by Terra Wolf
When the woman passed away her family decided that they didn’t need a slave and they sold her to the highest bidder, that was Lazio. The was nearly a year ago now. Since that day she hardly had a good meal to eat, she didn’t have a clean place to sleep, and she only bathed when she could find the time, which was rare. That old woman’s house had suddenly seemed like the lap of luxury compared to her current situation. But until she could buy her way out of slavery, she was stuck. She was so deep in debt that buying her way out would never happen. People went their entire lives still being in debt to their slave owners. She didn’t have a chance.
Slavery on most of the inner planets had become outlawed, but most of the Alliance was paid off by Lazio. So her only real chance of getting liberated was if some brown nosing goody two shoes came in trying to move up the military ladder. Or if Pirates took over the place. She wasn’t sure the latter would be better or worse than her current situation. Lazio was horrible to her, but at least she had a private place to sleep. She had seen some of those other girls at the slave trade, some of them were barely hanging on. At least for now, she was alive.
Chapter 3
Nash
“Commander, you wanted to see me?”
Nash walked into the command center, a room that was dark even though it was filled with windows. They were back aboard the Titan, the largest ship in the Trekker fleet. He surveyed the landscape in front of them, just a bunch of stars and small planets on the outer rim. They were headed back to their base, Gutror, one of the largest planets on the inner rim. His eyes scanned to the cockpit where he saw Raelor flying the vessel. He was an expert pilot, but he only managed to ships like this one. He didn’t do any rescue missions or any of the smaller ships, he liked to command a group of pilots like himself. He liked to be in charge and Nash felt safe in his hands. His kind were better flyers the most in the galaxy, certainly better than any human he knew.
Nash could tell by the fact that his ears were turned towards them that he was listening to their conversation though he didn’t think it was meant to be very private. There were plenty of other lieutenants and officers on the bridge, lots of other people to hear. Sometimes the commander liked to work that way, he wanted witnesses of his power. He wasn’t a very private man when he was trying to prove his ownership of this vessel.
“Yes I wanted to see you, lieutenant, I want to go over the images that you scanned into the mainframe. We need more information about this planet that you were on.”
While they had taken a solitary ship with them to the outer rim, the Titan had stayed floating in space in a Milky Way of some smaller stars. They had been floating for nearly a week when they returned, after a small shootout with some Pirates. Lucky for him none of his men were hurt, especially if the scans turned out to be nothing. He hated going on these little busywork trips. They were pointless.
“What do you want to know Sir? The place was abandoned.” He saw Raelor’s ears twitch out of the corner his eye. He knew what he was thinking, that those people still walked on the planet’s surface in their own way. Raelor didn’t feel that made it abandoned like Nash did.
“Did you happen to find the manifest? Anything else in the war room that would give any indication of who put this information into their mainframe?”
Nash shook his head. “No, Sir. Everything was covered in a layer of dust, you know how those plains planets are.”
He nodded, his long beard just touching the top of his chest. You almost couldn’t see his name tag underneath the long black hair anymore. But he made sure to keep it short enough that you could see all of his accolades. He had four six-pointed stars, the highest honor in the Alliance. He served his time and had become commander after twenty years in the force. He was well respected, and he knew what he was doing. Questioning Nash about the scans meant that they were important, he had made the right move by collecting them.
“Look here, what do you see in the bottom corner?”
This was the initial screen that he taken a picture of when he noticed the classified folder. It looked just as he had seen on the screen. “That’s the folder that contained all the scans that I took.”
“And did you read them?”
“No, Sir. I know when something’s above my pay grade. I assumed that I didn’t have security clearance high enough, I just took the scans and then we bolted out of there.”
He put his hands behind his back and started pacing around the table. “Because of the Pirates?”
Nash nodded. “It was constant fire, but it wasn’t heavy. And even if this is what they were looking for, they wouldn’t have found anything. My team and I made sure of that, Sir.”
He nodded again, this time stroking his beard with his right hand. “These documents talk about a microchip. A very important microchip. The Alliance needs to get their hands on this technology, it has something to do with the plague.”
Nash raised an eyebrow at him. “But the plague is all but gone, Sir.”
They both knew that the vaccine that they were delivering to the outer rim was mostly a political move by the Alliance. Those people would’ve never gotten sick, they didn’t trade with anyone on the inside. There was no way to pass the illness.
“That’s what I thought too. But these scans tell a totally different story. About how the plague may have been planted, about how one of the races in the Alliance is trying to take out some of the others. Including the humans.”
“The earthlings? Why would anyone want to touch them? They’re so much smaller than us and weaker. They don’t pose a threat.” He knew he sounded out of line, but the humans? It just blew his mind.
