They carried on walking along the street, idly looking at some of the glowing signs on the sides of buildings. Most were broken now, and just a few letters glowed fitfully in the gloom. It was a sad reminder of what the city might have looked like all those decades, or centuries ago.
After talking to a few of his sources, Nate had been told that Zyras Greeta could usually be found in Section 49 of the city. Apparently he operated out of a small building nestled in between a couple of the Scrapers, purportedly where he prepared his lines of drugs. Whatever the truth in that, the building itself was proving difficult to find. They’d had no luck so far, and had been looking for what felt like a very long time.
“Maybe down here...” Nate suggested, looking down a small alley that led to an adjacent street. They turned down it, walking in the deep shadows cast by the looming Scrapers. At the far end of the alley, they emerged into another near-identical street, almost abandoned except for a few people walking briskly along, heads down and ignoring the world.
Carrying on in the direction they had been heading, they walked past the odd street vendor, and a few beggars huddled up on the ground, trying to find some comfort in the shadows of the ornate Scrapers towering above. It was a strange contrast, Nero thought as they walked.
After passing a few more alleys, none of which contained anything more than a few doors and trash cans, they finally came upon a rickety metal structure, completely blocking an alley on their right. One story in height, it appeared to be made of simple metal panels glued onto a frame. There were no windows, but there was a door, and a chimney on the top, from which a stream of smoke or vapour poured.
“I think we’ve found our place,” Nate said.
“At last. Alright, we’ll pretend we want to buy some qiameth, and have a look around in there.”
“Then?”
“And then, well, we’ll improvise.”
Stopped outside the flimsy door, Nero banged hard on the metal, causing the whole door to shake. The resulting noise sounded rather feeble to Nero’s ears. They waited, and he was just about to bang on the door again when it was cracked opened by a small woman, looking up nervously. Her eyes opened wide when she looked at Nero’s arms.
“We’re here to see Zyras, woman. We’ve got an order to collect.”
When she didn’t move, Nero yelled at her to open up and took a step forwards, playing up to the angry buyer role. Jumping, she opened the door wider, and stepped out of their way. Nate and Nero stepped smartly past her, and entered the dark, smoky interior of the shack. A couple of rows of tables stretched before them, each with a number of humans and aliens leant over, preparing drugs of some sort. At the back of the room, a fire was burning in a metal hearth, in front of which was a row of tubes with coloured vapours twisting upwards.
“Nice place,” Nate said, taking in the atmosphere. “Reminds me of where I grew up.”
Before they could look any more, a small alien came storming up to them from the rear of the building, its features wobbling with apparent anger. The effect wasn’t very sinister on the small, dark green creature though. It almost looked comical to Nero, though he managed to prevent himself from smirking as the alien stopped, uncomfortably close to him.
“Who the hell do you think you are, coming in here?” the alien shouted, thick spittle flying from its jaw.
“Zyras?” Nero asked. “Zyras Greeta?”
This confused the alien for a moment. “Yes.” Recovering itself, it continued. “And I say again, who the hell do you think you are? And how do you know who I am?”
“I’m Col,” Nero said, saying the first name that came to mind. “We were sent to buy some qiameth, okay?”
“Who by?” Zyras demanded.
“Who is our boss? I can’t tell you that, I’m afraid, but that’s probably best for you. Just let us know the cost, alright?”
“Look, whoever you are, I have my distribution channels set up. I’m not going to go into business with two men who won’t even say who they work for. Okay? Now leave me.”
Nero was starting to enjoy their exchange.
“Perhaps you didn’t understand me. That’s fine, I don’t always make myself very clear. I’ll try again,” he said, slowly rolling his sleeves up as he did so, revealing his carbon-metal arms. Zyras glanced down at them, and for the first time Nero could see fear enter his eyes.
“Tell me how much you charge for the qiameth, and tell me where you get it from.”
Nero watched as the little alien’s mind whirled, processing the various escapes it thought it could see. Evidently not finding a good option, it acquiesced.
