Kolhem woke up with the first rays of the sun. He stretched and rubbed the last drops of sleepiness out of his eyes. He looked over to the table. Aleena ate the slice of fruit pie on her plate but left another chunk in the pan untouched. Uncharacteristic, but at least he didn't have to worry about breakfast. He got out of bed and headed to the bathroom.
Twenty minutes later, he was shaved, clothed, and ready for the day. No sound from Aleena's room yet. He peeked inside on his way out. His daughter was slumbering peacefully with her limbs thrown around in all directions as it was her habit. Kolhem noted that she didn't change into her nightgown. Another peculiarity, but he didn't think much of it.
He started in the storehouse, checking on the refrigerator unit he had repaired the day before. It had been running through the night empty; Kolhem wanted to make sure it wouldn't break down again before making the effort of loading it up. A cold breeze escaped the compartment as he opened up the door. The machine seemed to be operating without issue.
Suddenly he heard the soft whirring of a repulsorlift vehicle from outside. He straightened up in confusion. The trader wasn't due to pick up the honey for three more days. Or was he? Kolhem cursed silently. Karf's plasma cutter is one thing, but missing delivery dates could be a real problem. He hurried to the entrance – and had to grab the doorjamb when he got there.
It wasn't the trader. It was an Imperial troop transport.
The farmer froze. His mind was racing. The soldiers in Moryag, Aleena's trip to the town, those little oddities he observed in the morning… but no, no, it can't be. Aleena's right: he's just a paranoid old fool. There must be some simple, innocent explanation to all this.
More than a dozen troopers exited the vehicle and formed a line in front of the farm. Kolhem gathered his courage and walked up to the one that appeared to be directing the others. A tall, imposing man, one of four clad in black armor instead of the familiar white.
"Uh, good morning, sir, can I help you?" he asked timidly.
"Good morning, citizen" the officer's voice sounded distorted and droid-like through his helmet "We're looking for a dangerous fugitive. Possibly Jedi. Young female, around a hundred fifty, long black hair, light skin, dark clothes."
Kolhem's heart dropped. He struggled to hide his mounting panic.
"I'm afraid I can't help you. Haven't seen anyone up here for at least a month."
"We'll have to search your farm."
Kolhem swallowed.
"Of course, of course" he gestured invitingly towards the storage "This way."
The nudge worked. The soldiers followed him to the storage room. At least he could steer them away from Aleena for the moment. He watched on as they methodically went through the crates and refrigerators in the building, tortured by silent horror on the inside. So it had happened. It had finally happened. The Empire reached out to take away his daughter, to destroy what little was left of his family. He dreaded this day ever since he heard of the rebellion and subsequent destruction of the Jedi Order, and now the nightmare that had been tormenting him for almost ten years was playing out in real life.
But at least he had plenty time to prepare.
"Uh, excuse me, do you mind if I go wake up my wife?" he turned to the commander again "She's still asleep."
After brief consideration, the officer nodded.
"Go."
"Thank you" Kolhem stammered and headed for the house.
As he walked away, the officer gestured to one of his men "You, keep an eye on him."
The farmer could barely control his pace. He wanted to run, run and scream from the top of his lungs for Aleena to get out. But he had to keep up the act for now. He counted down the steps to the house. Nine or ten more to make… each like a lightyear.
Finally the door closed behind him. Dropping all pretense of calmness he rushed into Aleena's room. He grabbed the woman's shoulders and violently shook her awake.
"Aleena, they are here for you, the Imperials are here for you, you have to get out!"
"What? Who?" Aleena blinked "How do you know that…"
"Stop talking back to me, just this once, will you!" Kolhem snapped while tugging his disoriented daughter into the large room.
"Listen to me. You have to get out. Go to the kitchen, exit through the window, then straight to the elevator and up the wall. You can escape into the forest from there. Get to Tahnyag. I thought this over, I prepared for this, trust me please. You're going to be okay, but you must leave the planet. Hurry, there's not much time" he pushed her gently in the right direction before heading back to the front door.
