by Greg Dragon
“The one and only. Are you available?”
“You have excellent timing. I just finished with a customer.”
It wasn’t the type of answer Rafian liked to hear but he was happy to learn that she would be able to meet him. She crossed the street and made it up to his hotel room in twenty minutes Vestalian time. She wasn’t dressed in the robes he was used to seeing her in, but instead wore canvas pants, closed-toed sandals, and a bright blue blouse that seemed to billow everywhere. Her thick dark hair was plaited back into a series of complicated coils, and she wore a hat that gave him the impression that she was set to travel.
“Going somewhere?” he asked when she walked through the door.
She removed the hat and placed it on the table. “I don’t know, am I?” she asked, her expression was one of serious determination.
Understanding her body language, Rafian said, “So, you will be going with me when I leave? You do understand that—”
“How many times must you remind me? You don’t have to worry about me embarrassing you in front of your wife.” She laughed deeply and it made her seem girlish. It took everything within him to resist her.
“I just want to see you safely gone from here. You could get a villa in a warm country on Meluvia, or come stay with us on Vestalia.”
“You would risk having me near you while you are there with your wife?”
“What does it matter? I’m a Phaser; if I wanted to be with you it wouldn’t matter where you live,” he said.
“You make me so excited the way you talk. You speak of impossible things but I believe them. So, are we going, or did you call me for something else?” She sat down next to him and put her tongue inside his ear.
“I went to the desert last week, Jinay. That is why you couldn’t reach me.”
The Traxian beauty sat up suddenly when he said this. “Why would you do that after what happened before? My heart breaks just thinking of what could have happened to you.”
“I saw a lot of things, Jinay, and they raise a lot of questions. Now, I don't want you to get offended.”
Jinay looked concerned as she glanced at him out of the side of her eye. Then she got up suddenly and crossed the room to place her back against the wall while she watched him. “You saw a solkatha?” she asked quietly and he nodded his head in response. “You want to know if I knew about the solkatha and what they do to your people.” She twisted her lips into a grimace and shook her head. “They will cut my throat, but I will tell you,” she said finally.
“Jinay, I know evil, and I know that you intercepted me to keep me safe the day I arrived. The cult was out human hunting the night we first made love. You kept me in your arms and wouldn't let me leave the whole day. I recognized that you were stalling me, but I didn't know why. I thought at the time that you saw me as a way to escape this place.”
“Did you see the people?” Jinay whispered. “Did you see what the solkatha left of them? It is a cruel thing that we do, a disgrace to life itself. But citizens of Copl are made to keep quiet. We cannot say their name or tell outsiders about the trade—”
“Trade? So your leaders are selling humans to the Geralos? Is that what I'm hearing?”
Jinay nodded and looked around frantically as if she suspected that they were being recorded. “My friend Ilza. She got her tongue cut out and they sent her away to work in the mines.”
“Because she talked?” Rafian said, then stood up suddenly to approach Jinay. “I’m taking you with me. You won’t see the mines, and you will need that tongue to taste plenty of rich and exotic foods.” He winked at her. “Now go to the clinic. You will see my friends. Mention my name and say that you are with me.”
“Where will you be?” Jinay asked and Rafian shook his head in response.
“Better you not know. I don’t want you to learn that other side of me. Just go to the clinic and stay with my friends until I arrive.
Jinay flashed him a questioning look and then grabbed her hat to leave. Rafian slipped on his pack, hung the las-sword on his waist, and then gave the room a once-over before leading her out.
As they stepped out into the hallway, Jinay spun around to face him, forcing him to feint backwards in order to avoid being popped in the face by the brim of her large, floppy hat. “Will you walk me to the clinic, Rafian?”
He was about to object, wanting to get right to the mayor, but he read fear in her eyes and that made him rethink his plans of having her go there alone.
