(pic: stock image of a ruined building)
A cold, lonely wind swept through the post-apocalyptic cul-de-sac.
They faced down their destination at its apex: a crumbling eight story apartment building with wall-high, dimly lit windows looming their dead eyes over the four figures below.
In another life, this could have been considered upscale architecture.
However, it was clear the royals only employed the bare minimum renovations required to appease city codes. A 'Beware All Ye Who Enter Here' sign at the head of the street would mesh perfectly with the ambiance. The street name itself of 'Sunridge' could use an upgrade, though.
The entire street and the two that flanked it created a slice of devastation shoehorned into the unkempt city from a dystopian world.
Will didn't hide his disappointment and disgust. "This is it?"
"Yup," Selka stated in flat agreement.
"Cozy," Yune's sarcastic tone added, "ya know, in that 'always lock your front door' kind of way," he folded his arms, "Reminds me of home."
Terra scanned up the faded azure paint job chipping off in places to show the old avocado green beneath. "It's a dump."
"Well," Selka tried to see the sunny side beyond the street name, " look at the bright side; it's got natural light, corner windows, exposed brick--"
A chunk of stone broke off a buttress under the protective overhang and crashed into a patch of dead foliage that once dreamed of being a yard. A raccoon-cat-like creature - a nathakit - startled out of the tall grass, hissed with its bottle-brush tail bushed out and short triangular ears flat, and scrabbled into the darkness.
"--garden décor."
"Why would your contact be in a dumpster like this?" Terra's last word hit as though she had tasted something bitter.
"Because dumpsters like this are where people like us go to hide."
Will eyed them both suspiciously, getting more of an idea of the crowd he and his only family were kidnapped into, "So, he's a criminal like you guys?"
"Hey, we're not criminals," Yune corrected him, "I prefer 'self-employed, devilishly-handsome rogue.'"
"Right," Will folded his arms, "because stealing stuff and kidnapping people is clearly legal."
Yune's annoyance meter went up another notch, "I regret that last one more every second."
Terra stopped at the bottom of the steps leading up to the front door. Something about the building seemed to push against her. She gripped her left upper arm in a subconscious move to protect herself.
"Terra? What's wrong?" Selka paused. The girl's fear had spiked. She noticed Will hadn't moved beyond the edge of the sidewalk, either.
"I don't want to go in there," the small girl shook her head, "It's...dark."
"Dark?"
Her head bobbled up and down, "This whole place feels dark." She wrapped her arms around herself more to stave it off.
Selka realized something about these children made them sensitive to the vibrations around them. All felorians - Ai Hiri or not - were trained from a young age to control their empathic abilities so that they wouldn't be constantly bombarded with unwanted information. Other mental skills beyond that developed at the onset of puberty.
She touched Terra's shoulder in empathy, "This city is old. It has a lot of ghosts it would rather forget."
Terra's feet remained rooted to the pavement. She took in the grim, shattered street, "What happened here?"
"The keth happened," Selka turned somber, "They targeted this district three years ago. Apparently they got what they wanted early in the attack and left the rest of the city alone." She didn't want to say most of the residents on these three streets were killed, but she didn't have to. The memories of terror, sadness, and loss stained the ground. "It's overkill, but effective."
"What were they looking for?" Will asked. Janna had never clarified their reasons. She hadn't even shown them the face of a keth. Just their ships, their angular helmets, and their technology, but mostly their devastation and how the Regents arrived immediately to fight them off and aid the survivors. If he passed a keth on the street without that helmet, he wouldn't know it.
"An invention, a natural resource, a person - no one knows," she shrugged, "The most we know about their motives is that they went after you, because you're a threat to them."
There it was again, always dogging them; the mysterious reason why the keth hunted them. Will didn't have a speck of a clue as to what a thousand children from a pre-space faring species could do to threaten an advanced race powerful enough to blow up a planet.
Knowing the keth were responsible for destroying this area to get someone or something, saddened him. The person they were after might have been like them - having zero idea what they could possibly have done, or would do, to incur a death sentence. These people lost their personal worlds and lives, and didn't know why. He wished he could tell them that he was sorry.
