Maggie
The more I drive the space bike, the more I’m enjoying it and the easier it gets, not that I’m going to admit it to Driok.
Although I do race him for a while, until I decide he’s probably letting me keep up with him, rather than the fact I’m actually winning, so instead I pay more attention to how the craft moves, or rather I concentrate on how it moves, how I can move it, how it becomes almost part of me.
Like I’m flying too.
The buildings we originally saw in the distance are significantly larger now. They rise out of the ash-colored dirt in a selection of dirty cream, terra-cotta, and brown. Large domes seem to dominate, but overall, it doesn’t seem like a space city, more like a medieval one.
Looks like I’m going to have to wait a while before I see my first technological mega city for aliens.
Driok runs his space bike around in a crescent, and I follow his lead as he comes to a halt near a half-destroyed outhouse.
“We’ll put the craft in here,” he says, pulling off his headset and shoving it back into the cubbyhole on the space bike.
“Where are the rest of your crew?”
“They have gone to various strategic stations in the city,” Driok says. “And they’re laying low until I give the order.”
He puts a hand on the front of each of the space bikes and walks them into the tumbledown building. Then he opens the rear container and pulls out his bag of guns and two cloaks, tossing one to me.
“Put this on.”
“Why? I doubt it’s going to disguise what I am…nor is yours going to disguise what you are.”
“The less attention we can draw to ourselves at this time, the better.” Driok wraps himself in the cloak, his dinosaur tail sticking out of the back, waving around.
“Oh yeah, totally convincing and not drawing attention to yourself at all.” I roll my eyes.
Driok stares at me. And he doesn’t blink. It’s unnerving. He cocks his head on one side.
“Fine.” I fling the robe around my shoulders and put the hood up.
“You still look beautiful, my little mate,” Driok rasps. “But at least only I know the beauty beneath the fabric.”
A second compliment. What am I going to do with them all?
“Where to now?” I ask as we leave the ruined building and make our way through a series of passages between other slightly less ruinous buildings.
“We are going to the Overseer of this city. It is supposed to have access to the minerals and the tech I need to put together the trap and the protection this galaxy needs.”
“This place has tech?” I ask, skirting what appears to be a mound of excrement and which also means I’m very grateful for the mask I’m wearing.
“No, Szorn does not have tech, or not much. That’s why I chose it for the handover,” Driok says as we exit through a particularly foul alley and find ourselves in the middle of a thronged thoroughfare.
Stalls are ranged all along one side, their wares mostly in the open, which seems risky, although some have makeshift bubbles around them, the plastic type material looking like it might have once been clear, only now it has taken on a dirty cream hue, and the rips in the plastic have been patched over with anything they could find.
It doesn’t make me want to look inside.
I stick close to Driok as we wind our way through the crowds of varying sized aliens.
Most of them are wearing similar cloaks to us, and many also wear a variety of masks, presumably to filter out the stench.
I’m surprised Driok hasn’t bothered with a mask because Sarkarnii have sensitive noses, but he must have his reasons.
Given the way we’re dressed, no one gives us a second glance as we head towards the largest dome, one which has the green hue of worn copper.
Although given the general state of this planet, it could easily be mold.
“Stay close to me, Maggie,” Driok says out of the corner of his mouth. “I believe we are being followed.”
Presumably by something disguised as a turd, given how many of them I’ve spotted so far. I can’t wait to get off this planet, and I realize I was completely wrong about Vorostor.
It might have been boring, but it wasn’t filled with shit.
However, I slide my hand under my cloak and take hold of the pistol as I sidle closer to Driok, and we enter the green dome.
Inside is as filthy as the outside. If I was expecting a large open, vaulted space, I was completely wrong.
Wherever the dome is, it can’t be seen from the inside.
Instead we move through a series of passages which seem to be following the crescent shape of the building, although occasionally, Driok takes a sharp left or right until I feel like we are completely lost.
“In here.” He shoulders a door which bursts inwards, pulling me with him, before he shuts it.
“If you wanted to get me alone, I think we could have done better than a closet,” I say as the dim light which has flickered on shows multiple sets of racking filled with black containers.
Driok hisses under his breath, his head close to the door. His tail lashes behind him, very nearly knocking against the racking itself. Then he goes completely still.
“Wait here.” He wrenches the door open, slams it shut, and I hear a high-pitched squeal which is suddenly, unpleasantly cut off with a deep gurgle.
I take a step towards the door and hesitate, pulling the pistol from my pocket and getting ready to fire. The door springs open, and I aim.
“My spitfire,” Driok growls. “I’d prefer not to have to grow back a limb, if you don’t mind lowering your weapon.”
He has lost the cloak, and there is a smear of what looks like ink on his chest.
“What happened?”
“I have caught the creature following us. He won’t be doing it again,” Driok says. “Now, we’re running out of time. We have to get to the Overseer.”
He reaches for my hand, and before I know it, I’m stepping over the remains of something which was whole once, bile rising in my throat.
This is no mere whim for Driok. This is serious, and now I’m far more involved than I ever thought I would be.
It is brilliant.