“Jinay, you're frightened. Of course I'll take you. Keep the hat low and stay close to me,” he said, but he wondered at the likelihood of Jinay being in danger. Had his room been bugged or rigged with scanners? He pondered this as they descended the wooden staircase with their arms interlocked and her leaning into him. The woman was visibly shaken, and Rafian kept his hand near the handle of his pistol.
When they left the building and entered the square Rafian had a feeling of deja vu. Here he was playing bodyguard to a sex worker, which was not unlike his first job when he lost his memory on Luca. He felt Jinay shudder so he scanned the crowd. Most of the men were curious about them but none made any moves that could be interpreted as aggressive.
“I didn't tell you everything, Rafian. I work for someone,” Jinay started to say but Rafian shushed her and pushed on through the crowd.
“No need to start confessing secrets. I know more about you than you think. When they show up to reclaim you, I will—”
There was a slight movement to their right and Rafian grabbed Jinay and pushed her towards the door of the clinic. “Run!” he commanded and spun to face a giant Traxian that had barely missed her face with his knife. The feeling of deja vu was strong again, but he caught the wrists of the man and twisted them violently, forcing him to drop the knife.
The crowd of shoppers opened up a clearing for the fight, and three men stepped in to assist their friend. Rafian spun with a leg out, causing the dust to fly everywhere. The men recoiled, guarding their eyes, and it was enough time for him to draw his pistol and shoot the nearest one in the face.
At the sound of the gunshot the people scattered, and Rafian joined them in the confusion. By the time the men had recovered from the dust and the chaos he would be long gone from the vicinity. Copl had android guards and a few Traxian ones that maintained them, and he didn't want to mar the Phaser reputation by butchering a village of innocent people.
He sprinted towards the large home that Jinay had explained was the mayor's, and he ran past the guards to gain the entrance. Several loud gunshots cleared the lobby, and when the guards rushed in, he scattered fire into their midst. The men's white tunics turned red from their blood, and they went down fast, lifeless before hitting the ground.
The hot pistol was pulsing in Rafian's palm so he drew the las-sword that he had commandeered from the Geralos. Slowly and methodically he climbed the steps and as the men and women ran past him screaming, he scanned their clothes to make sure that none of them was the mayor.
When he emerged on the top floor of the three-story building, a handsome Traxian stood waiting for him with a shotgun pointed in his direction. Rafian didn't wait to see if the man wanted to negotiate; he phased behind him and spun, cutting behind his knees. The man screamed and collapsed helplessly while Rafian snatched the shotgun from his hands.
He grabbed him by his hair and dragged him to an adjacent bathroom. He threw him on the ground and then went back to the office area to look for something to tie him up with. The only thing present besides the computers and paper was a decorative red chain that would normally dictate where people could line up to see their mayor.
Rafian cut a sizable bit of chain, then took it to the bathroom and looped it over a beam in the ceiling. He tugged at it to make sure that it was strong and secure, then pulled up the mayor and bound his hands so that he was barely standing inside of the tub.
“Why are you feeding my people to the lizards?”
“Cri, zhyt, puc—” he began and
Rafian backhanded him, causing him to spin one way until the chain forced him back, spinning the other way.
“Speak the universal tongue, you worthless schtill. Why are you feeding my people to lizards?”
Fresh blood oozed from the lips of the smooth-faced Traxian, and his long black hair suddenly became damp with sweat. Rafian could feel himself becoming angrier. Torture was not the most honorable practice for a Mera-Ku monk.
“Last chance, Mayor,” he said as he reached up and tugged at the chains. He looked down at the collection of blood that had formed a crimson pool below the man. He could see that the chains cut deeper into his wrists.
“I don’t know what you’re looking for,” the mayor mumbled under his breath. “We don’t set up our guests, you lunatic. I told you that—”
Rafian swung the las-sword in a downward arc and severed his arm at the shoulder. The man’s scream was a horrific noise that cut through the sounds of the village. The mayor’s office was on the tenth floor of a beautiful stone tower, but the removal of his arm had caused a noise that could be heard from the streets below.
