Chameleon in Chrome Ch. 06

They made it in and did manage to hover it around and set down. As the outer doors closed, Ryan set the craft down on its skids and shut down the engines after starting one of the auxiliary power units so that they'd have a little power and stay warm inside.

"Well," he smiled, "here we are. We just have to wait for the bay to warm up enough to get out – it ought to take about half a day."

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The deal for the Rhenium was cut the day after that, and Ryan stood outside the craft in the cold while they were off-loaded.

"Keep something in mind," he told the foreman of the handler droids, "The quantity has been verified and the funds have been transferred. What's here already belongs to the metals outfit, so if one of your mechs here buggers off with a packet, you're not stealing it from me, your stealing it from your bosses."

"Keep your shirt on, pal," the burly loadmaster grunted, "We're bonded for this."

Ryan nodded, "I know and I believe in that about as much as I believe in the tooth fairy – pal. Why the fuck do you think that your employers are paying for all of these armed cops to watch you and not me?

No tooth fairies for them when they go to sleep either, I guess."

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Finding that there was a group of surgeons on Nanworth who had a practise there to make money on the normal and fairly regular mishaps which occurred on almost any trading post, Ryan waved a little of his newfound wealth at them and Shorty's wing was repaired two days later.

Taela and Ryan were there at the small hospital the whole time, waiting.

Shorty was told that he was not to attempt any sort of flight for at least a week, and he didn't mind it much, though he was a little impatient to get the wrappings off by the end of it.

But his first hopping tries in the cold of the bay told them all that he'd finally be able to fly properly.

He was so happy that he cried for most of a day after that. Whenever he wasn't crying, he was outside in the service bay for as long as he could take the cold, flying with his eyes squinted down against the bright lighting.

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"I want to go outside and see some of this place, "Taela said a few hours later, "We've been here for a little while and I am beginning to feel like I live in a cage."

Ryan nodded, "I know. I feel the same way myself. But I have to hang around to take care of things a little longer, like my back pay and there's the inquiry about the loss of the freighter and, ... Christ a ton of things I have to do. Can you wait for another day, Taela? I want to go too, but, ..."

Taela slipped into a bit of a mood then, "It's alright, Ryan. I'm sure that I'll be able to find my way just fine on my own."

Ryan tried to caution her, though he knew that with the slightest wrong move here –

"It's not like I'm a child," she said in the exact tone that Ryan had been a little afraid to hear from her. It meant that she was going and there was nothing that could change her mind. He tried once again, especially about the kinds of places and people that facilities like Nanworth tended to attract, but by then, it only got her back up. He sighed and held up a set-value card that he'd gotten for her to shop with.

Taela walked past him on the way to the door, taking it from his fingers as she went, "I won't spend much," she said, "I still want to go with you, but since you haven't got time for me ..."

And then she was gone.

Shorty was concerned and Ryan was about to tell him that no matter what happened, that he was to remain on the craft and that as soon as he could, Ryan would look for her. "You need to let that wing heal a little more to get strong. She'll be ok, Shorty."

And of course, that was when he was reminded about the inquiry and Ryan had to leave himself then.

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The inquiry went off fairly quickly, though it was a little sticky at some points. There was an individual there who was paid to ask the pointed questions, but Ryan kept his cool when it was suggested that he had been the murderer.

He produced the recorded traffic which had passed between him and Mandy. It was something that he'd always done, just in case he had to prove what he'd been commanded to do by a superior, though in this one case, it was of far greater importance than just needing it to prove that a screw-up in load handling hadn't been his fault.

He had it all in its entirety from the recorder plugged into his suit and as well from the shuttle's communication equipment once he'd gotten inside it near the end. His wondering about Mandy wanting to know where his cryo chamber was left the board with the same wondering doubts that he'd had all along.

"We conclude that the deep-space pilot, Amanda Berkov, had some sort of falling out with Flight Commander Harris. One of them then committed the murders, and our assumption is that it was Ms. Berkov, given her obvious desire to leave you behind and continue on alone. Where is the shuttle now?"

