Chapter 21: At Your Beck and Call

Chapter 21: At Your Beck and Call

“You are such a freaking gremlin.” Paulie muttered as he scrubbed the back of his sleeve across his mouth again and Jakiikii let out another hearty bellow of amusement at his expense.

She continued to laugh at her own incredible childishness, the prank she had pulled on him as juvenile as it had been ingenious. Apparently ung’na bugs were technically a native food to the worldlet of Gike and an old staple of mendagoonian culture used most often in times of celebration and ceremony. They were however also used traditionally in the manufacture of potent natural pigments and dyes, their own power of which had stained Paulie’s mouth, lips and teeth a deep royal purple bordering on black.

In a futile attempt to change the subject and to also get away from her incessant ribbing, he addressed the figure seated in the front of the armoured ground cruiser. “Hey, I am glad to hear that Mennt is going to pull through.”

The large insectoid's head didn’t move. But he made a series of gestures that Paulie understood to mean agreement. Mursk muttered something to the driver then turned his head nearly half the way around to look back at them with one large compound eye.

He chittered, complex mouthparts moving in a blur as his autotranslator picked up on his rapid alien clicks and converted them into more recognisable speech. “Yes. Mennt will pull through, though his days of soldiery might be at an end. He lost a significant portion of his lower digestive tract and two limbs.” he seemed to pause and collect himself. “Hauxsu will continue on, but in order to remain at strength I may need to select another guardsman to fill this void.”

Paulie leaned forward and patted the man’s power armoured shoulder. The bright orange ceramometallic alloy was cool under his touch, but his voice was warm as he spoke. “Whatever you decide. We got you, man.” Mursk jerked his head back forward, antennae drooping with emotion as he waved a hand in an affirmative gesture.

They rode after that in relative silence for a while, the streets of the city slowly passing by. Paulie turned his attention from the inside to their surroundings. The streets, once so vibrant and full of bustling life, were now a veritable ghost town in comparison to what he had grown accustomed to in his short stay in the city of Korscam.

Here and there he saw the colorful roadside vendors, their small kiosk setups looking more like sheet metal popcorn stands than actual stores. But crime in Korscam was light, mainly petty theft and pickpocketing. There had been little real threats to face on the street.

Until recently.

Now the streets were almost empty, the scars of plasma burns and all the new cracks in the facades of buildings telling testament to the rampaging danger that had so recently taken over life in their city. The colorful masses of the city’s inhabitants cowering in their homes for fear of the random terroristic violence that had so recently become the norm. Paulie felt his fists clench in automatic anger as he gritted his teeth. The terrorists would get what was coming to them, if Sasfren had anything to say about it anyway.

He remembered the extensive tunnels they had crawled through, the sewers, the undercity. The duigong had been living their lives under their feet for longer than Paulie had been alive in all likelihood. These cultists could likely do the same were they not hunted down and eliminated immediately.

Paulei felt a hand on his arm and glanced over to see Jakiikii was watching him with mild concern writ across her pretty alien features. She shook her head slightly and asked, “Are you alright, Paulie? Your hands were shaking again.”

He shrugged and shook his head before opening his mouth and closing it a few times. He wasn’t really sure what to tell her. Not in here, not where others could hear. He shook his head slightly as he took a peek inside. But his mind was all quiet. The medicine he had gotten from the eccentric duigong medical practitioner was really doing the trick at keeping his little friend silenced.

A small part of him tugged at the thread of that thought, but he pushed it aside. It was a worry for another time, he had more important things to think about in that moment.

As if to punctuate his inner thoughts, Mursk spoke up again, “I have been briefed only a little as to the reason for your transfer. But I wanted you to know what I do, the monarch herself has seen to it that you are protected. But there is more to it than just simple gratitude.” They seemed to glance around without moving their head, then shook two hands. “No, maybe not here. I do not know how secure this vehicle is against the prying of others.” The driver seemed to glance their way in the mirror, but remained silent. An officer that Paulie did not know or recognise.

Paulie threw up an arm. “What! You can’t just spring the idea of some deep conspiracy on me and then not expect me to not pry for more information.” He was frowning but Mursk made a placating gesture towards him and Jakiikii.

“Now is not the time. And I am not the right one to tell you.” Was all the big stubborn bug said in response and Paulie snorted. He went back to looking out the window. A hand pressed into his back, Jakiikii trying to placate him, but he ignored it and shook his head slightly. The hand hesitated, and then was silently withdrawn.

The world flashed by and he observed it with a sort of cold indifference that was entirely at odds with his often-softer nature. He felt so numb all of the sudden. So hollow of emotions. Why was he here? For what purpose did he still draw breath? He found with a sudden flash of insight that he no longer knew exactly. He glanced over his shoulder at Jakiikii and saw her notice his face before the alien woman smiled. He smiled back and felt a prickle of warmth.

He was alive because of her. He was alive to protect her and others like her. He felt a new wave of determination as he recalled the still and limp body of her sister after they had found her in the dungeons of Ooounoo’s fortress. Still and like the dead in her amniotic tank, her and so many humans as to have nearly broken Paulie. He felt a fist clench in anger again at the thought of the barbarity they must have been forced to endure.

