The Unexpected Human Problem, page 9
After verifying that the full amount and a decent gratuity had been applied to his account, Tai’dqei gave a curt nod and turned to leave.
He tried to keep his movements slow and fluid, as if he had nowhere else to be. When he, in fact, had to track down that damned human. His mind was already racing with possibilities as to where Rayelle would try to go first. Most likely, she’d try to hitch a ride out of the area, trying to break the signal emitted from her tracking collar.
Less likely, but more to Tai’dqei’s hopes, she’d seek out Ah’ke if only to prove to him she had the right to freedom.
He just barely kept from growling to himself before Zav’s voice rang out again, causing the ja-tau to pause. “If I do find out you kept something valuable from me, I’ll be very cross.”
After a breath of waiting, Tai’dqei continued on his way out. There was nothing more to say to the Florizian, though the ja-tau felt the stare on his back the entire way out.
Once the bounty hunter left, the crew scurried to lock the door of the rental office. Zav plucked up a skull possessing one eye socket from the container, staring at it in a bored fashion. A human-cyborg assistant scuttled up to his side. Without looking at them, Zav asked, “What were his notifications about?”
“S-security event. His ship was unlocked and there were alerts from a tracking program.” The assistant held out a holo-tablet to Zav. One of his tendrils relinquished it from the cyborg, who flinched at the touch.
Sucking air in between his teeth, Zav considered the chances of someone daring to break into a ja-tau ship and something of enough value to require a tracker. As he scrolled further, he realized it was a tracker that could measure biological vitals.
Though his assistant hadn’t managed to hack further into the logs, Zav was willing to bet those particular files would affirm his suspicions.
“Home in on that tracking signal and follow it,” Zav commanded, shoving the tablet back to the cyborg.
They took the tablet, instantly tapping commands into it as they turned to the others. Zav let his assistant deal with assembling a team and orchestrating a plan as he turned his attention back to the skull in hand. He flexed his fingers, the bone cracking under his grip.
He wanted that human.
GETTING OUT OF THE ship had been easier than Rayelle expected. The ear worm didn’t extend to written words, so she was out of luck just looking for a plainly labeled escape hatch. Using context and intuition, she soon found an emergency release lever for the door that led outside. She presumed it was used in cases where the ship went up in flames and the system malfunctioned or some similar misfortune happened.
Of course, getting the damned door open was another story. It took her a solid fifteen minutes of hauling on the lever before the heavy entryway divided enough for her to squeeze through. Once she got her ass and packed rucksack out of the ship, freedom tasted sweet.
Well, metaphorically.
Rayelle’s initial presumption she was in a sort of docking sector for spaceships proved correct, so the air tasted like oil and electricity and metal. Among a number of indecipherable or unnamable smell-tastes, as well.
Steadying herself and trying not to look like some naive space tourist, she marched her way down the ramp and into the docks. It was hard not to stare. Whether it was at the ships – a variety of designs and shapes and materials that she couldn’t even begin to understand the engineering behind – or the variety of people. Skin colors, textures, solidity, feathers, scales, furry, large teeth, mandibles. Her brain overloaded, drinking in the new details and marveling at the sheer diversity of sentient life.
Rayelle didn’t realize she’d even left the docking sector until her ears registered the familiar sounds of salespeople.
“Two for the price of one! This cycle only!”
“Try our new fragrance! Made from the nectar of the luscious and rare zelu flower!”
“Fresh gth’uk! Get it fresh, get it hot!”
Bright white tiles blanketed the floor. Storefronts lined the walls. A little to her right, she found a large window looking out into the inky expanse of space. A reddish planet slowly rotated nearby, which was likely what the station orbited. There were tables set up in front of the window and it seemed a number of aliens – and even human or human-looking people – were enjoying their lunch break there. Or whatever meal it was for them.
It was like a mall or airport, Rayelle realized with a start. Albeit filled with non-humans and glimpses of unfamiliar tech and a literal stellar view. Still, it felt like a mall or airport. Then again, maybe that was just her mind trying to equate it to something more familiar.