"The last time that I saw it, it was oxidizing peacefully on a rocky plateau, about a mile and a half walk from where the ship came to rest and burned," Ryan replied, "I found Ms. Berkov's remains, some of them, in what was left of the command portion of the ship. Her oxidation was faster.

I used the fuel cells from the shuttle to power my craft for my return here as well as the contents of two of the fuel tanks which had not ruptured on impact. I am prepared to reimburse the company for what I used."

But they waved it off, saying that the value had already been recouped from the insurance and that a man trying to return from something as horrific as what Ryan had gone through ought not to be concerned with anything other than what any other person might do in order to save himself if he found a way to do it.

They tried to ask about the planet where he'd been, having heard that there was likely at least one sizable deposit of Rhenium there. Ryan smiled and told them that he'd registered a claim on the whole thing.

"We can talk about it if you'd like," he said, "but I hold all of the mineral rights. It's not inside anyone's territorial zone, and if past history counts for anything, then it belongs to Morgaron. Do you wish to contact them and ask about it?"

"How do you know that? "the pointed question guy snapped.

Ryan laughed in his face, "Do you think that I flew here flapping my arms all the way? Have you seen what I rode in on? I found a Morgaron strike fighter and made it flightworthy. From what I know, there was a whole squadron of them there long before me."

He leaned across the table toward the man, "Or are you about to suggest that I killed all eighty-odd Morgarods single-handedly as well?"

That ended the inquiry.

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Ryan came back to the present then, still upset, still worried for both of them, and still quietly pissed off at the cop.

He heard a soft alert from the security console.

Ryan looked over at a display as a feed from the craft's security system flashed on. Underneath the ranked threat warnings, there were four feeds from cameras on different parts of the exterior of the hull which were capable of seeing in that direction to varying degrees. He moved them over to one of the larger displays and peered.

Taela was coming back with Shorty and another person. That other person was a little engaged in looking concerned for the other two, sometimes reaching out to steady Taela a little. He got to his feet and began to walk back.

As the narrow ramp whined down, he stared as they came through the clouds of water vapor.

Shorty was holding his head.

Taela was crying a little.

As they came aboard, Ryan was prepared to thank the stranger for whatever assistance she'd provided and get rid of her, but it soon became apparent that it might not be the best idea.

With Taela and Shorty sitting down where he could get a better look at them, Taela told him what had occurred and what the stranger had done. He tried to arrange her upset and slightly slurred words into something which might play through his mind and it wasn't working.

He looked over at the newcomer and he was a little struck by her appearance. She looked something very generally like Shorty though she was an inch or so taller, and she had the sort of mane that male screechers might grow, though her skin appeared very human-like in texture.

She was a little pale-looking and her hair was jet black with a very pronounced widow's peak visible on her forehead. Ryan had never seen anyone with the feature this pronounced. It went most of the way to the line of her eyebrows.

Her eyes were rather strange in their appearance to him as well, since her irises were a light gray – almost white, and her pupils were black vertical slits. He tried to ignore the slightly smeared blood on her face, since it didn't appear to be hers in any way.

Other than that, she looked rather human to him, until her saw her clawed feet and hands. When she turned to see if Taela was alright, Ryan noticed – well, he couldn't help it, really – that she had a tail and wings which must be larger than Shorty's for the height that they reached above her head, almost towering over her from behind.

That's when he noticed something else. She stood a little taller than Shorty, but it was only because of her longer wings.

She stood with her feet a little flexed quite naturally, and that gave her the slight height increase as far as he could tell. He guessed that she had to do that or they'd drag on the ground, almost being there as it was. When he mentally subtracted for the effect, he guessed that she must be about the same height as Shorty or very nearly so.

"This is my friend, Mischka," Taela said, "She helped us, Shorty and me. There were something called vampires in one of the places where we were and they wouldn't let us leave at the same time when other people were trying to throw us out. One of them attacked me from behind in front of everybody, but Mischka killed him.

