“Bigger than it seems, even when you’re inside,” Mae agreed as the cab arrived and the doors opened, revealing a black and gold marbled interior with gold trim that undoubtedly cost a fortune.

  I stepped into the cab. The soft carpeting felt pretty nice under my feet. The door closed, and the elevator carried us down to the seventh floor, the doors opening to a long corridor appointed with more rich carpeting. The walls were lined with photographs and holograms that, as we progressed down the hallway, seemed to tell Usari’s family history. I was surprised to see that it dated back to a farm on Earth in the eighteen hundreds, the old sepia image crumpled and slightly torn.

  “Where did Mister Usari get these photos?” I asked, trying to get a look at everything while Mae kept a brisk pace down the corridor. “The ones from Earth?”

  Mae stopped walking and spun around, nearly causing a collision. “How do you know they’re from Earth?” she asked.

  My heart immediately started racing. “Uh…I mean…it’s obvious, isn't it? Unless those are reproductions, the technology used to print the photos is way too primitive to be from anywhere else.”

  Mae smiled. “Are you an aficionado of Earth history, Mister Hondo?”

  “You could say that,” I replied.

  “That’s another thing you and Carl have in common.” She spun around and we continued walking. “Did you know that there are ships from the Spiral visiting Earth on a regular basis?”

  “What?” I slowed enough that Kine bumped into me from behind. When I glanced at him, he backed up a step and nodded an apology before I looked back at Mae, who'd again stopped, waiting for Meg and me. “I had no idea. I didn’t think any ships had that kind of range.”

  “Yeah,” Meg agreed. “That’s unbelievable.”

  “It’s impressive for sure,” Mae agreed. “Royal Sentries have the range, but of course the Empress isn’t going to send her ships all the way to Earth. What would be the benefit of that? Mister Usari funded research that enabled smaller vessels to make the crossing, with the sole intent of procuring family relics. He burned half his fortune for a few photographs.”

  “And those ships make regular visits?” I asked. “How do they avoid detection?”

  “Earth’s sensing equipment is woefully primitive,” Mae replied. “It’s not difficult.”

  I fought the urge to let my mouth fall open in astonishment before following her around a corner and through a relative maze of additional hallways. We reached yet another unassuming door at the end of the last corridor. Kine and Malo stopped following us when we closed within twenty feet of it, and as we arrived, the door swung open.

  Carlton Usari stood right behind it, his sharp blue eyes immediately meeting mine. Barely five feet tall, he had a round face, a thick graying beard, and a long, pointed nose. He wore a Hugh Hefner-esque robe over a button down shirt exposing the top half of his barrel chest and a pair of wrinkled black pants. His feet were bare, his toes curled into the thick carpeting. I instantly compared him to a sloppy, elfin santa, though the gruffness of his expression would have kept even the most gregarious kid from getting anywhere near his lap.

  “Jack,” he said in a voice too soft to have come from his mini-lumberjack body. “Pixie. Love that name, by the way. Get in here.”

  Meg and I glanced at one another in response to his command. I didn’t really appreciate the order, but we didn’t have much choice other than to follow his instructions. We wound up standing only a foot away from him. Meg, being on the small side herself, only stood maybe an inch taller than him. I towered over him by almost a foot, putting the top of his head even with my chest. The way he stared at my pecs as though he could see the fractals etched into my skin beneath my clothing made me strangely uncomfortable. I felt intimidated by the man even though I had every advantage in size and strength. Plus, I had sigeltech and Shaq.

  “Mae, close the door,” he barked without shifting his attention. “Jack, Pixie, and I have some things to discuss.”

  “Of course, sir,” Mae replied. She must have used a neural link to close the door. It slammed shut behind us without her touching it.

  “Mister Usari, it’s an honor to meet you,” I said, fighting through my nerves to throw out the pleasantries. “I can’t tell you how much I—”

  “Blah, blah, blah,” Usari grunted. “Skip the bullshit, Jack. It bores me.” He turned away from me to look at Meg. “Come have a drink, darlin’.” Not an invitation. An order. He spun away from us, crossing to a full bar setup near the center of the room.

