“It’s a simple job, really. The Derxi family took our most prized possession, the Lazzal Family Chronicles. With it missing, my legitimacy is in jeopardy. I had to take refuge in Kazz to avoid being killed by Derxi thugs. As you could probably tell, we need that book back. What will you choose, family or death?” Zalex’s father explained.

“I accept, father,” Zalex hissed. He walked up to his father and nodded before walking away with two Sorloks flanking him.

Zalex’s father switch his gaze towards the rest of us. He gagged before saying, “I’m sorry, but mammals are disgusting to look at! Not even cyborgs are pleasant to look at! However, all of you are threatening. You’re tall freaks! Even the lanky ones,” he looked at me and Scarlett, “are frightening to us.” He returned his gaze to all of us. “Why don’t the males and females separate?”

“Good sir, that’s not a good way to separate us. The cyborg hates me and the… canine,” I said before whispering to Scarlett, “I’m sorry, but I need him to understand.”

“It’s fine,” she whispered back before we both looked straight ahead.

“And the canine is terrified of the green one,” I continued.

“The vulpine is female?” Zalex’s father asked as he looked at Scarlett. How blind could he be? She has a feminine body shape and a decently endowed chest.

“Why are you surprised? I’m absolutely a woman!” Scarlett shouted back before pointing to her cleavage. On second thought, reptiles wouldn't have those. Now their reaction makes sense.

“Whatever,” Zalex’s father nonchalantly replied before ordering, “the green one and the cyborg will be acting as my guards. The pale one and the vulpine will be accompanying my good-for-nothing son. That’s my final decision! Now, can the strong ones follow me?”

Gruma and Harry followed after Zalex’s father, leaving me and Scarlett with the crowd of Sorloks. I didn’t know why Scarlett and I ended up together often, but I assumed that it was because we were the two closest members of the crew. Nobody trusted Zalex or Harry, while Gruma broke Scarlett’s trust. I needed to get the two women to overcome their grudge and get along, but that was going to be process. By the same token, I needed to get over my grudge with Zalex. And Harry needed to be pacified.

After a few awkward minutes of standing in the air lock, Zalex returned with a shiver. Whatever happened must’ve spooked him. He looked at us and ordered, “By the order of my father, you two will help me retrieve the Lazzal Family Chronicles. Please help me! I can’t do this alone!” Scarlett and I nodded before walking up to him.

We followed Zalex as he left the hanger. Almost immediately, I felt the sun’s heat against my skin. I need a duster and cowboy hat like Scarlett. The UV radiation here is too high. My thought was interrupted by Scarlett complaining, “It’s hot out here! I can feel myself sweating already!” She can sweat? Does it even help?

“I figured you would have issues. To put it bluntly, due to having fur, you have a worse job regulating heat than Quentin. Have you tried panting?” Zalex replied as he continued walking.

“Unlike you, I have some dignity to preserve,” Scarlett replied as she wiped some sweat off her face. Poor Scarlett. She sweats as much as a human but doesn’t get cooled as much as she would have as a human. I need to make sure she stays out of excessive heat. Which will prove a problem with the cold-blooded Sorloks, who would probably have heated rooms to make sure they don’t get too cold.

“Back to the topic on hand, how are we going to reach the Derxi family? And how do we know where it is? And is this a suicide mission?” I asked as I needed to formulate a plan to the situation.

“For the last question, the answer is yes. My father is upset since I was the one who caused us to lose the book. That’s how I got sold into slavery to the Bassun. He thought it was a fitting punishment for cowardice. I thought he would’ve changed his mind by now, but it seems he hasn’t. We are heading into the heart of enemy territory,” Zalex replied before pulling out an SAD unit. Hey! That's my spare one! He must've stolen it while I wasn't looking! He placed it on his wrist and opened it. He pulled up a map and explained, “We’re here in Kazz. The Derxi Family Fortress is located here.” The location he pointed at was three hundred miles to the northeast.

