I came to on my back, staring at a ceiling for the five millionth time in my life. This time there was a window with a view of the stars off to my side. My bed wasn’t terribly uncomfortable. Firm and flat. There were edges nearby. I think I was on a table.
Jalad and Dzira’s faces appeared over me, simultaneously relieving and terrifying.
“I had the weirdest dream.” I pointed at Jalad. “You were in it.” Then Dzira. “And you.”
Dzira gazed at me as if I were a sick child. Jalad’s unmoving face was somehow equally concerned.
“There was a toxic level of chemicals in your ship when we opened it. I fear your air supply had become contaminated on or while leaving the planet. We are still trying to identify the chemical compound. The other passengers, however, appear to be unaffected,” Jalad stated matter-of-factly.
Dzira winced.
“My ship?” I asked with alarm.
“He picked up your ship after you passed out,” she said with a tinge of guilt in her voice. “I was able to hold it steady long enough, thanks to your training.”
“What happened?” I asked, trying to sit up. The room spun worse than after a night of cocktails in the Trantor sector of Delta Niner Star Squiggle then going for a joy ride on a stolen bobsled. I decided it was best to remain laying on my back.
“My kind,” Dzira started slowly. “Are highly attracted to heroism. We release a pheromone to attract the brave ones. Apparently the others appreciated your efforts as much as I did.”
Jalad nodded. “If we had been any later, assuming your ship didn’t plummet to the ground, you would have succumbed to poisoning from the level of pheromones in the ship. There is a crew decontaminating it. It looked like a thick layer of pollen.”
“That’s,” Dzira cut him off. “That’s enough. I think he knows now what happened.”
Smiling made my headache worse. I did it anyway with a laugh or maybe something closer to a sob.
“Tell the ladies, I said they’re welcome.”
She put her forehead on mine.
“And that I think I’m unavailable.”
She remained there in silence rubbing my cheek.
The sensation brought awareness of my existence again. Slowly, nerves reactivated. The comfort of her touch. Beneath me, the discomfort of the hard table. A tight feeling lingering on the lower half. I glanced down.
Dzira gave me a pained smile. I think I heard Jalad leave the room.
Long story, short, I was hit with the mega whammy of a few dozen succubae aerosolizing the ye ol’ blue bill by the pound directly into my very confined living quarters of my ship. With Dzira’s help, the ‘discomfort’ was alleviated over the course of two or two ‘four hours or more.’ We had time after all. It’s a long drive through space. There’s only so much you can do and it is extremely important to stay occupied, lest you succumb to the madness of space travel. I’ve become a pro at it over the years. Not to mention, you’d be surprised the level of privacy you can get on a large ship. The more interesting the place, the better. Or maybe they heard the warning sounds from a ways away before encroaching on our area of recreation.
As time went on, we began to plot. Attempted to anyway. Pick a target, any target in the nearest several galaxies, chances are it was in some way a part of Zalud Enterprises. Problem was, to what extent were they corrupt? Among thousands of entities under his control, many of them were likely distal to his direct involvement. Ordinary shmoes running a legitimate business, paying franchise fees to Zedmeister.
The ship’s access to information was too much and not enough. It was plugged into a larger system. That’s how I found the Frog Planet. That’s how they found me. That was also mostly a lucky guess. It just so happened the first stop unloaded some Dziras. Since then there were a number of other jumps and stops the ship made.
I can’t explain it, but at times I get this tingling sensation in my brain. Not a real one. That would be concerning. That voice, of sorts. Often, it comes as a curiosity. Couldn’t tell you how many times a misadventure began with, “I wonder what’s over here.” For better or worse, I always follow that feeling. Something about skinning curious cats.
Consulting the captain of the ship, Jalad assured me that the crew thoroughly defunked my ship and that it was safe to enter it. I wasn’t sure what I would find there. Something was telling me I needed to be on my ship. Perhaps I missed my own space, the place I call home. It might be hard to believe, but I have always been the sort to not stay in one place for very long. The closest I have come to settling down and putting down roots has been on my ship. Funny, really. The home that is always with me. The one constant I have had to rely on, even if that home is in its second incarnation after the ill begotten fate of its predecessor. Rest in peace, SS Danger. We had some good times.
All systems were running normally. There was a subtle smell of cleaning products. Many surfaces were a lot shinier than I ever knew they could be. All in all, I’d say the results of the last mission were all round, win win.
