Raven Tide

I spent the majority of the trip pacing back and forth but I did manage to make time and scavenge for food. There was a modest kitchenette tucked behind the bedroom complete with a small freezer packed full of meat. Fortunately, the amenities were straightforward to navigate and it only took a few button clicks to thaw and cook a piece of unidentifiable meat.

“So, he doesn’t always eat his food raw... Maybe that’s reserved solely for camping.”

I found a tap that dispensed water but no cups and ended up snagging a glass beaker from the med bay.

“Good enough,” I rewarded my meager success with a self-satisfied nod.

For Raven Tide’s sake, I needed to be physically ready for whatever was waiting for me on that moon.

What the hell am I doing?

I barely knew him and here I was heading into the mouth of a heavily armed enemy like a nieve lunatic. This definitely wasn’t the outcome he wanted.

This had to be suicide. I didn’t know the first thing about tactical combat or spycraft but I had to try.

Didn’t he do the same for me? He was better trained and equipped but he still risked his life.

An oscillating tone rang out from the bridge and my stomach immediately constricted.

It’s time!

I ran to the bridge and found the main display highlighting safe options to land.

“Guessing covert is what you were made for,” I patted Venom Hearts captain’s chair.

There were sensors galore streaming mounds of intel about the moon and the compound housing Raven Tide’s life sign.

“Dang, his people don’t mess around.”

The charts and lines of data were lost on me but so much about this yautja technology was intuitive, I had to see how far it would take me.

I pressed Raven Tide’s dot and the image expanded, churning out in-depth maps and multiple potential paths of entry with the least resistance. Some were shorter but in red, while others were long and yellow.

“Ok, nothing coming up easy and green,” I fidgeted and clicked my fingernails together. “Can I pull these up on his gauntlet?”

It took a little bit of careful inspection but eventually, I got the map to sync.

“There, that’ll be helpful later if I make it to the surface... What about disguises?” I had changed back into my jogging clothes because that spotted outfit was a giant target.

I need to do this like in high school, get in, get out, stay quiet, and avoid getting noticed.

I think the only items Raven Tide wore that weren’t armor were his trophies and loincloth.

That’s not going to happen.

I went to the bedroom and ran my fingers over the walls for hidden panels and sensors until at last something opened. Within sat a cramped self-contained work table. There were tools organized on the walls and a silver panel to my right.

The screen came alive when my body heat made contact and I scrolled through the menus until I found a section with shapes of clothing. There weren’t any shirts, only vests and a large variety of sarongs and pants.

“Will it make these? Can it even comprehend my size?”

I pressed the icon that looked like start and waited to see if what I selected would be produced.

Suddenly, a fan of green laser lights swished around my body and then blipped off abruptly followed by a soft vibration and a green diode zipping side to side inside a slit on the silver panel.

A pair of black fitted pants spilled out from the opening onto the little built-in table.

“Wow!” I held up the garment. They were still too long but they were stretchy and soft and, most importantly, they weren’t an eyesore. “Why didn’t he give me a pair of these earlier?”

Oh yeah, this was a guy who wore fishnets as outdoor wear. Fashion wasn’t exactly his strong suit.

“Ok Venom Heart, now tell me, can you make shoes?”

I landed Venom Heart after dark within the confines of the Iddril compound but in a deserted section of an airfield filled with parked spaceships. The last thing I needed was a pedestrian taking a midnight stroll and accidentally bumping into an invisible ship.

Here we go, Chyani... point of no return.

I was officially operating at full anxiety.

What have I got myself into?!

But before I committed to the stupidest and most permanent choice of my lifetime I had to make one final confession.

“Venom Heart,” I stroked the black metal chair goodbye. “You’re my new best friend. I know Raven Tide said you were his father’s but, shhh...” I snuggled my face close and whispered. “Don’t listen to what they say, you’re mine now. I’m never letting you go.”

Then I exited through the aft cargo door and gave Venom Heart a contented nod. As predicted, she sealed up automatically when I departed with Raven Tide’s gauntlet.

I had a general plan broken down into simple linear task points. Do one thing, then the next, and so on. It was a method that had served me well since childhood. However, I came up short in the backup strategy department.

My only knowledge of the Iddril was from the town and second-hand from Raven Tide.

They were similar in appearance to humans and operated their societies in roughly the same manner but with more of an emphasis on capitalism and criminal entrepreneurism. They disdained large corporations and shared a strong repulsion toward any species possessing cultural and biological differences from their own.

Raven Tide also warned that the males were prone to patronize females.

That much was obvious by how those gangsters coddled me like a lost child.

I wore Raven Tide’s belt across my chest and exchanged his bone trophies for space to clip his gauntlet in place. His equipment was massive and I’d need to negotiate a means of carrying them discreetly. I would also need to find a pair of shoes, the little clothing fabricator didn’t have any options available.