In Will's point of view, the Cos Bestans were more lucky than they could possibly imagine.
Selka's story explained why the royals hadn't rehabilitated this zone.
They stood in the heart of a memorial.
"Now I really don't want to be here," Terra squeaked.
"Yeah, you and me both," the solidarity left Yune before he could stop it.
He knew what the kids were feeling. It slapped him in the face the moment he set foot inside this district - likely due to his heightened anxiety about tiptoeing through the Dyne's back yard. He could only imagine what it did to Selka. However, he'd been to a melange of skeevy places in his life that gave him the same heebee-jeebees, so this was just another addition to that long list.
Selka blinked at him. She had watched him run headlong into situations without fear, pulse pistol blazing. They never bothered him before, or at least he never vocalized it.
He noticed her confused stare, "What? Squeaker's got a point. It's creepy," he shrugged. "Look, let's just talk to this guy and go." He marched up the stairs.
Will picked up a blue roofing tile chip, "They told us about Quora Ness. We saw the damage and how they were fixing it, but they didn't tell us about this place," he wondered how many other unknown places shared this fate.
Seeing it in person, being within the wreckage, and feeling the atmosphere for himself was completely different to the history lessons they'd received from Janna. Every single lesson came from the maskan viewpoint of the hero. Including their liberation of Mikra six thousand years ago.
"They didn't fix scak," Yune snarled, overhearing the boy's comment, "The Alliance barely has a presence there."
Will cocked his head slightly, "But they showed us a video of them rebuilding it."
"They fed you propaganda. They rebuilt a corner of the Dark Side and helped the government wall off the rest. The galaxy doesn't get to see what life is really like in there. They don't get to see the people who are trapped there."
"You've been there?" he wondered.
Yune ignored him and entered the building.
Selka answered his question, "Yune grew up on the dark side of Quora Ness. He doesn't like to talk about it."
"Oh," was all he could manage, because he suddenly felt ashamed.
She understood that there was no way he could have known about her friend, "The keth take what they want. Sometimes what they leave behind can't be repaired."
He studied the blue tile chip in his hand. The had told him the keth went into Quora Ness searching for something like they did here, didn't find it, and tried to blast the major coastal city off its continental shelf before the Regents chased them away. Or they did find it, and that's why half of the city was spared.
For the first time, he felt a pang of solidarity with the mik pilot who rescued them.
Selka directed them through the front door despite their grimaces of discomfort.
Inside the building's claustrophobic lobby, a tall housekeeping bot with multiple cleaning devices attached to its six twig-like arms rolled around toiling fruitlessly to complete its service programming. The bot itself looked as old as the building.
Will offered it a sponge mop after the bot bumbled past the stairs and knocked it over. The bot beeped a 'Thank you' and went back to work.
This amazed him.
From the decks of the Intrepid, to Strafsend, to this planet, bots were everywhere. They were a normal part of life everyone took for granted, and he loved it. He rarely had a chance to get a good look at the ones at Strafsend. Many of them were only waist high to a masakan adult. This one resembled a walking stick insect standing upright. If he could name it, he'd call it 'Twigs.'
"Will," Selka called back to get his attention, "leave it alone."
He left Twigs to continue its work down the hall of first floor apartments.
They took an elevator up to the top floor. Selka led them down the hall to a door at the end on the right hand side marked '801' in Yaalian.
"Now, remember;" Selka warned, "No mention of where you're from, the One Thousand, or what happened to you."
"You think he's going to tell the Regents?" Terra asked.
"No," she began, "but we have to be careful. No one can know who you are and what you can do. Keep your powers a secret. Got it?"
"We don't even know what we are," Will replied. "How can we spill the beans if we don't have any beans to spill?
"Promise me."
Both kids answered, "We promise."
"Good." She hoped the kids would remember that and keep their mouths shut.
"Should we have fake identities, too?" Will blurted out, going back to their earlier conversation in the cockpit, "I want to be something cool like Ace, or Striker, or--,"
"Skyflyer," Terra interrupted,
"Ew, no. That's not cool."
She shrugged, "It sounds pretty. And it reminds me of flying. I always wished I could fly."
