“Your friend? She finished sooner than you think.”
“I told you,” Sun snapped, keeping her face angled away from Pak. “She’s not my friend. I only just met her.”
“Interesting.” Whoever she is, she ran off the moment you came in here with me. Ensign Flkk’Sss was severely unimpressed, and that is one bad ass MinSha you do not want to piss off.”
Sun was barely listening. She squatted down with her head in her hands, feeling as if her life had drained into the black floor.
Pak walked over and reached down to put a comforting hand on her shoulder. But he thought better and snatched it away before making contact.
“I have to find her,” Sun said. Her voice sounded tiny. Maybe it was the floor coating.
“Well, yeah,” said the sergeant. “That much is obvious. And I tell you what else is obvious, recruit. You won’t find her by weeping into your hands. Get on your feet! Let’s move it!”
Sun stood and regarded the man. She couldn’t figure him out. He was angry all right, but his first instinct was to bring Blue back. Why?
“I’m neither as stupid nor as creepy as you obviously think,” he told her, as if reading her mind. “I want you in the team, so you can figure that out for yourself and apologize one day. I’ve already figured out that you and your never-met-her-before friend come as a pair. So if I want you, I need her too.”
“Are you going to help?”
“Grab your gear, Sun, and find out.”
6.
Blue
Docking Plaza Agate
“I’m a terrible burden on my sister. My own mother, whom I love dearly, thinks we’re both dead. Can you imagine breaking the heart of the person dearest to you because if we hadn’t fled, the alternative would hurt her even more.”
“But you can’t help yourself,” said Hl’ch’kh as she ordered another drink for this intoxicatingly dangerous human.
With a flourish, Blue necked the dregs of her current drink. It was only a local Caerelian fruit juice, but the Jeha, whom she’d found still sampling the wickedness of the Spine Nebula from the safe confines of Docking Plaza Agate, wanted to buy into the idea of the hard-drinking human merc.
“You’re right,” she said, slamming the glass down onto the table. “I’m a terrible person. I know what those recreational nanos have cost me and my family.” She leaned over the table and glared at the tourists. One curled up and rolled away, to leave just two brave souls. “But I’m a thrill addict. I don’t want to be fixed. If I could go back to that night at the spaceport, I’d do the same all over again.”
“You are so wonderfully decadent, darling,” Hl’ch’kh told her.
And you are so wonderfully deserving of a punch in your shiny face, thought Blue while she beamed with pleasure at the Jeha female’s words. Hl’ch’kh was all shine and no meat as Blue’s former Jeha crewmate, Wiggy, used to say. Wiggy had meant it as a compliment when he described a potential mate as beautiful on the outside and a vapid nonentity within. Blue wasn’t being complimentary in the slightest. The last male to remain at the table, on the other hand, was all meat and no shine. Tk’ch’kl’l, his name was, and he was so bewitched by Hl’ch’kh’s glossy carapace that he would do anything to prove himself for her.
Blue was counting on it.
“Thank you,” Blue said to Hl’ch’kh, as a Gtandan waiter delivered a fresh glass of juice, and wrinkled its porcine nose when no one offered it a tip – Blue because she didn’t want to leave a data trail, and Hl’ch’kh because, well, because she was all shine and no meat.
“I am a danger, certainly,” Blue told the Jeha while scowling at the Gtandan until it retreated. “And that’s why I’m going to stow away on that ship. It’s such a pretty thing that it can’t be bad. I love my sister, and it will crush my heart to leave her, but I need to leave her to be herself. There was a very nice mercenary man preening himself for her benefit. My sister is not like you, Hl’ch’kh. She does not normally attract admirers.”
“Why would she, when she sounds so dull next to you?”
“Yeah, just so. Anyway, I’m quitting this station and leaving my sister with the nice mercenary man. I’ll find her again. In a few years. Best this way. Just the one problem. How to break into the ship, and that’s why I’ve come here to beg for your help, Hl’ch’kh.”
The Jeha rippled with pleasure. “Do explain, please.”
