Jesse woke with a start, a firm but gentle hand covering her mouth.
Her eyes snapped open and looked up to find Boudya looking down at her, a long elegant finger pressed to her lips in a gesture to be silent. Her other hand gestured towards the door of their suite, where Tindron - her life-mate - had pressed himself up against the wall beside the door, a pistol at the ready.
Boudya leaned in and whispered quietly into her ear, “There’s someone just outside the door, they seem to be preparing to break in. Get dressed quickly, make sure you have the stun pistol ready.”
Jesse nodded rapidly, the urge to panic rising, but she’d forced it down. She’d had a number of panic attacks since Boudya had swooped in out of the blue, just ahead of Enigma Osiris’ security. Each time, Boudya or Tindron had guided her through exercises to work through it, then helped her with the shame and guilt afterwards. Each time she managed to break out of it a bit faster, and even held it off longer.
She couldn’t afford to panic right now. Not if they’d been found.
Rolling quietly out of bed, she pulled on the simple jumpsuit Boudya had given her. It was specifically designed to slip on quickly, and according to the package, was woven with fibers that would ground out stun blasts and low power blaster fire. Wouldn’t protect her against S.W.A.T. type gear, but would hold off regular police and security. Once dressed she slipped on the shoulder holster with her own stun pistol.
Thankfully Boudya hadn’t needed to drill her on that; Someone working a corporate job with even moderate security clearance needed to be able to protect themselves.
Looking over, she saw Boudya had just finished pulling out the window pane she’d loosened the first day they were here, then pulled out three grav harnesses. This was their exit plan if they got cornered in the suite; out the window with the grav harnesses, down the 6 stories of the hotel, then making a beeline into the wilderness to where they’d stashed some gear for this scenario. With luck, there would be nobody on ground level watching for them.
There was a beep from the door that told them a keycard had been used, whether hacked or obtained via warrant they couldn’t know, but it meant they were about to enter.
Jesse wasn’t exactly sure who this couple were, that they had this kind of forethought, but Tindron had taken care of that possibility. He’d pre-hacked their door access codes to lock out everyone at the flick of a setting on his wrist-comp. So after that beep, there was a quiet thud, another beep, and a harder thud, then barely hushed talking just outside the door,
Hurrying over to the window, she followed Boudya’s example and strapped into the grave-harness. Tindron was close on her heels, just before the door was struck with a bang loud enough that it had to have woken other guests on that floor and visibly dislodge the trim.
Tindron went out the window first, and Jesse could see him safely floating down towards the ground level courtyard before she felt Boudya firmly push her out next. Another sudden wave of panic at seeing the ground 6 stories beneath her, before the fact that the grav-harness was slowing her descent banished it. She kept her hand on the grip of her stun pistol on the way down nonetheless, just in case she spotted any possible hostiles.
What sounded like a small explosion sounded above her, and small bits of debris rained down. Glancing up, she spotted Boudya, not 2 meters up, descending with her back to the ground. She appeared to have her pistol out and aimed back towards where they’d exited. The door must have been forced by explosives, or perhaps they’d tossed in a gas grenade, as smoke began billowing out of the window. Either way, that was going to work in their favor, as the smoke was going to buy them some time.
A glance down showed her that Tindron was already on the ground, crouching behind some statuary and scanning the courtyard for threats. Jesse was almost at the ground herself, and felt the grav-harness slow her descent a degree more so that she landed with no more force than if she’d stepped off a loading dock. Taking Tindron’s lead, she found cover behind another statue, pulled her stunner, and scanned for threats. Moments later, she heard Boudya’s feet hit the ground and felt her presence beside her.
“They’ll notice the window soon.” she stated, gesturing off towards the woods, “time to get the hell out of Dodge, as your brother would say.”
She darted forward across the courtyard, making it halfway across on those incredibly long legs of hers before taking cover behind another piece of statuary and aiming her pistol up at their suite’s window. Jesse didn’t wait for Tindron to chastise her, she took off at a sprint herself. Her heart hammered in her ears and her back itched with the anticipation of impact from a stunner or blaster impact. None came though, and in what seemed like much too long, she slid into cover beside Boudya.
Tindon hadn’t waited for her to make it the whole way to his mate, it seemed. When Jesse peeked out to take a bead on the window, she could see him sprinting towards them. It was then that the first shot was fired. By Boudya.
The weapon she carried was a higher powered stunner than Jesse’s, with the option to go lethal if it was needed, and the distinctive *zhist* sound of its maximum stun setting startled her. Glancing up at their suite window, she heard the cry before seeing the armor clad figure only narrowly avoid falling to its death as someone inside hauled the unconscious body back through the window.
“Just as we practiced now Jesse.” Boudya commanded. Nodding, Jesse took off at a sprint once more, jaw clenched with determination.
