabin doors they can find as they make their way down the ship's corridor, but no surprises emerge. The two of them climb another access tube back down to the prison level, discovering a side corridor they haven't yet checked in the process. They find more prisoners waiting.

  Had a feeling we weren't done yet.

  Alibi opens a cell door to let out another kidnap victim. She seems dazed, blinking at the new light streaming into her cell.

  "Head for the elevators to get out," Alibi tells her. "Down the corridor and through that door. There's a girl named Katie on the other side, she'll show you where the elevator is so you can get out of here."

  The woman stares at him without saying a word. She creeps past him and limps down the ship's corridor in silence. Piccolo lets a girl out across the corridor. Alibi opens the next door and frees another, sending the poor woman down to the elevators.

  Alibi and Piccolo work their way back toward the center of the ship, opening cell doors and letting people out as they, too, head for the elevators. When Alibi opens the door on an empty cell, he realizes he's come full circle back to where he started, the captives all now set free.

  Prisoners released, Alibi grabs Katie and hustles her into the elevator to get them out of the ship. They reach the hangar deck, the floor of the cave. Kit straightens up to greet them as they emerge from the landing tower.

  "Is that everyone?" He asks.

  "All except for Piccolo," Alibi informs him. "He's on his way down now."

  "Shoulda locked him up and left him in one of those fucking cells," Katie growls. Piccolo walks out of the elevator to find the other three staring at him.

  "What?" he asks.

  "Like you have to ask!" Katie spits back at him.

  Alibi looks around trying to spot Masakov, but he's not in sight.

  Fouled, confused, and shocked kidnap victims mill about. The prisoners are stretching, blinking, trying to acclimate to the wide open space after being kept cooped up in cramped cells.

  "We cannot take all these people back with us in our ship," Kit observes as he watches the people walk around the hangar.

  Alibi curses silently. He had thought they might be able to fly the victims back in the Eldred ship, but that was before they discovered the entire craft had been powered down. And never mind that the conditions on board the ship are now disgusting and probably unhealthy. Masakov and the Eldred turned a once space-worthy vessel into an inert prison. And Kit is right, their Cruiser is no option. They have no room.

  Alibi looks around at the crowd. There's no way even half of them would fit on their little ship. He also keeps his eyes peeled for some sign of Masakov.

  "We'll have to call in a SAIF ship," Alibi says, thinking out loud. "We'll need to keep Masakov away from them until it gets here. But I haven't seen him since he disappeared down the elevator."

  Alibi looks at the faces in the crowd to see if Masakov is attempting to blend in with his victims.

  Where are you?

  Alibi turns away from the crowd. He spots a lone figure by the front of the Eldred ship, next to the strange machine. As Alibi watches the figure lifts a dangling cable to attach it to the side of the device.

  Alibi tries to casually saunter over towards the front of the ship.

  As Alibi watches out of the corner of his eye, Masakov connects what look like power conduits to the machine. Piccolo, noticing Alibi's odd behavior, walks over to him.

  "What are you..." Piccolo follows Alibi's line of sight and spots Masakov. "No shit!" Piccolo brings up his pistol and fires at Masakov.

  SSSHHHHHEEEEAAHHH!

  The beam hits the ground near Masakov's feet, knocking him down.

  Did he kill him?

  "Hey!" Alibi shouts at Piccolo. "Don't kill him! We need to find out what he's doing here!"

  "Sorry," Piccolo says, sarcasm in his voice. "I'll try not to injure our enemy."

  "It is becoming difficult to determine just who the enemy is," Kit says as he walks up. He lets his glare linger on Piccolo. Alibi decides to stare at the man, too. Piccolo looks back and forth between them.

  "Oh, come ON!" Piccolo protests. "You ladies want my help or not?"

  "I do not know," Kit says. "I no longer know who you are. And I must admit, I am not sure now that I ever truly did."

  "Really?" Piccolo says with some attitude. "How well do you really know who anyone is?"

  "A legitimate question," Kit grants. "I judge by actions. Yours were already suspect."

  "Great," Piccolo says, and he sighs with exaggerated exasperation.

  "You lied," Alibi explains. "Repeatedly."

  "I thought you wanted to get this guy!" Piccolo blurts out, trying to change the topic.

  "I do," Alibi says. "I'm just trying to decide whether or not I want to get you more."

  "Great," Piccolo says. "Now you want to 'get me'? What the fuck?"

  "You are not who you said you were," Kit says, matter-of-fact. "This throws everything about you into doubt."

  "Does it really?" Piccolo challenges them.

