"Where are you taking me?" I asked as we turned another corner in the spiralling network of hallways that crossed through the heart of Mythellion III Orbital Station. Victoria had been leading me through the humid halls for the past ten minutes, never breaking pace since we'd left my Ventari signer back in the bar.

The Fotuan kept quiet maintaining her long, limber stride and pace. The condensation was starting to stick some of her flowing robes closer to her skin, clinging to her legs instead of moving with them. "My ship," she answered after long enough that I was surprised to get one. A hulking Anteraxi Queen, grey and chitinous, blocked half of the hallway and forced me to slip behind Victoria for a moment.

As I stepped up to continue the conversation, I shot a glance behind us; the twelve eyes of the Anteraxi followed us, and her mandibles clicked something too quiet for my translator to catch. I turned my attention to Victoria, "Did you say your ship?"

"Yes."

I stopped. She didn't for the first couple of paces then slowed down and turned back. She regarded me, locking her eyes on mine and giving me her attention, but she didn't speak.

"Fuck that."

"I'm sure my translator misunderstood," she answered. It was a common way to let other species save face if they said something stupid.

"Fuck that."

"What part of our relationship," she began, finally taking a long stride toward me. She hunched a little to match my height, "gives you the impression that you can question me?"

"What relationship?"

"As your clien-"

"I haven't been paid yet," I pointed out, "and I'm sure as hell not getting on your ship without more information or credits in my account."

Victoria reared to her full almost-seven feet to look down at me. "We will discuss this matter in private," she answered, "where would you suggest if my ship offends you so much?" I could still feel the eyes of the Anteraxi queen behind us.

"Mine." Beside me, a vent opened, and steam poured out, washing over us for a breath. Something needed to keep the hallways wet enough for the Amphibs.

"Your ship?" she asked. If the suggestion bothered her, she didn't betray it with tone or expression. "I'm surprised you own one. Your kind is so keen on shared transport."

"I'm a mercenary," I pointed out, using the easy-to-translate term instead of one of the five million nicknames the job had. I should have bit my tongue there. I'd explained, and she didn't seem particularly against the idea, instead, I continued, "and you're the one who hired a human."

"For appearance reasons only I assure you, I would have better options if-"

"Get a Fotuan, then" I snapped back a touch too curt. Despite the air of the conversation, this had been the first comment that was anything other than calm. Apparently, I was keen on burning bridges.

Victoria leaned back as a small smirk crept onto her mouth. Other species might have read her as impressed, but there was a reason that we didn't get along, and it was because I knew that expression.

'Isn't that petulant child adorable?' was written all over her face.

"Lead the way to your ship human. We can speak more about transport there."

I didn't offer a response, instead taking an almost immediate right toward the lifts. I could feel her eyes burn me as she realized we were going to the public stores instead of the private bougie place she'd docked.

The station shuddered for a moment as the blast shields started to close over the windows of the outer hallways we'd just stepped away from. It must have been midday at this point if Mytherion III was moving out of Eclipse.

Around this time tomorrow, I'd agreed to meet Dvall if I was still at the station. Instead, I was about to smuggle something for someone smug enough to get on my nerves. Without context, that might have seemed like a low bar, but I'd worked life or death in customer service for a lifetime, you built a tolerance for bullshit.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

I'd have to let Dvall know I wasn't going to make it and promise her that I'd let her know the next time I was at a station. Hell, if I convinced this Fotuan of an upcharge, I could take a another month or two off without worrying too much about the retirement fund.

"Did you really think I would find a Fotuan Mercenary out here?" Victoria must as she caught up to me right before I began typing my ship's ID into the lift.

"I'm sure you would have preferred it," The answer was 'no'. Seeing a Fotuan outside of the meritocracy was a blessed rarity. Even a merc away from the core worlds was essentially unheard of.

"No," she corrected as the doors hissed open. I cocked my head to her but tried not to give too much away. She'd been watching me and caught my reaction. "I have my reasons, but I would prefer to avoid the Meritocracy's eyes if we can."

That was info. I knew I was transporting cargo, but now I had a short list of equipment and materials banned in Meritocracy space. That could be leverage if she tried to stay too mum about whatever she was doing. As a general rule, the Meritocracy didn't appreciate one of their own breaking one of their millions of arbitrary rules.

