Never Surrender (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 16) Read online

  The human smiled, “We promise that if you don’t have it, we will make it very unpleasant for you.”

  Ixtelina looked back down at her document, “What if it gets stolen?”

  “Oh,” the human made a facial gesture that Ixtelina hadn’t categorized, yet. “We promise to space the person who took it.”

  Ixtelina stared at the man for a moment before his words clicked. “Wait, do you mean throw the thief out into space?”

  “Why yes, how else do you encourage individuals not to steal someone’s passport?”

  There went one of their preferred methods of walking about space stations. Most advanced societies understood mistakes and provided second chances.

  Yes, this operation would be rated high enough to include both a difficulty bonus and a danger bonus.

  She put the passport into her robe, zipping up the pocket. “Our instruments,” she nodded to Ixgalan who lifted the box they had retrieved from the Pod, “How do we get them reviewed?”

  “Go by station location ARD 001, and they will both ask you to explain the purpose and how to lock it down. Be aware, if your stated purpose is ever found out to be false, you, and perhaps your organization, will be forever banned from the Etheric Empire. Your superiors will be able to argue the charge, of course. But the person who failed to explain the purpose will not be allowed back into our space.”

  Ixtelina smiled, but the reaction of the human let her know it wasn’t understood. He nodded to her as she went through the last short hallway to the inside of the human’s Outer Docks.

  She stood just outside the hallway and took in the massive room, the almost eye-searing amount of light and the smells that she could already tell were foreign to her.

  She was on the bottom floor of a large shopping and food area.

  It went up five levels. The floor that she was standing on had seating areas, with large areas for plant and liquid arrangements. Each level higher had its own walkways, and seating by the edge that allowed the level to look down to the levels and final floor at the bottom.

  Almost like this was a large amphitheater. A place to shop, eat, see and be seen by whoever and whatever happened to be visiting the station.

  At the far end was a two-story-tall sign. It was a picture of weapons, humans, and something else she didn’t recognize, but it was ferocious and furry. She pulled out the tablet the human provided and clicked the instructions to translate the language to one she understood.

  The name translated to ‘All Guns Blazing.’

  It was a bar, place to drink and eat. She noted the hallway indicated by the sign had traffic going in and out of it.

  Quite a bit of the traffic was human, some Yollin, and others. She recognized an Akkafuln and other species that were familiar, as well. It was hard to miss those very tall, very skinny and hairless aliens.

  Ixtelina liked to think of them as all legs and no personality.

  Ixgalan came up beside her, “You decided not to have the items reviewed?”

  Ixtelina made a sound of distaste, “The humans are a little too straightforward for me to answer their questions without advice from the leaders above me.” She looked over at Ixgalan, who was staring up the sides of the large cavern, the noises and lights shining everywhere.

  After a moment, he said, “This place is huge.” Then he looked at the very top of the cavern.

  Ixtelina followed his eyes as he asked, “How do they power a little sun in here?”

  QBBS Merideth Reynolds – Space Traffic Control, Special Unit

  Marilyn reviewed the final full body scans from both the Executive Pod and the Customs people.

  There was a potential problem.

  She worked with EI Merideth, then EI Reynolds before contacting the General.

  “Reynolds here,” his gruff voice was consistent, at least.

  “Marilyn from SU, we have … anomalies… on the two Ixtali and I’ve reviewed them with both Merideth and Reynolds. Both aliens have unique devices planted near what look to be their brain stems.”

  “One moment,” he replied. Marilyn waited, wondering if the General would arrive at the same conclusion she had.

  He came back on almost a minute later, “Confirmed by TOM. Most likely those are suicide devices. TOM and ADAM are now talking with Bethany Anne, but effectively, both believe the devices have been in place for a long time. Neither of these agents may know about them.”

  “Well, that just sucks,” Marilyn murmured.

  “Agreed,” The General answered. Marilyn’s face went red, she hadn’t expected the General to hear her observation. Then, she heard some murmuring from his side of the line. “Marilyn, Dan Bosse is heading your way. Sit tight, he is going to take the lead on this case with you.”

  “Understood, sir.”

  “Reynolds out.”

  Her line went dead.

  Oh hell, she thought. Now the Empress’ inner circle was getting involved.

  R’Chkoklet, Planet Yoll

  John passed by the dead bodies from earlier and started going back up the stairs. Confirming with the Tactical EI that no enemy combatants had created new ambush locations.

  Step, step, step, step, step, step. Turn, step, step, step, step. Turn.

  As he arrived on the fifth floor, he paused a moment to look around and then shrugged.

