by Tom Harem
A few meters ahead a red sign marked the entrance to a casino - Linus Casino. We were about to enter when a growl from down the street caught our attention. We looked back at the same time. The three men from the bar, this time with the hood behind their heads, were shoving the people who were getting in their way onto the ground. It didn't matter if they were men or women. The murmurs rose and I could hear some people talking about the mark I had seen on their necks and saying that it was better to get away from there. Oh, crap. I had gotten involved in the worst kind of problem. I didn't even have a gun to defend myself. Worse, I had never touched a gun before, unless a metal stick counted.
"That's really what I needed," Amelia said and yawned, "I thought they weren't going to wake up anytime soon."
"What do we do now?" I asked her, watching them get closer anyway.
"What do you think? We must run. Just because I got lucky once doesn't mean I'm gonna get it again." She said, "Hurry."
We ran down the main streets until we reached an almost empty street, where the only buildings with a small light on had armed men at the entrance.
"Ameliaaaaaa" the tallest man screamed as he crossed the corner of the street.
"Don't stop and follow me." Amelia told me, "I can't believe I'm doing this, but the truth is you probably saved me. It's the least I can do."
"What?"
"There's no other way but to get to my ship and get off this planet. I'll leave you somewhere else."
"I don't think I have a choice either," I replied, my heart about to jump out of my mouth.
I followed her through narrow streets, alleys and even under tents where people were selling original guns. We tried everything to mislead them. And in the distance, at the end of the street, I saw something I knew right there I would never forget. Dozens of spaceships; a few rusty ones, others with the colors still shining, a few the size of my house and others almost the size of my planet, piled up in the same area. Hundreds of people walked among them; some pushing trolleys with items and weapons, others talking and drinking and there were still those trying to check if their ship was in good conditions. I looked back once and noticed that the three men were getting even closer. We couldn't stop. My knees hurt and I had scraped my ankles somewhere. The socks were soaked in blood, but the adrenaline kept me from feeling the pain. I ran alongside Amelia, passing through dozens of ships and, for a moment, I wanted to stop and cherish them even though I knew what was at stake.
Crews from other ships stopped to see us running, and others didn’t even seem surprised. It didn’t seem the first time they had seen Amelia running away.
Maybe it was something recurrent in Amelia's life, but surely not in mine. In fact, I didn't even know what a warlord was, but I didn't want to show my inexperience. Amelia began to climb the ramp of a medium-sized black ship, in which the only thing visible was the rectangular transparent glass on the front. The ship was different from the others. It had a hexagonal appearance, almost like a five-pointed flying disc, capable of passing between the narrowest mountains without a hitch.
"Close it. Close it now! Get us out of here!" Amelia screamed into the air.
The ramp rose and began to recede into the ship. Shots were fired and hit the ship's metal and bounced back. The engine rumbled and the ship rose, hovering in the air. The force of gravity threw us against the ground, and we were stuck there, my right cheek cooling down, my upper lip touching my nose and my hair looking like it had just been struck by a rumble of thunder.
Unlike us, Amelia's hat was spinning through the air. And despite the pressure that clashed against my ribs, the pain made up for not having been captured by the three unknown men.
Chapter IV
Finally, gravity returned to normal. I noticed then that our fingers were intertwined, and she hadn't noticed yet. But it didn't take long, and as soon as she did, she punched my finger until she almost flattened it.
We got up and she grabbed the hat as it fell off. I stored the pain inside. I didn't want to risk complaining because she could snap at me and throw me out the door. She didn't seem to me to be the kind of person who would cry over my downfall or regret doing so.
"Damn it. Matilda, didn't I tell you to find a way to lower the impact of this?" Amelia screamed.
"Sorry, chef. It's been a long time since I've seen you... so breathless." A high-pitched, very feminine voice, said, right behind me.
"You know I hate it when you call me chef."
