Verak was large planet in a small solar system in the middle of Innerspace. It’s hot, dry, mostly sand, and halfway to uninhabitable; at least, according to the PIC strapped to my left wrist.

  In my opinion, 55% Compatibility was far too high.

  We had flown Secrecy, one of the Silent Sister’s spellskites down to the capital of Verak, leaving the mothership hanging in low orbit.

  The PIC unit, strapped to my wrist, told me the Capital’s name, but it was a clunky group of consonants that my tongue had never been able to reproduce. We had almost missed it flying in, despite its size,as the buildings blended in with the terrain<> It was a claustrophobic collection of rounded sandstone buildings crammed together at awkward angles. The entire city was surrounded by an outcropping of sandstone wall rising slowly from a sandstone plain.

  We put the Secrecy down on a landing pad pocket in a small pocket in the inner wall and disembarked. We covered the slim two-man craft with an old battered tarp.

  The trek to our destination was slow because of the hazardous terrain<>. The rounded houses of the city were all built on flat stone slabs, but no two were level with any other<>. Winding stairways and ramps connected every platform, carved into the curve of the bedrock. <> I thought it looked messy from above, but boots-on-ground showed that it was worse than I had thought.

  Fortunately, my ruby-quartz goggles were keeping sand out of my eyes. The thick scarf I had wrapped around my face was doing a worse job against the constant, biting sandstorm. My tongue was dry, my gums felt gritty, and I knew the sandpaper feeling at the back of my throat would persist for a half-cycle at least.

  The smallest consolation was that Noboro, beside me, looked just as miserable as I felt. His wide feline face still showed a wounded look of surprise at the abrasive weather and made the normally frightening visage of the Silent Sister’s head of security look more comical than anything else.

  If it were up to me we wouldn’t take jobs from places like Verak. I didn’t even want to be here. Unfortunately Verak always had jobs, and I wasn’t in charge, Captain was. It would have been nice if Noboro-who could wrestle a wyvern solo- could handle Verak pickups himself.

  But, he had a personality as rough and abrasive as Verak’s sandstorms. So off I went, trekking across this dustball of a planet.

  Noboro stopped me with a grunt. “Jax. Hold.” He paused and consulted the PIC on his own wrist—a flat, black model, slim as the blade sheathed at his hip.

  We were walking through the empty courtyard off a large building that could have been a mansion or a meeting hall of some sort. It had small windows of near-opaque glass and the frame of a grand doorway.

  Noboro’s primary eyelids were fully open, showing his icy blue irises, only a little cloudy beneath his inner lids. I almost laughed when I saw that sand had collected in little drifts, clumping around the membranous edges of his eyes.

  I rested against the low courtyard wall while I waited. The top was smooth. Everything in this city was smooth. Any points or hard edges had long since been worn down by the wind and constant sand. I stared up at the flat grey sky that felt like it was pressing down on everything.

  The city was silent but for the howling winds. The Sandstorm had kept most of the population indoors and out of the heat, and I had hardly seen anybody since leaving the spellskite, though I had seen some shadowed movement behind the thick glass cubes that served as windows around here.

  I felt a drop of sweat run down the back of my neck, cold as a snow-lake against my hot skin. I was beginning to feel a little dizzy in the heat. It was late afternoon and the twin suns, which hung low in the sky, had left the city radiating heat like a freshly baked spud.

  “Jax,” Noboro grunted my name again, through his tightly pressed, licorice-black, lips. I felt the urge to laugh again. We both knew trying to keep the sand out at this point was futile.

  “Jax. Come.” The beastman turned and leapt gracefully over the nearest courtyard wall, muscles rippling under his dull white fur as he disappeared downwards to a level below.

  I scowled at where he had disappeared. Did he just expect me to follow him over that drop? Sometimes, I thought, Noboro must forget that not everyone had the agility and grace of a beastman.

  I peeked over the edge to see Noboro waiting in the entrance of a tunnel three and a half metres below. There was no way I was going to jump down there.

  But if you break your legs, Noboro gets to carry you back, and explain what happened to Captain. That brought a smile to my face.

  “Jax,” Noboro said, dragging my name out. He was starting to sound angry now.

  I scanned the area, hoping for an easier path, but buildings lined the sides of the small ravine, a tunnel at either end. However, where the courtyard wall met ground directly above the tunnel entrance and the waiting Noboro, was a small ridge.

  The hard way it would have to be.

  I grabbed the wall that Noboro had jumped and stepped over. I tried to stand on the ledge, but my drake-scale boots were too wide and they found no purchase. Instead I tensed my muscles and lowered myself until I was stretched out in midair. I needed to go lower.

  Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

  Ignoring protests from my muscles, I released a hand and slid it down to grasp the ledge, resting all my weight on one arm. Sweat ran down my nose, the stone hot. Now came the moment of truth.

  I let go of the wall, sliding my second hand down to the ledge. My grip held for a moment, then my fingers, cramping on the smooth stone failed, my right hand came free, and my stomach flipped as I dangled by one hand.

  Noboro’s massive paw grabbed me by the back of my duster and plucked me from the air. He nearly sent me tumbling off my feet and I had to flail my arms like a dying bird to avoid falling.

  “Jax!” Noboro snapped, “You are no spider and I have not the time to watch you pretend.”

  I looked up at him, a strong retort forming, but saw his lips were peeled back to reveal his thick, sharp teeth, each as long as one of my fingers. His brows were knitted together like a crumpled rug in a fierce look that convinced me to hold my tongue.

