Stepping onto the lift, Lee smelled oil and metal. It was obvious that the device was not well maintained and he wondered for a moment about their safety. He placed his palm against the control pad and the lift lurched downwards fast. As they descended, the lights began to change and darken. Lee noticed that specks of dust on the armor and cape were beginning to fluoresce. He suspected that the lighting catered to eyes that could detect other frequencies of light beyond the visible. When he looked to Wellick, he saw the armed creature glow from the fur on his skin and ears. Wellick looked back and smiled. His large incisors flared in the ultraviolet light. Lee looked back to the door.
The door opened on a scene of chaos. There were alien beings of all shapes and sizes walking along a wide thoroughfare around a deep pit. The air was thick with odors and fog as humidity condensed in the atmosphere. Small flying creatures whizzed past the group, searching for food or something else with hungry eyes. The ultraviolet lighting was causing Lee’s eyes to hurt as he tried to make out individual shapes.
The team stepped out of the lift as another group stepped on. They were being pushed along the walkway by the crush of alien bodies. Lee had to wrap his cape around his right arm to keep it from being stepped on by passing aliens. Wellick, however, was bulldozing through the crowd, pushing some people over and intimidating others. Eventually, Lee was able to step over to the rail and out of the tide of rushing creatures. Baron, Wellick and Merlin joined him and looked over the rail. The pit in the center of the station was hundreds of feet deep and lined with levels of walkways. Lee could see the push of strange bodies on each level. It seemed that people had abandoned the surface of the planet altogether in favor of the deep, warm sinkholes below.
“We need to get somewhere where we can speak to other slavers.” Lee said. “Wellick, can you spot any bars or lounges where we might be able to make contact?”
“Wellick stood on a nearby box to look over the heads of the passing aliens. He turned completely around to look at the lit signs. He finally turned back to the group and pointed a stubby finger at a dingy alcove a quarter of the way around the pit. Lee tried to see a clear way through the crowd, but realized that they would have to push like Wellick did to get there.
Lee stepped back into the crowd and hoped the others were following him. He held his head up and acted as if the crowd were mere annoyances to him. Rather than be accosted by the passers-by, he was ignored and allowed to pass as if his attitude was a normal thing. He realized that Holkans were probably common in this place and that his attitude was normal for these people.
When he had finally shoved his way through the crowd to reach the façade, Lee stepped out of the crowd and into the alcove that contained the door. He waited for a few moments as the rest of the team arrived and they stepped into the dark place together.
The lighting changed from dark and glowing to bright and orange so suddenly that Lee had to rub his eyes. The implanted contacts that made his pupils black felt like lead as he blinked away the bright light. Baron sneezed into his cape as he winced at the strong lighting. Wellick stepped into the lounge as if he owned the place. Lee followed the little security guard and the group moved into the well upholstered area.
Low couches of deep blue velvet material lined the walls, deadening sound and providing a warm feeling to the room. The floor was golden with flecks of black in spiral patterns. There was a long bar to the left with a bartender who looked partially metallic. Around the room were other Holkans, each holding a drink and looking towards the door where Lee and the team had just entered. Glancing behind him, Lee tried to see if someone else had just entered, but there was no one. He looked back and saw that the other patrons were dressed in much more casual clothing without capes or armor. If he could, Lee would have blushed.
“I thought this place was high class!” Baron announced. “Wellick, you little fool. You have played a joke on us. We will have that hide of yours!”
Wellick bowed to the team and let out a snivel of fear. He knelt down in front of Lee with his snout almost touching the floor.
“I’m sorry, my lord,” he began. “I meant no disrespect! I only wanted you to show these underlings your glory.”
The other patron laughed at the porcine guard. Apparently, Baron’s ruse had fooled them into thinking that Lee was some minor noble who was visiting the station for the first time. He raised his hand to Wellick and the man stood with his head bowed low. Lee could see him throw Baron an evil stare under his brow. Lee stepped past Wellick and into the lower part of the parlor.
