I never liked grungy K'tan street markets. Brax Xander thought as he shouldered his way through a dense crowd of assorted aliens. Most were too busy shopping to notice as he brushed against a particularly distracted Itak who had it's head half buried in a basket of textile samples and pocketed a five piece chit as he passed. Up ahead on the next corner a red and yellow glowing sign hung above the door of a windowless nondescript building.
Although half the vendor's signs were in infrared down here in the lower sectors and mostly invisible to him, he had been around the galaxy enough to recognize that he had found the speakeasy he was looking for.
A bored looking Garnek stood out in front, its bulky arms crossed across its chest as a lanky drab coloured alien next to him waved at a group of lively Togrians invitingly. The pack of short creatures and their dark blue scales shimmered iridescantly under the dull red lights that were common in the K'tan precinct of Rija, and shuffled inside.
Like with many aliens, everything in the K'tan districts were illuminated in some shade of red or orange. The light was closer to the sky the red dwarf of a star provided on their home world. When compared to humans who came from a bright world and enjoyed a more neutral colour balance, the tell tale hue was one of the easiest ways you could tell most alien districts apart from the human ones.
Besides having to perpetually squint to see anything half the time in these sectors, the trade-off was the anonymity he had from being a human. To most species all humans looked alike. And here he was just another forgettable face in the crowd. It was perfect for his potentially dangerous proclivities
Slipping a rebreather filter mask over his nose he slipped past some merchant stalls selling god knows what and approached the gangly K'tan at the door handing it the five piece chit. A series of violet flashes streamed down its arms signaling the aliens pleasure on the extra entrance fee Brax had paid and gestured for him to enter.
Typical of the species preferred environment, it was humid and misty as he stepped indide the establishment's entry hall. Claustrophobically narrow the long hall split off to each side into several joining rooms that looked like they were for private parties or groups. He looked into one briefly observing a pair of Antarians arguing before continuing down the hall and making sure to step over the tail of a semi conscious alien he had never seen before.
Eventually the passage spilled out into a spacious lounge that was the bar itself. Squinting across the dimly lit room he spotted a hooded woman through the fog like haze sitting alone near the back in one of the booths on a low terrace that overlooked the sunken bar in the center.
Nodding imperceptibly to the figure, he clambered down the stairs of the shallow circular pit and sidled up to the bar and swatted away the white condensation that hung perpetually around chest level like a fluffy cloud layer and motioned for the tender.
K'tan bars catered mostly to aliens like themselves which evolved in a different sort of atmosphere that was nearly noxious to humans. Large cylinders that towered throughout the room cascaded white tendrils of poofy thick gas which fanned out and obscured half the patrons sitting in the low chairs and stools surrounding the pit.
"One Tal'ian fizzle. Don't hold back on the heat." Brax said as he slid another chit across the bar top towards the tender who snatched it up in his paw and disappeared back into the mist to fetch his drink.
Panning across the room he could see through the shifting clouds that the bar was more busy tonight than usual. Several Denneks and a half dozen Cheran were clustered around booths making what passed for laughter through their... appendages. Neither species were common to Sentar Prime or Rija City. Must me a convention in town. He smirked as one of the Cheran fell back chortling at something its companion had said. Brax was certain that establishments like these put more than just gasses in those cylinders. Half these aliens were probably high. No matter. The more variety the better it would be for him to blend in with the motley crowd tonight.
"Hot Fizzle, Tal'ian." The tender said in a butchered attempt at human language. Its gravely voice having difficulties pronouncing the vowels. Brax raised his glass in thanks and made off for the terrace above the pit and towards the furthest booth in the back.
"You pick the best places Evynne." Brax said with a half grin as he slid across the booth and next to the hooded woman.
"I like this place. It's... festive. And it's safe." She said back. Clearly entertained by his discomfort.
"Yeah well, thats because you don't have to wear a breather just to be in here. You get the package? " He said swigging his drink making sure not to inhale any of the rooms air directly.