"That's an air skiff, not a name," Yune grumbled. The A22 Skyflyer was an extremely popular two seater consumer model. They were standard and simple to modify, which made finding aftermarket parts for them easy.
Will ignored him, "I don't want a pretty name, I want a name that sounds like a scar. Heroic. Like - like Indiana. I could be ...Indiana Striker!"
She eyed him, "Indiana doesn't sound heroic."
"He's the bravest archeologist that ever lived!"
"I don't care if he invented the hyperdrive, just shut up," Yune snapped. "In fact, don't talk at all. You're officially mute."
Will leaned over to whisper to Terra softly, "Striker."
"Skyflyer," she retorted in the same soft whisper.
"Ssh." Selka hushed them.
She raised her hand to press the door chime, but paused. Something didn't seem right.
Instead, her fingers slipped down to the handle of her pulse pistol strapped to her right thigh. "Wait here," she ordered. She entered in a keycode, and the door slid open.
Yune readied his weapon just in case and made sure the kids were out of the direct line of fire.
The lights in the open plan living room and kitchen were on, but not a soul occupied them. The door to the master bedroom to the right and the guest bedroom and bathroom down the hall from the front door to the left were closed.
She tread quietly across the light fog gray hardwood floors, ready to fire at the slightest hint of a threat. Various rugs in cool hues with warm accents were strewn across the floor for aesthetics and sound absorption.
Finding the place empty, she nodded an 'all clear.'
He entered with the two kids ahead of him just in case anyone snuck up on their six, then shut and locked the door.
"This is nice," Terra sat on a cream colored couch with an evening-blue blanket draped over the back up against the far windows and bounced, "It doesn't look like the outside at all. It's clean."
Will wandered around to familiarize himself with the place. The apartment had a minimalist feel. Judging by a pull notch in the windows facing the balcony, they could accordion-open to bring the outside in. He found it difficult to imagine a hardened criminal calling a place like this 'home.'
Framed art of Ilthall with three moons painted in hues of golds and blues hung on the wall across from the balcony next to a large vid screen - a reproduction of 'Ghost Moon' by the famous yondi artist, Elan Kassi.
Yune spotted a Regent ear com on a side table between two armchairs facing the corner windows. He picked it up and examined it. It wasn't active or transmitting, but its presence piqued his curiosity. The tech seemed barely used.
He set it down.
Yune picked up a bulbous blue glass bottle next, "Not big on decorating, is he." Most of those who shared their line of work either lived on their ships, or moved around to follow jobs and avoid those wanting to shoot a bolt through their head.
His reflection in a small mirror on the hallway wall across from the doors to the guest bedroom in the middle, and the bathroom next to it caught his attention.
His contacts flickered. A slight headache returned, then faded. That might mean his contacts were on the verge of complete failure. He needed to find someone to fix them soon, or he'd be in serious trouble, "It's a good thing you knew the code to get in."
"I should," Selka picked up the sprig of an herb left on the kitchen counter next to more soaking in a bowl of hot water, "It's my house."
"Your house?" both kids' blurted out.
"You live here?" Terra couldn't believe Selka would choose this place if it gave her the same dark feeling.
"How can you stand it?" Will shuddered from the sense of the cul de sac that permeated the walls.
"You get used to it. Besides, it was a steal for real estate around here. This is one of the largest units. There's no way I would have been able to afford this place before the attack." She chuckled, "You should have seen the real estate agent's face when he found out a felorian wanted to live here."
"Wait, if this is your house, then that means...," his face paled.
"Yup," she offered them a small smile, "Welcome home."
They both looked like they'd seen a ghost.
She gestured down the hallway, "The two rooms down the hall are yours."
Will's expression read of someone who just found out they would never grow beyond four-feet tall, and Terra's lips pinched together like she was about to cry.
"Oh, come on, you two, it's not that bad," she tried to ease their discomfort, "We're close to the shopping district, there's a school nearby, and your rooms have a clear view of the ocean."
Will looked out the windows of the small room closest to the living room that faced the decimated cul de sac, "Yeah, and a clear view of death."