“Barkeep!” Lee shouted, trying to play the part. “Why haven’t I already been served a drink?”
The mechanical server growled a synthesized response and then tossed a thick glass mug onto the bar. Lee looked down his nose at the glass as if to ask why it had not floated to him on anti-gravs. He finally strode over to the bar and picked up the mug. As he raised it to his lips, he smelled something like cloves mixed with strong rum. He took a long gulp from the glass. The alcohol was well hidden in the flavors and Lee felt he could tolerate the drink. The bartender clicked a mechanical laugh and poured glasses for the entire team.
The group leaned on the bar and took sips of their drinks. Wellick gulped his down in one mighty swig. Lee took the time to look around the room again. He saw several Holkan slavers scattered around the room, but none seemed engaged in any real activity. They seemed either tired or waiting for something. He began to doubt that the choice of the lounge was the right one.
“Bartender,” Lee said, turning back to the bar. “Another round for me and my new crew!”
The team played along, slapping each other on the back and enjoying the generosity of their patron. Wellick refused his second drink and ambled over to where Lee was standing. The guard seemed agitated by the emptiness of the room. When he reached Lee, he climbed onto a nearby stool and motioned Lee closer.
“We need to get back there.” Wellick said to Lee. “Behind that curtain is the real power behind the slave industry in this sector.”
Wellick pointed a thick finger towards a heavy fabric curtain in the corner. One of the slavers who looked as if he was waiting suddenly stood and straightened his clothing. He held a small device that was glowing in his hand. He strode to the curtain and drew it aside. Lee caught a glimpse of dark red skin on a long leg. The pink skinned man stepped beyond the entrance and into a pair of crimson arms. The pair disappeared as the curtain fell back into place.
“Just ask this guy for a number so we can get on with it.” Wellick hissed, clearly impatient for the investigation to proceed.
Lee waved the bartender over and the cybernetic man walked over. He smiled with one side of his face as Lee indicated that he wanted to go behind the curtain. The bartender produced a device similar to the one the other man had and handed it to Lee. The disguised captain palmed the bar top and a credit was extracted from the original Captain Jarot’s account. There was another synthesized laugh as the man walked away and Lee began to wonder what he had gotten into.
“So Wellick,” Lee asked. “Is the boss going to be willing to negotiate for information?”
“Ah, well…You see sir, Holkan women tend to mix business and pleasure.” Wellick explained. “If you want to get information out of them, you need to be willing to demonstrate how dedicated to business you are.”
“What do you mean by demonstrate?” Lee asked.
The device in his hand began to glow. There was no heat, but the intensity of the light was high. Lee looked to the rest of the team before straightening up and adjusting his tunic. He reached out and took a long swallow of his second drink before stepping from the bar towards the curtained area.
“I’m coming with you, Captain.” Wellick said, stepping beside Lee. “You can designate a different room for me, but I’ll be damned if you go back there alone.”
Lee thought for a moment and then decided to allow the little man to go with him. Wellick could be overcautious but he was
good to have near in case of emergency. The two men stepped to the curtain and Lee drew the thick fabric aside. As the woman behind the curtain was revealed, Lee felt the effects of the drink begin to affect him.
The woman was close to his height and wearing only a brocaded loincloth. She was startlingly beautiful to Lee’s eyes as she looked at him with a small pout. Lee blinked as his eyes roamed down her curves. She had dark eyes like most Holkans, but long auburn hair that was tied into a topknot at the top of her skull. Lee struggled to remind himself of his mission.
“Umm…I am Captain Jarot of the Diamond Sole,” Lee began with a stammer. “I would like to request company for my faithful guard.”
The woman hummed a tone and another woman appeared. She was shorter than Lee but nearly perfect for the diminutive porcine. The new woman took Wellick by the hand and led him back into the depths of the brothel. Lee’s woman also reached a hand out to him. He took the deep red hand and she led him to a richly appointed boudoir.
