by Maia Starr
"Thanks,” I said stuffing them into a zippered pocket and closing it back up. I had heard of the alien currency called magenta, but had never actually seen or touched it. It was thrilling to me.
"We're entering the airspace. Rick wants us on the flight deck and strapped into our seats,” he said to me. As soon as he said it, I ran over to the window and looked out. We were very close to other aircraft, but there was no hostility. I expected to see ships firing at each other and we would have to dodge blaster fire. But it was nothing like that. It was just like watching sailboats out in the marina waiting for their turn to come into port. The planet of the Riolb took up all the space in the window. Now at this range, I could see the land masses and the water elements; it was beautiful. I sighed as I looked at it.
"Let's go,” Eniv said to me. He was right: I couldn't stay here staring out the window. I could do that from the flight deck and I should follow the pilot’s orders. Our lives were in his hands at this moment. A few seconds later, we were all strapped into our seats and Eniv was on the communication wire telling someone on the other line a series of numbers and letters.
"This is Commander Handor of the Special Intergalactic Forces calling Base Master Courvelle,” he said.
"Commander Handor, you're all set. Please verify your code,” the voice said.
"Code BV18F," Eniv said.
"Code is cleared. Coordinates are sent to you now. This is your landing point. You are clear for safe passage,” the voice said. We all looked at each other and smiled. We watched as aircraft around us seemed to let us through. It was some sort of blockade. I was grateful. Soon we were entering the atmosphere quickly, with bright red King Jarith Rykor and yellow burning around us until we slowed and were flying over the land mass and with a large populated city coming into view. My mouth fell open as my eyes focused on what I saw.
"There, you see that hill over there, Melinda?” Eniv pointed.
"Yes, that is the Temple of Star. Our meeting point,” I said to him. He nodded his head.
"Coming in for landing,” Rick said as he looked at Richard. Richard nodded in agreement. As I looked over the city, there were very tall spires that reminded me of temples in India, but these spires went hundreds of feet into the sky, like skyscrapers in New York. They were massive and beautiful. Below, the city sprawled out and there were many markets and booths. It was very crowded and crawling with all sorts of alien species. I could see a few Drackon in the air as they flew in dragon form. It took my breath away to see such unusual sights. “It is all so beautiful… enchanting,” I said under my breath.
"Yes, and very dangerous. You are armed and geared up, yes?” Eniv asked me.
I nodded yes to him and swallowed hard as he reminded me that we were entering a hostile territory. The Simeon landed in a cleared-out landing port that looked very run down.
"As soon as she is settled in, turn off the engine and open the gate. Ships that linger without opening up and unloading quickly look suspicious, and before we know it there will be many blasters aimed at us,” Eniv said to Rick. Rick nodded yes and as soon as the Simeon's feet were touching the ground, he did as instructed. Eniv and I immediately unbuckled our seats and were at the gate, waiting for the ship to open. We hopped off immediately.
"Commander Handor! My old comrade! It is good to see you,” an old Drackon said as he walked toward the ship. Eniv smiled and held out his arm. “Kolstin, it is good to see you, old friend.”
The Drackon called Kolstin looked at me up-and-down and smiled at Eniv and said, “I can see you have been very busy with your time.”
"Kolstin, this is Detective Katiama. Detective Katiama, this is Kolstin, a very trusted friend,. Our ship is safe here?” Eniv said to Kolstin.
"Yes, you are well protected here, my friend. Will the ship be left unattended? How can I help you old friend?” he said.
"No, two humans will stay on the ship. Detective Katiama and I are into the city.”
"Excellent, then I do not need to put warriors on your ship. Now what else do you need?”
"Radio communicators for Detective Katiama and I to communicate on a low-frequency not easily picked up,” Eniv said to him.
"I do not have any available that are not being used, but I can send you to another place where you can purchase what you need,” Kolstin said to him.
"Thank you, we need to head out right away,” Eniv said.
"Of course, I would not expect any lingering from Commander Handor. Always on his feet, always on a mission, and always successful. You are in good hands, human female,” Kolstin said to me with a wink.
Moments later, we were walking through the very crowded market streets. I tried not to look like a fish out of water even though I wanted to walk around with my mouth wide-open, taking in all the visuals and stimuli. The smells of the market and he sounds of various alien dialects been spoken. It was overwhelming and exciting.
"Stay close to me," Eniv whispered in my ear as we walked down the alley and to a small booth.
"A.P.468, two of them,” Eniv said to an alien man behind the counter. The alien man said something to him in a language I did not understand, and Eniv responded to him in the same language. The alien turned around and then put two small radios on the counter. Eniv paid him with two magenta coins. The alien man looked at me and then said something to Eniv that I did not understand.
