The walk was quiet. Fort VI smelled like iron, like blood. The corridors were dank and there were people in all the alleys. She wasn’t sure where any of the illumination was coming from, or where on this planetoid she would be being dropped off at.
“Excuse me.” said a stranger. He was wearing a torn jacket and an equally dishevelled shirt, both oil-stained and rancid. His pants had been torn into shorts and his skin was dirt black, with pockets of beige where water must have somehow hit it. His shoes were brand new.
“How can I helpya?” Mart asked.
“Can’t help but notice you’re selling a Blackwing.”
Red didn’t bother to flare her wings, staring at the ground dejectedly.
“Already sold, brother.” Mart replied.
“Well – for how much. Those blue eyes…” Red could almost feel the man’s glare. It sent shivers down her spine. There was something about him that made her extremely wary, forcing her to press up against Mart’s leg for security.
It put Mart on the defensive. “Not for sale, bud. Get out of here.”
“I’ll give you a hundred fifty million. Those eyes. The wings are red aren’t they?”
“Buzz off, bud.” Mart pushed the man, sending him tumbling back a few paces before steadying himself again.
“Take the offer, or you’ll regret it!” warned the man, reaching for his pocket.
Mart had his pistol drawn before the man could even reveal the blade in his pocket.
“I’m not telling you again.” Mart growled.
With a scoff, the man was gone, disappearing into the crowd that had gathered to see the commotion.
Within moments, everything had returned to normal.
“You didn’t take the offer?” Red asked.
“There was no way he could pay a hundred fifty. He was wasting my time.”
“Oh…” Red replied disappointedly.
“And even if he could. You belong to Darnell. I know of an abandoned suite here that Mao has code-locked. I transmitted the address on Allonsi’s beemspace band.”
“What if she doesn’t understand?! She’s still young Mart. This is too risky!”
“Hey – look at the bright side: At least it’ll be over soon, eh?” Mart laughed.
“You’re horrible…” Red cried.
“Oh Red.” he kneeled down and pet her. She growled defensively at first, but couldn’t help but give in to the comfort. “There. I de-activated the inhibitor. The timer’s at forty-seven minutes and Darnell still hasn’t shown up…”
“Reset it!” Red hissed.
“I can’t. Not without fifty million in my wallet.”
“There’s no failsafe?!” Red cried in surprise.
“Nope.”
“You’re crazy! Crazy!” she extended her talons and swiped at him. He let her swipe a few times before predicting her attacks and grabbing her paws, picking her up by the forelegs and putting her over his shoulder. She clawed at his back ineffectively. “I hate you I hate you!”
–
The room was old and dank, like everything else on this planetoid. But the keypad looked brand new, and it worked. Mart was about to enter the code when he realized he forgot it. Red had fallen asleep during the five minute walk. He put her down and reached into his pocket for his datapal, only to be greeted by darkness.
The world was a painful blur of red and green as he gained his bearings. “Shit.”
“Mart!” Red screamed. It was a blood-curdling scream, barely audible to Mart’s translators. The roar of it made his ears ring.
He immediately ran over to her. The collar was beeping rapidly.
“Two minutes… shit!” Mart hissed.
“Do something, Mart.” Red cried, in tears.
Mart looked at the collar, stroking Red with his other hand. This would be horrible. He’d let her down. What an idiot he was. “There’s nothing I could do, Red.”
“No!” she wailed, extending her talons and pressing against him, trying to slit his throat.
Mart easily pinned her on her back. “I’m sorry. I really am.”
“You aren’t! Otherwise you’d never have put a bomb on my head!” Red cried.
“I. If there was anything I could do.” Mart said, keeping her from getting her paws free.
“I’m only four years old!” Red cried, “A few more years and I could’ve had a mate! We could’ve had hatchlings and a family and Fawkes woulda been so proud!
“Really? At six years?” Mart asked incredulously.
“Why not? We mature quick!” she said with a pleasant smile, seemingly lost in a fantasy.
“But what about money first, and—“ The timer was at one minute now. “None of that will matter in a minute…”
“I’m sorry!” he sobbed, tugging at the collar incredulously. “If I could do something I would.” He let her paws go. “Kill me if you want. If it’ll make your death less painful.”