The room looked as if it had been made entirely of pillows and light. The dark blue velvet of the cushions practically shined in the radiant glow from the ceiling and walls. It seemed to Lee as if the walls were on fire and the only thing to put them out was the pillows. The Holkan woman let go of his hand and fell back into the nearest set of cushions. Lee thought his eyes were playing tricks as he noticed that her hair had become lighter and closer to blonde. It was also not in a topknot anymore but cascaded around her shoulders.
“I wanted to discuss the next auction with you,” Lee said, blinking his eyes to clear his head. “I am interested in Terran slaves.”
The woman said nothing but pulled Lee down to the cushions. Lee fell, unable to resist the pull despite not wanting to engage the woman. He looked at her again, trying to understand why her skin had changed and turned lighter. Her face had shifted as well, becoming more human-like with her eyes changing to a sea-blue color.
“I don’t understand what is…” Lee started. The woman began to caress his shoulders in a firm grip. He shook his head to clear his mind, but the fog that had begun to settle over him only thickened. He couldn’t help but look over the woman. Her shape had become much more familiar and he began to recognize parts of her from his dreams.
“Alice?” Lee said. “Why do you look like Alice?”
The woman continues to run her hands over his armor. He felt his emotions rise at the sight of his former fiancé. The red skin had paled and the hair had become blond. He stared at the seductress, trying to understand but not able to think under her hands. He began to suspect that the drink that the bartender had given him had been drugged.
“You wish to discuss business with me?” The woman finally spoke. “Then we will discuss business during business.”
Lee felt her soft hand reach for his own. She raised his hand to her chest and placed it at the nape of her neck. Lee lowered his hand to feel the skin that he had missed. She felt like Alice. She even began to smell like Alice. To his addled senses, he had been given a chance to hold his lover one more time. As his hands continued their search, he began to lose himself in the illusion. He could no longer deny himself the fantasy of Alice’s presence.
“You are looking for the Terran Auction that the Ch’Tauk is holding in two rotations?” Alice whispered in his ear. “I hear that the slaves are fresh from their home world this time.”
“Yes,” Lee said, panting in his heat.
“No more slaves from the colony worlds, I hear.” Alice said, cooing under his hands. “The conquerors have advertised the sale of Earth slaves. I am surprised you have not heard.”
“No,” Lee said, still running his hands over his lover’s body. “We’ve been away.”
“Then you will wish to go to Rashano’s system,” she said, running her hand up the armor of his leg. “The city of Gomus on the southern plains.”
“Yes,” Lee replied, out of breath. “Rashano’s.”
The woman continued to caress his leg, raising her hand and sliding it up. When she reached the codpiece of the armor, she reached beneath the loose armor coating to the tight bodysuit underneath. Her hand paused for a moment as her fingers explored. She gained a look of confusion. Her hand quickly withdrew from the armor and down his other leg, probing with her hand as she went. Her hand returned under his armor for a moment longer and then she withdrew.
“Only one?” She said with rising anger. “What are you?”
Lee saw the woman quickly return to her original look. The blond hair seemed to pull back into the skull and tie itself back into the topknot. Her skin darkened and turned deep crimson and the curves that Lee had been caressing turned foreign again. His head cleared almost instantly and he pulled back from the alien woman. She looked at him in horror as he stood up and straightened the armor that she had been manipulating.
“I…I…” Lee stammered, trying to keep his mind from screaming about what had just happened. He realized that it was not the drink that had confused his senses, but the woman. She began to scream and he hurriedly found the exit.
“Wellick!” Lee cried, trying to figure out where his guard had gone. “Wellick we need to get out!”
The porcine creature emerged from a room not far from Lee’s. He was pulling the furs back over his shoulders while holding his trousers up with the other hand. He was grunting in frustration as he ran down the hall and shooting daggers at Lee with his eyes.
