Handcuffs, binders, restraints; whatever you call them they were designed to keep an individual from acting or at least slow them down. Some are slim to make them easy to carry. These were bulky affairs colored bright blue with a white stripe and a small readout. They were meant to not only immobilize the use of one's hands but to advertise to all who could see that the person was caught and under the police's control. They were also heavy.
Krasi's wrists were thin and delicate. Not at all suited to these heavy garish manacles. Being a quextil, a species descended from avians, she had a fourth flight finger that was use to control the shape of her wings as she glided. In these manacles it created an added complication since her hand was unlike a mammalian one. They were chaffing the joint where her flight finger joined her palm. More disturbingly, the bright blue manacles were bending, crumpling, and genuinely ruffling her light grey feathers and ruining the look she had so meticulously crafted for the day.
"Could this day get any worse?" she lamented
***
The apartment was clean and decorated in cool greys and blues. Everything was straight lines without clutter. Everything was in its place; neat and tidy. It would be easy to assume no one lived here or else the tenant spent very little time within its walls. Outside the windows the shimmering waters of Myrna Lokee's harbor could be seen as could the starport that rose out of the water like the artificial island it was. From the single bedroom a contralto voice could be heard.
"Well it's a ten-day and a half there on a starliner during which I will be in training seminars for six hours a day with boarding and deboarding days off," Krasi said in her unaccented Galactic. Having grown up in the Hegemony of Nel, she was one of the few Quextil she had known during her formative years. As such she worked very hard to eliminate the typical whistle sound associated with her avian heritage.
Emerging from the bathroom, Krasi set her handheld down on the bed as she fastidiously re-checked her luggage and what she had packed inside of it. "Maseevo," the voice from the handheld called using her childhood familial name. "Are you sure about this... opportunity?"
"Maja," Krasi said as she rolled her eyes. Luckily the video was still off.
"You've had so many 'training opportunities' and new positions, what makes this one right this time," her mother, Suma sa Nocena, asked with parental concern and a dash of doubt. Krasi turned on the video so she could see her mother. Well her adoptive mother. On the screen was a being with green and blue scales and head spines currently dyed a dark purple. Krasi's mother was a Nel Ari; a species descended from what humans would call a Utahraptor. "I worry that you will spend all this time away from home and confined to a starliner just to find you do not like being in a sales position."
"Account manager," correct Krasi. "I will actually have a team of sales persons under me who help sell the product. This isn't a bottom position. It is actually the first step into middle management. Trust me this will work out!" This time she added it as a silent afterthought.
"Okay, Maseevo, my little grey fluff," Krasi's mother said.
"Thank you, maja. Although I am a big grey fluff, valseevo," Krasi said, adding a cheerful whistle at the end because she knew it would make her mother laugh. She had finished her review of her luggage and proceeded to move to the main living area of the apartment. With a flick of a finger the video of her mother appeared on the large display there.
"Maternal worry aside, How long will you be on Mars?" Nocena asked with genuine curiosity in her green eyes.
"A ten-day, but that could be extended for those who excel at the training…" Krasi trailed off as she absent mindedly rubbed the pendant that hung around her neck on a silver chain. It had been a gift from Nocena to commemorate her hatching day. The pendant was a wire weave that encircled and formed mountains and a sky. The mountains were filled in by quartz that was brown at the bottom and translucent at the top. The sky was filled with a dragava, a blue semi-precious stone only found on Vortash, the evolutionary home of the Quextil.
"Maseevo. Krasi!"
"Yes?" Krasi uttered as she shook herself back to the present. "So I will be gone a ten-day shy of an eighth. Forty days."
"Well at least you get a cruise on a starliner, so that will be some of a vacation for you. Just, please, be careful. "
"Yes, maja," Krasi replied with a smile. "It'll be fine."
"People are disappearing and worse," Nocena said while her spines tilted down and her eyes scrunched in worry.
"What are you talking about? Who has disappeared?" Krasi questioned with her attention completely on the main screen. Despite how she wanted to present herself to her mother she was beginning to worry.
"That Lilanite!" Nocena answered with alert and concern.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Krasi stated with less concern now. Her mom was known to take niche headlines, news, and commentary, and over state their importance.
"Dreth Ohn has disappeared and some are saying he is dead. For what he and his company knew. Secrets. One of his shipping company's ships went missing and some speculate that they were on it and the government is behind it. Testing new weapons." Nocena was very animated now.
"Maja, maja, maja. Accidents happen," Krasi cautioned. Her worry was abating. She was convinced it was just her mother overreacting. Out of curiosity she had opened a second window on the main screen and was doing a search for Dreth Ohn. On the third page of the results she found a link to their company, Ohn Transport Limited, better known simply as OTL.
