Temples to Alien Gods - Episode III

Earth, the Independent Nation of Texas. High noon.

Adkara was onboard a train, wondering why sentient life had this impulse to settle in the least habitable areas of the universe. It was as if they were on an eternal quest to spite whatever higher life form brought them to life. The train Adkara was on had originally been designed for hauling freight. But had been retrofitted for passengers to accommodate a pressing need to connect the citizens of the more remote areas of Texas to the bigger capital cities where the off-world trading and shipping happened.

That didn’t mean the train had to be comfortable, especially if it was affordable.

Adkara rode in an ancient passenger car without windows, allowing hot air and all sorts of flotsam and jetsam to fly in through the window frames. The sun mercilessly bore down on the crowded car and the air tasted stale.

Or it would if Adkara didn’t have her breath mask on.

The Ekta homeworld had a much lower oxygen content than most atmospheres. When they were off-world, Ekta wore goggles to protect their eyes and face masks to filter out excessive oxygen and unwanted textures in the air.

It didn’t help with the heat, though. Adkara wondered if not having a body covered in black fur or a long prehensile tail helped. Judging by the faces of the humans, it didn’t, they were just as hot as she was.

Adkara had been warned that Ekta didn’t often journey to Earth so she was bound to get stared at, but that didn’t make the glances any less annoying. They were the weird ones, not her—these humans with their small ears not pointed like hers, odd white eyes, flat teeth, andpointed faces.

They were just so…odd, what right did they have to gape at her?

The broken train intercom buzzed about their arrival in the city of Earp. Adkara peered outside. Earp could hardly be called a city, technically it was sprawled out enough to constitute a city, and the immense munition factories gave it the right height. But it still lacked something, even with all the floating platforms which allowed smaller visiting ships to dock and trade with the cities on the surface of the planet.

Adkara glanced down at the bag in her left hand that had begun to attract flies. She ran over the plan in her head.

Nothing could go wrong.

The train stopped at the packed station with an unpleasant screech. The passengers jostled each other as they came and went. Adkara fought through them all, adjusting her poncho numerous times for the sake of modesty. Humans were so hung up on nudity, even when an alien belonged to a species whose genitalia didn’t hang on their bodies, humans were so uncomfortable without clothes.

Adkara escaped into one of the busy streets of Earp, tapping her goggles to activate the tint feature to keep the sun out. She was supposed to deliver the package at a market, but she couldn’t remember the address off the top of her head.

“Map,” she whispered.

Her left goggle lens summoned a map of the city, illuminating the location on the outskirts of town. Adkara dusted off her poncho but it was really to double-check that her weapons were still in their holsters.

Before the INT had declared its independence from the Union of Human Colonies, the massive concrete structure Adkara faced had been a ‘mall’...some sort of market where corporations had marketing outlets. After the Texan War of Independence, it had been abandoned until less scrupulous businesses remodeled it into a different kind of market. Here, arms dealers, big and small, peddled their wares to smaller buyers. They had to sell loose stock somehow. The officials turned a blind eye because these same dealers could serve as middlemen between the bigger munitions companies and clients who were, officially speaking, on their blacklists, numerous crime syndicates, or the pirate’s guild.

It was much less crowded inside this building. Tarps kept out the sun and prying Union patrol ships who might ‘accidentally’ pass overhead. Adkara wove her way through the merchants and their clients, looking for one man in particular.

Seemingly the most humble out of the all the dealers, he was a short man with only half a face (the other half was a metal mask). He operated out of a little hole in the wall and his goods were all secondhand. A little music device at his feet sleepily played the cowboy hits of Clint Eastwood.

“Tried and tested!” the man cried to passersby. “Retrieved from the finest battlefields in known space! They served their owners well...well, almost! Bargain prices!”

Adkara walked up to his stall, and the man turned to her.

“Ah, what can I do for you, ma’am?”

Adkara reached under her poncho and drew her gun. The man whistled.

“Magnificent! Might I take a look?”

Adkara turned the rifle to him butt-first.

“Hmmm, Intratec Disrupter Rifle, rechargeable battery, charging cord still intact.” He examined the battery closer. “Hmmm, replaceable battery, so it’s a Mark 5, I’d say. You’ve filed this down to a handgun I’ve noticed, Ekta writings all over it.”

