After finishing their drinks, the pair left the bar and carried on down the main street. Mira’s leg protested with each step but she persevered, not wanting to draw any attention to herself from the locals. A few called out to Anan as they passed stalls and shop fronts. He waved back and shouted what Mira assumed to be greetings or possibly good natured insults. It was hard to tell. After a few more minutes of wandering they came to a stop outside a small shop. A blue neon sign above the door advertised… something. Mira had no idea what it might say. Anan opened the door and ushered her in.
It was cooler inside; the shop was the same basic square shape of all the other buildings in town. A row of cabinets stretched out along one wall and a counter – complete with a till and a bell- filled up the far end. The rest of the room was filled with boxes and various odds and ends. A woman sat behind the counter reading a book. She was perhaps a few years older than Mira with short brown hair, an olive complexion and a heart shaped face. She wore a set of overalls that were clearly too big for her small frame. After a moment she looked up and grinned hugely at Anan. Mira flinched back at this; the woman behind the counter had a smile far too wide, far too many teeth and teeth that were far too sharp to be natural.
The two chatted casually for a moment in yet another foreign language before turning to where Mira stood, half hidden behind Anan. After a moment of staring at her the two started what sounded like high speed haggling.
Eventually Anan held up his hands in surrender before gesturing to the woman behind the counter. “Mira this is Luise. Going to set up the translator for you”
Luise gave a small wave and another very toothy grin. “Hello,” she said in Old English, “ready to start?” Before Mira could answer she lifted a panel on the counter, stepped through, grasped Mira by the hand and marched off towards a door at the back of the shop. Mira squeaked with surprise and tried to snatch her hand back but to no avail. Luise it seemed, was a lot stronger than she looked
After being dragged through the door Mira found herself in a room that looked like a cross between a mechanic’s shop and a dentist’s surgery. More cabinets lined the walls, interspersed with tool chests and strange pieces of equipment. A large padded chair sat in the centre of the room, a smaller wheeled chair had been positioned next to it alongside a wheeled metal table. The air smelled of antiseptic and oil.
“Right,” said Luis, “on chair.” She pointed towards the big chair and began to wash her hands in a small sink. Mira glanced at Anan who nodded and smiled at her. With some effort she managed to clamber into the chair, it had clearly been made for people a lot bigger than her. While she tried to get comfortable Luise darted about the room, searching through cabinets and tool boxes, chattering away to Anan the whole time. Every now and then Anan would look over at her and give her his attempt at a reassuring smile.
With a small cry of triumph Luise found whatever trinket she was looking for and placed it in the metal tray next to Mira’s chair. It was a small bronze orb about the size of a grape and covered in thousands of tiny grooves and indentations. She went to pick it up so as to observe it more closely only for Luise to slap her hand away.
“Pay now. Look later.” she said, waggling her finger at Mira. Luise then turned back to Anan and they both began what sounded like haggling over the price again. The longer Mira listened the more she recognised parts of the language. It sounded like a bastardised version of Italian mixed with Spanish and possibly others too. Mira had only studied old English and old French but one of her bunkmates had been studying the other ‘romance languages’ as she’d put it.
Eventually the negotiations came to an end. Luise and Anan shook hands before turning back to Mira. Luise picked up the small orb and held it out for Mira to see. “Is a translator,” she said softly, “goes behind the ear.” She tapped the area just behind her left earlobe. “Translates things and sends it to you.” She looked Mira in the eye. “Still want?” Mira looked to Anan who nodded. She in turn nodded at Luise who smiled that predatory smile again. “Good good!” she chirped, setting the orb back down in the tray. She wandered back over to the sink and began washing her hands again.
A few minutes later a confused and increasingly worried Mira was still sitting in the big chair, Luise sat behind her fiddling with something complicated and metallic. Eventually the whirring clicking noises stopped and Mira heard Luise’s voice in her ear. “You ready?” Her voice was still calm and soft. Mira raised a shaky thumbs up before going back to gripping the arm rests. There was soft humming noise followed by a sudden intense stinging sensation from behind Mira’s left ear. She shrieked and made to jump out of the seat. Strong hands gripped her shoulders and pinned her to the chair. Anan and Luise seemed to be shouting at each other over her head. The stinging pain increased and was joined by a humming noise that seemed to echo throughout her head. She smelled blood and burning hair. A loud click came from behind her and all went black.