Evynne patted her pants pocket and smiled. "Was no problem. I was in an out."
"Nobody saw you?" He added before she could say more.
"Not on that rooftop. Just me and a flock of nesting Cerric." She scoffed mildly at his underestimation of her abilities. "You know me better than that by now Brax."
"Yeah. Yeah I do. I keep forgetting you're different. Even though you look normal." He murmured as he watched out over the crowd, semi regretting what he had just said.
"Different? You mean a cyborg? " She made a thin smile and raised an eyebrow.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean any offense. " Brax offered sheepishly.
"None taken. When you've been around for 200 years you get used to comments like that." She nudged him on the shoulder playfully. "Oh! Jerric messaged. He said he'll take his usual payment early this week if it's not a problem."
"Naw, I don't see why not. Transfer it over to him. We're done with that part of the operation anyways." Brax waved his glass dismissively. "So how's the data on the cards going to help us again?"
"Should give us a rundown of the targets security, guard patrols, shift changes, interior layout and hopefully even the vaults location." Evynne said referring to the data cards they each had retrieved this evening. "Of course we won't know how thorough our casing was until we run these through the computer back at the hotel, but I'm feeling confident we've got what we need."
Brax shifted uncomfortably, clenched his fist and sighed. "It better be enough. It's our only shot at this, and with a client as connected as this it's our ass if we fuck this up. We're dealing with a-"
"Relax Brax. You're getting anxious again." Evynne cut him off. "Besides this isn't our first time pulling off a job like this."
"I suppose you're right" He said sourly and took another swig of the bubbling concoction. "I just don't trust this electro-optical imagery concept of yours. "
Evynne waved down a passing staff member and ordered a second drink for Brax and then waited for the creature to scuttle away before picking up the conversation again. "You mean electro-optic holography? It's simple. We blast the targets residence with multi spectrum swept frequency beams and optical sensors pick up the signals reflection and records it. "
"What about the security cameras? Or the interior IR sensors? Aren't we risking tripping those?" Brax questioned.
Evynne wiggled her eyebrows and grinned." The signals are too faint and random to be noticed. At best the sensors probably think they're just picking up white noise. In a city as bustling as Rija theres a heck of a noise to signal ratio around. Besides, their security isn't expecting an probing as devious as ours. "
"If you say so. " Brax conceded . "Why two locations? Using that upper district bar...The Cerric's Loft was risky. "
"Need to overlay the data from two perspectives to image the holographic modeling of the penthouse's interior. We'll get details down to the millimetre. " She answered patiently. This being the third time she'd had to explain this all to him.
"Good. I want to be able to tell what kind of lock that vault has. Attis is going to need that." Brax said quickly before the returning server got close enough to overhear their conversation.
The K'tan gave a toothy smile and courtiously dropped off beverage on the table before departing again. Brax took it in his hand and downed half the glass.
"Don't worry boss, Attis can crack anything. He'll get the info he needs. " Evynne reassured.
"Uh oh." Brax groaned mid sip, a concerned look on his face. Evynne followed his eyes and saw what he saw too. Four dark grey armor clad soldiers were down at the bar. One was holding a chemical sampler in the air reading whatever was in the gasses. The other three surrounded the K'tan he had passed earlier at the entrance as it flailed its arms wildly in protest to the patrol leader. Unconvinced, the soldier just looked back at the objecting house manager blankly shaking his head.
"Great looks like the Federal Police are doing their rounds again. Come on lets get out of here before they think were on some illicit substance too. " Evynne prodded him under the table.
"Safe huh?" Brax grumbled. " This place got a back door?"
" Of course! I wouldn't have picked it if it hadn't."
Hello Hive members and folks of The Ink Well Community. This is the second installment of a four part short scifi series.
You can find the first chapter here:
@hidave/xander-s-ghosts-part-one
Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it.
-hidave
All photos provided by pixabay.com