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"This is incredible," I said as I leaned over the console to get a better look through the viewport. The sheer mass of the station in the emptiness of space was overwhelming.
"Just remember, this is a small station," Shara said with a smirk.
If this place was small, I couldn't imagine what a large one would look like. I imagined a death star or something the size of a small planet that housed billions of beings from all over the galaxy. I knew I had no frame of reference to how anything would look out here, but I still liked to imagine.
"Buckle up while we come in for landing," Shara said as we approached the mouth of the hangar.
I took my seat and fastened the harness around my chest, swapping between watching the opening of the hangar grow ever closer and studying Shara as she guided the ship manually. The ship controls didn't look too complicated, and Shara had told me she'd teach me the basics and even offered to let me bring us in for a landing. But I preferred not crashing and dying on my first visit to an alien space station, so I let her do it instead.
We cleared the hangar opening with ease, and I finally understood how small our ship was, compared to others. I saw a few ships coming and going as we approached the station, but they were so far away I couldn't get an idea of how large they were compared to the ship I had called home for the last two days. The interior of the hangar was about what I expected from a space station. It was probably as big as a football field, and our ship would easily have room to turn around when we wanted to leave.
We slowed to a stop and hovered in place for a moment before Shara lowered us to the hangar floor until I felt a slight bump when our landing gear hit the ground.
"And we're here, alive and in one piece," Shara grinned at me over her shoulder.
"I for one am grateful for the being alive part, and in one piece," I chuckled.
"Come on, let's get dressed and go meet my friend," she said, slipping out of her chair.
I followed Shara out of the bridge but kept going when she turned off to her room. I only had one pair of clothes with me, and I was wearing them. But I'd like to take some of my gear with me, so I headed to the armoury instead. Once there, I took a few minutes to go over everything and decide what to bring with me. I didn't want to overload myself with too much equipment, but I wasn't going anywhere ever again without a weapon.
I strapped the pistol holster to my thigh and loaded one of the Glocks before holstering it, then slipped another magazine into the pocket of my cargo pants and strapped the stun baton to my left thigh, along with the combat knife onto my belt. I contemplated leaving the rifle behind, but I might need it; at the very least I'd like to see if there was a weaponsmith here that could replicate the ammunition I needed for the weapon.
I attached a sling to the rifle from the equipment locker and slung it over my back to appear less threatening. I practiced pulling the rifle around my body to ready it, and after a dozen attempts, I was satisfied I could draw and aim the weapon without too much fumbling. Once my gear was in place, I strapped on the knee and elbow pads before pulling on my gloves. I felt much lighter without the chest harness, although I didn't have as much room for spare ammunition. I picked up two of the empty magazines for the rifle and slid them into one of my cargo pockets before loading the full one into the weapon. If I could get bullets made, I wanted to make sure I had something to load them into.
"Ready to go?" I heard Shara ask from behind me.
"Sure thing, are you?" I asked as I turned around.
The sight of her nearly floored me. Shara had dressed in her skin-tight jumpsuit that refused to let any man concentrate on his current train of thought, but this time she'd only zipped it up half-way, and a tantalizing view of her cleavage was on display for me. I could see the edges of white peeking out from the black garment, indicating the lines on her legs, arms, and face did, in fact, cover her whole body.
"Guess I chose correctly then?" Shara giggled.
I looked up to see her smiling at me with a raised eyebrow. I'd been staring at the exposed skin of her chest for far too long, and I actually had to close my mouth.
"I'm so sorry," I said quickly.
"It's fine, Jason. It's getting the response I was aiming for," she chuckled.
Jealousy shot through me again when I remembered we were here to see a friend of hers, and now she was dressing to impress. Since she hadn't shown me any excess skin when she wore the outfit earlier in our trip, I guessed it was for this friend of hers. I pushed the jealousy aside and scolded myself for thinking that way. Sure, she was hot as fuck, and we got along really well, but we didn't really know each other. She probably had a long-lasting relationship with whoever this guy was, and it was stupid of me to get jealous and angry about that. I should be happy for my friend.
