15. Human Trash
Human Trash
Krir aimed his weapon and fired. The lead Giuk fell, pink blood spattering his compatriots. They rushed by the felled leader, raising their prods. Krir shot again, winging a guard in the shoulder, but then the guards were upon them.
Nicole jabbed her prod at the closest alien and pressed the button. He collapsed, leaving four, though one favored an arm from the earlier wound.
Krir grabbed Nicole’s arm and dragged her down the hall, past the open door to the humans’ cell. If they kept the guards’ attention, the humans might be able to run the other way. Where they’d go, he had no idea, but out of the cell was a solid first step.
The guards followed, slower now they’d been wounded. They stepped over the Giuk Krir and Nicole had taken out earlier, who now stirred. But their focus was on the two of them.
“Why are you helping the human trash, Commander?” one asked.
Krir didn’t answer. He was unsure if sustaining the subterfuge would be helpful, but until he was forced to reveal his true identity, he wouldn’t. It was always best to have a surprise move in reserve.
The guards stalked down the hall, ignoring the open door as they passed.
“What do we do?” Nicole muttered as they neared the end of the hall.
“Prepare to run.” Krir raised his weapon again.
Before he could shoot the next Giuk, a human man ran out of the cell and zeroed in on a guard slowly regaining consciousness. He grabbed the prod from the guard and kicked him in the head with a loud crunch. The man surged toward the backs of the oncoming guards.
He wasn’t alone. First a woman, who scrambled for the other weapon at the far end of the hall. The rest poured out. At least ten ran screaming at the guards. The felled guards were pulled into the cell and the sounds of fists and feet hitting flesh joined the chaos.
A Giuk turned around, waving his prod. He shocked one of the leaders but was quickly overwhelmed by five angry, kicking humans.
Nicole grinned fiercely and charged at the closest guard, who was distracted by the commotion. She rammed his chest with the prod and pushed the button an instant before the other humans swarmed the remaining guards.
It was over in a moment, with five guards unconscious or dead at their feet and one more in a similar state down the hall. A cheer went up among the humans.
“Grab their weapons!” Nicole shouted.
One by one, the Giuk were stripped of their weapons, including the prods, some clubs, and a few knives. The humans clenched the weapons in their fists.
“We should clear the hall,” Krir said.
Nicole directed the humans to drag the Giuk into the cell, joining the original two, who looked worse for wear. Krir locked them in and used his weapon to destroy the panel. They wouldn’t be escaping anytime soon.
“We done here?”
Krir recognized the voice as the one-eyed man who had questioned if he was on their side. Perhaps killing a couple of their captors had finally convinced him.
“Yes,” Nicole answered for them both.
“Then to the farms.” He waved his prod over his head and jogged through the corridor. The others followed, and Krir and Nicole guarded the rear.
“Farms?” Krir asked.
“They’re growing something in hydroponics tanks. No idea what.”
Considering they were using slave labor, nothing legal.
The human in the lead stopped at a door most of the way down, brandishing his prod again.
“Get ready, take any weapon you find. Those who already have weapons, to the front, especially you, not-a-Giuk.” He waved his arm in a come-here motion. “We’re going in hot and having you in front might be the difference between getting shot and not.”
Krir and Nicole pushed through the crowd. He didn’t like it. He wanted Nicole safe, not at the forefront. But what the man proposed made sense, and Nicole had known going in this wouldn’t be safe. She still chose to come, and he chose to come with. At least they’d be together.
“You serve?” Nicole asked.
“Yeah, what gave it away?” The man snorted again, but the animosity from before was gone. Hope shone in his eye instead. “Now, how do we open this goddamn door?”
Krir found the right symbol and looked at the man who’d taken charge. He nodded. All these days with Nicole told him the gesture meant yes. He pressed the panel and the door slid open.
The other Giuk straightened as Krir walked in.
Tanks with small silvery fish held drooping vines with bright red flowers, the air ripe with a strange rotten stench.
Itel vines! No wonder the Yindir had stolen labor.
It was illegal to cultivate itel since the flowers were poisonous to most beings, and the pods could produce a highly addictive drug when processed correctly. Otherwise, they too were toxic.
He strode to the middle, all attention on him.
“Go, go, go!”
The leader of the humans rushed in, and Krir drew his weapon. He shot the closest Giuk, but there were too many humans to use his firearm again.
“It’s a prison break!” Nicole shouted and stuck a Giuk with her prod. “Hit ’em in the temples if you can.”
Another guard raced toward her. Krir tripped him and three humans jumped on him, punching and kicking.
