Word Count 1342
Moonie = Professor Craxtus
Moonie = Professor Craxtus
Background
Between the buildings, the figures ran fast and fleeting, dodging swiftly in and out of shadows. A casual observer wouldn’t have seen much, but for the pair who ran and chased it was in deadly seriousness. Breath flowing, legs blurring as the pursued and the pursuer rushed on. The chasing figure withdrew something from his side and bright light blazed. Chips of stone flew from the building’s side but the lithe, female figure that ran on ahead didn’t flag, but redoubled her pace.
In Lupanar, eyes naturally gravitate away from such action. If people saw, those who were out in the darkness did nothing. Doing nothing is how one stays alive in such places and so no one stepped in to put an end to the pursuit. The two runners charged on, locked in a grim race through the maze-like alleys of this lawless district.
The lead figure made an abrupt and energetic dodge, appearing to vanish from the view of the chaser. As if it hadn’t mattered, the follower made a similar jink, as if locked by invisible chains to the leader. In the heart of Lupanar, no path is entirely safe and no one who goes into the deepest parts does so without reason.
Now a high wall loomed, black and solid, but the pursued barely halted in her stride. She flung herself up at that wall and seemed to lift and float over it effortlessly. Her pursuer reached the wall and similarly appeared to fly over it like most people would hurdle a regular obstacle. He landed on the other side, soft and easy, powerful limbs absorbing the shock and ran on.
Neither the chased nor the chaser were flagging in the least. Tireless speed poured forth from their blurring legs, dodging through the warren of narrow passages that made up the streets, the gap not growing or shrinking.
Abruptly the powerfully built laicar woman who was being pursued stopped, spun and faced her pursuer, deep blue eyes blazing. He came to a skidding halt, warily eyeing her. His hand hovered near his side, but she shook her head. “Don’t reach for that pistol. I’ll have it out of your hand before you can shoot me.”
The man smiled, a feral grin. “Wanna find out?”
It seemed that all the woman had done was move a hand an inch, but the man staggered back gagging in pain as a small dagger embedded itself in his wrist. “I don’t have time for fucking games. Who are you working for and why?”
Taking a deep breath, the man facing her shut his eyes and his body began to glow. A moment later, he was facing her with confidence again, the pain seemingly forgotten despite the blade that was still embedded in his wrist. “Now do you really think that I’m gonna just tell you?”
The whipcord-lean woman’s face fought to remain neutral as she watched this display. “Never mind who are you? What are you?”
The voice that left his lips was no longer Terran.. It was a disgusting mockery of most ordinary speech on Araevis. It was a series of inchoate noises organized into something intelligible to the ears of the people of this planet. “We are the many. We are those who are natural heirs to this place. We came before what you built was destroyed once and we will be here when it is destroyed again.”
Again the laicar’s facial muscles fought to suppress any expression, her voice struggling to remain even. “Now you can tell me what the fuck you want and who you work for?”
It was all the woman could do to suppress a rising tide of nausea at the sound that came out of the man’s mouth, a horrifying travesty of laughter. “We do not work for anyone. Others only do our bidding. We own this planet and all who live on it. We have bided our time but will do so no more.”
The hellish cacophony stopped for a moment but the puppet-man’s mouth began to move again. “As for what we want, we want to take our place at the head of the evolutionary pyramid. We want to put all of you back into those places to which you should become accustomed, as our servants.”
As the laicar woman watched, the man raised the pistol to his head. In his human voice, all too human as it broke in fear, he spoke. “They’re making me kill myself. I failed in my mission. I…”
The flat sound of the gun going off, the splatter of dark blood specked with grey and the boneless slump of the man all happened before the woman had time to think. In spite of seeing death many times, it was still hard for her to suppress a gasp as his lifeless body dropped to the ground in front of her.
However, she was still self-possessed enough to clear out quickly. In Lupanar, a dead body in the gutter was hardly a new thing. Being caught around said corpse was not something one should aspire to.
Back in a non-descript apartment, behind an anonymous door, the laicar stood and delivered a report of the evening’s activities to the wild, white-haired man who paced back and forth, gesticulating and flinging his skinny frame around with a surprising amount of energy for one whose face looked like the lines on a map. He came to a halt and jabbed his finger at her. “I knew it! I knew TorBru Corporation was still working with those alien bastards!”
His informant raised one eyebrow and shook her head. “Professor, you must remain calm. You are far too old for this kind of excitement.”
The wild-eyed laicar man,his pale skin flushed and dark hazel eyes flashing, rounded on the angular woman. “I am nothing of the sort, Lila! I may be mature but I am still quite capable of action.”
The other laicar woman raked a hand through her buzz cut auburn hair and continued her report. “He just stood in front of me and pulled the trigger. He put the goddamn gun to his head and just shot himself but his eyes...I knew he didn’t want to do it.”
Again the professor jabbed a long finger at her. “This is what they do to people! I am telling you we have to do something. Now you know why I’ve been running from them, why I need to get in touch with Aeria and Laermont and why I hired you people to do help me!”
Lila’s face was grim. “It all was just for money at first, but now I get why you were so damn insistent. What do we do next then?”
The livewire of a man gestured at the air. “We watch our asses first. Second we try and see how far TorBru’s plans for the communication system are along and third we get a damn message to Aeria or Laermont. Speaking of them, any news?”
The woman again made the gesture of running a hand through her auburn buzz cut. “Apparently Miss Luxus is a guest of the emperor of the velen. As for Laermont, we have some information that he was on the velen ship Arsenic that has been reported lost.”
Professor Craxtus let out a deep sigh. “I hope the big galoot made it out alive. It’d be a tragedy to lose him. Never mind. I need the Societas to get a message to Aeria in Aea-Famau. Can it be done?”
Lila spoke in the affirmative and Craxtus replied, “We’ll meet back here in five days time. After you get that message off, start looking into what TorBru is doing. I need raw data most of all, so work on that.”
There were no more pleasantries to exchange so Lila took her leave. As soon as she was gone, the Professor slumped down in an overstuffed armchair and rested his head on one hand, eyes unfocused as his mind spun. There was much to keep it spinning.