Chapter 2: Choices

My face pressed against years of grime, and the strong smell of iron and rot filled my nose. Her knee kept my arm against my back as one of her hands held my head down and the other stuck something cold in my ear. I tried to cry out, but a hand muffled my voice. Whatever she put in my ear was now moving, crawling like a small insect, nesting deeper inside my ear.

I flipped out.

Shouting against her hand, I writhed on the ground, desperately trying to break free, but she held me tight and had far more strength than I suspected. She was saying something, but it was incoherent, foreign. It was only once I started running out of energy that her words began to make sense.

"Hey, can you hear me now? Calm down, I'm not going to hurt you."

I stopped, struggling to catch my breath. My heart thundered in my chest.

She spoke again. "Do you understand me now?"

I managed a slight nod.

"Okay, I'm going to let you go."

She moved off me, finally releasing my strained shoulder, and I sat upright, massaging it.

"What'd you put in my ear?" I asked, jamming a finger inside to feel for it. I wanted the creepy crawler out.

"We call it a NAT. It's a Native Audio Translator."

"Translator … so it's true, you aren't from Sola?"

"No, I'm not." She held out a hand to help me up.

I stared for a moment before taking it, and she lifted me up with ease. As I rose to my feet, a blow of nausea came over me. I knelt down, my hands on my knees, eyes shut tight, as my stomach turned. A sharp bolt of pain sliced through my head. Her hands took hold of my head again, and I was glad she was being gentle this time. With a firm fist she hammered the side of my head and suddenly everything felt right again. The nausea left as quickly as it came.

"Sorry, sometimes the NATs get stuck," she said.

When I opened my eyes I found her examining me up close. Her gray eyes scanned my face with a concentrated furrowed brow. My breathing slowed. Now that she wasn't getting me in trouble, sticking things in my ear, or hitting me, she was kind of beautiful. More than kind of, actually. I couldn't help but notice the small details about her now that she was right in front of me. The brown of her hair was the same color as the sand cliffs I used to live next to. They would shimmer in the sunlight at a certain time when the suns were at the perfect angle. My eyes traveled down her straight nose to her high cheekbones that gave her a sharp but alluring gaze. I watched her pink full lips part slightly, and suddenly I could feel her studying me as well. We made eye contact, and she quickly let go and backed away.

"So," she continued from afar. "What're you doing here?"

"Wha … what am I doing here?" My mind suddenly got back on track. "What am I doing here? Isn't this all your fault?"

"Well … yeah." The girl crossed her arms and leaned against the stone wall, turning her head so her long hair flipped over her shoulder. "I mean, I meant to get caught. I was supposed to take the fall for stealing the money, and yet here you are. You must be pretty popular to get blamed for something you had nothing to do with."

"I'm not surprised. Yule's had it out for me ever since I became Urien's slave."

"Yeah, he looked like he was up to something when I first saw him, but this messes up the plan now."

"The plan?" My head was swirling with questions. "Just who are you?"

The girl was silent a moment, clearly contemplating her response.

"Well, I guess I have time to tell you and maybe come up with a new plan." She kicked herself off the wall and ripped through a layer on her shirt. Out popped a small, thin holodisk apparently missed during the quick frisk from the guards. Clever. "I'm a Crux Galaxy bounty hunter here to capture the slave trader Vaughan for crimes against humanity … and other illicit stuff."

Sure enough, Vaughan's image popped up from the holodisk in her hand along with information about him and what I could only assume was a hefty bounty amount.

She continued, "The original plan was to make a ruckus and get caught stealing from one of Vaughan's highest profit-making underlings to flush Vaughan out of hiding. Although I did get caught, the blame was put on you."

"You're after Vaughan? The master of masters? The most protected man on Sola?" Although I wasn't surprised news of his crimes had reached all the way to Crux, the galaxy's central government planet, I wasn't convinced that this girl could capture him.

"You saw him yourself. He doesn't look intimidating at all," she said.

"It doesn't matter what he looks like. The man is rarely above ground, and he's protected by the most famous bodyguard on Sola, the greatest fighter on the planet, the Quwallie."

"So, it's true he only comes topside for the arena challenge? And that his 'famous' bodyguard always participates if there's a public execution?"

It was true, and I realized that thanks to this girl's interference, there was now a public execution planned. Right now would be the perfect time to capture him, when he's exposed on the surface and his bodyguard was the farthest away from him. My faith in her was rising.

"But what was the point of getting yourself captured? Wait … don't tell me … you were going to fight the Quwallie?"

She crossed her arms again, this time with a huff of disdain.

"Looks like I won't be needing to now." She gave me a half-sarcastic, half-true smile. "Thanks for volunteering."

My mouth dropped. That's right; that role fell on me.

