He slammed into the door with his shoulder and it popped open with a groan of protest providing just enough room for him to squeeze through. Alex and I were pretty quick to follow him through and the room went dark a moment when the door clanged shut with another metallic clank.
A beam of light cascaded out from a small cylindrical tube clenched in Max’s hand and I spent a moment taking stock of my surroundings. We were in some sort of storage room which was lined with shelves, most of them empty, here or there was an empty box or a piece of equipment too heavy to be carried out by scavengers, but I didn’t see anything that justified further investigation.
Joken grunted and spun around just in time to watch him send one of the heavy metal shelfs crashing down in front of the door. “That ought to hold ’em off.”
“Assuming they’ll even find this place,” I replied glancing back over my shoulder. “Either way I say it’s time for us to make our exit. If they do find their way here I want to be long gone before they show up.”
We did just that exiting out through the opposite door and found ourselves back on the streets. From there we made our escape disappearing into the crowds of the next nearest roadway.
I collapsed against the wall running a hand through my hair as took several deep breaths. My heart was racing, but considering that we’d just spent the last four hours playing cat and mouse with the Qharr that wasn’t much a surprise.
This time I was fairly certain we’d managed to give them the slip, but Rodriquez was keeping a close eye on the window just in case.
“Okay, Jokeb. Now that we’re settled I think it’s about time you clarify things,” I said.
“Clarify?” He grinned scratching at his beard as studied me with those deep set eyes. “Let’s not dance around with our words. You wanna know how I can mash faces so easily, is that it?”
Mash faces? That seemed like an odd way of putting it, but I bit my lip and nodded. Jokeb gritted his teeth and let out a long sigh before pulling his shirt up over his head.
“Hey look.” I held my hands up and scooted away. “I don’t know what–”
Jokeb let out a low throaty laugh then turned his back to me revealing a long column of metal that protruded from his back where his spine should have been. It was segmented, each section having the appearance of a vertebrae and there were tiny silver strands threading out from the each segment like snakes burrowing down into his skin.
“There’s a lot of names for people like me. Cyborg, bionic, biomechs, fusers, and probably half a dozen others that you won’t hear mentioned in polite conversation. I ain’t immune to phase fire like you, but I’m stronger than most Qharr and I can take a beating like no other.”
I nodded and let out a long sigh of relief as he pulled his shirt back over his head. “Sorry, I thought you might have had something else in mind.”
He didn’t answer, but instead he grinned and shook his head.
“How long do you think it will be before they give up the chase?” Max craned her beck back turning away from the window to glance over at me.
“Well they’re Qharr so probably never,” I replied sinking down to the floor. “But things will probably die down a little in a couple of days. We’ll need to disguise ourselves though and stay out of sight as much as possible when we’re traveling through the city.”
“Three days doesn’t hardly seem like enough time,” Jokeb replied his hands thrumming against the floor. “We oughtta settle down and wait the bastards out.”
“I don’t believe this,” Max palmed her face and shook her head. “You might be comfortable hiding in a hole, but I don’t think we want to stay in the city long term. The sooner we get out the better.”
“You’re one to talk,” Jokeb narrowed his eyes and glared at Max. “Your people ran away from Earth with their tails tucked between their legs and left the rest of us to the Qharr.”
Max clenched her jaw and looked almost as if she were ready to scream, but I held my hand up and stopped her before she could issue her retort. “Max you’re right, we can’t afford to stick around the city for very long, but we do need to wait the gray skins out. We’ll watch the streets and see how it goes, but if five days go by without incidence and guards are still roaming the city in full force I will go find Velspatt all by myself.”
“Just you?” Max raised an eyebrow and turned back to the window. “I know with your abilities you can do some pretty amazing things, but even you aren’t invincible.”
“No, but you can’t walk up a wall or leap across rooftops,” I replied feeling a huge grin stretch across my face as I caught her eyebrows shooting up. I guess she’d underestimated my abilities after all.
“Jesus,” she said, with slight shake of her head. “Is there anything you can’t do?”
I grunted and sank down the rest of the way to the floor. “Jokeb try to get some sleep. Max, you have first watch, wake me up in a few hours, and I’ll take a turn.”
I drifted off in no time and faded into the darkness of a dreamless sleep.
Chapter Eight
Five days came and went and the Qharr patrols showed no signs of letting up. Which gave us plenty of time to think, fortunately we’d packed in enough foodstuffs to last us those five days. Well, once we rationed them. Water was another matter entirely, but we managed to procure some through a quick trip back into the street and some less than honest means.
Five days of sitting around gave me plenty of time to think and given some the more recent revelations I had plenty of fodder. I’d been so caught up with Mara’s return from the grave and everything that had happened since then that I’d barely given myself much time to think about it, but it had to come up sooner or later.
The Qharr were human or damn near close to it. My whole life there had been no doubt in my mind that humans were less violent than the Qharr, but if we had been used as a template for the gray skins could that really be true? I’d seen the horrible things humans could do to one another and I’d experienced more than a few of them myself.
