Before The Storm (Ch. 02)

This, of course, was the perfect time for Helen to interrupt.

"Captain, we're being hailed," the computer's calm voice said to him, although Sketch almost felt like he could hear an undercurrent of pleasure to the machine's vocalization, as if she had wanted to interrupt what had been about to go down.

"Who the hell's out here in the ass end of nowhere, Helen?"

"It's a Y'bari ship," the computer replied. "Single fighter, long range class. Shall I answer?"

"Not yet. Better yet, you answer and tell her you're waking the Captain and he'll be on comms in a couple of minutes," he said, sliding Serena off his lap, tucking his cock away. "What are the odds someone watched your pod being deposited?"

"Very low, I'd assume, knowing Lord Arbard. Why, you think that ship's here because of me?"

"I think I haven't got a damn *clue* why it's here," he said. "Put some clothes on and do what you can to disguise your appearance a bit."

They pulled on their clothes, stopping back by Sketch's quarters to grab a long-sleeved shirt, making sure to get it in place as the two of them headed towards the bridge. Once there, Sketch glanced over, stepped to one of the terminals, ran his fingertips along the underside of it to gather a bit of dust and grease, then smeared it on Serena's cheeks. "You look too damn regal, even in my ratty clothes. Mess up your hair a bit. We need to look like boring long-haulers."

"The pilot's growing quite impatient, boss," Helen told him while Serena did her best to make her hair look as disheveled as possible. "Are you ready?"

"Put them through."

On top of the communication dais, a single image of a Y'Bari warrior in battle gear glared at him. Well, Sketch assumed they were glaring - with the insectoid helmet on, he couldn't see any facial expressions at all. "Ship, confirm identification," the modulated voice said to him. He couldn't even tell if it was a male or female through the sonic distortion.

"Sketch Davis, captain and owner of *The Praeteritus*, making my way back to Relling Gate after delivering the mail out to Colby's Hole. Picked up a passenger along the way, Berry Gillespie, and am ferrying her to Defernus, eventually."

"Eventually?" the voice said. "That's six or seven ring gates under the best of paths. Long way to go for hauler."

Sketch shrugged. "Her family wanted to send her back to live with her cousins, away from Colby's Hole. They thought she might have thrived terraforming, but really, it just drove the poor girl crazy, so I agreed to take her back that way at a little less than my normal rate as long as they weren't picky about how fast it was. So, I'll grab some gigs hauling stuff that way, and she'll get there eventually."

"The fact that she's easy on the eyes probably didn't hurt," the voice said. "He abusing you, miss? We've heard reports of haulers getting handsy with passengers now and again."

Serena shook her head, doing her best to keep as much of her hair over her face as she could. "No, sir. Captain Davis has been nothing but good to me."

"Hmph. Well, as good as that is to hear, I'm going to take a look for myself."

"Excuse me?" Sketch said, turning his head.

"Word came from Mephor Gate to Relling Gate that a ship called *The Praeteritus* was carrying a man with Lingham spores in his lungs, and since you didn't stop on your way out, I was dispatched to give the anti-fungal to you on your way back. Prepare for docking. Aliara out."

The transmission cut off and Sketch immediately began swearing beneath his breath. "Could we outrun them, Helen?"

"They have a weapons lock on us, Captain, so while we might be able to escape, we would likely sustain heavy damage if we did."

"It's just one tiny Y'bari fighter, and you've got a smaller corvette-sized ship here," Serena said. "How the hell is that possible?"

"*The Praeteritus* isn't a warship, Princess," Sketch grumbled. "She's mostly a transport ship, and while, yes, we do have some military capabilities - torpedoes, some turrets, a handful of other things - we aren't a battle-class ship under any circumstances. That little Y'bari dart's probably got more firepower in one cannon than everything I've got put together. Are they using one of the tubelocks, Helen?"

"Negative, Captain. It looks like they're planning on putting down inside our shuttle hanger, and they gave it a quick scan to make sure we had room for it."

"Fuck," he said. "Okay, Princess, you know how to use a blaster?"

"Sure, why?"

"I'm going to lure them away from their ship far enough for you to get a good shot at them, and then once they're downed, we can figure out what to do with them next."

Serena looked at him oddly. "Why not just let them give you the anti-fungal for Lingham?"