As for a shirt other than my white tank top and navy sports bra, I ended up repurposing a black sarong as a shawl and twisted it into a long hijab. The visor and gloves Raven Tide provided, gave my ensemble the illusion of a shifty vagrant. Alas, those two accessories were essential.

I scurried further into the airfield and took cover amongst a cluster of dormant spaceships.

The sound of laughter caught my attention.

There was a crew exiting a craft with markings suggesting it was an emergency medical transport. The male crew members were in high spirits and my translator informed me that they were engaged in raunchy jeering.

After their voices faded, I snuck in and tested the door panel then froze when I heard footsteps approaching.

No, no, no!

I dove into the shadows and scrunched up into a little ball.

“Psst.. Nym!” A man wearing a white and red uniform with a black biker helmet wandered to the ship. “Where are you?”

I sat crouched beneath the fin of another aircraft with my hands plastered over my mouth.

“Gotcha!” A second man pounced from the direction of the departing ship crew. He threw his arms around the man in white.

“Don’t do that, Nym!” The man in white caught his breath from the jumpscare. “You’re such a dick!”

“The best dick you’ve ever had,” Nym pushed his secret lover against the medical transport, removed his helmet, and kissed him hard.

The pair twisted their bodies together and began undressing each other with Nym pumping his hand over his lover’s crotch.

You’ve got to be kidding me...

They went on groping and moaning until Nym hit the lever to open the ship.

“Get your fine ass in there!” Nym slapped his lover’s rear as they climbed inside.

Then I waited outside in the darkness until the craft started rocking.

I almost ran away but a tingle in the back of my mind compelled me to take a peek.

Not on them, the men were in the back cargo hold behind a sealed hatch. Instead, I chose to sneak into the cockpit and disregarded the irony.

I found a serious-looking medical uniform outfit complete with appropriately sized boots, a lab coat, and a medical-grade opaque green half-face shield covering my eyes. There was also an insulated messenger bag with symbols hinting it was designed for carting hazardous waste.

Perfect!

I tucked Raven Tide’s gear inside a bright orange plastic bag then tucked it all into the satchel and hoped that would be plenty to deter someone from inspecting the contents.

“Hello...” I whisper to myself when something reflective caught my eye. There was a little security badge tethered to a lanyard wedged between the floor and the passenger-side seatbelt harness. I slung it over my neck and tiptoed out of the swaying transport. “Here’s hoping this get-up passes as normal.”

I followed a road and blended in with a herd of scientists dressed exactly like me. The central compound was a mix of spartan gray buildings and modular towers. It was less a military base and more a mish-mash scientific research campus.

Either way, this is terrible for Raven Tide!

It wasn’t safe to openly use the maps on Raven Tide’s gauntlet and I decided to keep an eye out for security checkpoints and paths people weren’t allowed to enter.

This entire place was a nauseating nightmare.

An invisibility cloak sure would come in handy right about now. Watch that gauntlet of his be the source of his cloaking system. If it was, I couldn’t figure it out even after cycling through all the menus.

My disguise got me into a low-lit alley where I could idle and check out the area. There were color-coded horizontal lines with large logos printed on every building and armed guards stationed around the ones marked in yellow.

If I was an evil greedy organization, where would I lockdown a killer alien?

Everything in me concurred that he would be imprisoned underground.

All the towers stood on stilts and I spotted only two foundational buildings labeled in high-security yellow. I chose the bigger and the more important looking facility.

There!

Another group of scientists were headed toward the side entrance of my chosen destination. I’d never catch up to get hidden within the gaggle but I had one fall-back alternative if I was willing to debase myself.

“Hold up, lil’lady!” A tall male guard cut me off as I scampered just behind the flock of scientists. “Looks like someone took a little too long during their mid-shift break.”

“I’m so sorry,” I whimpered, letting my voice sound out of breath while begging the universe for the translator not to blow my cover. “Please, the line for the ladies was longer than expected. I know I can still make it if you let me.”

“And why should I let you?” The Iddril guard smirked down at me while chuckling at his male comrades. They were all in uniform but their clothing was wrinkled and tucked in poorly.

“I..I...” I stammered like a frightened bunny. “I can’t be late again. Please, I just transferred here and this place is so big. I keep mixing up the buildings.”

The guards laughed and the condescending leader in front of me savored my confession.

“Tell you what,” he swaggered in close and picked up my badge while making sure to graze his knuckle across my breast. “Dr. Valra. I’ll let you pass and when your shift ends I’ll stop by and take you on a proper tour.”

Gag me!

“Really!” I flung my head up at him with a grateful smile. “Are you sure you won’t get in trouble? I don’t want to interrupt you while you’re working.”