Adjusting her hold on the rucksack she had stolen from Tai’dqei’s storage, she tried to figure out where to go. Ideally, she wanted to get the collar off but she had no clue where to go for that. A tech shop? A welder? The authorities?
She skimmed the signs around the entrances of the shops. Unfortunately, she couldn’t make heads or tails of anything.
If she couldn’t find someone to help, Rayelle feared she’d just have to hitch a ride outside of the collar’s range. It couldn’t report her position to the ends of the universe, right?
As that thought crossed her mind, she paused. Suddenly thrust into this world of unfamiliarity, part of her had to admit that Tai’dqei had a point. She had no clue where to go, who was friend or foe. She couldn’t even read the store signs! Could she make it much farther than this? Did she want to?
At least with Tai’dqei she was reasonably safe. Even if she didn’t want to feel that way with him.
“Looking for something?”
Rayelle startled, drawn from her thoughts by a stranger’s words. She did her best to school her reaction. The stranger had buttercream yellow skin with butterfly-like wings sprouting from the sides of their face and large pink eyes.
Other that those details, they seemed rather humanoid. Overall, they weren’t the most outlandish extraterrestrial she had seen. In fact, they looked – and smelled, Rayelle realized – rather sweet.
Hesitating, she teetered behind saying she was fine and slinking back to Tai’dqei’s ship or continuing her mission. What was the point of getting off his ship if she didn’t take this first step? Tugging at the collar of her own jacket, Rayelle showed the butterfly-stranger the blinking collar latched around her neck. “Yeah, I need to get this off.”
“Why’re you wearing that?” Something changed in Butterfly’s expression, translating to surprise to Rayelle. Although she couldn’t pinpoint what exactly had changed. A widening of the eyes or perhaps the wings angling upward.
“My friend thought it’d be a funny prank.” Her voice dripped with dry snark as she recited the lie she had come up with on the ship. It wasn’t the best, but she couldn’t be sure what would even land. A mischievous cohort with an ill-thought prank seemed like something that would be universal. Or intergalactic in this case.
Butterfly snorted, their face-wings fluttering. “Your friend is an ass.”
“Don’t I know it,” Rayelle sighed, releasing her jacket’s collar. “Got any recommendations?”
The extraterrestrial paused for half a breath, their eyes narrowing imperceptibly. “Why don’t you have your friend remove it?”
“They took off this morning. They’re supposed to be back tomorrow.” Rayelle leaned into the second part of her lie, hoping it was believable to whatever Butterfly was. “Part of their prank.”
“I see.” Butterfly’s lips scrunched together, their wings fluttering slowly as their feet shifted.
Apprehension rose in Rayelle’s head. She didn’t like the feeling radiating from Butterfly. If her own intuition was correct, it was either suspicion or some sort of calculation. Neither struck Rayelle as appropriate or heartening. “If you can’t help, I’ll keep look—”
“Wait up, wait up. I didn’t say I couldn’t help!” Holding up their hands while their wings fluttered nervously, Butterfly flashed Rayelle a mildly distressed expression.
Rayelle paused and the alien peered around, humming to themself. It seemed Butterfly was trying to decide something before they gave a resolute nod and turned back to Rayelle. “Follow me, I know a place.”
They turned and trotted between two storefronts, through something that felt akin to an alleyway to Rayelle. In reality, it was just a smaller and slightly dimmer corridor. The warning bells in her head rang and she ran through her options. She could just not follow them. Turn around and head back to Tai’dqei’s ship and wait for him to return. Allow this new norm to remain.
But if she followed the stranger, she might get the collar removed thus regaining her freedom. Tai’dqei wasn’t about to give that to her. She wasn’t sure if he would ever trust her enough to remove the collar. This seemed to be the only way.