"I know, that's why I do it." The girl answered and laughed. She had a strange laugh, almost like a long screech despite the angelic face traits, "Who is this handsome boy you brought? Don't tell me you and him..."
"Do you really think so? This rascal?" Amelia said, looking at me, "This idiot saved my life and I had to save his. Now get us out of here."
"Where to?"
"The nearest port. We'll leave him there and then we'll continue our journey." She ordered.
"But our quest is so close. Can't we stop there first? That's why we stopped here. So, we'd get it over with instead of having to go back and forth."
"Actually... Boy, didn't you say you were good at carrying stuff? You might be useful on the next mission. In return, you have a place to sleep and three meals a day until we figure this out. It should only be a few days. But then we'll drop you off at a nearby port. Did you get that? Don't think this is going to last." She said to me, "Matilda, take him to the infirmary. I don't want my ship to get blood on it. Show him the rest of the ship and his chambers. Tell me your name again"
“Keno.” I repeated.
“Yeah, that’s it. Matilda go with him.”
"Sure, chef." The girl said it again and winked at Amelia.
Amelia bit her lower lip but didn't answer. She just sighed and signaled for us to get going.
After the ramp, there was a corridor that fitted a maximum of three people horizontally and had black colored walls covered with protrusions and energized blue wires. I had already got up and straightened my clothes when an ankle pain made me kneel.
"Chef is a tad cranky, but she didn't kill you for touching her, so she's kind of grateful. Or she liked you, which is rare." The girl at the hallway entrance told me.
The light curly hair was the same color as the sky on my planet when there were no clouds and the eyes as dark as rosin of the same color as the ship.
"You're not serious, are you?" I asked her, afraid she'd be serious.
"I've seen her break someone's arm for less. But don't worry. As long as you're a member of the crew, you're off the hook." She said it and smiled. Her teeth were white and straight like the ones who showed up in dentist commercials on my planet, "Let's go. Better take care of that." She pointed to the blood dripping down my leg.
"Good to know..." I told her, and for the first time I noticed the silhouette of her breasts, bouncing with every step she took, "I have something I want to ask you."
"You should be careful with what you ask in here." She said, frowning, her lips barely closed, "I'm kidding. What do you want to know?" She said it and smiled again. There was a huge contrast between the white teeth and the blurred red lipstick lips, patches of it outside the lip contours.
"How does a girl like you end up on a ship like this?" I asked, looking around, the corridor seemingly endless.
Actually, it didn't look like there was even a way out. There were no doors or windows, although the air contained a sweet fragrance - almost like cotton candy. There were scarred solid gaps in the walls and the threads multiplied the further away we got from the entrance.
"Good question. I'll give you a summary. Amelia steals the ship, Amelia can't fly the ship, Amelia crashes. Luckily, she fell a few feet from my parents' house. They taught me everything I know about ships, you know? As I rebuilt it together with my father, I got to know her. She's not as fiery as she looks at first sight. There's a good person underneath all that Miss Pirate of the Century outfit. When the ship was ready to leave, she invited me to c
ome and see the rest of the universe with her. How could anyone refuse?" She said, and before I knew it, she'd already leaned against me and grabbed my arm.
"What about your parents? I don't think my mom would think it was very funny if she knew where I was."
"At first they tried to stop me. It's not that they didn't like Amelia, quite the opposite, but they knew that once I left with her, fixing the ship would be the least of my problems." She told me as her arms closed more around mine, like a serpent wrapping her prey, "but they couldn't ignore my glowing eyes when she told us about other planets either. It's been my dream since I was a little girl. Get to know new worlds, new ships, discover new technology and know how I compare myself to the greatest geniuses in this galaxy. So, no one knows you're here?"
"Not really. I'm like you, even if it’s for different reasons. I think there comes a time in everyone's life when you have to decide if you're happy with the cozy routine or if you need the steady thrill of a breakthrough that might be dangerous, you know? And, look, here I am. In less than 24 hours I've been chased, I've been injured, but it's better than working in the mines."