"But they'll see me" Aleena was slowly sobering up from her interrupted sleep and realized the gravity of the situation "They'll see me in the elevator, what are you going to…"
She trailed off. Kolhem was standing at the entrance, his hand resting on the old blaster rifle hung on the wall. He looked back at Aleena with resignation and sadness in his eyes that scared her more than a thousand stormtroopers at the doorstep.
"Dad…"
"I love you, Aleena. Please take care of yourself."
"Dad, no!"
She watched helplessly as her father tore up the door and opened fire on the soldiers. Shocked, desperate, realizing just now the catastrophe she brought about. "Gun!" the trooper watching the house yelled and dived onto the ground. A round hit him on the shoulder. He howled and returned fire. A pair of bolts darted through the room and set the wardrobe alight.
There was nothing Aleena could do anymore. She ran to the kitchen and jumped on the counter. The window. It didn't open. The handle is stuck… no, wait, it wasn't locked in the first place. She climbed out into the backyard. To the elevator. She hit the button. The platform started to ascend, with excruciating tepidity. It reached the level of the roof then slowly passed it.
"On the wall!" someone shouted. Aleena threw herself on the steel plate, avoiding a hail of plasma fire by mere centimeters. The elevator came to a stop with painful creaking. One of the bolts ruptured the railing. She was trapped.
A fresh volley rang out from the house, forcing the stormtroopers to retreat into cover. Aleena rolled on her back. The top was still some three meters away. She stood up, wiped her sweating fingers and nervously probed for a hold on the stone surface. Just something, some tiny edge she can press her fingertips on… there's one. And another. She pulled herself up and extended her arm, feeling out the next hold. She was shaking with every muscle which made the climb a lot more difficult than it should have been. Grab and pull. Step and push.
Only half a meter left. Suddenly, there was silence. A final moment of peace, Aleena knew instinctively, before the guns would fire again, this time at her. She jumped. She could feel the heat of plasma splattering on the wall where she had been hanging a second before. She struggled onto the top of the cliff and plunged into the forest.
Branches slapped her face, thorns tore into her clothes as she broke through the bushes – all but unnoticed drops of bodily pain in the tide of terror engulfing her senses. Aleena kept running with all her strength, through forest and field, losing track of time and space. Yet she could do nothing to get away from the dreadful feeling of an evil stare on her back, the burning gaze of a bloodthirsty machine determined to hunt her down. She didn't dare to look back, fearing that her stalker might prove all too real. How naive it was to think that she lost it, that the Empire will just turn its attention away after her escape from Moryag. It won't, she knew it now. Not until it catches her.
Meters raced past by the hundreds – or thousands, she couldn't tell.
Finally her muscles couldn't take more. She collapsed on a small clearing divided by an unfamiliar stream. Raging stormclouds covered her thoughts. There must be some way out of this. To undo this nightmare. To return that cursed saber to where it came from. To forget about the Jedi, lock away the past and live for the future, to embrace her placid, boring life as a honey farmer with her father, with the friends and friendly strangers in Moryag, with long walks in the forest and the odd trip to town, the magical view from the peak and the sunsets on the shore of Heart Lake. Spy the first drops of honey drip in the spring, work on the walls until the leaves curl and dry, and retreat into the heated room when the cold days come. Alone, up in the mountains, not knowing or caring about the conflicts and miseries of the outside world.
The trader will pick up the honey first day next week, she remembered. Harvest must be completed by then.
But her mind could keep reality out for only so long. The terrible truth slowly set in.
She has no home. No family. No one to protect her. She's all alone in the world… against a Galactic Empire that wants to kill her.
Her desperation overflowed into a tormented, animalistic howl that shook the woods.
Excio had no celestial companion to lighten up its nights; at least not a reliable one. Though the Calloa comet did make a visit every six years, that was a fleeting affair, rare and unpredictable. Most times it hurried through the horizon drawing only a faint and ephemeral trail, indistinguishable from any common shooting star. Only every third-fourth cycle did it come close enough to paint the sky purple, draw people out of their homes in 'Bright Eve' celebrations, and bring good fortune to those deft enough to make a wish. With the day side of the planet inevitably missing out on the wonder, one had to be lucky – or well off enough to travel – to witness it more than twice in a lifetime.