“Listen to me, schtill. Your life was forfeit the minute you decided that Geralos money was worth the lives of my people. The couple that I rescued, they’re Alliance military. This means that your crimes have gone galactic. It means that I can carve you up slowly and they would applaud my efforts. So do yourself a favor and just come clean, preserve your other arm, and I will leave you at the mercy of your people.”
“You’re a savage!” the man spat at Rafian in the native Traxian dialect, and Rafian swung the blade so close to his other arm that the man thought that he had made good on his promise.
“You haven’t seen savage,” Rafian said as the blood went cold in his veins. He couldn’t recall hating a person more than the coward who stood in front of him.
The man’s eyes met his and something within them changed. “YES!” he cried. “We have dealings with the Geralos, but I did it to allow my people to live in peace.”
“How long?” Rafian asked in a flat, even tone.
“What?”
“How long has this been going on? How many humans have you sacrificed to the lizards?”
The man seemed to give up and Rafian understood; he didn’t need him to answer anymore. There had been countless humans sent to the Geralos and it had been at the hands of Traxians like him. He wondered how many Geralos inhabited the planet, and he wondered how many hubs were death traps for Vestalians.
To be so close to achieving true progress against the lizards only to find out that your allies were selling you out… The bile in his throat began to seek a way out, but he wasn’t going to vomit, not in front of his victim. Thirty-five Traxians and a Geralos military man had been killed by his hands in the last three days. He felt like a sort of unstable weapon, and as he looked at the man and recognized—as if for the first time—what he was capable of, he staggered back in fear of what he had become.
The contradiction of the Mera-Ku teachings and those of an Alliance military officer made for a painful maelstrom in his mind. He had gone soft for the Geralos when he took a peek into their culture, but then the Makers had appeared to scold him for losing his way. He felt lost and alone on this alien world, and even Jinay had not been enough to keep these feelings at bay. Traxis is an ally, he reminded himself, but they’re selling off my people to the enemy that terrorizes us.
“I lied,” he said finally and the man looked at him curiously as he fought to stay conscious against the pain. “I lied about keeping you alive. I’m going to kill you and everyone involved with the human trafficking, and then I am going to place this city under Phaser control.”
The man looked stunned and Rafian stared at him intently. “You must really hate us,” he said between bloody lips. “I don’t blame you. We made a mistake.”
Then he closed his eyes to accept his fate.
15 | Enough is Enough
AS THE EXCITEMENT on the thwarted Geralos attack died down, Maes Van Senthyn, now inside of the mind of the Phaser, Laern Cobo, stood starving inside of a dark, empty hangar. For a Geralos this was the worst kind of death and despite his typically proud nature, he found himself wallowing in self-pity.
Why had that stupid girl rescued him and forced him to occupy this disgusting body? He thought back on the fight that he’d had with Rafian, and how helpless he’d felt when the warrior countered everything that he threw at him. With the time that he now had, he tried to reason through it. He had been in countless fights, both bare-knuckle and with weapons, yet he had never seen a style like the one Rafian used. The girl, Dott Toga, had shown some skill using that same technique, but he had beaten her, forced her to run, whereas Rafian was on another level.
“The master and his apprentice,” he scoffed out loud, chuckling to himself. “The ancestors were waiting, and then that stupid woman let me live.” He wondered if he were to chew off his tongue if it would be enough to cause him to bleed out. It would hurt like hell, but it would be an excellent way to feel the life pass from this enemy whose body he occupied. As far as he was concerned he was already dead, and this was the ancestor’s gift of allowing him to wreak havoc from the afterlife.
It was midday on the fifth day of his capture when the door cracked open and a new human appeared. When she moved away from the light of the doorway, her silhouette revealed a familiarity that made him wince. This was the same human that had been on Helysian, back when he was wearing his disguise and trying to find out about the Phasers and Rafian VCA. She had blocked him when he had a chance to talk with Rafian, which had led to him being revealed on the bridge by two Phasers.