"Let's get going," I said with a grin.
Shara studied me for a few seconds, smiled, then motioned for me to follow her.
The boarding ramp had already lowered by the time we stepped into the cargo hold, and I saw a trio of beings patiently standing a few metres away. I followed Shara down the ramp and stood a little to her right as she strode to the group of what I'd call men, waiting for us. All three were humanoid, but each looked to be from a different species.
The one on the right was easily two and a half metres tall with an impossibly broad chest and tree trunk-like arms and legs. He was completely hairless with grey skin like Shara, but where her skin looked soft to touch, he looked like he was made from stone. His face was the least human of all, though, with no visible nose, wide lipless mouth, and glowing purple eyes.
The man to the left was far smaller than his large, stone-skinned companion, but that was only by comparison. He had a sickly yellow skin tone with long red hair tied into two braids that hung over his shoulders and down to his waist. Like his massive friend, he too was shirtless with baggy black pants. Powerful muscles rippled across his chest, stomach, and arms, with a cruel glint in his mostly human eyes and long, pointed elf-like ears with little tufts of red hair poking up from the ends. His face was almost entirely human, apart from the shark-like teeth I noticed when he grinned, which seemed to be his default expression.
The final man—flanked by the others—was as equally imposing as the others. His skin was such a light a shade of red that it was borderline pink. His jet-black hair stuck up in spikes like a Japanese anime character, but his two massive goat like horns distracted me from how comical his hair was. They jutted out of his forehead and curled around until the points reached his cheekbones. Unlike his companions, he wore a sleeveless vest over his thin, lean frame. He smiled welcomingly to Shara, but I saw a hunger plain across his icy blue eyes.
I already didn't like any of these guys, and I hadn't even been introduced to them yet.
"Let me handle this," Shara said, flashing me a smile over her shoulder.
The gorgeous, grey-skinned alien approached the three with a broad smile and spoke in a loud, cheerful voice. I couldn't understand what she said, and I guessed this whole exchange would be in a language I didn't understand. I was correct in my guess when the aggressive-salmon-coloured, goat-horned man replied to Shara in the same language. Since I couldn't understand what they were saying, I turned my attention to the two men who looked to be here more for their muscle over their conversational skills. The big stone-skinned behemoth of a man looked bored. He sized me up and looked to dismiss me immediately, but I guessed it was just his way. I highly doubted someone would hire the big man to protect them just for him to ignore a potential threat. No, this mammoth of an alien was probably smarter than he let on.
The other man was much more open about keeping an eye on me. I cautiously watched him from the corner of my eye, and the piss-yellow alien never took his devious eyes off me. He folded his powerful arms across his muscular chest, and I saw him flex as if he was getting himself ready for a fight. I wondered how he'd go with a bullet between the eyes. I was close enough that I was confident I could put my shots where I wanted, but I didn't know how fast these two were. Shara was far quicker than any human I'd seen, and the crazy-eyed yellow-skinned motherfucker could be even faster than her. Neither man carried a weapon that I could see, so they most-likely specialized in hand-to-hand combat. Which meant they probably didn't fear guns all too much.
Shara and the goat-horned man conversed for a few more minutes before he clapped his hands loudly. Then he spun on his heels without even looking my way and strode out of the hangar bay, his two lackeys in tow.
"Good news," Shara said, turning to me. "They'll help us."
"Help us with what?" I asked. "Those guys didn't look very reputable to me."
"Don't worry about them," she said with a shrug. "They're tough, but they're not bad people. As for help, they're going to give us a place to stay while we are here and keep us off the officials' radar."
"Officials?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes. The governor of Miladrian station enjoys taxing his citizens and travellers, more so if you have nothing to offer. He calls it the freeloader tax," she rolled her eyes as she explained.
"Sounds like some politicians I know from back home," I joked.
"You'll learn quickly that those with power are the same, no matter what your galactic co-ordinates are," Shara laughed softly. "First things first, we need to get you an I.D implant," she added.
"I.D implant?" I asked.
