Rogue Sign

by Elin Wyn

  Not that I could blame them.

  I wasn’t sure what had happened to them, but I could imagine. They were away from home, they were surrounded by people that called them names and treated them like cargo.

  I wouldn’t be happy either, if our roles were switched.

  A slow burn worked its way through my gut.

  Something needed to be done.

  Aryn

  “You’re the expert on crime syndicates. Why did Skud put them down here with us?” Kovor sauntered over to me, eyes focused on thoughts far away.

  Of all the questions I expected him to ask, that wasn’t one of them. He looked as uncomfortable as our involuntary guests must have felt. I guess he wasn’t used to women glaring at him.

  Other than me, that was.

  “Another test,” I replied, thinking out loud. “I suspect he wants to see if we have the stomach for this.”

  “It makes me wonder what the traditional initiations are like,” Kovor mused.

  “Probably a series of small shakedowns. Maybe a few pickpocketing jobs,” I shrugged absentmindedly.

  “I would’ve been even more useless at that than I am at this,” Kovor tried to joke, but with the women hiding in the corner, even his usual grin was absent.

  “You’re not useless,” I said before I could stop myself. “If you were useless, we’d be dead by now.”

  “I feel useless. Look at them,” Kovor gestured to the trio of cowering women. One of them bared her teeth at him. They were sharp, like a shark’s. “There’s nothing I can do for them.”

  “That’s not true,” I assured him. “There’s just nothing you can do in this exact moment. That doesn’t mean you can’t help ever.”

  “I suppose,” Kovor nodded. “Maybe you should talk to them?”

  “Me?” The idea made me take a step away from him.

  He tilted his head and offered me a sad smile. “Why do you do that?” he asked.

  Even in this low light, he looked like a golden monument. His coloring wasn’t as saturated as Captain Dejar’s. Kovor looked like real gold, not the fake stuff street peddlers hawked at me when I was a kid.

  “Do what?” I demanded.

  “You step away when I say certain things,” he explained. “I’m not exactly sure what I do that makes you step away, but you do it a lot.”

  “Maybe I have issues with personal space,” I shrugged.

  “You definitely have issues,” Kovor laughed as I scowled. “That’s why I think you should go talk to them. Plus, I’m a male and they look like they’ve had enough of males invading their space.”

  “That’s very astute of you.” I couldn’t tell if I was joking or not.

  “Isn’t it?” Kovor grinned like he was doing it just to annoy me.

  I rolled my eyes even as I smiled. One thing was certain, someone needed to talk to the strange women. I took a deep breath and slowly approached them.

  They eyed me with distrust. Their eyes were three times the size of my own, giving them a doll-like appearance.

  “Can you understand me?” I asked slowly, crossing my fingers for just a bit of luck. Their eyes flickered to my mouth in unison, then back up to my face, but they remained silent.

  “If you can understand me, I want to help you,” I tried again. “I want to help you escape.” Their expressions brightened. They knew that word. They understood me.

  “They fitted us with translators after they captured us,” the middle one hissed. Her voice sounded like a whispering river, silky and fluid. I had to listen carefully if I wanted to piece together her meaning.

  “We want to help you,” I repeated.

  “Why should we trust you?”

  “My friend and I have saved women like you before,” I told her. “We helped them get back to their homeworlds.”

  “You expect me to believe you without proof?”

  “Why would I risk incrimination by telling you?” I asked.

  The trio considered me. Their movements were synced, almost like they shared a brain. Maybe they were.

  If my experience in Dominion space was anything to go by, if I could imagine it, there was an alien species that did it.

  “To lure us into ease,” the one on the left replied. She pronounced every letter of ‘ease’. It took me a moment before I understood her meaning.

  “I don’t want to lure you,” I insisted. “I genuinely want to put you at ease.”

  “We see no reason to trust you,” the middle one lifted her chin in defiance.

  “Kovor!” I whispered over my shoulder. He started over in our direction, but the three women hissed and backed farther into the corner.

  Kovor stopped moving immediately. I lifted my hands, palms turned outward, hoping the trio understood the peaceful gesture. They kept their pointed teeth bared but didn’t lunge or attack. I backed away from them until I was beside Kovor.

  “I need to show them my true skin,” I murmured to him. Hopefully, the silvery women didn’t have super hearing.

  “That’s too risky,” Kovor insisted in a harsh whisper. “They could have cameras in this room. It could be bugged.”

  “They aren’t going to trust me unless they realize I have something to lose,” I replied.

  “We’ll be at their mercy.”

  “They’ve been at someone else’s mercy for who knows how long,” I reminded him. “It’s about time they have the upper hand.”

  Kovor pressed his fingertips into the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath. “I appreciate the sentiment of your words, but your logic is deeply flawed.”

  “Are you asking me not to say anything?” I asked.

  Kovor was silent for a moment, pondering. “No,” he said. “They deserve to know they’re among friends. I just don’t like this. You’re even more at risk.”

  Sweet, and made something in my chest flutter, but not helpful right now. “Can you search to see if there are any cameras?” I asked him. “I don’t want to do something stupid if Skud is watching.”

