by Ashley West
“Not many are,” she explained, swiping her hand over the surface of her tablet and calling up another image. This one was of a planet, large and rocky. Even in bright blue, Silas could see that it was a dry, craggy place, and he leaned in closer. “This is Shuva,” Ammaline said. “A planet not in our Quadrant and thought to be dead. The Fremeri are its primary residents, and they are also thought to be all dead.”
“And you’re thinking that isn’t true?”
“I know it isn’t true,” she said. “The Fremeri supposedly died with their planet, nearly one hundred full cycles ago. As the story goes, the water all dried up, leaving the planet dry and barren. Nothing could grow, nothing could thrive. The Fremeri were already made to survive in dry conditions, but without any plant life or animals, they slowly starved to death and then cooked under the heat of their twin suns.”
Silas let out a low whistle. “Sounds like a good way to wipe out a species to me.”
“Indeed. But Shuva is riddled with tunnels and caves, underground places that could be used as shelter, or places to hide.”
“And you think the Fremeri have been hiding down there?” His voice was skeptical.
The Empress shot him a sharp look. “I do,” she replied crisply.
“But why...ah, Your Imperial Majesty?” Best not to forget his place here.
She gave him that tiny smile again. “Because I have seen a Fremeri before. If they were all dead, then I would not have encountered one.”
“Alright,” Silas said slowly. “Fair point. But then, what makes you think they’re doing this now?”
“Because someone saw one here. You have to agree that they are very hard to mistake for something else.”
And yeah, he couldn’t argue with that.
“The fact remains, Captain, that things are getting worse. We have reports from other sectors, siting deaths, dismemberments, and more robberies. Food and water are disappearing from markets, and in some of the more populated areas to the south, people are starting to go missing as well. We cannot ignore this.”
Silas sat up straighter in his chair. This was the part that really mattered here. Whoever was doing this would be caught and brought to the Empress’ justice, there was no doubt about that, but knowing what his orders were was how he would know how to do that. In his time as Captain, he had several successful missions under his belt, and as dull as the job could be sometimes, he wanted to continue the trend. “What would you have me do?” he asked.
The Empress rose from her seat, moving over to the screen in the wall that depicted a scene of the market at its most lively. It wasn’t safe for the Empress to spend time in a room with windows, not when someone could come through and kill or hurt her and she refused to have guards in her office while she was working. So the compromise had been this, a screen that took up most of the wall that she could change the image of to look out at the market or the harbor, or the shuttle deck.
For a moment, she just gazed out at the people on the screen, and then she turned back to Silas. “I do not want to think that this could get worse,” she said softly. “I want to believe that this is petty crime. But if the Fremeri have been alive and in force for all this time, then they could have been just waiting. Just planning. This could be the beginning of something awful.”
Silas inclined his head. “What would you have me do?” he asked again.
“Protect our people,” she said simply. “In whatever way necessary. And try to capture one of the Fremeri alive, if you can. For questioning.”
“Ready to move on your orders, Captain.”
The voice in his ear was familiar, and Silas smiled. Cress was always going to be following him, apparently, and he was perfectly fine with that.
At the moment, they were staked out in the pleasure district. Waiting, watching. Half of them were in a gambling den, the other half had taken up residence in one of the many pleasure houses the area boasted. The woman in charge hadn’t looked particularly impressed when they’d all come in and demanded a room with a good view of the streets, but there was only so much she could do to stop them, considering they were members of HIMA. Silas had slipped her a generous number of credits for her silence and cooperation, and she’d gone away after that.
It was dull just standing there doing nothing, waiting for something to happen and not being sure if anything would. Silas stifled a yawn with his hand and trained his eyes on the street again.
So far it was just normal evening traffic. People came and went, dressed in light clothing that allowed movement and concealed all manner of things. He knew from experience that there would be some of them with knives and blasters strapped to their hips as they moved, and he kept eyes on them as well. If this turned out to be just something that was happening in the pleasure district because of petty criminals, he was going to be upset.
Although, he supposed with what Ammaline had said about people going missing in other areas of the planet, it was unlikely that this was a localized problem.
"Anything yet?" he murmured, knowing his voice would be picked up and then relayed to Cress' earpiece.
"Nothing so far. Definitely just saw a woman plying her trade as it were in a back alley, though."
"Beautiful," Silas deadpanned. "That's definitely what we're here for."
"Hey," Cress complained. "You said watch the streets, I'm watching the streets."
Silas rolled his eyes. "I didn't say watch someone get sucked off, and you know it." But things like that happened all the time in this area. The pleasure district was known for being flagrantly open when it came to things like that. No one told tales about the things they saw, and for the most part, everyone minded their own business and kept to themselves. They did what they came to do and then went back to their homes. No harm, no foul.
Except something or someone was causing people harm. Upsetting the delicate balance of the pleasure district, and Silas just needed a glimpse of them so he could act.
"Come on," he muttered under his breath. "Come on. Someone do something."
"What makes us so sure this is a big deal?" someone else asked over the ear piece.