He had learned all about the weaker species growing up. With a human as a father his mother stood almost a foot taller than him. Anytime he couldn’t lift something it was her job to take care of it. His lungs were so limited; he couldn’t spend more than a human year at a time at the space station before having to return to Earth. Nash had lived all over the universe as a result. It wasn’t a bad childhood by any means, but it was different than a lot of his alien counterparts. He learned a lot about humans in his time, he spoke the language and understood the customs. The biggest thing he realized was that they were so much more fragile than they were. His father had passed away nearly a human decade ago, and his mother still had nearly hundred human years to live without him. The lives were shorter and could be tampered with easily. The plague had taken out not only humans but other alien races. Species had practically died out because of it, why would anyone want to do that type of genocide?
“Who? Who would plan such a devastating disease?”
“The only way we’re going to find that out is on that microchip. And the location of it, or at least the last known location was on that drive. And you took scans of it.” He tipped his head to him and then turned towards Raelor and the cockpit.
“Turn towards Huuda.”
“Sir?” Raelor asked.
“We’re not docking at home, we need to visit Lazio.”
Swuya, Nash thought. Lazio’s place was the last place he would have thought to look. But if that’s where the answers were, then that’s where they needed to go.
Chapter 4
Nash
Nash stood at the bar trying to appear nonchalant. He hadn’t been undercover in a long time. He had to remind himself he was playing a part. Slowly the bartender approached him. He’d seen her kind only a few other times, he was lucky that she understood his language. He didn’t think he’d be able to translate the type of drink that he wanted into her native tongue.
“Here you go sugar,” she said as she as set his drink down as well as another gentleman’s next to him. “Anything else?”
He leaned a little bit closer toward her. “I’d like to see the boss if he’s got a moment.”
She raised an eyebrow at him. “Lazio? He’s busy.”
She crossed two of her arms across her chest while the others continue to make drinks for the other patrons. She
had eight in all.
“Too busy for an old friend? Tell him that Nash from the Alliance is here.”
Her mouth open slightly in shock. “You’re kidding me. If I tell him any member of the Alliance is here he’ll chop off one of my arms. You know how he is, especially if you say that you’re friends.”
“I didn’t say we were close friends. Just that we go back a long way. And trust me he’ll leave your arms alone.”
She shook her head. “What’s in it for me?”
“What will it take?”
Nash splayed a few galactic coins out on the bar. She looked them over for a moment. “Two times that and you have a deal. Plus he still needs his favorite drink. I can’t go in there empty handed.” She laughed to herself.
He nodded to her as he set a satchel full of coins down on the glass bar. “Is this enough?”
One of her hands snatched the small bag and she put it inside of her skirt while another sent a drink down the bar.
“Follow me.”
He nodded to Aevar who was sitting across the bar, he’d come in nearly a half an hour before Nash. They wanted to make sure that no one followed them, figured out who they were. Nash had met Lazio on many occasions, but Aevar was pretty new to the squad. Besides, the last time he’d seen Lazio it wasn’t on official business.
He followed her sashaying hips through a throng of aliens and humans alike. A couple other Droqo nodded to him as he moved through the crowd. They had a way of sensing each other out. Always knowing when another one of them was around. He didn’t have to be friends with them to respect them, they were of his species. And for the most part the aliens stayed in their cliques, but being in the military had changed that about him. He moved throughout the bar with the lights beaming down on him, the constant pumping of music in the background. They walked through one black door and then down a long dark hallway before turning into another. Lazio’s place was on Huuda, one of the bigger inner rim planets. He constantly had thousands of people coming to his bars every night. And this wasn’t the only one he owned.
They moved to the back of the hallway and she knocked three times on a door before entering. He saw the bottom of Lazio’s gelatinous body and a few of his tentacles before he saw the rest of him. A woman was standing next to him, whispering to him and feeding him some type of fruits off the platter. The bartender approached him with her head down and offered him the drink.
“Sir? There is a fighter from the Alliance here. He said that you’re old friends. He wants to talk to you.”
She walked out behind Nash and shut the door without another word. Suddenly he realized that he was alone with Lazio and his six security guards. And all that he had was a lonely blaster. He hoped that the plan would work.
“Nash! What are you doing in these parts?” Lazio said as juice rolled down his double chin. He was huge. With six tentacles splayed out underneath his five hundred pound body, he looked like a monster. His skin was as translucent as ice and his eyes were practically blue. You could see through parts of him, if you weren’t used to being in his presence you would say that he looked almost disgusting. But Nash had seen Lazio plenty of times in his years on the force, they were practically buddies. He just hoped he felt that Lazio felt the same way.
“I’m here for work.”
He laughed, his entire body jiggling with each guffaw. “Work? I assumed you were here to gamble again.”
Nash shook his head. “I’m done with all that. I’m a lieutenant now. I make enough coin with the military that I don’t need to take all of yours.”
He laughed again but this time it was shorter, he needed to get down to business, Lazio’s attention span was short.
“I’m here about a microchip. I was out at the plains nations, we saw something on some of their screens that we need to investigate further. The Alliance is willing to pay for it.”