  "It sure would get a lot easier if you two stopped talking to that fuck and got rid of him," Katie says as she nears the group, making her presence known and making her point. She looks around, apparently frustrated that she doesn't have a weapon to do the job herself.

  Piccolo, in their focus and under scrutiny, backs away from them.

  "Discussion is pointless. We must get Masakov," Kit says. He nods over at the Eldred ship. "This is foolish. While we argued, he escaped."

  Masakov is now out of sight. But the machine next to the ship has begun to glow and crackle with energy.

  Oh man... I bet he's inside of that thing!

  "Come on!" Alibi shouts as he runs up to the machine. Static electricity in the air makes Alibi's hair stand on end the closer he gets.

  Thin blue-white lightning bolts flicker off the energy field that pulses around the machine, licking the air in front of Alibi like snake tongues of cold fire. One connects with him as he approaches, wrapping around him, sending voltage through his system. He flies backwards into Kit and Katie – they cushion his fall, but he's out cold. Piccolo decides to try approaching the machine. He suffers a similar fate, coming to a rolling, tumbling halt on the ground next to Alibi.

  "Looks like there's an energy fiel
d or something," Katie observes.

  "Really?" Kit replies with understated Dakhur sarcasm. She glares at him.

  "Really," she says with sarcasm of her own.

  Kit may be smiling as he walks away. It is hard to tell with a Dakhur. He approaches the machine. The sight of Kit's luxuriant coat of fur suddenly rising to stand on end in the static is comical, and Katie starts to laugh.

  "Please," Kit says, turning back to glare at her.

  "Sorry," she yells at the staticky cat man. "You look like a giant, prickly porcupine!"

  "So be it," he says. He turns back to continue on towards the machine. The energy snakes out in bolts, lapping at his prickly fur. He stops short of where Alibi and Piccolo were hit and brings the laser rifle up. He fires! The beam is absorbed by the crackling energy field around the machine.

  Kit can make out Masakov standing in an insulated capsule inside of the machine. As Kit watches, Masakov fastens straps across his chest. An ornately wired headdress lowers onto Masakov's head, and the machine closes in around him and the chamber.

  Masakov spasms and twitches, losing control as if being electrocuted. If not for the straps he'd be flailing madly. He shakes and strains violently against the restraints holding him down. With one last, violent, barely restrained heave, Masakov nearly breaks the straps. He slumps, and the machine loses all power, going dark.

  Alibi stirs on the ground. He props himself up on his elbows.

  Anyone get the number of the spaceship that hit me?

  He stands, his legs only giving him tentative support.

  What happened? Is it over?

  The static electricity dissipates. Kit's hair settles back into place as he nears the now inert machine. He opens the front of the device, and then its inner chamber. Masakov's body falls out, a smoking, dead husk.

  Alibi walks up, rubbing his head. He looks down at the shriveled corpse.

  "What'd he do?" Alibi asks.

  "I do not know," Kit answers.

  "Is he dead?" Alibi wonders aloud.

  "It appears so," Kit purrs.

  "Do you think something went wrong?" Alibi asks.

  "Again, we do not know. First we would have to know what it was that he was attempting to do with this machine. We do not. But, somehow," Kit muses, "I do not think we are that lucky."

  "Is he dead?" Piccolo asks as he walks over to them. He's rubbing his head, too, recovering from the shock that sent him sprawling.

  "Looks like," Alibi says.

  "Shoulda let me kill him," Piccolo says with an "I told you so" attitude.

  "Shut up," Alibi cuts him down. He turns away from the man. He pulls out his Wand to call for a SAIF ship to come for the freed captives.

  "What happened?" Katie asks as she approaches.

  "Not sure," Alibi admits. He's a little distracted, typing a message into his Wand so it will send whenever he gets an interstellar connection.

  "He dead?" she asks, nodding at Masakov's body on the ground.

  "Looks like," Piccolo answers. She glares at him with pure hatred. "What?" he protests.

  She turns away from Piccolo. She confronts Alibi, standing on her toes but still only coming up to his chin, "Are you going to be able get us all out of here?"

  "I'm calling the Solar Alliance. They'll send a ship," he tells her. He waves the Wand, waiting for the call back from the SAIF confirming they'll send a ship in to rescue Masakov's victims.

  DING!

  "Finally!" Alibi says. "I just got a connection. The message went off to the mediation service."

  An awkward silent moment passes between the four of them as Alibi watches the Wand for the sign of a reply.

  "Aaaaand... They confirm! They're sending a ship," Alibi shares the good news. Katie looks at him, suspicious.

  "Swear to me you aren't working for Laveillur!" she demands, looking up to stare him in the eye.

