Chapter 7: On The Run

The old man rose. "Now, my dear, there are pressing matters I have to attend to and there is nothing more I can tell you about your artifact." Varna stood and followed him to the door. He put his hand on the door catch then hesitated and turned towards her. "Are you certain you do not want to sell it to me, I can pay a great deal of money for it?"

She frowned for a moment - it did take up space in the hold and while most of her crew accepted her eccentric attachment to it Sisanna would occasionally bring the subject up, especially Varna's reluctance to open it. But deep down in her soul she knew she could not part with the artifact. On the other hand she was irrationally nervous of what it contained, which if it were human she could just kill it and get paid the bounty for its ears. The thoughts raced though her mind in the time it took to take a few breaths. The old man raised an eyebrow at her apparent hesitation. She blinked for a moment then answered, "No, no I will keep it."

He smiled. "I thought you might. Now I must go, but remember, I will be here if you need me and if you ever want to start a revolution I can help." He opened the door and saw her out, then locked the door.

Varna stood and gaped at the old man's retreating back for a moment. What a strange thing to say. Why would she want to start a revolution? She shrugged and shook her head, then turned back to her hotel. The streets were quiet now as darkness had fallen. Street lights and bar windows lit the way. She plunged her hands into her pockets, turned on her handy com, hunched forward and considered what she had been told as she walked.

How much of what the old man had told her did she actually believe? True the artifact had a strange hold over her and she had experienced the start of the Grojan bonding with a human, but it could have been due to extreme stress or some other aberration couldn't it? The fact that a human and Grojan were compatible was a tough pill to swallow, for humans to be the saviors of the Grojan was most definitely a step too far.

She had just stepped into the hotel foyer when her stomach rumbled. "Shit!" she had forgotten she had intended to get something to eat after the meeting with Luirlan. She turned round and started to walk out again when her handy com buzzed. Varna swiped the screen and held the unit up.

"Varna?"

"Yes Petara, what is it?"

"There is a problem, I tried to contact you earlier but your handy com was off line."

"I was in a meeting so I turned it off, what's the problem?"

Petara seemed panicked. "It's Sisanna, she has done something, you have to come back."

"What has she done, Petara?"

"Just come back, Varna, I don't want to say anything over the handy."

With a sigh, Varna swiped the handy com screen with her thumb and walked over to the reception. She could see the sleeping receptionist through the glass partition, his feet on the desk, head lolling forward. She rang the reception bell loudly. He jerked at the sudden sound and almost fell off his chair. "What ... Ancestors what the fuck do you want? Poxy pointy tooth bitches, think you own the world?"

Varna ignored the reference to her teeth, after all he was only a Grojani only one step above a human in her estimation. "I want to check out."

"Well it's too late, so you will have to pay for tonight as well."

"Fair enough, just get me the bill."

Grumbling under his breath, the man printed off Varna's bill. She checked the transaction and placed her thumb on the payment screen. The system took funds from her account and the bill was paid. Varna returned to the room, packed her overnight bag and walked out. She stood in the lobby and used her handy to summon a taxi to the city spaceport. Her ship stood at the far end of a large parking lot dwarfed by some of the larger freighters and passenger ships. She alighted from the taxi and walked up the ramp into the ship. Petara rushed to meet her.

"Thank the ancestors, Varna, Sisanna is on her way..."

"Yes, so what's the problem?"

Petara took a deep breath. "She sent an encrypted message that she has sought the woman who caused her to fail the mating ritual, who apparently moved to this planet recently ... she has murdered her! Varna, you know what that means don't you?"

"Curse the bitch! Fire up the engines, Petara, we will leave Sisanna to her fate, hopefully the authorities won't associate us with her."

"We can't, Varna, she has obviously planned this and foresaw your reaction. She has put some sort of code lock on the ship's computer. We are not going anywhere until she gets back."

Varna clenched her fists then stormed past Petara, who turned and followed in her wake to the front of the ship. Catana and Theasa turned from their consoles as she marched into the bridge. "What the fuck has that bitch done with my ship?" She went to the main console and pulled the seat round out of her way. Her fingers flew over the system control screen, but as Petara had told her the system was locked out. They weren't going anywhere until Sisanna supplied the encryption key.

Varna smashed her fist down on the unresponsive console. "Fucking bitch, I will kill her!"

A taxi drew up next to the ship, and moments later Sisanna walked up the ramp. Varna spun round, pulled her side arm and pointed it at her. "What did you do to my ship, Sisanna?"

With a nonchalant shrug Sisanna leaned against the airlock seal and smiled. "Just made sure you girls couldn't leave without me is all."

"Well I've had enough of your difficult and spiteful ways, you vindictive bitch, Sisanna." Varna made a slight motion with her pistol. "Get off my ship!"

Sisanna laughed. "Oh I don't think so." She tapped a metallic strap on her wrist. "This is connected to that casket in the hold you're so fond off, Varna, just a couple of taps and the content is dead. Likewise, if my heart stops beating then again the contents dies. Our battle suit technology comes in useful in unexpected ways sometimes." She smirked, showing her teeth. "Time to go I think, they will find the body soon and then they will be after us."