"A boy from the mines so..." Matilda murmured and laughed, "Don't freak out now."
"Freak out about what?" I asked her but she didn't answer.
She stopped but there was nothing in front of us except for the black walls and the lights that traversed it. Matilda pressed a cluster of lights and a transparent door surfaced, revealing a white-walled room with two stretchers in the middle. A girl with long red hair had her back to us, shaking a bottle with a cream-colored liquid, taking breaks to analyze its consistency. I looked behind me, at the dark walls like the empty space amidst planets, and forward, the contrast being immediate. There were yellow remnants on the white walls, but they were scarce and sparse.
"Jessy! Looks like I haven't seen you in weeks!" Matilda said.
The other girl turned to her. Before answering her, she wrapped her hair in a ponytail and laid the latrine down.
"Matilda, you were here yesterday. What do you need?"
"He's bleeding. Surely you can sew it up and give him something for the pain." Matilda told her and walked to the countertop where the girl had put the liquid, "another one of your experiences?"
"I'm trying to produce a fluid that heals wounds from the inside, but it's not ready yet." She said and looked at me, her small but sharp eyes fulminating me, "You, sit there. Does Amelia know, or is this another one of your conquests? Someday you'll get caught and she won't find it funny. Whether it's a man or a woman. I have something better for him though"
While they were talking, I walked and climbed on the stretcher, lying on it. For the first time since I went in there, I felt relieved.
"Cut it out. You're being a buzzkill. I don't do that anymore. Last time I almost got caught. I had to tell Amelia that the girl had snuck into the ship through the ventilation tubes because she wanted to escape from her planet. But this boy was her own request. Apparently, he saved her life."
"Someone saving the captain's life? What did she get herself into this time?"
They both looked at me. The new girl, Jessy, touched my leg with two fingers, treading from knee to ankle, trying to find out where the leg was most swollen and sore from my reactions. I bit my lip and almost threw up when she touched inches above the ankle and the contents of my stomach rose to my mouth. There was a huge amount of blood flowing down my pale legs. The blood was thick and lively almost as if it had a life of its own. I wanted to answer her, but when I opened my mouth, my voice didn't come out.
She walked away from me and knelt to get an ointment out of a closet. In doing so, the sleeve of the yellow sweater climbed up to her wrist and I could see that she had a shiny gray metallic arm with a valve propelling the movements she made like moving her thin fingers to hold the bottle she had in her hand. As soon as she noticed that I had seen it, she lowered her shirt and acted as if it had not happened. She pressed the ointment until her finger was covered with a shiny green cream and spread it on my wounds. I expected it to burn but, on the contrary, a cold and neutralizing sensation alleviated my head and the pain.
"Dante...Dante." I answered, finally.
"Dante's men again? They can't get enough of chasing us." Jessy said as she stored the ointment and reclined at the marble counter.
"Well, let them try. It's been more than three months and today was the closest they ever got to us." Matilda said, lying on the next stretcher, "Are you better?"
"Yes, thank you," I answered her. The blood had stagnated, and the ointment had changed to a solid, dark green color, stretching around the cut, "tell me. Who is Dante and why did his lackeys chase us?"
"Summary?" Matilda asked me.
"The whole story," I told her, pulling down my pants so I wouldn't have to see the wounds anymore. A shiver ran through my body and I shrugged my shoulders tightly to my body, writhing only from my neck upwards.