Eniv looked at me and I could tell that he was thinking and processing. He turned to the alien man and responded to him. The alien man continued to speak to him and was pointing down the alleyway as though he was giving him directions. He seemed to nod a goodbye to the man and then he grabbed my arm forcefully and led me out of the booth saying something to me in the alien language. “Hey, watch it. What are you doing?” I said to Eniv.
"Play along, act like a captive slave,” he said to me quickly. I did not ask any questions and I knew that he was onto something, so I became completely submissive and allowed him to lead me away, even looking a bit frightened of Eniv as I went along. He led me in the direction that the alien had pointed out. When we finally rounded a corner, he let go of my arm. “Here, put this in your ear. It's the radio, and I have set your frequency.”
I grabbed it and put it in my ear and said, “What was that all about? What did he say?"
“He looked at you and then asked me if I was going to sell you in the auction with the other human females.”
I gasped and said, “Katie…”
"Possibly. I played along with him and said that yes, I was in the market to sell you, but that I wanted someone else to handle the selling process for me in order to protect my identity. He said that down this way, I will find a Drackon known as Houston. He said Houston handles many auctions of human females and the auction is tomorrow at the Isle of Mog. I thanked him and then grabbed you as though you were my captive."
"Good. Where the hell is this Houston? Let's bust him, let's find the girls," I said, ready to get started.
"Not so fast; we can't just bust in on a crime boss and expect to get out alive. We need to gather intel and then make decisions. We do this my way, remember?” he said to me.
"Yes, I remember. So what now?” I said to him.
"We go to the Isle of Mog area of the city and scope it out. See what we can find. I doubt that the girls will be there, but they should be close by. A crime boss would not risk having to take them very far when auction day is tomorrow; too many could steal them away," he said.
"Lead the way,” I said to him.
He looked at me and said, “No, you will walk in front of me and I will walk behind you; I will guide you in your ear. This way I can keep my eyes on you.”
"All right, I'm ready. Which way?” I said to him.
"Straight ahead to the end of the alley and go right,” he said. I started walking and soon we were in the area known as the Isle of Mog. It wasn't exactly an island, but it was a clearing in the marketplace. There was a platform on the one side, which I assume is where a
uctions were held. There were many shady characters around and I was shocked to see that a few of them were human males. Eniv grabbed me by the arm in a show of dominance over me. Even though it pissed me off beyond belief, I knew he was doing it so that everyone knew I belong to him and would not think I was on my own, an invitation to be stolen. Shady eyes looked at me and at Eniv.
"Come this way, slave,” he said to me as he dragged me off toward a building. “We've got to fit in and I know just the place, perfect for overhearing conversations and for fitting in."
We ducked under ribbons of drapery and into a watering hole. Many different alien creatures were sitting around drinking. Eniv walked in like a regular and ordered two drinks from the bar while I played the obedient slave. I carried both of our drinks to a table and we sat down. “This is embarrassing,” I whispered to him.
He grinned a big smile and said, “I'm kind of enjoying it. But it is for the mission, remember that.”
"Well just don't get too used to it. I'm your partner, not your slave,” I said to him.
He laughed a little and then said, “Just sit and listen.”
"I would, but most of them are not speaking my language,” I said to him.
"That is true. If you want to be useful, you can give me a back massage,” he said playfully while looking around.
"Very funny," I whispered to him. We sat there for twenty minutes and he drank both of the drinks, as he would not let me touch it.
"This stuff is ten times stronger than anything on Earth and I already know you can't hold your drink, so don't touch it,” he had said to me. It played well with the slave and master cover up that we had going on.
Then I noticed a change in the way he was sitting. He was leaning back a little. He was listening to the Drackon warriors that were sitting behind him. They were not speaking English, so I could not understand. But I could tell by Eniv’s reaction that they must have been saying something about the auction or the human females. I noticed that one was eyeing me. I lowered my eyes to the table, not wanting to give an invitation to steal me away from Eniv. Although, if they were the Drackon involved in stealing human females, it would be an easy way to find Katie and the other women. Soon they got up and left their table. I looked at Eniv and he nodded to me.
"We have to wait here a while," he whispered to me.
"We should follow them,” I said to him.
His eyes widened and he looked at me and said, “Did you understand what they were saying?”
"No, but by the look on your face, I could tell they were supplying useful information. And the way they were looking at me let me know they were interested in human females.”
"That's good, Detective, but if you would've understood what they were saying, you would know that they were on their way to join 10 more warriors. We are not a match for them. Their information was useful, but we are not going to follow them. We are going to go back to the ship,” he said to me.
"What? Why?” I said loudly. Everyone around us turned and looked at us and I remembered that I was supposed to be an obedient slave. Eniv was quick to react and pounded his hand on the table and shouted in his own Drackon language. He grabbed my arm hard and dragged me out of the watering hole. I was pissed off but I knew that I had done this myself by not keeping in character like I was supposed to.