Ryan looked over and then he thought that as weird as this sounded, ...

He held out his hand, "I'm Ryan McCallum. Can you please tell me what happened? I'm afraid I'm not getting a lot of this."

He was very surprised and a little relieved to find that she spoke clear English.

She looked at his hand and for the briefest moment, Ryan though that she'd ignore the gesture, but she reached out and shook it for a second, "Mischka Myers," she said, "I guess I can try to tell it. Have you got a First Aid kit? They've both got a few cuts and scrapes."

"Not much of one yet, "Ryan frowned, "I'll get some water heated in a second and I've got a few clean cloths.

Pardon my asking, but, ... I'm afraid I've never, ..."

"I'm what they call a vampire around here," Mischka said, "I'm one of the things that everybody here is terrified of. I'm a little different from the others, I guess."

Ryan looked a little confused then, "I've never seen somebody like you, Mischka, so please allow me a little uh, stupidity and tell yourself that I'm probably too dumb to really know better, but as it was explained to me, the vampires around here were all very dark and, ... well, you look a little pale for what I was told."

She shrugged, "I've never seen any of the others change colors the way that I can, but I'm normally the same color and I've found that along with my other features, I scare the crap out of people even more. I'm not pretty then, not with my eyes and mouth and the rest of me.

I'd kill to be able to have lovely dark brown skin like Taela, but it's not possible. So I can look, ... " she rolled her eyes, "like I need to be under a sun lamp. I can't help it and I know that I look like a piece of paper like this, but it saves always freaking people out when I show up to dance.

Among other things, I'm a dancer.

It takes a little conscious effort most of the time, though. If I'm feeling anything other than calm, like angry, or frightened – or especially, well, ... horny, then it goes by the boards and I look like somebody's bad dream."

"No you don't," Taela said, shaking her head, "You only look farther from human that way because of your light eyes. I saw you that way first, when you killed the one who was trying to pull me away. I liked the way that you looked then, Mischka, so don't say you look like a nightmare."

"Thanks," Mischka smiled, though in her view there was at least a little alcohol talking. "But that's to you, Taela, and not in the eyes of a human – any kind of human."

When Ryan carried over the bowl of water a few minutes later, Mischka set to work cleaning the cuts. "I work in a few places down in the 'commerce section'", she said, "I have to work a few jobs to pay off somebody who's leaning on me. She makes sure that I'll never get it all paid off, but I try because I really haven't got much of a choice.

Anyway, the place where this happened is a strip joint and I'm one of the dancers there. I usually hang around squatting up in the rafters and ceiling beams until it's time for my act. It's the only spot in the place where I'm not always having to peel some asshole's hands off me.

If I grab the guy's hand and snarl at him, I get shit for scaring off the customers, so I go where they can't follow me.

I guess it just shows how fucked-up this place can get. Almost nobody will speak to me. A lot of people are afraid of me – downright scared. But they come to watch the lesbian vampire dance naked for them.

I was supposed to do a dance set on stage with another girl, kind of a girl on girl thing, only she didn't show. I didn't know it then, but Taela here already had a few drinks into her and she wandered onto the stage and stood there. The DJ must have thought that she was a new dancer for my act so he cranked the music and Taela started to dance in the lights.

I didn't know what was going on, but I looked at the clock and it was time for my act, so I figured that they'd gotten me a new partner. I was pissed over it, but that's the kind that the asshole manager is. It's just the sort of thing that he'd do, but I need the money so I dropped down and landed next to her and just started.

Now that I think about it, it was pretty funny. It took Taela a little while to figure out what I was trying to do with her and then she started telling me that she didn't like girls.

I told her that I don't either, but it's how I make my money, so we danced."

Mischka rolled her eyes with a chuckle, "And then, ... Shorty showed up.

I could see that Taela was surprised and happy to see Shorty and they just hugged right there on the lighted stage for a second and then he started trying to dance too – only he doesn't know how. I figured that out about three seconds later.