The radio faintly hissed a sign of dead air. There was light I seldom see on the displays.
I had a voicemail. Yuck. Not to say I can’t be bothered. I just don’t like to be bothered.
“Funkytown,” came Wade’s voice. “I say again, funkytown.”
Ah, hell.
“Heavy is the dick with a crown, as you say.”
That’s definitely not the code I was expecting to here. I knew it, just never thought it was come into play.
“They know now.” I heard speaking in the background. It was getting louder, as if someone turned up a radio. Faint, subtle, and rather ingenious of him.
The broadcast said something to the effect of:
“…suspected terrorist attack disrupting raw materials production on two planets. Investigators are on their way to interrogate suspected coconspirators on the planets…”
“Stroke ‘em if you got ‘em,” Wade finished. The recording ended.
According to the ship’s internal clocks, the message was received roughly in the last day. Temporal distortions aside and the time it takes radio waves to reach a specific destination, I would say it didn’t take too long after the second upheaval on Zalud property, within a few days, for him to put two and two together.
I started shutting things down and accidently turned on the internal vents. ‘Pollen’ started pouring out of the vents.
“Oh, no! Not right now!”
Shutting off the air, I turned everything else off and took off towards the bridge.
“What’s wrong?” I heard Dzira call as I was shoving ship crewmembers out of the way.
“Follow me. We have a whole lot of problems.”
Barging into the bridge, I was met with a whole lot of stares. Most concerned of whom was Jalad. I doubt if anyone who didn’t know him looked at his face wouldn’t be able to tell. Strange how when you get to know people you can gather so much from so little. Not the time to contemplate becoming a people person though. I could just be projecting.
Dzira arrived silently, breathing long, deep breaths.
“The gig is up,” I said emphatically. “Zalud knows what’s happened. My contact is in trouble.” I turned to Dzira. “And I think your people are too.”
Her face went a shade paler.
“How do you know?” the two asked frantically over one another.
“There was a message on my ship.”
“Can you be certain of the message?” Jalad asked gravely. “It could be a trap.”
“I know there’s a trap,” I shot back. “There’s always a trap. However… I don’t take kindly to threats. They need to be addressed one way or another.”
“What do you know?” Dzira asked urgently.
“There are broadcasts where I operate linking the two planets we messed up. My colleague is most likely already in the custody of Zalud’s forces. The broadcast was also a threat towards you,” I nodded to Dzira. “I don’t know that they’ll do, but all considered we can assume it’s not going to be a tea party.”
“But they have nothing to do with this,” Dzira nearly cried.
“That’s not the point,” I tried to say as calmly as possible to her. “It’s a squeeze. He’s covering all the bases. As much as an asshole as this guy is, I never suspected him of being anything less than cunning, if not conniving. Not any nitwit gets to the position he’s in without something rattling around upstairs. A bunch of your people were freed. Where are they likely to go?”
Dzira looked like she was going to be sick.
“At the same time,” I continued, “he goes after the closest thing to ‘my people’ I have. That presents a dilemma for me right?”
They both nodded.
“We’re not exactly on a little scupper here. Did your crew deactivate any types of tracking systems that may be on the ship?”
“As best we could,” Jalad said.
“Safe to assume he has a general idea where we are,” Dzira added.
I nodded agreement.
“Which trap will you address first? Your planet or hers?” Jalad asked turning to the mapping systems.
“Neither.”
“What?” they both gasped.
“But my people are going to be in trouble,” Dzira pleaded.
“That’s not what I mean. I’m going to the Empire.”
“What?” they gasped again.
“It’s the one place they probably won’t expect me to go. I will still assume that that is a trap as well, though.”
“Is it wise,” Jalad interjected, “that we all show up on a suspect Zalud Enterprises ship at the Empire’s center.”
“We won’t.”
Dzira rubbed her temples, squinting.
“I am going to the Empire. You two need to draw away his forces from her planet.”
Light seemed to dawn on them, not entirely erasing their looks of concern.
“They’re looking for terrorists, right?”
They nodded.
“Intercept their course. Do something terrorist like. Zalud knows what my deal really is, but his cronies will only know to look for a mad bomber and eliminate him. They just follow the orders. They aren’t privy to the real information. It’ll draw them away from her planet, thinking we are there. Meanwhile, I’ll be doing what they originally accused me of.”
Skeptical looks.
“I’ll kill the King for real.”
