by Justin Sloan
Jackal’s words came back to her. What was it they weren’t telling her? While they could have been talking about Carma, they had acted pretty strange when they saw Samantha, so that part wasn’t hard to figure out.
If it was something to do with her being younger, she swore she’d kick both of their asses when she woke up.
For now, though, her eyelids grew heavy, and she found herself drifting off to sleep.
19
THE NEUTRAL ZONE
Napalm was the first of the team to wake. He wandered into the bridge, saw that Hadrian wasn’t there, and was about to leave when Jackal entered and took his seat, replacing the alternate shift.
With a smile to Napalm, he said, “You see where we are?”
He motioned for the screen to zoom in, revealing a cluster of planets with ships moving between them. What had appeared to be just more stars and planets was actually a hub of activity.
“Our last stop before entering enemy territory,” Jackal commented. He pointed to the screen, then moved his finger so that it zoomed in on the closest planet, showing an area of metallic gray that could only be a city. “The neutral zone.”
“I’ve been here before,” Napalm stated, throat dry. “Can’t say I have the fondest memories.”
Jackal turned, considering him, but returned to piloting when Napalm didn’t offer anything more.
“We might have time to throw back some of the famed Devil’s Wine,” Jackal said. “As I hear, the stuff opens you right up. My treat, of course.”
Napalm eyed the man, wondering if there was any way he had heard the story. It hadn’t been so long ago, when a woman had lured him here with promises of a life together in the Outlands. He had nearly given up on being a soldier, was fed up with death and destruction.
Then a night of heavy drinking from the Devil’s Teat, as the locals called it, and he woke up the next morning nude in an alley, all of his chips gone—both physical and the ones accessed through his account. Luckily for him, the Brothers in Flames put him back on his feet, but not before he had to obtain clothes and find his way back home. He only escaped a life of servitude because Hadrian came calling.
He had been a sight for sore eyes, and Napalm would never forget the relief he felt at seeing that man’s face again.
So would he partake in the Devil’s Wine? Hell. No.
But to Jackal, he just smiled and nodded. “Sure, we’ll try to work something out.”
Politely excusing himself, Napalm made for the training rooms. He hadn’t realized they would be stopping by this planet, and it sent his stomach turning. If anyone tried anything with him this time, he meant to be ready.
SAMANTHA JOINED the rest of the Shadow Corps as they strapped in at the back seats of the bridge and pulled in to land. A mean-looking Acome had hailed them and briefed Hadrian on landing fees and procedures, but all of that went over Samantha’s head. The Acome, Napalm told her, was a race that occupied much of this outer edge of space. They had very humanoid features, if one could ignore the line of three stones that went down the middle of their foreheads. Napalm insisted the stones were actually part of their skulls, and that they couldn’t be removed. Many were the size of small pebbles, but he told her some grew quite large, so that when you said, “That man has some stones on him!” the phrase actually was literal.
But what fascinated her the most was how, according to Napalm, some had a stone at the top that extended out into a bit of a horn. He and others had termed this type the unicorns, though never to their faces unless they wanted a fight.
Now she was anxious to get on planet in hopes of seeing a unicorn, though she wasn’t sure if the sight would excite her or give her nightmares.
They touched down at the boarding station, then took transport ships to the city. The Acome had said something about not having enough room to land all the ships directly on planet, but Carma said she suspected it was a way of monitoring who came and went, and being able to stop anyone from making a quick getaway.
Ferder and Olivay were waiting for them at the other end when they arrived. Samantha smiled and waved, then took a moment to look around at the great reception hall. It was old and looked like it was made of brown plaster, and reminded her of a train terminal she and the other LRR members had spent a week hiding in after a particularly bad skirmish with the Syndicate.
“You see the way we dealt with those pirate pieces of shit?” Ferder asked, beaming as he walked up and clasped forearms with her. A look of concern came over him. “Is that… did that translate properly?”
She laughed, then turned to nod at Olivay. “Yeah, why?”
His cheeks turned purple, which she imagined was his version of blushing. “Just… I looked up more of the details behind our last communication. I didn’t know we were referring to the man in a phallic way.”
Olivay grunted, then said, “Is there any other way to think of males?”
Samantha wasn’t sure which way to go in this discussion. So she smiled and walked past them, admiring a carving on the wall over a metallic tube that seemed to be the tunnel out.
The carving was of a group of the Acome riding giant bird-like creatures, a ball with lines coming out of it.
“Just ignore stuff like that,” Ferder said, joining her after greeting the rest of her group. “The Acome have such high thoughts of themselves.
“I… actually don’t know what it is,” she admitted.
“Oh?” He looked taken aback. “I keep forgetting how little Earthers know about life out here. Acome believe they created the universe. They have this old tale about being born from the eggs of Dactites, those flying things, but born into nothingness. They took flight, going so fast they created a burst of energy that exploded through time and space, creating everything we now have.”
Samantha frowned in confusion. She had heard some whoppers in her day, but this just made her head hurt.
“Sounds like the Chinese,” Kwan said, laughing. “You mention anything, they say they invented it.”
