Halfbreed Ch. 08

The Guard led them to one corner of the room, a secluded area upon which more than a dozen Loupian men and women in varying states of undress sat. The table in front of them was covered in empty liquor bottles, assorted pills of an indeterminate origin, and a tall, glass hookah spewing strings of pinkish smoke. There was a loaded gun sitting on the table, which Mike took grim note of.

The gaggle of aliens laughed and toyed with one another, eyes sliding across their three unwilling voyeurs with mild disinterest. One Loupian woman in particular caught Mike's eye: a well built, scantily clad creature with a thin, translucent red veil drawn about her face. She winked at him, her piercing yellow eyes holding to his for a long moment.

The guard who had let the three of them in walked up to her and whispered in her ear. The guard said something, she tilted her head and responded back. He spoke longer this time, gesturing towards the three of them and then pointing at the dance floor behind them. Her brow rose, her eyes sneaking another glance in Mike's direction, as if to confirm what her henchman was saying was true. A slow, budding smirk built upon her veiled lips.

"Well now," She said, leaning back in her chair. "Look at you! It's like the setup to a bad joke: a Human, an Elf, and a Native walk into a wolves' den..."

Mike took the mocking cackles of the Loupians at the table in stride. "The Veiled One, I presume."

"Perhaps." The woman said, casting her hand around in a lazy circle. Her nails were charcoal black, longer and thicker than a Human's. "To whom do I owe the pleasure?"

"Mike Koller." He said, averting his eyes to the ground. The volume in the room dropped precipitously. "This is Lashvara of the Voaten, and my first mate Allynna Gwynn'Yn'Iolenna. We have come to-."

The Veiled One held up a finger to her lips. "Shhh shh shh." She cooed, "-When I want to know why you're here, I'll ask." Mike shifted back and forth on his heels.

"Let's play a game, shall we? I ask one of you a question, and you answer to the best of your abilities. Answer correctly, and the game continues. Get one wrong..." She shrugged. "Well, I suppose you'll find out." The room was silent. Mike took in a deep breath.

"You three are quite conspicuous, aren't you?" She continued, "Tell me Elf: what are you doing here? Criminals come in all shapes and sizes in Wild Space, but... an Elf?"

Allynna fidgeted in place. She folded her hands together into her lap. "As my Captain just told you, I am a part of his-"

The Loupian waved her off. "Yes, yes. I know who you work for. Tedious." The Veiled One fluttered her long eyelashes and leaned forward, projecting her cleavage through her revealing red dress.

"-But that's not the question I asked: what are you doing here? You're mingling with people far beneath your stature." Allynna stole a glance in Mike's direction. The Veiled One's facial expression darkened. "Don't look at the dust mite. Look at me."

"...I am here on behalf of my Captain."

"Your 'Captain' has the lifespan of your average Elven infant." The Loupian let out a laugh.

"Nevertheless, he is my Captain." Allynna responded.

"Bullshit." The Veiled One said, toying with the hookah hose in front of her. "-but let's say for the sake of argument that he is. What makes you think your presence here in the Alien Quarter is in any way appreciated?"

"...I don't." Aly said, keeping her voice even.

"So you admit that your Captain is a fool for bringing you here?" Mike's cheek clenched, but he said nothing.

Alynna did not so much as blink. "If that is how you choose to interpret my words, yes."

The Loupian sighed. "How dreary. I half-expected some life in this one." She looked to Lashvara. "Fine. On to contestant number three! Native: what is your purpose here?"

"To meet you." Lashvara said.

The Loupian flashed a sultry smile in Lashvara's direction. "Well, you have accomplished that, at the very least." Her smile faded. "But I'm starting to worry that all of your translators are malfunctioning. I asked what you were doing here."

"Seeking answers regarding a recent business deal." Lashvara said. "Fignet Opalbraid told us you'd have them."

"I see. So I am wasting my valuable time for the benefit of your curiosity?"

The Orc shrugged, "For our mutual benefit."

The Veiled One inspected her fingernails. "...Bring our guests some seats, would you please?"

As if on cue three Loupians in suits approached the trio from behind, carrying chairs. They set them down in a line. Mike took his seat, as did Lashvara. But when Allynna moved to sit, the Veiled One snapped her fingers. "Not yet, angel eyes. Let me get a good look at you, first."