Ready to lose everything over the guilt of this hatchling Vorchan.
Red nuzzled him, “I forgive you…” she whimpered, closing her eyes.
Lose everything…
Mart reached for his datapal. They hadn’t taken it. He went into his account databank, and reversed the transaction, hoping this would work.
He stroked her affectionately, bracing himself for the explosion. He didn’t want to see it. He would leave and never look at her again if it exploded.
Nothing. They waited a few more minutes, not moving or breathing.
Finally, Mart opened his eyes, checking the collar LCD: Transfer complete.
He looked at his datapal: Zero dollars.
“Heh. It worked.” Mart said.
Red opened her eyes. “What worked?”
“I reversed the transaction. The disarm sequence couldn’t differentiate between a deposit and a withdrawal.”
“Reversed it?” Red shuddered.
Mart hugged her. “I’m broke now. I sent everything to Darnell.”
“You gave away everything? To save me?”
“You’re just a kid.” Mart sighed.
Red nuzzled his face, licking his cheeks. “I was worth everything to you!”
“Let’s just say I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself seeing you die here.”
“I love you!” Red exclaimed.
“That’s great.” Mart sighed, petting her while sobbing quietly over the fact that he was dead broke and a prisoner. “You know someone captured us, right?”
“I know…” Red replied lucidly.
“They could torture and kill us.”
“I know…”
“You don’t care do you?” Mart asked.
“You gave everything to save me.” Red growled. “You know… there’s—“
The door opened.
Red roared, making the man who had opened the door flinch. It was that same raggedy man.
“I told ya you’d regret it I did!” cackled the man.
“Who are you?” Mart asked.
“Ain’t any cause for knowing that.” said the man, holding the collar’s device. He pressed the shock button. Red cried out in pain. Mart tightened his grip around her as the current passed through both of them. “Ha and-it works! Brilliant!”
“Why wouldn’t it?” Mart asked. “So does this.”
He threw the collar at the man. “Whad-ya mea—“
The collar exploded.
“Time to run.” Mart said, leaping to his feet and running out the main entrance.
“This way!” Red roared, running down the corridor in the opposite direction Mart had been planning to go.
“You remember the way?” Mart panted.
“Of course.” she called back, sniffing the floor. “People!”
She jumped up into a ventilation shaft, virtually gone.
“Red? Red! Shit!” Mart paced around, unsure of where to hide. There was nowhere obvious anywhere near here.
“You!” yelled a couple of armed men.
Mart sighed and raised his hands in the air.
“Get back in your—“
Red leapt from the grate, a claw passing straight through the man’s face. She was devouring the second man before he could even raise his rifle.
“That’s… disgusting.” Mart said, covering his nose.
“Prey!” Red growled.
“Can you use a rifle?” Mart asked, picking them up. Red just looked at him cock-eyed. “Sorry, I thought it was funny…”
“Let’s go!” Red began running again, and Mart followed, checking over the rifle as he ran. It had a partially charged energy cell, enough for a few hundred normal-energy shots. Energy rifles were cheap, and weak against anything that wore any armour – but then who could afford armour here? He shouldn’t think that – with his luck the next group would be wearing armour.
Red stopped at the next junction, sniffing the air. “I… don’t remember this junction.”
“Great…”
“So anyways,” Red took a deep breath, raising her tail high in the air, “as I had tried to explain earlier. The Black Nova –“
Bullets ricocheted off the walls of the junction to their right. Screams were heard.
“What the hell is that?” Mart asked.
“Let’s go that way.” Red said, beckoning at the corridor that led away from the gunshots.
They kept walking, Red’s senses not picking up any other people. They finally stopped after what seemed like an eternity of sprinting.
“We’re going in circles.” Red observed, sniffing the ground.
“That’s not good.”
“I think we’re in some sort of… sphere. These corridors aren’t straight.”
“I noticed that.”
“What do we do?” Red asked, looking at Mart.
“Turn at the corridors? The sphere can’t extend forever?”
“So we want to head out of the sphere.”
“Yeah, of course.”
“What if it’s… a sort of container? Then wouldn’t going out just lead to more cells?” Red asked.
