Chapter 57: Dealing with Humans
"As you should have," said the wolfman with a nod of approval. "I hope you made them suffer."
I shrugged my shoulders in response. "We turned off the air in every room and every space on the ship except for the one that we were in. I don’t know if suffocation is a form of suffering, but they didn’t die easily."
The wolfman nodded. "I’ll take your runner then, thank you."
"All good," I responded. "Keep us in mind if you need anything."
"I will, and I will let some trusted friends know how to get in contact with you," said the wolfman as he placed his hands at the top of the ramp opening and looked down at me. "If you need anything, call me."
"Thanks! Safe flight," I said with a wave of my hand. I turned around and left the launch bay, the heels of my boots tapping against the hard metal surface. I had just completed my first-ever arms deal, and I have to say, it went much better than I thought it would.
"Going back to the X94," I said softly as I walked down the empty corridor. My footsteps were there only ones echoing in the hallway, but I still felt like something was off.
"Understood," said Jun Li, distracted. I rolled my eyes under my veil. This was not the time for him to be distracted. I needed to be able to get onto my X94 without incident, and if something did happen, I was going to need Jun Li to come and rescue me.
"Keep track of my location at all times," I continued as my heels continued to echo, trying to stress the importance of his undivided attention right now.
"Are you okay, Mei Xing?" asked Jun Li, finally concerned.
"Not sure," I replied softly. My voice was not loud to behind with, and the echo of my steps made me think that it would be hard for someone to overhear me. At the same time, I was a lone human on a black-market planet, in a meeting station that allowed for quick and easy escapes with no questions asked, and I was not going to take any chances.
After all, it’s not like I haven’t been both abducted and kidnapped before, and both of those things happened on my supposedly protected planet.
I was about to pass through a four-way intersection when a ... being... stepped in front of me. He, and I was assuming that it was a he, was short with a black cape obscuring his appearance. "I would like to speak to you," he started as he looked around.
I couldn’t see anything under his hood that would give me an indication of his species, or even enough to be able to describe him to Jun Li.
"Then talk," I said, standing there. A gust of wind blew through the corridor, causing the skirt of my outfit to flair out behind me.
"Not here. It is not safe here."
"And you think that I will really follow a stranger to a second location? I mean, I might not have been taught stranger danger as a child, but that doesn’t mean I am stupid," I said, not even twitching so much as a muscle.
"You are in danger," the being hissed.
"Of course I am," I replied. "We are all in danger simply by being here." Did anyone really think they were safe on a planet that actively sold different species into slavery? Jun Li assured me that that market was on the other side of the planet, but that was only a hop, skip, and a jump for a runner or small spacecraft.
"Stupid human, always so stupid," grumbled the cloaked being.
"Clearly you have tried to deal with my species before," I said, not bothering to deny it. As far as I was concerned, it was a complete waste of time. The bigger issue was finding out how he knew about me.
"Come with me," he said again, this time turning around and going back the way I could only assume that he came from. I quietly followed him down the new corridor until we came to a very unassuming black door.
And when I say unassuming, I mean that it was practically the same color as the walls. If the being in front of me hadn’t stopped at it, I would have no clue what I was even looking at. I didn’t know what he did. Maybe it was a Jedi hand wave or made the alien equivalent of the ’westside’ sign, but whatever he did, he got the door to swing open, revealing a completely dark interior.
It was probably a good thing that I was still having issues with fear and panic because going into a dark building with a cloak-covered stranger on an alien planet might have made me feel uncomfortable.
"Enter, quickly," hissed the being as he held open the door for me. I saw that he only had three fingers on his green hand. I was either meeting a Turtle or the little green man wanted to talk to me. Either way? I was intrigued.
"The last human I spoke to was an idiot. I am hoping that you are not that stupid," groused the alien as he closed the door behind me, plunging the two of us into darkness so thick I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. Then again, I was also covered head to toe in black fabric, so that might have something to do with it too.
"Let me guess: immature, light brown hair, hazel eyes, has an affinity for making life harder for everyone?" I asked, describing Pippa Flynn to the best of my ability.
The alien in front of me snorted as he hit a switch and a light turned on.
I looked around and saw that I was clearly in someone’s home. In fact, it had a very eerily close resemblance to most studio apartments on Earth.
