Halfbreed Ch. 10 - End of Book One

Mike felt a swell in his heart as he ran. Allynna's eyes lit up and she flashed him a toothy smile. "I know." She said, lacking context as to what precisely she knew. "I know, I know."

They reached the floor that Mike was looking for, and sprinted through the doorway. Mike and Lass ran down the long, empty corridors of the deserted facility, a limp Allynna in the Orcs arms. By now it was quite likely that the staff had been alerted to the theft and evacuated. There wasn't much time left to escape.

After what felt like an eternity of breathless flight, the three companions reached the garage bay Mike had remembered from the schematic. There were only a few company-labeled hovertrucks left. Mike hurried over to the nearest one with a backseat and checked it's console through the drivers side window.

"This one's got fuel." He said, sticking his multitool into the lock and making a sharp gesture. The lock popped and the door slid open. "Get her situated in the back, I'll get this thing started."

Mike hotwired the engine, his hands shaking from the adrenaline and fear still coursing through his body. Lashvara opened the door to the backseat, gently depositing the half-aware Elf onto the cushions. Allynna smiled at her.

"Thank you, Lass." She murmured.

It's Lashvara. The Orc replied, circling around the truck to where Mike was working in the front seat.

"No, it's Lass!" Allynna called after her. Her normal haughty was flecked with amusement. She fell back against the seat, rubbing up against the leather like she was fascinated by its touch. "Michael said so."

Mike let out a sigh of relief as he heard the grumble of the engine roar to life. "All right we're good to go."

I will drive. Lashvara said, stepping to the door.

Mike put a hand out to stop her. "No. You just took a dose of whatever the hell just knocked my first mate for a loop. I'd rather not escape an execution just to die in a hovercar crash."

Lashvara affixed him with a look. Her beady eyes seemed to almost burn in her skull. Mike felt a sudden nervousness flood into his gut.

I am not impaired. If anything, I am more lucid than you are right now. She put her large hand upon his shoulder, squeezing it in empathy. The touch of skin on skin set something off like an electric current in his head. Mike felt a release in his chest, as if all the emotion he had bottled up over the course of this awful day were flooding up at once. He let out a shuddering breath.

Tend to your partner, Smuggler. I will drive.

Mike gritted his teeth. His pilot's instincts screamed at him to tell the Orc to go fuck herself, but he had not realized till just now how emotionally exhausted he was.

He gave a grudging nod. "Go. Quick. Take the skyway so we blend with the traffic." Mike slipped the backseat, glancing around the garage bay one last time before the doors sealed shut and the hovertruck lifted with a loud whirr off the ground. He looked at Allynna, but she was clearly out of it, lying back against the cushions with a contented sort of indolence.

Lashvara maneuvered the vehicle like a lumbering wildebeest, tilting it towards the automated exit doors as the engines spun to full speed. Mike could her the loud roar as she punched it, the vehicle shooting out from the garage and out into the open air of Charity.

Mike watched in anxious silence as they wheeled about and took off, weaving their way around the local skyscrapers as they built altitude. Lashvara used the tall buildings as cover to hide the hovertruck from view, keeping its front floodlights off and the cockpit perched in darkness. All mike could see of her from the backseat was the dim glow of the console highlighting her silhouette.

He tensed as he heard the telltale klaxons of Elven police vehicles come screeching in from below, near street level. Preemptively sensing their presence, Lashvara killed the engines and brought them into a hover, waiting in the darkness between the shelter of two skyscrapers as a huge, silver police starship zoomed over the skyscrapers. It was headed in the direction of the Maeles Aelor building.

After a long moment, she kicked he engines into high gear once more, maneuvering away from the crowded development of Charity City's business district and down to street level, pitching them in the direction of a near-deserted skylane headed towards the colony's outskirts.

We're clear of them. Lashvara said in his head.

Mike waited just long enough to be sure he could no longer see any sign of their would-be pursuers over out the window before looking to Allynna. She had recovered a bit from her earlier delirium, and now sat straight backed in her seat next to him. Her body was wound tight like a coiled spring. She hadn't said a word in minutes; she was in a daze.

"Hey, Elf. Look at me." It took a few seconds for Allynna's dilated eyes to focus. Mike snapped his fingers, and they narrowed on him. "Aly; come in Aly. You reading me?"