“I bet the Chinese would say the same thing about Koreans,” Olivay said, earning her a nod from Kwan.
“Yes, but in the Korean’s case, it’s usually true.”
The others laughed, but stopped as soon as it was clear Kwan wasn’t joking.
“I don’t get it,” Samantha said, shaking her head. “Seriously… giant birds?”
Ferder laughed. “Don’t mock their beliefs when they’re around, or you’ll find yourself on dueling ground.”
“In and out,” Hadrian said, walking up behind them. Ferder and Olivay quickly bowed low, and Hadrian nodded their way. “We’re here to pick up our guides, the only ones I know who have been through Zeus’s Mouth. That’s where our source says we can find our target.”
“Zeus’s mouth?” Samantha asked, this being the first she’d heard of it.
“It goes by several names,” Carma said with a playful grin. “He means the butt hole of the universe.”
“Yes, some call it that,” Hadrian replied, shaking his head. “Usually those without class.”
“Ouch,” Napalm said with a laugh.
“Shut up,” she told him. “You’ve called it that as many times as I have.”
He held up a finger. “Ah, but never in front of the General.”
“You kids play nice,” Hadrian said, glancing around. He turned to Ferder. “Where’re the others?”
Ferder looked ashamed as he said, “Went off to sample the Devil’s Wine, I’m sorry to say. I warned them.”
Hadrian sighed. “You all find them and get them ready to go. Sam, you’re with me. Partially in case there’s trouble, I could use your help, and partially because you don’t need to see the underside of this corpse of a city.”
“As intriguing as you make this place sound…” She nodded. “Deal.”
They made their way down and parted ways with the others, and soon found themselves walking along dark corridors. This planet was the exact opposite of the last one th
ey had been on. While the Elders lived in light and color, this place was all browns, grays, and rust.
As far as she could see was city—multiple layers of city, all of it covered with ships coming and going. A whole universe was at work outside of Earth’s knowledge. How odd that humans had thought for so long that they were alone in the universe.
But someone had to have known. The Syndicate invasion had certainly tipped everyone off, but they must have known before. There was the Red Company made up of ROK Marines, and others, like Jackal from Australia.
Frowning at the thought, she asked, “Hadrian, has the U.S. ever sent people up here? I mean, were they at least aware of all this?”
Hadrian glanced over, lost in thought, but then nodded. “Certain presidents were more accepting than others. Eventually an arm of the government, a constant arm not affected by politics, decided presidents would only be briefed on a need to know basis. Plausible Deniability, they call it. We have a Seal Team up here, actually. They call it Seal Team Zero, on account of it officially not existing.”
“And the work of them, or Red Company… how’s that different from what we’ll be doing?”
He smiled. “They’ll be fighting in a much more… conventional way.”
“You mean without this power stuff.” She licked the inside of her teeth, trying to think of how to say it. “Magic.”
He nodded. “These suits you all have been given, they aren’t easily made. The skills you have are special, and the missions we’re going on, well… I’m hesitant to say they are any more or less important than the missions of those other groups, but they are of a much darker nature.”
The thought of doing tasks of a darker nature than a group titled Seal Team Zero made her stomach clench, but she also found pride in the idea.
As they walked through the winding halls, merchants reached out to them with strange food, some of it looking like mutated bugs. Others had clothing and jewelry for sale.
The architecture and layout, however, felt less like some outer space adventure and more like a scene from a horror movie. At any minute, she was sure all of the scaffolding, sheet metal, and pipes would come crashing down around her.
Finally they reached a long tunnel with light at the end and the silhouettes of two men with rifles. Hadrian glanced around, motioning to what looked like the entryway to a bazaar not far down, at a fork in the road.
“I want you to keep a lookout here.” He handed her a round, metal disk, about the size of her thumbnail. “See if they have anything in the market that can be a treat for the ship. Only clean and safe though. No taking chances in a place like this.”
She looked at him skeptically, and he sighed. “Okay, fine, I’m just trying to get rid of you. These men in here… they’re not the type to think bringing a teenage girl along is, well…”
“They’ll think I’m for sale?” Samantha said, catching on. “Yuck.”
“Exactly, yuck. But as long as you look like you’re doing the buying, not the selling, you’ll be safe out here. Stay close, so we can leave as soon as I find our man.”
She nodded, though she didn’t like it. Her preference would be to go in with Hadrian and slap some alien jerks around.
Watching his silhouette grow smaller as he went farther into the tunnel, she started to feel an anxiety she hadn’t expected. She had no doubt she could take care of herself, but she’d never been alone on an alien planet, particularly one so unfamiliar and generally creepy.
After Hadrian went inside, she lingered a moment longer. When a man came by with a half-horn sticking up out of his forehead and eyed her up and down with a lecherous smile, she decided she would move on as Hadrian had asked. She also decided she didn’t give two shits about seeing a unicorn anymore.
The man looked back, and she considered running over and tearing his horn right off of his face. But she decided starting problems like that wouldn’t do anyone any good.