But this was not one of those nights. This was a regular, black night of misfortune, so dark and thick one could cut it with a knife. Stars were hidden behind a curtain of clouds crying slow rain that felt especially icy in the early summer heat. And so in Moryag the only remaining lights were those lit by man. Lamps fixed high on posts or walls, each casting a circle of illumination and coloring the thin haze rising from the warm, wet stone to an eery shade of orange. Still, even in their hundreds they were not enough to cover all ground and between them plenty of dark corners and alleys remained.
A figure moved between these islands of darkness, rushing through the bright spots and resting briefly in the safety of the shadow before making another dash. One corner at a time, she made it to her goal, a house in one of the side streets.
She rang the doorbell, twitching at the sound that seemed like a blaring horn to her paranoiac mind. Even with no reply, it took her a minute to find courage and try again.
This time, a muffled grumble came in response, and a little later the door opened up.
"Aleena? What are you… come on in quick, you can't be out there!"
Karf hurried the woman into the room, promptly locking the door behind them.
"What were you thinking, little lady, out on the street this late! There's a curfew, don't you…"
As he turned around, he saw Aleena's red, cried out eyes.
"Good heavens, Aleena, what's wrong? What happened to you?"
"It's me…" she muttered "The curfew… they're looking for me…"
Karf's worry turned to shock. Being a close friend, he was one of the few privy not only to Aleena's past, but also Kolhem's fears.
"Oh no, no… so did they… Kolhem… is your father alright?"
Aleena started sobbing.
"They were at the farm this morning… Dad, he's…" she couldn't continue.
"Oh goodness no… Aleena…"
Karf buried her in a comforting hug, but she could feel that he was shaking too.
"I'm so sorry…"
"It's all my fault, I…"
"No, no! Don't say that. You didn't do anything wrong. Just because you were a Jedi once… you didn't take part in any of those things, that revolt, you were right here, for heaven's sake! They have no right, no right!" he raised his voice "I'll hide you here, and then tomorrow I'll go to Kaphaliq and I'll report this to the governor and…"
"No, no…"
Aleena broke out of his embrace.
"I need to get to Tahnyag and leave the planet. Dad… wanted me to leave the planet."
"But Aleena, we can't let these bandits get away with this! We have to fight. You're a good person, you deserve justice. Kolhem deserves justice!"
Guilt pierced Aleena like a stab in the chest.
"No, no…" she said weakly "I have to leave the planet… please…"
"But it's not your fault, it's not fair that you suffer!"
"Please, just help me get away…"
Karf breathed heavily, obviously struggling with grief and outrage himself. His large head bobbed down.
"Alright, if you think it's best… alright then. Come on in, don't worry about the shoes, sit down" he seated Aleena on a worn-out grey sofa "We'll figure out something. I have a delivery at the port tomorrow morning… maybe we could get you on the ship… but I'll think this through later, I need to calm down… and you need something to eat…"
He disappeared into the kitchen to fetch some food. Aleena stayed, staring blankly at the floor.
A weight pulled down her pocket, reminding of the things she should have said but was not brave enough to.
Moryag and Tahnyag might have been sisters, but they were certainly not twins. Though only some fifty kilometers apart, the two settlements were of different worlds. Moryag was a lively but small town embedded in the heart of the Vukoye forest, historically known for its logging industry, lately refashioned around the ebbs and flows of honey farming. Narrow streets, single-storey houses, friendly greetings exchanged in the morning between familiar residents going about their business. Saying that everyone in town knew eachother would perhaps be a bit of a stretch – but it was definitely a place where stranger faces would be noticed and the visit of an off-worlder would draw many curious eyes.