The Elf turned to face him in a slow, deliberate manner, as if she were processing the world around her in a new and unfamiliar way. Her eyes followed the motion of his finger for several seconds without really comprehending. She finally met his gaze after a few moments of dazed staring. A wide grin spread across her face.

"We are currently in verbal communication, Michael." She said in a chiding tone.

"...That we are." He said, unnerved by her overemotive facial expression.

Her smile widened. "We do not need to use radio callsigns to interact in such a manner." She said.

"Yeah, thanks for the fact check, smartass." Mike grumbled, taking her by the chin as he examined her eyes.

Allynna began to laugh, a physical action Mike had never heard her do before tonight. It was high-pitched, almost squeaky sounding compared to her usual voice. He was so caught off guard he jerked back for a second, afraid he might have hurt her inadvertently.

As if sending the source of his discomfort, Allynna took his hand and put it back on her chin, turning her head this way and that in different angles for him to gawk at, changing her facial expression repeatedly. The action was so amusing to her that she collapsed into a fit of giggles. Mike could see the whites of her teeth as she grinned at him, wiggling her blonde eyebrows back and forth in dangerous angles.

"What the hell did that dust do to you?" Mike muttered under his breath.

"I told you, Michael: I am perfectly fine." She said in a serene, contented voice.

"Yeah, and I'm the Emperor of the Everlasting Empire." He retorted. "Look at yourself!"

"You couldn't possibly be the Emperor, you don't have the lineage." Allynna retorted, letting out a dismissive snort. She leaned back into her seat and folded her arms together with phoney indignance.

Her teasing grin unnerved Mike. He leaned forward in his seat, taking a closer closer look at her watery, red-rimmed eyes when they turned to glance at him. Her irises were all but nonexistent, the whites shoved to the very periphery of the eyeball to make room for her dilated pupils.

"Aly," He asked in a serious tone, "What are you feeling right now?"

"Joy." She replied, reaching back over her shoulder to finger her blonde braid. "We escaped with our lives, and you are here next to me." Mike's heart fluttered.

Allynna's smile widened. "I like it when you do that."

"Do what?"

"When you get nervous like that. It makes me smile. It brings warmth to my chest." She let out another laugh, as if what she'd said was somehow humorous. Mike frowned. He took her hands in his.

"Aly, I'm worried here. You're not in your right-"

"I love you!" She blurted out, her smile spreading wide across her cheeks. Mike's jaw dropped at the statement.

She is under the lingering effects of the Kavar dust, as am I. Lashvara's voice spoke in his head. She did not turn back to look at him as she drove, streaking past hover cars in the sky lane as they moved farther and farther away from the facility.

"So I gathered." Mike said, eyeing his dreamy Elf with a mixture of worry and bemusement. "Figures you'd get magic powers, and she just gets drunk." Allynna cuddled up against him, pulling close as her arms wrapped around his chest. He stiffened at the unfamiliar intimacy.

It is difficult for interlopers who have never known what it is to be an Orc to process such emotions. Mike looked down at Aly, who lifted her head to gaze fondly back at him, a sly smile growing on her face.

"Hell of a drug, whatever this dust is." He said as Allynna ran her gloved fingers through his hair.

It is a perversion: a desecration of our most sacred traditions. Lashvara sounded angry in his head. But, strange as it was to say, Mike could "feel" the difference. It was not as rageful as it was before when she'd just found out about the company stealing the mushrooms. Now she sounded more... mournful.

"The..." Lashvara croaked. She swallowed, as if trying to remember how to talk. "The effects a-are..." She shook her head back and forth, her fingers clenching on the hover car's controls. "W-wuh- wear-ing off."

Allynna rested her head on Mike's shoulder, closing her eyes as she let out a contented sigh. Mike shifted back and forth in his seat, his eyes drawn to the window and the cityscape zipping by them.

"Good." He said, struggling to process the multitude of things that had just happened in the space. "Maybe it'll wear off for Aly soon, too."

Mike reflected on the past few days. It was hard to believe the Halfbreed had been shot down less than a week ago. Mike felt like months had passed since he'd first landed on Charity... Ukavar... whatever the hell this place was called. He'd had enough of it to last a lifetime.

