Lace Ravine

Chap 2: Lace Bites Off More Than She Can Chew - pt. 3

Outside the shop, wandering across the desolate surface of the moon to her ship, Lace was drained of all heat and happiness. The gravity of her situation pressed down upon her shoulders, and a swamp of anxiety welled in her gut. Until now, she had never planned on seeing the most dangerous man in the galaxy again.

Silas was the kind of being that possessed a shimmering good side, a place of safety and power where one always wanted to stay comfortably. But behind it, his bad side was drenched in blood, a cave with no light and no remorse. And Lace Ravine had been straddling the line between the two for quite some time.

Silas belonged to the only race that was universally feared: the Graygue. They had skin blinding white, eyes black as obsidian, and hearts and minds that could feel no pleasant emotions that the other species enjoyed. Graygues experienced no attraction, no empathy, and certainly no love. Nothing kept them from killing each other besides common sense. Of course, the man that was the only one they all respected? Silas Denair.

Lace reluctantly started up her vessel, its usual rumble only making the bog within her gurgle higher. It was a long trip toward doom she now must complete.

Graygue territory, and Silas' base of operations, was on the other side of the ovular Tamine galaxy. The galaxy was split into three strips, on one end, Phocorian space, vast and lawless with sprawling colonies of mostly Phocorians, but also anyone else who never felt at home within IAC bounds. On the opposing edge, was Graygue space. Only visitors of other species were welcome in the area, even then the welcome was cold, and no one but the native race could feel at rest as long as they were there. The middle of the galaxy, fell under the purview of the Interstellar Alliance of Civilizations.

Lace's skin crawled as she considered the massive Jump needed to cross the galaxy without straying into IAC territory. Now back in her chair, she fiddled with the dash, avoiding coming to any conclusion to keep her from her fate as long as possible. She couldn't go through a mind-bending experience so extreme again, and eventually settled on delaying the inevitable by cruising for a day in the direction- that should get her at least a quarter through IAC space- then Jump the rest of the way. She released stale air from her lungs, forcing herself to be content, and prepared for the many hours of nothing ahead.

It was a lonely trip, half of it spent trying to sleep through all of it. Lace didn't read books, it was impossible for her to concentrate for more than fifteen minutes at a time. She had no device that would allow her to watch anything, so she listened to repeats of human songs in the style of old Earthan rock, and challenged herself to many, many games of solitaire. The last leg of her trip, the Jump to Silas' planet, was endured not as roughly as the previous time, but enough that Lace's head pounded for a half-hour following.

Arriving at her destination, the human grimaced at Silas' base before her. The planet below was murky, a mess of crags and smoke, with poisonous gases and mercury oceans prompting deeper dread. Luckily she still remembered how to make her way to the island on which Silas' home was located- unluckily, she had to go there at all.

The building the man had commissioned two decades before was a black castle of steel, a midnight fortress with no windows, shrouded in ominous gray storm clouds. Lace had forgotten just how unbelievably evil the edifice looked. Advanced security knew her vehicle as it landed, and to her surprise, the gates she stood before in her flimsy life suit opened for her.

The decompression chamber it led to hissed as it acclimated the space to her needs. Precious oxygen flooded in until a deafening clunk signaled the process was complete, Lace removed her helmet, hanging it on the wall, and the next door slid aside. Fluorescent light bombarded her eyes, blinding her for a moment, before the broad foyer sharpened into focus.