"Yes. Also part of why we need to stay hidden from the Officials here, if you are caught without an I.D implant, they'll assume you're an escaped slave or something and lock you up. Even if you aren't and they know it, they'll likely just sell you off because you technically don't belong here," Shara explained.
"Wow, that's bullshit," I replied.
"Yep, but they're not too hard to get. Come on," Shara tilted her head towards the doors the three men left through.
The hangar doors slid open with a hiss, and we walked down a long corridor to a second door that led into the bustling inner streets of the space station. Hundreds of beings of all colours and sizes moved in pairs, groups, and by themselves as they navigated around groups of armed soldiers in uniforms and hovercars loaded with people and containers that floated a few inches from the steel surface of the floor. Hundreds of voices filled the air to create a steady hum of background noise common to large, populated cities back home. The fact that each voice spoke a language I didn't understand only added to the wall of sound assaulting my ears.
"Follow me and stay close," Shara said before striding into the crowds of aliens.
I saw so many different alien species that it was hard to remember all the strange beings I spotted. Men twice as tall as me but thin as a rake, and some as short as a beer keg with thick, barrel chests and brawny arms. Women of every colour in existence, and some with hair as varied as their skin tones, with horns and even completely bald.
A group of shiny golden skin beings that looked completely human, apart from their reflective skin, crossed our path at one point. The men and women looked like they were straight out of a Greek mythology textbook with their incredibly muscled physiques and hairless bodies. The sight of the golden, god-like figures was soon replaced with a troop of short, stocky, bearded men carrying a variety of tools in their fat-fingered hands. Their long, thick beards and rambunctious temperament reminded me of fantasy dwarves.
"There are so many different species here," I said to Shara, speaking loudly over the thrum of conversation.
"This station is well known for accepting workers from any system, and the pay for mining is quite good—although the work is a little dangerous," Shara explained.
"Are they all here to work?' I asked, sidestepping a thick-shouldered, orange-skinned man with a tiny head as he barrelled through the crowd.
"Not all of them," Shara replied. "There are traders and transport ships that bring in new workers for the mines and supplies to keep the station running."
I studied the sea of aliens as I picked my way through the crowd behind Shara, but didn't see anyone that resembled her species. There were plenty of red-haired men and women, and others with similar grey skin that I thought were the same species as my companion, but none of them looked like her. There were so many different species here that I thought I'd see at least one like her, but she was the only one of her kind, like me. I started to wonder why that was and wanted to ask her, but I decided to leave the question for another time, when I didn't have to shout to be heard over the crowd.
After a few minutes of walking, we finally broke free from the denser part of the crowds, and I spotted a dull, rusted metal half wall running the entire length of the cavernous room, cutting it in two. A metallic mesh connected the half wall to the ceiling about five metres overhead and shimmered with a strange blue light. A group of six men in dark-grey uniforms stood near the multiple passages that led through the half wall. A few of them carried black assault rifle-style weapons with long barrels. Their eyes scanned the crowds constantly, never staying in the same place for more than a second. Each of the guards was of a different alien species, but mostly humanoid, with varying skin tones and size differences to tell them apart. The three men who had met us in the hangar bay stood by the group, speaking to a soldier who looked to be holding a meatier version of an iPad. Shara stopped me with a hand on my chest when we were about three metres away from the group.
"We must wait," she whispered.
"Wait for what?" I asked.
"Zullo has agreed to help get you into the station. Without an identification implant, they would most likely arrest you," she explained.
"Is Zullo the pink-skinned guy?" I asked.
"Yes, he is my friend that I said we would meet," she replied, casting a glance towards the goat-horned man.
"Are you two...a thing?" I asked hesitantly.
She didn't reply, but studied me for a moment before giving me a small smile. "Nothing like that, Jason."
I returned her smile and resisted the urge to fist pump the air. Shara was an incredibly beautiful woman, and while I still thought she was way out of my league, it was nice to know she was at least available, as far as I knew anyway. At times I thought she flirted with and tempted me quite openly, but I couldn't be sure of her intentions. Human women were hard enough to read most of the time, so it could just be her people's custom.