“You owe me big time, Captain.” Wellick said as he passed. He had managed to pull one of the pistols from a holster and was waving the weapon around each corner, looking for guards. Three doors down, a pink-skinned man erupted from a curtained room brandishing a large plasma shotgun. Wellick shot the man in the forehead before he even had time to aim.
Screaming began to come from the other rooms. Lee realized that their escape had been compromised by the failed sojourn and Wellick’s gunshots. He prodded the little guard past the fallen man and continued towards the bar. He heard more shouts from their destination and realized that the team must have come under assault as well. He held back at the door and allowed Wellick to leap head first into the room. When the curtain was swept aside by his passage, Lee saw that the bartender had extended a projectile device from his mechanical arm.
Lee ducked through the curtain and leapt for a nearby table. He glimpsed the other team members hiding behind another overturned table on the other side. Wellick had positioned himself on the opposite side of the bar from the bartender and occasionally bounced up to fire a shot. The bartender kept firing at the other team, not allowing any of them to return fire. Lee pulled his own pistol and pushed a table over to hide behind. The thick metal table sounded like a bell as it landed on its side.
The bartender turned towards Lee and began to fire between the two locations. As Lee tried to return fire, another guard came out from the brothel. The pink-skinned man jumped at Lee and the two tangled together as they rolled into the main part of the bar. Lee heard Wellick’s gun boom in the lounge as he fought for his life against the Holkan man. Hus armor was protecting him from the majority of the blows, but the man was fast and rained blows onto Lee’s face.
There was further commotion as more guards came from the other area, but Lee was too busy to worry. He pushed the Holkan off of him with a heaving push. The man rolled back as Lee brought up both of his legs. He kicked out at the man’s head and was gratified to hear a loud crack as his boots made contact. The guard fell back and away, allowing Lee to get to his feet. He rushed the guard and pushed his pistol into the man’s chest. When the guard raised his hands to strike Lee, the captain fired the pistol into his heart. The man slumped back from Lee, still staring with amazed eyes.
Lee looked around the room to see that Wellick had mounted the bar and was firing downwards behind it. Lee assumed that the bartender was no longer an issue. The other team members were engaged in hand-to-hand combat with several guards. Lee fired his pistol at the nearest guard, turning him around with the force of t
he blow. Baron balled both hands and slammed them into the man’s back, knocking him senseless and to the floor. The tall pilot then turned to his wing-mates and began to beat at other guards.
“Let’s go!” Lee shouted. “We got what we came for.”
Lee saw Merlin raise a knee into a Holkan guard’s groin. The man nearly screeched in pain. Lee guessed that the nerve center in a human’s body must be doubled in a Holkan and pitied the man for a moment. The guard fell to the floor in pain. Merlin turned and grabbed another guard by the shoulders, twisting the man around and towards the nearby table. Before the man hit the floor, Wellick’s gun blasted a large hole in his chest. The corpse hit the floor with a thud.
The final guard was grabbed by both the remaining pilots and slammed to the floor. He was knocked unconscious and a gout of red blood splattered onto the floor. Lee surveyed the lounge for any more attackers but saw none. He assumed that the other patron had either been called back into the brothel and were too busy to come out, or had left the station.
“Aztec,” Lee said into his hidden communications device. “Warm up the ship. We need to leave in a hurry.”
“Aye, sir,” replied the man after a moment’s hesitation. “I sort of got some company here, but I’ll get rid of them.”
“Company?” asked Lee. “We don’t have time for visitors.”
“She just kind of…” Aztec tried to explain.
“Just get rid of her, Aztec.” Lee said, his mind imagining how the visit must have gone. “Wellick, can you clear us a path out there?”
“Not going to be a problem, Captain.” Wellick replied. “Once we get out into the crowd, we just ride the tide back to the lift. This place ain’t exactly high security and folks don’t like having to report crimes to anyone. We should be alright.”
Resolute Uprising (The War for Terra) Page 8