"Hang on," Yune's exclamation lashed out with the reflex of someone avoiding a punch to the nose, "You and this guy live together? Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because there's nothing to tell," she swept away his jump to a very wrong conclusion. "He owns the building. He watches the place for me when I'm gone, that's all."
"Oh." The tension in his chest relaxed slightly. "...Well, he did a fantastic job, seeing as he's not even here."
"Oh, he's here," her gaze flicked upward, "I'll be right back. Make yourself at home. Controls to the vid screen are on the table. There should be food in the refrigerator," she opened the door, "Oh, and if we were living together, that's none of your business," she smiled.
The door closed behind her.
Of course their personal lives were of no business to each other, but he couldn't help his reaction. The two of them had worked and lived closely together on the Horizon for three years. She was the reason he'd had a chance to leave Mikra. He thought of her as family.
He also knew she'd fallen in and out of love many times. He'd been her sounding board for every one of her relationships. Felorians in particular weren't concerned so much with physical appearance as the soul they sensed from that person. It helped, but wasn't a requirement.
Sometimes he wondered how anyone could fall in love multiple times so easily in the first place. Sure, he'd gone on dates, and used his charm, but romance was never his focus. In fact, he would often forget about it. Only twice in his life could he say he'd fallen in love; once as a teenager, and once after he'd left Mikra.Neither girl wanted to stick around.
"I'll bet he's eight feet tall, and has his kill count tattooed on his pecs," Will's comment barged through Yune's thoughts, "And his name is The Destructor."
Yune rummaged through the kitchen cupboards for any cookies, finding a box of his favorites, "What is going on in your head?" he remarked, but he had to admit the kid had a flair for imagination.
"Jealous he might be taller than you?" Will wheedled.
"Why would I be jealous of a hypothetical scenario?" he at half a cookie, speaking with his mouth full, "The Destructor is not taller than me," he finished off he cookie, grabbing another one, "Besides, he can get in and out without a problem, so he's not an anulean."
"What's an anulean?"
"Humanoids between nine and twelve feet tall," he casually popped the cooking into his mouth.
Will's eyes bugged out, "Whoa, aliens like that exist?"
Yune, seeing an opportunity to really mess with the kid, grabbed it by the horns, "Oh yeah. They're enormous, purple, mean, white-haired monsters with fangs and razor sharp claws. They stink, and they'll pick you up in one hand the size of half your body like you weigh nothing," he pulled a facetious sneer, "and they eat children."
He crunched on a cookie for added emphasis.
Fear shot through Will. He swallowed the lump in his throat and forced a weak chuckle, "Come on," This galaxy had some truly terrifying creatures. And yet the adventurous side of him was curious about seeing an Anulean, "No they don't."
"Fine. Don't believe me. But I've experienced how terrifying they are first hand. None of the weird stuff I've seen even touches how evil they are. During the day, they track your every movement. They will touch you whenever they want like you're their pet, and if you anger them, you'd better find the smallest place to hide in fast, and hope they don't smash it to get you out. And at night, it's even worse. They'll stare at you as you sleep - if you can sleep. They just sit there and stare all creepy with their creepy eyes. When you wake up and realize you're not alone, it takes everything you have to not move a muscle, pretending to stay asleep and praying they'll go away. They eventually do, but sleep is impossible afterward. They'll tear you from your bed in the middle of the night without warning and delight in your screams. You'll lie awake wondering if that's the night they'll come for you until a full night's sleep becomes nothing but a distant memory," Yune leaned against the back of the couch. "Actually, you're about the right height for a tasty snack. They can swallow a runt like you whole."
Terra squeaked, tightly hugging a throw pillow. She actually knew how that felt - the part about being taken in the middle of the night.
He gave up the game when both kids stared back with wide, horror-filled eyes, "Relax. I'm kidding. Anuleans don't eat people. They actually see humans as just above pet status and most of them think we're cute. It's annoying. Most of the rest is true, though."
She heaved a sigh of relief.
Will plopped into an armchair, "I knew you were lying, you big, dumb jerk."
He tossed a round throw pillow at the kid, "Sure you did."
Will threw it back.
Anuleans might not be the terrors in the night Yune played them up to be, but even if they were, he still wanted to see one.