The Betwixt Book One (17 page)

‘
I do apologize, madam,’ Od put up a hand, then proceeded to
bow.

‘
Is that a Kroplin?’ the woman seemed to soften her
expression.

Od nodded, his little helmet bobbing around. ‘I am indeed a
Kroplin, you are quiet skilled to recognize me through this
suit—’

‘
Why are you even wearing that?’ the woman cut in. She reminded
me of someone else who never let people finish their sentences. ‘We
have oxygen filters down here.’

‘
Ah.’ Od clicked something on his helmet, and soon the thing
detached from his suit and he pulled it off in a neat little move,
bowing again.

The woman seemed a lot less confrontational now, and I could
see her eyes light up as she looked at Od, like a scientist
cataloging the rare and wonderful.

I hadn't even noticed they weren't wearing suits. Or rather,
in the presence of that thing down there, I had forgotten I'd been
wearing my own.

Crag'tal removed his own Oxy Helmet and stowed it under one
arm, gun still held in the other.

That just left me. For some reason I didn't want to take mine
off though. It felt safe and comfortable in here – like I was
viewing this strange alien world through a screen rather than in
real life. Plus, it felt like it offered the barest hint of
protection from that creature down there.

The man who had pulled up next to the obviously in-charge
woman, looked young. I would bet from the floppy hair and dated
clothes that he was definitely an archaeologist – or some kind of
scientist. He had a wide-eyed, super keen look about him – the kind
of guy that would engage you in a conversation over space dust and
keep it animated purely through his own enthusiasm.

The woman cast a hard glance my way. ‘Take off your helmet,
and put that gun away.’

I didn't immediately respond. I found myself being pulled
between two polar desires – I wanted to be polite and do precisely
what the woman in charge was saying, but I also wanted to vault
over this railing and shoot that thing down there till it
disappeared for good.

But the human part of me won. I sighed heavily and tucked my
gun under my arm, unbuckling my helmet with my free hand. I pulled
the thing off my head and flicked my long white ponytail free, glad
at least to smooth out the kinks in my hair.

But my hand rested halfway down my head as I became aware of
being stared at. I looked up to see both the woman and unkempt grad
gaping my way, eyes bulging. For just a second I thought they would
throw themselves my way, like Od had the first time we had
‘met’.

‘
Is there something wrong?’ I said quietly but quickly. I felt
in trouble for some reason, like flicking my hair free of my sweaty
helmet had been the absolutely worst thing a person could do in an
underground dig site, short of murdering the crew and kicking down
all their lights.

‘
Is that real?’ the woman didn't speak, more gulped out her
words like she was as thoroughly shocked as her ashen face
suggested.

I thought she meant the gun for a second.
‘Ah . . . yeah . . . it's just a gun
though . . . it was
expensive . . . .’ I trailed off. They weren't
talking about my guns, were they?

‘
Your hair, your eyes - par'kang!’ the wavy haired man looked
like he'd just won the Central Galactic Lottery. But there was no
need to swear – par'kang was one of those colony cusses that never
made it out into real space. It was the equivalent of saying 'oh
dang'. Mercenaries, bounty hunters, freighters, and GAMS never went
in for the 'oh dangs', preferring the more pictorially explicit
swearwords.

I tried to cover my hair as best I could with one gloved
hand.

The woman tried to push past Od, but Crag'tal was there like a
blast from a gun. She looked up at him like he was little more than
slight nuisance. ‘Get out of my way,’ she snapped, not taking her
eyes off me.

Crag'tal didn't acquiesce.

‘
What are you doing here anyway?’ the woman finally gave up on
forcing her way over to me, ‘this site isn't open to the public.
Especially the armed public.’

Od stood up as tall as he could manage, I could see his little
back stretch out proud. ‘We are here to offer you assistance,
madam.’

The woman laughed abruptly. ‘You here to volunteer on a dig –
a Kroplin, a Crag and a . . . ‘ she let her voice
trail off.