Tahnyag, on the other hand, was a sprawling, loud metropolis that dominated the landscape. Home to more than five million people, it was by far the largest economic centre and most important city of Yag, even if for some obscure reason the government refused to make it the de jure capital of the province, granting that honor to the much less prominent Kaphaliq instead. Though the economic stagnation that strangled all of Excio wore off some of its glitter, the city was still a favorite destination for artists, dreamers and aspiring entrepreneurs, filling its ever restless roads and imposing skyscrapers with people from all walks of life and every corner of the galaxy.
This stark contrast was mostly due to one simple difference: Tahnyag had a spaceport and Moryag did not.
A fairly big one even, by Outer Rim standards at least, enough to comfortably handle over forty percent of the interstellar traffic of Excio. In fact, it was considered oversized for its purpose – a shining and very expensive testament to the administration's grandiose ineptness, scornful locals liked to say – and was often relatively empty outside peak hours.
Just like that morning. Karf made a quick survey of the area as he pulled up to customs. Four gates manned, only one busy. He had the three others to choose from. He picked one with a familiar agent, the son of an acquaintance from Moryag. The battered freight speeder coughed a little harder as it hauled a trailer and two crates as well as its own weight up the slope, powering down with a grateful growl at the gate. Karf noticed with unease that in addition to the local, blue-clad customs agent, there was also an Imperial officer at the post dressed in military drapes.
"Hey Karf, how are you doing?" the familiar young man greeted him.
"Hey Dek, doing good, thanks. There was a little turmoil in town yesterday, but all is calm now. Nice to see you."
"Ah yes, I heard, it was quite the spectacle. Mom says she almost got shot. Wouldn't expect this stuff to happen here, would you? Well, we can chat about it later. Chaincode please."
Karf handed over a card. While Dek's handheld reader worked at verifying it, he nodded at the speeder.
"You sure you're going to make it home in this? That thing sounded like it was about to die."
"Oh, no, don't worry. I've seen worse. I'll have the engine checked out next week, but I'm sure she just needs a stabilizer replaced or something minor like that. Trusty old lady, she's not going to give up on me."
"If you say so. Code checks out, you're still not wanted, apparently" he returned the card "So, the usual? Empty in, cortuzel out?"
"Pirix out, but empty in, yes."
"Okay, you're clear. Have a nice day."
"So" the Imperial officer, so far listening from the background, stepped forward and spoke up with the practiced cool voice of a man of authority "You have nothing to declare?"
"No sir" Karf replied, feeling a tightness in his throat.
"The crates are empty."
"Yes, I'm going to load them up inside."
Just as the words left his lips, a muffled knock followed from the box behind him. The officer's sight immediately snapped towards the source.
"What was that then?"
"One of my droids perhaps. You see" Karf forced a smile and patted his considerable belly "I'm old and fat, I need some help moving stuff. The road sometimes shakes them up, this lady is old too and doesn't glide very smoothly."
"Open up the crate, sir."
Karf shrugged. He climbed down from the driver's seat, unlocked the crate and lifted the lid. Nearly the same instant, the platter-shaped head of a DUM droid popped out. It jumped out onto the trailer with a series of lively beeps, then down to the ground. Dek grabbed it by the neck.
"Whoah, whoah, is this tinbox trying to escape?!"
"Oh, no, he's just eager to get to work, bless his little iron heart. Tap his nose, that'll cool him down."
Dek did so, and the droid promptly folded itself into a compact box. The Imperial officer peeked into the crate.
"Four droids. That's well above the limit."
"So is the speeder" Karf protested "But neither is for export. It's necessary equipment to do my work."
"Open the other crate as well, please."
The trader complied. The officer acknowledged with a nod that the second box was indeed empty.
"Look, sir" Karf insisted "I need these for loading, I'm not going to sell them. Take a count, there's four going in, you can check there will be four coming out."
"That will not be necessary" the officer replied, stepping back to the post "You may proceed. My apologies for the holdup."
Karf smiled, maybe a little too obviously relieved.
"No problem, sir. Have a good day. Dek, you too!"
"See you, all the best!"
