Page 24 of Relyn (Warriors of Etlon #6)

Nora picked up a floral blouse for her mom and a jaunty fedora style hat for her father. When she put it on her own head and donned her jacket she felt like a combination of Lara Croft and Indiana Jones. Perhaps if she had a scarf, it would be more like the Doctor.

“Do they sell scarves in space?” Nora asked.

“I’m sure they do. I haven’t seen any. Not sure if they are a seasonal thing, or if they even have seasons here. It’s not like the weather changes.”

“Let’s get back to the ship,” Grom said, suddenly moving in front of them, trying to turn them in the other direction.

“Grom, how many times-” Wendy began.

Grom produced a laser pistol from somewhere inside his body. He kept it low and against his body, trying to hide it. “They’re looking at you.”

Nora stopped and craned her head around. Sure enough there were three burly orange aliens that suddenly were very interested in a rack of dishware at the opening of a shop. That didn’t mean that they were being followed, but Nora could understand why he was suspicious.

“I think, Wendy, that Grom might be right. Let’s go back to the ship and maybe uh, come back with reinforcements.”

The three of them began to walk, as casually as possible back toward the ship, at least at first, because after a minute, it became clear that they were indeed being followed. They sped up and so did the aliens.

“Count of three,” Nora said quietly.

“Yup,” said Wendy.

Unfortunately the aliens didn’t seem to want to wait that long. They broke out in a run.

“Three!”

Nora and Wendy took off, and bless him, Grom actually turned and pointed his gun at the three aliens charging them. He got one shot off before one of the aliens back handed him so hard he splattered against the wall between two shops.

Wendy was fast, but not fast enough. One alien scooped her up and she turned into a furious ball of nails and shrieks.

Nothing she did seemed to penetrate the thick pelt of the alien.

It looked like someone had crossed a bear with a Shitzu, or perhaps Gritty had mated with some yellow aliens that somehow lacked his charm, and that was saying something.

Nora pulled up to watch Wendy being pulled along a side corridor, and that was her mistake.

She didn’t see the alien that had come up behind them from the opposite direction.

Great furry arms wrapped around her and Nora found herself being carried in the same direction as Wendy.

That was okay with her. There was no way Nora was going to abandon Wendy to being abducted by aliens.

Hopefully Grom was okay, despite his splattered state and he would be able to tell Relyn and Bright what had happened.

These aliens didn’t know the fury that they had unleashed.

Grom’s pistol must have been set on stun, because the one that he’d hit stood up and shook it off, following them down the hallway.

Wendy was still screaming up a fit, but Nora held back.

On a station like this, it was clear that everyone minded their own business and no one but Relyn or Bright would come to their rescue.

A few minutes later they were carried into an apartment, thankfully, not a ship, and settled into a room that seemed filled with ugly yellow bear Gritties.

“What the actual fuck?” Wendy shouted as she smoothed her clothes down.

Nora put herself between Wendy and the aliens.

It wouldn’t do to rile anyone up any more, and since they hadn’t tied them up or even searched them for weapons, perhaps this was another occasion to talk their way out instead of trying to fend off six hairy mascots.

They all looked identical, and it was impossible to tell who was the leader, as they just sat and stared expressionless.

“What my friend would like to communicate is that we are wondering why you decided to carry us here against our will,” Nora said calmly.

In her pocket she began to unzip her lockpick case.

Some of her picks would do well to puncture an eye or jam into some soft bit to escape, though making it through a crowd of those things seemed like a slim chance.

“What’s the code?” One of them finally spoke. It was one in the back, and she couldn’t actually see which one in order to address him, her or frankly, it.

“Code?” she said with actual confusion. Were they trying to break into the ship? Surely there were easier ways to do that than abduct two people in broad daylight, although this being a space station, that expression was pretty meaningless.

“Yes. The code. It’s alphanumeric.”

So not the ship’s code. It was simply a number sequence.

“Have you tried PASSWORD?”

