Black Hole Heartbeat

Elizabeth - 11

Elizabeth slid through the crowd and looked back with a sigh. Ana bounced off the

bodies. Elizabeth grabbed her arm and dragged her towards a stall selling lasrell, a

flightless bird around the size of a sparrow that tasted like smoked bacon. Elizabeth

bought two. Most places still preferred to take coin, even with the availability of

biometric transfer and scan cards. Elizabeth always liked to physically hand her cash

over, the feel of the metal leaving her hands in exchange for goods.

The lasrell was served on wooden sticks, clear juices running down them as the

Human woman handed them over. Elizabeth bit into one, teeth crackling the crispy

skin and causing more sweet juice to burst from the meat. She handed the other one

to Ana, who took it with recoil as the grease dribbled over her fingers.

"What is it?" Ana asked, face still gurning.

"Lasrell. You've never had it before?"

Lasrell was among the most common meat in the galaxy, along with pokku,

grerwen and cow. Ana sniffed at the golden brown. Elizabeth devoured hers in four

hungry bites, pushing the meat to the corners of her mouth to make room for more.

"Have you ever eaten any food not from Earth?" Elizabeth asked, tossing her stick

over her shoulder.

"I just like the taste of Earth food."

Elizabeth shrugged and continued on through the crowd, wiping her mouth clean

with her cuff. Ana did not look disappointed when a passerby knocked hers to the

ground.

Eventually, they were standing at Glevla's feet. It was trident shaped, the east and

west wings curving upwards like the horns of an upturned ram's skull. The central

pillar as the sharp face, a jagged pyramid. It stabbed into the cloudy orange sky.

Blades of light shimmered across countless windows.

Gnarled fingers squirmed their way up Elizabeth's hand, their skin warted and

monstrously dry.

"Can I interest you ladies in some fine, hand crafted Shrook jewellery?"

He held open his coat to show his merchandise. Smiling with bared yellow teeth. The

gems were glass and their chains were tarnished.

"Get lost."

He moved onto Ana. He snaked up her arm and lingered.

"We're fine," Ana said, pulling her arm away from him sharply.

"Very well. Enjoy your day."

His voice was practised niceness, trying too hard and fooling no one.

Elizabeth grabbed his fur by the chunk, yanking his head back.

"What's in your hand?" she said.

"Nuthin'."

The false politeness shriveled into an angry rasp. Elizabeth pushed her gun against

the side of his face. No more kidding around. She thumbed back the hammer, the

locking click pounding in the Shrook's ear.

"Fine," he spat out in defeat.

He opened his fist, dropping a bracelet into Elizabeth's hand. Ana looked down at her

wrist, unaware it had even gone.

"You're not gonna kill me over a cheap watch, are ya?" he said, eyes wide on her. No

question asked of a stranger with a gun to your head was ever entirely rhetorical.

"No," she said, letting him go, "But this isn't a cheap watch."

She smashed the gun across his nose, knocking him to his knees. The point of her

elbow sent him the rest of the way down. A kick to the stomach sent him rolling

away as he oozed blood.

"You give thieves a bad name."

Ana pulled Elizabeth away, as if afraid she might not relent.

"Wasn't that a little extreme?"

Elizabeth snapped her gun back in its holster.

"He stole from you."

The doorman standing outside Glevla was an Ang.

"I hate the Ang," Ana said, cowering.

"Everyone hates the Ang. No one stops and thinks that they're basically slaves

though. You ever spoke to one?"

"Why would I want to? They took those Torfus hostage."

"Now they're stuck as the goons in a world they can't understand."

A century ago, a group of Torfus crash landed on the Ang homeworld. The Ang had

never met aliens before. The crew had been kept captive until they agreed to build a

space fleet for the Ang.

The doorman was wide set with thick skin so yellow it looked noxious, Horns curled

out from his forehead and collarbones. Three eyes, fat and round as roaches. The

Ang tilted slightly, looking beyond them to the bleeding pile of Shrook. Then he

looked Elizabeth in the eye and stepped aside, holding the door open.