The humans outnumbered the Giuk by at least four to one, and mayhem ruled.
The workers had dropped their burdens and collected anything resembling a weapon.
Pipes and trellises and poles with nets on the end.
Soon enough, the forty humans surrounded a cluster of five guards, who waved their prods wildly.
“Stop,” Krir said in Giukan. He had a translator, they did not. At least, he didn’t think so.
“What’s the meaning of this, Commander?” one asked.
“Stop.” He didn’t know the words for “drop your weapons” or “surrender.”
They lowered their weapons. The humans snatched them away and pointed them at their captors.
“Sit,” Krir ordered, his voice booming. They sat.
“Tie them up,” said the human in charge. He needed to learn the man’s name.
A few scattered around, looking for ropes. Some tugged on the vines.
“Be careful! Those are poisonous.” Krir rushed toward a human who had yanked one free, but they cowered from him.
“It’s okay.” Nicole hurried over. “He’s with us. He’s saying those are poisonous.”
The human’s gaze darted between them, shaking their head.
“Do you speak English?” Nicole crouched close.
Again, a shake of the head and a string of syllables the translator couldn’t decipher.
“Krir, are they only poisonous when eaten?” Nicole asked.
“Yes.”
“We’ll let it go for now, see if we can find someone to translate.”
“How many languages do humans have?”
Nicole shrugged. “Hundreds at least.”
“Hundreds?! How do you ever accomplish anything?”
“Another time, Mr. Geologist. We have more pressing matters.”
“Dr. Geologist, thank you.”
Nicole was more than right. Krir backed off. She smiled at him, showing her teeth and lighting her luminous brown eyes. By the ancestors, he loved her smile. He loved her. Even though it had merely been ten days, he’d fallen for this brave, kind, lovely human.
The other humans all eyed him warily, much in the way the small mammals had when he’d first landed on Vrul 4. Brooke and the man who’d taken charge during the fight were arguing. Loudly.
“…trust him?” the man said.
“He’s done nothing but help us.” Brooke had her arm around a young man who had her nose and chin, holding him tightly to her side.
They were talking about him. The man glared and several of the humans advanced. He did not like the looks on their faces. Fear, he learned from Nicole. They gripped their weapons and formed a circle around him.
“Hey now, Krir is not your enemy.” Nicole stood between them and Krir, placing herself in harm’s way.
He wanted—needed—out of this skin. Prove to them he wasn’t an enemy.
The Giuk had done horrible things to Nicole, to all of them.
Their fear and anger were understandable, but he did not wish to bear the brunt of it.
Krir pulled out a small cylinder from the pocket of the jumpsuit. The genetic modifier.
“I can prove I am not Giuk.” He showed Nicole what he held.
“What the fuck is he saying?” The man raised his prod.
Nicole held up her hand. “What’s your name?”
“Marcus, but I—”
“Marcus, Krir can prove he’s not Giuk. The device he is holding changed his DNA. It’s why he looks like a Giuk. If we give him a minute, he can change back and you’ll all see.”
Marcus lowered his prod, and Krir injected himself, sucking in a breath at the sting. It was only the beginning, though.
Pain lanced through him as his skin rippled and shifted from brick red to aqua. His muscles shrank. When the pain ceased a few moments later, he ran a hand over his head, glad the soft feathers were where they belonged. He’d felt naked without them.
“Dear ancestors, that hurts.” He shook out his limbs, ecstatic to be back in his own skin. The exobiologists who studied sentient species had to be made of top-grade titanium alloy to do this all the time.
Nicole threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around his chest and holding him close.
His skin was still sensitive this close to the change, but he held in his hiss of pain.
Her touch was worth any amount of discomfort, especially since it had been far too long since he’d held her like this.
Honestly, any amount of time was too long.
Depending on how the next few moments went, he might not have another chance to hold her.
“That was…” Brooke started.
“Gross, man, really gross. But I guess you’ve proven your point.” Marcus held out a hand.
“You’re supposed to shake it,” Nicole said.
Krir returned the gesture, and Marcus grabbed his hand, pumping it a couple times. Weird custom, but there were more important things to worry about.
A low thudding drew his attention to the entrance to the farms. It sounded a lot as if—
The door slid open, and in marched twenty heavily armored Giuk bearing electro-lances and flash rifles, more powerful than his sidearm.
The large male in the lead, taller even than Krir and twice as wide, banged his electro-lance on the deck.
“Put down your weapons and prepare to meet the First Minister of Giuk.”
Hope bloomed like the flowers of the mzol tree after the rainy season. Help had arrived. Either that, or he was in a world of trouble.
Perhaps both.