The woman tried to give Lazio another piece of fruit but he pushed her off with one of his tentacles. She took the tray and left the room. “You come in here and want to know about a microchip from the plains nation? And you think I’m just going to hand it over? If it’s even here.”
Nash shook his head, “Lazio, you and I both know it’s here. Or you wouldn’t have sent that little piece of ass out of the room. Now I’ve been told to offer you a substantial amount of galactic coin. And this time you’re making it legally, so it’s a win. Just tell me now that you still have the chip.”
Lazio scanned the room looking back and forth to the security personnel. “How much?”
Nash pulled three satchels out of his pocket. He still had one more, but he knew that he would have to negotiate with Lazio. Giving him three showed that he was serious, using the last one to sweeten the deal might be what got him the chip. He dropped them on the floor in front of him. “Two thousand coins.”
He leaned forward and inspected the bags as if he could see through them. “That’s the best you got?”
Nash cocked his head, “I might be able to do a little bit better, but I need to see the merchandise.”
Lazio sat back and bent one of his tentacles so that it rubbed beneath his double chin. “What’s on this chip that is so important to the Alliance?”
Nash couldn’t tell him. They weren’t even sure themselves. “Just some information. Navigational maps.”
He dipped his head at Nash. “Don’t take me for a fool Nash. If you really want the chip there is something else you’re going to have to buy with it.”
He beckoned one of his security officers over to him with one of his tentacles, the blue man dipped his head towards his boss. He nodded to him and disappeared out the door just a moment later.
“What else do I have to buy?”
Lazio sat back placing two tentacles together as if they were fingers in a steeple. “You’ll see.” They stood in silence for a moment daring each other to move, Nash kept his eyes surveying the room. Five guards left. If this went south he was in deep swuya.
He heard the door open behind him as the security guard pushed in a woman. A human. And she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen in his life. He had crossed the universe and all the galaxies at least nine times and he had never seen anyone like her. Long dark hair, with a red tattoo on her right cheek. She had lighter skin, he felt like she was glowing, but he knew that must be a trick of the light. She looked up at him defiantly from beneath her dark bangs. What was she doing here?
“What’s with the girl, Lazio?”
“You asked what else you have to purchase. She’s your answer.”
“I don’t do slave trade, Lazio.”
“This isn’t just a slave trade, she’s merchandise. The microchip is embedded right beneath her heart. I knew it was worth something so I decided to keep it safe. You want the chip; you take the girl. And it will cost you double what you dropped on the floor.”
Nash took one look into the human’s dark brown eyes and realized that she was worth so much more than all the galactic coin the Alliance had. She was getting out of here and Nash was getting out of here with her, and if Lazio had to die as a result, then so be it.
Chapter 5
Ellora
Ellora couldn’t believe what she had just heard. Lazio had put some her sort of microchip inside of her. Why couldn’t she remember any of that? Is that why he had kept her so close? Because she was worth more to him than any of the other girls. Figures. She looked at the Alliance fighter in front of her, he was a freaking Trekker. She hadn’t seen one in nearly six months, since the last time one came into the bar. And that guy had been a little swuya.
He was tall, with dark tan skin and black tattoos. He was definitely Droqo. He was in dark black pants and a dark gray jacket, with the Alliance emblem on it. But just as most military men, he didn’t have any shirt on beneath it, just a jacket wide open allowing for her to see his muscular body beneath. She found herself looking up into his sparkly blue eyes. She could see the whole galaxy in them. If the security guard hadn
’t been holding her up she would’ve gone weak at the knees, and that just annoyed her. She wasn’t the type of girl to fall for some ridiculous Alliance fighter at the first sight. So what if maybe this was her ticket out, it sounded like the only thing this man was interested in was a microchip that was embedded in her body. If Lazio was right she was some sort of science experiment.
“You’re telling me that I’ll have to take this woman back to my ship?”
She cocked her head at the fighter. “You make it sound so rough.”
He looked back at her with disdain. “There are no women on the Titan. It’s a finite rule.”
“Well then great, see Lazio? He doesn’t even really want me. I’ll just go back to my quarters now.”
“Not so fast. I never abandon a mission.” The fighter said. “I can’t pay that much Lazio. But I hear that you’ve got a human fight going on tonight, how about this? Double or nothing on your best fighter. If I win you take this money and I get the girl and she gets to leave.”
Lazio’s body shook as he laughed, pointing at the fighter. “And when you lose?”
The fighter stood confidently. “Then I’ll track down some of your debtors for you and you still get the money.”
“And I keep the girl.”
The fighter nodded. “And you keep the girl, I’ll tell my commander that you didn’t have the chip. Sounds like a win-win for you. On one hand to get to make some serious coin and I take this feisty little thing off your hands, on the other, you still make some coin and I’ve tracked down some of your debts for you. Plus get the Alliance off of your back.”
Lazio nodded in agreement. “Sounds fair to me. The fight starts very soon. Take the girl out with you, she can translate for you so you can make your bets. Nash you need to promise me something…”
