Chapter 2 | Hazel

Chapter 2

Hazel

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The radiation pack I huddled next to for warmth was growing colder by the rotation. It cost my dignity to get it, but it was better than where I was headed to. If that unGor spawn on the slave ship hadn't looked the other way when loading the rest of the marked ones... I wouldn't have a life to complain about. The Zorn would surely punish him if he found out he had been soft in his duties. Genbi. I'll never forget the name or his kindness.

"Find a way back to your planet," he told me before he shuddered. He grimaced down his nose—like what he saw in my future were the nightmares of things I would not wish on my enemies, let alone someone as young as him. He barely reached the height of my shoulders, and though I was tall for many species, I knew from seeing others of his kind on the trader's ship that his species grew quite large. It was common for estreld females like myself to be of similar height to the males. I was no different in that regard.

Genbi's hair was short and braided at the top, with only two bones for adornment. If his height hadn't told me of his age, the length of his hair and minimal bones would have confirmed it. When I later asked about unGors from other outlaws, before they saw my mark, they said an unGor's hair was a roadmap of their life. Genbi's was only beginning. I hoped he too would find a way to escape being under the Zorn's rule. He was the largest outlaw in this sector, and many of the pirates here avoided me after I asked about him. Word spread of my mark. Even the hint that I might have escaped from the Zorn's trading route made many of them fearful. If they were seen with me, rumors were that the Lord Zorn would think that they stole me themselves. None of them even wanted to return me to him because they didn't want the Lord Zorn to mistake their involvement, or even be associated with an unclaimed slave.

It was both a blessing and a curse. The outlaws left me alone, but I struggled to find a way back to my home planet, Estreldez, and I was running out of hope.

My bones cracked as I forced myself to seek out food. Turning off my radiation pack, that I buried under the crusty dirt of a dark alley, I weakly made my way to the heap of trash near the landing strip, where shuttles didn't care about keeping the streets clean. The clucking sound of krelins had me cowering behind a dirty moat of water that was likely toxic to consume, not that I had much choice when this planet didn't have any rivers or much life besides a quick detour for outlaws to hideout or trade goods.

There were regular ships that all they did was transport supplies the outlaws would need to restock their ships with. But many species didn't have the same kind of digestion that I did, and as soon as I heard the krelins disembark from their shuttle, I cried.

Part fear and part relief flooded through me. Krelins were the reason I was here, but the last time they visited was the reason I was still alive. They tossed a bucket of rocks on the ground, and a strange animal slithered behind them. It had no legs, and yet it moved. It had fins below its mouth but had no eyes and it made the most calming sound, like a whistle of wind through a glade as the moon's glow warmed your skin.

For a brief moment, the creature's sound distracted me from the departing krelins. Their wings buzzed in unison with the whistle, before I remembered to mold myself against the trash heap so their horns couldn't sense I was here.

The krelins could talk to each other through the hive bond, and their horns could track things around them without use of their sight. I never knew why they took me, but they were the closest planet to Estreldez, and if I could find a way to stay hidden on their ship... a sliver of hope returned for the chance that I could return home, and I dove for the rocks scattered on the dry dirt, spitting on them to soften the chunks before biting down.

I didn't care what the rocks were. The krelins tossed them like they were garbage, but to me they were food. The flavor was sweet, and unlike the rocks on Estreldez, they crumbled under the pressure of my teeth with little effort, melting in my mouth like a treat. Spitting on them was simply habit from eating shiny romta shells as an offspring. I could even break these rocks apart with my fist, and eat it with nibbles that filled my stomach, and warmed my loh.

"Excuse me," a friendly male voice intruded on my meal. No one dared speak with me, I thought. His voice was startling because I didn't know if I was imagining it, but also that he had snuck up so close without me noticing.

I glanced up from gathering the rocks and saw he held one out for me that had rolled from the pile out of my hurried clumsiness. He held the rock curiously, and I narrowed my eyes at him with suspicion.

His wrinkled nose could be seen from the shadows of his robes before he ripped off a piece of his robe with a deft tug of strength. He wrapped the rock in it and then offered it again. I'd never seen his species before and I couldn't take my eyes off of him. He had three fingers that were quite large, and I could see the tip of his claws peeking through his vibrant green skin that he had retracted to show he was not a threat. I knew better than to trust such things, but the warmth of knowing I would eat today had addled my mind.

Such vibrancy of color was a sign of health and strength for an estreld male, and I was always so jealous that I was born female with such a muted, pale color that only worsened with the lack of my moon's radiation to absorb into my loh. But this male, he was stunning in all the shades of green that seemed to reflect and glow in the dingy light of the shuttle landing strip. It was almost iridescent how his scales shifted and sparkled, as if he was covered in stars. And I was only admiring his face and outreached hand. He wore a flowing black robe, embroidered in a similar shade of yellow like the creases of his scales. A few flared along his temples, pushing back his hood just a bit more before he pulled it forward with his other hand, hiding much of him in shadow.

A tingling sensation ran up my back and into my shoulder blades as I watched him. I reached up to my hair, self-consciously aware that I was dirty, and I'd been forced to cut my hair as part of the price for my radiation core. I stupidly entertained the idea of his opinion of me to prevent myself from acknowledging that I was nothing more than a fugitive slave, or that he was anything other than a lawbreaker who came to this lifeless planet to commit unspeakable deeds. I snatched the wrapped rock from his hand.