I was always so sure that the horrible things humans did were a result of the way in which the gray skins had tread upon us. They had taught us to commit atrocities, but that didn’t ring true anymore. The truth was we had the same capacity for violence that our oppressors did, but then what separated us from them?
I didn’t know, but despite all that I was resolved to keep up the fight. Before the war humanity had managed to put aside all our differences and unite as we reached out to the stars. If we could do it once, why not again?
Delving into human and Qharr nature weren’t the only things that kept me occupied. Jokeb wasn’t much of a conversationalist, but Max was more than happy to chatter. Given that we’d both been forced into bodies of the opposite sex, although through very different means, we had a lot of things to discuss and she was more than happy to do so.
“It’s strange, but I can’t help but wonder. I’m so different from the other Everlys, but I’m not much like the other Rodriquezes either. We know a lot of our behavior is ruled by genetics, but a lot is shaped by our personal experiences. How much of me is a product of genetics and how much is by my own experiences?” Max said rubbing a hand against her temple. “And maybe some of it is influences by my sex. I have the memories of a man, but the body of a woman. There aren’t any clones like me, I just wonder…”
“You need to stop worrying your pretty little face off. You are who you are, and the only things that makes you that way is because you choose to be that way. The second you woke from your tube you were different from anybody else. You’re experiences are gonna be different and you are gonna make different choices,” Jokeb said with a suddenness that startled us both.
Max pursed her lips and glared at the little man. I’m not sure she took well to being called pretty. I could certainly understand where she was coming from. I’d never cared to be called that myself.
“It’s a little more complicated
than that,” I replied shaking my head. “I think I understand or at least I do better than most. After I was joined, I was transformed and I really came to know my violent side. I’ve done things I’m not proud of and frankly I never would have believed that I was actually capable of. I found myself blaming my symbiote, and the body that she had forced on me. Anyone or anything, but myself.”
“I didn’t know who I was or what I had allowed myself to become, but I even started to think of Lexa and Jelfree as two separate people. I eventually realized that whatever name I chose to go by I’m still the same person. Those violent acts I’d committed weren’t the fault of my symbiote or my body. I had chosen to do those things and I would have done so regardless of what face or sex I happened to wear. I guess that’s why I had my symbiote give me a new face, as a way of showing I had moved past all that.”
“Are you done yet? Or do you think we need to sit and discuss this for another five days?”
“Weren’t you the one that wanted to settle in for the long haul?” Rodriquez turned to Schmit with a crooked eyebrow.
“I was, but after five days of listening to the two of you yammer on I can’t much stand the thought of sticking around.”
I bit my tongue forcing back the response that was so close to escaping my lips and climbed to my feet.
“I don’t suppose there’s any need to wait longer. Don’t wait up for me,” I said just before disappearing from our little hidey hole and into the darkness of the city around us.
Finding my way through the city was difficult, not just because the streets were dark and unlit, but because I wasn’t quite sure where I was going. I knew what direction I needed to take, but the city was big and face it a girl can get lost when traveling amongst those big towering structures. Especially when she’d spent most of her life living in slave compounds, the cities were a different kind of beast entirely.
The streets were mostly empty save for a smattering of Qharr here or there. Fortunately, it was dark enough that I was able to slip past them pretty easily. In all the slave compounds I’d visited in my travels, there was always a curfew for humans so it seemed likely there was one in the city as well which would explain the absence of humans in the streets.
“Shit,” I cursed under my breathe and dove into the shadows just as a Qharr patrol came marching down the street. A moment later they disappeared around a corner and I let out a long sigh of relief before looking straight up. Most of the buildings on the street were close enough together and low enough to the ground that traveling by way of rooftop seemed like the best way of keeping out of sight.
I was in what was once probably a business district where tall skyscrapers reached into the night sky. The buildings looked to be in pretty decent shape, which led me to believe they were still in use. I was relieved to find that the windows were dark when I launched myself up the side of the nearest building.
When I was on top I got a better view of the city around me, but it did little help point me in the right direction. I was almost ready to make my way back down to street level when Khala chimed in. ‘Keep going forward.’
“Yes, mistress. Your wish is my command.”
“Smart ass,” she replied her facade appearing out of the open air. “I was trying to give you directions.”
“Directions? How the hell can you make heads or tails of all of this?!” I held an open hand out gesturing at the cityscape before us.
“We need to go west, right? Trust me I have an internal compass. Just keep headed in that direction and we should find our way.”
I watched Khala’s image fade away and then after a running head start I leapt over to the next rooftop. I continued on like that, jumping from roof to roof until I came to the end of the street. From there I was forced to leap back down and sneak across the street and was back up on the opposite rooftop in no time. I continued on like that for several hours, once in a while Khala would point me in the right direction.
