Ayrie: An Auxem Novel

by Lisa Lace

  "Thanks, Thiago," said Eden, smiling weakly. "I won't."

  "Good. We'll test your understanding right away."

  Eden gripped the edge of the dashboard for support as the ship landed in a clearing several feet from an abandoned warehouse. Thiago emptied his goblet and rose from his seat, striding out of the cockpit. Eden followed him, her mouth slightly open. She watched as Thiago strapped a thick belt over his shoulder and filled the slots with sharp daggers, glinting restraints, and other weaponry she didn't recognize.

  "Are you leaving right now?"

  "We're close to Krypt's warehouse. Hercules is coming with me to take down the target. I've programmed the shields to activate as soon as we leave. You should be safe here."

  "That doesn't sound reassuring. How long should I wait for you before I start to worry?"

  "It depends," said Thiago vaguely, shrugging. "I shouldn't be long. Do you know what to do?"

  "I know, I know. Stay right here."

  "Good. We'll see you soon."

  Thiago gave her a final nod before hopping off the ship with Hercules tailing closely behind him. As soon as the front door sealed shut, Eden heard the metallic cranking of several locking mechanisms turning on. The shielded craft was now impenetrable.

  Chapter Nine

  Eden chewed on the last of her pulled kobaru meat. It tasted like grilled chicken in a savory sauce. As she dabbed at her lips with a leaf-textured napkin, she touched a screen on the dashboard. It was the only instrument on the ship she felt comfortable using. She wasn't sure when Thiago and Hercules would return. For entertainment, she began reading about Thiago's former and future targets.

  There was a profile of a sadistic rapist and murderer with a male call-boy fetish. A Leudanese named Kronka had evaded authorities with a decade-long killing spree before Thiago captured him. She shuddered at the moving mugshot of a two-headed creature with gouged-out eye sockets, clawing menacingly at the camera.

  The scorned Dartian princess Briaisha went on a vigilante crusade against unfaithful husbands. She disemboweled her victims and left their entrails packaged in a gift-wrapped basket on their wives' doorsteps. Over 30 wives were graced with Briaisha's gifts before Thiago stopped her.

  Galvantor, brother of the Noxx leader, Malatov, was a 'free-spirit' who started a personal doomsday cult. The Paradise Achievers saw twenty thousand misguided families perish in synchronized suicide after consuming drinks laced with lethal doses of poison. Somehow Galvantor did not imbibe his deadly concoction and remained on the run for over twenty-five years before Thiago hauled the emaciated and disgraced leader to the authorities.

  She couldn't believe Thiago had singlehandedly taken these horrifying criminals out of space. It was no wonder he was cranky. He must have seen horrors that could not be imagined by the sickest minds.

  She found herself filled with a sense of revulsion at the criminals and admiration for Thiago. His bounties weren't petty-thieving, substance-possessing jokes. They were a danger to the universe.

  Eden glanced down at her watch. They had been gone for almost an hour now. Could this be normal? Her brows furrowed as she anxiously gnawed on her lip. What if this was the first mission he failed? What if they were hurt? Or worse? A hundred questions raced through her mind, each more erratic than the next.

  She jumped up from her seat and ran to the windows, hoping to catch a glimpse of Thiago. She found every opening sealed with the shield's protective, steel-gray shell.

  Eden turned back to the cockpit, seating herself on the pilot's seat. She began to play around with the controls, hoping to lower the shield. Every time Eden made a mistake, a noise sounded, signaling an access error and increasing her frustration. With an exasperated sigh, she pounded down her fists, striking the screen and knocking over a striped yellow lever to her right.

  There was a sharp sound of alert as all the shields on the craft retracted. Eden bounced off her seat immediately. She gazed out of the windshield, squinting out at her surroundings. Night had fallen, and darkness covered the land. They were in a clearing bordered by stretches of land covered with tall trees. The gnarled branches were abundant with fern-like leaves in earthy, purplish tones. They rustled in the breeze like a puppeteer controlled them.