“Don’t you worry,” that smug asshole had the nerve to wink at me. “I’m in charge of all these fella’s schedules, including my own. One evening with me and you’ll know this compound inside and out.”

“Oh, really! Thank you!” Ok, now I really wanted to vomit.“I really appreciate it, Mr.. er.. Sir...”

“Commander Geiros.”

“Oh!” I touched my fingers to my lips. “Commander... Geiros. Thank you.”

He flicked his teeth with his tongue and let me pass. I didn’t dare look back but through the reflection of my green visor, I caught him snickering with his buddies while jostling his groin in triumph.

Of course, it’s the self-centered shitholes who get the promotions.

Leave it, Chyani. He doesn’t matter. Next step... get to the basement and avoid drawing attention.

I found an empty elevator and rode it as far down as it would go.

No way they’d make a direct route to the exit for an extremely lethal prisoner.

Well, I wouldn’t, but who knows with these people, considering the place was being run by hornball douchebags.

It was promising that the bottom level was lined in reinforced metal and there was a security checkpoint at the end of the biggest hallway.

Maybe there’s another way around?

I skipped the checkpoint and veered off early into a bustling laboratory.

Everything was white and it was comforting to see that my costume was standard-issue for the entire sector.

“You!” A terse female voice snipped at me from behind. “Don’t you have somewhere to be?”

Shit.

It was a middle-aged woman with the tone of someone in authority.

“Apologies, I was making a delivery,” I held my head high but kept my voice soft.

Submit and keep it short. Give her what she wants and let her grind me into the ground.

“All deliveries go through Dr. Barz,” she snarled and pointed to a lonesome little mole of a man in the corner.

“Yes Ma’am,” I dipped my head and darted away.

The woman was a matronly archetype I knew all too well from high school.

She was fantastic for office efficiency but contained no tolerance for young girls with their heads in the clouds and fanciful ambitions for making a living as an artist.

I made my way toward Dr. Barz’s desk while navigating between several rows of long white glass-encased tables. There were large mechanical devices hinged to the ceiling moving back and forth and scanning the contents.

I took a peek and had to bite my lip in order to keep from gasping in horror.

It was Raven Tide’s armor.

His helmet, his pauldrons, his fishnets, everything spit up and laid out across a dozen tables.

“You should see the thing we pulled them off of,” a greasy male voice oozed in from behind.

Not again.

“Oh,” I forced a smile.

“It triggered the Sanitation Sensors in some backwater swamp town on Striea 8,” a tall male draped his arm over my shoulder and shoved me closer to the table. “Scanners identified it as a razkur but it most certainly wasn’t, well not all of it. Can you believe it? Something even more despicable mated with a razkur.”

What’s a razkur? I thought Raven Tide referred to his people yautja...

“Really?” I cringed my teeth in repulsion.

“That..” the tall Iddril man with a chiseled jawline chuckled and leered at me. “Or some razkurs ganged up on something ugly.”

I could feel the sizzle of the matron’s eyes scalding the back of my neck, the hate even cut through her green visor.

There existed two categories of people who consistently made my life miserable. Women who disliked me for how men inserted themselves around me and the men who mistook my quietness as an indicator that I was meek kept-wife material. The women never cared that I wanted to be left alone and the men were oblivious that I had zero interest in talking to them.

For Raven Tide’s sake, I wouldn’t run away. No, I would endure them both with pride and play their worst traits against the other.

“What does it look like?” I squeaked a coy giggle.

“Oh it’s one ugly mother-fucker,” The man noticed the matron grinding her teeth in our direction. “You wanna see it?”

“Oh, I don’t think I’m allowed,” I turned up to him and rubbed my hip into his side. “I have to complete my delivery.”

“Is it perishable?” The man pulled me away to a side door before the matron encroached on us further.

“No.”

“Then c’mon, Sweetheart,” he swiped his palm over a sealed security door and led me through an empty hallway.

Please don’t grope me in here... Walk faster you pig!

“You ever seen a razkur?”

“No, I’ve only ever heard rumors.” Technically, I was telling the truth.

“Well, I hope you don’t scare easily. This thing is worse than all of that combined,” he opened the next door into a sterile observatory. “Same color, but even more revolting.”

Raven Tide!

He was naked and restrained on a flat medical examination table with his arms and legs locked in metal cuffs. They had him on display like a soon-to-be dissected bullfrog in a room beside us just beyond a wall of glass.

“It’s alright, Princess,” the man hugged me tight and wiped the tear on my chin. “Nothing to fear. It can’t get out.” Then he pointed to an array of stationery turrets built into the ceiling.

“Why aren’t there any guards?” I trembled for real.

