by Trevor Scott
Nix waved his clawed hand, leading Liam down a tight, winding corridor to a back room lined with a wall of gizmos and gadgets. Liam couldn’t begin to guess at their many uses because they looked nothing like Earth technology. Some of them were oddly-shaped and appeared to be meant to be worn solely by a Dinari.
Sestra searched the racks for something specific, her claws rolling over what looked much like their welding goggles.
They had an adjustable strap and two eyepieces, but they were made from a coppery metal Liam couldn’t place. It had a natural matte finish and a copper and rust color that was not due to oxidation. Sestra dropped them in his hands and he immediately noticed that they were at once remarkably strong and incredibly light. The glass lenses were tinted black and tiny pinpricks of light denoted some technological mystery along the edges of the darkened viewports.
“What’s this for?” Liam asked.
Sestra approached him and took his hands, raising them up with the goggles until they were atop his head. “Put them on and they will break the telepathic connection. Toras’ Inner Eye will falter, confused, and simply give up.”
“Just like that?”
Liam had thought the process of breaking the connection would be difficult, perhaps painful. His stomach had been tied in knots since the spire’s stairwell.
Sestra’s eyes narrowed and the corner of her scaled mouth curved upward at a sharp angle. Liam wasn’t sure if she was smiling at him or mocking him, and the translator wasn’t giving him much help. She said curtly, “Just like that, Outsider.”
Liam took the frame of the goggles in his hand and began to pull them down over his eyes, but was stopped by Saturn’s cautious hand.
Saturn stepped up to Sestra and asked, “Are you sure this is going to work?”
Sestra’s cowl curled around her face, obstructing part of her visage. Liam thought she was a shady person to begin with, and the gadgets in the room looked more like torture devices than anything that would help his condition. Sestra shook her head. “You are outsiders. Your biology is unknown to us. This device was meant for a Dinari, but it is the only known way to release Liam from the eye. Be strong, we all have our burdens to bear.”
“I don’t feel good about this, Liam,” Saturn said.
Ju-Long spoke up. “Saturn’s right, it’s too risky.”
Liam clenched his jaw and looked to each of them in turn. It was his choice and he had to do whatever he could for his crew as their de facto leader. He ignored them and pulled the goggles down over his azure eyes. They had to trust someone sometime or they weren’t going to get very far in this new world.
The outer edges of the goggles lit up and Liam’s vision turned to white as the bright lights shined back onto his eyes. He felt a burning sensation in the back of his brain which made him crumple to his knees. A hand tried to steady him but he was thrashing now, unable to take off the coppery goggles. A searing heat burned his retinas, making him cry out in the tiny room.
Images flashed in his mind, vivid and bright. Images of the spire, of Ragnar through Toras’ eyes. They were connected but the roles were reversed. Was this how Toras saw through his eyes? Would he feel such pain? Liam’s thoughts were cut short as the light began to fade. His hands fell from the sides of the goggles and onto the smooth stone floor beneath him, cold against his sweating palms.
Liam felt a hand tear the goggles off his head, peeling off a portion of skin with them, leaving deep red marks around his temples and eyes like a bad sunburn. Try as he might, he was unable to get his eyes to focus. Nix, Sestra and his crew each knelt around him and braced him with their hands, helping him to keep from toppling over.
“What did it do to him?” Saturn asked frantically.
“It was meant for a Dinari,” Nix replied. “Our scales protect us from heat as well as the ultraviolet rays of the sun. Our eyes are used to the brightness.”
“Are you okay?” Ju-Long asked with a palm on Liam’s back.
Liam was breathing heavy, sweat pouring down his face and soaking into his soiled gray jumpsuit. His sapphire eyes were wide with fear, though he might have tried to label it surprise. He could feel that the whites around the blue were crimson now, more bloodshot than perhaps they’d ever been. Liam brushed Ju-Long’s hand away and came up on one knee, attempting to stand and swaying a bit before catching his balance. His vision was white, though the outlines of the others were slowly coming back into view.