“Your race is renowned for its intelligence, and in particular the application of that intelligence to matters of technology. Can you help me break into that ship tethered to Docking Ring 9?”
“No. I don’t concern myself with such matters.” The alien rippled the segments of its carapace for several seconds, throwing S-shapes along its length.
Blue guessed she was feeling happy with herself but hadn’t seen this reaction before. The other one, the male – Blue would have to come up with a more practical name than Hl’ch’kh – was holding his antennae like divining rods, just a few inches over the female. It was obvious he longed to touch her but didn’t dare.
“However,” said Hl’ch’kh, “although I cannot aid you directly, I can provide an individual perfectly suited for your endeavor. I like to set tasks for my suitors, fearsome challenges they must overcome to prove their devotion to me.”
“Oh, really?” said Blue in mock surprise, as if that weren’t the entire reason she was here in the first place. “You are so practical, Hl’ch’kh. I admire you so.”
“Naturally. So you should. This being here” – Hl’ch’kh indicated the male Jeha with her antennae – “is a genius in technical matters. He is also a coward. We can solve both problems. If Tk’ch’kl’l gets you into that ship, he will prove himself to me and enable your dream to fly free across the stars.”
“We both win. Neat.” Blue turned to the male who hadn’t uttered a word until now. “Well, Jenkins, are you with me?”
“Jenkins?” he queried.
“Yeah, now that you’re an adventurer, you need a more rogue-ish name. So I’m gonna call you Jenkins after another male who needed a little encouragement to see the universe my way.”
“Was this man brave?” asked Jenkins.
“Yeah.”
“Then this is not a good name for me. I am terrified even of being alone with you.”
Blue stroked his shiny head. “If you can get me onto that ship, despite being so scared that your carapace wants to curl, then you’re the bravest Jeha I know.”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” said Hl’ch’kh.
“I would,” Blue snapped at the annoying Jeha. “I don’t believe in limits. If Jenkins gets me on the ship, maybe you’ll have to fight me for him.”
Hl’ch’kh was so surprised, she shrank back into her shell. Then she made a droning noise Blue’s translator pendant interpreted as laughter. “Don’t flatter yourself, dear. Doing without hair, other than that coil on your head, means you’re less ugly than the average human, but you lack the luster of my carapace, and males will turn themselves upside down for the chance to touch the curve of my mandibles.”
“Well, my dear,” Blue responded, “let us compete for his affections, and if you’re right then you can prove your superiority to everyone here.”
Hl’ch’kh hissed like a leaking tire valve. “Very well. Attend the alien, Tk’ch’kl’l. Then hurry back to me as soon as you have succeeded.”
“Come on, Jenkins.” Blue jumped off the couch and lifted her kitbag to her shoulder. “We’ve got a job to do.”
7.
Sun
Docking Plaza Agate
“No joy,” said Pak. “The Gtandan says she’s been working the bar since 06:00 and insists we’re the first humans she’s seen.”
Sun smacked her fist onto the table. Less than a day earlier, she’d been waiting at this same bar for her sister to join her in this next leg of their life in the stars. How had she lost her so quickly? What had she done to drive her away?
“She’s going to do som
ething stupid, I know it.” She stared Pak in the face. “I’ll take you up on your offer of employment, but only if we get her back first.”
“How exciting,” scratched one of the Jeha tourists who infested the plaza. “Is she giving you a mating challenge?” it asked Pak. “A test of courage to prove your genetic worth?”
“No.” Pak scowled at the alien. “The lady’s completely uninterested in me, and now it would be inappropriate. We don’t do things the same as your species.” He turned back to Sun. “Are there any locations she mentioned? On the station or maybe a destination she might seek passage to?”
Sun racked her brains, but her thoughts were scrambled by fear of what Blue would get up to on her own. “I’ve got nothing,” she admitted and looked into Pak’s eyes, desperate to see a glimmer of hope there.
“Don’t force it,” he told her, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. “The station’s far too big for us to run through in a panic, hoping to chance across her. Calm down. Find something to distract yourself for a few minutes, and maybe your subconscious will bring up the memory you need.”