Adkara raised her arms. “I have nothing else except my sword. Can I see Mr. White now?”

The dealer handed her gun back. “You have an appointment?”

Adkara raised the bag she was holding. The dealer raised an eyebrow.

“What? Only flies? Not dripping? I thought you Ekta were more theatrical than that.”

“Can I get in or not?”

The dealer looked around before gesturing to her. He led her to the back wall of his shop and knocked.

“An Ekta bounty hunter here to see Mr. White.”

An unseen panel in the back wall moved and a big eye looked her up and down before it retreated, opening the hidden door.

“Go right in,” said the dealer.

Adkara walked through the doorway and found a spiral staircase that led under the market to a former sewer, long cut off from the rest of Earp’s system and refitted as a kind of nest.

Which didn’t make it any less wet; Mr. White liked it damp and moist.

Adkara passed a few guards on her way, mostly vintage combat androids alongside a few thugs. Her final destination was behind a set of nicely crafted double doors guarded by another Oggloid: a lifeform that resembled an immense, upright squid with many suckerless tentacles, two goggling eyes, and coated in brown hair.

“Adkara the bounty hunter, here to see Mr. White,” said Adkara.

The Oggloid gave her a once-over. Adkara didn’t like Oggloids all that much. They were awkward-looking, sure, but they were incredibly strong. She’d seen people crushed by Oggloids’ tentacles before. In this case however, the Oggloid merely opened the door and allowed Adkara to enter Mr. White’s audience chamber.

She had the misfortune of coming across Mr. White during lunchtime. Attendants busily scraped a fine three-course meal into a processing machine, which pumped the simplified meal through a tube into the vast foul smelling tank, shaped like a fishbowl where Mr. White resided. The disembodied brain simply absorbed the food as it spread into the water. Attendants, bodyguards, and favored associates gathered nearby. Before him was a long, plush carpet where persons who had business with Mr. White stood. Today, only one well-dressed man waited, flanked by two rather angular combat robots.

“Sir,” the man said. “The Three Families are willing to negotiate a ceasefire, and perhaps divide the territory evenly?”

Mr. White pulsated as he spoke through a small, scratchy speaker at the base of the tank.

“I don’t want the Three Families pushing their crap on my streets,” he rasped. “No negotiation! They told me my men couldn’t deal arms on Titan, and now their men can’t deal in Texas. If you don’t like it, take it up with Governor Watson since he and I have a dinner on Wednesday.”

“Sir, the Three Families wished me to communicate that—”

“Get out.”

The man adjusted his suit and walked out, still flanked by his two robots. Adkara walked forward.

“Ah, Adkara,” said Mr. White. “What have you brought for me today?”

Adkara upended the bag. A severed human head, looking a little worse for wear from three days of travel in a bag, fell out. It bounced on the floor once before rolling underneath the tank.

“Eddie, Eddie, Eddie,” said Mr. White. “You should have known better.”

One of the attendants picked up the head and carried it away. Mr. White sighed, satisfied.

“The funds will be transferred to your account,” said Mr. White. “You may go.”

But Adkara didn’t move.

“Didn’t you hear me? I said—”

Adkara drew her gun on Mr. White. All of the bodyguards reacted at once, pulling their own weapons and standing in front of the tank.

But one of the bodyguards aimed at Mr. White’s tank himself. Adkara turned her weapon on the bodyguard and a green energy bolt hit him in the side. He crumpled to the floor.

There was a moment of silence as Mr. White’s posse stood there, unsure what to do. Mr. White broke the silence, laughing.

“I knew I could count on you,” he said to Adkara. He turned to his guards. “Get this filth out of here!”

Two of his bodyguards dragged the corpse out of the room. Mr. White pulsated thoughtfully. He turned to Adkara again.

“From The Three Families?”

“Of course.”

“Should have known, he was so affordable.” After a clicking tut-tut noise, Mr. White said. “The additional amount has been transferred to your account. It’s been a pleasure doing business with you.”

Adkara gave a slight nod and walked out, holstering her gun back under her poncho.