Though she doubted Tai’dqei would offer her freedom easily, once she snagged it for herself – even if he caught her again – maybe he’d let her have what she managed to grasp. If she managed it once, she could do so again. And again, and again. Until he got the hint.
If she lived, a treacherous little voice said at the back of her head, but Rayelle steadfastly ignored it as she strode toward the smaller corridor.
Chapter 8
OKAY, SO FOLLOWING Butterfly had been a bad idea. A 100%— No! A 200% bad idea.
Rayelle gasped for breath as she raced through the crowded corridor. Her pack thumped up and down on her back with every step she took. Even if she’d been in peak physical condition – which she wasn’t, even before her abduction – the number of people milling about the station were numerous obstacles.
She constantly found herself ducking and dodging around bodies. Always adjusting her path to the one of least resistance as she hurried and scrambled through the throngs.
Behind her, a horde of fifty or so aliens pursued. Rayelle should have known when the longer and further she followed Butterfly, the more people Butterfly had shared a look or a few quiet words with.
At first, it hadn’t seemed strange. Perhaps they were just amiable and had plenty of friends and connections. It was when some of these presumed friends started to accumulate that Rayelle worried. Some wandered next to Butterfly, some flanked Rayelle and made idle conversation with her, others tailed behind her. They all shared the same intent gaze. A pressure descended on her, the warning bells screamed louder in her head until she felt breathless.
Rayelle didn’t remember how she got away. Maybe it was something that was said or the salacious timbre of the words or the looks that made her stomach churn. Or maybe she caught the concerned gaze of onlookers. She couldn’t say.
She just suddenly stopped, pushed through a weak side of the group, and took off running. The pounding footfalls of pursuit soon followed behind her, along with a cacophony of shouts and even snarls. At points, it even seemed as if her pursuers fought with each other as meaty slams or shrieks of pain followed her.
A crackle of something like an intercom hissed overhead, but Rayelle couldn’t make out the words. She just ran.
Occasionally, something would grab at her with a hand or tentacle or claw. She lost her rucksack and her jacket before she resorted to yanking away from the touches, slamming fists and elbows and feet into anyone that laid a hand on her.
She had just shoved off yet another stalker, when something big, heavy, and invisible landed behind her from above with a hard wham! The unseen thing made her and others in the crowd scream. Some turned tail and raced off. The floor vibrated intensely beneath her, making her very bones shudder and her feet stumble.
As she tumbled, the impact of her body meeting the floor bruised her hip and she heard the unseen thing give a familiar snarl. Meaty sounding thumps resounded as strikes landed. She managed to roll onto her back, pushing herself further away from the new danger. As her previous pursuers piled onto the thing, a faint outline of the invisible opponent glittered to life wherever hits landed.
Her eyes widened when – whether due to damage or voluntarily – the cloaking mechanism shut off.
Tai’dqei was there, various aliens barreled atop him as he flung them back. Attackers went flying across the corridor, slamming into walls or skidding across the floor. The sound of bones and cartilage cracking echoed in the air, followed by painful screams. It was like watching a pride of lions getting tossed by a battle-hungry rhino.
It hadn’t taken him long to track down Rayelle. The fucking swarm of aliens running after her had been a decent hint. At the sight, rage instantly bubbled through him. Many would enjoy a human companion for various reasons and the longer that thought rotated in his head, the angrier he became.
Barely taking in another breath, he had clambered up a support beam and bounded his way toward the chase. He’d at least had the sense to trigger his cloaking mechanism in his angry haze. Metal creaked under his weight and lights flickered as his body passed in front of them, but everyone down below was too focused on the chaos in their midst.
The others were gaining on Rayelle, grabbing at her. Every hand that landed on her prickled through Tai’dqei’s self-restraint. They yanked her rucksack from her back, but it was watching someone haul her jacket off her that made his rage flare. She had barely stumbled far enough ahead of her pursuers before he dropped between them.