  Large and open, the room appeared as though Usari spent the vast majority of his time here. A massive transparency created the wall at the far end, jutting out past the cliffside by at least five feet. The waves crashed up and over it, keeping it constantly drenched, but also creating an incredible atmosphere of beauty and power.

  A desk sat off to one side of the transparency. At least a dozen slabs were stacked on top of the right side of it. A large display sat directly in the center. Around it, the desk was littered with food wrappers, tissues, and other discarded bits of personal rubish that should have gone into the empty trash can beside the desk. In the corner, three separate assemblers—each probably with its own specialty—waited for instruction. Beside them, was an unpartitioned toilet and shower. Either Usari had no shame or he rarely let anyone else into this room.

  Ahead of the bar, closer to us, sat a sofa, recliner and a few sidetables, with a projector mounted overhead. The walls were lined with photographs and holograms similar to those in the corridor, while other Earthian relics occupied display cases placed randomly around the room.

  “This is some collection you have, Mister Usari,” I said, eying an old-west style revolver mounted in one of the cases with some bullets and what appeared to be a cheap plastic sheriff’s badge. “Mae told me you’re into Earthian history.”

  “She did tell you that,” he said matter-of-factly as he poured a light blue drink into three shot glasses. “The interesting thing about collecting from Earth is that there are two distinct periods of antiquity that are totally out of whack. Take that revolver in that case there. It came to the Spiral on the colony ship that left Earth. It’s over two thousand years old by carbon dating. But on Earth it won’t be made for another two centuries or so. Meanwhile, that sword there is five hundred years old by carbon dating and by its real production date.”

  “That is pretty amazing,” Meg said, sincerely.

  Usari carried over all three shots, balancing two in one hand. He passed the first to Meg. “What really gets me going is trying to piece it all together. The past and the future. To fill in the gap. Drink it, Pixie.”

  She hesitated. “I’m not sure I sh—”

  “You want my sponsorship, you drink the groting drink.”

  “Mister Usari,” I said, trying to distract him.

  He turned to me, still not looking up at my face. “You too," he said, handing me one of the shot glasses. "I won’t make a deal with anyone unless we’ve shared a drink.”

  “I won’t make a deal with anyone until I’ve looked them in the eyes,” I replied.

  Usari laughed. “You’re not in charge of these negotiations, Hondo. You do what I say, or you get nothing.” He pushed the shot toward me again. “I couldn’t look up at you if I tried. My top few vertebrae are fused. The result of a genetic defect.”

  I cringed at the statement, suddenly feeling like shit for judging him. I seemed to have a knack for misplacing my trust and goodwill. "My apologies."

  After I accepted the drink, he held up his glass. “To what could perhaps be the most incredible business deal ever made.”

  That seemed a bit over the top, but I wasn’t about to argue with him. “I’ll drink to that,” I said, clinking his glass. Meg followed my lead, all of us downing our drinks at the same time. It tasted better than I expected, kind of like Mountain Dew with fruity notes, but with a lot more bite.

  “Mae told me you wanted to hear about how I came to be in possession of Starbright,” I said, the drink still warm in my throat.

  “Don’t tell me about that,” he replied. “Tell me how you fly with one arm. Tell me how you lost the use of it. I can see you have it wrapped in a sling.”

  “A genetic abnormality,” I replied without missing a beat. Of course I’d prepared a backstory. “The muscles and everything are fine, but the signals from my brain aren’t making it through. I’ve been losing strength for a couple of years, then just last month I lost movement entirely.”

  “I have scientists on staff. Once we finalize our agreement, they’ll work on your problem.”

  “I appreciate that,” I replied, even though I had no intention of letting his people near my body. “But I’m quite adept at using one arm and the voice controls.”

  “I looked up your name on the roster of hop racers registered with the intergalactic racing committee. It doesn’t look like you’ve ever raced professionally before.”

  “I never said I had.”

  “Yet you came to me for sponsorship. A relative nobody.”

  “And you agreed to see me. I’m sure you had a reason.”

  “I did,” he agreed, glancing at Meg. I looked over at her too. Her eyes had glassed over, and she looked unsteady.