They’d spent some time when they first got there, pretending to play laser tag in the courtyard. What they’d really been doing was drilling her on using the various objects there as cover to get to the woods. Boudya lamented that it would be nothing like boot camp, or years investigating abandoned wrecks near hostile native villages, but at least she wouldn’t be clueless.
She noticed as she ran that Tindron had already made it to the edge of the woods and was covering her progress from behind a large rock. He’d holstered his pistol and shouldered some kind of stubby looking rifle. Remembering not to set her focus too tightly on running directly towards him, she instead kept running along the most optimal line of cover. Once she was in the trees she could make her way over to where Tindron was.
More blasts sounded through the courtyard, and while she wanted to breathe a sigh of relief that it was all stunner fire, she couldn’t spare the air. It seemed their pursuers were under orders to capture them alive. Probably something to do with the data drive I have…
Her thoughts were cut off by the feeling of a stunner blast hitting her in the left thigh, causing her to stumble. Years of self defence training kicked in and she turned that stumble into a rolle back to her feet and kept running. The jumpsuit Boudya had given her was true to its PR, having absorbed most of the blast, letting only enough through to feel like she’d been struck with a snowball. Without the protection, she’d have been unconscious on the ground, waiting to be captured.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Finally, with her lungs burning from the sprint, the woods beyond the courtyard engulfed her. Ducking down behind a large tree stump, she looked back and made to cover Boudya’s final sprint. Instead she found herself staring as the incredibly tall alien dove the last meter and a half into the woods, barely being missed by a stunner blast herself, coming up to her feet only to slip behind a rock not far away.
Smiling at her, Boudya nodded. “Step 2 complete. Time for Step 3. Get moving!”
----------------------------------------
I didn’t sit idle for those two days in hyperspace, nor spend the whole time indulging the good doctor’s curiosities about human sexuality. I divided my time between familiarizing myself with giobhioni tactical equipment - small arms, armor, hand held sensors, etc - studying the layout of the resort and the terrain around it, and consulting with Tratsa (turns out that’s her given name, not a surname), regarding possible giobhioni tech to include in redesigning and rebuilding my beloved EVA suit.
Not that she didn’t take some time to ask her own pointed questions about human culture and medicine. Stacy of course, would always chime in with her usual innuendo, which Tratsa would take in stride, even laughing at some of the more bawdy ones.
Jophixa called me to the bridge on several occasions for assistance in navigating the StellarNet for detailed information on the Yantari system. She wanted to make sure she knew as much as she could so she could formulate tactics in case something went wrong. I really appreciated her forethought, since we had no idea what we were walking into when we got there.
I had just sent the schematics for the prototype of my new EVA suit to the ship's mini-fac at the beginning of our third day in hyperspace, when Jophixa called me to the bridge.
“We’re about to transition from hyperspace,” she announced as I entered the bridge, “I assumed you would want to be present and at the ready.”
“Aye cap’n,” I responded, in my best Scottish accent, a sudden wave of anxiety making me cheeky. “Right kind o’ ye”
She blinked and raised an eyebrow at me. If I hadn’t been so nervous, the fact I was looking at a woman with large pointed ears, raising a finely shaped eyebrow at me, might have made me break out in giggles. Instead, I just coughed, “Sorry Commander, old earth media reference I’ll have to introduce you to at some point”
The smile she turned on me was slightly hesitant, and short lived before she turned back to the front viewports. “What are we looking at Bet’sar?”
Toftri’s fingers flew across his console as he triggered a tactical hologram in the center of the bridge. “Commonwealth Fleet presence is about what we expected from what we could find on the StellarNet Commander.” he reported, and several yellow dots lit up on the hologram. “They appear to be progressing on a standard patrol route much like our own fleet would have charted for a system like this. Nothing out or the ordinary. I am detecting one Fleetsec ship docked at a station around the 5th planet.”
“We’ll want to keep an eye on that one.” Thomas told them, “It’s not abnormal for Fleetsec to be in any Commonwealth affiliated system, but best not to take chances.”
“Right.” Toftri responded, then continued with his report, “There are numerous ships in orbit around the third planet, registered to various companies and different worlds, none appear to be law enforcement, mercenary or Enigma Osiris affiliated.”
“That’s good news…”
“Commander.” Stacy interrupted, “There is a ship parked over the southern pole of the planet, and it appears that they have their transponder disabled. It would seem that they are attempting to use electromagnetic interference there to confuse sensor readings. They also appear to be generating some kind of…ghosting field to amplify the effect. If it weren’t for my stunningly sexy eyes…”
“Not now Stacy.” Jophixa stated plainly, “but good work spotting that. We have to assume that’s Enigma Osiris. I’d lay odds it is unlikely you’d catch Commonwealth Fleet or Law enforcement ships daring to disable their transponders. Every species we’ve ever interacted with takes very unkindly to that.”
“A fair assumption Commander.” I verified. “That’s the kind of thing that gets your official capacity to operate a starship taken away.”