He didn't sneer or back away. With a simple smile that kept his teeth hidden, another sign of trying to pretend he was no threat, he then said, "I have scanned the contents of your meal, and have determined that it is actually highly nutritious, but is not compatible with my own tastes." He couldn't hide the sharp rows of points behind his lips as he spoke. Those teeth were not suitable for that kind of diet, but for meals that were once living. He was a predatory species, and I was prey.

I wouldn't tell him, but I was relieved to know that the food was not dangerous. Even if I didn't have much of a choice if it were.

"Forgive me if this is presumptuous," he continued. "But would you be willing to escort me to where someone would rest on this planet?"

He didn't use the name of the planet, and either he was a very good actor, or he was a rare visitor and would be picked dry before he ever stepped foot on his shuttle again, if he ever did.

To confirm my suspicions, I didn't meet his eyes again while I unwrapped the strip of his robe and repacked it with more mystery rocks, for easier carrying. "You'll find the Den of Bounty after the junk trader's tent. You can't miss it." I pointed the wrong way, though what I said was true, and he simply nodded and stood from his crouch.

His eyes were a dark brown, almost the color of tarnpul, and just as absorbing. It was like staring at them could drain me of whatever radiation I held on to, and I couldn't deny them their claim. Happily, I would fall through those depths. They didn't give me that accustomed look of disgust, or the lingering fear of who I was associated with.

"In many we rise," he said with a bow of his head, like I was more than the dirt beneath his boots. He didn't speak in my native tongue, but whatever implant the Lord Zorn gave me included languages of every species that had passed through this outpost.

His platitude sounded as if he were speaking directly to the soul of many species not born as meat-eating predators. As part of a clan, we were strong, and by ourselves, we were prey.

I groaned at the way his words made me think that perhaps he was different from the other outlaws. He was kind, and I would return the favor this once by giving him proper direction. "The den is the other way."

He simply nodded and adjusted his strides without questioning why I had lied to him to begin with.

Curiosity got the better of me as I followed him from a distance. Not once did he turn to show he noticed he had an extra set of eyes on him. My fingers brushed through my short, tangled green hair. It wasn't a pretty green like his skin, just a dull pale green like the dirt from the glorbin flower mines. My mother used to say that my coloring was special because, just like tarnpul, everyone would wish to keep me close to protect them one day.

I scoffed at the memory. I was young, foolish even, to believe her. It was because of her foolishness of wishing to keep me to herself, and not give me to the offspring breeding facilities, that I was alone when she passed... Alone when the krelins took me.

I may never forgive her, I thought with a deep ache in my loh that vibrated deep within my ribcage.

The handsome stranger made it to the den, and I huddled against the tent of the junk dealer. The unsettling owner of the tent whispered beside me in her strange lilt, "What is someone else's waste, is another's treasure."

"You know I have nothing to trade." I flinched and backed away as I felt my loh throb with warning at her closeness. They remembered what I had traded the last time I was here.

Her long finger traced along my arm and over my loh as she muttered, "You've got jewels on your skin. Fine enough trade for me. Your last one fetched a pretty price from an unGor a red star ago."

"They aren't stones, they are my skin," I sneered with disgust at what I was forced to give just to stay alive.

"Skin, stone," the creepy dealer dismissed with a shrug of her shoulder. "I've sold plenty of furs and scales over the years. Those are someone's skin too, yes?"

"I'm not giving you my loh," I had to repeat, but I doubted the woman with the gray skin and oddly vibrant blue eyes cared what I said. She knew better than most that desperation came for all of us on this planet.

"Haven't seen his kind on Delta Fal since this desolate rock was simply a place they dumped survivors of the Shol Star War."

"A war?" It was hard not to listen to anything the old crone had to say. She was the only one who'd speak with me, and I didn't even care what she talked about, only that she spoke with me.

"Oh yes, I was too young to remember the war, but I've been on Delta Fal before there was a docking station or a pirate lord's claim. Delta Fal is a common phrase on Sholonus, meaning Fated Death."

That was disheartening to hear, but when I took my eyes off the entrance to the den to stare at her, she was smiling with sharp fangs drawn. The old survivor cackled before she shook her head with amusement.

"Outlaws think this a fitting name for their outpost, but between you and me, to a shol, it is a promise of retribution. A second rising, if you will. It was not a hopeless name, but one of power and a dream of a future."

"Why are you telling me this?"

The crooked dealer hadn't spoken much to me, even if she was the only one who was willing to say anything at all.

"If the trill have returned, then something has shifted in the universe, and you must find out what."

"Excuse me?"

She had lost her mind.

"You want off this rock, and I can arrange that for a price. I told you a bit of my story because freedom is often not enough to motivate someone to do what must be done. I don't care that you escaped Lord Zorn or not. The trill are a wise species, and though they are deadly, they do not often fight. He is not the only trill on this planet. A whole crew of them have arrived and, according to the ones that raised me, they came when the sickness was spreading through Sholonus.

"Instead of helping my species, they destroyed our planet to prevent the spread of the Star Sickness. Shol survivors were only left alone after extensive tests and even then, we were left to die on a barren planet with little resources."

I was covering my mouth as if that would put the unspeakable back within her throat from which they were spoken. Her whole planet was destroyed and, if she was to be believed, then the trill were only here for one reason, to give renewed meaning to the planet's name, Delta Fal, Fated Death.