  There was only one way to go here, and it was down the hallway to a pair of very fancy doors. Fine. If the hallway went to the executive’s offices, then to the executive offices he would go. Nothing these Yollins had been truly giving him, or the new armor, was a serious workout.

  That’s when the alarms sounded as a rocket burst through the doors heading in his direction.

  —

  One more time, windows smashed open from the building. But this time, it was half of the windows on the top floor, an explosion of fire ripping out of several sections, their pieces cascading down to shatter on the ground below, or buildings across the street.

  Somewhere, a female Yollin screamed in pain.

  One body, encased in red armor, was violently ejected from the building and heading towards Pehl-eck, looking like it might slam into the street just feet from her.

  “Oh My …” her comment cut-off when the figure stopped, in the air, a block away. She watched as it hovered some two stories above the ground.

  She continued her reporting, “Stars… There was a large explosion from the fifth floor of the building. The human was ejected forcefully, perhaps by a rocket or a trap that triggered the explosion. Right now, the human has stopped some two stories from the ground in mid air, like he has the same technology in his armor that his ship uses, and is starting to move back towards the building. You would think he was flying by the way he is heading through the air and back up to the fifth floor where he had just been blown out.”

  —

  “YEAH!” Silus yelled as the two doors to the executive offices had blown back towards his group. Once the shoulder-mounted missile had fired at the representative from the Etheric Empress, he and his team had dropped down behind turned over furniture, to protect themselves from the blowback.

  Which had been a good idea. The doors had exploded back into their room, one slamming into the table they were hiding behind, another partially teetering through the window behind them. It hadn’t shattered the glass, but the glass looked like it was about to fall apart.

  His ears were ringing.

  The smell of paper on fire was intense. The guys started grabbing their packs.

  “Don’t want to burn!” Soc’vele yelled out, snagging his backpack and pushing Kr’chen next to him to ‘move his soft ass.’

  They stopped when they heard footsteps coming towards them.

  Crunch, crunch, crunch … click.

  Those left in the room looked down the hall to see a figure striding through the smoke and fire, and enter the chamber. None of the Yollins said anything, the shock of seeing the alien still alive kept them quiet momentarily.

&
nbsp; Silus ground out, “We will die before we accept the new regime.”

  The human’s movements were too fast for any of the Yollins to see. But seven bodies collapsed to the floor as the human holstered his pistol and turned around, heading back to the broken windows.

  "Telling me that was redundant, asshole,” John told the dead bodies as he headed back out of the office.

  QBBS Merideth Reynolds

  Ixtelina and Ixgalan made their way around the outside of the lower level’s central congregation area. It was set up to facilitate food purchase, consumption, and meetings in the same area. She noted at least five different alien species she hadn’t expected to see here.

  Ixtelina and Ixgalan wandered around for a while, walking into different shops, and found one small store had handmade kv-chet. It was a Yollin specialty that was considered a sweet to the two Ixtali.

  Most considered it sour.

  After some negotiation, the proprietor handed them two long cylinders. The two Ixtali found themselves a table and began to suck on the viscous substance. Ixgalan laid down the box with their electronics and grabbed a chair. Both of them were slightly on the small side of standard-sized human, so the seats fit them just fine.

  Ixtelina used the device the store owner provided and sucked the Yollin treat into her mouth. “That…is good,” she admitted.

  Ixgalan only nodded as he continued to suck down his meal.

  “Did you notice,” Ixtelina asked, as much to herself as to Ixgalan, “that the exchange for our gold was as fair as they could provide?”

  Ixgalan stopped for a moment, looking at his food, “What did the person call this?” Ixgalan shook the cylinder.

  “A straw.”

  “We should purchase more of these. I can’t believe we haven’t considered having these as standard ship’s supplies whenever we go into new locations.”

  Ixtelina looked down at her straw and then back at the store, “Do you think they will sell us these straws?”

  Ixgalan rose and headed back toward the store. He stopped three paces away, turned back around, and returned. Grabbing his kv-chet, he chortled and went back to the store.

  Ixtelina guessed he didn’t trust her. She sucked down more of her kv-chet.

  Good call.

  She let her thoughts wander as she took in the five levels rising high up the sides. Apparently, these humans built with the idea that there would be other species which would use this … bazaar?

  No, it didn’t have the feel of a bazaar.

  She counted at least half of the stores on the third level, and almost all locations on levels four and five were shuttered, closed.

  Not ready for business.

  It either spoke to massive plans to grow, or a lack of ability to open enough stores of their own.

  Ixgalan came back and placed a box on the table.