"Two reasons, Princess," he said, as they started to walk down towards the elevator that would take them down to the shuttle bay. "The first is the most obvious - they're going to scan me for Lingham spores first, and I don't *have* any Lingham spores in my system." The elevator door opened as they stepped in, the door closing behind them, as the elevator started to smoothly slide down the floors towards the shuttle bay.

"Then why do they *think* that-"

"That's a cover story I've been using to keep people off the ship, because of the *second* reason, which is that as soon as I get that close to our Y'bari friend, my haywire abilities are going to go to *town* on them. From what I've been able to read, Y'bari are *especially* sensitive to Calm manipulations, meaning whichever Path my untethered brain decides to send them down, they're going to go from full stop to hard burn faster and further than any ring gate you've ever hopped through. I had to read between the lines, but the Starless Dominion had to use mercenaries and stealth operatives to wipe out The Calm, mostly, because they didn't trust their Y'bari to do it for them, like they normally would."

"Well, that and the planet cracker they used on the world where the main Calm temple was," Serena said. "I've heard some of the stories."

"Regardless, Y'bari brains respond very strongly towards Calm empathy, so whoever this Y'bari is, we're going to have to figure out a way to dispose of them, the body and their ship without it pointing back at us," he sighed as the doors opened and they walked down the hallway towards the shuttle bay.

"I thought members of The Calm treated violence as a last resort!" she said to him.

"If you've got another option, I'd love to hear it! Shit, Helen, have they landed yet?"

"The Y'Bari dart, which is apparently called *The Barrow*, has touched down and I have closed the hangar bay and am pressurizing the area now," Helen said to them. "Just a few moments more."

Hanging on the wall just next to the hangar bay door was a long-range blaster rifle, meant for precision work at good distances, single shots not wide spreads. Sketch felt like if he ever needed to fire the blaster more than once in a confrontation, he'd gone about it all wrong. He picked up the rifle and handed it over to her.

"You keep a sniper rifle just hanging next to the door of your hangar bay?" Serena asked him.

"Let's just say this isn't the first time somebody's tried to board my boat when I didn't want them to," he sighed. "And you're sure you know how to use it?"

"Your friend Darren took me hunting twice a month, Sketch," she said to him. "I won't miss."

"See that you don't, otherwise this Y'bari's going to be taking a long look at you next, and I bet that's an encounter you're not likely to enjoy," he said. He drew in a heavy breath, trying to center himself, putting on his best poker face, that of the neutral, exhausted long hauler, who was annoyed at having somebody unwanted on his ship.

Serena moved to one side of the door before Sketch opened it and stepped into the hangar, leaving the door open behind him. The Y'bari dart was a vicious looking ship, sleek, black and angular, long and pointy with a vicious gleam to it, clearly the result of too much time being polished. The owner of this war dart hadn't seen action in some time, and Sketch's first impression was that the lack of combat might have been getting to them.

The top canopy of the dart swung up and open before the side of the dart's cockpit folded down, unraveling into a series of stairs, as the Y'bari exited their craft and started to make their way down the steps, letting Sketch get a good look at them.

He'd never seen a Y'bari in person before, but there were plenty of holovids of them in the archives. They typically ranged from seven to nine feet tall, built much like scaled up humans, although they were always more slender, a result of them having hollow bones, like the birds back on Earth. The Y'bari were commonly referred to as elves by humans, at least when the Y'bari weren't around. They had faces much like humans, but had long, pointed ears, and that combined with their slender stature had let humanity pigeonhole the Y'bari into existing fairytale myth.

Learning about Y'bari culture had been damn near impossible, as it seemed like the Starless Dominion liked to keep as many details as they could close to the vest, to keep the Y'bari an unknown, terrifying fighting force. The Y'bari didn't eat with non-Y'bari. They didn't drink with non-Y'bari. The only time most people would see a Y'bari was when they were in violation of a law. The Y'bari were the scary, faceless army of the Starless Dominion, and the Dominion seemed to enjoy it that way.

The Y'bari in question was female, he could see, as while her battle suit was mostly dark blue and black pieces of insectoid styled armor, there were definite swells around her chest, large breasts beneath the suit. He knew he needed to get her out of that helmet so that Serena could have a clear shot, because as good as his blaster rifle was, he was fairly certain it wouldn't be able to pierce Y'bari battle armor on its best days.