“That’s… a very good point. Especially from a four year old!”
“I mature quickly! In Raumen years I would be at least 18.”
“I don’t think so…”
“Which brings me to what I was trying to say earlier!”
“About the Black Nova?”
“Right! You know they said he was the King of the Vorchan Empire, right?”
“King of the Vorchan Empire, Fleet Admiral of the Zemorians, Founder of the Gal Council…”
“Right – but the Queen of the Vorchan Empire, was a Vorchan!”
“…and?”
Red let out a long sigh. “Never mind, you don’t get it.”
“What don’t I get?”
“Nothing. Let’s go.” she started running again.
“Do we have to run?” Mart asked.
“Maybe they’re looking for us!” Red retorted.
“But how will running make us harder to find if we’re going in circles?” Mart argued.
Red stopped running, “Good point.”
–
When they reached the junction, they unanimously decided to turn right, into the turns, hoping to get to the center of the circle. It was also the direction the gunshots were coming from.
“Who do you think is shooting?” Red asked, her tail swaying calmly from side to side.
“I don’t know.” Mart said, staring at the tail, “Is that blade sharp?”
“I don’t think so. I’m still too young.” Red sighed. “Do you wanna check?”
“That’s alright.”
“Oh come on! Feel my tail!” Red stopped, raising her tail in Mart’s face.
Mart felt the red blade that tapered off near the tip of the tail first. It was on the top side, and still wasn’t sharp, as she’d mentioned. It was made of some sort of cartilage…
“What do you think?” Red asked.
“It’s nice.” Mart replied. Never in his life did he think he would be complimenting a Vorchan’s tail.
“My mother’s entire leading edge is sharp. Like one long single-edged sword.”
Mart felt along the top of her tail. It felt like the edge of paper. “You could probably cut someone if you swiped them with it.”
“I wouldn’t know how. I’m very bad with my tail. My mother is so graceful with hers. She could give me an apple with it!”
“Wow…” Mart let her tail go, and she continued swaying it from side to side.
They only walked for a few more minutes before Red stopped again. “What do you think of my spikes?”
“Shouldn’t you be asking another Vorchan this?” Mart asked.
“What do you mean?”
“You’re pretty much the first Vorchan I’ve ever seen up close. I’m not the person who should be giving your body the look-over.”
“Oh—“
“I don’t know the first thing about your people. I didn’t even know your were a Blackwing! Even that man knew you were a Blackwing. He even knew your wings were red!”
“Because of my eyes.” Red said.
“What?”
“My eyes are blue. Like a Vulcan’s. So he figured I had red wings.”
“Vulcans are red?”
Red nodded.
“Is that a rare mix? Blackwings and Vulcans?”
“It is, just because Blackwings are very rare, and when they do mate it’s rarely with another species – though it seems we’re working on breaking that habit.” Red said, staring at Mart.
“You mean race? Rarely with another race?” Mart asked.
“Of course…” she purred.
“Right, let’s keep walking.” Mart said quickly.
–
They reached their first body fifteen minutes into the walk. Mart kneeled down next to it. The corpse had been dressed in rags, like the man that he had encountered in his cell block. He was also carrying an energy rifle. Mart used it to charge up his.
“Look.” Red was running her paws along the ground, making the shell casings rattle like bones. “That’s what I saw before you shot me.”
“A shell casing?” Mart asked.
“It was my last memory.” Red growled.
“I’m sorry about that.”
“I told you:” Red nuzzled him again, “I forgive you!”
Mart couldn’t help but think of Red as a very smart animal, infinitely affectionate to her new undeserving master. He pet her while thinking about the shell casings.
“So the other people… my crew uses kinetics. Shit – do you think they’re tryin’ to bail me out?” Mart got up, running farther into the sphere, then he stopped and turned around, running back to the body. If his crew was here, they would be checking each cell-block for him, and if they came from the center. He began running along the corridor, “Listen carefully with those long ears, Red. Let me know if you hear any commotion in these cell blocks.”
“I will.” Red said, getting flashbacks of her crèche. How they had always had her keep an ear out for them because of the size of her ears. It was definitely something she got from her father. Vulcans were known for their long ears.
They reached the body. Mart ran one junction out and began running down the corridor again, repeating his sweep.