Allynna stiffened, her spine straightening as she stood at attention. The veiled Loupian pursed her lips, her eyes roaming across Allynna's form in her tight, white bodysuit.

"Hm. Still young. You haven't quite 'ripened' yet, have you my little apricot?" The Veiled One's smile grew predatory. "Turn around for me, would you?"

Allynna's face was like stone. With a quick turn of her heel, she pivoted around so that her back was facing the crowd of randy Loupians. Mike's hands clenched against his legs.

"Now that-" The Veiled One exclaimed, pointing at Allynna's hindquarters, "is why Elven Whores sell so well! Do you see that: the body language? The curve of her ass? Her hips alone would double her asking price, I'd bet."

Allynna's face burned with humiliation. She shot a short glance in Mike's direction. Her face was even, but in her eyes he could see a patchwork of anger, horror, and disgust.

"You can turn around again, dear. I was just settling a debate we were having earlier." The Veiled One leaned back into her seat, smirking.

"...May I sit?" Allynna asked. Her voice was tense.

"You may not." The Loupian replied, "but I appreciate the request." She turned and whispered something into her male companion's ear, who responded with a barking laugh.

"About our business..." Mike said, attempting to return to the point.

The Veiled One let out a low giggle. She leaned back, displaying her long, bare legs. "And what business is that?"

Mike didn't rise to the bait. "I think by now you know what we're here to talk about."

The Veiled One smiled as she took hold of the hookah hose. Her eyes never left Mike's face as she took a long, slow drag off of the pipe, blowing an acrid, pinkish smoke in Mike's face.

"So pretend that I don't." She purred.

Mike's hands clenched as he felt the presence of the Loupian guards hovering behind his chair.

"Fignet Opalbraid." He responded in a patient tone. "We work for him."

"Hmmm." The Veiled One said, sounding bored.

"He wanted us to talk to you about that thing." Mike said, "The thing at his job."

"Which job?" She asked, an insufferable smile on her face. "What thing?" She took another drag from the Hookah.

"Fignet's work." Mike said. "And it's the thing that needed a quick and quiet move."

"A lot of things need to be moved quickly and quietly in this galaxy, 'Captain.' Which one do you mean specifically?"

Mike could no longer avoid incriminating himself. "We're here to discuss the Shield Generator delivery."

"A Shield Generator! My, aren't you ambitious." Her lips curled into a merciless smile. "Would you mind telling your Elven servant to come over here and take a seat next to me?"

Mike froze. He glanced over at Allynna, who did not meet his gaze, her eyes staring dead ahead at the Veiled One. The Loupian took another long puff at her hookah and leaned back in her seat. She patted the lap of the man she'd been groping moments ago. "Go on! I'll make room for her. Tell her."

Mike gritted his teeth. He turned his head on a pivot and stared hard at Allynna. "Go." He whispered.

"Say it to her in a complete sentence." The Veiled One said, smirking.

"Allynna. Please go sit next to her." He said in his Captain's voice.

"Of course, Captain." She responded, her voice so devoid of expression she sounded robotic. The Elf stood up out of her seat, striding around the table with an effortless grace, as though it were the simplest thing in the world. Mike knew how shy Aly could be in crowds.

The Loupians snickered, but the Veiled One shooed them to the edges of the couch, giving ample room for Allynna to plop herself down next to the Loupian Crime Boss. The Veiled One looked her up and down, taking another long drag from her hookah.

"Here," She said, passing it to the Elf. "Smoke."

Allynna looked at the thing in her hand, her face betraying the barest of hesitation. She met Mike's eyes. He nodded. She sighed and lifted the hookah to her lips. Her thin nostrils flared. The Veiled One's eyes were alight with mischievous amusement.

"Now blow it in his face."

Allynna exhaled, directing it in a channel from her lips so the thick smoke went into Mike's face. He coughed a few times due to the thick, tangy scent.

The Veiled One, content for the moment with her casual display of dominance, leaned back in her seat. Her free hand reached out, planting itself against Allynna's spine. The Elf jumped in place, unused to physical touch. Mike's warning look caused her to shudder but stay still. The Loupian idly trailed her fingers up and down Aly's back. "-So what were you saying about a Shield Generator?"

"We're here to-"

A gun barrel pressed to his temple. An arm reached around the edge of the high-backed chair and pulled him by the throat against it. Allynna let out a small gasp.

"To be perfectly honest." The veiled vixen said, grinning in triumph, "I don't give a fuck what you're here to do."