OTL's site mentioned their founder and their passing, but there were no grand claims of a government conspiracy or cover-up on their site nor in the comments tied to it. Ohn was simply a local person who had built a successful local business. OTL never expanded beyond the Hegemony of Nel. Never became prominent on the galactic stage.
"If accidents happen then why isn't it being reported on widely?" Nocena asked with some frustration.
"You're right.They aren't covering it on the major new programs and sites. Not even the major ones in the Hegemony. However, this…" Krasi flicked her finger on her handheld and sent a link to a niche site she knew her mother liked, "... says Ohn disappeared, and they are trying to find him. I am sure they will find him. Rich person drops out of the public eye isn;t new or novel." She could tell Nocena was reading the article she sent her way.
"Well if they say so. I am still suspicious… and I still worry about you." Novena said with her maternal worry pouring through.
"I am sure no one would want to take me hostage or prisoner. Besides as you said it is a cruise on a starliner. Outside of the training, there is still plenty of time to enjoy myself." Krasi was forcing a smile in an attempt to get her mother to focus on something besides her worry. To get here away from the information holes she usually ended up going down.
The conversation eventually fell into the mundane of a mother making sure her daughter is prepared for a trip. Eventually it waned and ended. Krasi was left in silence to worry over the little things like toiletries and self care items. Then after a brief dinner and long after the sun disappeared in the sky, she went to sleep knowing that tomorrow would begin a new adventure and a new phase of her life.
She was happy.
***
Krasi was once again going over her luggage and making sure everything was neat and packed away. Tomorrow they will be offboarding and shuttling down to Marsport. It had been an engrossing fifteen days. She learned all about the history of Planitia Motors, when they sold their first glide sedan, their historic and classic models, their current line offerings and all the options available for order, and about their current expansion efforts throughout the Core. She even met new account managers who would be operating on other Core worlds.
Her ample time off she spent pool side gazing at the stars as they streaked by. She took in a few shows, ate dinner with the other trainees, and even managed to get in a few nights dancing. She felt fortunate to have been given this opportunity and was determined to make it work. Earlier fears had been laid aside. She could do this. She would do this.
As she finished organizing her luggage she suddenly realized she didn't have her hatching day pendant. She meticulously unpacked and repacked. She went over her cabin checking every crack, nook, and cranny she had access to. After a few hours of searching she felt exasperated and a little fearful. Determined to find it she pinged the steward and reported it missing. No one had turned anything in that matched it, but they would notify her if it was found.
Defeated, she slumped down on the bed. She felt a low cry begin in the back of her throat which she suppressed as she gathered the sheet and covers around her. For her whole life, thirty-two years, she hadn't been without the pendant. It reminded her that even though she had been adopted as an egg she was loved. She had a brood. A family. During the excitement of the past ten-day and a half she didn't even remember when the pendant had disappeared. Suddenly she was starting to feel dread about the coming ten-day of training. After all, she had never been on another planet before.
Stubbornly she pushed the sad feelings and negative thoughts. The lack of a pendant didn't mean she was without a family. She stood up and squared her shoulders in the mirror. She raised her arms and spread her wings. A primal gesture that made her feel bigger, more powerful, and more confident. This would not defeat her.
Krasi spent the rest of the day socializing with the other trainees. She even asked those she ran into if they remembered her pendant and when they saw her with it last. No one seemed to know what she was talking about. Regardless, she was confident it would show up.
The next day began with her handing off her luggage to the porters. As she waited to board a shuttle down to Marsport she asked after her pendant again. Still missing. Still unfound. They assured her again if it turned up it would be returned to her. She still felt a little lost without it.
As she waited in the lounge of the spaceport orbiting Mars, she sipped aimlessly at a cool glass of water and watched the red jewel that was the planet below rotate in and out of view. When she saw the other trainees get up to board she began to gather her things to leave with them. It was then she got a message on her handheld to come to the departure counter.
At the counter she had to wait in a line. As the time flowed past she watched the rush of trainees in Plantia Motors apparel, like she herself was wearing, dwindle to a few stragglers and then they were gone. Getting increasingly frustrated she began tapping her foot. Finally after a small eternity she was at the counter.
"How may I help you?" the brown skinned human asked in accented Galactic. She still had a hard time telling the difference between the sexes and genders.
"I got a message to come to the counter. I hate to be impatient, but the group I was traveling with just boarded their shuttle down to Marsport. I need to be with that group so can we conclude this quickly?" Krasi impatiently said in a hurry. The way the human looked, she wondered if they understood Galactic well enough to be working at a customer service desk.