“Three hundred miles through a desert wasteland. With only the water in our packs until we reach the fortress. Under these conditions, survival will be a challenge. Is there anything other than desert heat and gangsters to worry about?” I replied as I checked my laser rifle. I didn’t know if I could fight multiple gangsters. I had my armored spacesuit, but I didn’t know what weapons they had. They could have armor-piercing rounds that would reduce me to a shredded mess of a man.

“There’re skulkers. Massive monsters that can swallow armies whole. But as long as we stay on the road, they won’t notice us. However, that runs the risk of running into Derxi patrols. Choose your poison,” Zalex explained as he showed us three motorcycles. Two motorcycles looked like they were made for humans instead of Sorloks. The last motorcycle did look like it was for Sorloks. That motorcycle had Zalex’s name painted on it along with screws and nuts. “You can design your own bikes over there,” he said before pointing to a store. “Don’t worry, they work with my family.” I decided against arguing and took my bike in.

Once inside, I could see several Sorlok mechanics working on someone’s car. I walked over to a nearby computer terminal and bent down to read it. Unfortunately, I couldn’t read the Sorlok language. But looking at the accompanying pictures, I noticed that one of them looked like a paintbrush. I tapped the picture, leading me to a screen that displayed a motorcycle. There were several options of how to paint it. I nervously chuckled. I’m horrible at drawing. I don’t want my motorcycle to look like garbage because I can’t draw.

“Would you like me to help you?” Scarlett asked as she walked next to me and knelt to look at the terminal. I looked at her, making her add, “I know the design I want and know how to use these machines. I can help you design your bike if you’d like it.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“Thank you, Scarlett. I swear, you’re always so eager to help me. Does it ever get tiring?” I replied as I felt a bit guilty.

“Not at all! We’ve saved each other’s lives during our battle with Harry. You also showed me how to operate the spaceship and write a script. Helping you with this is the least I can do,” Scarlett replied as she got in front of me. “So, what would you like on your bike?”

“I would like my name on it in bold white letters. The bike itself should be blue so the white letters and lightning bolts will stand out,” I said as I had a basic idea of what I wanted.

“Sounds cool,” Scarlett replied as she drew everything on it. There were two lightning bolts pointing at my name on both sides of the motorcycle. She stood up and walked away. “Is this what you wanted?” I nodded, making her submit the design. I quickly took my motorcycle to a nearby car lift. Almost immediately, the lift pulled the motorcycle into the ceiling.

After ten minutes, my motorcycle came down. It was exactly what I wanted. As I took it off the lift, I could see Scarlett getting her motorcycle. Like me, she had her first name written in white on both sides. Unlike mine, she decided to incorporate a fiery motif on hers. On both sides in front of her name she placed a large white circle. Inside that circle was a miniature version of her face with fiery hair. “You embraced your appearance?” I asked as it seemed odd that she would choose that design.

“No. I want to be human again, but I figured that the people here will never see the human me. This way, I can give them something to remember. Besides, when I’m human again, it’ll just be a cool design choice. When that happens, calling me a foxy lady wouldn’t be too on the nose,” she replied with a slight laugh.

With that done, we rode out on our bikes and met up with Zalex at the northern gate of the city. It was kind of surreal to see city walls on a modern city, but I supposed this world had a lot of issues. He looked at us and said, “Let’s go. The sooner we get through this, the sooner we get home.” We rode off on the highway as fast as we could.

----------------------------------------

After two hours of riding at eighty miles per hour, we were little more than halfway to the site. The trip was uneventful without many people running into us. We took a few stops to drink water, but otherwise we rode our motorcycles uninterrupted. At this point, two of the three suns set, leaving only the faint light of the remaining one. Accompanying the dimming light was a drop in temperature. Suddenly, it was Zalex that had issues while Scarlett was perfectly fine. She handed him her duster, deciding that she didn’t need it as much as him. Though thoughtful, it was less useful than it could've been since being coldblooded meant it didn't insulate his body heat. Granted, it is blocking the wind from hitting him, which is better than nothing.

