Cosmic Dust

“Prepare to die, maggot!”

Rhaiku smashed the ground with his huge hands, the whole room shaking with the impact. ‘How could I be so gullible?’ Dust wondered, still appalled by the turn of events. “Hey, calm down, I didn’t steal anything! It’s just a big misunderstanding!”

“Then what do you say about that!” The marekus pointed down at her.

Looking down, Dust saw a small plastic bag between her legs, holding inside a set of small spheres. ‘You have got to be kidding me...’ she thought.

“You tried to steal my irha, and now I take your life!” he leapt forward, an arm stretching in the pony’s direction. Without thinking twice, Dust rolled to the left, having the charging enemy hit his head on the wall. He turned around with a furious look, steam exhaling from his skin as the water dripping from his body evaporated. With a quick swipe, he sent the pony flying against the wall. She screamed loudly as she felt her shoulder wound opening once more.

Getting on her hooves, she took her time to examine her opponent. ‘He’s a larger version of Koopak, sure, but his size must have hindered his natural agility, otherwise I’d be dead by now. He even seems... tired?’

Rhaiku circled the room, Dust doing the same. The small residential orb hardly qualified as an arena. Sooner or later, he’d get to Dust, and be done with her. ‘What would Mother do? Would she fight? Or flee? She never got in fights to begin with... Jake? What would Jake do? I don’t know that much of him... I know he has a strong mind, stronger than he likes to admit. He can think clearly in difficult moments... Think Dust, think!'

“Enough!” Rhaiku screamed, his stamina recovered. Ending the dance, he leapt once more, he was sure to get the unicorn now if she didn’t move.

Rolling forward, the pony dodged between the marekus’s legs. This time he anticipated, not crash against the wall, but pivoted his hand on the floor, spinning in place, proving that although buff, he was still agile enough to pull such stunt. Rhaiku was ready to charge once more when he saw the bag of irha being sent through the force field. Completely losing focus on his target, he foolishly scrambled on the floor and swam after his drug.

Dust cheered inside for her astuteness, but there was no time for a fanfare. Quickly reaching the door, she extended her body to hold the lever. On another occasion, this would be a trivial problem, but now, hunger and fatigue turned the task into a breathtaking chore. The lever was almost out of her reach, Dust’s hind legs stretched as she grabbed it with her teeth.

“I WILL KILL YOU!” the vibrating voice echoed through the water and into the room. Rhaiku had regained his drugs and was coming back more furious than ever.

‘Pull, you stupid lever, pull!’ The lever shrieked as it slowly pulled down, electric sparks showering Dust’s face, forcing her to close her eyes. ‘PULL!!!’

Ignoring the aching pain in her jaw, Dust moved her head down as hard as she could.

A loud metallic sound echoed in the room, and seemed to last forever. The door had fell down, denying passage to anyone who’d attempt to pass through. Dust let herself fall down, exhausted. An icky feeling ran across her forehead. Opening her eyes, Dust saw green everywhere. Cleaning her face with some of the water nearby, she managed to better examined the floor before her.

She had done it. In front of the door, was Rhaiku, his mouth open wide, ready to cry a scream that was never heard. And somewhere, outside, the rest of his body floated down into the depths of the ocean. The floor, walls, her coat. Everything near the door was stained with the gruesome green of his blood.

“Ugh!” Dust jumped back, resting her back on the wall, skipping in place. “I killed him. Oh Mother, I killed him! What do I do, what do I do?”

Panicking, the pony kicked the lever up, the door retracting into its open position. Grabbing a nearby statuette, she pushed the dead marekus’s head outside with her eyes closed, not daring to meet its terrifying blank stare.

Trust your instincts, and try to do what’s right. I believe you will know what to do.

‘You were wrong Mother. I’m not ready for this. In fact, I’m not sure I ever will be...’ The pony shook her head. ‘Focus! How good of a unicorn are you if you can’t follow the same advices you give away?’ she thought to herself, remembering Jake’s breakdown aboard the Mk. II. Pulling herself up, Dust examined her surroundings.