“Okay, okay. Um, I charge 100 bonds a pack. So, it would depend on how much you want to buy.”
“Very good, Zy. Now, is there somewhere more private where we could talk?” Nero asked, seeing the fear in the alien’s slit-like eyes increase to a new level. “Out back, perhaps?”
“Er, yes, very well. This way,” Zyras muttered, eyes darting around, and made its way past the tables, heading towards a small door set in the back of the building. Pushing it open, the alien glanced around, and stepped out into the darkened alleyway, Nero and Nate close behind.
“So, how much do you want to buy?” Zyras asked, eyes fixed on Nero’s metal arms.
“Well, see there’s the issue. I’m less interested in buying now, Zy. What I really want is for you to tell me where you get your supplies from. Could you do that for me, Zy?”
The alien froze. “But...” it started.
“Yes...?” Nero prompted, after waiting a moment.
When the alien didn’t immediately reply, Nate weighed into the conversation. “I would tell the man, Zy. He doesn’t like it when people keep him waiting.”
“Um, yes, okay,” Zyras replied, its eyes darting about like they were receiving an electrical shock. “Well, there’s this alien, who came to me. Had this new drug. Qiameth, he called it. He offered it to me, and said he could get some more if I wanted. Naturally, I was suspicious, so I asked him some questions.” Zyras paused to glance nervously into Nero’s eyes. “Anyway,” he continued, “turns out he was a trader, having arrived from this other planet, and he’d picked up this shipment of the red pills there. It was a large shipment, and he wanted to sell it to me.”
“And...” Nero prompted.
“And, well, I got some of my guys to try it, and it was great. Very effective, so I agreed. I bought the crates. Then he left, off planet I think. I didn’t even get his name.”
“What was the name of the planet, Zy? Where had he come from?” Nero asked.
“Um,” Zyras was looking increasingly flustered. “Well, I think it was Kaza'ona.”
“You sure, Zy? You sure it was Kaza'ona?” Nate asked. “Because--”
“Yes!” Zyras almost screeched, “Yes, I’m sure. It was Kaza'ona. Now will you leave me alone?” he almost pleaded.
“Of course I will, Zy,” Nero said, turning around. Glancing at Nate, he gave the man a significant look. Nate’s eyes lit up with comprehension, and he reached for the small laser weapon holstered in his belt. “I can’t, of course, say anything about my colleague,” Nero continued.
Nate raised the gun, and depressed the smooth trigger. There was a slight whining noise, as the weapon generated the power to fire the laser beam, and then there was a muted blue flash from the muzzle. Nero turned around again, to see Zyras falling backwards to the ground.
“We couldn’t have you telling anyone else about this planet, Zy,” he said to the corpse. “It’s simple business, you understand?”
Nate laughed, and both men headed down the alley, away from the dead alien’s corpse.
****
Not an hour later, an alien - larger than Zyras, and with the darkest of skin - approached the dilapidated drug house, entering the main door without bothering to knock. Dressed in an all-black suit, of a quality not often found on the streets, the alien stood still after it had stepped into the room, looking around at the deserted ta
bles, many of which still had the remains of some drugs on. There was no one in the room.
The alien muttered to itself as it strolled slowly through the room, looking for signs of what had happened. “Stealing, is it?” It picked up a jacket that was left strewn on the floor. “Not good, not good.” The alien then made its way over to the other side of the room, noting that there were still vapours rising from some of the tubes next to the fire. “Who would steal from us? Not very sensible.”
Seeing no useful clues, the alien looked at the rear door of the building, which it saw was slightly ajar. “Aha,” it said to itself, as it walked over. Pushing the squeaking door open fully, it stepped out into the alley behind the building. Lying there, in the middle of the alley, was a body. A small body. The alien walked over, and kicked the body onto its back, revealing a small, dark green face, and a chest with a cauterised hole through it. He could make out the concrete ground through the hole.
“Oh ho,” it said, delight spreading across its face. “Not just stealing. Murdering a member of the Nostra too. Not good. Not good at all.”
