INFINITUM GALAXUS
BLOODTIES - I
Space. A colossal void of emptiness. It’s lightless area so great that it was almost maddening to comprehend . Large amounts of nothing separate us from our destinations. It was always scary to me. Probably not a good trait for a Rogue, someone who traverses space on a daily basis. The times I share on planet surfaces are something I always look forward to. Whether the planet is full of jungles, deserts, snow or lava. Hell, even if the planet’s we go to have hostile life or begrudging ex's, I would still prefer it there than on this ship. See the thing about space is, it’s quiet. Not only can your cries for help fall on deafening silence in an emergency, but your thoughts begin to wander too.
Ever since the reports of the early pioneers going mad when their ships ceased working I have had a fear of this void. The onset of some form of delusion or dementia caused by the minds rambling, never failed to send shivers down my spine and chill me to the core. Now seeing all that, you must think I hate my job. Tell the truth, I love it more than anything. Despite the innate fear for the nothingness, the places I go and the people I meet make it that much better. The enemies I have make it that much more exciting. I mean, what’s the point of going somewhere if there isn’t something to gain from it. That’s the Rogues code. Everything we do, is not done for free. I’ve met people who have tried to force my reward away from me and to those people, I let my gun do the talking.
A loud high pitched crack echoed out through the bar and within moments all eyes were on me. Smoke trickled out the barrel of my AL-92 laser pistol which I blew away with a short huff. The target, a thief, was hit dead centre. He thought it would be a smart idea to steal my bounty reward from me shortly after I had collected it and since he couldn’t outrun me, tried to hide in plain site in a nearby bar. Unfortunately for him I never forget a face of a target. Moving closer to the booth I noticed he was still alive, clutching at his wound with a pained expression on his face. The man was a Ferakas. A species of humanoid reptilians. The surface of his body was covered with various scales of charcoal and softer regions, like his throat and palms, being a creamy colour. I moved my hand into his ragged jacket and pulled out a purse that clinked upon retrieval. His wispy tongue flickered out as he groaned. I moved back a few steps, pistol still in hand. Everyone else in the bar was at least a few feet away from me, quickly moving back after I initially fired.
I watched the Ferakas for a bit longer, pondering whether I should end his life now, or leave him to rot. It was a tough place to live, the town Venetari, and any sign of weakness or hesitation would almost always make you a target for robbery or murder. Everyone here trying to prove themselves stronger than the other. It was a sort of outcast settlement where only the tough of the tough would live. Or the most criminally disturbed. I felt this ominous presence behind me as everyone in the bar almost imposed their murderous will on me. Everyone present knew I had to kill this man. Some even wanted it. I thought of their presence, the hulking bodies of some species and slender hypnotic bodies of the others, all different. All alien. All wanting me to kill. I raise my gun and aim it at the man, now struggling to get up, and hear the whispers behind me speaking in common and their own respective languages. They wonder if I will go through it and I almost prayed that I wouldn’t have to. The Ferakas wore tattered clothes and appeared very poor. He had nothing else on him when I went through his clothes earlier for my units, so I assumed he was poor. My finger began to squeeze the trigger as I heard a body burst through the door.
“DON'T DO IT BROTHER!”
Thank God. The voice squeaked as it called out but it was the voice of my better half. My little brother. He was only young, fourteen to be exact, but he was still innocent enough to see the good in someone. Even if it wasn’t there. He took pity on the weak and always wanted to help. In my business it made things difficult, but it’s my brother, what can I do? If anything, I think his remorseful ways were beginning to rub off on me.
I lowered my pistol and the whole crowd gave a dissatisfied sigh and grumble as they went back to drinking. The Ferakas released a sigh of relief and slumped back into the chair still clutching his wound. Normally I wouldn’t have trouble going through with something like this, but I think sparing someone once every now and then isn’t so bad. My brother approached me. He had this awkward tough guy walk that he was, and I quote, “working on", that I couldn’t help wanting to laugh at every time I seen. It was so mechanical and jarring to watch, that it made me want to disassociate myself from him due to embarrassment. But that’s what little brothers do, right? He arrived at my feet with his face scrunched up in an attempt to look intimidating with made me curl my lip as I try not to laugh.
“I told you not to hurt him!”
I holstered my pistol then shrugged my shoulders with a smug smile.
“He was just so fast, I didn’t want him to get away"
“You wouldn’t have lost him"
He snapped back.
“Once you have his scent you could never lose him and with your enhancements you could run forever!”
He was right and I had no retort. I had a photographic memory on top of body enhancements to improve my oxygen intake and control my lactic acids in my muscles so that I could just keep going. Alongside that I had olfactory enhancements that increased the sharpness of my scent detection and traceability. The enhancements were illegal by the standards of the Alliance of Planets of course, but to survive out here, you needed every advantage you could get. They also helped in situations where you have to rely on those things to survive which was a fun little bonus. My brothers arm lifted from his cloak. It was mechanical and a high end prosthetic. The most improved and updated version to date. A hologram the size of a bowling ball lit up the area in front of his face as he brushed off the old subject, still disgruntled. A small blip on the globe shot out along it’s lower axis and rotated slowly. Another blip shot out on the planet’s upper axis.
“We are meeting Del Vahn here in a couple hours. He isn’t someone we want to keep waiting. Which is why I’m annoyed that you took time out of our schedule to chase down a small time thug!”