"Sorry, shit,” I said to him.
"We're going back to the ship before you blow our cover,” he said angrily. He didn't say another word as he marched, dragging me through the crowded markets and alleys. Finally, we were secure aboard the ship.
"All right, you can let me go, you jerk,” I said to him.
"You deserve more than that for punishment. You deserve a spanking,” he said to me angrily.
"Oh shut up. Are you going to tell me what those Drackon said or not? I am more useful with information than you are,” I said, spitting the words at him.
"They mentioned the word Houston, and they mentioned females to be auctioned off tomorrow in the morning at the Isle of Mog. But it was not exactly this that interested me as much as the fact that they did not just say Houston, they said Mr. Houston."
My mouth fell open, “Houston is a human!”
"Yes, it seems so. Drackon do not use Mr. and Mrs. the way that humans do. Houston is a human male.”
"It is familiar to me,” I said as I walked back-and-forth.
"Is it done? Did you rescue them? Are we leaving?" the pilot said as he came into the common room.
"No, but it will happen tomorrow, and the ship must be ready to depart as soon as we have them. It's going to be a quick and harrowing escape into space. Then we will hope that we are not followed,” Eniv said.
"Great, sounds easy as pie," Rick said sarcastically and then said, “I'll go tell Richard to get his medic bag ready. Sounds like we're going to need a couple of Band-Aids.” Then he walked out.
I stopped in my tracks as I remembered something, “John Houston!"
He was a special agent in I.S.F.A. five years ago. He was reported missing in action after a space mission. Never to be heard of again. He was very close with Captain Smith before Captain Smith became a captain. “Holy shit. It's Captain Smith, he's the inside rat inside the department!” I said to him.
"Fuck, we really are on our own here. I didn't expect the betrayal to be so high up in the department. Fuck, we really have to go about this right. This is a very dangerous situation; this John Houston has Drackon warriors working for him. I can take on two, maybe three by myself, but it sounds like he has ten or more working under him. They are obviously rogues that have disobeyed the king and have made themselves warriors for hire,” Eniv said.
"So what's the plan? We have to find out where they are keeping Katie and the others and take them before the auction.”
"That is a great plan, but in such a dense city, we have no way of knowing where they are. They are not going to willingly lead us to them without figuring out that we are following them,” he said.
"You have a point there. So what do we do?” I asked him.
"We wait for the auction. We can try to outbid anyone that bids on the women and buy back their freedom, but it is risky. If anyone finds out who I am, then they will know that it is a set up.”
"Or, tomorrow during the auction we can steal the women away before they go on the auction block. I am sure they must parade the women in some form so that the goods can be inspected. They will be in the area of the auction I can guarantee you that is when we take them. We will have to do it quick and the Simeon will have to be hovering very nearby."
"Good, that is a good plan. I think we should use both of these plans. First, we will use your plan and try to see if there is a way to steal them away before they go on the auction block. If we cannot get to them, then we will do my plan and try to bid on them," Eniv said.
"So we had to plans now. What if neither of them work?” I asked him.
"Then we will follow whoever buys the women and try to get them from those buyers; hopefully they will not be separated too far apart. I will rescue my bride, I will not to fail her,” he said as he walked out of the common room.
Hearing him say that jolted me. I almost forgot that it was his bride and that he was promised to another. And all the excitement and getting caught up in the details of the mission and figuring out that it was Captain Smith behind all of this, and his partner John Houston, I completely forgot that Eniv was in fact here to rescue his own damsel in distress and he was going to marry her.
What's strange is that he seemed angry about it. I didn't understand why. This was everything that we had worked for. Now that our time was upon us, I made my way to my sleep bunk in order to get some rest because the next day was going to be crazy and chaotic.
But in the middle of the night, I could not sleep. I was too wired, I was too nervous and filled with adrenaline about the mission the next day. So much could go wrong, we could get killed, we could get everyone killed. It was such a public mission in th
e middle of a market and there would be nowhere to hide. It wasn't the stealthiest of missions. I got up from my sleep bunk and went to the common room in order to get some water.
"What are you doing awake? You should be resting as much as you can,” Eniv said, startling me as he sat in the dark of the common room.
"Shit, you scared me. I didn't see you sitting there. What are you doing up?” I asked as I walked over to him.
"If I told you, you would not believe me. You would not believe me because I have been such an ass to you, it wouldn't make sense,” he said to me. What the hell was he talking about? Was he sleepwalking? Could Drackon sleepwalk? It didn't seem likely.
I stood beside him and said, “Eniv, what are you talking about? You're not making any sense right now,” I said to him, putting my hand on his shoulder. He put his hand on top of mine and looked up at me. His light-gray eyes seemed heavy with guilt, even in the darkness of the room.