Gunshots, very close this time. In this corridor. Mart readied his rifle and continued forward. Red stayed close to the inner wall, listening to the cell doors they passed.
“This one!” she hissed.
Mart positioned himself across from the door and aimed his energy rifle at the lock. It clicked as Red’s hacking tool activated. The door slowly swung open as a gust of wind seemed to exit the cell. He could hear someone breathing heavily inside.
He entered carefully. The lights – or what was left of them – were shattered and flickering, giving brief glimpses of the carnage that had ensued. There were similar bodies here. One belonged to a man with a spiked collar. He was on his knees, pocked full of holes from kinetic and energy rounds. Clearly dead.
“Mart…” wheezed one of the men.
Mart ran over, realizing it was Lock.
“Lock? Oh no…”
“They got us. There were…” he coughed, wheezing painfully, “We got most of ‘em. You should be… good to go. Mao… is waiting… with The Reap—“
Lock exhaled one last time.
He lost his money, and now he lost most of his crew.
“They came back for you…” Red whispered.
“They came back for the money. Maybe it’s better they die like this, thinking I got something out of all their efforts…” Mart sighed.
Red looked at him dejectedly.
“Let’s go, Red.” Mart said, taking his crews’ dog tags and heading to the center of the circle.
–
Mart stopped at a large metal door. He walked along the corridor. There were four identical doors. One of them was blasted open. The bunker was full of bodies and shell casings. Again, the lights were out, making it very difficult to navigate.
“I can feel air, here.” Red hissed, staring up at the ceiling. Her white fangs glinted in what little light there was here. Mart reached up and felt a handle, pulling down on the roof and revealing a stairwell. They took the stairwell up to another floor, where they followed more bodies to the exit.
There were armed men outside, staring into the beginning of the circle. They didn’t say anything as Mart exit the building with Red. Finally one put an arm around his shoulder. “What happened in there?” he asked calmly.
“Death.” Mart replied, walking away.
The armed men talked amongst each other, and then to the gathered crowd, but let the two of them go.
“Who were they?” Red asked.
“Fort security. They don’t care. Nobody cares. Not unless they’re in the loss ‘cause of whatever’s happenin’.”
Red stopped, smiling.
“What is it, Red?”
“I can sense Allonsi. They’re here!” she exclaimed.
“Well. Then it was nice knowing you, Red.”
“Wait!”
Mart began to walk away. Red followed, so he began to run.
“Wait!” Red wailed, starting to lose him in the crowd of people. “Mart! STOP!”
Her roars were making the people get out of the way. He couldn’t outrun her. She stared at him expectantly as he stopped and caught his breath.
“Red, go away.” he said simply.
“But I changed my mind, and Allonsi will follow me wherever I go, she just said so! I want to be part of your crew – your fleet!”
“I have no crew. I have a ship and a robot woman, with no money to sustain either. They’ll leave me when they hear the news.”
“Then come with me!” Red suggested.
“No. That’s not the life for me, Red.” Mart replied.
“But you gave everything for me! Make it worth it! Come with me!”
“Red.”
“It was meant to be, you know it was! How else could you explain us meeting and you ending up in this situation? This is fate!”
“Fate is for fools, Red. You don’t know how many times I thought it was the divine – when in fact it was nothing, and never amounted to nothing either…” Mart sighed.
“Then let me at least get Darnell to pay you back!” Red proffered.
Mart laughed, “You still have a lot to learn, Red. He’ll kill me if he gets his hands on me. I’m a pirate – always will be. It’s all I know, hun.”
“Mart…” she was all teary eyed again now, snout quivering.
“Don’t do that… Red.”
“I’ll miss you, Mart! We’ll meet again then? Right?” she asked hopefully.
“Sure.” Mart said with a smile. “Goodbye Red.”
She jumped up at him again, licking his face, nuzzling his nose with her snout. She smelled like embers.
“Goodbye Mart…”
Mart turned away, for what he hoped was the last time, and made his way through a few crowds. He then walked, without looking back, all the way to the docking port that held The Reaper.
Only then did he look behind him. For a split moment, he had hoped he would see Red there. But he didn’t. She had gone.