I raised my palms defensively.
“Hey don’t worry, we can take the ship and be there in a matter of minutes. No need to freak out, Kol”
“In case you were wondering, Aine, we still have to take inventory and do a set up. I’m happy to fly there but we need to make an impression. If we want to be like dad we need to make sure we can at least do a transaction right”
Despite being the younger brother, Kol was always better at making decisions than Aine. Most of the time it was directed by his soft core, but in a way it felt like the better option in some circumstances. A ruckus was heard outside the bar and Kol decided we should take the back way out of the bar. If it was an AoP officer droid I didn’t wanna get caught red handed after shooting someone. These may be the bad lands but getting caught by the AoP police with your pants down is the last thing anyone wants. Their prisons hold only the worst of the worst with no segregation of the lesser criminals. Anyone who goes there is essentially sentenced to death on the prison ball court. Lucky for me, I was respected around these parts, the guy I just passed as I ran out the back door? I just helped his grandma get rid of her georat infestation. And the guy I shot? He wont talk because I let him live. Hindsight is a wonderful gift from my brother. No one here would talk.
We ran away from the bar, a few blocks down a sandy path. We were in a massive canyon with walls that climbed for hundreds of meters. The area was sandy but also had many scrubby little bushes. A great waterfall fell down a cliff at the opposite end of the canyon and a river ran down the middle of a shanty town. Small green plants grew along the banks and people set up small farms growing various strange fruits and crops. Makeshift bridges crossed the waterways and some boats floated gently next to buildings. Along the opposite side of the river, a massive scaffold of stairs, pathways and pulley elevators covered the cliff face with large holes in the cliff itself. These holes housed the various ships and transports used to get here. That’s were our ship was.
Crossing a dock to the other side and rushing past people carrying baskets we entered the other side of the shanty town and scaled the cliff staircase. About a hundred meters up we found our ship. It was long and dark. It had glass that reflected the gold sunlight and a short wingspan . All in all it was probably about fifty meters long give or take. While we ran to the back where we entered the ship via cargo bay I noticed the large words, crudely painted on the side. “The Semita". I still remember the day dad bought this ship. We thought it was a hunk of junk but overtime we grew to love it. It was charming in its own way. The day dad bought it we all decided on the name. At first we thought to call a variety of names relating to the stars but dad drew our interest in with the semita. The path. Even though we spent countless amounts on our augments, we refused to get a new ship. Mostly because this was the last thing dad gave us before he was suddenly gone. Every time I seen the ships name on the side it always brought a lump to my throat. Dad’s disappearance was still fresh in our mind. Only about three months ago was when he disappeared.
As we entered the ship through its cargo bay we passed by a droid on its daily routine to take 8 numbers. It stood with a notepad in hand scribbling something onto it’s holographic surface. Kol tapped it’s shoulder as he passed and I tapped the opposite shoulder as I passed. It’s head turned both ways, confused before eventually homing in on us with its beady, black eyes. The bot was a KUD-0, stocktake droid. One of the first crew dad ever bought for the ship. We gave it the nickname kudo when we were kids. Not very imaginative, I know, but that’s just how it was
“We are heading out Kudo, let’s get rolling ASAP. We think someone may be following us"
Kol said with a glint of excitement in his eyes. For the last couple weeks we thought it was only suspicion at first, but the evidence became clearer and clearer. Just last week a bartender from a place I visited regularly told me that someone was asking around about me. From that point I’ve been taking in every detail I could. I don’t know who it is but they could mean business so I have to watch my back. Kol however was excited because the last couple of weeks have been devoid of entertainment. He kept telling me that a fight between me and this stalker would be good. Under the circumstances that it’s hand to hand. Yeah right. What if the stalker is Prismatarean or a Kardenval? Both races have extremely rough skin and stook much taller than humans. I think id just about die fighting one of them.
Shortly after kudo heard the news from Kol, it scrambled to get everything in the cargo bay and close the doors. I got to the cockpit, passing by the mess hall, crew quarters, and war room. Eventually I came up a set of stairs at the front of the cockpit to the navigation pad. A small station where Kol sat, fixated of navigational system to guide the ship. I continued up the stairs to my station, a seat with some joystick controls and various buttons and switches. To a novice sitting here would completely baffle them, but dad taught me and dad was the best pilot I knew.
“Here we go!”
I said. The ships engines ignited with a burst to life as I flicked a switch above me. The hum they created reverberated throughout the whole ship and could be heard anywhere on board. The first time we heard it, dad told us it was the ships fast heartbeat. Now whenever I fly, it’s as familiar as my own. The flames coming out of the engines began glowing a hot blue as we lifted into the air. Once in the air I retracted the landing gear with a press of two buttons and began gently moving out of the hanger. Once clear of the bay I shot straight out of the canyon and above it’s now tight walls. Outside the canyon we could see the surface of the planet, while high up in the atmosphere. It’s dead desert like surface was in direct contrast with gigantic ocean sized lakes that took up a third of the planet. The lakes sprouted off in every direction like branches and they created the canyons. In the larger canyons the cities were located but in the smaller ones like the one we were in, they are mostly shanty towns. The desert like surface proved to become too hot for any life during it’s summer days so life clung to the cooler regions in the canyons. That’s Que’ha for ya, hot as hell all the time.
“Next stop, Del Vahn!”