  “Pixie?” I said. “Are you okay?”

  She slowly turned her head toward me. “I don’t—” She collapsed before she could finish the sentence.

  “Pixie!” I shouted, turning to kneel beside her.

  “She’s fine,” Usari said. “It’s only a sedative. It’ll keep her out of action for a few hours, and she’ll forget everything that’s happened in the last hour or so, but that’s all. You should be starting to feel the effects by now too.”

  “You spiked the drink?” I asked. “How totally cliche. Let me guess, you’ve built up an immunity to iocane powder.”

  “Iocane? Never heard of it. The drug I did give you isn’t a powder, it’s a liquid,” he replied. “And I didn’t need to build up an immunity. I’m naturally immune.” He couldn’t look up at me, so he stared quizzically at my chest. “She’s lighter than you, but not by much. You’re fatigued. You must be.”

  Restore would cancel out any ill effects from any kind of poison Usari had tried to give me. But of course, he didn’t know that. “Not really.” I activated my construct. “And I don’t appreciate being drugged.” I pulled him to me, grabbing him by the neck and enhancing my strength enough to lift him to eye level. “What were you planning to do with us?”

  “Not much, actually,” he replied. “Just keep you out of the way for a little while longer.” He smiled, our eyes meeting for the first time. “I know who you are, Benjamin Murdock.”

  “Then you know what I can do to you,” I replied.

  “Perhaps. But you don’t know what I can do to you.”

  Before I could even begin to wonder what he meant, a spike jutted out from his chest and stabbed me. The clear, solid weapon passed easily through my protective shirt and tore into my flesh.

  Worse, it went right through the outer edge of my construct, disrupting the entire design.

  The outcome was pain. Excruciating pain. I let out a primal scream unlike any I’d ever unleashed before. It felt as though the spike was ripping out my soul, as every blood cell containing the luminescent blue of chaos energy took the hit. I lost control of enhance, my grip on Usari growing weak. The spike slid out of my body as I dropped the man to the floor.

  Shaq launched from his hiding place and landed on Usari’s face, biting him harshly on the nose. Usari swatted him off as he backpedaled away from me. Even in my agony I couldn’t help but notice that the Shaq attack hadn’t drawn any blood. Usari also didn’t drop dead.

  He wasn’t only immune to the drink’s sedative. He was immune to Shaq’s venom too.

  Not human after all. Not even close.

  CHAPTER 38

  “Blorb?” I managed to growl through gritted teeth.

  “Not exactly,” he replied, his body morphing into the menacing jelly of an Aleal, complete with barbed tendrils like a mini-Blorb. He lunged at me, appendages whipping.

  I tried to push them away, which was stupid. With the construct broken, I couldn’t use any of my sigils. Only restore remained intact, the center of the construct rather than an interconnected fractal. Could it heal the damage mini-Blorb had just caused? It would need to heal fresh damage too.

  The tendrils ripped at my arms, but didn’t manage to punch through my coat on the first try. I backpedaled, trying to get away from the Aleal and failing badly until Shaq returned to the fight. He twisted around the tendrils the mini-Blob sent his way and landed on its central mass, his claws ripping into the gelatinous matter. Unfortunately, it served only as a distraction, the mini-Blorb leaving me to focus on Shaq. Its body changed shape to stab at Shaq, the jagger dancing over the Aleal’s body, keeping him occupied.

  Alter told me once that if I could hit the darker mass in an Aleal's body that it would either kill or severely disable it. To that end, my eyes darted to each of the display cases, searching for something I could use as a weapon. My gaze landed on the revolver. I would have to pause to load the weapon, and I’d never fired a six-shooter before. There was the sword, but I was equally inexperienced with that as well.

  A quick look back showed mini-Blorb still desperately trying to stab Shaq. I decided to go for the gun, ramming the display case with my shoulder and knocking off the glass top. It landed with a soft thud on the thick carpet. I picked up the revolver and pushed on the cylinder, trying to force it open. The mechanism seemed to have rusted shut. I slammed it into the side of the case, finally getting it to pop open. That noise however drew the mini-Blorb’s attention, and it charged me, Shaq still on its back. His sharp claws lopped off one of the creature's tendrils, and then another, forcing the thing to slow and deal with him. I grabbed the bullets and slipped them into the cylinder chambers as fast as I could with one hand.

