A Pirate in Distress - Part 3

Alira looked from the half-empty bottle of brandy on the table in front of her to the stairs leading down to the restrooms.

'What in the name of the tribes of Matar is taking him so long?' she thought with annoyance.

The contact of Deep Jump Cargo who they were supposed to meet here had not shown up either.

Alira swept her gaze across the assembled crowd. Some were dancing to the gritty riffs and heavy beats that reverberated from the brushed steel walls that were sweating condensed water. The small pot-bellied bookmaker waddled through the crowd again to collect new bets while the winners of the last ones called for rounds of drinks from the wide panorama window looking out over the docking bays.

When Alira saw the looks several assorted patrons gave her, she became uncomfortably conscious of her lone position in the booth she occupied. A look at the neocom on her wrist told her that Keram had been gone for almost ten minutes and that their contact was more than half an hour late.

She looked around the bar again, careful not to meet anyone's eyes. 'Better not challenge any of the people around here.' She reminded herself. Spiky hair, his bald-shaven Brutor friend and the ditzy Civire blonde were gone, she noticed. 'Probably they dragged her off to do their thing with her.' Alira thought with a slight pang of guilt.

She disliked that passive waiting game, and she disliked being stuck in this booth alone with half a dozen predatory capsuleers sizing her up. The irritation she felt churned in her bowels. With a muttered curse she poured herself some brandy, upended the glass, and headed for the restroom stairs.

Before she was halfway through the jostling crowd, a strong gloved hand grabbed her shoulder. She turned with a snarl – a reflexive gesture of defensive aggression - and found herself looking at the worn gray chestplate of “dangerous woman's” combat armour.

“What do you want?” Alira hissed at the Deteis as soon as her eyes had found that frozen stare of the other woman.

Wordlessly the Caldari pointed at the stairs Alira had headed for and pushed her into that direction. The crowd parted for them as they progressed. Obviously nobody wanted to be in the way of that armoured female. Alira herself felt completely at loss about what she should do as she was shoved toward their destination and an uncertain fate. At least with that Deteis woman as company the rest would leave her alone.

***

Slowly Keram drifted back into consciousness. His face felt bloated and was a source of dull pain. His puffed-up lips, swollen gums and obstructed nose made breathing hard, but there was more to it. He could hardly expand his lungs. It took him a while to realize that he was hanging from his wrists. The sockets of his shoulders ached with the weight of his body pulling on them. Expanding his diaphragm for breathing took strenuous effort. The cool sensation on his skin told him he was stark naked.

'Finally.' There was that cursed upper-class twang again. 'I already thought I would have to call on a medic to inject you with stimulants.'

Keram heard the clanking of high heels on a metal floor before he opened his eyes. When the Civire appeared in the cone of light that illuminated him from above, he saw that she wore less revealing clothes now. A formal, gray Caldari-style woman's dress shirt matched with a pair of straight cut charcoal pinstripe pants. She looked more like the corporate executive she sounded like, apart from the fact that her young face with those pouting lips, soft features and strawberry blond curls still conveyed the impression of an immature rich-kid daughter.

'You looked sexier in that other get-up.' Keram mumbled through his broken teeth. His jaw didn't hurt that much anymore, but it was swollen to the point of being hardly articulate.

The girl didn't look amused. She flicked something like a riding crop at him and a gleaming blade at it's end drew a red gash across his face. Keram felt the warmth of his own blood flowing down his cheek. It was almost soothing. 'I wonder how much it takes until you finally realize that your downmarket jokes your are not suitable in your situation.' she bit at him.

'So you want to be all serious?' Keram asked and tried to laugh but his swollen face would not allow it. 'Girl let me tell you something.' he managed to reply. 'I have come to realize a long time ago that I will die a violent death.' he took a painful swallow that tasted of stale blood. 'Hell if I go without a joke on my last breath.'

'It may all be a joke for you.' she raged at him 'For me this is serious business.' she flicked that bladed crop again and this time it slashed across his belly. Keram's exposed sex was bathed in hot blood and it dripped down from his penis' tip to form a small puddle on the ground beneath him. He felt oddly stimulated.