It wasn’t long after his exposure that he was locked up and left to die—just like he was now—only to barely escape to the planet of Meluvia. Phasers again thwarted the victory that he hoped to gain over Dystalis, Meluvia, and then there was Rafian VCA to finish what his annoying little sister had begun. Now the ancestors had spun the wheel of fate, and the woman he hated the most had entered the room.
She gasped when she saw him and her eyes took on a questioning look. She then fumbled for the power panel and activated the lights. Small hands came up to cover her mouth when she recognized who he was. “Laern, who did this to you?” she asked, her right hand still covering her mouth.
Maes considered the situation quickly and then answered, “One of those damned lizards did this to me. I’ve been screaming for help for days but nobody heard me. I am so hungry and weak.”
Aurora stared at his chains and then looked around once again. “Wait here and let me alert Tayden! If a lizard did this to you then he could still be running around hurting people.” She made to leave but Maes screamed as if in agony.
“Please, cut me down. I don’t know how much more of this I can take.”
Aurora walked back to him and loosened the chains after lowering him to the ground. “Hold on, Laern, while I get help. I’ll bring back some food for you, and water. Just stay strong and fight to stay alive. I know it hurts but help is coming.” She squeezed through the door and took off running while a satisfied Maes smiled at his success.
He slipped out of the chains and made to move his injured leg, which was swollen from the las-sword’s cut. A shot of pain stopped him in his tracks and he could feel sweat collecting on his cold brow. Something was really bad about the leg, but with the little knowledge he had on Meluvian and human physiology, Maes didn’t really know what was going on and what he would need to do to treat it.
Gritting his teeth, he dragged the leg along and groped until he found the rear of the hangar, which turned out to be unlocked. It took him less than five minutes to hobble his way to the rear of the numerous buildings. By the time he got to the tall grass that bordered the barracks, he was seeing dots and had to fall to his good knee in order to vomit in the grass.
The fever was taking him over and he knew that if he wasn’t treated there would be a chance that his human host would die. Desperately, he dragg
ed himself through the grass till he came to one of the many garbage cans that bordered the city and military grounds. A half-finished leg of fowl was buried among several other colorful forms of foodstuffs. He pulled it out and bit into it, using the juices to moisten his throat and scarfing it down before returning to the can to see what else was there.
The feast lasted for five minutes before he was expelling fluids from every orifice. He didn’t know how long the food was in there, but as a Geralos, he didn’t know the Meluvian’s inability to digest certain human foods. He lost a lot of fluids and his consciousness waned, so he passed out in the grass beside the dumpster for an hour.
When he woke up he could hear the sirens as the Phasers began to look for him. His rescuer must have panicked when she realized that she had helped an enemy. If he could smile at her misfortune he would; she had been such a pain to him back when he was playing the part of her underling on Helysian. He imagined that she would be thrown in stasis cuffs and made to spend some time in a cell. The thought pleased him, and he relaxed a bit as he stared up into the sky at the numerous stars and distant planets.
Then the droning of the bikes caught his ears, and then they grew louder and stopped. Maes rolled over to his stomach and pushed his body up to investigate. Bearing down on him was Frank, with his las-sword flashing cruelly beneath the moonlight. Maes turned his head to see Marika coming at him from the other direction and he knew immediately that they were not planning on capturing him.
He waited for Frank to swing his sword, then timed his roll to make it miss while delivering a blow to the outside of his knee. The Phaser went down immediately, and as Marika closed to deliver her cut, he reached for Frank’s sword and rolled once more while cutting her in the abdomen. With no 3B Suit or armor to protect her, Marika screamed in pain and fell to her knees. Maes seized the day and lifted the blade, but thought better of it when he heard more bikes closing in.
Looking around frantically, he hopped back towards the barracks, keeping to the shadows as he tried their doors to see if any of them would give him entry. In the distance he heard screams and angry shouts, and he could feel the time running out on his survival. Finally a hangar door opened up and he pushed his way inside of the small building. Parked in front of him with the spectacular glory of a bird at rest was Constance’s whyte, a fighter ship that Maes recognized.