‘
We are not here to volunteer for this dig site, though I am
quite handy in small spaces and have an exquisite eye for
detail—’

‘
Why are you here then?’ This woman obviously wasn't about to
wait for Od to finish his usual ramble. ‘How did you even find out
about this dig? It’s privately funded-

‘
Through the Rain Man, Madam.’

I watched the woman's face completely shift from annoyed to
neutral. She flicked her head towards the man with her. ‘Go and
check on the stability of the diggers, Edward.’

‘
Ah,’ Edward looked thrown, ‘okay . . . ‘ he
walked back down the metal gangway, but not before giving me the
kind of look you might save for the greatest work of beauty in the
galaxy.

It just made my arms itch.

‘
I have an office, of sorts.’ The woman led us down the gangway
and onto the rough stone floor of the chamber. She marched along
the wall until she came to a little alcove that had just enough
room for a bed and a desk. The only thing separating it from the
view of the creature was a curtain made of ripped up space tarp
hung over a metal beam. The stuff rustled as she pushed past
it.

I cast one last glance at the thing before the material closed
it from view. It was staring at me. Wherever I went, its eyes
followed. And I could bet that its eyes were still trained my way,
even behind this cheap curtain.

‘
I'm sorry,’ the woman leaned against a free section of wall,
arms crossed. ‘I didn't realize, I wouldn't have made a scene
otherwise.’ She kept flicking her eyes my way.

‘
It was not for you to know, we were unannounced, after
all.’

‘
Why did he send you?’ she asked, voice still quick, but
without the harsh snap of before.

‘
He did not send us per se. I requested information from him,
and he indicated—’

‘
What do you want with this dig site? Why did you bring her
here?’ She nodded my way. ‘How the hell did you find
her?’

Now my whole body was itchy and hot. I didn't like attention
like this, not at all.

‘
Fortune and providence—’ Od began, opening his hands out like
a prophet in mid preach.

‘
She can't stay,’ the woman snapped, ‘ I've seen it watching
her already. I don't want to lose containment
and . . . ‘ she drifted off.

‘
Excuse me? What are you talking about?’ It took me a moment to
find my voice, and when I did it was quiet, but at least it was
there.

The woman looked vaguely amused, one peaked eyebrow shifting
slightly. ‘You don't know?’

‘
No. I mean, I know why I am here, but—’

‘
Do you really?’ She was still leaning against the wall, arms
crossed.

I felt like a child playing that stupid Earth game Piggy in
the Middle. Once again, no one was telling me anything. And it was
annoying the heck out of me, though not nearly as much as it
should. Nearly all of my attention was still trained behind me,
feeling that thing in the room outside.

‘
You're running on instinct kid, I can see that. Which is
probably the best thing you can do right now. But you can't stay
here, and I think you know exactly why.’

I didn't even bother replying to the woman, just let my gaze
drift over my shoulder to the curtain behind me. That thing – I
knew my presence was having an effect on it. Like the sun heating
up a chunk of ice to reveal the creature frozen within – I was
thawing it from some long dark slumber.

‘
What is it?’ I asked, voice no more than a hush.

‘
That is something we dug up,’ the woman finally shifted her
arms, letting them swing by her sides and tap the stone wall behind
her, ‘and boy is it a find.’

‘
Yes, but—’ I began to interrupt. I wanted to get out of here,
and pronto. It was obvious there were no weapons to be found, just
something that looked like it needed a good seeing to by a weapon.
And I had a lot of questions to ask, but preferably, for when we
reached somewhere safe. Like who the hell the Rain Man was, and why
that name had had such an instant effect on this woman. But there
was one thing I had to know before I could go into that chamber
again – what in the name of the universe was that creature. It felt
Twixt, but people could see it, and it looked like something out of
a drug-fueled nightmare.