“I’ll be fine. Sestra, how do we know it worked?”
Liam squinted and watched as Sestra picked up the goggles and examined the inside of the lenses. At various angles, they showed images of the spire, their escape, and Sestra’s shop, as though a cheap hologram were emblazoned over the tinted glass. She smiled, slightly more surprised than Liam had hoped. “It worked. The process might have been a little rougher than usual, but the connection is broken.”
“How often does this happen?” Ju-Long asked.
Sestra shot him a muddled look and said, “Not often. But it has come in handy before.”
Nix reached into his cloak, pulled out a star-shaped piece of fruit, and handed it to Sestra. “You have my thanks.”
Sestra waved away the piece of fruit. “This is too much, Nix. I cannot accept.”
“Take it.”
She hesitated a moment longer before snatching it from his hand and forcing it into her mouth, sighing as she savored the morsel. Surya was a very dry planet and Liam imagined certain foods were hard to come by. He hadn’t thought much about what kinds of food the aliens might eat. With such similar features as creatures on Earth, regardless of how odd, surely, they ate similar fare. His stomach growled. None of them had eaten since they landed and lack of sustenance was beginning to catch up with him.
“We must go,” Nix said. “They may not be able to find this place quickly, but it’s only a matter of time. Sestra, I suggest you stay out of sight for a few days.”
Sestra nodded, pushing through a door to an adjacent room and disappearing into the darkness.
Liam rubbed at his eyes, squinting and trying to collect himself. His sight still hadn’t returned to normal. He seemed to be chasing specs of light around his field of vision, never quite able to catch one. Moments later, Sestra returned with a black leather bag strapped to her back. She took a few items from the racks and began handing them out to everyone.
The device Sestra put in Liam’s hand had a coppery handle and two sections that jutted out in a thick point at either end, looking vaguely like a pointed horseshoe. When he gripped the handle, the tips lit up with a blue energy that connected between the two points.
Sestra quickly pulled it from his hand. “Do not grip it so hard if you do not wish to destroy my home.”
Sestra passed out brown leather straps to accompany the weapons, showing Liam how to attach it to his leg. When she was done, the energy weapon slid snugly into the holster at his side. It was lighter than he expected, but its slight weight felt good hanging there, a comforting feeling he’d not felt since his last job with Vesta Corporation. He never felt safe without his gun at his side and he feared a year spent weaponless on the Asteroid Belt had made him tamer. He rejected the thought. He was back and he was ready to take on anything in his way, he told himself. Liam rubbed his eyes. As soon as his vision cleared up.
•
Liam extended his toes, pushing down on the hover bike’s accelerator. The shabby buildings that made up the bulk of Akaru Colony were pinpricks in comparison with the massive spires sprinkled around them in the distance. The Dinari settlements were only a few stories tall and made from materials likely formed or mined on the planet: stone, clay, jagged rock and glass. Liam marveled at the endless expanse, occasionally lit by glowing orbs hanging in the building entrances, melding together as he zipped by. The night was at its darkest and he began to have tunnel vision through his already clouded eyes, the lights merging in his peripheral vision to become a solid stream, lighting the path.
Saturn tightened her thighs around him and gripped the back of his jumpsuit as they went around a bend. She said over the whooshing air, “Are you sure you can see alright? Maybe I should drive.”
“I’m fine,” Liam called over his shoulder. He took one hand away from the handle and rubbed his eyes with the back side.
Nix and Sestra were leading the way in front of them, the blue glow of the hover bike illuminating their tan scales and dark cloaks.
Ju-Long accelerated until he was side by side with Liam. He fiddled with the foreign controls on his bike which make Liam’s dash buzz. Liam put a hand over the screen and Ju-Long’s face appeared, his voice coming loudly through the speakers.
“Do you see that to the left?”
Liam broke Ju-Long’s gaze and looked to the left. One of the spires’ faint purple glow turned more vivid for a moment. The energy pulsed from the base until it shot out a beam of violet light from the top, up into the atmosphere. Liam looked back at the screen. “What was that?”