  Wiping away the sweat snaking down her cheeks, she strode out of the cockpit toward the armory. She chose something that looked dangerous – a small, bazooka-shaped weapon that was heavier than it appeared. Grabbing a club for good measure, she moved toward the exit and stepped onto the pedal under the wall, revealing an opening in the spaceship. She moved through the egress before the doors of the craft clamped shut behind her.

  Traces of her breath slipped past her lips and left clouds in the cold of the night. Gravel and dried leaves crunched under her boots as she walked along a path in the quiet glade. Eden spied muted light beyond a thicket of lopsided trees. She headed west from the craft toward the only illumination she could see.

  Eden hid behind an unusually thick trunk, her hammering heart making it difficult to hear anything. The enormous double-story warehouse was hard to miss sitting in the middle of the woods. She narrowed her eyes to get a better look, counting four immobile figures sprawled out across the entryway. Her legs were the consistency of wobbly gelatin. Eden approached the bodies with the caution of a delinquent teenager sneaking past their snoozing parents in the living room. She lifted her legs cautiously, stepping over the unconscious figures of three Blazian guards and a Noxx official.

  The warehouse lights were smashed and dangled from their fixtures. Twinkling pools of Xorxes crystals spilled out from large vats tipped onto their sides. Clouds of creamy smoke sputtered over the tables, emerging from cracks in complicated sets of glass tubes and beakers.

  Eden's ears perked up at the sound of Hercules' distinctive distress squeals. They were coming from the second floor. Incapacitated bodies obstructed her path and she leaped over them like an Olympian jumping over hurdles. She clambered up the steps clumsily, clutching her weapons tightly against her chest. She froze when she reached the landing.

  Hercules was staving off a horde of five Blazian cronies. He had seized one by the neck with his pincers. The creature swung the flailing Blazian toward his companions, sweeping them off their feet like a row of dominoes.

  Krypt paced around the room as if he was hunting for something. He was instantly recognizable. He wore a velvet, maroon suit that made him look superior to his men. Eden spotted Thiago crouched under a table. He kept his head down as he reloaded one of his weapons. Her palms became slick with sweat. She watched in terror as Krypt closed in on Thiago. The creature's fingers curled around the edge of Thiago's table. He was about to flip it over.

  "Oh no – Thiago!"

  Eden shuffled forward, the club dropping onto the ground next to her. She raised her weapon and aimed at Krypt. One trembling hand closed around the grip while her finger curled around the trigger. Her heart fluttered when she fired.

  A deafening boom erupted from the mouth of her weapon. A bolt of blue lightning narrowly missed Krypt's ear, striking and utterly shattering all the glass in the windowpanes behind him. The delayed kickback of Eden's weapon sent her hurtling backward and crashing onto the pillars behind her.

  Her body was flat against the ground. Eden lifted her head sluggishly. She saw two copies of Krypt's blurry silhouette weave toward the stairs and exit the room.

  "Thiago," she croaked, attempting to signal him with a limp wrist. "He's getting away."

  A cloud of red filled Eden's vision. A warm trickle of blood started to flow out her ears, and she fell back to the ground.

  Chapter Ten

  "My head hurts."

  Eden peeled back her eyelids slowly. Her head throbbed like angry woodpeckers were drilling at her temples. Rubbing her face above the nose, she hefted herself off the ground. She had been lying on a mattress on the cold cockpit floor of Thiago's ship. She looked down at herself and gasped at a sharp jab that shot through her ribs.


  She wore a black robe with a warm, woolen lining. Someone had bandaged her waist and left arm with a breathable brown cloth. The bandages didn't cover all her wounds. She had other scratches around her body. A bright pink salve coated her scratches; it felt cool when she touched it.

  Most of the scratches looked superficial. Even the deepest wound running across her stomach was nearly healed already.

  She glanced over to her right at the cockpit. The spaceship was on auto-pilot, steering itself through the surreal imagery of rolling clouds tinted with the rising sun's rusty amber hues. Thiago sat in the driver's seat, hunched over the screen and looking at his dashboard.

  "Hi," said Eden, shrugging the robe off her shoulders to look at the cuts on her back. "How long was I out?"

  Fully absorbed with the profile of his next target, Thiago didn't answer her.

