Page 15 of Alien Peacock

“Looks like an old security area,” Cerak says softly. “This is where the station police would hang out. There may be detention cells.”

I tense up. In among all the unpleasant smells, including the ammonia, I get a tiny whiff of something cleaner and more alluring. I identify it immediately: Maeve.

I walk quietly towards the voices. It sounds like a heated argument.

“Let’s not get involved in anything,” Cerak whispers. “We’re here for a purpose.”

I don’t reply, focusing on the familiar scent among all the others. Maeve has definitely been here. She may still be close.

I stride confidently towards the sounds. Turning a corner, I almost walk straight into a group of aliens in black garments. They’re stocky and powerful, their skin a mottled gray and their faces mostly featureless except for droopy red eyes.

“Fus aliens,” Cerak says quickly. “That must be the gang that owns this station.”

They turn and stare at me.

I spread my wings a little to make myself properly eye-catching. “Greetings! I am Arelion, of the planet Eo. I am looking for a friend! Have you seen him?”

“Leave,” one of the Fus aliens crackles with a wide, thin-lipped mouth. “Private area.”

I quickly take in the situation. This is the station’s prison, with several cells along a hallway. The light is dim and red, the cells all made from thick metal bars.

There are five of the aliens, and I strongly suspect that Cerak is right and these are members of the gang that runs the station.

On the other side of them, clearly in conflict with them, is an Earth female dressed in long strips of drab fabric, holding a long fighting stick. It looks like she’s ready to fight, but I suspect she will lose. And I also suspect she will be thrown into a cell when she does.

“Ah! You have found my friend!” I impulsively beam. “Come along now, Maeve. This is a private area! We must not intrude.”

“You know this female?” another gang member asks in barely understandable Interspeech. “She ours now. Leave. Private area.”

“Of course we shall leave,” I tell them, grinning widely and wanting to kick myself. Why thevoidam I getting involved in this? I told Maeve I wouldn’t save her again, and she promptly goes and gets herself into much worse trouble than before. These guys own the station, and I struggle to see much of an upside for me. Damn my charitable impulses! “Come now, Maeve.”

“The female stays,” the chief alien clarifies. “You leave, Feathers. Gonow.” Shiny weapons appear in the hands of the aliens.

This keeps getting worse. The Krunku could be intimidated by sheer bravado and a single sharp punch to the chin. But these Fus aliens are grim and gritty criminals who are used to being obeyed on their own turf. I have to decide how much I want to get Maeve out of this, because this confrontation could easily end with both of us in a cell. Or dead.

I glance behind me. Cerak is probably no good in a fight, and he has retreated back into the corridor.

I slam my knee into the face of the chief alien. He’s sent flying backwards, but I don’t wait for him to land before I punch another of the gang members and kick a third.

I grab Maeve by the hand and yank her to me, so that we’re both on the same side of the gang.

There’s a loud bang, and something tugs at my wingtip.

They’re shooting now, and that makes my next move easier to decide. I grab one gang member, lift him over my head, and throw him at the others. Then I throw Maeve over my shoulder and run back the way I came, zigzagging wildly to hopefully throw the gang’s aim off. Behind me, the hallway erupts in bangs and urgent exclamations.

I turn the corner and sprint out of the door and into the corridor we came from. If the gang comes after us and they spot us before we reach the end of this hallway, they have a clear shot. The only reason I’m still alive is that they were completely shocked with how fast I moved. That will not surprise them again. And while Maeve is quite light, I can’t run right with her on my shoulder. She gets between me and my wings, and that ruins my balance.

A shrill alarm starts to wail, echoing painfully from the walls.

“Are you alive?” I ask her as I storm down the corridor.

“I’m fine,” comes the muffled reply from behind my lower back. “You can let me down.”

I run to the junction before I follow Maeve’s suggestion and let her drop to the ground. Of the eight corridors that lead away, six of them have been closed with heavy metal doors. Only theone we just came from is open, as well as the one straight ahead. It’s one of the dark ones, and the door is stuck halfway shut. I can hear the mechanism strain to close it fully, but there’s so much debris and old trash in the way that it can’t. It’s our only possibility for escape.

“Come here!” I yell to Maeve as I clear the door’s tracks of pieces of metal and garbage.

She gets the point and runs in behind me.

---