  Shaq let out a high-pitched shriek as one of the mini-Blorb’s tendrils caught him across the cheek, drawing blood and sending him tumbling to the carpet. When it rushed at me, I was ready. I aimed and fired, the first two rounds tearing clean through the creature's gelatin mass without hitting the dark spot. The mini-Blorb howled its rage and swung its tendrils at me. One dug through my coat and anchored itself in my sling. The mini-Blorb pulled the tendril tight, unleashing more tendrils and lashing at my face as it pulled me toward it. Tendrils pummeled my face, slicing my cheeks all the way to the bone. Gritting through the pain, I held onto the revolver and waited. At point-blank range, I squeezed the trigger a third time.

  I couldn't miss. The round tore through the creature's dark mass, blowing it's body wide open. The mini-Blorb deflated like a popped balloon, its barbs sliding from my coat before it plopped on the floor, a gooey puddle.

  I hit my comm badge with the butt of the revolver. “Matt!”

  “Ben,” he replied, hearing the desperation in my voice. “What’s wrong?”

  “Usari’s an Aleal. He’s working with Blorb. He knocked out Meg and disrupted my construct. I need you down here, right now!”

  “I’m on my way,” he replied.

  Of course, it wasn’t over. I was certain Mae had heard the gunshots, and she didn’t disappoint. The door swung open and she stepped in, flanked by Kine and Malo. They stopped in their tracks as I swung the revolver toward them. Shaq landed on my shoulder, ready for round two.

  Mae’s eyes darted to the mini-Blorb’s lump on the floor. Kine and Malo glared at me accusingly, their eyes filled with rage. I had a bad feeling these three were also Aleal, which meant I couldn’t shoot them until I knew where their vitals were hidden inside their shells. Not to mention, I only had three bullets left. My aim would need to be perfect.

  “Ben,” Matt said. “If Usari works for Blorb, and Succaath and Sedaya are both looking for Hiro, that means—”

  “Blorb is double-crossing Sedaya,” I finished, that revelation hitting me like an asteroid. If I wasn’t in such deep shit, I would have been laughing my ass off at the turn of events. “He kidnapped Hiro, and odds are, the prince is here somewhere.”

  “Yeah, that’s exactly what I was going to say,” Matt agreed.

  “Where’s Hiro?” I growled at Mae.

  “Safe,” she replied. “From Sedaya. From Succaath. From you.”

  She and the morons at her back hadn’t attacked us right away. But why not? Matt was incoming. Given enough time, I’d have serious reinforcements.

  Did they have reinforcements too? All I could do was hope Matt would get here first.

  “That was smart,” I said. “All of your bullshit about how we might be waiting a while to speak to Usari so that when I didn’t check in with my team nobody would get suspicious. I guess you figured I’d be unconscious before I could call for help. But if you knew who I was, why did you think your poison would work on me?”

  “We tested it on Gilded,” Mae answered. “We even gave the liar a dose to confirm its effectiveness, though he had no idea. I don’t understand why it didn’t work on you.”

  “The liar. You mean Sedaya?”

  “Who else? He promised us everything, and gave us nothing.”

  “Yeah, that sounds about right. What kind of everything are you talking about? Maybe we can make a deal. I know a little bit about your kind.”

  “You know nothing,” Mae snapped, confirming that she was like Alter and Blorb. “Unless you’re willing to help us become the dominant species in this galaxy, there is no deal.”

  “I don’t get it. Alter told me Aleal are peaceful. That you live in an interconnected community and that you aren’t even spacefaring. How do you go from that to total domination?”

  “Your question only proves that you know nothing about us. You hold onto the belief that because our base existence is primitive, then our needs, goals, and desires remain primitive. The one you called Alter was no help in that regard. Its desires were so basic, so pathetic. It lived as a slave among you. Disgusting. The liar thinks all of us are the same. But he’ll discover soon enough who the superior life form is. You all will.”