  "Hello? Thiago?" said Eden, her forehead wrinkling in annoyance. She twisted her lips thoughtfully. "Holograms aren't a thing here, are they?" "

  The sound of a heavy object hitting something repeatedly rang against the steel floors beneath them. Stools and tables around the ship rattled from the hits. A cupboard door swung open from a particularly hard blow. Eden shrank up against the wall of the vessel instinctively. She slid up to the side, peeking out the window of the cockpit door. She didn't see anything unusual. Hercules, however, circled an old rug centered on the floor, snapping his pincers and growling.

  "What was that?"

  "Your mouth seems to be working fine. Relax," said Thiago stonily, without lifting his eyes from the screen. "He's properly restrained and encased in a 2-meter thick slab of concrete. He can try to escape, but no one's ever managed to break out of our cell."

  Eden's eyes widened in sudden realization. "Are you out of your mind? Is Krypt under us? How did you do that? Never mind. I thought we might have giant space termites."

  "These low-lifes have to be transported to the authorities one way or another. They won't come aboard my ship willingly."

  "I guess you're right. I never thought about it," Eden muttered, grumpily tying her robe around her waist. "I feel like things are getting a little tense here, so I'm just going to go upstairs and cool off. I'm glad you and Hercules are okay."

  "We are. No thanks to you."

  "What was that?" said Eden, stopping midway to the cockpit doors. "I don't think I caught your meaning."

  Thiago glanced over his shoulder at her. He was puzzled, but he could follow directions. "I wasn't whispering, and I think my intentions were clear. Did you not hear me? I said, no thanks to you."

  "I know what you said!" Eden snapped. "I wasn't looking for a thank you or anything for having your back out there in that gross, old warehouse, but at the very least, you could not blame me."

  "Why would I thank you? You broke your word and came running after me when I explicitly told you not to. You had no training and no plan. I'm beginning to doubt whether you people on Earth were born with common sense. That was wildly irresponsible. Krypt might have killed you."

  "Not only was I in the martial arts club in high school, but I've completed a total of three hour-long self-defense classes as an adult. It's not like you aliens are any better," Eden shot back, one hand firmly planted on her hips. She raised her voice over Krypt's floor-shaking antics in the other room. "You're all surly and ungrateful, and I was born and bred in New York City! I don't know how Hercules stays sweet and cuddly after hanging around with you all day. I didn't see you for over an hour. What was I supposed to do? I was worried sick."

  "I had everything under control until you showed up."

  "From where I was standing, it sure looked like Krypt was about to maul your head."

  "Shut up!" roared Eden and Thiago in unison, glaring heatedly at each other.

  Beep. Beep. Beep.

  They turned their attention to the windshield, currently overlaid with a grid map and blinking red coordinates. The craft began a smooth, slow descent. The floor rumbled as the spaceship released its wheels and hovered over the landing strip of a pod suspended above the ground. Behind the landing strip was a prestigious government building. It was grandly regal in contrast to the heavily-manned prison guard towers and drab walls surrounding it, garnished with spikes that expelled threatening sparks.

  Eden muttered to herself as she followed Thiago out of the cockpit. "Stay back," Thiago warned.

  He grabbed onto the edge of his wall of weapons and lifted it over his head, revealing an extra storage space stuffed with broken junk. Casually throwing a few objects over his shoulder, he reached in and pulled out a rectangular wooden box with an antenna loop protruding from the side. He swung the pivoting wall down and set the box onto a podium. He lifted the cover of the yellow switch next to his weapons, retreating as the floorboards pulled back.

  Eden gawked as a horizontal cell raised from the ground. Krypt lay flat on his back, his wrists restrained with a unique set of strong black handcuffs. There was a metal contraption fitted over his head like a middle schooler's over-engineered headgear. His flashing eyes balefully monitored every one of Thiago's movements, bits of frothing drool collecting on the sides of his mouth.

  Thiago remained composed even as Krypt began hurling obscenities in his direction. He proceeded to fiddle with some knobs and twisted out the other antenna of the rectangular device to its fullest.

  Raising his hand like a conductor, he waved a hand in front of the antenna. A haunting, high-pitched note emitted from the instrument. The beautifully serene chord was received with equally intense animosity as Krypt cried out in his cage, writhing in his headgear.