****
Back inside the cave that served as Nero’s base of operations, a plan was coming together.
“I like it. This could be big. Very big,” Jerad was saying.
Nero was walking through the main cave in search of some equipment, followed by Jerad, Talyah and Nate, telling them his thoughts. Having established that the red pills had arrived from Kaza'ona, Nero knew that he had to travel there himself, to find the source of the qiameth. At this stage, his plan wasn’t much more advanced than that. He’d just take it as it came, when he arrived. Hopefully, it would be relatively easy to locate the source once there.
“Tal, I need you to stay here, though. I need someone to run things while I’m gone, and I might be some time. I don’t know.”
If Talyah was at all disappointed not to be travelling off-world, she didn’t let it show. “Certainly, Nero. I’ll make sure that things run smoothly.”
“Great, and you guys,” Nero said, referring to Jerad and Nate, “I’ll want you two to come with me. Just you two, mind. I want this to be kept as quiet as possible.” There was no sense in letting the Nostra get wind of their plans, even if he didn’t think they’d be able to do anything about it. He glanced at the time displayed in his new holographic display. “We’ll leave in two hours. No sense in waiting.”
“I’ll just grab Clarissa and I’ll be ready,” Nate said, heading off to the weapon racks, to pick up his favourite laser rifle. Nero had no idea why he called it that, but he smiled all the same as Nate walked away. Jerad followed, to load up on weapons himself.
“You’ll be okay running things until I get back?” Nero asked Talyah once the other two had gone.
“Of course I will, Nero. I do appreciate your concern, though.”
“Concern? No, I just want to be sure things won’t go wrong while I’m away,” Nero replied with a smile.
“Naturally,” she said, a slightly amused expression on her face.
It was less than two hours later when Nero, Jerad and Nate boarded the shuttle, having already loaded enough supplies for any eventuality. It was getting dark outside the cave, and Nero was itching to be underway. Nate pressed the button next to the door, closing the ramp and sealing the entryway. “Ready to go, Nero,” he said, having seen the light strip above the door go green. Jerad was already seated in the main area, ready for the journey.
“All right then,” Nero replied, turning on the engines, and he delicately raised the black shuttle off of the ground. The craft vibrated ever so softly as it hung in the air, as Nero retracted the landing gear. Flicking the control stick to the left, the ship slowly pivoted around in the confines of the cave, until it faced the narrow entrance to the cave. Glancing down, he saw Talyah standing next to the ship, watching.
He increased the power from the ion engines and slowly guided the ship out of the cave mouth, emerging into the desert that surrounded the mountain range. Before him, stretching into the distance, was empty sand, littered with the odd rock formation. Illuminated by the light from the three moons far above, it looked hauntingly beautiful, rocks standing proud above their triple shadows. A small animal of some sort was startled by the hovering ship, and darted away from the base of the mountain, hiding behind one of the larger rock formations.
As he watched, Nero angled the sleek shuttle upwards, and increased the engines’ power to maximum. A hum spread throughout the shuttle, and the vibrations increased, causing a few rattles inside. The blue ion engines flared as they were fed the extra power, and Nero was thrust backwards into his seat as the ship accelerated upwards.
“Are you going to fly the ship the whole way there, man?” Nate asked, seated behind Nero. All that could be seen through the screen in front of them now was blackness, the only clue that they had entered space the brief feeling of weightlessness before the gravity simulators kicked in.
“No,” Nero said, punching in their destination into the computer. “It’s just the first bit that’s fun.” The computer took control of the ship, and made a slight adjustment to their course. Nero stood up from the controls, and turned around to face the other two.
“Alright, we’ve got a couple of hours before we arrive,” he said, glancing at the information the ship was feeding to his holodisplay. “Any ideas on what to do?”
“Yeah, I’ve got one,” Jerad said. “A game of vararon.” Nero rolled his eyes at Jerad’s love of the game, but went over to join Jerad and Nate anyway.