‘
You want to know what it is – straight answer? You're like my
son, he wants me to get to the point, just like his father.
Basically, it's what happens when Twixts stay in our dimension too
long.’

‘
So it's a . . . Twixt then.’ I managed to
wrench my gaze away from the curtains.

She let out another sharp laugh. ‘How much do you know,
rookie? Yeah, it's a Twixt, but just out of the In-Between. They
stay in our dimension too long, and time takes its toll –
literally. It makes them visible to the ordinary eye,’ she nodded
my way, ‘but no less dangerous. And hey, as you can see from the
thing out there, they don't become any less murderous either. If
that containment ring failed, we could say goodbye to our blood and
bones quicker than a pound of meat through a grinder.’

I didn't smile at that analogy. I didn't need a mental image
to help relate to me the power and danger of the creature out
there.

‘
That's what we think happened in the last In-Between war – the
Central races tried to protract the fight long enough that the
Twixts turned into our . . . friend out there. At
least that way they could see them. But it never worked – wave
after wave of Twixt soon turned that plan to ash. Plus, that
creature makes up for invisibility with power. It's twice as large
as a Twixt, as far as we can tell.’ She looked at me, obviously
waiting for confirmation. ‘Because it's not as if we've ever seen
one.’

I chose to remain silent, I didn't know how much I was
supposed to be giving away here. Od had told me not to trust anyone
who hadn't earned it – and I hardly knew this woman. She hadn't
saved me from space scum, or retrieved my weapon from a GAM
Cruiser. So far, she'd just befuddled me with little information
and loads of questions.

‘
It might make for a big target,’ she continued, obviously
realizing I wasn't about to fill her in on the direct dimensions,
pardon the pun, of a Twixt. ‘But it's faster, meaner, and looks
like something out of a hardcore holohorror. If it weren’t for your
people, those things would be all over the galaxy now. And I really
don't think the Twixt would be good neighbors – all galactic races
would be wiped out, you could count on it.’

‘
You've answered my question – so shouldn't we get out of here
now?’ I almost sounded . . . in control.

The woman shrugged her shoulders. ‘I don't think anything will
happen soon – just as long as you don't stay too long. You're like
a shot of adrenaline to those guys – something in them remembers
something in you.’

I swallowed, but tried to make it as quiet as possible. ‘How
do you know so much about . . . everything? About
the Twixts . . . about me?’

The woman had moved off to behind her desk, and sat heavily in
a cheap looking chair. The move disturbed the very old-style 2D
photo that sat next to her computer, and it fell off the
table.

I reached down to pick it up, but the woman got there first,
returning the photo right back to where it had been.

‘
This is what I do – I'm an archaeologist, I dig up the past.
And this is the galaxy – some of that past ain't
pretty.’

‘
So who do you work for?’ I was surprised to be getting actual
answers from someone, even if they were still vague.

‘
Myself, other interested parties.’

That meant the Rain Man, didn't it?

‘
The work I do isn't exactly popular with Central. I get my
money where I can, because not everyone believes the wild stuff I
come up with,’ she said through a bitter laugh. ‘Central think I'm
a quack, even my own family think I'm bonkers. But that doesn't
matter – things like the Twixt in there are the only thing I care
about. Central are two blind and dumb to remember the checkered
past of this galaxy. If they want to stick their head in the sand
on this one, then so be it – but I'm not going sit by and watch
them lie, watch them put the Milky Way at risk.’

Od nodded vehemently along with the woman's words.

‘
But what can you do?’ I regretted my question the instant the
woman's eyes lit up, focusing on it like a sniper at her long
entrenched target.

‘
Not everyone in the galaxy has forgotten,’ she nodded towards
Od and Crag, ‘there are plenty of races who were around for the
last war. And some of them still care, have kept the belief and
knowledge alive. There are underground movements, private
collectors, information merchants – you name it. There's always
been a galactic-wide movement, however small, that has been
preparing for the next invasion.’