Page 32 of Alien Barbarian's Little Human

The way her three eyes light up when she speaks of the generous nature of our host leaves no doubt what it is they’re willing to ‘give’ to her. I tried not to be envious. Jodi might have been a mere assistant, but to her, the night was wide open.

She could meet some dashing alien royal and fall in love, or at least get laid. Me, I could look forward to a good meal and a whole lot of boring talk that would go nowhere. I had no idea what we would offer the Ishani in return for an alliance. They had no need of money, seemingly no need of anything.

Maybe they really are the closest living embodiment of the Precursors. If I believed in that crap, which I don’t. Might as well believe in past lives and reincarnation.

The ship settles on its landing pylons. I’m down the gangplank before it fully extends. My first breath of air on the Ishani homeworld leaves me feeling light headed and giddy. There’s almost a pink tinge to the air, as strange as that might seem.

Then I remember what Jodi told me: Ishani breathe a higher concentration of oxygen that humans do. I try to take shallow breaths, and move slowly to give myself time to acclimate. The drugs and nanite injections I took before leaving Earth should help speed up the process.

Indeed, by the time I make it to the pod transit station, I’m already feeling better. I settle into the pod, which has instructions written in galactic standard. I don’t think the Ishani need to use them, being able to fly and all.

“Green Angel Tower One,” I say, over enunciating a little. A heavenly chime sounds and the door closes.

The pod lurches forward, but inertial dampeners mean I don’t feel a thing. The pod speeds along the glowing electromagnetic track, almost like a phantom trail in the late afternoon light. Everything here is so damn beautiful.

Or at least, it is until the car rounds a bend in the track and plunges into the heart of the city. That’s when I see the overturned barriers, the fires, and the masses of sapient beings.

“Oh great, just great,” I mutter. My blood runs cold at the thought of trying to make it through this riot. It looks like the Coalition aliens are protesting the presence of the IHC, and the Alliance is marching to meet them in kind. Neither side has broken into open violence, yet, but some debris is being tossed back and forth.

I’m in a pod that only goes one way, and that’s right into the middle of this bedlam. I left my pistol back in the ship like a good ambassador. How am I going to defend myself from aliens bigger, stronger, and sometimes even faster than I am without a weapon?

I’ll have to try and make for the tower. It’s only a block and a half away. It’s a good thing I’ve always been a good sprinter.

Metallic bangs sound out as debris pelts the transit pod. The first thing I see out the windows when it comes to a stop is the dancing of flames and a horned Grolgath standing before it.

I came out on the wrong side of the riot. The Coalition side, the one that doesn’t want any human presence on the Ishani homeworld whatsoever.

As soon as those doors open, it’s open season on me. Well, if I’m going down, I’m going down swinging. Let that be humanity’s legacy.

I left my gun, but I brought my gravity skates. One of them, at least. The thing about gravity skates is, if you reverse the polarity chip and slap in a battery pack three sizes too big, you can end up with a portable gravity pulse generator of about sixteen Gs.

I slip the skate onto my hand, and the second those doors open I rush out and smash the gravity skate’s business end into the chest of a blue furred Odex about nine feet tall.

The pulse thrummed out, enveloping him. He flipped end over end, propelled away from me with the equivalent of more than ten times Earth gravity. WIthout slowing down, I swung the skate into the foot of a nearby masked Shorcu.

I left him howling with his smashed foot and rushed down the street. A few of the urchins parted way without me having to get rowdy. They’d seen what had happened to their friends.

Half a block gone already. My legs are a little stiff from riding in a ship for so long. I should have stretched first. Why am I worried about stretching when my life is in danger? Where are the Isahani? Shouldn’t they intervene?

One block gone, but now I have to pass a makeshift barricade formed of scrap metal and brick, manned by several Grolgath wearing construction gear. The Ataxian Coalition has spread all kinds of propaganda about cheap labor from human immigrants costing the Coalition aliens their jobs. After all, the Ishani only grew buildings for themselves.

The age old hate speech works. The Grolgath see me and jump out with murder in their eyes. I try to back away but ran into a fur covered brick wall.

“That wasn’t very nice.”

The Odex I’d batted away has returned. He doesn’t even look hurt. He grabs the skate away from me with a speed that belies his bulk.

The Grolgath hem me in from behind. I have nowhere to run and no weaponry. I hpoe they make it quick…

A shadow falls over us. As one, we look up to see a tall, angelic being floating toward the ground. His gigantic feathered wings make nary a sound as he touches down with a single, slowing beat.

One of his feathers flies off, curling through the air until it brushes my cheek. My eyes widen at the electric touch. It feels divine, yet why do I get an image of the horned lover from my dreams?

I try to catch the feather out of the air, but it flutters away from my grasp. The Ataxians gawk at the sight of the Ishani as he turns to address all of them at once.

“You all must leave now. Return to your dwellings or your lodgings at once.”

I gasp at the power of his voice. It reverberates over me in pulsing waves I can physically feel. The Ataxians are even more affected. They clasp their hands over their ears and turn, fleeing back down the street.

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