Short Story: Iridescent Intercession
[This story is a sequel to my previous post; read the first part of the story here.]
Iridescent Intercession
“Now now, Miss.” The man grinned unkindly as the door shut behind him. “We can’t have that, can we?”
Faye struggled against his grip, but it was no use. She tried to bite his hand, but he knew enough to keep her jaw clamped firmly shut. Her captor had obviously led a hard life – a garish scar which most people would have paid to have removed cut across his left cheek, and the collar of his shabby coat didn't quite conceal a set of crude tattoos on his neck. The man effortlessly shoved her back until she toppled over onto her daughter's unmade bunk, at which point he released his grip on her mouth.
As soon as she was released, Faye screamed for help, but with the door shut, the cabin soundproofing would muffle the sound. Even if the adjacent cabins were still occupied in the late shipboard morning, there was little chance of any other passengers hearing it. The man – the accomplice to the man walled up into the ship's interstices, she guessed – winced at the noise. "Are you through?" He asked gruffly. While there wasn't a gun in his hand, Faye guessed from the bulge inside his jacket that he had managed to sneak some sort of weapon through the boarding process.
"Let me go." Faye demanded. Even as the words left her mouth, they sounded hollow and weak.
"Nothing personal, Miss." He shrugged. "But you know too much."
"Ya got it under control up there, Gus?" The man walled into the ductwork called up, not bothering to use the radio. He could, Faye realized, hear everything that went on in Junia's cabin.
"It's handled, Blake." Gus, Faye's captor, called back. It galled her how little the two appeared to care for stealth; their smuggling operation was being aided by the top-notch soundproofing of the second-class cabins. "There won't be witnesses."
"So that's how it is." Faye replied hollowly. "My life to protect a load of narcotics."
"Narcotics?" Gus replied defensively. Faye watched him carefully – if he stepped out of the way and gave her a clear path to the door, she thought she might be able to make it to the hall, where there were security cameras. Even if he still shot her down there, it would be the end of the smuggling operation. "Look, Miss. I need you to understand something before I kill you. We don't do-"
"Gus, ye're explainin', not shootin'." The voice from the vents interrupted.
"As if it matters." Gus shot back. "Besides, can't shoot her. We're not supposed to have guns on the liner. Gotta make it look like the girl did it."
"Wait. No, ye're not supposed to – whoah!" Blake exclaimed. Faye didn't think the second man was talking to Gus, and by his expression, Gus didn't either.
"What's going on down there?" Gus called.
"You're gettin' company whether ya like it or not." Came the shaky reply.
Faye winced. Company meant Gus would have to act quickly. The conversation was over. Dying was bad enough – but these criminals planned to pin the crime on Junia. She was torn between begging for any alternative, and leaping at her captor to do her best to claw his eyes out. The two instincts cancelled each other out, warring for dominance of her last few moments of life.
When something brushed past her leg, Faye almost didn't bother to look down, but she noticed Gus looking at her feet, so she glanced that way herself, and recoiled in alarm. Some sort of blue serpent, three inches across, was sliding silently across the floor, threading its way around the assorted items Junia had carelessly discarded there. It had no head, and its flesh was translucent, like pale amber. "What is that!?" She shrieked, pulling her feet up onto the bunk.
At first, Faye thought the serpent was intent on Gus, and her fear was replaced by hope which was just as quickly dashed as the creature's featureless head raised up vertically into the air roughly halfway between Faye and her captor. Oddly, the rest of the creature continued to crawl, and Faye realized that it wasn't a serpent – it was almost completely amorphous. The upraised head became a sort of trunk, which rose a meter and a half before cascading back down in a waterfall-like structure. Two limbs, thin and elegant, separated from the sides of the shape, and it took on a particular set of curves. Faye blinked in surprise – even as the bluish goop tail still wound across the floor and under the bunk below her, the bulk of the creature had taken the shape of a human woman facing Gus. Even before the figure had fully formed, it – she – held up one hand in a clear "stop" gesture to the rough-looking man.
"What's going on?" Faye demanded.
"What am I supposed to do?" Gus asked. Faye opened her mouth to reply, but she realized he was talking to the creature which had interposed itself between him and his prisoner. "If she raises the alarm, all three of us are dead."
The moving sculpture in blue glass turned its head, and Faye saw two dark, gemstone-like eyes looking at her out of a hauntingly beautiful face which was, despite being perfectly human in shape, translucent and uncannily still. "Who are you?" She managed shakily.
"As I was trying to say." Gus rallied. "We don't do narcotics. Well... Not anymore."
Without motion of her hips to suggest a walking pace, the uncanny creature glided across the floor and stood in front of Faye, one hand outstretched. Faye could see through it, but she could also see that the hand was perfectly formed, down to tiny ridges on the fingertips, as if the semi-liquid creature was trying to mimic fingerprints. It didn't say a word, but Faye knew somehow that this strange being was offering her a chance – but a chance to do what?
"There's no way she can be trusted." Gus cautioned. He was certainly speaking to the liquid statue rather than to Faye, but Faye wondered if the same would be true if she was the intended audience. Still, she had little choice. She reached up to take the offered hand. The alien's palm was cool, but firm – it felt almost like a real hand, but not quite. A subtle tug from the creature encouraged her to stand, and she did.
"You're..." Faye tried to come up with a good description for what she was seeing. "Like nothing I've ever seen. They're helping you, aren't they?"
There was no nod of agreement, but Faye decided she was right, even though she was unable to figure out how she had determined this.
"I'll keep your secret, on one condition." Faye agreed to the request that popped into her head, before she bothered to wonder how it had gotten there. "Let Junia meet you. I can't keep this secret from her." Unlike Faye herself, Junia had never met a nonhuman.
"The woman's bad enough..." Gus grumbled. "But the teenager too? She'll never keep quiet."
Faye shook her head. "She will keep quiet." She insisted, returning her attention to the unmoving yet kindly face carved of blue glass. You can..." She didn't know how to voice the question, so she tapped her finger against her temple. Once again, that sourceless sense of confirmation crept into her thoughts. "You already knew I would agree." Faye was too amazed to be terrified.
Gus sighed. "Blake, we've got a change of plans." He called out. The odd creature's expression didn't change, but something in its manner suggested gratitude being extended to the smuggler as well as to Faye herself. "Looks like we're taking on a few partners." The way he said "partners" suggested that he really meant "problems," but Faye already knew he wasn't the one making the decisions, even if he thought he was.
"Ya think?" Came the sarcastic reply. "This one's yer fault, Gus."
"Blake?" Gus pinched his nose with one big hand, shaking his head.
"Yah?"
"Kindly shut the hell up."
Originally posted on Cosmic Background on 2946-06-21. This story is part two of a three-part short story sequence. It is preceded by "Smugglers in Second Class" and followed by "Azure Amber."