Vai

There was a wide corridor in front of us and two smaller corridors off to the sides - one to the right and one to the left. I listened, but couldn't hear anything other than my own breathing and the occasional mechanical sounds that came from Warpaint.

"Do your sensors pick up the girl, Warpaint?" I whispered.

"Yes, sir." Warpaint wasn't quiet.

I scowled at him, but he didn't seem to notice or care.

"Where is she? Is she on this level?" I asked quietly. I couldn't hear any signs of Owen yet. He was traveling through the maintenance shafts 3 levels though. It might take him a little while.

"Yes. She's behind you in the maintenance shaft."

I heard the hard sigh behind me and to the side of the elevator. The maintenance hatch burst open and out she came - almost flying. She sprung at me. I saw it, but it was too fast and unexpected for me to actually register and prepare that she was attacking me.

Warpaint was suddenly there in front of me. He knocked her back with his oversized right arm. She crashed backwards into the wall. She paused a moment as she sat on the floor watching Warpaint. Like what happened on Brist, the red lines on Warpaint began to seep and spread into the white until he was mostly red instead of white.

She leaped up like a great cat and kicked both feet into Warpaint's chestplate. His 3 arms tried to grab her, but were just slightly too slow. The force of her kick knocked him backwards. His large, mechanical feet slid across the floor until he hit the wall of the corridor.

I swallowed as she turned to me. There was no way a human could knock Warpaint with such force. Maybe a K'thaktra could, but definitely not a human. We had made a mistake. If there was a dangerous alien species we had never heard about, she was it despite her human appearance.

She took a step towards me. Her brown eyes beamed with hatred and violence. I took up my boxing position, but I knew if she could knock back Warpaint like that, I didn't have a chance. It would be like with Thrissko all over again.

A force - like a strong wind or gale - burst out of Warpaint's large hand. The girl - Esther I remembered a little late - was knocked backwards and away from me again.

Warpaint didn't wait. As soon as he shot out the wind, he ran towards her - all 3 arms raised to bring down on top of her.

She didn't touch him. I saw it and knew she didn't touch him. And yet when she stretched both her arms out towards him, he flew backwards as if she had her own gale that flew out of her hands. I had felt the residual wind from Warpaint's attack, but I felt nothing from hers. I didn't know how she did it.

They stood up almost at the same time. Neither of them looked at me. It was as if they had both forgotten I was there.

They rushed each other. She jumped and kicked at his head. His top left arm grabbed her right foot just as both her feet wrapped around his mechatronic head. She was tall. Not as tall as me or Warpaint, but with strength I knew wasn't possible in a human, she used her momentum to carry herself so her hands met the floor. She flipped with Warpaint's head still between her feet and brought him to the floor. She tried to stand, but his hand was still wrapped around her foot.

She tripped, but caught herself with her hands. There was only a slight pop in Warpaint's left top hand before tendrils of electricity shot out and encompassed her leg.

"Don't kill her!" I wasn't sure at that moment what made me say that. I wasn't thinking straight. It wasn't because I wanted to talk to her to get information - though it should have been.

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The electricity stopped. Warpaint looked at me and opened his hand. She crawled away from him and stood. Warpaint stood too and put himself between me and her.

I wasn't sure when she started to cry. She didn't make any audible noise, but the tears were on her cheeks, flowed to her neck. And for a moment I thought I was wrong. She seemed more human in that moment than any time I had previously seen her. There was sadness in her eyes, not pain or hurt or fear.

The air shifted around her, shimmered, turned pink. Not the pink sparkling fog of zek. This was different. Almost a pale - almost imperceptible - pink light. It surrounded her and only her.

"Do you see this, Warpaint?" I asked.

"What, sir?"

"The light . . ."

Something shifted in her eyes and I knew. This was the moment she was going to kill us.

"Wait!" Something fell out of the hatch. Not something. Someone. Owen.

Owen scrambled to his feet and ran between us towards Esther.

"Stay back, Owen!" I said.

But he didn't listen. He ran straight to Esther. She paused. He ran through that shimmering pink light and didn't seem fazed by it. I wasn't sure he even saw it.

He wrapped his arms around her waist and said, "We came to help you, Esther. You don't have to be alone. We came to help."

She turned away from him and dropped to her knees. This time her cries were audible even though she tried to stifle them.

Owen turned to Warpaint. "Why did you attack her? She needs our help."

"She attacked first," Warpaint said.

"It's true," I said. But the guilt welled up inside. Seeing her like that, on her knees, shoulders bent forward, with sobs that wracked her entire being - how could I have ever thought she wasn't human? "She attacked first," I said quietly.

But Owen had turned back to Esther. He had a hand on her shoulder. "It's going to be okay now." He patted her head. "You're not alone anymore."

"And you," he turned back to Warpaint. "Put all that red away." He rushed at Warpaint and brushed the red on Warpaint with his palms as if he could wipe it away. "That's frightening," he said.

The red on Warpaint began to retreat back into lines. Owen went back to Esther and put his hand on her shoulder again. Her sobs had stopped. Her shoulders were a little straighter. The back of her hands came up and roughly brushed away her tears.

"I can't let you leave and tell anyone about me," she said. There was nothing in her voice to indicate she had just been crying. She stayed on her knees turned away from us.

"We aren't going to tell anyone," Owen said. "I'm not lying when I say we came to help."

"We are here to help," I said. I took a step forward - passed Warpaint. My mechatronic bodyguard didn't like that and he stepped in front of me.

"I'm sorry for Warpaint," I said, "but he is programmed to be my bodyguard and it seemed like you were going to attack me."

"I was," she said. She stood up and turned around in one fluid motion.

"I don't understand why you would come to help me." She looked down at Owen. "I don't understand why you would tell me I'm not alone anymore. Neither of you know me."

"We know you are alone," Owen said. "You know something the rest of us don't. Something you shouldn't bear alone."

"We won't tell on you," I said.

"You already did once though," she said. "How else would security know where to find me?"

"That's only because they arrested Owen when you stole the items from the museum," I said. "I had to protect him. We didn't know you then."

"You don't know me now," she said.

"We know more about you than we did then," Owen said.

She breathed out long and low.

"What is this dangerous alien you spoke about?" Owen asked. "Is that why you stole the museum items? Did you kidnap Officer Hansi?"

She looked up at the ceiling.

"Is your leg okay?" I asked.

"Why?" Owen said. "What happened to her leg?" He tried to lift her pant leg, but it was the wrong leg. She swiped his hand away.

"It's fine," she said. She started walking down the large corridor in front of us.

Owen looked at me. I shrugged. He followed her. I stepped in behind them. Warpaint made sure he was always a pace in front of me and between me and Esther.

She stopped in front of a door. Most of the rooms on this floor were empty personal quarters. This seemed to be one of them.

"Before we go in," she said, "know that you can't unsee what I show you. You can't unhear what I tell you. I could try to make you forget." She looked down at Owen, "but I'm obviously not strong enough yet to make that stick."

She looked at me. "Are you sure you want to know?" I nodded. She looked to Owen. He nodded.

She opened the door and we followed her in. The quarters on this level were smaller than the quarters on my level. There was only one bedroom instead of two. When she opened the door to the bedroom, Officer Hansi was asleep - I hoped not dead - on the bed.

She stepped inside and turned to us. "I've been hesitating. I've never done it before, but," she looked at the sleeping Starwatcher, "we have to kill him."