“A signal of some kind?”
Several of the other spires also sent up bolts of light, dozens of them in a row, until nearly every spire was lit up in the night. The beams curved until they connected with each other in a web over the colony, illuminating the streets like daylight. If the Ansarans were trying to find them they would have a much easier time of it now. Liam couldn’t help but think the light had another purpose. That thought would have to wait.
Nix’s bike began to slow and he pulled into an alley ahead of them. Liam broke hard and followed him in. They stopped a block ahead, parking their black hover bikes against a clay wall. They powered down the bikes and the blue light faded until they were left with only the purple glow emanating from the sky. Nix got off his bike first, both him and Sestra shielding their eyes from the light. It seemed to affect the Dinari far more than Liam and his crew.
Nix pointed at the back entrance of a building and said, “We must get inside, quickly now.”
Nix was visibly frightened, even with most of his face obscured by a hood and his shielding hands, his tone of voice betrayed all. Whatever was happening with the spires was taking its toll on the Dinari. Liam nodded and followed them inside, Saturn and Ju-Long close behind.
“What was that, Liam?” Saturn asked. “It looked like a web. Does that mean we’re trapped inside?”
“I don’t know.”
Ju-Long scratched his short black hair and said, “At first it looked like signal fires, then it seemed to become more of a crowd control device. On Earth, the police use bright lights to disperse crowds.”
“Or maybe dissuade the Dinari from leaving their homes,” Liam replied, half to himself.
Nix was a few paces ahead of them in the dark clay corridor. He didn’t give their conjectures any acknowledgement. He only led them through the passage to a rounded wooden door with soft light seeping under the frame. Nix turned to them, his golden eyes reflecting what little light filled the corridor. “I warn you, this place is not the friendliest of establishments.”
“That’s an understatement,” Sestra said.
“Regardless, if you’re looking for answers, you go to The Sand’s Edge.”
Nix pushed open the door and stepped through the entrance. Soft yellow light poured down from the many hanging orbs of all sizes and luminosities. There were several tables and a long stone bar, glass bottles lining the shelves behind it filled with multicolored liquids. A dozen Dinari occupied the tavern, talking in boisterous voices over their drinks. When Liam and his crew entered, their voices trailed away until every head was turned in their direction. After a few moments of silence, the Dinari patrons pulled out all manner of weapons from their cloaks, bolts of electricity balling up at the tips of some of them while others appeared black as night and graceful, in contrast to the Dinari style. Regardless of the technology, each was pointed at Liam and the crew.
19
Nix stepped forward with his hands raised defensively. He pulled down the hood of his cloak to show his face. Sestra stepped in front of Liam and crossed her arms, her expression defiant. There was a moment of tension before some of the patrons began lowering their weapons. Nix spoke to everyone in the room, “The outsiders are with me. They are no friends of the Ansarans.”
The tavern slowly returned to its boisterous conversations and raucous laughter, and Nix led them all to the bar. Liam could feel several pairs of eyes on him as he walked. His right hand remained close to his weapon in case someone decided they wanted to test him.
Nix stepped up to the bar and began speaking with the bartender. “Tell him I’ve returned and that I will not waste his time.”
The bartender, a muscular Dinari with dusky scales which were charred black in some sections and scars adorning every exposed body part, nodded and stepped away from the bar.
Liam came up beside Nix and asked, “What the hell are we doing here?”
Nix’s eyes darted between Liam and the others, his claws fidgety against the stone bar. “Patience, we’re meeting an old friend who may be able to give us some answers to assist you.”
Ju-Long put his hands on his hips, stretching and popping his back. “This place is shady, but maybe we can get a good drink.”
Liam’s stomach growled audibly, making him rub his hand over his belly to calm it.
Saturn let out a short laugh and asked, “You too?”
The bartender returned, scratching one of the charred sections on his face and letting one of his scales fall to the stone floor. His dark yellow eyes moved between Liam, Saturn, and Ju-Long, observing their features curiously. He stood a whole head taller than Liam and looked like he’d been in one too many fights. He wasn’t someone with whom Liam would want to tussle.