"You mean aside from the fact that Her Imperial Majesty says it is?" Cress wanted to know. Questioning the Empress wasn't something that people did more than once, usually.
"Aside from that, yes." Silas recognized the voice now. Hamara, one of the best sharpshooters in the army, currently in the gambling den with Cress and the others.
"I spoke to the little girl," Silas replied. "Who saw the Fremeri."
Ordinarily, the testimony of one little girl wouldn't be enough to make him take action, but from what she had described to him, she had really seen a Fremeri. There was no other way she could have described one in such vivid detail. What worried Silas was the fact that no one else had seen it. How were these things moving around in the city without being detected? You'd think something that ugly would definitely be noticeable.
Ammaline had called the little girl in to meet with them, and Silas had questioned her as gently as he could. He was aware that scaring a little girl was a terrible thing to do, but he needed information if he was going to act.
In the end, she’d burst into tears and had to be lead from the room, and the Empress had given him a stern look that he was probably going to see in his nightmares, but he’d gotten the information he needed. Silas had called a team together and now they were at the perfect intersection to be able to see what was happening.
If only something would happen.
He was considering sending a runner to get some meat pastries and ale for them to have while they waited, when a flicker of movement on the street caught his attention. Silas frowned and leaned closer to the window, trying to see.
It was faint, just a blur, an outline, really, but something down there was moving, apparently unbeknownst to the others on the street.
“What is that?” he murmured.
“Sir?” came the voice of someone behind him, and Silas rub
bed at his eyes before he looked again, just to make sure it wasn’t a heat haze or something else innocuous.
But no, whatever it was was definitely moving, and it was happening at a clipped pace that seemed to indicate that whoever or whatever it was didn’t want to be seen, but wanted to move quickly all the same.
Silas held out a hand over his shoulder. “Visor,” he said, tone firm.
In seconds, the thin, flexible visor was pressed into his hand, and he put it over his eyes, fingers running along the parts that went over his ears until he found the heat setting. This would pick up the heat signature of anything out there, no matter how well they tried to hide.
He squinted, getting used to the different field of vision, and then his eyes widened. The heat signature of the creature was faint, more blues than reds and oranges, but it still had a shape, and Silas let out a low whistle. “It’s a Fremeri alright,” he murmured, remembering the images he’d seen of them. “It’s not giving off much heat, though.”
“Fremeri are cold blooded,” someone supplied. “They need the sun to heat their bodies, and it’s night time.”
“And presumably they’ve been skulking around all night,” someone else murmured.
Silas shook his head and murmured into his ear piece. “Heat setting visors, Cress,” he said. “Check the perimeter. Anything that looks like a giant blue splotch is what we’re after.”
“A giant blue—what is that?”
Apparently Cress had found it.
“That, my friend, is a Fremeri. The reason we’re out here tonight. I don’t think it’s working alone, either. Track it, find the rest of them, and stop them from doing any damage tonight. We need at least one for questioning.”
“Those the official orders, Captain?”
Silas inclined his head. “Yes. Move out.”
The thing about hunting through the pleasure district that was so difficult was the fact that it was impossible for a HIMA member to be inconspicuous in a place like that.
As soon as someone saw them coming, kitted out in their uniforms, weapons at their sides or strapped to their backs, they got out of the way, and it was very noticeable. Luckily, the Fremeri didn't seem to care about that. The one that Silas was tailing was single minded in getting to wherever it was he was meant to be, and he didn't stop or rest until they were at the outskirts of the district where it bled into the harbor area.
Both boats and shuttles launched from that point, and Silas knew that if he let them get on either, they would lose their lead. And the Empress would have his head.
Ah, the burdens of leadership.
It was a merry chase through the pleasure district. He dodged carts and people, ignoring the gasps and indignant noises from those who didn't get out of the way in time. The Fremeri knocked over its fair share of pedestrians as well, though that was mostly because they couldn't see it to get out of the way. From the looks on their faces, they blamed that on him, too.
Which was fine. They could do all the blaming they wanted. When this came to an end and they could safely walk their streets again, they wouldn't be complaining anymore.
Sometimes the job was thankless. Keeping people safe was never easy, and if the mission wasn't glamorous, then the people didn't care. They only wanted the battles that happened on larger scales. The face offs with military from other planets. The ship battles, the laser fights, things that were flashing and showed that the might of HIMA was better than anything that could be thrown at them.
Things like this, chases through the pleasure district and interrupting people's revelry and debauchery to catch petty thieves and small timers, no matter what Ammaline might think about how big this could be, were just inconveniences.
He skidded to a stop right where two Fremeri had revealed themselves in the open, and drew his weapon.
Whatever cloaking device they had been using to sneak around nearly undetected had faded away, and they stood there in front of him as the hulking, reptilian creatures they were. As he watched, one of them licked its own eyeball and then returned the long, sticky tongue to its mouth as quick as a flash.
Silas shuddered. "In the name of Her Imperial Majesty, Ammaline, Empress of Gathra, you are under arrest."