"Where do we go now?" He asked into the ether, not really expecting an answer.

"The star port will be locked down." Aly murmured into his shoulder. He felt her hands slip beneath his jacket, searching for the tender bruise that the bullet had left on him. Her fingers stroked across it in gentle circles. "It's standard procedure after a major security breach to ground all spacefaring vessels."

"Aly's right." Mike said. "We won't be able to leave the planet for some time." He considered the implications of his statment. "The Loupians are going to be looking for us."

"I h-have somewhere we can..." Lashvara grunted, her teeth gritting as she struggled to form words. Go. She growled in his mind.

"Where?"

Orc ghetto. Lashvara let out a frustrated growl and punched the console. "We can... hide there for a... time!"

"You sure you're okay to drive?" Mike asked, eying the grimacing Orc as she continued to switch back and forth between verbal and telepathic communication.

Yes! She shouted in his head. "Just... hard to t-talk. Right now."

"Then use your brain-microphone." Mike said. "You seem to be plenty fine with that.

Lashvara growled and shook her head. "No... it is wrong, i-it is-"

She couldn't conjure the words in her mouth despite a few abortive attempts. The term she was looking for floated up to the surface of Mike's mind.

False enlightenment.

"What In Heruen's tears happened back there, Lass?" Mike asked, his tone darkening with accusation.

Her brow tightened. "I d-don't know."

"You shot fucking lightning from your hands-"

I said I don't know! Her head snapped around to glare at him, her eyes blazing. Lashvara realized a second too late what she was doing. The fire dissipated in her expression and she turned back to face the windshield. She gave in and spoke directly in his head.

This is not right. I am no Judge, I have not spent the years of training and meditation to perfect this skill. I am insulting my heritage with its very application.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but you talking nonsense in my head is only the second craziest thing you've done today." Mike said. "What the hell is that dust? What the hell is in those mushrooms that could do this to you?"

Kavar is a sacred substance to our people. It is closer to what you would call a "holy relic" than a commodity.

"Why have we never heard of this before?" Mike asked. Allynna stirred in his arms.

"Because the Everlasting Empire would want to own them." She said in a dreamy voice. "House Yrhaal or House Uiathen especially, I'd imagine. And once they got involved, the other Houses would fight to access the resource."

And once the Elves decided that what was ours is rightfully theirs-

"...They take over." Mike clucked his tongue. "Well, I guess we know why the Loupians wanted us dead."

Lashvara glanced behind her, her brown eyes affixing to his. Do we? They claimed to be uninvolved with the smuggling efforts, and I believed them. They had no idea I was capable of doing what I did; why would they dose me first otherwise? I felt the Veiled One's shock when I unleashed... that power.

Mike struggled to keep some semblance of personal space from the over affectionate Elf in his arms. He shifted position, leaning against the door in a vain attempt to keep his attention focused on the conversation.

"Then why did they double cross us?" He asked, peeling Allynna's fingers off of his chest. "All for a stupid shield generator, when this dust is lying around? Generators are expensive, sure, and it's not like a private citizen can just up and buy one for the hell of it, but-"

The Loupians intentions as a group were straightforward. All except for the Veiled One herself. So far as her henchmen were concerned, this was just another heist.

"So why the betrayal?" Mike said. He gave up trying to keep the Elf off of him, pulling off his jacket and draping it around Allynna's shoulders. She let out a soft hum and settled into his body warmth.

I don't know. Even while under the effects of the dust the Veiled One's motives were... foreign to me.

Mike's eyebrow rose. "What, you couldn't understand them?"

Lashvara shook her head. No. More that they were unreadable in the first place. As if there was a mental block present that prevented me from seeing. If she were an Orc, she would be an outcast from our tribe. There are few - if any - capable of hiding their surface thoughts like she can.

"We're not safe on Charity anymore." Mike said, "The Loupian Mafia are going to be searching high and low for us after this." The enigmatic Orc shook her red locks of hair back and forth.

I have a plan.

Mike let out a groan, "Please tell me it doesn't involve more gangsters."

Lashvara shot him a knowing smirk from over her shoulder. Do you consider Orcish expatriates running an unsanctioned chop shop on the outskirts of Charity City 'gangsters?'