When Mira woke she was still in the chair. She could feel a dull throb coming from behind her left ear. Her hand flew to the spot only to be intercepted by Anan. “Don’t mess with it yet, it needs to heal” he said before releasing her wrist. Something seemed different about his voice, like it didn’t sync properly with his lips. He turned to Luise who was perched on one of the toolboxes in the corner. “I told you to take your time with it! She’s not like us!” he said, crossing his arms over his chest.
Luise shrugged and slid down to the floor, “what’s that supposed to mean? And anyway it worked didn’t it?” she said as she walked behind Mira. “Stay still, I need to check if it's interfaced properly.”
Mira leapt out of the chair and collapsed in a heap on the floor, her leg having given out from under her. “What did you do to me!” she shouted as she attempted to climb to her feet.
Anan walked over and helped her back onto the chair. He squatted down until he was at eye level and stared thoughtfully at Mira. Speaking very slowly and clearly he said “Mira, can you understand me now?” Mira nodded and he smiled before continuing. “What about this? Can you understand this?”
Mira shot him a confused look before nodding again. “Yeah I can, it sounds funny though. Words don’t match your lips”
Anan grinned hugely and turned to Luise “It's working!” Luise simply shrugged again. Anan turned back to Mira, still grinning. “Going to need to take it easy for a while. Your brain is still getting used to the new information. Does it hurt at all?” Mira’s hand gently probed the area behind her left ear. Her eyes widened in horror as her fingers brushed cool metal where she expected warm skin. She turned and locked eyes with Lusie. “What have you done to me?” she wailed. For her part Luise just looked confused.
“I installed the translator,” she said, “it’s what I do here.” She indicated around the room “prosthetics, upgrades and implants. With a little light doctoring on the side. What’re you complaining about? You can understand us now right?”
Realisation dawned. “I can!” she almost squeaked. She pointed at Luise, “I understood that perfectly!”
Luise turned to Anan. “What did she say?”
Anan shrugged. “Sounds like someone chewing a tire to me,” he said before looking back at Mira. “It’s one way only, you need to speak the old tongue. The translator will help you pick ours up but it’ll take a while”
After that, there followed a period of thoroughly boring diagnostics and calibrations. Mira sat dead still in the chair while Luis poked and prodded at her new translator with a wide variety of instruments. While she loved being able to understand what people were saying Mira was still not very happy about the actual installation process, she said as much to Luise when she had finished checking the new implant. “You could have warned me” she said to both Luise and Anan as she gingerly rubbed her bandaged leg. It was starting to ache.
Luise shot an annoyed look at Anan “His fault for not telling me,” she said, “most people who get work done wouldn’t even notice that,” She peered at Mira closely for a long moment. “You really aren’t like us are you?” she glared back at Anan before continuing. “You owe me an explanation. And a drink”.
Anan began to explain as Mira slid out of the chair. As she stood up her leg gave out from under her, sending her once again to the floor in a heap. Luise quickly helped her up and back on to her feet.
“That leg’s going to be a problem,” she said, “let me have a look at it”. She shot a look back at Anan before adding, “free of charge.”
She helped Mira back on to the chair and shooed a bemused Anan out the room before helping Mira out of her trousers. She unwrapped the bandage and examined the wound. “What did this?” she asked as she rooted through her tray of tools.
“Anan called it a sky hunter,” said Mira, shuddering at the memory.
Luise stopped and stared at her “[unintelligible] and you’re still alive?” She saw Mira’s confused expression. “What?”
“That first word. I didn’t understand it. Un… un,” Mira frowned as she tried to remember the right word, “not translated”.
Luise shrugged. “It’s only got the four most common languages stored on it. Anything more and it won’t work as well.” She picked up one of her instruments and lent forward. “Anyway, I want to hear more about this sky hunter. Now hold still. This might sting a bit.”
Sometime later Mira and Luise left the workshop to find Anan sitting at the counter reading a magazine. He got up as the two entered. “How's the leg?” he asked as Mira walked over.
She beamed at him. “Better!” she chirped, “can put weight on it now. Luise said it will be ok in a few days.”
Luise put an arm round Mira’s shoulder as they carried on towards the door. “Give it a few days for the glue to dissolve and you’ll be back to…whatever the hell you did before you got here.” Luise said as she pushed open the door. “Now come on. I want that drink.”