“Give us the code!” it shouted louder. The five around it echoed the shout in an eerie chorus.

“Give us the code!” They said in unison.

“What code?” Nora asked.

“The code!”

“That is not helpful. I have no idea what code you are asking for, the code or otherwise,” Nora said.

“The code, the code, the code!” they shouted.

“I don’t know what the hell you are talking about. And shouting is not going to get you anywhere. Please communicate in a respectful manner or my friend and I will be forced to take alternative action,” Nora said, hoping they would buy her bullshit threat of some ambiguous retaliation.

They paused and stared at each other. Nora was beginning to think they all had some telepathic link that they were communicating amongst themselves with. Finally one of them said, “The credit code.”

Nora took the credit stick out of her pocket and showed it to them. This was all over a few hundred dollars? Hell, she and Wendy had already spent over half of the credits. Hopefully Grom had the packages they'd given him to carry and made it back to the ship with their purchases.

“Seriously? You want this?”

“Yessss,” they all said in a creepy unison. Nora wasn’t about to quibble over a few hundred credits.

“Here,” she said and offered it to the nearest shaggy creature.

“The code,” they chanted.

“It doesn’t have a code. You just give it to the guy and he takes the credits-”

“No. The code. What is the code?” They continued to shout. They repeated it, getting louder and louder.

“No. Code. There is no code,” Nora said, practically drowned out by their chanting.

Nora took a breath and drew herself up to her tallest height. She was still a foot shorter than they were, but it didn’t matter. She was about to use her most commanding teacher voice.

“That is quite enough!”

It silenced them quite effectively and they looked at each other, as if they were arguing silently among themselves.

“Now. I will say this one more time. Then you are going to let us go. There. Is. No. Code. This stick belongs to my friend. She loaned it to me, and I intend to pay her back for whatever we use. She didn’t give me any code.

It’s just a thousand credits to use while I am traveling home.

Now if you don’t mind. I have a very jealous and violent mate who will probably tear you to ribbons when he finds you.

I suggest you let us pass,” Nora said as she grabbed Wendy’s hand and made a move to leave.

The furries did not budge. They all just stood there, silently, blocking the pathway to the door.

“Fine. We can wait for him to show up and slice you to ribbons,” Nora said.

“Yup,” Wendy added. “He should be here any minute.”

“A Georgun is no match for us,” one of them said, then the rest of them echoed the word, “Georgun, Georgun, Georgun.”

“Do you find that at all as creepy as I do?” Wendy asked.

“Hella creepy. But that’s where you dudes are mistaken.

The Georgun, he’s not my mate. He’s just a kid that was tagging along with us.

My mate’s big, bad, and trained in killing anything that moves.

Why just the other day he took down this warthog gorilla shaped thing that was three times his size. ”

“That was impressive, I will admit,” Wendy added. “I didn’t think he’d win at all. I thought that guy would choke the life out of him in like three seconds flat, but he kicked ass. Yup. He’s going to destroy you.”

The creatures went back to blank looks again.

“So about that scarf,” Wendy began. “I’m pretty good with a crochet hook and we can replicate some yarn.

I did that back on Etlon. Give me the dimensions and I’m sure I can whip you up something.

I was cranking out those baby blankets for those cute green Mahdfel babies. ”

“Did your brother-in-law appreciate his warrior son being given a blanket?”

“Oh, you wrap it in enough tradition and they’ll accept it as a badge of honor or some ancient relic to be passed down to their grandson,” Wendy replied. They’d stopped even looking at the furballs. Now it was down to stall, and hope that the talk of Mahdfel would let them leave peacefully.

“Yeah, I was thinking something long and colorful that I could wrap around several times and still be long enough to go with the jacket.”

“I get it. About this wide?” She held her hands about six inches apart. “I can get a nice variegated ombre. I think I even know which one.”

“What is the code? The code, the code, the code,” the aliens echoed, but their cries were softer now, less insistent.

Nora ignored them and went on to chat randomly with Wendy until all hell broke loose.