"Better if I tell him then. There are five Warlords in this galaxy. Imagine those men who appear in children's stories and who cause children's nightmares, who make them sleep with one eye open. Now think of someone twice as bad. No compassion, no empathy, no mercy. Either they get what they want, or they slaughter whoever it takes to get it. Dante is one of them. From what I've heard is the third worst of them. And if there's one thing they have in common, it's that none of them leave people who disobey them alive to tell their stories." Jessy said it and took a long break. My leg still ached but I was already able to move it without all my body looking like it was going to disassemble. She stood on her toes to reach a small closet that was attached to the wall. Her sweater went up and a tattoo that she had on her right side almost at the buttock bend popped up - an angel with black wings. She took out three glasses and a bottle of whiskey. She filled them up and gave each one a drink, "These conversations twist my stomach. Alcohol helps me. Well, moving on... We were having a rough time. We hadn't had a new quest in weeks, and we ended up accepting a request from him. The mission was simple. Recovering a wagon that criminals, at the behest of another warlord, had stolen. He told us it was just guns. We weren't too happy to help him get them back, but we needed the money. Well, moving on... We got the wagon back. We decided not to open it. We didn't want any contact with it, but then, during the night, we heard noises coming from there. Whispers and knocks on the metal. The motherfucker had us transporting women! Women! Not guns like he had told us. After we found out, we all agreed we couldn't turn them in. We took each of them to their planet, and Amelia ignored every attempt he made to contact us. Since then, there's a bounty on our heads."
They both had a sad look on their faces. They stared at the ground, their half-closed eyes as if the words made them remember every woman they had saved. I was still halfway through the drink and they were already in the second one. My body warmed up until the pain was no more than a prolonged sting. Their cheeks blushed and Matilda stretched as the irises of Jessy's eyes narrowed.
"I must, I must take you to your room." Matilda said, already tipsy, nearly falling off the stretcher, "in less than a day we'll be at our destination."
"Where are we going?" I asked, wagging the glass, focusing on the booze spinning in the center.
"No specific place. They hired us to locate a ship that stopped communicating in the middle of the trip. A private hospital that transports drugs to a clinic on other planets." Jessy answered. Drinking didn't seem to affect her speech, except for one or two words that she dragged along.
"Come on, let's go, let's go. To get you into the bed." Matilda said and stood up. She grabbed my jacket sleeve and pulled me over to her. She put her hands around my hip and whispered sensually in my ear, "Let's have some fun, shall we?"
Her hair smelled of orange and her breath scented like vanilla. I had been with girls before, but none like her. The ones on my planet weren't very hygienic. They had unwashed faces and rough legs from scrubbing them to remove the oily smell of the mines or from the g
rapes in the wine-making meadows.
"Have some sense. If Amelia finds out, she'll throw you both out." Jessy said, "But, damn, I miss being young."
"Jessy, you're three years older than me. You can have fun too. You're the one who doesn't leave this ship, as if weak-minded men would care if you have..."
"Matilda. That's enough. Take him to his room. And rest before the captain calls us."
Matilda put her shoulder around my neck, and we left the infirmary. The door, almost a transparent portal, disappeared. It was just the black wall again with the blue light circle from before.
Chapter V
We staggered down the hall and turned right. She wouldn't stop talking, dragging words, making no sense, but also not waiting for my answer. The walkway stretched for a few meters but, unlike the other, it had iron doors, lightly painted in brown, several unpainted spaces, the grey standing out like a puddle of water on a sunny day.
We passed the first two doors, Matilda bumping into the walls and pushing me with her until she finally stopped at the third door.
"Hehe, this door. I'm sure this is it. Let's go." She said and put her hand on top of a fingerprint reader. The display scanned her hand until a checkmark showed up on the screen and the door opened.
The place only had a bed against the wall and a lamp on the nightstand. The walls were dark green and for a moment I could have sworn that something moved in them, but maybe I had just had more alcohol in my brain than I had thought. Matilda threw me into the room and pushed me until we both fell into the bed. The mattress was stiff, the clips were clamped and no matter what weight we put on the bed, it didn't go down. But that wasn't the worst. The wooden feet of the bed crept across the floor with every move we made. Matilda was on top of me, trying to take my belt off, but she couldn't do it alone. I helped her and she pulled my pants down. She admired my blue boxers for a few seconds and then looked at me again.