Whenever I came back down to street level it got harder and harder to dodge the patrols, but somehow I managed to squeeze through each time. That being said there were half a dozen close calls and when I finally neared the Ghrev deli I was never so glad to find the place.
I was a little disheartened when I saw the deli and realized that the lights were out, but, face it, that’s not exactly a surprising development considering what time it was. I ducked behind a corner just as another patrol passed by. Once they’d disappeared back into the darkness I crossed the street and found my way to the back.
The back door was locked, but that wasn’t exactly much of an impediment for someone like me. I slammed my shoulder into the door and after the third strike it gave away. I rushed forward flying inside with my phase pistol readied only to stop dead in my tracks.
Three very large and well armed Ghrev were standing opposite me with phase pistols drawn. A smaller specimen of Ghrev womanhood was standing in the corner, but she looked no less fierce than her cohorts.
“Velspatt,” I said and tucked my pistol away.
“Just what exactly is it that you think you’re doing, hume?” The sleek and slender Ghrev asked gliding across the floor so gracefully that she almost seemed to moving in sync with some silent tune.
“You don’t recognize me,” I said brushing the hair away from my eyes. “But then you could blame you? I’m not exactly wearing the same face that I was last time.”
“Hume, I grow impatient. I don’t know what nonsense you’re going on about, and I don’t really care. Tell me who you are and what you are doing here or my associates will open fire.” Velspatt stepped forward holding an open hand to her three companions.
I folded my arms across my chest and shrugged. “Do it, see what happens.”
Velspatt turned away, and let out a long low-pitched growl. I don’t know if there was some sort of meaning to her bellow, but her flunkies responded to it as if there was. They raised weapons and blasted me with a volley of phase blasts and I felt an influx of energy as Khala absorbed it all up.
“Hatect brûalten,” one of Ghrev cursed as the three lowered their weapons.
Velspatt spun back around to face me and she let out another growl studied me with those strange reptilian-esque eyes. “You are no ordinary human. Tell me, you wouldn’t happened to have come in contact with a K’teth symbiote lately, have you?”
“As a matter of fact,” I said tucking my thumbs into my waistband. “I have and you guessed as much the last time we met.”
“The last we met?” she asked slowly stepping forward. “I remember meeting another human who had been invaded by one of these K’teth. I admit there is something familiar about your scent, but there is a distinct difference. Are you perhaps a member of her clan?”
“You could say that, I am her.” I put my hands on my hips and gritted my teeth. I briefly thought of appealing to Khala for help, but thought better of it. What could she do short of transforming me back to my previous form anyway?
“And I suppose you have a means of proving this? I presume you’ve come to me with a reason in mind and I’m afraid I’m not in the habit of doing business with beings that cannot substantiate their claims. I’m sure you understand.”
I let out a long sigh and shuddered. I’d definitely have to get some help from my symbiote on this one. ‘Khala is there anything you can do?’
‘I think I can manage something, but I must warn you it will be painful. I’ll be able to dull the pain, but this isn’t something I’ve done before so it may not be possible to shut the pain out completely.’
‘It won’t be permanent will it?’
Khala answered in the negative and I reluctantly allowed her to have a go at it. She got to work immediately. I felt the skin on my face begin the ripple. I grunted and fell to my knees. It contorted and stretched and when I looked up at the Ghrev they all took a step back from me. I thought Khala was done, but then I felt the changes reverse themselves. It was all over i
n a matter of minutes and when I stood back up I saw the Ghrev each take another step back. Clearly whatever it was Khala had done had spooked them.
“Aupe haurm cre!” Velspatt yelled looked almost as if she were ready to bolt. She stared at me her nostrils flaring for what must have been several minutes before her muscles finally relaxed. “You can change your form.”
“Yes,” I said with a nod finally getting an inkling of what my symbiote had done. “Though it’s not something I like to do very often. It’s rather painful.”
Velspatt let out a long hissing laugh. “Yes, I can understand why.”
She approached me and ran a clawed finger down my cheek. “I like the way you smell,” her voice rumbled in my ear and I shuddered and quickly pulled away.
“Velspatt, so help me if you don’t back off I will flatten your face.” I raised my fist up and pulled it back more than willing to make good on my threat.
Her hand ran down my back and she grabbed at my ass. I yelped and swatted at her hand. She withdrew her hand, all the while laughing. I gritted my teeth, and rounded on her. “If there is one thing you can ever be sure of Velspatt it’s that I won’t ever be one of your conquests. If you even so much as touch me again I will do something we’ll bother regret.”
Velspatt turned away and walked a half a dozen steps before spinning back around to face me. “I think we can do business.”
I raised an eyebrow and watched her pace about the room like a caged animal. “As I recall you owe me a favor.”
“Assuming that you are in fact the same human who killed the corrector, then yes I believe I do, but how can I be sure you are? Your ability to transform is only proof that you can change your form. I must say I was rather impressed that you were able to duplicate the smell from the other hume, but even that could be a trick.”
Battle For Earth Page 56