As they sat down, the ship’s computer engaged the spacetime distorters, plunging the ship into the weirdness of the space-between-space. No stars were visible outside the ship in this strange place, outside of normal space, but by traveling through altered space, the vast distances of regular space could be covered in hardly any time. Light-years were covered in mere seconds.
****
The small shuttle shook violently as it emerged from the distorted spacetime continuum, appearing once more in regular space. They had been travelling through the distorted reality of the space-between-space for just over two hours, during which time they had covered the great distance between their planet and Kaza'ona, further around the edge of the galaxy.
Looking out of the ship’s screen, Nero saw that they were now fast approaching a dull grey planet, haloed by a blue atmosphere, which was filling a large part of his field of view. Glancing around, he couldn’t see any other ships nearby, or any other signs of life, for that matter. They and the planet were alone in the emptiness of space.
“Wow... I never imagined I’d see another planet,” Jerad said, staring out of the window next to Nero. “I always thought I’d be stuck on Dimora my whole life...”
“That, my friend, is because you have no imagination,” Nate replied, in a serious tone of voice.
“Hey, that’s not fair. You’re telling me that you always knew you’d leave our crappy planet, then?”
“Of course. Even when I was a baby.” Nate gave Jerad a sly glance, before returning his gaze to the planet below them. Jerad grumbled in response, and continued to watch the planet as they neared it, the grey ball resolving itself into what looked like a very rocky body.
As the shuttle entered the atmosphere of the small planet, for it was small, much smaller than their own planet of Dimora, it began to shake quite violently. The ship’s computer slowed them down to compensate for the resistance of the air particles, allowing the three of them a stable view of the surface of the planet, miles below them. From this distance, it didn’t seem very remarkable to Nero. There were a number of mountains, and even a large shining area - which he guessed must be an ocean of some sort - but there didn’t seem to be any signs of habitation. No artificial lights, no cities, no other vehicles in the air. Just a lot of barren rock.
“Well... this should make finding the source pretty easy. There’s no one living on the planet!” Nate said, as it became clear that there were no cities in sight
at all. “You sure you got the right planet? I know it must be confusing... there’s so many around here.” He glanced up at the empty space above them.
Nero cast Nate a disparaging look. “Yes, pretty damn sure, Nate.”
“Where would you like me to land, Nero?” came the artificial female voice of the ship’s AI computer, as he was still looking out on the planet.
He glanced around, looking for any likely place. “Are there any signs of life down there?” he asked the computer. Immediately, it fed the information to his holodisplay, highlighting a small area on the far side of the planet. “My sensors are detecting some unnatural activity in this area. Would you like me to take us there, Nero?”
“Please.”
The ship banked in the high atmosphere, turning to head towards the indicated area, part way around the planet. At the speed they were going, it only took a minute before they were above the likely location.
“Can you guys see anything?” Jerad asked, straining to see something below them.
“No--” Nero started, before Nate interrupted him.
“Yeah, are you guys not looking at the same thing as me? There’s a huge complex down there,” he said, pointing to a more uniform grey area below them. On closer inspection, Nero realised he was right. It looked huge, something like ten or fifteen miles in diameter, if the guides the ship was displaying on screen were reliable.
“What is that...?” Jerad asked
“It’s a gigantic circular building,” Nate replied, as if explaining to a child.
Exasperated, Jerad sighed. “Yeah, I guessed that much Nate. I was really asking about its function...”
“Well, as to that, I haven’t a clue. But I’ve never seen something that big before.”
The ship descended further, and now that they were closer, Nero could see the building in more detail. It looked like a very large, very flat disc had been dropped onto the surface of the planet. Made of metal, there looked to be a lot of vents on the top of it, as well as a transparent area in the centre, presumably to allow light in. Looking down through that vast window, which was itself at least a mile in diameter, Nero was surprised to see the building descended far into the ground, much deeper than he could see. There must be space for hundreds of millions of people in that one building, he thought.
On Galaxy's Edge: Ascendance Page 10