At the opposite side of the room, a section of the floor in a half-moon shape appeared to be of a softer material than the rest. ‘A bed?’ Dust wondered, thinking if Koopak’s home had anything similar in the sea of trash. ‘Koopak! The sly bastard tricked me good!’

Searching the cabinets, Dust found several tin boxes filled with more irha, which she tossed aside with disgust. Behind them, wrapped in paper, the smell of some type of loaf creeped through. Although subtle, the odor was enough to entice Dust’s senses. Under the wrapping, the loaf revealed itself to be an algae cake of sorts. Weighing the pros and cons of consuming unknown food, she took a small bite.

It tasted salty, but unlike the drug pearls, the feeling of having a full stomach was real. Dust quickly devoured two of the cakes. Immediately she felt her magical energy returning: not enough to cast the simplest of spells, but it was coming back. That alone dismissed the thoughts of the blood splat behind her.

‘Alright Dust, use your smarts for once. How did I get here? Couldn’t have been by swimming, could it? Did Koopak drop me off?’ She trotted around, the increased blood flow contributing to clear her thoughts.

After circling the room a couple of times, she took notice of the oddly placed shelf near the ground holding a group of rock statuettes, each almost the size of a leg. Next to them, stone shards and a portable laser cutter indicated that the pieces were not a product of machines. ‘This marekus is an artisan?’ The image of the large amphibious being carefully crafting the sculptures had her in a chuckle, which quickly faded as she reminded herself of how disrespectful that was. ‘Well, he was an artisan...

Looking closer, she noticed that the sculptures depicted several species, each one different, all standing in a boring, idle position. Besides that, they all shared something more fundamental: they were all humanoids.

The fascination for the detailed work died out when the pony’s gaze made her notice the trapdoor under the shelf. ‘Of course,’ Dust thought. this being a spheric building, it would be a waste to ignore all the space under this flat floor.’

Making it slide with a hoof, the trapdoor gave little to no resistance to being open. A putrid smell followed, her nostrils tingling with the disgusting smell. Following the steps that were revealed below, Dust trailed down the path into the supposed basement. The smell only got stronger, forcing her to cover her nostrils with a hoof.

A motion sensor detected her presence, turning the yellow lights on the division. The room felt like the opposite of the upper floor, the ceiling being flat, and the floor curving down. Dust tripped, and slided all the way to the center of the room.

*CRACK*

Pain flared on her shoulder, the wound which was slowly bleeding now fully open. The cause? Dust would rather not know. Slowly opening her eyes, she saw a bone sticking above her breast.

Her mind took its sweet old time to process the event, and then the second wave of intense pain threw the pony into a spasm of agony. Rolling around, sending bones flying everywhere, Dust attempted to regain her balance on the inclined floor.

“Ow! What the hay! Ouch this hurts so much!” Finally getting up, she pressed a hoof against her wound to stop the bleeding, the stinging pain increasing as time went on. Tears formed in the corners of her eyes. This was just too much. But then she looked forward to see what had injured her.

In the middle of the floor was a pile of bones, scattered randomly in a disgusting mix of white. Gasping, she stepped forward, still shaking with the pain in her shoulder, and took a closer look. Her face went whiter than usual when she saw a deep blue collar wrapped around the necks of every single one of them. Bringing a hoof to her own neck, she felt something harsh in there. ‘I was the next statue on the collection...’

Among the bones, similar skulls stared into nothing, rows of teeth embracing the smile of death. “They are all humanoids... Oh no, Jake!”

Dust turned around and galloped fast up the stairs, ignoring her wound, and stopped in front of the statuette display. After examining every single one of them, she went for the one she tossed around, giving it the same anxiously suspicious look.

Sitting back, feeling exhausted, the pony let out a breath she was holding in relief. ‘No actual humans... thankfully. I need to stop this bleeding, I can’t stay here forever.’ For a moment, what she had done to Rhaiku felt justified. No one this sick in the head deserved the pity she had felt for him.

Slowly invoking tidbits of her magic, Dust wrapped one of the paper wraps around her arm and over her shoulder, pressing the foil inside her wound to force the bleeding to stop.

Adding one plus one, Dust thought to herself: ‘What if...’ Testing her curiosity, she bit on the plastic collar around her neck, and closed her lips tightly around it. Putting her head outside the force field, trying to ignore the puddle below her hooves, she took in a deep breath.