“He’ll see you now,” the bartender said. “Down the stairs at the end of the bar.”
“Thanks, Riken. Those marks are looking better by the way,” Nix said.
The bartender shook his head and returned to cleaning glasses with a dirty piece of cloth. Nix led them to the end of the bar, where a set of earthen steps led down, curving into darkness. Before descending, Nix turned to Liam, his expression serious, and said, “When we get down there, let me do the talking. He doesn’t take kindly to strangers.”
Nix looked Liam up and down and concluded, “Probably less so to outsiders such as yourselves.”
Nix didn’t wait for Liam to agree before starting down the stairs. He seemed more confident than he was in the spire, despite his occasional ticks. It was as though he was more at home the seedier the setting they encountered. At the bottom of the stairs, Nix pushed through another wooden door and led them into a room with a long stone table with curious etchings adorning every inch of its gray surface. Most of the room was taken up by the table and the three large orbs which hung from the ceiling by unseen threads.
At the opposite end of the table sat a fat Dinari with lightly tanned scales and a thick neck. He had vacant eyes which rolled back into his skull as he bit into a slab of dark meat with his many pointed teeth. The corpulent Dinari didn’t acknowledge them as they came in. Instead, he finished the last morsels of his meal and picked his teeth clean with a single clawed finger. Juice from the moist piece of meat seeped out of the corner of his mouth and down his thick neck. It didn’t seem to bother him at all. The fat Dinari wore silken pants and a cloak which was adorned with colorful jewels, in sharp contrast to the other Dinari, whose garments were quite plain.
When he was finished with his meal, he gestured to the long benches on either side of the table. “Nix, it’s been a long time. Sit. Tell me why you bring outsiders into my place of business. Are you trying to scare off all of my customers?”
Nix slid into the seat closest to the gorged Dinari. Sestra took the seat next to him while Liam and the crew went around the other side and sat opposite them. Nix put his hands on the stone table in front of him and let a brief smile cross his face. “Zega, this is Liam Kidd, Saturn Vera, and Ju-Long Ma. They were attacked by
the Kurazon Throng in their system and have found their way here.”
Zega appeared intrigued, though he ignored Liam and the others, speaking only to Nix. “Found their way how?”
“A wormhole. Liam estimates they traveled ten thousand light years.”
Zega grew silent. Finally, he examined Liam and the crew with a mixture of curiosity and revulsion. “They are squishy, like our meat.”
Saturn spoke up first. “I assure you, we are not food.”
“It speaks! A pity, I prefer my food not speak.”
“This wormhole,” Nix said, changing the subject. “What do you know of it?”
“The wormhole,” Zega repeated, drifting off into wonder. “It’s true, then.”
“You’ve heard of it before?” Liam asked.
Zega made a face like he had a bad taste in his mouth, his cheeks puffing out in anger. Nix shook his head subtly, his face bearing an expression of warning. Nix turned to the fat Dinari and said “Zega, any information you have could be helpful to us.”
“I may know something, but my knowledge will require one favor.”
“I don’t like where this is going,” Ju-Long said.
Zega laughed at Ju-Long’s remark. “I like this one, he catches on quick.”
“What favor do you ask?” Nix inquired.
Zega smiled wide, each of his yellow, pointed teeth showing proudly. He let out a throaty laugh once again. “You are lucky, Nix. Our goals align.”
Nix’s jaw clenched tight. Their Dinari guide knew something that he wasn’t telling Liam and the crew, but he was keeping that information closely guarded. Liam looked Zega up and down. He was far more affluent than the other Dinari he’d seen. He could have been a mob boss, maybe no better than the cronies at Vesta Corporation. However, from experience, Liam knew sometimes he had to deal with the devil to accomplish lofty goals.
Zega continued, his voice growing darker by the word, “This wormhole you speak of; I have heard whispers of the Ansarans devising a machine that can create this anomaly at will. The machine would not be small, though if my information is correct, a key component of it is.”
