“Well, not that I believed it for a moment, but at least now we know for sure he’s not lying dead on this planetoid. That means there’s still hope.”
“I’ve found something,” Mitha had said, tapping on his datapad. “I scanned the planetoid’s surroundings. Not counting ours, there’s a residual trace of several engine signatures. There were two or more ships near this planetoid around the same time, only a few weeks ago.”
“Several engine signatures?” Kat had lifted up an eyebrow. “Lucas wasn’t alone?”
“No, and it looks like the ships took off in the same direction. The traces are very faint, but we can still follow them.”
Kat had frowned. “So we’re going to follow bread crumbs?”
“Bread crumbs?” her brother had asked.
Kat had waved her hand. “Never mind, it’s an Earth thing. It’s not important.” She had paused. “What shall we do—follow the trail or report this to the law enforcers?”
“Follow the trail, of course. I’m not going all the way back to Cassidiri,” her brother had stated. “We’ve already lost too much time. Also, we don’t know if this is enough proof for the law enforcers to take action. I think it’s best if we find out where the ships went.”
“I second that,” Mitha had added. “We have no idea how long the residual trace will be detectable. Right now, we’re talking about minute amounts, and it’s dissipating fast. This might be the only chance we get.”
“So, we have no other choice, then. Let’s hope this doesn’t lead us to a gingerbread house,” Kat had said, anxious but also a little bit excited from the thrill of not knowing where they’d end up.
As soon as it became clear that the trail was leading them to Blackway space station, Kat had rapidly grown less excited and more anxious. This was far worse than a witch who wanted to eat them. Blackway space station was a dangerous place to be for…well, anyone. The station was practically lawless. The only two things that counted there were credits and fists. Decent people stayed as far away from Blackway as possible. Her brother had been adamant that they had to go to Blackway, though.
“No, we should go back to Cassidiri and get some help,” Kat had suggested.
“We will,” Lirid had replied, “but there’s no harm in docking at the station for a short while and asking some questions first. The more we know, the better. Don’t you think?”
“I’m not sure this is a good idea,” Kat had answered faintly.
Lirid had thrown an arm around her shoulders.
“Kat, Kat, Kat, Kat, Kat,” he had murmured, squeezing her shoulders just a little bit too hard. “You worry far too much. If you’re not careful, all that frowning will give you winkles. Right here.” He had poked a finger between her eyes, which Kat had slapped away, annoyed. Lirid gave her a patronizing smile. “You don’t have to be afraid of the big bad aliens. Mitha and I will protect you. We’ll be in and out in a jiffy. No harm, no foul. Don’t you agree, Mitha?”
“Well, to tell you the truth, I—”
“See?” Lirid said, interrupting Mitha. “It’s perfectly safe. Furthermore, Lucas could be down there right now, in need of help. If we wait for backup, it could be too late. So let’s go.”
Without waiting for a reaction, Lirid had steered his space cruiser toward the space station. Kat had glanced over to Mitha, unsure what to do. He had just shrugged his shoulders. It had been clear to both of them that there was no stopping Lirid, at least not without causing him to throw a tantrum. Kat had sighed. Maybe it wouldn’t be too bad down there.
After they had docked, they had split up to increase the chance of obtaining useful information about Lucas, agreeing to meet up later in one of Blackway’s taverns. Lirid hadn’t wanted Kat to go by herself, so she had decided to go with Mitha.
They had questioned every less scary-looking alien they had encountered about Lucas, showing them his hologram. Most of the aliens, especially the males, hadn’t even responded and had just ogled her with lecherous eyes, as if she was a lollipop and they wanted to lick her. It had given her the heebie-jeebies. Fortunately, Mitha had been at her side constantly. Not that it would have mattered if the aliens had decided to attack them. Mitha was tall, but he certainly wasn’t a fighter. No Cassidi male was. They really were lovers. Still, Kat had been happy that she hadn’t been alone.
After walking for hours without any results, Kat had been ready to throw in the towel. It had been really frustrating. And then, when Kat had thought that this entire exercise would lead to nothing, one of the prostitutes, or working girls as they were called on the station, near the far end of the docking bay had claimed to have seen Lucas about two weeks earlier. That news had made Kat’s heart flutter. Finally, they had confirmation that Lucas had really been here. After they’d paid the working girl all the credits Mitha was carrying on him, she had told them that Lucas had been taken by three Zzjitzzeëns, who had dragged him off to their spaceship. No one had helped him because this stuff happened regularly on Blackway. You either knew how to help yourself or you were easy prey.
Kat’s stomach had almost churned. Zzjitzzeëns had a reputation for being total bastards. They had absolutely no morals or scruples and did anything for a profit, even kill. Zzjitzzeëns measured lives by the credits a person was worth. If you were useless, so was your life. Kat hadn’t said it out loud, but if Lucas was with those aliens and he was still alive, he was in so much trouble.
Luckily, they had also been able to find out the Zzjitzzeën ship’s identification code by bribing the station manager with the credits Kat was carrying on her. Mitha had explained that, with the right equipment, the code could be used to track down the ship. With this information, they had met up with her brother in the tavern. He had been waiting at a table near the dirty window. They had informed him about their findings, and he in return had told them that they were totally and utterly screwed.
Chapter 2
“Yes, we know what happened to Lucas, but that doesn’t matter, because we’re stuck here!” Kat tried not to freak out, but considering the dangerous situation they were in, it was hard. So very hard. “What are we going to do?”
Mitha glared out the tavern’s window and cursed. “I don’t want to make this situation worse than it already is, but I believe the working girl that gave us the information about Lucas just pointed us out to an alien that most likely has very bad intentions.”
Kat and Lirid turned their heads simultaneously to look through the dirty window. On the far side of the square stood a slender green alien with four eyes, no nose, cauliflower ears and several scars running down his face, peering at the tavern mischievously. He was ugly. Kat shivered. She definitely didn’t want to be his lollipop, or lick his for that matter. The working girl pointed to the tavern and the green alien nodded, a nasty grin on his face.
“Maybe it’s not us he’s interested in,” Kat put forward timidly. After all, there were more people and blobs in the tavern.
“Look around. We’re the only ones worth something, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence the working girl we spoke to is here. She followed us and sold us out,” Mitha said with a serious expression. “Maybe the working girl told him about the credits we paid her and the alien thinks we have more and he’s planning to rob us. Or he wants to sell us to a slave trader. Whatever it may be, if we don’t want to end up the same way as Lucas, we need to leave this space station as soon as possible.”