Air seemingly out of nowhere filled her lungs, pleasant for being free of any morbid-related smells. ‘A breather? That explains how I got here... alive. Still doesn’t explain how I made it.’

The web of buildings looked exactly the same as Melchiah, but she couldn’t be sure. No matter where she looked, the whole city seemed to follow the same design pattern. Nearby a pack of mareki stood floating in place, mesmerized at the green cloud dispersing in the water. ‘Buck, I have to get out of here. Alright, think on what-’

“HELLO!”

“AH!” she screamed, water rushing inside her mouth, forcing her to back away and cough. Koopak, who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere, his head peeking from above, displayed his row of threatening teeth with a grin. “Don’t scare me like that!”

Coming inside, he jumped around, splashing water everywhere, his legs becoming tarnished in blood. “You did! You did! You kill big mean marekus! Finally!”

In both of a mix of energy restoration and anger, Dust found enough power to send Koopak against the wall once more, this time with magic, killing his excitement. “You... You drugged me!”

“How would you say yes if I not give irha? All others were same!” he replied, faking optimism in his voice. Unlike last time in Melchiah district’s corridors, Koopak now truly felt fear, as Dust held him in place against the wall without getting close.

“Others?” Dust asked, confused. Her eyes widened as she realized who the skeletons below the floor were. “I’m not sure who was a bigger monster, Rhaiku... or you! You murderer! You sent them all to their death!”

“But little Dust is one who killed, not Koopak!” he refuted, trying to grasp anything to pull himself out of the magical lock.

‘He is right, isn’t he? No matter how I look at it, I was the one who did it. I’m the monster.’

Releasing the magic, the unicorn allowed the marekus to splash in the ground. Koopak drew a sly smile, realizing his talk had taken effect.

Dust trotted off to the statuettes. Seven different ones, each representing a different type of humanoid. How many actual victims met their end in this dome? How long has this atrocity been going? The galaxy is a dangerous place, and Dust knew that very well. Yet the very first day she had been alone, she had already killed someone. ‘How can I even face Jake after this?’

Turning around to face Koopak, who wasted no time to scavenge the shelves, and taking the irha back for himself, she held him in magic and brought him close enough so their eyes would meet. Even though disliking the situation, she had to take something positive from it. “Now you keep your end of the bargain. Bring me to the Big Boss... and tell me where the ship is.”

He nodded responsively. “Okay! Hold on to me!” he said, moving towards the door. Dust complied, not really having a choice.

Having swam back to the commercial core, this time without having to hold her breath, Dust followed the wandering seamonkey between the stands. The floor was way less crowded than before, but trading was still being made.

Dust now saw the area with different eyes. Either by revelation or tainted perception by her recent experience, the place felt terrifying. Who knows what kind of shady business are being made here? Each one of these aliens, what drove them to this unknown outpost underwater? ‘Whatever it is, I’m about to find about it soon.’

On the other side of the expo, the pony climbed a set of steps after Koopak, and then into a tunnel connecting to another building. This one’s walls however were of the same material as the walls of the buildings, keeping pry eyes from spying from outside. The light snakes slid around the tunnel in a spiralling motion, and into the end of the corridor, where they traversed the wall through a small entrance.

There, a cerberus stood guard in front of a closed door. Koopak stopped halfway turning to Dust. “Big Boss behind door, Goodbye!” he said, waving his hand behind his back as he walked away.

“Hey! Wait!” Dust called out, holding one of his arms with magic.

“What?” he drew a ridiculously looking clueless face. “Koopak bring you to Big Boss, was it not deal?”

Dust sighed. “Yes, it was, but it also was a deal for you to show me where the ship is!”

“Little Dust stupid in the head, Big Boss has ship of course!”

“Wha-” Dust’s voice froze, perplexed. ‘Should have seen this one coming.’ Releasing the magical lock, the pony turned her back to him, hoping she would never have to face him again.