She looked away. Pak was right, of course. She hadn’t seen much hope in his eyes, but she did see honesty. He was a good man, not that decency would help bring back her sister.
“I’m sorry if I was firm with you earlier – in the evaluation center. It’s just… I can’t afford to get close to anyone.”
“Because you spend all your energies watching out for your friend.” He spoke his words like an accusation. “You’ve no room for anyone else.”
“That’s none of your damn business.”
“Oh, but it is. Why else do you think I’m here at this bar trying to help you find your missing… person?”
“Oh, this is so much fun,” said the annoying Jeha. “You’re wrong, human male. She is setting you a test. That’s what I did with my suitor, you know. Made him help that… I don’t know. Thief. Pirate. I’m not sure what the creature was, to be honest, but it was fierce whatever it was.”
Pak ignored the alien and pushed a slate across the table to Sun.
The display was split in two. The image on the left was of Blue, but adjusted to give her Sun’s skin tone, eyebrows and hair. Even Sun was surprised at how similar Blue looked to her own image on the right, which had been taken as part of the assessment process that morning.
“You told me you’d never seen her before in your life.” Pak’s raised eyebrow told her what he thought of that lie. “You look so similar, you could almost be sisters. I had a word with Captain Jenkins, and he told me of two crew members whom he always suspected were sisters, though they denied it.”
“Jeyn-kinzz,” echoed the Jeha. “Jainkins.”
Sun’s mind unscrambled itself real quick. Lying about who you knew was hardly serious enough to bring you to the attention of the Peacemakers, but Pak was smart enough to figure out that if the two women who’d showed up at the Slayvocation Exchange were operating under false identities, then their Merc Guild IDs were probably faked too.
And messing with the Guild was very serious indeed.
“Are you going to arrest me or something?” she challenged him.
He seemed irritated at her question. In response, he reached into his jacket and drew out a Ctech HP-4 pistol. He pushed it across the table next to the slate.
Sun checked over the gun. It had a full ammo clip.
“Now you’re armed and I’m not,” said Pak. “You can walk out of this plaza and I will not come after you. Alternatively, you can convince me why we should still take on you and your sister.”
Sun flinched. But she didn’t insult Pak’s intelligence by denying her relationship to Blue.
“Supposing I do convince you, Sergeant. Will you keep that little secret to yourself?”
“Mr. Venix has already remarked on how similar you two smell, and he is a Zuparti, the most paranoid race in the Union. If we find your sister and take you on, Venix will dig until he works out the truth. No, if you sign up, you’ll need to come clean about that particular truth.”
Panic began to threaten Sun’s cool. Blue was getting farther away by the second. “We are sisters,” she pleaded. “We’ve done nothing to interest the Peacemakers, but we do want to stay far away from Earth for a few years.”
Pak laughed, and Sun found she couldn’t help but smile back. He held out his hand to take back his pistol. It could be a trap, of course, but Sun didn’t think so. There were very few people she had ever felt able to trust, and this was one. She handed over the HP-4 and he put it away.
“You need to lighten up a little,” he said. “What you just told me – that pretty much describes why many of us are here. I might not know the true name of our company, but I can tell you we’re definitely not going near Earth any more than your Captain Jenkins wants to.”
“Jenkinz. Jenkins? You say Jenkins?” The Jeha’s scratching and clicking was stretching the translator technology to the limits, but there was no doubt the Jeha was trying to say the captain’s name.
“What do you know of Jenkins?” Pak asked the creature.
“That was the silly human name the pirate scum called my suitor.”
The Jeha crawled onto Sun’s back, the many feet making its weight feel feathery light. Sun watched alien eye stalks extend over her shoulder and train on the slate lying on the table. “Oh, I am disappointed,” the Jeha announced. “The pirate looked nothing like either of those humans.”
“How about this one?” Pak reached across and flicked the slate onto an un-doctored image of Blue.