  Kovor nodded and for the next twenty minutes, we scoured the room. “This room is so old that it couldn’t support any hidden wiring,” Kovor finally declared. “There are no cameras or other recording devices.”

  “What about listening devices?” I asked.

  Kovor shook his head.

  “The translators would render them useless. When you deal with multiple species, listening devices no longer have the same level of impact. Unless it was Shein spying on Shein, it doesn’t always work for listening devices,” he said.

  Huh. I’d need to think about that, get Maris or someone to explain for me exactly how that worked.

  “So, we’re good to go?” I asked him.

  He nodded. “I think so.”

  “I’m glad you think so.” I reached out and gently squeezed his forearm. Before I pulled away, he put his hand over mine.

  A spark ran through me, bringing up thoughts I shouldn’t have, couldn’t, didn’t have time for.

  Not now, not ever.

  I squeezed back, then slipped my hand out from beneath his and walked back to the silvery women. Their white hair hung like ice sheets down their backs and over their shoulders. If I touched them, I bet they’d be cold.

  “I’m going to show you something,” I told them. “But before I do, I need you to understand that I’m putting my life and the life of my friend in your hands.” They looked at me with interest. I pulled up my shirt, showing the patch of pale, human skin, outlined in the glittering dye.

  The women gasped at the sight, one reaching out to trace the bare skin with thin fingers.

  I was right. They were cold.

  “I’m from what they call a non-evolved world,” I told them. “I ended up here by accident, along with other women of my species. The Dominion have been hunting us ever since.”

  The middle one curled her lip back when I mentioned the Dominion.

  “Where are you from?” I asked them as I tucked my shirt securely back dow
n, hoping it was enough.

  They exchanged a look. The one in the middle nodded to the two flanking her.

  “We are from a planet called Mermian,” she said. “It is a planet that has become covered entirely in water, our cities spiraling into the sky. After over one hundred years of negotiating, our world was finally accepted into Dominion space.”

  I looked over my shoulder and exchanged a look with Kovor. The women from Mermian fit the pattern.

  “You came to this ship from another ship so dark it blends into space,” I prompted. All of their faces grew hard. “Can you tell me anything about that ship?”

  “No.” The one in the middle said, looking away.

  “I’ve seen it before,” I offered. “It attacked the ship I’ve been living on. Whoever was on it killed three of my species. We still don’t understand why they attacked us.”

  “We cannot help you,” the one on the left said.

  “If you help us, we can keep you safe,” I promised.

  “We are already off that ship. We don’t need your protection from it,” the middle one said.

  “The information you know could save others,” I tried again.

  “Until our safety is assured, we cannot take on responsibility for others,” the one on the right said, face closed.

  My temper snapped but I reeled it in. I understood their reluctance. Pushing them now would only shatter the small amount of trust I’d managed to build.

  “All right.” I backed off. “But rest easy knowing that my friend and I will do everything we can to get you back to your home planet.”

  I stepped away, leaving them to keep their own counsel. Kovor stood at the other end of the room with a reassuring smile.

  For once, I was glad he was there.

  Kovor

  I watched how gentle Aryn was with the women, trying to talk to them, reassure them that we were there to help.

  I wasn’t surprised, though. She had been just as gentle with the women we had rescued on Katzul. The difference this time was that it was just her and me, but none of the other human women around.

  While we didn’t want to, we did our best to clean the women up and to make them look presentable so that Skud didn’t question anything.

  By ‘we,’ I meant Aryn. The women, no matter how much Aryn tried to comfort them, still were afraid of me and backed away or snarled if I came close. It had taken a while just to get them okay with me being within ten feet of them, and that was as close as I dared go for now.

  At first, they were a bit resistant to Aryn’s attempts to clean them up, but they reluctantly agreed when I told them that if they didn’t let us work with them, Skud would punish all of us, badly.

  If we were going to be able to help them, they needed to let us do what Skud ordered.

  By the time she was done, they were cleaned up, wearing nice dresses from the box Skud had shoved at me.

  Aryn had even done their hair and had applied just the right amount of makeup to make them look ‘presentable.’ She kept talking to them, trying to make sure they knew that this was necessary and that we would help them as soon as we had a chance.

  We docked a short time later and took a small transport with darkly tinted windows back to the headquarters. Skud had Laz take the women somewhere else in the compound, while he told us to enjoy the day off. We had done well and deserved free time, as long as we didn’t go far.

  I knew we’d both love to head back to the Rogue Star, check in, clean up, lower our guards just a bit...but it would be foolish to assume we wouldn’t be followed.

  Instead we strolled through the streets, buying a meal from a vendor cart and settling into a small open square.

  Not a park, nothing pretty or clean about it.

  But it wasn’t in that compound, and we’d be able to see if we were shadowed.

  We ate in silence. I spent the time trying to come up with some ideas on how to get the women out, how to get more information, and how to get ourselves out.

  Every idea involved us being quiet, sneaky, and covert. All of my ideas also reminded me of how Aryn worked, how she was good at deceiving people, how she knew how criminal organizations worked, and how she was really good at being sneaky.