How many men, women and children had been taken from Earth over the years? Thousands? Millions? More maybe? The numbers were too terrible to speculate. Millions of people went missing each and every year. Year after year for decades.. centuries. Millenia?

He drew in a sharp breath as the cruiser took a sharp left and then left the road to enter a wide car park. They had arrived at the adjudicator's main complex. He put the thoughts out of mind but resolved to think more on them later, it was a mystery he was determined to get to the bottom of.

Paulie’s eyes widened as he looked around outside the vehicle. While the craters, scars and plasma burns of the city-wide attack remained, he noticed with a sense of shock that there was new damage to the large, brutalist building. The front of the adjudicator’s complex was blown open, many windows in the surrounding part of the structure were missing or covered in clear plastic and he could see what looked like heavy impact craters all along the face of it that looked out towards the main car park. Indeed even as he watched a heavy groundcar looking like some hybrid of dump truck and excavator drove by on the main road. Its large metal bed piled high with chunks of rubble and twisted plassteel support struts.

He looked over at Jakiikii, and she gave him a wide-eyed look in return as they pulled into an open spot in the front of the building. Usually they would have entered the underground area of the structure’s subterranean parking garage, but judging by the activity near to the partially collapsed entrance, he assumed that it was still out of order. Large industrial looking devices were parked all around the area and the wall facing away from the street was covered in scaffolding. He could see suited figures moving up on it and around the front of the collapsed garage entrance.

Mursk exited the vehicle, bidding them to do the same as another figure in range powered plate zipped over from the front of the structure and stopped in front of Mursk with tree arms raised in salute and greeting.

Hauxsu nodded his armoured head, his antennae hidden beneath the ceramosteel of his visor and reported crisply in medagoonian speech that Paulie and Jakiikii could not understand. Mursk signaled in the affirmative with a hand and then turned to Paulie.

“Hauxsu has been keeping an eye on the complex while we were on route. It is clear, but I do not like being exposed and in the open like this. Let us move quickly.”

Paulie nodded and glanced around. The alien was right. They were terribly exposed in the middle of the parking lot as they were, better to move to the relative safety of the building while they were still largely unnoticed. The driver of their police cruiser poked their head out of the window, asking if they were needed still. Mursk waved them off and then turned back toward the distant building, bidding them to follow.

Jakiikii gripped one of Paulie’s hands as they walked. Her nervousness was apparent from the way her normally tan and brown mottled skin flashed pale and sickly looking. Her eyes gazed all around, taking in every detail in an almost dizzying display of sensory dexterity that still made Paulie’s head spin to think about. Hell, he had struggles enough sometimes with two eyes that always looked the same direction. He had a hard time imagining what it would be like to be a six-eyed chameleon like her.

The walk across the car park was swift and deliberate. Hauxsu’s weapon never left its high ready position and even Mursk’s hands were tight on the grip of his blazer gun. Paulie felt the large revolver on his hip grow heavy with each step. But their caution seemed unwarranted as they crossed the space quickly and entered the main part of the building with little incident. They were briefly halted at the dilapidated entrance by an improvised checkpoint, the armed guard giving them a suspicious look before waving them on through.

Paulie looked around with wide eyes as they moved into the adjudicator’s complex. The entire entry was in shambles. The structure had survived the worst of the damage on the original day of the attack as it had raised its defense shields in time, but these burns and scars seemed much newer. He could still smell the acrid stench of atomised carbcrete and burned synthetics. And under that, something else. Scorched bone and boiled blood.

Whatever had happened had been energetic enough to crack the heavy support columns along the sides of the room. In more than one place the roof looked to have caved in entirely and near to the farther wall there was a large, jagged crater that led into a sub-basement level below.

He turned to Mursk even as they marched through the room and down an adjoining hall, “What happened here?”

Mursk and Hauxsu shared a quick look before the mendagoonian royal guardsman spoke. His smooth synthetic voice slipped from the translator unit to Paulie’s ears without emotion, but even he thought he could detect the hint of anger in the alien’s chittering screeches. “The station was attacked in the night two days ago. The same time as you were. A small vehicle laden with explosives drove through the reinforced front wall and detonated an incendiary device. Luckily the building’s defenses were already on high alert and the blaze was quickly contained. Countermeasures are being set in place to prevent such an assault from working again.”

Jakiikii noted, “What about the garage?”

Mursk shook a hand in some manner of gesture with which Paulie was unfamiliar. But his movements were clipped, tense. “That is another story. One involving the potential for prying ears as I mentioned earlier.” He said, the computer translator unable to understand the inflection of his words. But from the lowered and almost conspiratorial tone that Mursk took as he said it, there was likely more going on to be worried about.

So instead of trying to make a bigger deal out of the whole mess he just nodded his head silently toward the man and followed him down the hall. The walk was long, the damage to the building was extensive. And not just the visible damage, but the whole entire structure seemed like a ghost town compared to what Paulie had seen the very first time he had been escorted through these halls.