"Let's go," Shara said, pulling on the sleeve of my shirt and interrupted my thoughts.
I let my companion guide me through the security checkpoint and tried to ignore the stares I was getting from the armed men. They must have known something foul was taking place, but none of them stopped us as we stepped through the scanners. A loud beeping sound caused a large, blue-skinned man on the other side of the checkpoint to step forward and thrust his open palm towards my chest. He spoke in an angry tone, but I couldn't understand his words.
"What's he saying?" I asked Shara quickly.
"Your weapons, you have to show your weapons," she explained.
I stepped to one side when the soldier motioned for me to move and began stripping off my weapons. I un-slung the rifle from my back first and placed it on a polished steel table, then my pistol, knife, taser, and stun baton. The guard who'd stopped me picked up each of my weapons in turn and studied them, then looked at me with an approving smirk before nodding for me to take my gear.
I holstered my small arsenal of equipment once more before stepping away from the guard to stand by Shara. The blue-skinned guard's hand clapped me on the shoulder, startling me, but when I glanced at his face, I saw the man was grinning widely.
"What was that all about?" I asked as I stepped up beside Shara.
"Rylothians are a warrior race. They respect strength and skill in combat," she explained. "I believe you gained that one's respect with the number of weapons you carry."
"I'm surprised they just let me take them inside the station," I said with a laugh. "Back home, they would have been confiscated, and I'd probably be in a cell by now."
"The station is filled with weaponsmiths and blast-tech engineers, so it is normal for people to bring weapons on-board," Shara explained. "The station also has automated security drones that put an end to most conflicts before they escalate."
"Noted," I said with a laugh.
I glanced around the room nervously, looking for any auto-turrets that might shred me to pieces if I pulled a weapon. I saw nothing, but it didn't make me feel any better.
Shara held her hand up for me to stop once we reached a set of double doors at the opposite end of the room. I looked behind us, and I noticed Zullo and his two companions were slowly making their way over. The leader spoke a few words to his men before they strode through the automated doors, then motioned for us to follow him. Since I had no clue what the man was saying, I opted to walk a little behind Shara and her pink-skinned friend as we headed deeper into the station. They conversed a little as we walked, and I saw Shara glanced over her shoulder from time to time, giving me a small smile each time. Zullo also looked back at me and gave me a broad grin whenever he did. He didn't look anywhere near as fearsome as the other two, but his friendly smile didn't match the hard look in his eyes. I couldn't wait to be away from him.
I followed Shara and Zullo as we walked the busy streets of the station. The interior streets here were lined with stalls, shops, and open markets that reminded me of an airport back home. Groups of beings stood around chatting, eating, drinking, and dashing in every direction as they either waited for something or were late to where they were going. More than a few times, I had to jump out of someone's way when they came rushing past in a hurry, without a care in the world of who they bumped.
Uniformed guards also patrolled the clusters of shoppers and workers in groups of four or more. Single and pairs of guards also stood on every corner so that no matter where you looked, a man or woman in uniform could see you. Each one of them holding either a rifle or a long pole-arm-like weapon.
I tried my best to keep an eye on both Zullo and Shara, but the station's sights and scenes around me threatened to overwhelm my senses. I was never too fond of large crowds and noisy places; add a multitude of alien species that I didn't understand and the fact I was standing in a space station light-year away from Earth; I was starting to feel more than a little anxious.
I decided to try and play it as cool and calm as I could by focusing on Shara and where we were going. I tried to memorize the roads we took, the shops we passed, and keep track of the roaming guard patrols. I wasn't sure if the guards would be of any help to someone like me since I didn't have any form of identification; but I felt safer with them around, and sometimes the illusion of feeling safe was enough to make someone feel more at ease in a strange situation.
And there weren't many situations I could think of that were stranger than this one.
After about ten minutes of walking the main, clustered streets, we turned off down a side street that was almost half as wide as the massive avenue we'd been walking down so far. The large clusters of beings lessened considerably on the narrower road that was only as wide as a one-way street, something I was grateful for.