Luise led the way down the main street, heading back towards the bar. She had to stop and wait for Mira a few times. The girl's leg was still tender and while she could walk unaided it still took effort. For her part Mira looked around the street in wonder, the people were still strange and more than a little scary but being able to understand them took an edge off of the fear. Watching a tall armour plated figure arguing with a stallholder over a mango was a surreal experience.
The bar was busier than earlier. Luise found a table and sent Anan off to the bar for drinks. He came back with a tray of earthenware cups, plates and a jug. He sat down and poured three cups. “It’s cider,” he said to Mira as he handed her a cup. “Make it from pears, it's pretty good. Got us some food too” he gestured to the plate. “Just bread, meat and cheese for now,” he glanced at Luise, “this do?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
She snorted and took a swig from her cup. “It’s a good start. Mira’s told me some of what happened. Not sure I believe it to be honest. She’s an alien then?”
Anan nodded as he spoke around a mouthful of bread. “Saw the ship come down. Thought it was from a TITAN at first. I found her in the wreckage. Big bastard of a sky hunter wrapped all around it. Stitched her up and set up camp so I could look for survivors and salvage. Then some scavs show up. Was gonna let ‘em take the salvage but they wanted Mira too. God-touched, the lot of ‘em, mostly EXT but a couple of sneaky INTs as well. They drew first; I got the first two an’ Kopil got a few. Drove them off and buried the bodies. Next day Mira wakes up an’ we set off here. Taking her to the Kingdoms.”
Mira stared, it was the most she’d heard Anan say in one go since she first woke up. Not only that but some of the words he used sounded strange to her ears.
“What’re god-touched? What’s an EXT?” she asked, looking from Anan to Luise in confusion.
Anan thought for a moment before replying, “Tried to tell you ‘bout it before. Left over from soldier programs during the war. Inherited genes an’ all that. EXTernal and INTernal,” he said, stressing the first part of each word, “just means that you’re changed on the outside or the inside. Everyone’s one or the other. Some are both.”
At this point Luise took over the conversation.
“I’m an EXT” she said, gesturing at her dagger sharp teeth. “Dominant line is from an old European infiltrator set. Italian I think. Maybe a bit of Spanish assassin too. Didn’t get the full set. Just these.” She indicated her predatory jawline again. “And this” she said, flexing her fingers. As she did a long slim bone blade slid out from between the second and third fingers on her right hand. Luise flexed again and it slid away as she continued speaking “my brother can scuttle up a wall like its flat ground and got a full set of claws but normal teeth. Mum can do all that and poison you with a kiss. Very few people get a full set, it depends on what your parents have and their parents had and so on. Gets complicated when different sets mix.”
Mira stared at Luise’s hand where the claw had come from.
“Does that hurt?” she asked, pointing at Luis’s fingers.
Luis shrugged and took another pull from her drink,
“Nah” she said, speaking around the lip of her cup, “it’s a natural sheath, hurts like fuck when it breaks though, like breaking the biggest nail ever.”
Mira looked back to Anan who was munching away at a well stuffed bread roll.
“What can you do then?” she asked.
Anan held up a finger as he finished chewing before taking a sip from his cup.
“Gonna let you off this time cos you don’t know any better,” he said as he wiped his mouth, “it’s really rude to ask people about their mods unless they bring it up first. But seeing as you asked, I’m an INT and I don’t really want to talk anymore about it”. Mira flushed and stammered an apology which Anan waved away. “You didn’t know” was all he said as he assembled another almighty sandwich.
Luise gave Mira a sympathetic smile as her friend munched his way through the food. It was supposed to be sympathetic but there were far too many teeth for it to be in any way reassuring.
“You’re what we’d call a baseline. Pretty rare. No mods and the only implant you have is that translator. You’re going to have to be careful, pretty much everyone you meet is going to be stronger, faster or tougher than you. Most of us have some sneaky hidden talents too” she said, demonstrating her point by unsheathing her claw again.
Anan got up to get another round of drinks, leaving Mira and Luise to sit in a slightly awkward silence. Even though Luis had fixed her leg and had been nothing but kind to her she still put Mira on edge. Luis caught her looking the second time
“It’s the teeth isn’t it? it’s fine, I freak myself out sometimes in the mirror, especially when I’ve had a bit to drink. Don’t worry about it, it’s nothing I’m not used to.” She poured them both a fresh cup of the cider and tossed hers back in one go. She looked thoughtful for a moment before continuing, “I’ve gotta say, you’re really handling this better than I’d expect. Given what’s happened and all that.”