The engine coughed back to life and shortly the speeder was approaching the tall arch of the freight port entrance. It lead to a large logistics hall with hundreds of containers, fuel tanks and vehicles cruising among them. A maze never really at rest, but not particularly busy at this hour. Karf navigated through and turned towards the docks, nervously scanning for Imperial personnel on the way. He couldn't spot any; even workers were few and far between. Still, from the presence of the officer at the gate it was obvious that the authorities considered this escape route, so every bit of care was well spent. He parked the speeder in the cover of a large container between dock sixteen and seventeen, and looked around twice to make sure no one was watching.
Grunting, he climbed onto the trailer, and opened up the engine compartment at the speeder's back.
"Come on out, quick."
Aleena crawled out of the compartment and took a deep breath of fresh air.
"They tightened security at the entrance" Karf said "I hope there's nothing in here, but we shouldn't linger. We're almost there."
Aleena nodded mechanically. She was sweaty and aching from spending nearly an hour in the hot, cramped belly of the vehicle, but barely sensed it. Her mind was numb and strangely detached. If the day before it took an effort not to scream, now it seemed she didn't have a voice anymore. The world had become as cold and hollow as outer space, herself feeling like a helpless spectator in it. Even the pain in her body, where it got crushed and poked by the metal parts of the engine was only an impersonal observation, as if it belonged to someone else.
The vehicle got going again. Light, shade, light, shade. They drove past the docks, one after the other.
Number thirty five. Karf steered the speeder through the gate.
The dock was a large oval arena, open on top, spanning about twice longer on one axis than the other. Pipes and wires ran along the wall at a height, and on ground level containers of varied color and shape lined up. In the middle stood a freighter and a man, neither in much better shape than Karf's 'old lady'. The ship's hull was a patchwork of pieces of mismatched color and polish, coming together to form an uncertain, asymmetrical shape. A short, stubby man stood below, now stepping forward to greet the newcomers. He had the characteristic reddish-brown skin of spacefarers who didn't take radiation screening seriously, sparse hair, missed a left eye – and as his mouth stretched to a grin, it turned out that many teeth as well.
"Ahoy, Rukkie, you old pirate! Who is this beauty with you?"
"Hello" Karf returned a somewhat more reserved greeting as they dismounted "She's my niece, Corla."
"Very pleased to meet you, Corla. Caspor Kevens" Aleena shook a hand just as rough and dry as it looked.
"Corla Chau."
Kevens turned to Karf to talk business.
"Half a ton, of pirix, right?"
"Yes."
"There's your heap" he pointed at a pile of purple boxes by the wall "That'll be two thousand."
"One moment" Karf reached into the crate to activate the loader droids. The little tinmen sprang out of their quarters babbling in their peculiar dialect of binary that sounded somewhere between human laughter and the squeaking of a hungry bird. One noticed a piece of junk metal on the ground and picked it up. Another grabbed the other end a fight ensued.
"Hey, hey!" Karf snapped at them "Playtime later, get to work boys! Purple boxes onto the speeder, quick!"
The droids dropped their toy – one stumbling in the process – and ran to the wall, two correctly aiming for the pirix boxes, two headed for a neighbouring stash of blue crates. Noticing the divide, they launched into a heated argument of beeps until their master clarified the task. There had to be something to the popular aphorism that 'DUM series' really stood for 'dummy'.
Karf sighed and opened his wallet to pay.
"Two thousand, here you go."
"Thank you very much" Kevens counted the money "I have twenty litres of tibanna to unload at a discount, if you're interested. Customer didn't show."
"No, thanks, I can't use that. I have another question, though."
"First question is free, second one will cost you a hundred, heh heh."
"My niece is travelling to Rikoros, and we're looking for a ride."
"Rikoros, huh? What's this fine lady to do in that dump?"
"She just… needs to be out of sight for a while" Karf said awkwardly.
That was already more than what Aleena would have wanted to share with a stranger, but they hardly had a choice. Kevens didn't hurry to make her feel better about it, though.