As they walked he noticed the looks of the various aliens that walked past them. Drooping eyelids, sagging feathers and shaggy fur. Every being looked tired, haggard in a way that spoke of too many sleepless nights and not nearly enough time to de-stress. Many of the adjudicators must still be out on double and triple patrols. A thought which sat ill with Paulie and made him frown.

He nearly spat a curse, he could be doing more.. should be out there doing more. But no, he was stuck in place. Like a rock embedded in concrete. Well, no more.

He frowned as something slipped into his hand. “Hey, you okay?” Jakiikii asked from right beside him.

Paulie gripped the woman’s hand a little tighter as he swallowed hard. He had so many things he wanted to say at that moment, but he quickly realised that now was not the appropriate time to be airing out all his various grievances. So he just nodded his head stiffly, not trusting himself to speak for fear he would expose his own inner turmoil.

Jakiikii, to her credit, did not push him further on the topic. But he saw the lines around her mouth deepen as she scowled a little and squeezed his hand. She knew when he was being tight-lipped and didn’t like his lack of answer. But she seemed to understand his hesitation as three of her eyes flicked around, looking all over as if she could divine the answers to their problems in the dull walls around them.

Hauxsu and Mursk strode onward in their bright orange powered armour. The suits made subtle whirring sounds as they moved, the servo assisted joints flexing with each precise movement. Those passing them in the hall generally gave them a wide berth. Whether it was the sight of the medagoonian royal guardsmen of Paulie’s own imposing figure he did not know, but they reached deeper into the complex with every step.

Another few minutes of walking, another few turns down winding passageways, and they descended two flights of stairs into a new area that he had never been to before. Jakiikii looked around a little nervously, as if she was unfamiliar with their new location too. But that didn’t make any sense, she was far more familiar with the precinct than he was.

Presently they arrived at a door, and in front of the doorway stood two more royal guards and a platoon of PDF soldiers in their drab greyish green gear. All were armed, but only the guardsmen held their weapons at the ready. Plasma staves held upright and ready to activate at the first signs of trouble.

As Mursk reached them he pulled out a small device from a compartment on the side of his suit and handed it to the leftmost guard. The insectoid’s helmet was impassive, but their head cocked slightly as they studied it for a few heartbeats and then made a gesture to enter and stepped to the side.

“Ok, come on.” Mursk said, their translator buzzing as it translated his clicking speech.

Paulie glanced at Jakiikii, and she at him. Her head craned back slightly on her flexible neck as she had to look up at his much taller frame. He gestured towards the door, “Ladies first?”

She smiled and patted his arm. “Okay, go ahead.”

Paulie frowned and then chuckled as she punched his arm in what he assumed was a playful manner and followed Mursk inside. Huaxsu pulled up the rear and the door was closed behind them as they entered into what looked like a library similar to the one he had once been shown by Jakiikii before.

Then it hit him. This was indeed the very same library. Same tables, same chairs.. same shelves upon shelves of dusty old tomes of archaic storage medium. Books, magnetic tape recorders, analog and digital mediums of a thousand years all piled along the walls like so much junk. He looked around, had that been why Jakiikii had seemed so nervous? She had told him that they were not really supposed to be there before, something about being a restricted wing.

Jakiikii seemed at ease now and he shook his head. Maybe he had imagined it.

He was prompted to follow Mursk as the power armoured alien waved two arms and spoke, “This way please, I know it seems like a strange place. But this is where we were told to bring you both.”

The small group walked around rows of books and other things less recognisable as they moved deeper into the underground library. The vast scale of it slowly became more and more apparent to Paulie as they did so. When he had first visited the library with Jakiikii they must not have made it very far inside, because now they walked past dozens of rows of shelves. Past more books than Paulie had ever seen in his entire life. Eventually they reached the far wall and walked along it even farther till they reached a break in the wall through which even more books could be seen. The vast repository of forgotten knowledge seemingly stretching on endlessly.

They passed even more crates of disks, barrels of small marble-like data pods and rows of strange glittering crystals very much like what he had been given by a small green alien woman named Krissh so long ago. It was amongst these that they finally reached their ultimate destination. Amid the piles of bright storage gems he saw a table covered in computers and other electronics.

And sitting in the middle of that mess was a short alien that he immediately recognised.

As they stopped, the figure turned to look their way. Twin orbs of the deepest stormy grey regarded them over the blotches of tiredness that seemed to sit on the man’s sallow and slightly sunken features like dark bruises. His flat face lit up almost immediately as he saw them though, a sharp-toothed smile cracking on the miramiams face as he stood from his crouched position and stepped towards them with arms wide, the subtle wiring of his cybernetic leg catching Paulie’s ear as he approached.

“Jakiikii! Paulie! Oh, so good to see you both, I am so happy you were able to make it.” He reached them and did his best to hug them both. Paulie returned the gesture gingerly, careful to avoid the sharp quills that danced along the back of the man’s long neck.

Paulie smiled and nodded his head, emotion threatening to overcome him despite his best efforts as he replied, “Hello Mack. Good to be back.”

Mack cocked his head and gave Paulie a funny look then asked, “What happened to your teeth?”