Get onto the planet, find the guide their captured spy had told them would be able to lead the way to Zeus’s Mouth, and get moving ASAP. That was the mission, and she had been appointed a leader in this group.
She would lead by example, turning and ignoring the pervert as she entered the market.
It was even darker and scarier in here, surrounded by high metal walls, and the lanterns that provided the dim light swayed as if a ghost were rocking them. But she started to feel liberated as she moved along the corridors, realizing that everyone was simply worried about making a buck, or whatever the hell they used to pay down here. In a place like this back home, her focus would be on surviving the next Syndicate attack, or worrying the person next door was actually a Syndicate informant.
The floor sloped down in places, uneven and slippery, so she had to watch her step. Two older men were laughing, playing some sort of game that involved rubies. Samantha watched for a moment, slightly surprised that nobody came by and tried to jack them.
At a stall selling clothing, she studied a leather dress with a long tail, held together at the front by what looked like belt buckles. It reminded her of old pictures of pirates, and she considered buying it for a moment. But really, when would she wear it?
The next stall over sold weapons, and she found collapsible batons that flared with electricity when extended.
“Careful there,” the shopkeeper said, rushing over to take it from her. When he saw the lack of stones on her forehead, he froze, hand halfway extended. “Oh, an Earther. I… see. What brings you here?”
“A girl’s gotta get her shopping in,” Samantha said, voice dripping with irritation at the way he spoke to her. “I’ll take some of these.”
He frowned. “They’ll stun, but not kill.”
“The other girls back home will love ‘em.”
“Uh, yes… fine.” He accepted the disc and ran it through a metallic device on his arm, then nodded and gave her a bag for the batons. She slung it over her shoulder and moved on.
Cheering sounded in the distance and she grew curious. As she approached the sound, the crowd grew thicker.
“You’ll want to stay away from here,” a woman said, eyeing her. She paused at the sight of Samantha’s forehead, and then backed away.
It was almost a disappointment to see that, at the center of the cheering crowd, the sight wasn’t so different from back home. Two fighters were circling each other, hands up, ready to throw down.
Never one to miss a fight, Samantha moved to higher ground. Here she could see that one of the fighters was an Acome woman with a horn longer than any of the others. A quick glance around the crowd showed that nobody else’s stones projected like that. Considering there were a lot of Acome in the crowd, Sam felt it was a good indicator of how rare this was.
The crowd roared. Samantha’s head spun back to see that the other one, a man twice her size but with simple stones, had just landed a punch and was now following up with an elbow to the woman’s jaw.
He advanced as the woman stumbled back. But then she recovered and came at him with a one-two punch to the gut and an uppercut to the jaw. The man nearly fell, then caught himself and ran in for a tackle. She ducked even lower, moving around him and catching him with her horn so that it tore into the flesh of his side. Blood spewed as she came up behind him.
A mixture of boos and cheers rose from the crowd, and Samantha figured she had seen enough. Maybe this place wasn’t so different from home after all.
She had been wandering the stalls at least an hour, and began to think she had better hurry back to reconnect with Hadrian. If it was taking him this long, maybe he was in trouble. But no, not him. The thought was ridiculous.
Laughter pulled at her attention and she hesitated, looking for the source. It sounded like… yes! Carma was there, a few stalls over, drinking wine with two women.
When one of the women held out a hand, Carma took it and began walking away with the women.
As Sam watched, she saw a man with three large stones following Carma’s small gr
oup. He had a look about him, carrying his long, purple robes in a way that seemed out of place.
She trailed along unobtrusively, and soon observed them entering a curtained room along a line of more curtains, decorated with intricate circular patterns of blue and purple.
Nobody was watching, so Samantha crept forward, carefully. She paused, preparing herself, when she heard a yelp.
Her breaths came quick, and she decided to act. She darted forward and pulled the edge of the curtain back, reaching for her sword. And froze.
Where she expected to find the three Acome robbing or hurting Carma, instead she found Carma on her back, completely nude with the two women on each side of her, also nude. The man had just started to remove his robes, and as Samantha stared, struck dumb with surprise, they fell to the floor.
Knowing Carma, she should have expected this.
Then Carma’s eyes moved and met hers. For a moment she smiled, almost as if she was about to laugh, only…a flash of worry crossed her eyes before vanishing into her mask of joy. Samantha ran.
Oh, thank God the man hadn’t turned around and scarred her mind for life, she thought as she scrambled out of the market and back up the street. A strange warmth crept over her and made her inner thighs tingle, but she ignored it.
She leaned against the wall, breathing, and closed her eyes. The bag of stun buttons pressed up against her, and she welcomes its comfort.
All she could see was the image of those four, nude.
“Dammit,” she said, kicking the wall, and then heard a sound nearby. She leaped back, hand on her sword again, but it was just Hadrian approaching, two Acome women at his side. The women were petite, their stones small but glowing a brilliant royal blue.
“Dammit as in, you forget to buy us anything?” Hadrian asked.
“Oh, no food.” As she moved to reveal the bag, she did her best to smile at the two women, then nodded. “Hi, I’m Sam.”
