Silhouette (8 page)

The Burmin did not mark the graves, but people had tried. Silhouette’s brother had told her how free time was scant between duties and that those who ventured out this far from town had to sacrifice sleep to do so, or risk getting caught skipping out on work like Davi had. She followed the row of graves her brother had directed her to and found a spot marked with dried red flowers and a few rocks. “I’m sorry,” Silhouette said as she kneeled down and placed her hand on the white rocks. “I’m sorry I didn’t make it in time, Dad.”

She could not spend long grieving at her father’s side, so after a short time she said her goodbyes and then followed the shrinking morning shadow back toward the foothills. Silhouette moved south to Vix where she caught a ride back to the compound in the evening.

* * *

The compound prison was filled to near max capacity by the day the prisoner transfer ship had arrived. The ship was comprised of polished black and blue metals and was shaped like a squat leech: flat on the bottom and rounded on the top with a bit of a tail. A hundred new slaves were about to appear on the market from the Jhiik Compound, along with countless more from the other compounds spread around the world.

Large containers were removed from the ship’s cargo hold and relocated into the compound, likely full of supplies from the Juggernaut. When the ship was emptied of its cargo, the compound’s prisoners were wheeled into its hold, still locked into their individual containment cells.

Silhouette had moved outside behind the animal pens and she watched as human slaves moved heavy loads of Nyian minerals onto the ship. She took off her headpiece and dropped down to the ground, digging her fingers into the soil and grabbing handfuls of it to rub all over her body. She caked her suit in dirt and made sure to press plenty of it into her face and hair, then inside the pens she found a torn brown cloth in a wash bucket and wrapped it around her shoulders like a shawl. Sue had made herself up as just another dirty human slave.

She left the pens and scurried toward the ship, wearing a look of concern on her face and holding her head low. As she neared the ship, a Burmin turned and looked at her. It took a step in her direction and yelled something that she did not understand, thrusting a finger in the direction of the other humans. Sue nodded and ran to join in with the others. She spotted a girl, younger than herself with light brown skin and dark hair, struggling to push a heavy cart up the loading ramp. Sue latched onto the cart alongside the girl.

“I can do this myself,” said the girl. “Leave me alone.”

“I’m new at this,” said Sue. Another Burmin turned toward her. She pushed hard on the cart and turned her face down and spoke in a strained whisper. “I was just assigned here from tending the qoot pens. Let me go in with you once so I know what to do.”

“Fine,” said the girl. “Just once. I don’t want any marks on my record.”

“Thanks,” said Sue.

Together they pushed the cart inside of the ship and to the rear of a large storage room, passing the fenced off portion where all of the prison cells were kept. Many tons of minerals were being stacked inside the back end of the hold. “Do you know how to operate the cart to place the container way up high on top of the others?” asked the girl.

“No,” said Sue. “Show me.”

The girl sighed and went about the motions while Sue took a step back and looked over the room.
 
Someone pushed an empty cart out of the hold, down the loading ramp, and for a moment she and the girl were the only two inside of the hold. Sue’s hands brushed the dirt off her suit, then she pulled on her headpiece and took off her shawl, dropping it to the floor. Silhouette slipped back into the shadows. The girl finished her demonstration and turned around to see only a cloud of dust floating above the abandoned shawl.

“Hmpf,” sighed the girl. “Whatever. I’m not taking any heat for your sake.” She grabbed her cart and pushed it toward the exit, leaving the belly of the ship.

There are not many places to hide on a brightly lit ship; fortunately the Burmin on board were focused on their pre-flight checks and most had gathered in the bridge. Using her Ocu to track bodies and map out passageways, Silhouette avoided detection while she scouted for a place to hole up in during the ride.

She found a dead end which led to the ship’s escape pods. Silhouette entered one of the pods and inside was room for a pair of Burmin to fit snugly, which was quite roomy for a woman of her size. It was very basic with nothing more than a pair of harnessed seats and white walls with minimal digital displays. Her form was a void in the brightly lit pod, the suit warped the light it absorbed, attempting to hide itself, but it only succeeded in radiating darkness. Thin wisps of shadow wafted off her dark shape like a mist as the shadowsuit was overwhelmed with light. She had always thought it was an awesome effect, but it really was not the right time to appreciate it. She needed to get away from all of the light.