  I pointed a hand towards the tunnel, entrance limned by the fading suns, and tried to speak. My voice stumbled over all the sand in my throat and I ended up coughing instead. I cleared my throat, coughed again, then said, my voice cracked and sore, “Lead on then.”

  ~~~~~~~~~

  As chaotic as the houses and ramps that scattered the surface were, the tunnels that stretched every which way under the city were even worse. Honestly, I wasn’t quite sure how the top layer didn’t just collapse down upon itself.

  My boots rasped across the gritty floor as we walked. The sand was everywhere down here, deep pools of it in every hollow and depression of the stone.

  I raised a hand to my goggles and twisted a lens. In a blink the tunnels had gone from shades of a slightly reddish-black to light grey. Captain had gifted me the goggles to make up for my exceedingly poor eyesight, bad even as a child. They didn’t just magnify my vision, however, Captain had added quite a few additional modes.

  The walls of the tunnel were slightly rough down here, not scoured smooth like above. Occasionally the walls were broken up with more glass block windows, and carved suggestions of doors.

  Noboro led me down a series of tunnels that rose and fell and twisted around who-knew-what in the bedrock. His eyes were glued to his PIC trying to navigate the crazy maze of these tunnels. I followed him with my head down. I really disliked being underground.

  After what felt like a quarter cycle, Noboro finally stopped in front of a door that looked just like every other door we had passed. He rolled his shoulders, then he shook. Sand showering from his mane and bare back. I scowled and stepped back from him.

  Could’ve warned me I thought.

  Raising his large arm, Noboro knocked three times, then paused, then knocked twice more. We waited. Eventually, with a low sound like a mortar and pestle, the door slid inwards and to the side.

  I watched the door as it opened, and came face to face with a local. A squat alien with a wiry beard that had the luster and shine of steel wool. His beard poked out from the cowl of a beige robe that hid everything else other than his hands, which were wide and muscular and each as big as his chest.

  The ceiling was so low that Noboro and I had to lean down to enter. On either side of the room, open passageways led off into darkness. The back wall was covered with a curtain, one of the few examples of fabric other than their clothes that I had seen on this planet.

  Another figure, dressed much the same, but taller and thinner than the doorkeeper, sat slumped on a stool in the middle of the room. Looking up as we came in, he greeted us in a voice as harsh as a sandstorm.

  I slipped a hand into my jacket as nonchalant as can be, resting it on the hilt of my pistol. Theoretically, things would go peacefully, they were hiring us afterall. But I had been on the rotten end of deals before.

  The figure on the stool sat up straighter as we approached. A human. I was surprised to see that a human would actually choose to live on Verak.

  “Who’re you?” he asked, gaze shifting between the two of us.

  Noboro huffed with enough force for his lips to flap, “I am Noboro, third of his name, we are here on business for the Silent Sister. Relinquish your package.”

  The man blinked and ran his tongue over his teeth. He was middle aged, his chin was bare, and his eyes were set deep in the thick shelf of his brow.

  “Silent Sister, you say?” The man looked up nervously at Noboro and down at the sword on his hip.

  I understood his nervousness. But, I also knew it wasn’t the sword he should be afraid of. In fact, I had never seen Noboro draw his blade. What I had seen, was Noboro rip apart men and monsters with his claws…

  It was time for a gentler hand in this parlay. I stepped forward.

  “Yes sir, we are from the Sister.” I put all the charm I could muster into my best smile. My hand came off the butt of my pistol and I used it to adjust a series of small knobs on my PIC. I flipped through menus quickly, making the screen flicker. Once I found what I was looking for, I held out my arm and showed the man the pickup order we had received.

  The man stared at the screen so long I wondered if he was literate, but he finally nodded and got to his feet. Shooting one more distrustful glance at Noboro, he pulled back the curtain at the back of the room, to reveal a series of stacked alcoves. He rooted around for several breaths before pulling out a black wrapped, rectangular package held tightly by ratchet straps.

  He held it awkwardly and just stared at us until I got the message and stepped forward to retrieve it. The package was surprisingly heavy for its size.

  The man walked past us and sat back on his stool, hard, his unease palpable.

  “Get it there safely,” he said.

  “Of course sir. That’s what we do,” I said as Noboro unrolled a large padded canvas bag from his hip.

  “And… and like the contract says, it is to remain sealed.” His hands were twitching like he wanted to take the package back.

  I smiled even wider. “Of course sir, we wouldn’t ever consider it.”

  Noboro held out his canvas bag for me. I took it and placed the heavy package inside. After sealing it, I slid the straps over my shoulders and adjusted until it was comfortable.

  “And it must arrive soon,” the man said, like he was trying to convince himself.

  I nod. “Of course sir, we have all the details in the pickup order. Please don’t worry, we’re professionals.”

  ~~~~~~~~~

  By the time Noboro and I made it back to the Secrecy, the heat had faded with the suns and the winds had died. Between them, they had left behind scoured drifts of sand and a biting cold.

  I slid into the slim spellskite’s backseat, over the folded wings, strapping the Merchandise down beside me as Noboro brought the ship to quietly humming life. Leaning back in my chair, I rolled my shoulders, trying to loosen them now that I had put down all that weight. Rocks. The package must be filled with rocks for it to be so heavy. I didn’t have any more time to consider the contents before Noboro gunned the engines and we lifted off the sandy, sorry rock that was Verak.

  Ten minutes later, we had left the dusty ground far behind and broke through the outer atmosphere. In front of us, the Silent Sister hung in the dark expanse of space like a mahogany teardrop. Its bubble glimmering in the reflected light of the suns.

  I smiled, finally able to breathe freely again now that we were off the confining world. Soon we would dock, and shortly after that, the Silent Sister would skip through realmspace and punch through the veil. Before long we would be back in Innerspace.

  I couldn’t wait. Feral dragons were less trouble than all that sand below us.