Mira shrugged and rolled her cup between her palms. “It still doesn’t feel real, not had time to process it yet. But every time I try to curl up and cry it just gets worse. What about you? You’re drinking with an alien. Not batted an eye,” she said with a bitter smile.
Luise shrugged. “Weird shit happens all the time. Old weapons goin’ off, TITANs having a strop, city states fighting. It's weirder when stuff doesn’t happen. Never had an alien before though. You get points for originality.”
Anan returned a few minutes later with a fresh jug. He topped up everyone’s cup before sitting back down. “How do you feel about a proper bed tonight?” he said to Mira as he nudged Luise a bit further along the bench. He chuckled at the look on Mira’s face before continuing. “There’s a few rooms available upstairs. Not much but better than a tent. Get you set up there then I’ll go get the stuff from the truck. I’ll be in the room next door. Sound good?”
“That sounds amazing. What stuff from the truck?” asked Mira.
Anan nodded his head at Luis, “giving her a bunch of salvage from your lifeboat. Payment for the translator and fixing your leg. Gonna check on Kopil too”. After that Anan and Luis started catching up on recent events, leaving Mira to listen in and people watch. The patrons in the bar were as varied as they had been out in the street. All manner of skin tones and textures were visible alongside a wide variety of spikes, horns and claws. Luise left once the jug had been emptied a second time. As she stood to leave she promised Mira she’d help her find some better clothes in the morning.
A short while later Mira found herself following Anan and someone she assumed worked at the bar up a flight of stairs to the upper floor. The top of the stairs joined the centre of a shabby, but clean corridor. Ventilation grates at either end allowed a calm breeze to flow through. Eight doors studded the corridor walls, four per side. The employee seemed to pick one at random, unlocked it and handed Mira the key before heading back downstairs.
The room itself was clean but obviously well used. A double bed lay between two small cabinets. A battered table and chair set had been tucked away in the corner. On the opposite side the open door showed a very small bathroom. To Mira it looked perfect. Anan chuckled at her expression on seeing the shower.
“I’ll be back in the morning. Get you some proper clothes after breakfast.” he turned to leave but stopped on the threshold “make sure you lock the door Mira. It’s safe here but you can never be too careful. Keep your knife and staff out. Won’t need it but it's a good habit to get into. I’ll sort the salvage out, make sure Kopils behaving then coming back. Will be in the room next door. See you tomorrow.”
After Anan left Mira locked the door and then immediately leapt for the shower. It might have been a tiny cubicle; the hot water might have cut out at random moments but right now to her that didn’t matter. It was heavenly.
Feeling properly clean for the first time in days felt amazing. She plopped down onto the bed and felt a tiny bit of tension leak away. Slipping back into underwear, Mira drew back the covers and went to get into bed. It was hard and lumpy. Mira didn’t care one bit.
That’s when she heard the noise. From the corridor outside she heard a groan and a thump as if something heavy had been dropped. Curious she slipped out the covers and padded over to the door, opened it a crack and cautiously peered around.
It was darker now, most of the lights having been switched off or never having worked in the first place. A few doors down she spotted a pair of figures huddled on the floor. One seemed to be straddling the other. They both seemed to twitch and grind against each other and Mira felt a blush rise up on her cheeks. She thought she recognised the figure at the bottom of the pile. As they flailed about they came close enough to one of the remaining lights for Mira to make out the pale features of the employee from earlier. The young man who’d shown her to her room. She spotted a dark glistening stain spreading out around the two on the floor. Was that… blood?
Without thinking Mira slammed the door shut and bolted it closed before flinging herself away from it. The door was very thick and solidly built, she doubted even Kopil could smash it down. She hugged one of the pillows to herself and tried to control her breathing. Something thudded into the door. Almost like someone walking into it. She heard something scrabbling at the door, saw the handle jiggle as whoever was on the other side tried to open it. Mira put her hands over her ears and tried to force the panic away. Alone, half naked and unarmed there was very little she could do. Her head shot up. She was NOT unarmed.