"No, no, no, no. Wait!" My voice rose in pitch. "Just tell them the truth! That I had nothing to do with this!" Somehow battling the Quwallie seemed all too real now; it had finally hit me that I would be beaten to death in just a few hours.

"Yeah, I'm sure that'll work out." Her expression changed, and she rummaged through her concealed pockets, finally pulling out what looked like a circular ring the size of my palm. She held it in one hand and kept digging with the other.

"Remember when I shoved that thing in your ear? I don't speak your language; the NAT is the reason we can have this conversation, and sorry to say, but the NATs are rare technology. I don't have a pack on me to shove into more ears just to try to convince your master that a slave who already confessed is innocent. Consider yourself lucky you received such a priceless gift."

I let out a fake laugh. "Yeah, thanks so much for letting me have this conversation with you before sending me to my bloody death."

She paused her rummaging and sighed. "You're not going to die." Her next words were spoken in a softer but serious tone. "I'll look out for you, so you don't have to worry."

I didn't know what she could possibly do, but it made me feel more at ease.

She pursed her lips. "By the way, is your name really Trash?"

"Yes, it is." I sighed, preparing myself for the usual conversation that comes with my name.

"Like … garbage?"

"Yes."

"… or waste?"

"Yes, same meaning," I snapped, trying to get to the point. "Would you like more synonyms?"

She shook her head, barely containing a smile, and her expression changed again as she finally found what she was looking for. "Ah, here you can wear these. I got them off some thug on our last excursion." She finished pulling out five circles made of a thin gray wire. "Put them on," she said as she handed them to me.

"What are they?" I examined them.

She took out five more from a different pocket. "They're sync rings. These have been modified so they shouldn't fry your nervous system." She pointed to the smallest one. "This one connects to your central nervous system, which, in you humans, is ridiculously fragile."

You humans, huh? I didn't know if she caught the subtle surprise on my face or not, but she looked completely human to me. Even though humans weren't the only species on Sola, all the aliens I'd met looked very different from humans. Before I could ask her what she was, she reached over and grabbed my hand. The thin ring opened like a hinge, and she placed my wrist over one half before snapping it shut with a slight pinch; they shrunk and, with a slight burning sensation, disappeared beneath my skin. She let go of my hand, and I rubbed my wrist, feeling the small bump of the bracelet.

"Wait, aren't these illegal? Throughout the entire galaxy?" I asked.

"Yeah, pretty much." She held out her hand for my other wrist. "Next one."

I groaned. "I haven't agreed to anything. Why do I have to help you?"

She frowned. "Would you rather face the Quwallie on your own?"

I thought about the challengers and executions the Quwallie had dealt with over the course of a decade. He'd never lost a battle.

I held out my wrist.

She smiled as she placed the remaining rings around my wrist and ankles. I had a feeling I would absolutely regret everything about this.

"Turn around. This is the one that has to go on your spine. It'll sting a bit."

"How much is a bit? OOOWWW!"

I collapsed to the floor as an intense electric shock spread throughout my entire body. My muscles twitched and tensed before relaxing as the shock finally subsided. I was on my knees, gritting my teeth against the pain when I felt the girl crouch down beside me.

"I didn't break you … did I?" she asked with a small smile. "Because that would really mess up my new plan."

"So far I'm not liking your new plan," I grumbled, getting back up. "Which, by the way, you never told me."

"I'll get to that, but before I forget, take this."

After the dose of pain she'd just presented, I backed away. "What is it?"

"It's just an earpiece, that way we can keep in contact."

I examined the tiny object in her palm, and it appeared harmless, so I picked it up.

"It's not going to crawl into my ear, is it?"

"If it does, that'll be new. Lick it and shove it in your ear." She motioned for me to do so. I followed her instruction and pressed the device on my tongue before sticking it in my ear. It went in deep enough that I felt no one would notice it, but I could still hear everything clearly somehow.

She looked toward the cell door. "They're coming."

"They're coming? Already? Wait! What about the plan?!" My blood pressure spiked.

"Don't worry. You have the earpiece, so we can talk later."

"I don't even know your name!"

The hallway echoed with heavy feet. Moments later there was a loud creak as the door bolt unlatched and opened. A line of guards filed in, barricading the doorway.

"Careful, this one's tricky," said the first guard as he gestured to the girl. "Take him to the arena holding cell," he added, pointing to me.

The girl didn't resist as we were both slammed to the ground. Two of the guards held us down with our stomachs pressed to the floor, and I groaned from the shift in weight pressing on my back. The familiar click of metal cuffs came from behind me, and then we were both lifted up.

They whisked her away in the opposite direction.

The girl looked at me one last time and with a small smile whispered, "Akiko."