 
* * *

Under the seats Silhouette noticed a handle and bent down to tug on it, revealing an empty drawer.
 
She crawled inside and pulled herself into a fetal position. It was not comfortable, but she fit and it would do, so she closed herself into the compartment and waited. As long as the escape pods were not part of a detailed pre-flight inspection, Silhouette believed she would be safe for the trip as few Burmin would likely travel down the dead-end passageway

Hours passed. She was cold and many of her joints ached, but she knew better than to move. Through her Ocu she watched bodies roam about the ship; the Burmin eventually settled into their seats and the engines fired up. After a quick jolt followed by the pressured feeling of acceleration, the ship left Nye’s atmosphere. It was an uneventful flight and no one moved from their seats for the duration of the journey, short as it was.

The ship thunked then rattled as it docked aboard the command ship. Silhouette watched as the prisoners were offloaded first, followed by the Burmin and then the remaining supplies. After the ship was unloaded, a handful of humans returned to it and began to sweep and scrub with no Burmin to supervise the cleaning crew’s work. Silhouette crawled out of her container, stretched out her limbs, and rubbed at her agonizing back, but the pain drew very little of her attention. She had learned to ignore pain, to embrace discomfort as a tool which many others were unwilling to use. She made her way to the cargo hold and easily evaded the human cleaning crew.

The transfer ship’s cargo hold was empty as she passed through it, but the command ship was brimming with bodies and red-hot machinery. She had entered an alien city, densely packed and full of life. Her Ocu was overloading her mind with information, so she switched off its enhanced sight and peeked into the ship’s space port, overwhelmed by the immensity of it all. Nothing humanity had ever created even came close in size to this. Every ship in the Erdian fleet could dock into the Juggernaut’s port and likely leave room to spare. The Presider had thoroughly briefed her, but seeing the Juggernaut for herself made Silhouette break into a cold sweat. She had not fully understood the magnitude of her mission until now.

If the Burmin decided to attack one of our worlds with this behemoth….
She did not want to finish the thought.

She had the presence of mind to shove all worrisome thoughts out of her head, knowing they would do her no good. Burmin were everywhere, much more concentrated than she had seen at the compound, and she had to remain focused to avoid detection. She searched through the mission briefing files stored in her Ocu and pulled up long-distance photos of the ship which showed that it had the shape of a burning comet, tail and all. She identified the location of the spaceport which was positioned on the underside of the ship’s belly, but none of the files had any indication of where slaves would be taken.

She had saved Davi’s body signature, which was a conglomeration of his heat signature, vitals, biophoton emissions, and more which together acted as a way to single his body out through her Ocu vision. Unfortunately, the amount of bodies made the enhanced sight blindingly bright and it would be painful to use, but it was her only way of finding him within this floating metropolis. Silhouette switched back on her Ocu’s sight and searched for her brother’s body signature. Like searching for a sun spot with the naked eye, finding Davi’s signature hurt like hell. The brightness was not damaging her eyesight like a sun would, but it sure gave her a godawful headache.

Once her Ocu locked onto his signature, she again shut off the sight and then pushed her palm into her eye. “Fucking hell,” she muttered to herself.

The Ocu gave her a sense of direction, but unfortunately there was no way to identify any specific location in that mess of light. She would have to move toward the tail of the ship and try again when she was closer to Davi.

Through shadows and patience, Silhouette made her way out of the transfer ship and across the space port. Dozens, maybe hundreds, of docked ships waited to travel to various compounds across Nye or back to their homeworld of Burm. She passed by a map of the Juggernaut as she crossed the space port and recorded the image with her Ocu. The diagram’s labels made little sense to her, but the layout was similar to modern human constructions, only much larger. There was a bridge up front, a port down below, an engine in the rear, plenty of small personnel rooms throughout the ship, and a few big storage and conference areas in the middle. Even alien races do not often stray from simplicity.