The two creatures looked at each other and then at him, bulbous yellow eyes twitching, seemingly unable to keep still as they looked him up and down.
"We are lawless," one of them hissed, the end of that word coming off sibilant and slow.
"Nothing is lawless," Silas corrected. "And you will be coming in to face the Empress' justice."
"STOP!" someone shouted from behind him, and though he knew it was foolish to do so, he turned his head to look. Cress and two other were chasing a group of what had to be six or seven Fremeri as they headed for the harbor.
"What in the void?" Silas muttered. "You are all under arrest!" he said sharply.
"Lawless," hissed one as it ran past him.
"Stop them!" Silas shouted.
One of his men tackled one of the Fremeri, getting a nasty scrape across the chest from the tail spikes, but he managed to take the creature down. That just left about eight of them that were getting ever closer to escaping.
Since it was apparent that they weren't going to come peacefully, Silas lined up for a shot and blasted a hole right through the shoulder of the nearest one.
It howled with pain, eyes darting frantically as it gripped its shoulder. There was no blood, of course. One of the main benefits of using blasters that shot pure energy instead of bullets was the fact that wounds were cauterized as soon as the shot went through. There was still a throbbing hole in the creature's shoulder and the smell of cooking flesh, but at least it was neat.
"You," the creature growled through clenched teeth. "You will have your reckoning."
"You know," Silas said, taking aim for another of the Fremeri. "You talk an awful lot for someone who's supposed to be extinct. Your people were burned alive or something a long time ago."
They all laughed at that, even the one of the ground and the one with the gaping wound. It was an eerie sound, like dried vegetation scraping across stone, and it made the hairs on the back of Silas' neck stand up.
"We will never be gone," one of them rasped, voice higher and more feminine, even though there was no difference in appearance, really. She had darker scales than some of the others, but was just as hairless and ugly as the rest. "The Fremeri are eternal. You will never stop us."
A bolt of bright blue energy streaked by, slicing into the Fremeri's thigh and making her screech with pain.
Silas turned his head to see Hamara standing there. "You killed someone tonight," she said, voice hard.
His eyebrows jumped up. "They did?"
Hamara nodded, not taking her eyes off of the creatures in front of them. "A little boy. Completely drained."
"What?" Silas asked, but before he could get an answer as to what that even meant, the Fremeri were laughing again. "Please stop doing that," he muttered under his breath.
"He was delicious," one of the creatures spoke up. "So full of warmth. So fragile. It's easier when they're little. The skin just wants to...split."
A horrifying picture was being painted here, and Silas felt himself getting angry. They had killed a child tonight, maybe more than one, there was no telling what the rest of the team had found, and they were smug about. They had the audacity to stand there and gloat about what they had done. His fingers tightened around his weapon.
"So...wait," Cress was saying, and Silas made himself listen. "You eat people?" He sounded slightly hysterical, probably with good reason.
"Drink," Hamara said, lip curled in distaste. "They drank from the boy."
"So when you said drained..."
"Of blood," she clarified.
Cress went positively green.
"Delicious," the Fremeri said again, and this time licked its lips. Or what passed for lips.
Hamara shot again.
“Hamara,” Silas said, al
ready weary of this. “Stand down.”
“Yes, Captain.” Her tone was reluctant, but she put away the blaster and took a step back.
The Empress was not going to be pleased. The Fremeri were draining her people, right under her nose, and hauling them in to answer for what they had done wasn't going to erase the mess they had already caused. And there was no telling how many Fremeri were lurking, waiting to continue this mess.
For a long moment, nothing happened. Neither HIMA nor the Fremeri moved. It was a standoff of sorts, even though Silas was the only one with his weapon out. He had to make a decision about what was going to happen here. Ammaline had instructed them to leave at least one of the creatures alive, so there was no reason why he couldn't let Hamara and the others keep shooting. Especially if they were killing children.
He opened his mouth to say as much, to suggest that they try to detain as many as possible, though, when the Fremeri closest to him broke out into a run.
The creature had swung forward so it was nearly galloping on all fours, and it was covering a lot of ground, towards a ship that was just a few hundred feet away.
"Stop!" Silas called, but his inattention meant that the others were getting away, too. The one who'd been shot in the thigh was hobbling, and Cress bounded forward and grabbed it, pulling the Fremeri back and holding on tight.
"Oh, no you don't," he said. "Not this time."
"Hold her, Cress," Silas said as he took off running.
"Where are you going?" Cress called after him, sounding incredulous."
"I'm in pursuit. Take that one back to the Empress!"
He could hear Cress mumbling, and Silas smiled a little to himself. It was a lot like the good old days before a difference in rank kept them from doing things like this together.
Although Silas was going to be on his own for the rest of this. He could see a speeder parked in the shuttle bay not far up ahead, and though the Fremeri had a head start, and were already scrambling aboard their ship, Silas wasn't worried. He was still practically the best pilot HIMA had, and no one had ever outrun him in space before. He'd catch up to the Fremeri and make them wish they had just complied with his orders.