“Not safe,” the vile man cupped my ass. “It took a ton of drugs to get it down and even then it kept waking up. Even killed ten people while they were stripping it down. They had to rig up a direct line and keep a constant flow of sedatives to keep that thing out cold. Security issued a full lockdown.”

Those tubes stuck in his neck...

“But you know,” the man turned and slid his hand under my lab coat. “The vids only point down on that room.”

“Can it hear us?” I let him fondle my breast.

“Maybe,” the man grabbed my hand and made me unzip his pants. “I can up the sedatives if you’re worried.”

“Actually,” I slipped my gloved hand in through the small zipper hole and took hold of his erection. “I kinda want him to hear us.”

“Oh, I like you...” he finally took the time to read the name on my badge. “Dr. Valra.”

Then he sidled to the control panel to our right and rotated a little dial counterclockwise.

Raven Tide laid there unconscious and breathing. His white iridescent skin was smooth with no visible scars.

At least they didn’t try to dissect him... yet.

“Damn, Shug,” the man groaned from the twist of my right hand while he pinched my nipple too hard. “You got a hell of a grip.”

“Yeah,” I whispered in his ear. “It took me a full year to relearn how to use it without breaking small objects.”

“Wha-”

SQUISH

The man went pale and yelped in terror as I squeezed down full force on his testicles with my prosthetic hand. Then I retrieved the small vibro-knife Raven Tide gave me and jammed it in the man’s ear before he could reclaim his breath and scream for security.

I twisted the sedative dial down to zero before the man hit the floor then scrambled for icons to deactivate the turrets.

There was a blank panel on the console identical to the one the dead pigman used to unlock the door.

“Up you go!” I dragged the dead man to the panel and hoisted his arm up to make contact.

The big monitor came alive and I just started tapping off every virtual switch until the turret noses dipped down and the overhead lights dimmed into a soft lavender. Then I grayed out the next three menus for good measure.

There was a metal door on the far end of the glass wall and of course, another security hand panel.

“Ugg, I’m going to have nightmares about this,” I plucked the knife from the man’s ear and flipped the button on the hilt to activate the little blade to cut off his hand. “Soo gross! At least it auto-cauterizes.”

I had to turn away from the mutilated corpse and take a breath from my unsightly actions.

“No time for that, Chyani!”

I shook out my arms and ran to the door then praised the universe that that pigman’s palm flipped the panel green.

The door unlocked and slid open.

“Raven Tide!” I ran to him, using the pigman’s severed hand to unlock and pop open the table’s restraints.

I jostled his leg and picked up his hand. He was completely limp. “Are you ok? Wake up!”

It was a little jarring that the only thing between Raven Tide’s legs was a heavy bulge behind a reptilian slit.

“It’s me, Chyani.”

Ever so gently I removed the embedded needles and plastic tubes from his skin, wincing each time small droplets of neon green blood dripped out.

“Chyani...”

I jumped when I heard him click.

“Raven Tide,” I shot up and touched his face.

“Chyani..” his voice was hoarse and slurry. “Why did they bring you?”

“No time to explain,” I slid my hands under his head to encourage him to sit up. “Are you hurt? I brought your stuff. I don’t know how much time we have.”

“Where’s the burn crew?” Raven Tide rolled onto his shoulder.

“Sorry,” I put the messenger bag on the exam table and pulled out his gear. “It’s only me.”

“Only...” Raven Tide wobbled his head groggily as he struggled to sit up and comprehend the situation.

“Here,” I slid his gauntlet onto his left arm. “The rest of your stuff is in a room next door.”

“How did you get here?” Raven Tide reached for his belt. “Did they capture you too?”

“No,” I helped him unclasp a black case from his belt. “I did what you said and then used Venom Heart to get here.”

Raven Tide opened his eyes fully for the first time. “Where are we?”

“A compound on one of the moons orbiting that planet we crash landed.”

He paused while pulling out a purple syringe. “You flew my ship?!”

“Yes, yes!” I tapped his hand to finish up whatever he was in the middle of doing. “Hurry up!”

“That... shouldn’t be...” Raven Tide fidgeted his mandibles as he jabbed the needle into his thigh and then let out an involuntary roar a few seconds later.

“Shhh!!” I threw my hands over his mouth.

He huffed and blinked his eyes, “I will be more lucid shortly.”

“Good, can you stand?” I hooked my arms around his waist and guided him to his feet. He was crazy warm and thrummed when my skin made contact.

Wow, he feels like a stingray.

“Here,” I tugged his belt closer.

Then without warning a squadron of armed soldiers swarmed into the chamber.

“Behind me!” Raven Tide spread his arms wide in front of me and popped out his wrist blades but when he tried to charge forward his legs gave out and he fell flat on his face.