  “Five hundred straws.” He said proudly, “Apparently, they have manufacturing facilities inside this station that make products they use, including these wondrous straws.”

  “It doesn’t take much to satisfy you, does it?” Ixtelina asked.

  “No. Do you know how many times I have had to look like a common Ixtil? A baby, on stations that were not set up to serve our kind?”

  “More than once?”

  “And it was too many, even then,” Ixgalan admitted.

  “How did you become a physical specialist, if you hate eating in strange places?”

  “I like seeing them. So, you take the good with the bad.”

  “And now?”

  “I know of a product that will liquify most anything. My future is now,” he pointed up, “as bright as their fake sun up there.”

  “That light is a marvel, actually,” Ixtelina admitted. The salesperson had shown Ixtelina how to use the camera capabilities on the tablet the customs agent had allowed them to use and then informed her they could purchase the units if they desired.

  Ixtelina had quickly agreed to purchase the tablet and tried to negotiate down the price.

  The salesperson wouldn’t budge on the price. Apparently, the humans didn’t believe in negotiations. Ixtelina had finally figured out what the bumps were on the salesperson’s chest after pointedly asking.

  The human laughed, changed colors slightly and explained it was for providing nourishment for their young. The salesperson said that the larger the purchase, the more likely the option to negotiate in human society existed, but not for common items.

  “What is over there?” Ixgalan pointed off to the other side of the floor. Often, humans would exit the hallway and others would go in. Ixtelina picked up her tablet and figured out the function that provided a map of the local area.

  She looked up, “It is a hallway to take you to the tram that goes inside the space station.”

  Ixgalan started slurping the last of his drink. “Finished.” He stood up, adding, “I’ll be back.”

  Ixtelina watched as he made his way to the other side, threw his cup away and disappeared into the hallway.

  He came back out a little while later and made his way back to her and sat down. “Etheric Empire members or invited guests only.”

  Ixtelina nodded, “That isn’t entirely unexpected. What has you dejected?”

  Ixgalan turned to look at her, “There will be no unexpected options to get inside. There are only two trams and trust me, those are some vicious-looking aliens you would have to get by to get on the trams. I’m sure they have security protocols in place to shut down the tram if they have undesirables in one of the cars.” He looked around the area and then leaned in towards Ixtelina, switching to their own language, “Plus, the cars just fit inside the tunnel it goes down. I would not be surprised if they use a form of suction to move the cars back and forth.”

  “That would require quite a bit of engineering and power,” Ixtelina murmured.

  Ixgalan pointed up again, “Like that fake sun doesn’t?”

  “Well, no time like the present. Let’s figure out a way to release the macros, and we will walk around this area. I’ll need to reach out to those in charge of trade and let them know I would like to meet. I would like a little more information on this species before I do that.”

  Ixgalan nodded his understanding and stood up once more and left.

  Ixtelina turned and looked at the different shops, wondering which ones might provide more information and decided the one which suggested it was a type of monetary institution looked promising.

  She was halfway around the concourse when she saw Ixgalan coming in her direction, his face calm. His eyes, however, were annoyed.

  She waited, her hands in the sleeves of her opposing arms when he walked up, “The macros are dead,” he told her.

  Ixtelina let out her breath in a long, controlled exhalation as she looked around. “Humans?”

  Ixgalan nodded, “Humans.”

  Ixtelina considered the next step before she took her hand out and pointed toward the monetary location, “The game is afoot, Ixgalan, the game is afoot.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Rih-benn nodded to his last two guards, releasing them as he strode into his home. He had three full-time guards that roamed the place, as well as high levels of security. He would admit, if only to himself, that the human who they had met to exchange money for the spice had scared him, if only a little.

  It would be Brylen who died tonight, not him.

  Walking through the front entry, he headed down the hallway and took a right to stop in front of a doorway. Entering the security code, he let himself into his home office. Locking the door behind him, he tossed the box of Bostok onto his desk as he turned to the small group of plants he had cultivated as a side project.

  One of the four rectangular plots was empty. He was planning on growing his first successful batch of the spice needed for the soda project right here in his office.

  Then he would have the stranglehold on the market, as Yollins would prefer to know the source wasn’t from the aliens.<
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  Well, ok, most Yollins. There were a few who would go straight to the source for the thrill or the promise it was truly the right spice.

  He, however, would have all the rest.

  He picked a berry from the leftmost planter and popped it in his mouth. It had taken him over three years and multiple operations to acquire this precious seedling that was now a plant. “Keep growing like the little rebel you are,” Rih-benn told the plant, “because I’m going to make you a star.”