The unicorn moved towards the cerberus, examining him on the way. Covered in dark brown fur, he was slightly bigger than a pony. She was, Dust noticed while approaching. Her four, red eyes tracked her movement, the left head being severed from a degenerative disease. The sight brought recent memories Dust was fighting hard to forget. ‘It’s like the universe hates me.’

“Hold it right there!” the voices ordered in unison. “Who are you and what business brings you here?”

‘What? The cerberus talked? But that’s impossible, his species isn’t as intelligent as others!’

“Answer me!” the cerberus pressed on.

She gasped. “Uhhh sure! I am... Kali, and I come here to talk to your superior.” Dust wasn’t sure why she lied, but it felt right not to give them leverage, for whatever reason.

The watchdog circled her, analyzing her in detail. “Mmhhh... Well, you don’t seem to have any weapons, and a little rat like you couldn’t possibly be a trouble to her. Right, go ahead.” She pressed a button next to the door with her paw. Dust slowly walked past her, doing her best to avoid the dog’s ferocious stare.

As soon as she stepped inside, the door slid back into place, and she could swear the cerberus was condescendingly laughing on the other side.

Instead of meeting another small room like Koopak’s or Rhaiku’s, this place was almost as large as the Mk. II.’s hangar back on Earth. Large metal crates hoarded the inside, being moved from one side to another by muscular species. In the open areas, volkars had their hands... bodies full with all sorts of mechanical and electronic contraptions, extending parts of their body to grab nearby tools while repairing machines from the inside.

The snakes’ tunnel ran across the wall and into a nearby room. Considering it to be a place of relevance, Dust walked alongside them. Shivers ran through her body as one of the passing snakes slowed down to stare at her. Being inside the glass tube, it was virtually harmless... yet the sense of uneasiness it caused was very real.

Knocking on the door, she asked: “Big Boss?”

Silence ensued. Was she not around? The idea of waiting outside was making her anxious. Eventually the door slid open, and on the other side, a very different marekus revealed herself to her.

“What are you? What do you want?” she asked blatantly. Being no bigger than Rhaiku, but no smaller than Koopak, Big Boss held an acceptable size for someone in a position of power. A dark green scar dashed across her face, cutting the slimy skin below her eye in the shape of a cross. A cape rested on her back, covering her whole left side. On her waist, a belt holding something Dust easily recognized as a plasma handgun rested in its holster. And unlike her brethren, a patch of greasy black hair sprouted from the top of her head.

“I am Kali,” Dust announced, trying to sound as respectful as possible. “and I need to ask something of you. I was hoping we could negotiate a reasonable deal, if it is good time.”

First looking doubtful, the marekus displayed her shark-like smile. “Of course, business time is always good time. Come on in, step inside.”

Dust obeyed, glad to see things finally going her way. Hopefully she’d soon be able to put this nightmare behind her back.

The walls, covered in screens, surveyed several public areas of the district. Dust froze as the snake that had followed her left the tube that encased it and swirled around the table at the center.

“Don’t worry, it won’t bite...,” Big Boss said, while sitting in a chair behind the table “unless I say so. Please, do come closer. What exactly brings you here?”

‘Very well Dust, chose your words carefully.’ “I’ve known from reliable sources that you recently acquired an alien spacecraft, am I correct? You see, there is a Citadel citizen frozen in criostasis in such spacecraft. I was sent to retrieve him.”

Big Boss kept staring with a blank expression, rubbing her chin as the snake slid over the table and rested its head on her shoulder. “A Citadel citizen you say? That’s a shame. What species is this citizen?”

‘You had to go and ask that?’ “That’s classified, the personnel involved in this mission is being kept to a minimum. The Council wanted to send in their elite forces, the Berserkers, but I, as a diplomat, earned permission to handle the situation without lifting suspicion among Atlantian citizens. Being the one in charge around here, surely you agree.”

Big Boss started coughing, which quickly turned into a loud chuckle. ‘Wasn’t I convincing enough?’ She noticed the snake slithering something in the marekus’s ear.

“Absolutely Ambassador Kali, it is an honor to have you in our land...” she finally broke into a loud laugh. Dust’s eyes kept jumping from the Boss’s face to the gun in her waist, wouldn’t she pull it and kill her on the spot. “I am sorry for my manners, I just couldn’t help it. I am nothing but a humble merchant, just like the other ones outside. I have no legal power over the district, much less the planet!”

