Scenes From Space

Chapter Ten: Some Light Stalking

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Eventually, the three exited the bar. Cafferty had one, or a few too many judging by the way he kept tripping over his own feet. Bryrian put Cafferty's arm over his shoulder to keep him steady.

"You can't do it," Bryrian said. "Command is going to notice if you spend that much money, and we got high command visiting in two sun-cycles." Cafferty had slumped into Bryrian's body, just completely given up standing. 

"I can do what I want," Dameryn slurred. "And what I want is to steal the hot human from that treslimbo dumbass she calls a mate." I made sure to keep a careful distance behind them, eye recording. Treslimbo was slang for three limbs with a lot of negative connotations and hate speech. I was curious about what else would stop being translated as I learned more of their language.

"We ran the background check. They are free humans. It's not our jurisdiction," Bryrian said. Dameryn made a sputtering sound in response. It was nice to know that our fake documents held up. I kept to the shadows and the alleyways, a few yards back. 

"It's Commander Schythoolin, and he's bringing in two important slavers for a good time. He is not going to stand for you screwing around with humans instead of doing your job and using the money to persuade the Dance House over to the Collective's side." Bryrian hissed as he dragged Cafferty's body down the street. 

We had slowly been making our way up the mountain. I was thankful to not be wearing shoes because the converse would squeaked like hell when the passageways turned to metal. I ducked into another alley when the trio stopped to let Cafferty throw up. They walked two buildings over and entered through a locked gate. I zoomed in on the passcode entry with my tech-eye, and didn't follow anymore. I turned and made the long walk back to the Dance House.

Graham was sitting up with his tablet when I got back to the room.

"I think there's a storm coming in," I greeted. "Temperature dropped down like 20 degrees on the walk back." I took off the hat and ran a hand through my hair.

"Yeah, Amber activated the forcefield and closed down early," Graham said slowly. He had a strange look on his face. I tossed my jacket onto the bed and started digging through the dresser to get ready for bed.

"Gen," Graham said. "What'd you find out? I'm tired and this thing needs to be submitted." I grabbed the tablet from his hands and took it into the bathroom with it so I could upload the footage from my eye. I changed into sweatpants, opened the door and stepped right into Graham who was waiting for me. I looked up and blinked at him.

"Sorry," he said and took a step back. The tablet beeped and I handed it back to him.

"Highlights include Commander Schythoolin, two slavers, two sun-cycles," I said. I threw the clothes back into the dresser.

"Yikes, he's a big one," Graham said. "Are you going to sleep in the mask?" I had forgotten that I was wearing it.

"Oops." I pulled the mask off and set in on the bedside table. I pulled the covers down and hopped in bed. I turned the tech-eye off and stared blankly at the ceiling. I closed my eyes.

"Gwen," Graham whispered. "I need you to tell me that you're okay."

"I'll, I'll, be fine," I said. I kept my eyes closed. "It's all a bit much but I'm okay."

A finger was dragged up from my nose to my hairline. "Maybe, tell your face," Graham said. I thought about telling Graham about some of my experiences being held captive, and tortured, and raped by the Collective. I thought about saying, 'I'm a little sensitive to the talk about being knocked by an alien because I was once knocked up by an alien and it fucking sucked.'