"Why not anyone else?" I typed my ship's ID again into the lift's interior. Once I had, Victoria strode through the door and stood to my right. "Lots of species."

"You were first."

"That much of a rush?" I could charge extra for a sharp timeline.

"I appreciate punctuality," she corrected. The lift hummed to life and shuddered as it decoupled from the station to float to the appropriate dock. "-and," she continued after a moment, "a human suits my position well."

I didn't know what she meant by that and didn't bother asking.

The elevator shook again and then offered a happy chime, "Tanner Dock Thirteen. If you're leaving, thank y-" I stepped out of the lift before it could finish wishing me a good trip and telling me somewhere I should eat if I was staying here. The places that could afford the ads were shitty tourist traps anyway.

Unlike the halls, which had been wet but primarily empty and sterile, the docks were defined by their movement. There was no time for narrow halls here. A mile of flat, spotted with the occasional bench and shipping containers spread out in front of us. On the right side, the blast shields had just closed, temporarily preventing ships from heading out. To the left side, the wall space was evenly split between a thousand small vendors and Mytherion III registry services.

It was a lot of space to waste on a registry service you could bypass for 50 credits if you knew who to talk to.

With the blast shields closed, the docks were filled with the constant thurm of idling engines or those powering down. Every other hour of the day, the dock would echo with the sharp crack of ships piercing the veil and shooting out into space.

For now, though, the loudest thing was a Polidian, a spindly thing practically made of sticks and rocks bemoaning that she wouldn't be able to leave for the next forty-five minutes while the sunshield kept everyone in here from getting new and exciting versions of radiation poisoning. I felt for the woman; she was carrying four kids on her back.

"Human," Victoria started as she leaned forward because she still, in all this time, hadn't managed to ask my name, "how far down the docks is your ship?"

"Close," It was a half-truth. My ship wasn't close. It was small enough to qualify for the valet services, and the valet stand was nearby.

"Good." She didn't need to add the context that she was too rich to spend time in places like this. It was implied.

I cut a sharp left to one of the stands along the wall. The inside of the stand had a warm orange glow cast by the sentient plates of energy that ran it. A Thirik. The being shuddered, and a crackle of sparks and lightning danced across its orange plates as it structured itself into something close to a torso, arms and legs.

"Hey, Reg."

A familiar warmth filled my head.

"Good to see you too," I answered.

Clouded questions swapped places with the warmth.

"She's with me," Talking to Thirik took time and practice. They could impart emotions but understanding the specific words that each emotion and feeling matched up to was impossible to anyone other than them. At least humans had a decent match on the emotional spectrum.

A deeper, prodding and suggestive questioning.

"Client," I corrected.

A joke of apologetic shame, followed by a cold business-like flatness. Like still grey water.

"I just need it brought down, shouldn't be in there too long. I don't think we're leaving right now," I half turned back to Victoria as I asked that, but her eyes were locked on something further down the dock. She'd clearly disconnected from the conversation, which was fair, Thirik could only speak with one person at a time.

Affirmation.

"Thanks," I responded, "and come on Reg," I continued in a near whisper, "a Fotuan? I've got standards."

Joy, and then nothing as Reg blipped away from my vision, flowing into the wires surrounding him.

"Should just be a minute," I explained to Victoria as I turned to face her. She was still staring further down the docks. I didn't know that Fotuan eyes could stare with anything other than disdain, but it looked, for a second, like fear.

"We should come back later," she said.

"I just called my ship."

"We should-" she started again. I followed her gaze down the dock to see that, standing just taller than most of the crowd, three Fotuans had just stepped out of a shining silver ship that had landed as the shields closed.

I was about to joke about it, call them her friends and tell her that we should say hi because she clearly wasn't comfortable with it, but Victoria cut me off; She grabbed my hand and held it tight. I looked back to the Fotuans, who were now starting to talk in a hushed tone within the crowd.

"We should go," Victoria repeated. I'd been wrong before; it wasn't fear. It was terror. I snapped my eyes back to the Fotuans, they were wearing hunter uniforms and, though I couldn't get a good look at their equipment, all of them were armed.

"Are th-" I stopped, she'd frozen. I pulled on Victoria to get her moving without taking the time for an interrogation and dragged her after me as we headed back toward the lifts that had brought us up here.

The first thing to do was to get her away from those three. The second thing was going to be to get answers.

Now she owed me.