"Oh, are we in trouble, baby? Yeah, Rikoros is a good choice then. I'm stopping there after Boron-Ha. But I can't just take a dangerous fugitive on board, I'll need a, let me think… five hundred credits insurance."
"Alright… she could also use some help on the ground, to get papers, find somewhere to stay and such."
"Everything is possible for a fee."
"I'll pay you an additional thousand."
Kevens grinned.
"I hope you have many more nieces, heh heh. Okay, for fifteen hundred I'll take this pretty bandit to Rikoros and have her sorted out."
"Thanks."
"Thanks" Aleena echoed as well.
The droids had finished loading and were back to their rowdy games. Karf locked the crates, then turned back to Aleena.
For a while they just stood, both unsure what this moment really was: the end, the beginning, or only a station in between. Finally Karf stepped forward to give Aleena a last hug.
"Stay strong, little lady. It's going to be okay."
"Thank you… thank you for everything."
The trader released her, shooed his droids back to their place, then got on the speeder himself. The vehicle powered up with a rattle and slowly started towards the exit. Aleena felt an urge to run, jump on top of the trailer and take this last, desperate, hopeless opportunity of returning to her old life. But she remained still as Karf reached the gate. He waved goodbye with a bittersweet smile, then disappeared.
Aleena felt Kevens' hand on her shoulder.
"Come on baby, let's get you settled in."
He led her inside the ship. It was hardly any more appealing internally than from the outside. Space and light were scarce, dirt abundant. Parts protruded and wires hung at the most inconvenient places. Kevens briefly explained the layout, putting special emphasis on the fact that there was only one bed, so unless Aleena wanted to share it – heh heh – she'd have to rest in the cargo hold. She nodded blankly throughout, barely listening. Eventually Kevens had to go meet the next customer, and she nested into a nook next to a small window – a hole, really – to wait it out until takeoff.
Finally, the last stack of goods by the the wall was gone. The doors closed with a soft hiss, the engines rumbled and shortly the vessel lifted into the air. Aleena looked out the window. In a matter of minutes, the towers of Tahnyag shrunk into sticklets before disappearing entirely as the straight line of the horizon curved into a giant ball. This was only the second time she left Excio in the past fifteen years. Her last departure was to the famed shores of Glee Anselm on a family trip with Kolhem after a particularly rich harvest. It was a glamorous and exceedingly expensive journey, but spanned only a week. Now she had to wave goodbye to her home planet for a much longer time, perhaps forever.
She reached into her pocket to grasp the lightsaber. Karf gave her some money, but besides that and the clothes she was wearing, the weapon was the only thing left in her possession. She recalled the night two days prior, crouching in the dark forest by the lake, staring into the blue blade with childish excitement. At that moment she felt she could take on the world with but the saber in her hand.
Now she might have to do just that.
A vibration ran through the ship as it entered the atmosphere, first gently, then strong enough to shake Aleena up from her sleep. She was at the same spot by the window where she had spent most of the two day trip. Dozing off in the monotony in hyperspace she found herself back in Yag – or at least some place her dreaming mind thought to be Yag. But things looked different. The mountains were steep and bent, like giant fangs. The forest seemed unnaturally dense and dark. The air was cold and still. Aleena was trying to get home, but couldn't find the path. The terrain felt familiar, yet she was somehow unable to navigate it. And whenever it finally seemed she was on the right track, a terrible cry came from ahead, and she was forced to turn and flee in terror. It was a dark, uneasy dream and she was relieved to be rid of it.
She was also relieved to finally see the surface of Rikoros, and the growing grey-brown city they were headed to. Travelling in the loud, claustrophobic freighter was uncomfortable on its own right, and on top of that Kevens proved to be an obnoxious and intrusive host. He never passed an opportunity to touch Aleena, sometimes bordering on grope, while cracking witless jokes that only entertained himself. He theatrically complained about her eating so much food – two medium cans a day –, and his own 'boundless' generosity. His only redeeming quality was that he didn't care about Aleena's feelings in the slightest or what she went through, and didn't harass her with questions.