  "That was on the lowest setting. We can do this all day. Or you can choose to cooperate and make this easy for both of us. We'll walk into headquarters together, and you can keep the dignity you have remaining. I'll drop you off at the office, collect my credits and be on my merry way. Which will it be?"

  Krypt turned away from Thiago. A hateful look in his eyes was still present, but subdued. The criminal focused on a stain on the floor next to him. Thiago flashed a triumphant smile, nodding.

  "Wise choice," said Thiago, keying in a security code to unlock the cage. He stepped aside just in time to avoid a collision as Krypt pitched forward. Shaking his head, he helped the criminal to his feet as Hercules bared his pincers from the sidelines. "Hurry up now, off you go."

  As Eden opened the front door, Krypt lumbered past her, leering one last time before ducking his head under the doorway and exiting the craft. Thiago slung a navy-blue satchel over his shoulder, turning back to Eden before slipping out the door.

  "I'll be back in half an hour. 45 minutes at most. If I'm not back in 46, don't worry. Stay put!"

  "Could you be more annoying? Get out of here!" Eden rolled her eyes as the door sealed shut in Thiago's grinning face.

  She winced as she felt a hot, stabbing sensation on her back. Her wounds had not healed as much as she thought. Holding onto her back with one hand, she wandered into the kitchen for something to cure her hunger and take her mind off her pain. Hercules trotted along behind her, happily wagging its broad, forked tongue.

  "Are you hungry?" Eden cooed. She ruffled the top of Hercules' head, the creature purring agreeably under her touch. "I'm hungry too. Let's raid your master's cupboards and see if he's got anything edible around here."

  She retrieved a dusty, half-open box of what appeared to be alien cereal. The box had a picture of colorful marshmallows shaped like tiny, sweet humans. When she opened the box, a whiff of mold and neglect waved into her face. She swiftly dumped the box in the trash, fanning out the air in front of her.

  "Bachelors," gagged Eden, rolling her eyes. Hercules nudged her from the back, guiding her forward. "What's up, Herc?"

  The creature led her in front of a small oven, blinking back at her expectantly. She unhooked the latch of the oven door, pulling out a tray. She felt her chest warming at the baked dish waiting for her. It looked suspiciously like macaroni and cheese, only the home
made macaroni shells were as purple as yams, marinating in a green sauce. An extra coating of crispy, edge-burnt cheese lay on top of it.

  "Did he make this for me?"

  Hercules nodded in reply, beckoning toward the refrigerator with its hairy legs. Eden opened the fridge, a gasp of astonishment lodging in her throat. The top two shelves of the fridge contained cans of pomado-honeyberry pop. Unable to suppress a smile any longer, she beamed to herself, grabbing a soda can and cracking open the tab.

  "Are you saying I'm a little too harsh on him? Or is he making it difficult for me to leave?"

  Hercules made a small noise, raising four of its legs as if to shrug at her. Eden grabbed the dish and reached for the cleanest utensil she could find before joining the creature in its nest. She tucked her legs underneath her and rested her head against the warmth of Hercules' torso. Unleashing a long, drawn-out sigh, she began to dig into the dish.

  Chapter Eleven

  Thiago listened thoughtfully to the poignantly melodious tune wafting out of his spaceship. He tiptoed through the front door, treading lightly toward Eden as he watched her. Seemingly oblivious to his arrival, she had her back turned to him. She sat on a stool in front of a rectangular device. Her fingers wiggled gracefully in mid-air, plucking invisible strings from a vertical antenna. Thiago folded his arms over his chest and leaned back against the wall, a floorboard creaking under the weight of his boots.

  "Oh," said Eden, jumping back in her seat. The look of alarm on her face quickly changed to one of relief. "I didn't hear you come in."

  "You don't have to stop," said Thiago softly, clearing his throat. "That is, if you don't want to."

  "Sorry, I didn't mean to touch your stuff," Eden mumbled, an embarrassed flush of pink creeping into her cheeks. "I got bored. There's not much to do around here."

  "It's fine," said Thiago earnestly, stroking his chin. "You're excellent. Did you compose that piece yourself?"