The uneventfulness was not to last as I noticed several lights in the distance. They were artificial, which I immediately recognized as headlights. “It looks like we have company! Activate your spacesuits since they may be armed!” I shouted as I activated my spacesuit. I was quickly encased in the blue armored suit. I pulled out my laser pistol and watched as the lights got closer.

“It’s the Derxi Family! Fire at will! They’ll show us no mercy!” Zalex shouted as he rode his motorcycle to hide behind me. Really brave of him, I sarcastically thought. His words proved true when I felt a bullet impact my arm. Thanks to the armor, it was deflected, but it still hurt. I shot my laser pistol in the middle of the group but found that my shot missed them. I fired another shot, this time hitting one. I could see one of the lights swerve around like crazy before falling off the road.

It started with a rumble. It quickly escalated to a minor earthquake. We stopped our motorcycles to avoid being flung off the road. The opposing gang stopped as well, with them turning their motorbikes to shine their lights on their fallen comrade. As the earthquake worsened, I could see a large form moving underneath the sands. It must’ve been over a mile long and hundreds of feet tall. I felt my blood run cold as I watched the progression of the creature.

Right before it reached the fallen Sorlok, the creature disappeared from view as the displaced sand returned to normal. But it was a false hope. With a great rumbling, the sand surrounding the fallen Sorlok caved in. A massive worm-like mouth appeared. With inexplicable agility, the skulker leaped out of the ground and swallowed both the Sorlok and their motorbike. It fell onto the highway, crushing the unfortunate Derxi thugs who were unable to get out of the way in time. It quickly slithered across the highway and into the sand on the other side. As quickly as it appeared, it disappeared.

A few minutes of stillness pervaded as everyone waited for the skulker to be well and truly gone. After those minutes of silence, all the lights on the Derxi motorcycles turned off and sped past us. They made no attempt to fight us as they took one of the branching forks behind us to some unknown area. It spoke of the power of the creature that our enemies decided to flee rather than engage us after it left. Back on the ship, I pondered to myself about hating sand as a reference. Now I'm actually starting to hate sand. Not only is it notoriously hard to get off, but it also hides monsters underneath it on some planets.

The next two hours were quiet as we rode our motorcycles to a rocky outcropping. We hid our motorcycles behind it as we took cover behind it as well. Straight ahead of us was a massive fortress that resembled Neuschwanstein. How odd. The fortress is more decorative than defensive. Regardless, we need to sneak in there and take back the Lazzal Family Chronicles. Fighting our way through is suicide. Perhaps we should’ve let Harry join along. He could’ve taken the hits and barreled through while Zalex played double agent. He’s the only one who can attempt to disguise himself. Scarlett and I stick out like a sore thumb.

“Guys, I hear something,” Scarlett announced as her left ear twitched. She held a finger up as she listened to something that I couldn’t hear. After a few minutes, she explained, “The guards in the distance were talking about an attempted assassination. Apparently, the head of the Lazzal Family hired out an alien to kill the head of the Derxi Family. Instead of killing the assassin, they attempted to recruit her. All attempts so far have failed. She’s being kept in an underground dungeon keep her from eating them.”

“I think I have a plan,” I said as gears started turning in my head. I tapped my fingers together as I tried to figure out how to get into that dungeon without being spotted. If we released the alien serpent, that would provide a decent distraction to sneak in further. We needed to know the layout in order to find any vulnerabilities. “Is anyone willing to survey the landscape?” I asked to no one in particular.

“My father tried to keep me from seeing it, but I hacked into his gang’s database,” Zalex said as he opened his SAD to reveal a map of the compound. He tapped the screen a few times to change it to a blueprint view. “These are some models that the gang made to show all ways into and out of the fortress. The good news is that there is a way to the dungeon without having to get close to any guards,” he said with a smirk.

“And the bad news?” I asked as I had a feeling that there had to be a negative.

“Scarlett’s going to hate this,” Zalex said as he pointed to the nearby dirt. Dirt, not sand. The fortress was built on top of an oasis, which meant the ground was composed of dirt instead of sand. “I’m going to need her to use her claws to dig a tunnel for us.”