"Captain Davis," the Y'bari said. "I'm Centurion Aliara, here on behalf of the Starless Dominion." She reached the end of the steps and stood on the deck of the hangar, and it was clear that while Aliara was short for a Y'bari, probably only a few inches over seven foot tall, it was still more than enough height to let her loom large in his field of vision, even at the distance they were at. Though the voice was still modulated, Sketch could detect a complacency to the tone, as if Aliara thought this sort of thing was beneath her. "I'm here to inject you and the rest of your crew with the Hapzix anti-fungal, to ensure none of you are spreading Lingham spores anywhere else in the galaxy. This service is being provided to you and your crew free of charge on behalf of our mighty overlords, the Starless Dominion, may light never shine upon their chambers."

He'd heard that slogan before - 'may light never shine upon their chambers' - but he hadn't been able to find anything to explain where it came from or where it meant. If the Y'bari were hard to get details on, the Starless Dominion themselves were even worse. The Dominion were never seen directly, never spoken to directly, but ruled the galaxies with an iron fist enough that nobody ever wanted to get in their way.

"It's hard as hell understanding you through that thing," Sketch said, gesturing at the Y'bari helmet. "Any chance you could take it off so we can hold a conversation like civilized beings?" He felt like this was a stretch, but knowing that the Y'bari was already starting to feel the impact of being pushed down one of the four Paths, it felt like it might not be a stretch too far. He only had a few more minutes before the Y'bari, Aliara, would be nearly consumed with whichever emotion his abilities were bubbling up inside of her.

"Fine," Aliara said, setting down the small case she'd been carrying before reaching up and unlatching one side of her helmet, then the other, pulling it up and over her head before setting it atop the case. "Better?"

With the helmet off, Sketch got his first in-person look at a Y'bari, and had Aliara been a human woman, she would've been considered gorgeous, with high cheekbones, a button nose and a face generally unlike any warrior he'd ever seen before. Her ears were indeed long and pointed, at least three inches longer than they would've been as scale human ears. Her eyes were more like cat's eyes, a deep shade of amber with tall ovals of black in the center of them. Her hair was done up into a bun, to keep it tucked in her helmet, he expected, and it was shades of blue and green, evoking memories of oceans long since departed. Her skin was a pale white, not so light as to be unnatural, but of a complexion that reminded Sketch of an Irishman soldier he'd known once. Other than the ears and eyes, however, she looked almost identical to a human woman, just in larger scale.

"Much better," Sketch said, waiting for Serena to take the shot, which never came. He tensed up a little, and then wondered if maybe Serena had expected him to bring her out into the hallway, where she would have a much easier time hitting the target, so he started to turn away from Aliara, gesturing for her to follow him. "C'mon, we'll go get Berry and you can inject us both and be on your way."

"I don't know that I've ever seen one of these Tropage ships intact before," Aliara said, following behind him at several paces. Despite the fact that her longer legs were letting her catch up, Sketch was doing his best to walk quickly, to stay as far from her as he could, hoping the distance might keep his abilities from pressing too hard on the inside of her skull. "Solid craftsmanship. Plus it's nice, having these reasonably sized hallways and doorways, so I don't have to slouch, like I normally would in walking through a human vessel."

He stepped back into the hallway, glancing left and right with his eyes quickly, seeing Serena on his left, pointing to his right, so he turned and started walking right down the hallway. A moment or so later, Aliara stepped into the hall and what felt like an eternity later, he heard the blaster go off. As he heard the body fall to the ground, he didn't hear an accompanying wet splat, so he turned back to look, and the Y'bari's body was in a crumpled ball on the hall floor, her head decidedly *non*exploded.

"What the hell, Serena?" Sketch said to her, seeing the girl hang the rifle back on the wall. "You were supposed to kill her, not knock her out."

"I was going to, but then I realized... she was checking out your ass while you walked."

"She was check-?" he said, stopping in utter shock. "Serena, have you lost your fucking *mind*? This is a Y'bari Centurion! We should be dumping her body into deep space right now and praying that nobody comes looking for us!"

"She'll have sent a transmission back to her station upon contact," Serena told him, "so the only way they're going to think we're nobody is if she sends them a message *telling* them we're nobody."

"And how the hell do you propose we get her to do that?"

"Oh, based on how she was looking at you, I think we can work something out," the princess grinned, something Sketch felt couldn't possibly bode well for him. "Let's get her stripped and take her to the brig."

How uncomplicated his life of just a single day ago seemed to him now.