"I am sorry to hear that. May I see your boarding pass?" The human asked nicely enough. Krasi got out her handheld and opened the boarding app and showed the person the code for her boarding pass. The agent scanned the code and began to look perplexed as they read their screen.
"One moment, please," The Human said as they held up a finger to indicate they were on a private call. After a few moments and a deepening look of confusion, the agent re-approached the counter to address Krasi.
"I am sorry for the mix up. You have been given a complimentary upgrade to a first class shuttle." The human now had a blank, but pleasant expression on. They were speaking a little too mechanically.
"I didn't ask for an upgrade. Especially not to an entirely different shuttle. I appreciate it, but can I just fly down on my original shuttle?" It was very hard for Krasi to keep the annoyance out of her voice.
After a brief pause and a quick glance at their screen the human responded, "I am sorry but the change is final. I assure you will get to Marsport well within your original arrival window. If you could just go to gate B5 your shuttle will be leaving within the hour. " The customer service agent's smile had long since become annoying, but now looked like it was beginning to cause physical harm.
"Isn't that gate B5?" Krasi asked as she pointed with her right wing finger to a hatch across from the lounge where she had been sitting. Quextil wing fingers were very long and known to be disturbing to some people and she really hoped it disturbed this human.
"Yes. Yes! Please wait in the lounge and enjoy the view. Drinks are complimentary," the customer service agent said as they begin to fidget slightly.
"Thank you," Krasi said flatly and ended with an untranslatable trill. As she gathered her luggage she noticed a line had formed behind her. A small, furred Kaylin, and a blue skinned Reltoan. In the lounge, now mostly empty, she saw her former seat was now occupied by a burly light skinned Human, or maybe a Thrassian. Thrassian's and humans look similar to her. Whomever they were, they noticed her arrival.
"Special upgrade?" they asked in a gruff voice with a cocked eyebrow.
"Yes," she answered flatly.
"As the Humans say, 'this is bullshit!'" She was unfamiliar with the phrase but understood the meaning. She sat down a few seats away on the bar. She ordered a local wine not caring how it tasted just that it was alcohol.
After half an hour all four of them were now sitting in the lounge waiting for their special upgraded flight. No one felt like socializing. All of their travel plans had been disrupted which did not make one feel especially personable.
The next quarter hour dragged by, but eventually they all were on the tram out of gate B5 that would take them to their shuttle. The tram was itself an upgrade. Plush seats that swiveled and an upholstered interior instead of the normal industrial composite. They only had a few moments to enjoy the inside of the tram before they were at the bay and escorted off and onto the shuttle.
The interior of the shuttle was similar to the tram. Six large plush seats. The interior was wood paneled and upholstered. It was a smaller, more intimate shuttle than the ones they were originally scheduled to fly down on. Onboard there was only one attendant, the pilot, and the co-pilot and of course the four of them.
Similar to the tram they didn't have long to enjoy it. Half an hour later they were down at the bottom of the Hellas Crater Basin where Marsport's spaceport, Mangal, was located. As they taxied to the large lift that would take their shuttle down to the individual bays, they could see the tall glass wall in the side of the crater wall that allowed those in Marsport to look out on their world.
Krasi wondered if the big lift that would move the shuttle to its bay would be jarring. However, before she realised it, they were ready to depart. The ride down had been very smooth. The attendant stood in the front of the cabin where the door was and let them know they could depart. Krasi had gathered that this particular human identified as female given the pronouns they used. During the trip from the space station to the spaceport they had been pleasing, unhurried, and calm. Now the attendant's eyes were a little too wide and moving a little too quick. Maybe she is eager for her shift to end, thought Krasi.
At the door, Krasi let the others go through first. From the door they entered into a tube or tunnel that connected it to the gate they were deboarding to. Krasi noticed the quiet as they all moved towards the gate's hatch. She however did not know if this was normal since this was her first interplanetary trip.
The Kaylin, Quinlan Joy, reached the hatch first. It opened smoothly for them and then slammed open with a force. The quiet Krasi had taken note of was shattered as a wall of sound slammed into the four of them. Shouts, that at first sounded like gibberish, were hurling orders at them. Quinlan looked stunned, but then was forcibly pulled out of the hatch and out of Krasi's view.
The tube filled with figures in black protective gear rushed in. Now weapons were being pointed at them and slowly Krasi realized the yells were in English and Galactic, ordering them to stop, raise their hands, and get on their knees. Findlon, the Thrassian, hesitated and then resisted when hands were put on him. It took three people to shove him, face first, to the ground. Meanwhile Krasi was dazed. She could not comprehend what was going on. Next there was someone in her face ordering her to put her hands in front of her. As she complied, the cuffs, binders, restraints, whatever they were called were put on her wrists.