Silhouette kept the ship’s map in a transparent view over her vision, only seeing it if she focused on it. The halls were busy, which meant any travel would be a slow-going affair.
Patience
. There would always be an opportunity to move forward, whether it be one step at a time or a fast sprint, and she would get where she needed to be. Shadows were her roads of safe passage; she knew how to traverse them, and they existed in all worlds.

Navigating toward her brother took several hours as she passed by hundreds of rooms in the private quarters, most of them occupied and all without doors. Switching on her thermal vision was still painful, but as she moved closer to Davi his body signature became easier to locate and her pace through the corridors hastened as foot traffic decreased near the rear of the ship. The prisoner quarters were more populated with human slaves and prisoners than they were with Burmin officers. Silhouette found Davi standing in a long line of newly arrived humans, each waiting to be processed and directed somewhere, likely toward work that needed to be done. The people were docile, so accepting of their situation, most of them having spent their entire lives under Burmin rule. Silhouette felt nauseated.

She could not approach her brother at the moment, so she decided to find a place to sequester herself. After thorough searching the only empty room she could find was a large auditorium.
How strange
, she thought,
who would have guessed that Burmin enjoy the theater
? The room was setup like a semicircular amphitheater with many levels of seating and balconies, all focused upon one large stage with red curtains and golden tassels. The domed ceiling was ornate with angular designs, though they were difficult for Silhouette to see with most of the lighting switched off. A massive chandelier hung high in the center of the room, sparkling despite the minimal light.
The whole shebang
, Silhouette thought.
Impressive
.

The stairs stage right led her backstage where Silhouette climbed up to the catwalks and discovered a dusty pile of props, mostly damaged caricatures of humans, Burmin, and other various alien beings. The plethora of bodies was substantial and appeared to have been untouched for quite some time. The props were stored upon a separate platform from the catwalk which had a solid floor. Silhouette burrowed through the multitude of arms, legs, and other limbs and made herself a cozy den in which to hide. It was a quiet space and well out of the way. She closed her eyes and rested.

 
When she woke she recoiled in a panic as hands with broken fingers reached out to her and dozens of dead eyes stared at her from all directions. “My fucking god,” she muttered to herself between fast, heavy breaths. “Dolls. Shit, these things are creepy.” She turned off her heightened night vision. The pitch darkness was more comforting and she fell right back to sleep.

* * *

“Aahhh!” screamed a woman. Silhouette bolted awake and heard a Burmin grunt in frustration. “Yes, yes. Okay!” replied the woman.

Silhouette crawled out from behind the pile of props, seeing that the stage lights were on and a young woman lay on the floor of the platform below. “Sorry,” said the woman as she tried to stand. A large Burmin stood over her, its ears wrapped up on top of its head and plastered flat, their tips hanging over its forehead. The woman stood up and started mock-fighting the Burmin and it yelled at her again. The woman cried out and started attacking more ferociously, but she was not making any real contact. The Burmin growled and looked behind itself as two men joined the battle, attacking the Burmin from behind with imitation weapons. The Burmin deftly kicked them off stage and then turned back around, smacking the woman down to the ground with its large hand, laughing as it did.

Silhouette moved to get a closer look at what was going on. There were eight humans, and she recognized them as prisoners from the compound. Davi was one of them.

The Burmin called over to the other five humans and they all began to attack him at once. Most of the punches were feeble attempts, but Davi’s had a strength to them. The humans were easily brushed aside and thrown down by the single Burmin, except for Davi. The Burmin paid special attention to Silhouette’s brother, blocking his attacks, but Davi landed a strong punch, a real punch, to the Burmin’s gut and it winced— from pain or shock or acting, she did not know. The Burmin went into a frenzy and slammed down the other combatants with fierce strikes, and then turned back to Davi. The young man took several steps back. The Burmin yelled at Davi, but he shook his head and waved his arms in protest. The Burmin yelled again, louder, and Davi went tense, then he ran forward and renewed his assault. He threw several punches, but the Burmin blocked them all and then grabbed Davi’s waist with both hands and hurled him across the stage.