'That doesn't even feel half bad.' he managed some swagger despite his dire situation. 'Why don't you come over here and lick that blood off.'

She laughed bitterly 'You are truly priceless. How about I cut your manhood off.' Keram felt the cold blade as she rested it against his testicles. 'Maybe I change my mind and just cut you like that. Keep you alive and as my neutered dog.' she offered musingly.

'Maybe you rich corporate types get a kick out of torturing people.' Keram replied faintly. 'But maybe not.' he winced as he tried to take a breath and pull himself up on the chain he was dangling from. 'Since we are getting to know each other on a personal level, why don't you tell me what this is all about?'

'Does the name Forge Princess ring a bell?' When Keram just looked at her blankly she offered more. 'Garuda Enterprises maybe?'

Keram would have shrugged if his position had allowed for it. 'Is this about some corporate fatcat's ship I gutted?' he wondered. 'Sorry but the loot was always more important than the names for me.' he managed a toothless grin.

Suddenly he could breathe through his nose again. Only a split second later, when the pain came, he realized that he didn't actually breathe through it anymore because it had just been sliced off.

***

Alira finally wrenched free of the grip the other woman had on her shoulder when they were down in the maintenance corridor which lead to the toilets. It stank of urine, vomit and rust here … and of blood.

'What do you want from me?!' Alira shouted at the tall blonde again.

The Caldari ignored her and walked past Alira to an aperture that looked like the vertical sliding doors of a small freight elevator. She squatted and lightly touched something wet on the ground. She looked at the dark liquid when it stuck to the fingers of her gloved hand.

'Can you actually speak?' Alira wondered angrily and put her hands on her hips.

'Yes' the Deteis woman curtly replied as she rose, headed for the men's toilet, and vanished from view after it's door slid open and closed behind her. For a moment Alira could see the ends of a pair of legs there. A body.

Despite herself she felt suddenly worried about Keram. She looked around as if someone could have spotted her and read her thoughts, but there was not even a surveillance camera here. 'Damn Amarrian.' Alira muttered and then she followed the other woman into the men's room.

The stench made her wonder whether the male human had retained some ancestral feature that was necessary to mark territory with the smell of urine. She wrinkled her nose and then curled her lips as she saw the two corpses. She felt relief, though, when she saw that none of them was Keram.

One was Amarrian. Tall and thin with a wiry frame and long, strong fingers. Hands made for strangling. He wore a tight fitting black Quafe shirt and shiny pants that looked like artificial leather. He lay beneath a bloodied urinal, face down, with an obviously broken neck. Alira could see bloody pebbles strewn about. His teeth, she realized.

The other was the spiky haired and strongly built Deteis she had seen before in the bar. He also lay face down, in a large pool of blood. The Caldari woman was going through the pockets of his baggy cargo pants and carelessly tossed away a handful of gambling tokens she found there.

Alira caught herself staring at the man's pert ass and shook her head quickly. 'What happened here?' she asked absently.

The Deteis woman looked at her with that frigid glare. 'Your friend Keram Themas got himself into trouble and killed those two suckers.' she explained in a tone as if she were talking to an imbecile.

Alira frowned and looked around. 'So what happened to him then?' She noticed the trail of blood leading outside.

'There must have been more.' The Caldari answered. 'The Brutor man, maybe another. They won eventually and took him.' she jerked her strong chin at the trail of droplets on the metal floor. “They must have taken him away with that freight elevator.'

Alira felt her sense of direction returning. 'Allright, so we follow them and get him back.' she said determined.

The other woman rose and looked down at her. 'We certainly will.' she pressed her thin lips together. 'If anyone is taking that guy in, it's going to be me.'

'Yeah?” Alira replied and crossed her arms in front of her chest. 'And who are you then?'

'Kassina Vikkonen.' the Caldari stated as if that name should be enough. 'And if you disagree you can try and stop me you Matari geek.' and with that she briskly walked out, shoving Alira aside.