  “Aryn?”

  She looked over to me from her spot on the bench. “Hmm?”

  “I was wondering something,” I started. “I was a little curious about how you ended up being so good at the…” I searched for a way to say it.

  “How I’m good at the criminal aspect of things?” she finished for me, amusement sparkling in her eyes.

  I nodded. “Yes. I mean, I’ve been involved in some less than legal activities in my time, but you seem to make it all look like second nature. I was wondering…why?”

  She leaned back against the wall and crossed her legs under her. “It’s a bit of a long story, are you sure you want to hear it?”

  “Please,” I responded.

  She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Tell you what, you tell me your story, then I’ll tell you mine. Deal?”

  “Why won’t you just tell me?” I asked her.

  She shrugged. “If you don’t want to know, then why did you ask?”

  I was taken aback by that statement. “I do want to know. That’s precisely why I asked,” I protested.

  She laughed at me. “I’m teasing you, you big weirdo.” She repositioned herself again, getting more comfortable. “I’ll tell you. I just really would like to know why someone like you got involved in a world like this.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” I demanded.

  She tilted her head as she looked at me. “You’re rich, right?”

  “I wouldn’t say that, exactly,” I murmured.

  She smiled. “Then why did you get into all this?”

  I sighed, set aside my food wrapper and scooted back until my back was to the wall. “It’s actually not much of a story, really. I got tired of how my life was, went for a change, and eventually ended up with Dejar and Aavat. That’s really about it.”

  She crossed her arms and hit me with one of those glares I was starting to enjoy. “Don’t give me that crap,” she said. “You can’t give me the abridged version of the story and expect me to tell you mine. I want details. Spill.”

  I rubbed my eyes, sending little explosions of light into my tired brain. “Fine,” I conceded. “And you’ll tell me yours when I’m done, right?”

  She hit me with the most innocent look I’ve ever seen her display. “Promise.”

  “Uh-huh.” I took a deep breath, then started. “I…I grew up in what you would call a very affluent and influential family. Things were done for us, given to us, basically anything we wanted, we got. It was…easy.” I looked up to see her watching me intently.

  “Yeah? And?” she asked.

  “I had anything I wanted—clothes, vehicles, jewelry, tech, girls. Anything I could ask for, it was mine. I actually already owned my own home on the beach by the time of my thirteenth commencement.”

  “What’s a ‘commencement’?”

  I looked at her, puzzled. “It’s the same as you women celebrated shortly after coming on board the ship. It’s the anniversary of one’s birth.”

  “Ohh,” she said with an over-exaggerated expression. “A birthday.”

  I shrugged. “Sure. So, I grew up having everything, but wanting none of it.”

  “Why?”

  “I struggled with my life. There was nothing for me to do. There were great inequalities in the city on Shein I grew up in. So, while I got the best education, the best care, the best everything, others went without basic necessities. I should have been happy, and yet I always felt like something was missing. And as time went on, it became harder to ignore it.” I took a deep breath, let myself remember all the things, all the faces I’d left so long ago.

  Or the ones who’d left me.

  “My friends, if you could call them that, were more interested in making fun of those without
means than they were in trying to make things better for them. At my school, there was a young lady on scholarship. She was brilliant, intelligent beyond belief, but she was incessantly teased and harassed by most people.”

  And this is where it got hard. But Aryn had asked, and she deserved the truth. All of it. I lowered my head and stared at the floor. “I’m ashamed to admit that I teased her as well, even though it made me feel terrible.”

  “Why did you do it, then?” I heard her ask, but it sounded far away.

  The shame came back, just as fresh as before. “I was young. I wanted to fit in with my friends. One day, during a particularly brutal verbal attack, I saw her cry for the first time, so I stepped in and defended her. I lost all of my friends, but I felt good about myself for the first time in a very long time. It wasn’t soon enough. I couldn’t save her. She killed herself that night.” I continued on despite Aryn’s gasp. “It was during a rally before a big game. She walked right out into the middle of the auditorium, took out a blaster, and blew her brains out.”

  “Oh my god.”

  I nodded. “The part that was the worst about the whole thing, some of my so-called friends laughed and applauded. That was when I knew it was time for me to leave. I couldn’t be around people like that anymore. My own family seemed more inconvenienced and annoyed than anything.”

  I stood up and walked around the tiny square a bit. “I needed a change. I needed a new life where…where I could surround myself with people that legitimately cared about something. Even if they still cared mostly about themselves, they could put that selfishness aside for a common goal.”

  “So, why not just travel?” she asked.

  “Actually, I tried that at first, but it wasn’t the same. I was still surrounded by people that ignored the ones at the bottom. That…” I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “And I was already promised to someone.”

  “Oh?” I wasn’t sure if there was disappointment in her voice, but there was an unmistakable note of amused curiosity.

  “My family is of the old line. You were allowed to marry for love, as long as the one you loved was the one they’d picked. I didn’t love my parent’s choice. To be honest,” I said as I looked at her, “I didn’t even like her. She was one of the ones that applauded that poor girl. When I told my parents, they tried to smooth it over by saying she was just young and made a mistake.”