“Bu-But my sources...”

“Sources? You mean that poor excuse of a farmer?”

‘What?’

Pulling her cape to the side, Big Boss revealed a robotic arm transplanted all the way to her left shoulder. At the end, instead of a hand, a drill shaped key spined around. With a thump, she inserted it into a lock behind the table. All the screens went black, and then a single video footage played in all of them.

Dust felt the whole world fall under her hooves as the image of her talking with Koopak in his home came into display. “I... I don’t understand-”

“Here is what I don’t understand, Ambassador Kali. Why would someone with your occupation .keep contact with one of my subordinates without my permission?”

“Well, I...”

“You see, that’s the only footage of you I have before what happened earlier today... I have eye witnesses that can confirm you murdered my personal assistant... Had you the decency to even ask his name before you took his life?”

‘Assistant? But... That damn Koopak!’

“Don’t you have anything to say for yourself?” Big Boss questioned, removing the drill key from the interface, the screens resuming their monitoring activity.

Thinking fast, Dust replied. “I wanted to find your office, so I’ve been asking your workers... But, that Rhaiku, he tried to kill me, it was just self-defence! And if you investigate further, you’ll see that he had his own share of skeletons in the closet... quite literally. I was lucky I survived.”

“A shame really.”

“Excuse me?”

“You don’t really know where you are, do you?”

Dust remained unresponsive. Her story was blown, and the alien was rejoicing with this little wordplay. ‘No point hiding it anymore.’

“Worry not about your transport, Ambassador.” she mockingly said, reclining in her chair. “I have people on the lookout for it.”

Dust felt confused. “So, you don’t have it?”

“By the time I personally went to check the sinking wreckage, it was gone. Usually our planetary defence weapons vaporize whichever unauthorized ship that comes in orbit with ease. Most times are Berserkers, trying to infiltrate the city and relay information to the Council.” she snorted a laugh. “Very rarely, they manage to jump before their spacecraft explodes. And then your friend Koopak comes along and sends them on a suicide mission. Eh, I would’ve put an end to it, but Rhaiku enjoyed the sport. I guess it finally got the best of him.”

Dust was shocked by what she was hearing. “S-so all those things in his house belong to... oh Mother.”

“Of course, if he holds valuable technology the situation changes. He’ll pay for Rhaiku.”

Having to get to Jake no matter what, the pony complied. “And what about me?” she finally dared to ask.

The snake launched over the table and wrapped its serpentine body around its prey, squeezing.

“You, yes, what will I do with you... Perhaps I’ll feed you to my little friend here.” she grinned.

Dust cried out of despair, the snake’s tongue caressing her wound through the improvised bandage, tasting blood. Her whole body pulsed with anticipation of the inevitable bite.

“Luckily for you, unlike Rhaiku, I like my specimens... alive.” she snapped her fingers, commanding the snake to let go and re-enter the crawling system. If it wasn’t for Jake, Dust’s magic would be tightly wrapped around the marekus’s neck by now. ‘I have to wait... for the right time to strike.’

Avoiding her gaze, she focused  on one of the screens. The camera, pointing at a stand in the market area, registered an ongoing auction. Big Boss noticed, and with her control-drill, she activated the audio for the particular feed, and zoomed in the image.

The scene taking place repulsed the pony in every possible way. Part of her wanted to start crying again, another wanted to attack everything around her. The stand displayed several small cages, the space between the iron bars covered by an electrical force field designed to shock anyone who dared to touch it. Inside, shaking in fear much like jello, the volkars accepted their inevitable fate.

The marekus conducting the auction approached one of the cages and spoke out to the growing crowd: “... and here we have, just for two thousand credits, or any equivalent in weaponry, a volkar capable of tuning all of your machines with no problem whatsoever! They are small, easily portable, and require almost no subsistence! Come closer, have a...”

Dust’s mouth was wide open. “You... you are slavers!?”

Big Boss brushed her patch of hair. “Now you know where you are.” she let out a laugh, that only added to the terror the pony now felt. “Welcome to Atlantis, hub of the galactic black market.”