  "I swear!" he says with a hint of exasperation. "I'm not a bounty hunter! I don't work for La-whatshisface!"

  "Laveillur!" she insists. "Swear to me you aren't working with Laveillur!"

  "I swear to you I am not working with Laveillur!" Alibi says defensively.

  "Good!" she says, backing off a bit, her intensity diminishing. "Now promise me you won't let him take me back to Laveillur!" she demands, pointing an accusatory finger at Piccolo.

  "I promise," Alibi says easily. "There's no way I'd let him take you to whatshisface."

  "Hey!" Piccolo protests.

  "What?" Alibi asks him with a glare.

  "I... uh. Huh. Well, I helped you get this far, you know," he tries to explain himself.

  "What?" Alibi repeats. "Did you expect me to let you take off with her? Now that we know she's not your sister!?"

  "Uh, well, I guess I did kinda think I'd..."

  "Fuck you," Alibi cuts him off in a loud voice. "I don't believe in slavery. Or bounty hunters."

  "Slavery? I ain't no slaver!" Piccolo protests. "I just have a..." he stops. "A job to do," he says, sounding small. Alibi turns his back on the man to talk to Katie.

  "He has no claim on you," Alibi assures her. "Not so far as I can see."

  "Can I go back with you?" she asks Alibi, apparently starting to trust him. "Is there room on your ship for me?"

  He looks from her to Kit before he answers. Kit nods his approval.

  "Sure you can," he assures her.

  "Can we leave him here?" she asks, nodding at Piccolo.

  "Hey!" Piccolo protests. "Don't leave me behind!"

  Alibi ponders his options.

  "If we leave him behind, he'll just come after you," Alibi points out to Katie. "I think we have to take him with us. So we can keep an eye on him. You know what they say, friends close, enemies closer." She's disappointed.

  Piccolo seems puzzled, unsure which way he should go.

  "Maybe I should stay here with the freed prisoners," he wavers, realizing he's already lost his true quarry for the time being.

  "Yeah, no, I don't think so," Alibi tells him. "We'll take both you and Katie back with us. I know people in high places. We'll take care of this Laveillur guy, negotiate with him. The Solar Alliance can settle this."

  "Great," Katie says. She doesn't believe Alibi has the power he thinks he does, but decides she'll trust him anyway.

  "Yeah, right." Piccolo is also not convinced.

  Alibi notices that Kit has been edging away, moving off to the side of the cavern by himself. Concerned, Alibi approaches him.

  "Everything all right?" Alibi asks as he walks over.

  "I am sorry. I am trying to stay out of odor range of the captives," Kit explains.

  "You ready to get out of here?"Alibi asks.

  "More than ready. I will call the elevator."

  Kit leaps away and speeds for the elevator doors on a roundabout path as he tries to avoid the worst of the smell.

  Alibi looks around at the crowd of shell shocked former captives milling around in the hangar.

  Gotta let them know what's going on...

  "Hey!" he shouts. "Hi! Could I..." he pauses. The people seem lost, inattentive thanks to the shock of their captivity.

  "Attention! Your attention, please!" he shouts again. Heads begin turning in his direction, so Alibi continues. "Your attention! Please! We've called a Solar Alliance ship and it's on its way here to pick you up!"

  Murmurs ripple through the crowd as they begin to take in what he's saying.

  "That's right! A Solar Alliance ship will be here momentarily to take you back to Alliance space," he repeats in a loud voice. The murmurs gain volume. Actual conversations erupt. Alibi smiles.

  He turns to Katie and Piccolo.

  "Okay. Let's go."

  The three of them make a beeline for the elevator door now held open by Kit, but Alibi is forced to halt when a woman in filthy clothes runs up and grabs at him.

  "Wait! Where are you going? You can't leave us like this!" she cries. Alibi evades her grasp while he tries to reassure he
r.

  "We're not abandoning you!" Alibi tells the woman as he tries to avoid her touch, looking as if he's engaged in an awkward dance with her. "There's a SAIF ship on its way here now, I promise. They'll take you back to Alliance space, like I said. The ship we came in isn't big enough to take everybody. And that ship over there has been drained of power, we can't use it," he insists. He backs away from her as he gestures up at the huge Eldred vessel.

  She stops lunging at him to look back at the ship.

  "Never getting back on that thing," the woman says. She shakes with a chill.

  "No, can't say I blame you for that," Alibi says with true sympathy.

  Guess that really wasn't an option.

  "The SAIF ship will be here soon, I promise," he repeats.

  The woman relaxes and lets him continue on his way unmolested. He leaves her behind to catch up with the others at the elevator. The door closes behind him as he steps inside.