An ass ton of planning and calculating later, we had a point of divergence. We needed to get this ship close to Dzira’s planet, while also being somewhere I could get my ship to the capital. Preferably discretely. That involved some serious map work. Maps on a planet are relatively simple. They’re effectively two dimensional. North or south, east and west. Space has a lot more dimensions than that. I’m not just talking up and down. There’s in, out, around through. Gaps. Time lapses. Gravity bends. All things inter and intradimensional. Not to mention, extradimensional and nondimensional. Wormholes. Black holes. White holes. And a whole lot of assholes. It took quite a few of the creepy creatures of the crew to crunch the numbers to find our Goldilocks.
There was a lot of pacing and tension along the way for everyone, myself included. Anticipation is not one of my favorite pastimes. That is not the same as waiting. Waiting I can do standing on my head, preferably in a zero g environment for obvious reasons. I’ve spent my whole life waiting. Flipping a coin in the air, however, it can be a long painful process of what will be revealed once it’s smacked on the back of your hand. I’m better at dangerous situations than anticipating.
We were nearly there, so Dzira and I went to spend some quality time before we parted. It was bitter sweet, but for not for the reason you’d think.
Laying there for a while, not saying anything at all, we contemplated that longing that would occur once we were apart. This was not par for the course for me if you haven’t noticed. By ‘I don’t do goodbyes,’ I mean I generally don’t even say goodbye before I’m gone. Life takes me too fast for that, more often than not. Call me flighty.
She looked up at me with more than a sad look in her eyes. Guilt, maybe. I’ve seen the look enough times to know it’s usually not good. At least that’s what my stomach was telling me.
“I need to tell you something.”
And there it is. I tried my best not to look unnerved by the statement. What she said could very well mean something entirely different where she comes from. I somehow doubted that though. A few hundred different lifeforms have turned out to be not all that different from one another.
She looked down, away from my eyes, fidgeting her fingers. Totally not a universal behavior.
“My kind,” she started after a very long pause.
See what I mean about anticipation? Here comes the drop. My heart and brain or whatever organs are responsible were doing a lot of the usual anxiety back flips.
“Mate for life.”
I hope I wasn’t visibly twitching at that point. It was not what I was expecting to hear. Aforementioned organs started tripping over each other to process that last bit. Is that relief I feel? Not fear of commitment?
“But…”
I wasn’t going to have to worry about Zalud killing me, or me killing me. It was this conversation that was going to induce a heart attack. Myocardial infarction here I come.
“I’m betrothed to someone back home.”
There was a long, pronounced sound of tires screeching. Doubting there were any cars locking their breaks in space, I assumed it was in my mind.
“You’re married?” I heard myself say.
She looked up at me biting her lip.
“It’s not that simple.”
“I am not unused to being a complication.”
Complicated was my middle name.
“Complicated is a fitting word.” She looked up at me quickly. “Not you, per se. A process happens that connects us. Our betrothed.”
The intercom came to life.
“We are near the point of departure,” croaked Jalad through the speaker.
Wonderful timing, J. Wonderful timing. Not his fault. Fate is a fickle fiend.
Becoming aware that I was shaking – not sure if it was shock, or rage, or what – I sat up to prepare to leave. As I stood up her hand slipped down my arm, taking mine. She held it firmly.
“Are you there?” came Jalad again.
“Yeah, I’m coming,” I barked more aggressively than I intended.
“But that didn’t happen for us,” I heard her say. She sounded miserable. “I did as the rest of our people do. We’re paired. After a period of time, the exchange of chemicals causes an imprint. Then life continues and multiplies.”
Everything was still shaking slightly, but I looked at her. Those dark, nearly black slate colored eyes stared at me with tears like I was dying and she was saying her last goodbyes.
I sat back down on the bed.
“So, what are you telling me?”
“I don’t know,” she responded shakily. “The truth. I…” She sighed deeply then put her face in her hands. “I don’t know what to do.”
“But what about the…” I started to ask.
She looked at me again with pleading, guilty eyes.
“Oh.”
She laughed. I giggled.
“How often does that happen with someone outside your species?”
She opened her mouth, eyes searching for an answer.
“I honestly don’t know,” she finally said. “Not that I ever really considered it. But I wouldn’t have thought it possible. Who knew?”
For another few minutes we sat silently wrapped around each other.
“Complicated,” I contemplated. “Story of my life.”