The freighter landed with a rumble.
"Ooooo-kay, we've arrived!" Kevens got up from the pilot's seat and stretched his limbs "I've got some cargo to unload, but first, let's unload you, baby, heh heh. Come on."
The ramp lowered and they exited. The dock was not like on Excio. The separator walls reached only a few meters high, permitting a peek at the top of a spacecraft in the adjacent dock. Sound filtered past as well; Aleena heard heated discussion in some unfamiliar language. She hurried to catch up with Kevens, having been momentarily distracted by the novelty of arriving on a new planet.
They exited the dock and entered a corridor. It was a wide but unlit passage, filled with the smell of oil and engine exhaust. A few people came across, going about their business in the port. Scarred, hardened faces, or on the contrary, smooth and sly. Neither inspired trust. In fact, Kevens started to look like one of the finer men in the crowd.
They made it to a hall. It was brighter here, though not virtue of the buildings own lights, but rather a large glass front to the outside at the other end. A man-high fence partitioned the hall into halves about two to one in size, the only way through to the larger part provided by two gates, each with a guard post. Only one was open. Kevens guided Aleena there, resting his hand on her hip.
"Ahoy, Meina, how my fine lady's doing on this fine day?"
The guard, a middle-aged, bored woman, looked up.
"This here is my good friend Corla. She's visiting her auntie in Arlette who's fallen ill. But there is a little problem, she forgot her chaincode at home. I'm wondering how could we solve this situation?"
Meina didn't look surprised. Or moved.
"Keep your stories, Kevens. Three hundred credits, Imperial."
"Now, now, you wouldn't want to rob a poor girl visiting family!"
The guard narrowed her eyes.
"The price won't go down" she said "But it can go up."
"Okay, okay, you win" Kevens grumbled, sifting out the money "Now let us through."
Meina nonchalantly counted the bribe, not appearing particularly concerned that she might get caught.
She nodded at Kevens.
"What about yours?"
"What? You know me!"
"Yes, that's how I know you might have something on your head. Chaincode or three hundred."
Kevens handed over his card with an annoyed huff. Meina scanned it, making a disappointed grimace when the device signalled all clear.
"There you go, sir. Welcome to Rikoros."
The gate buzzed and opened, letting them pass. They crossed a largely empty reception hall to exit the building.
They arrived at a plaza, if it could be called such. A large open area, covered with grey, cracked concrete. In the middle stood a rotund pool, with a larger-than-life statue in its center. It likely once depicted a human man and woman embracing, but Aleena couldn't be certain as the latter missed its head. In the pool itself, instead of water, there were people resting on blankets. Bounding the plaza there were a row of unremarkable, dilapidated buildings. Looking down from above, a similarly grey sky.
"Well, this is charming Camp Arlette, heh heh. If you go that way, there's a hostel on the next corner, I always stay there when I don't feel like sleeping on the ship. Good luck."
At first Aleena thought this was another of Kevens' bad jokes, but when the man turned, she bolted in from of him to stop him from leaving.
"Wait! You said you'd get me papers."
Kevens flashed a condescending grin.
"This is Rikoros, baby, you don't need papers. You'll be fine."
Aleena felt her pulse go up.
"You said you'd get me papers and find me a place to stay" she insisted "You took a lot of money."
"You have all the papers you need and I just told you where to stay. Get lost."
"That's not good enough" Aleena said defiantly.
Kevens spat on the ground. For the first time, he seemed to lose his cool.
"Look how talkative you are all of a sudden. I don't know where do you think you are, but let me tell you, Rikoros is the most dangerous, crime-infested, corrupt planet in the entire sector. I got you through the border, I showed you a place you can sleep without getting murdered, that's all anyone can do for you here, darling. Now get out of my way!"
He shoved Aleena aside and marched back into the spaceport. She glared at his back, though she had to admit, she had no idea why she expected anything better from this man.
Then, with a feeling of dread in her chest, Aleena started through the plaza to enter the alien, ominous city.