Page 16 of Alien Peacock

The Fus gang members turn the corner in the other corridor and start shooting. Projectiles zip past us, whanging into the walls.

I yank loose a twisted piece of an old steel beam, and the door slams shut.

With the howling alarm suddenly gone, it’s very dark and quiet, except for the distant pings of bullets hitting the other side of the door.

“Where are we?” comes Maeve’s voice in the darkness. “Where does this corridor lead?”

5

- Maeve-

“Away from your friends that are shooting at us,” Arelion growls with his deep voice.

As my eyes slowly adjust to the sudden dark, I notice the tips of his wings glow in an eerie blue. It gives me just about enough light to see by.

“They’re not my friends at all,” I tell him as I try to adjust my clothing. “They wanted to sell me.”

“I’m truly amazed at your efforts to get yourself into trouble. Every time I turn around, someone’s kidnapped you. Or you’re committing capital offenses.”

“I’m nottryingto get into trouble,” I protest. “It’s just that this station you brought me to is full of crazy abductors. But thank you for helping me. Again, I guess.”

Arelion walks further along the corridor. “It was the very last time, I assure you.”

“Sure,” I mutter to myself. I’m still shaky from the encounter with those last aliens. They weren’t kidding — they ganged up on me and dragged me to that jail area, and they were about to put me in a cell when Arelion appeared. I have no idea what happened to Bari. She took off the moment trouble started to brew.

I follow Arelion’s blue aura. We should probably get away from here before they open the door and come to get us. Or shoot us.

Telescoping the fighting stick back into a small tube that fits in my hand, I have to jog to catch up. Arelion must be eight feet tall, and he walks very fast even though it looks like he’s just sauntering along. Now I know he can move even faster, to the point where he’s just a blur. He totally shocked those bandits back there with his moves.

He shocked me, too. Before I knew it I was hanging from his shoulder, being quickly carried away while bullets were whizzing past us. He definitely risked his life getting me out of there, and that’s despite my last words to him before being of the not-too-friendly variety.

But of course, we’re not out of this yet. Not at all. So I better stay close to him.

I catch up with Arelion and jog beside him. “Do you know where this is leading?”

“If you have a map of the station, please show it to me,” he growls. “If not, be so kind as to not ask pointless questions.”

“Sorry. But you took us to this station. For all I know, you could have been born and raised here.”

“I was not. And it is the general rule when moving in hostile territory like this to be quiet and not alert the enemy to one’s presence.”

I shut up and jog along. The corridor must have been out of use for a while. I keep stumbling over trash and debris, and the air feels stuffy and hard to breathe. I’m fully aware that on a space station, being separated from the empty space outside is not a given. If the bandits want to kill us, they may simply have to open a hatch or a door or something and flush us out into space.

Arelion stops at a door that looks like glass. “Can you read that?”

I can’t, so I get out my tiny little flashlight and turn it on. The white beam sweeps across bright yellow signs with black writing on them. “No, but it looks dangerous. Like warnings.”

“That was my impression, too,” he grunts.

“There may not be air on the other side of this door,” I point out. “That could be the danger.”

Arelion stiffens and whips around, listening.

I hear it too — the faint sound of the alarm, as well as many footsteps and voices that have an unpleasant crackle in them, like the alien bandits. They must have opened the door, and now they’re coming for us.

“There is danger in both directions,” Arelion points out. “We will pick this one. If there is only vacuum on the other side, at least we will take them with us, too.” He hits a panel beside the door, but nothing happens. “No power. Can I see that stick for a moment?”

I don’t want to give it up, but I put the fighting stick in his hand. I’d do anything to not be caught by those gangsters and put in a cell to be sold at some kind of terrible auction. “I’ll need it back.”

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