His opponents didn’t have time to readjust their pursuit mindset before Tai’dqei began thrashing them all. Satisfaction coursed through his blood with every impact of his fist, every foe fumbling to the ground. Some of the quicker enemies managed to reroute their thought processes, going on the attack or fleeing from the ja-tau newcomer.
By the time the last contender had been tossed aside, Tai’dqei’s chest heaved with enraged breaths. At some point during the brawl, someone had managed to knock his helmet off. It lay yards away, none of the onlookers daring to touch or get close to it. His body remained in a fighting pose, feet planted and muscles tense. Readied for further fight, readied to strike anyone who dared to come close to his human charge.
Rayelle stared up at him, eyes wide and mouth agape. Self-preservation screamed at her to get up, to run. A sick fascination kept her staring, watching Tai’dqei’s muscles flex as he fought and listening to his aggravated gnarls. As he stood over her, she could but help but admire how far his chest expanded with his breaths.
He slowly shifted backward, positioning Rayelle between his feet. At that point, she tore her gaze from him, half rolling to her side. She didn’t trust her gaze to remain on polite areas.
A raspy hiss left him before a roar expelled from his chest. A cry caught in Rayelle’s throat as she curled on the floor, partly around Tai’dqei’s large foot. His bellow vibrated through her ears, through her skull, but her arms instinctively wrapped around his leg, hugging his familiarity close.
His roar rumbled through the corridor before dwindling into a clicking growl in his chest. Others in the crowd fell to their knees or scurried backward, if not outright fled. Some did linger, still watching with concerned expressions.
If the fight had not made his intentions clear, his bellow did: This human was his.
A HEART POUNDING STILLNESS descended on the corridor. There were still bystanders watching Tai’dqei and Rayelle, though at a far greater distance than before.
When it appeared no one was going to challenge him further, Tai’dqei turned his attention to Rayelle. She still cowered at his feet, curled into a fetal position. With a gentle tug, he relinquished his foot from her grasp. As he crouched down, she looked up at him with features drained of color and a slight tremble to her lips.
Her gaze flickered along his face. He wore smears of bright green liquid and, upon further inspection, he had a small handful of cuts along his arms and legs between the plates of armor. All oozing bright green blood. Something uncomfortable shifted in her stomach, her eyes dragging back to his face.
Another series of memories danced along her mind’s eye. Old conversations with Evan echoed in her head, angry and accusatory. Tiny little gremlins of fear and desperation clawed through her chest.
Before Tai’dqei could say anything, Rayelle blurted in a painfully hushed way, “Are you angry with me?”
His mandibles fidgeted around his maw as he stared at her. He wasn’t sure how to respond, his brain was still full of triumphant battle frenzy and adrenaline. If he was honest, he wanted to haul her over his shoulder and drag her back to his ship. An almost silent rumble rattled in his chest, all the lurid things he could do to keep her from running away again flashing through his head.
Beyond the haze of hormones, he was a little annoyed. He had told her to stay put for her own safety and, even then, she couldn’t listen. He couldn’t blame her. She harbored little trust in him for good reasons.
Before Tai’dqei could answer Rayelle, or shake away the troublesome hormones plaguing his thoughts, a heavily armored Station Peacekeeper loomed over the both of them. “What’s the problem here?”
Tai’dqei offered the Peacekeeper an annoyed glance before straightening from his slight hunch. He didn’t feel like taking on an armored authority, especially when he could sense their disdain behind their helmet. “I’m her travel companion, officer.”
Tai’dqei and this presumed station guard were of equal height, making Rayelle feel even tinier than she had moments earlier. Shakily, she pulled herself together and raised herself off the floor. Even as she peered between the two hulking figures, her eyes were drawn to Tai’dqei’s bleeding injuries. Her stomach twisted with guilt.
“Is that so?” The officer turned to Rayelle. Though she couldn’t see their expression beyond the smooth helmet, she thought she could hear their eyebrow equivalent raise with skepticism. They leaned a little closer to her. Faintly, Rayelle wondered if their helmet had some sort of scanning implement or if they were just peering very intensely at her.