“Yes, yes! That’s the one. You could hardly miss her. She had a powerful aroma not like you regular humans.” She leaped onto the table, a shiver running up her segmented carapace. “Much more powerful. More like a frisky young Besquith stud.”
By now, Sun had rewound the conversation until it made some semblance of sense. “Please confirm my understanding, madam. You set a challenge for your suitor. “He was to follow this…” She tapped the image of her sister. “This individual, who was intent on what precisely?”
“To break into the ship that drew her to its shiny hull as the male she called Jenkins was drawn to my carapace.” The Jeha reared up to caress Sun’s head with her antennae. “That was you, wasn’t it? The mercenary who made the tour guide roll up in terror. You have retracted your hairs, and your pirate friend has extruded new hair atop her head. I had no idea humans could do this. Well, you already know where she has gone. It was the ship she was looking at before through the window. The shiny sphere two docking rings to spinward.”
“That’s our ship,” said Pak.
“Yours?” Sun couldn’t believe it.
Pak frowned. “Why the wide eyes? What’s so surprising?”
“Because it’s unique. It’s probably worth more than all the other ships docked at this station put together. And you – this company I’m probably joining – are a barely functioning gang of rejects and outlaws with no commanding officer, no pride, and not even a freaking name.”
The Jeha was so excited, she was dancing on the table, drawing a crowd of her kind from around the plaza. She stopped in front of Pak. “The other human has impugned your honor. You must challenge her to a duel to the death. Oh, this trip is turning out to be the best vacation ever.”
“She can’t impugn my honor,” Pak explained, “because every word she speaks is true. And you” – he waggled a finger in front of her eye stalks – “are an annoying pest who should learn to keep her mandibles quiet.”
The Jeha snapped with said mandibles, the sergeant only just jerking his hand away safely.
Sun didn’t have time for this, but she’d learned to deal with Jeha out in the nebula. She jumped onto the table and stood on the alien with both feet. Dozens of alien legs waved frantically, but Sun was too heavy. She bent over, taking care to keep her weight pinning the creature all times, and tied its antennae into a bow.
Immediately, the alien ceased its struggles.
“Thank you for your assistance,” Sun told it. “Nonetheless, you need to be taught a lesson.”
She grabbed the Jeha, which immediately sprang to life, wriggling and snapping with its mandibles. Sun kept its jaws pointing safely away and threw it up into the air. The hook made from its antennae snagged on a fire retardant spray arm that projected from the overhead thirty feet above the deck.
“I’ll get you for this,” the Jeha said as it swung there.
“I made a lot of enemies in the nebula,” Sun told it. “Don’t reckon you register as a threat compared with the Endless Night.”
A complete change came over the Jeha. It ceased its struggles and half curled around. “The Night? They’re your enemies? Oh my.”
“Don’t tell me you’re concerned for my safety?”
“Far from it, I hope Endless Night comes for you. I hope they flay you alive and use your skin for an outer garment of a very low-ranking being. Perhaps one who butchers carrion for a scavenger species. It’s not you I worry about, but my poor, darling Tk’ch’kl’l. I sent him after your disgusting companion, little realizing the full horror of the dangers you would bring. No, wait! On reflection, I realize I bear no blame in this. Tk’ch’kl’l was an idiot to go with the human. He has proved his worth, and it is insufficient to earn my favor.”
“And yet Jenkins isn’t the one swinging from the ceiling by her antennae,” teased Pak. “If he has any sense, he’ll take the first offer he’s given to put himself light years away from you.”
“Come on,” urged Sun. “Quit playing. Let’s go find Blue.”
“Sounds to me like Jenkins needs rescuing too,” said Pak, laughing as he led the way along the gravity ring to his ship’s docking ring. “We could do with an engineer.”
8.
Sun
Docking Ring 9
By the time they reached Pak’s segment of the docking ring, he was joking that when they arrived to retrieve Blue from the brig, she’d already have charmed the trio of little elSha lizards who were on watch duty, and be on a VIP tour of the ship that had attracted her so.
Thrill Addict Page 3