"Where is the Shield Generator?" Barked the modulated voice to his right.

It took everything Mike had to not turn his head to face the gun. "I preferred it when you blew smoke in my face." He said to the Veiled One.

"I won't ask again, shithead." Came the ageless, genderless screech of the figure's microphone in his ear. "Where is the Shield Generator? I'll put a bullet in your Mool'Gwaith's head, don't test me."

"It's with her!" Mike said, gesturing with his head in flailing motions towards Lashvara, who sat stone faced in her seat. A guard stood at her side, his gun against her head. "Her tribe has got it! Heruen help me, at least let us explain!"

"Not good enough." Buzzed the voice. Its deadpan vocal tone made the hair on the back of Mike's neck stand on end. "Where?"

"On Votar." Allynna said, declining to specify precisely what was on Votar.

"Have you no shame?!" Lashvara roared in her seat, staring daggers at the veiled woman on the couch.

"None." Came the modulated reply.

"If we were lying, do you think we'd be stupid enough to come here, of all places?" Mike exclaimed. He nodded at the Veiled One. She smirked but said nothing.

"If you are stupid enough to be telling the truth," The voice said, "then yes."

Mike steadied his breathing. He had to think clearly. "Oh, we are. But not in the way you think." He said, "The Orcs have sent us here to make a deal."

A long silence followed. "A deal." The vocal tone sounded flatter than usual.

Mike nodded, the arm around his neck tightened to keep him from leaving his seat. He swallowed and looked skyward. "Yes, and if you'd like, you can take that damn gun away from my head, since you and I both know that you're not about to murder two people and an Elf in front of a crowd."

Another long silence. "Watch me."

"Not here." Mike said in response, breathing deeply, "You might bring us downstairs to some quiet backroom, but not here. So don't waste time with this bluff. Either listen to the deal, or stop beating around the bush."

A final, terribly long silence descended. "...Beating around the-?"

"Acrylla fuck my virgin wife, it means just get it over with, already!" He shouted.

The Loupians around the table burst into uproarious laughter. Even the veiled woman in the center had to cover her mouth to hide her belly laughs.

"Hm." The faceless voice almost seemed to let out a huff of air.

The gun left Mike's temple. The arm that held him fast against the chair pulled away. Mike felt the presence of a tall, slender being sidle past him out of the corner of his eye. He watched, transfixed as the woman from the dance floor, the one with the ever-changing LED mask, strode with supreme confidence around the crook of the table.

She made a dismissive gesture with her hand. The whole table, including the veiled woman sitting in the middle, cleared out in a hurry. In seconds the couch was empty save for Allynna, who sat awkwardly in the middle, her eyes fixed to this newcomer.

The Veiled One ignored her, circling around the table and plopping herself down next to the Elf. She crossed her slender leg over her knee, her toe tapping at the air in time to the bumping music outside. With a wave of her hand the Loupian guards backed away, forming a rough semicircle perimeter. They were alone with the faceless figure.

"So," Her modulated voice said in an empty tone. The light on her face flared, shifting the mask's appearance into a green, snarling dog's face. "Where is my Shield Generator?"

"Safe." Mike said, preempting Lashvara from opening her blunt yap and accidentally blurting out the truth. "For now. The deal you brokered with your original buyer is still on, we've just run into a few complications."

The Dog's fluorescent red eyes stared daggers at Mike. "You've stolen something from me. That I cannot abide." The dog face bared its large canines. "How do we resolve this?"

"A deal." Mike said.

"You don't understand: we aren't sharing the profits, Smuggler."

"If you thought that's all the deal was," Mike said, leaning forward and perching an elbow on his knee, "you wouldn't have sat down in the first place."

The mask flashed blue and white, the soothing face of a beautiful Elven woman appearing across the screen in sharp, stark lines. Her empty, white eyes almost looked like something from a marble statue. Her lips moved as the modulator spoke. "Fair. So what is the deal?"

"I owe the Orcs a favor," Mike said. "And it just so happens, we might both have something the other wants."

"A Shield Generator for a favor." The face on the Veiled One's mask smiled. "You want to fuck me up the ass, and then make me pay for the pleasure. I could just beat it out of you."

"It wouldn't do you any good." Mike retorted, "Not unless you fancy fighting half a planet full of Natives to get to it."