She was quiet for a bit, contemplating the situation. “They’ve likely picked us up on sensors, even with our low signature profile.” she stated finally, “So they know we’re here, but they might not jump to the conclusion that our unknown transponder ID links this ship to you, Mr. Aacen. We’ll proceed as planned, but be ready for them to pounce. Be’tsar, make sure to keep the master for the weapons systems ready to activate the instant they show hostility, and keep our fallback course plotted into the hyperdrive.”
“Sepaq, Commander”
“Initiate the short range jump to Yantari Three Be’tsar”
“Sepaq, Commander” Toftri responded, and initiated the jump.
In only minutes we dropped out of hyperspace and held position to wait for Planetary Control to hail us, which only took a few moments. “Elegance of Light, this is Yantari Three Control. Please state your origin and business here.”
I glanced at Jophixa and noticed a slight telltale pinning of her ears. She was slightly nervous about this, and I didn’t blame her. Thankfully, Giobhioni body language would be a mystery to the control agent, even if we opened visual comms. Hell, even after all these weeks in their company, the only reason I understood half of what I did was from Stacy’s coaching.
Jophixa took a deep breath, nodded to herself, then tapped something on a control surface beside her chair. “Yantari Three Control, this is Commander Jophixa Throhx of the Elegance of Light. We represent the Giobhioni Republic, hailing from a region of space which is approximately 30,000 light years spinward on what we believe your people refer to as the Perseus Arm. We are exploring, and someone we met along the way recommended your wonderful planet as a place for a brief respite before continuing on our way. We have booked a reservation at a mountain hot-springs resort for that purpose. I am transmitting our reservation confirmation number.”
“Please stand by.” There was a couple minutes pause during which we all fidgeted anxiously. Well, except for Tratsa. I guess she was experienced enough that the stress wasn’t getting to her as much. You’d honestly expect Jophixa to be an old hand at this, but who was I to judge. “Commander? Your reservations are confirmed. Transmitting a designated berth for you now. Welcome to Yantari Three. I’ve been asked to advise you that there was an incident at the resort early this morning. Local security forces are investigating, but it should not affect your stay, and I hope you will pass good word of our hospitality back to the rest of your people. Yantari Control out.”
There was a quiet chime as Jophixa closed the channel from our end before turning towards me. “That didn’t sound good.”
“Not one iota.” I responded, “Stacy, there’s been no contact on the mail account, right?”
“Nothing but low quality lunch meat Tommy-kins.”
I frowned in confusion at that for a moment, then put the reference together. She was really pulling some old ones out of the closet. “Spam Stacy. The term is spam. The canned meat by the same name hasn’t been on the market for more than a century.”
“Whatever. There’s been no contact so far. And I’ve been watching it like an Eagle.”
At that point I knew she was trying to distract me. I appreciated it, but I needed to focus. “You still willing to help me, Jophixa?” I asked, trying not to let my desperation show on my face. This was not their problem after all. “If you’d rather, you can just drop me at the berth, and I’ll attempt to get her out on my own. No reason for the Commonwealth’s first experience with your people to be trouble.”
The indelicate sound that came from her throat was less a snort, and halfway to a bray, causing me to start. In our short acquaintance, I’d never heard her make such a noise, and out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a shocked look on Trasta’s face too. “Mr. Aacen.” She said, “We are here to save your people, and the rest of this sector’s people, from the Ktonshi contagion. If they are unable to get their heads out of their assholes, and take offense to a little dust up to rescue your sister…
She paused for a moment and a slight twinkle came to her violet eyes. “Well, let's just say your Commonwealth can go suck strixta. We came here to get Boudya and Jesse, and we’ll damned well do it, even if we have the whole damned Commonwealth Fleet on our asses when we leave. We Giobhioni don’t leave our friends holding the bag, got it?”
I was still blinking at her, trying to find words, when she turned back and ordered Toftri to take us down to the planet.
“The last time I heard Commander Throhx make that particular noise,” Tratsa whispered very quietly in my ear, having pulled me down to her level, “Was when a trio of cocky Hroglar traders said they were going to carry her off to their quarters to have their way with her. One of them needed a prosthetic jaw when the dust settled, and I’m told the others were left medically incapable of siring offspring.”
I turned to her, eyes wide, the memory of my first meeting with the then security chief coming to mind. Tratsa patted my cheek, “Oh, don’t worry about it. She likes you.” She assured me, “but Void help those down there who get in our way. Our Commander is likely to have gonads as trophies if I don’t miss my guess. We’ll get your sister and blue skinned paramour, and her mate. Don’t you worry.”
Looking at Jophixa again, I saw that she had called up their sensor feeds, and was looking at a live image of the resort’s grounds. The look of fierceness on her face was bringing to my mind descriptions of some of earth’s smallest but more dangerous creatures - mongoose, badgers, wolverines.
Oh yeah, I thought to myself, someone might just get their face bitten off. Literally. I’m glad she considers me a friend.