"Depends on what they're chopping." Mike said, eying the Orc. "...Who are they?"

Friends. Allies and former tribe members. The Elves aren't the only ones with eyes and ears in places they shouldn't.

"Can we trust them?" Mike asked, looking down at the dazed expression of Aly as she continued to run her fingers across his chest.

More than anyone else on Ukavar. Rain began to patter against the windshield. Allynna cuddled up to him in his jacket, her breathing steadying as she fell fast asleep in his arms. This truck will serve as adequate payment for our room and board. We can lie low for the night and decide what to do in the morning.

"...And my ship?" Mike asked, letting the implication hang in the air. Lashvara had promised him a replacement to the Halfbreed for his help.

Lashvara turned in her seat to stare Mike down. Her eyes no longer burned with the same energy that they had once done, but it was still intimidating to see.

...In due time, Smuggler.

* * *

Several hours later, Mike led a much more lucid Aly into the master bedroom of an apartment situated above the ground floor of the Orc's chop shop garage. After a tense negotiation between Lashvara and the aged looking Orc manning the front of the store, they had disembarked from their escape vehicle. A gaggle of Orcs young and old had opened the garage door and shepherded the vehicle inside, never to be seen again.

"Come on." Lass had said, gesturing towards the dingy stairwell at the back of the building next to the broken elevator. The entire apartment complex looked half abandoned, an eerie reminder of the half-built Elven embassy that had served as Mike and Aly's jail cell the day before.

Aly had recovered somewhat after the long drive, and with the help of Mike's shoulder to lean on had managed to stumble-shuffle her way up the staircase. They came to a cold two bedroom apartment. A half dozen windows opened to the street on one wall, shooting a network of neon light into the room from the sign that hung above the business front.

Lass, exhausted from the days events, barely spared a glance in the direction of her companions before heading for the second bedroom.

"You take the main room." She muttered, yawning. And with that the Orc led them, slamming the door shut behind her. Within a minute Mike heard her loud snoring echoing through the door.

"Cmon Aly," he said, hefting her arm over his shoulder as he made for the master bedroom through the sparse furnishings of the apartment. "Lets get you to bed."

Allynna let out a low, sexual giggle. Apparently the effects hadn't quite worn off. "Yes. Let's." Mike rolled his eyes and led the way.

He half-tossed the delirious Elf onto the bed. She let out a squeal and rolled on her side, flashing him a dangerous look. Mike huffed.

"Grow up, you brat." He joked. She smiled and laid back on the bed, putting a hand over her eyes. For all Allynna's bravado, she was as tired as he was.

Mike kicked off his shoes and tossed aside his dented jacket, sitting down on the end of their bed. He stared at his hands as they folded together between his legs. The room was cast In the low light of pink and blue neon trickling through the dingy window from the flashing sign outside.

Allynna shifted on the bed, reclining back against the bed as she let out a soft sigh of comfort. Her tangled braid was so perfectly woven together that despite their frantic escape and gun battle, nary a hair was out of place. Mike glanced at her for a long moment before turning away to stare at his hands again.

They had come close - far, far too close this time. Mike and Aly had experienced plenty of close calls and near-disasters before. But this week went beyond 'close calls'. Both of them had been less than a split second's difference away from death more than once.

Something painful welled up in Mike's chest. He did not want to feel that feeling again, the one he had felt mere moments before Lashvara's lightning had unexpectedly saved him from a gruesome end. It had all come so close to falling apart a lot the seams: first the Halfbreed, and now this? Just what was he willing to sacrifice for the kind of life he had chosen?

When he had been a mere nobody Colonial growing up homeless on the streets, he had taken risks - thousands of them. Mike had gambled with his life so much and so often that the stakes no longer meant anything to him.

What was his 'life,' really? What was he even losing if he lost?

But then this stuck up, thin-skinned, recluse of an Elf stumbled into his life. She made a nuisance of herself, questioned every decision he made. She challenged him openly when he made a reckless decision or took a calculated risk. She backtalked him on his own bridge; checked, double checked and triple checked coordinates he'd already punched into the nav computer, like he was some greenhorn novice fresh off his first tour on a merchant vessel.