The Adventures of The G.L.R Chapter 3: Em

After their battle Damion and Niraco returned to their cabins. Bruises were formed on Niraco’s green skin and even a light touch made her winch. Making an attempted to sooth the burning sensation, she lathered her face and body with ointment. It was cheap and smelled of rust but it did help cool down her burning skin.

Sitting back in her desk chair Niraco looked out the small window and towards the stars. They always reminded her of Damion. He loved the stars. When they first met they even tried counting how many they could see one night.

Grunting, Niraco pushed herself out of her chair and walk across the hall to Damion’s cabin. He too was covered in bruises. However, his orange tinted skin hid the bruising somewhat.

“Damn it, Niraco, pull your punches,” he said, lathering his own skin.

“If I did then we couldn’t put on a show,” she said, slightly curtsying.

Damion laughed and stood up. His eyes wandered down to the dog tags hanging from her neck. She never took them off. Despite knowing her the best he never knew the story behind those dog tags. Then again, there were stories he held from Niraco. Stories that were perhaps best left unknown.

“We should head over to the bridge,” Niraco said. “I think I heard Wave yelling.”

They made their way to the bridge and found Wave and Cayleon arguing. Avarshei stood in fear just behind Synergii who seemed to look rather bored.

“We can’t land there. We don’t have valid IDs!” yelled Wave.

“They don’t check whether or not the IDs are real anyway,” countered Cayleon, a stern sisterly look on her face.

Niraco always found their arguments funny. Despite being the eldest of the two, Cayleon was shorter than her younger sister – something which Wave liked to repeatedly point out.

“What are you two fighting about,” groaned Damion, rubbing his bruised cheek.

“Tell her Damion, we can’t land on Em. Not right now away,” Wave said.

“Em? Are we that close?” Niraco asked, rushing over to the podium and looking at the star map. “Hey look, we are.”

“We need to land anyway, our supplys are getting smaller and all of us could do with some air that isn’t rushed through a filtering system!” bellowed Cayleon.

“She’s right,” said Damion, standing beside Cayleon and smiling at her. “Plus eating some cooked food for once would be nice.”

“You cannot be serious!” screeched Wave.

Ignoring her, Niraco set a course for the spaceport. “We are en route.”

“Oh, you guys suck!” moaned Wave, sitting in one of the passenger seats.

Cayleon looked towards the orange Semaloid. ‘Thanks’ she mouthed. Damion gave her a smirk and put his arm around her shoulders – his way of a hug.

All the way through the journey Wave complained time and time again, warning the rest of the crew that they wouldn't get past customs. Of course, they did. Damion and Niraco had made fake IDs for everyone in a matter of minutes. They were almost flawless. The IDs, however, went to no use. Customs didn’t even look at them. With ease they were allowed to dock.

Em had the highest crime rate in the northern galaxy. Slavers, robbers, drug dealers, murders, all could be found in Em very easily. What little law was in the spaceport had been bride to silence long ago. A small ship with little crew would undoubtedly cause zero disturbance.

The crew split up into groups of two. Wave and Cayleon went towards the lower levels of the spaceport. There they picked up engineering supplies.

Synergii went with Damion to find something to eat.

Which left Niraco and Avarshei. They strolled into some stores but couldn’t really find anything worth buying. So they went towards the news terminals by the docks.

A few months before the G.L.R stumbled upon a newly abandon ship. Like good galatic citizens they took all the booty they could carry. They found a working computer and decent datapads. Niraco kept the computer in her cabin and had the best working datapad. She took it with her on the spaceport so she could link it up to the terminals for downloads.

“Hey you play games?” she asked Avarshei as they walked towards a free terminal.

“Not really, they get in the way of our prayers,” he said, rubbing the smooth grey skin on his arm.

“Oh, yeah. You’re kind follow some strange religion. What is that about? Something to do with your king?” asked Niraco.

“We believe that the cosmos was created by divine beings and that we Arocones should do our best to preserve the home,” he said, remembering the lessons taught by priest.

“Sounds nutty if you ask me,” Niraco said.

“For us it makes sense, it’s also one of the reasons we don’t have a seat in the SR,” Avarshei pointed out.

“Yeah, hell even we have a seat in the SR, and we’re an Outer Species!” she laughed, linking up to the terminal.

Niraco enjoyed reading the news. Since their ship could only pick up rather weak signals she was always behind on the latest galactic news.

Within seconds she had downloaded a news broadcast and pressed a few buttons so only she could hear it. Her ears pricked up when they reported started to talk about the royal Arocorn family. Apparently most of them had been assassinated by a group of Dethre. Only the youngest son of the king survived the assault and was currently missing. A picture of the young Arocorn flashed on screen. It was Avarshei.

The datapad fell and Niraco knew she was already too late. A group of Dethre were already right behind the oblivious Avarshei. She ran towards him but quickly another Dethre grabbed her from behind.

Avarshei was hoisted over the shouilder of a Dethre. His hand reached out towards Niraco.

“Niraco!” he screamed.

Niraco’s heart jumped. He looked just like Synergii on the day they ran away. Petrified.

Adrenaline pumped through her green veins. She flicked back her head and hit one of the Dethre. Another tried to grab her again. Niraco bend down low and swoop-kicked the Dethre onto its backside. Two more grabbed her arms and tried to pin her down. She took a quick glance at Avarshei. He tried to beat his fists against the Dethre but he did little to no damage.

Niraco took her eyes off him for just a few seconds. She pulled up her foot as far as she could and booted the left Dethre’s chest. He was sent flying back with a ‘omph’. The right Dethre tried again to lock her arms behind her. She hammered down her foot onto the Dethre’s toes. His grip loosed and he grunted in pain. Niraco was able to wriggle her arms and turn around to face her attacker. He threw back his fist and went to punch her, the first whizzed past her ear as she spun around dodging the fist. As she twirled her leg moved out and collided with the Dethre’s face, knocking him out.

“Niraco!” yelled Avarshei as he and his kidnappers turned a corner towards the docks.

Her legs sprang to life and she leaped to catch up with them. By the time she reached the docks she was too late. A silver ship took off, with the national Dethre home world flag pattern on the side.

Niraco sudden felt numb. She had failed. Staring into space she didn’t notice the Dethre ganging up on her. She didn’t feel them push her to the ground. Nor did she feel the prick at her neck.