By the end of the first song, we were all having a lot of fun just dancing a little naughtily, though some of the men watching were getting loud because they wanted to see some fem stuff, so I uh, .. got down on my knees for Taela, who still kept on telling me that she didn't want to play with a girl. She'd back away still dancing while I chased her on my knees, trying to get her to at least hold still for me.

The bouncers got into it then and they were trying to hustle these two out of the place. I just took off for the ceiling again, trying to figure out what the hell was happening. From up there, I saw that there were three vampires following and I knew that as soon as the bouncers threw Taela and Shorty out that they'd probably get killed.

I didn't know Taela and Shorty from anybody, but I knew that they wouldn't be up for that kind of fight not knowing anything at all going in, so I took off and dropped down onto the closest one. I ghosted him and the others buggered off and I got your friends here out of the place and back here before the cops showed."

She looked down for a moment, "This whole place is the butthole of the universe. That person I mentioned who's extorting me? She's one of the cops, and knowing her, she'll charge me with the murder of the same kind of 'perceived threat to public safety' that everybody wants to see killed off, me as well."

She looked at Ryan a little uncomfortably, but she needed to ask, not having another option at the moment, "Look, uh, Ryan. I know that you probably don't like me for what I am either, but, ... well, I didn't have time to think things through when it happened since these two were about to need some big help in a hurry.

But I can't go home – at least not now," she said as she dabbed at a cut over Shorty's eye. "Is there a way that you could let me stay here for a couple of days? You're not in any danger from me. I don't know what you've heard or anything. I don't drink blood, though I could, I guess."

There was a pause and just as Mischka was about to tell him to forget it, thinking that the silence indicated a 'no', both Ryan and Taela began to speak, trying to tell her that she could stay.

"How did you uh, kill the other vampire?" Ryan asked once Mischka understood.

"I ripped him," Mischka said quietly, "You oughta just leave it there. Is there somewhere that I can wash my face? I must look like, ..."

He pointed her to the shower, "I guess I have to ask this, so don't think I'm um, prying, but why are you ..."

She shrugged, "My wings. I can't really wear much in the way of human clothing. I wear a skirt sometimes, but my tail sticks out a little no matter what and it makes my ass look weird. I can wear pants, but it gets uncomfortable for the same reason – and my ass looks even stranger then. About the best I can do if it's cold is to wear pants, a wrap of warm cloth over my boobs and wear my cloak over that – all of which I left at the club.

I used to have a couple of halter tops that tied up at the back of my neck and on my back below where my wings are, but, ... well, I haven't got much to my name these days.

I thought we were going someplace warmer since they're naked too," she said indicating Shorty and Taela.

"They're like that so they can hide if they want to," Ryan answered for Taela, "They can just sort of disappear, though really, it's just the way that their bodies can mimic some of what's around them."

He got up from where he'd been sitting, "I've got a clean flightsuit that you – "

Mischka shook her head, "My wings."

Ryan nodded and looked down, thinking.

He shrugged, "I've got a poncho – naw, that's out too and it's not warm anyway.

Alright, I'll give you a couple of blankets. You can wrap one around your waist, and I'm sure that Taela can help you to get the other one wound around your top half somehow so you don't catch cold. I'll turn up the heat a little as well. Go and have a shower, Mischka. That'll warm you a bit, but it can't be a long one, I'm afraid."

"I know," she smiled, feeling surprised and thankful, "I know how it is on these things. I used to be in the military."

Ryan's eyebrows met his hairline right then, "Really?"

She nodded, "Yeah, just another of my failed attempts to fit in. If you're bright, come from an old military family, are fit, and most especially if you're human, they've got a job for you. I didn't meet all of the criteria. Pretty much all that I had was my Dad's last name and that I was in good shape so I passed the physical.

He got stranded on a rock where things like me live. I can't imagine how it could have happened, but he and my mother, ... well, here I am, so to speak.

While he lived, he was a good father to my brother and me, but if I think about it, it was only a matter of time before somebody got to him. It happened when he got caught outside at night when I was a teenager. We didn't find much of him the next morning, though we all searched for him all night.