The Veiled One tilted her head, the mask dissipating into a riot of incomprehensible yellow, green and red shapes.

"Alright, so here's the rub," Mike said, gesturing with his hands, "Your generator is currently sitting on a starport tarmac on the Orcish moon, at an undisclosed location. I promise you, it'd take an orbital bombardment to locate the thing."

The growing hurricane building on the Veiled One's LED mask made Mike rush forward with the ruse. "-But," he said, stressing the word, "as it turns out, the Orcs have things that they need too. Things that may, in fact, be difficult to acquire. At least, without the proper... help."

"I'm listening."

He turned his head to his Orcish companion. "Lass, you want to jump in here and tell the Veiled One about your little situation with the Senate vote?"

"I am well aware of the Orc's troubles with the Empire." The Veiled One cut her off. "I assume that Shield Generator was a part of some scheme to have the Elves take you seriously?" Her head turned to face Allynna, who met the empty mask's gaze with an equally blank look. "Little did you know: the Elves don't 'deal' with aliens. They dictate."

"Pretend for a second that you believe us, and that we're telling the truth." Mike said, "You need this generator, badly enough that you're willing to listen to a two-bit criminal rather than just pull his fingernails off for the trouble. You tell us who the buyer is, and maybe we give you the Generator without a fuss."

The LED reformed itself into an elongated, tribal mask of golden, flowing lines running down the center of the face like a topographic map. "And why would this native give back something that was stolen from her in the first place?"

"So you admit it!" Lashvara said, baring her teeth. "You knew who you were stealing from!"

The Veiled One shrugged, "You did not hide your efforts well. If I was able to find out about the deal, who else do you think is aware?"

"Our enemies." Lashvara snarled.

The Veiled One nodded. "Precisely." She leaned forward in her seat. "But your enemies and I are not the same thing... assuming you can give me compensation."

"Who is the buyer?" Mike asked, "That's all we want to know."

The Mask shifted into a red and black skull, its orange tongue waggling as it spoke. She shifted position on the couch. "You aren't stupid enough to believe I'd ruin my business relationship by revealing who they are. Whatever measly credits this Shield Generator nets me isn't worth my reputation."

"Then how can we resolve this?" Allynna asked, sitting stock straight in her seat.

"My buyer is not the one who stole your generator." The modulator croaked. "We merely took advantage of an opportunity. You want answers? I can give them to you. But I require something of equal value."

"...How much?" Mike said, folding his arms in front of his chest.

The Veiled One considered him, the mask flashing a dull, blank yellow. "Money isn't good enough. You and your 'investigation' have exposed Fignet's activities at Maeles Aelor. If the authorities were unaware of his business before, they certainly won't be now, now that his hovercar chase is plastered across the evening news. He is no longer an asset, he's a liability."

"I could break into his business for you, steal a couple of knick-knacks." Mike joked.

The blank yellow face grew blue eyes and green eyebrows. One of those eyebrows rose. "That would be a start." She said, deadpan. "Given that Fignet was our man on the inside, that also means that my smuggling business at Maeles Aelor is coming to an end, as is our ability to gain clearance into their dockyards."

The mask shimmered as the slender Loupian tapped her finger against her knee. "The time has come to pick the bones. Fortunately for you, it's a job perfectly suited to your particular... talents."

"No." Lashvara said.

The Veiled One turned to consider her. "I am not asking for your permission. I'm telling you what you're going to do."

"One sin does not justify another." Lashvara retorted, her lip curling into a sneer. "I will do whatever is necessary to atone for my own mistakes, but you can't make me sell my honor for the sake of a liar's promise. I will not help you."

"Lass." Mike said, keeping his voice calm. He made a nervous gesture with his wrist, allowing the liquid metal to dance across his fingertips. "Now is neither the time nor the place to be getting sanctimonious. She's giving us an out."

"She is spinning a convenient lie." The Orc growled, "Your feelings betray you! You hide your true face like a snake behind your mask."

The Veiled One tilted her head, her long ears twitching above her mask. The LED's color faded away, dulling to a blank, black screen. "You natives are not as effective at sussing out the truth as you might think. Especially given... recent developments."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Lashvara said, her brow furrowing.

The Veiled One shrugged. "Have you not wondered why now, of all times? It's odd how fast the authorities filtered through your star system's application for integration into the Empire. Normally, that kind of process could take centuries. Yet the Colony itself is barely seventy five years old."