Reaching out she drew the knife Anan had given her and clipped it onto the end of her walking staff. It took a few tries but she managed to work out how it went on and how to make it stay on. By this point the noise outside had stopped. Cautiously, without stepping away from her spear Mira began to get dressed. After that she sat back down on the bed, the spear across her lap and tried her breathing technique again. Deep breath in, hold it and out. Deep breath in, hold it and out. Feel the worries drift away. There was a knock at the door.
Mira lurched forwards, dropping her spear to the floor and frantically grabbing for it. The knock came again followed by a voice.
“Hello?” it said, a man’s voice. It sounded faint and weak. “Hello? Please. Hurt. Need help”. Mira crept forwards and peered out through the small peephole set in the middle of the door. Out in the corridor she saw the young man from before. He was hunched over himself as if in pain. What she could see of his face looked pale and tense. “Need help. Hurt. Please. Hello?” Whatever had happened before he’d clearly been hurt by it. He continued to beg for help as Mira fumbled for the bolt. She quickly opened the door and half carried the man inside. She walked him across to the bed, making what she hoped were soothing noises. She sat him down on the bed and darted back to lock the door.
With the door locked Mira slid down it into a seating position and looked over at the man she’d apparently rescued. He was still hunched over himself and twitching slightly as if in great pain but trying not to scream.
“It's ok, you’re safe now.” Mira said with an anxious look at the man.
The figure twitched again. “Hello? Hurt. Please. Need help”.
“Where are you hurt?” Mira asked, looking around the room for a first aid kit or anything she could use as one.
“Hurt” the man repeated “Hurt. Please. Need help. Hello?”
Mira started to feel increasingly uneasy
“What’s your name? where are you hurt?” she asked again.
“Hello? Please,” the man began to sit up straighter, “need help” he said as he looked straight at Mira. She could feel that something was very, very wrong here. It was only as the man spoke again that she realised what it was. He might be speaking but his lips weren’t moving. “Hurt” the man said as he lurched forwards towards Mira, arms reaching out for her.
Mira screamed and dodged out of the way as the man tried to grab her. He missed and collided with the door with a crunch. Mira scrambled to her feet and backed away as the man rose, blocking her only exit from the room. He still stood in the weird hunched over pose, fingers clenching and unclenching spasmodically. She looked at his face and screamed even louder. She recognised the face of the young man who’d led her and Anan upstairs. She could see it right in front of her. Being worn as a disguise to get into her room.
“Hello? Hurt. Please. Need help” the voice came from somewhere behind the mask. She could see the ragged edge where it had been cut away from the original face. A second pair of limbs unfolded from its torso, tipped with three long, hooked claws. The jaws behind the flesh mask began to champ mindlessly as it advanced towards her.
As Mira backed away her left knocked into her spear propped up against the wall. She snatched it up and brandished it at the creature that shuffled towards her, its disguise flaking apart as it moved. Under the torn skin she could see a dark, mottled carapace, mandibles now sprouted from either side of the flesh mask and twitched to the rhythm of the jaws as they chewed at the air. It squatted down and sprang towards her with a shriek, claws outstretched and jaw open wide.
Everything happened at once. Mira screamed and tried to back away, her foot snagged on her discarded towel and she toppled over backwards into the narrow gap between the cabinet and the wall. The butt of her spear slid across the floor before jarring to a halt against the wall. The creature's leap brought it into contact with the point of the spear which stabbed into its chest with a loud, wet crunch and a spray of fluid.
The sudden weight on the spear nearly jerked it out of Mira’s hands but she held on tight, shrieking like a banshee the whole time. The creature’s claws flailed wildly, gouging out lumps of plaster from the walls. It too screamed but in pain not fear. There was another crunch as the spear point emerged out of its back and the beast began to slowly slide down the shaft towards her. It stunk of burnt plastic and bad eggs. Wedged as they were, the creature couldn’t bring its arms to bear, instead it clacked its mandibles at her as it ever so slowly slid down the shaft of the spear.
The scissoring mandibles were perhaps only a few centimetres away from her face when, with a great wheezing cry of “Hurrrrrt” the creature finally expired. Its limbs stopped scrabbling for purchase and its head sagged downwards, all its weight now slumped forwards on to Mira, crushing her to the floor. As Mira frantically tried to prise herself loose or wriggle out from under it she heard a voice out in the corridor.
“Hello? Please. Need help. Hurt.”