Ex-Invader Poe felt the eyes of a hundred Meekrob burning into his body. He knew there'd be a lot of the bloody creeps, but, Poe didn't expect that many.
"Are you the who called?"
"Can we trust him?"
"He bears the mark of the Vortian Queen."
Constant voices echoed throughout the room. Not quite a normal room, though, because Poe wasn't quite sure what to call it. They were, after all, in a cave like area, as Meekrob had no real needs for many buildings.
"I am the one who called. You can all trust me. And yes, I do serve Her Majesty."
The Meekrob went back to endless chatter. What a pain this mission proved to be.
"What do you seek?"
Poe cleared his throat. "An alliance. And some books from your culture."
"An alliance with whom?"
"An alliance for what?"
"An alliance with you?"
Poe wanted to walk out of the cave, room, whatever it was, but he refrained. "An alliance with Caparx and the Vortian Exiles. Simply put, we want to fight back against the Irken Empire."
"Are you all fools?"
"Death wish."
"Waste of time!"
The blue eyed Irken rubbed his temples. "Please, just, hear me out. We can beat them, I swear. We need more allies to fight back! And that's why Her Majesty has given me this duty. She, too, believes we can win. You all would provide much manpower to the cause."
For the first time today, the Meekrob were silent. That was weird.
Finally, after a few minutes, a single Meekrob said, "We will agree to this alliance, but only if you gather more allies."
"Good luck."
"No one wants to risk their existence for nothing in return."
"Ah, but here's what's up my sleeve: I hunt the Invaders. Or, at least I was trained to. I know which planet each and every one of them buggers went to. Speaking of, there is one on Meek—"
"We know," they all said in unison.
"We have her in custody. She blew her cover with a load of defective SIR units."
There goes that bargain. "Oh. Well, that's all fine and dandy. Mission completed. May I speak with her?"
After a few seconds of silence … "You may."
"Go to the back."
All the bright blue eyes disappeared in a flash, the cave growing dim. The only providers of light were one long bulb above a door in the back, and the garnet eyes of Poe's loyal SIR unit.
"That went well," Poe plainly stated. "Yumi, are you okay?"
"That was a bit scary, Master," she said, her little eyes closing.
Poe began to walk, cracking his neck. "I'll say. I hope I still get my books, after all that. Basically why I came here."
The door immediately opened as Poe and Yumi arrived, revealing a long metallic hallway. As they stepped inside, the door loudly closed, causing echoes of the noise to shoot throughout the narrow space.
"Think she knows we're coming?"
"Mmm, I hope not." Yumi's eyes smiled.
"Y'know, this place could use some décor … couple plants, some paintings."
Yumi nodded. "And a statue!"
Strangely, the only other door was at the end of the hallway. After opening the second door, it revealed a larger room filled with prison cells. Only one was occupied.
"Stay back here, Yumi, okay?"
"Yes, sir." She saluted and remained at the door.
As Poe walked up to the prison cell, he was surprised at how old fashioned it was. Meekrob using metal bars and chains? That's an oddity, Poe thought as he reached for a set of keys on the wall. The creaking of the iron door sliding open caused the captured Invader Tenn to wake up.
Her eyes blinked rapidly, trying to gain focus. "Are … are you here to rescue me?"
"Ha, actually, my dear, quite the opposite." Poe took a seat on the floor.
Tenn cocked her head. "What do you mean?"
"Well, Miss Tenn, you've been locked up for a long while it seems. You haven't heard the good news!"
"Which is?"
"I, am the Ex-Invader." Poe grinned.
Tenn blinked. "You're a Defective?"
"Shocking, I know, but you'll get over it." Poe exhaled through his mouth at the awkward atmosphere. "So, what're you thinking?"
"That you're a traitor to our kind."
"So you would think. Irk is a traitor to the galaxy, in my mind."
"How could you ever come to believe that?" Tenn shouted.
Poe, instead of answering, got on one knee and leaned forward. "Let me ask you something, Miss Tenn. Do you recognize me? Look closely."
Tenn gazed into his eyes. "… Yes. Yes, we trained together, and ate together right before the Operation began. You're Invader Poe!"
"In the flesh, but add the 'Ex' part."
Invader Tenn sneered at Poe. If looks could kill, as the cliché went.
"What planet were you assigned to, again?" Tenn asked.
"Planet Caparx."
"The ocean world?"
"Mostly ocean, yes, but there's a couple fairly big continents. Uh, anyways, when Yumi and I arrived, I settled on the disguise of an Irken merchant looking to make it big."
"Why do I care about this?" Tenn asked, crossing her legs Indian style.
Poe rolled his eyes. "Did you not ask how I could become a 'defective', as you put it?"
"… Fine, go on. I could use the distraction."
"As I was saying, I settled in as an Irken merchant. Simple enough, as Caparx was neutral with us at the time. I moved to the biggest underwater city, and decided to do some reconnaissance at a bookstore of all places. There, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a book that changed my life. It was a complete works of some five thousand year old playwright, and I was entranced by the cover design. It was a fish, surrounded by lilies. So, I read the entire thing front to back, but, the first play stuck in my mind. It was this romance between a princess and a fisherman. This forbidden love was rather taboo, but it all worked out with the king finally approving at the end, and they had a big wedding at the castle."
"What on Irk does this have to do with anything?" Tenn rubbed her eyes.
"When I got to the end, something awakened inside of me. I don't know how to explain it, but that play was a sort of … push to how I am now."
"You childish fool. You betrayed our kind because of a stupid play?"
Poe thought for a moment, and then laughed. "I guess so!"
Tenn, angry over his attitude, asked, "Why are you here again?"
Ex-Invader Poe, normally playful, dropped his usual demeanor.
"Frankly, my dear, I came here to kill you."
Now it was Tenn who was laughing. "You? With that ancient relic on your hip?"
She was referring to Poe's restored Vortian revolver.
"You laugh, but I have something you don't."
"Which is?"
Poe smirked, smug as ever, as he stood up. "A working SIR unit."
Tenn grew silent.
"Take care, Miss Tenn."
As he turned around, Invader Tenn suddenly cried out, "Wait! You have no PAK!"
Poe glanced back over his shoulder. "I know."
The cell door creaked shut, leaving Tenn alone in near darkness.
I hope you enjoyed this brief introduction to my story. Apologies if it's too short. It's a bit of a test right now to see if people like it. Been a hot minute since I wrote something for this site, and boy am I glad that all my old stuff is gone. I've always wanted to write a story inspired by my username, but I never wanted to do a character named after myself. Now that I'm back into writing, I decided to go with Poe.
Pax Christi
Song of the day: Perry Como - Killing Me Softly With Her Song
