Chapter 229: Well Paint Me White and Call Me a Harlequin

Chapter 229: Well Paint Me White and Call Me a Harlequin

Mjrrr huddled in her cage, clutching her son.

Not that long ago, the [email protected] station came under attack, and from what she could tell, it was, in complete defiance of all suspension of disbelief, falling...

...and falling quickly.

Something was tearing the mighty [email protected]'an apart.

How did they get past their massive fleet? This station was in orbit above their very homeworld!

The market was empty save for the slaves themselves, abandoned in their display cages or left shackled along a wall or at one trader's shop or another.

Why would they leave them?

Who were they leaving them to?

A hatch opened from deeper inside the station, and brightly dressed humans with strangely painted faces charged in...

She didn't know much about them. Only that there were a few of them among the unfortunates in this market.

They seemed like a nice people, though. One even shared some food with her son even though he was clearly hungry himself.

She felt hope for the first time in a very long while. She recalled that the human who shared his food said his people hated slavery. Maybe they were liberators?

The humans were shouting and barking in some strange guttural, sibilant, alien-sounding tongue as they moved impossibly quickly across the large market, many leaping, flipping, or cartwheeling as they did so.

Groups ran over to the cages and groups of chained slaves.

They were going to be freed!

She looked over at the nice man who had shared his food and was in the same large cage with her expecting to see joy on his face...

...There was no joy...

only... Terror

Moments later, one of the humans tossed a small cube in front of their cage, which flashed and surrounded them with swirling, glowing holographic walls.

As soon as they were concealed, the human approached her.

He was trembling?

"Ste'hen?" she asked. "What is..."

He touched her arm, a signal to be silent, as he brought his head close to hers.

"Mjrr..." he whispered as he pressed something into her palm.

It was sharp!

She glanced down to see a small piece of... something... ground to an edge... A weapon!

"Ste'hen, what is this?" she asked in alarm. A weapon was grounds for the most severe of punishments. Where did he even get it?

"It's for your boy," he said grimly.

"My boy?" Mjrr whispered in confusion, "He knows not how..."

"It's for you to use on your boy," he whispered. "These people... If this goes bad... You can't let them have him, Mjrr... you just can't..."

He positioned himself between them and the cage door.

"I'll try to hold them up," he whispered, "When I do, grant him mercy."

Mjrr, stunned with confusion, fear, and dismay, just crouched there, pressing the shiv into the fur of her thigh.

"I don't understand," she whispered, her voice shaking, "Are we not being saved?"

"Saved..." Stephen chuckled ruefully, "these people don't save. The Devil has judged the [email protected]'an, and she didn't send her angels... not that they would have been much better, come to think."

He giggled quietly but hysterically.

She looked over at the other human in the large cage, Ste'hen's mate, who was looming in front of the only other child in their cage, a frail-looking Meekxe.

They were preparing to fight?

She knew not how much time had elapsed. Perhaps it was only minutes. Perhaps it was hours.

Suddenly, the "walls" around their cage started to fade as the room was filled with strange, strangely serene, alien music.

As she could once again see beyond the walls of her cage, her heart froze...

It was nightmarish!

It was worse than even what she had beheld when her ship was overrun by the [email protected]'an pirates!

Bodies... of [email protected]’an and other races alike...

Mangled... mutilated...

And not all were dead. Some were still alive, wounded, or captured and begging for mercy.

A single one of these new humans, dressed in white pants stained with splashes of purple, a beautiful glossy red coat with tails, and a fancy hat, approached. She seemed younger(?) than Ste'hen's mate and certainly more... sleek(?).

The most notable thing about her, though, was the way she moved as she silently approached their cage. Each move was exaggerated and "awkward," but yet it wasn't. Her limbs looked as if they were controlled by another as if she was a traditional puppet from her homeland.

She stopped before their cage and performed a deep, sweeping bow seeming to almost fall over before returning to her full height and looking at them with wide open, unblinking eyes.

Mjrr looked at her with horrified awe. She was both one of the prettiest and most terrifying things she had ever seen. Now that she could see it clearly, the human's face was a piece of living art, pure white decorated with vibrant colors exaggerating or concealing her natural features with strange symbols on both cheeks (A very embellished heart on one cheek and an equally intricate diamond on the other).

The only thing that looked out of place was the purple stains around her mouth...

running down her chin...

her neck...

...and staining the beautiful ruffled collar...

Oh, benevolent spirits! Mjrr prayed silently.

She knew what that "purple" was.

The "beautiful doll" standing in front of them smiled, revealing wickedly sharpened teeth very unlike the teeth that the humans she had seen before possessed.

The Harlequin bent forward at the waist almost ninety degrees as she silently stroked her chin, examining them.

She then snapped upright with exaggerated surprise and pointed at Stephen, waving frantically as she made a huge smile, the face paint exaggerating it further.

She then snarled and adopted a wide-legged stance with her fists raised as she bounced back and forth for a few moments before she popped up again and silently mimed human laughter as she clutched her sides.

Wiping an imaginary tear from her cheek, she shook her head and made placating gestures with her hands before falling to her knees, hands raised in a universal sign of begging for mercy.

Stephen's shoulders slumped a little.

She then made a few other, more species-specific gestures that Mjrr didn't understand, and Stephen seemed to relax a little.

She then pointed at Mjrr as she mimed stabbing someone...

and held out her hand.

Mjrr numbly stood, shuffled towards the door, and gave the shiv to the human.

The Harlequin then looked at Stephen's wife and contorted the upper part of her face as she made a strange wiggling motion with her index finger and held out her hand again.

"I don't have anything!" the human cried.

The Harlequin started tapping one of her feet...

and then mimed shoving her fist inside something, grabbing something else, and yanking it out forcefully.

The human female sighed, backed to a corner of the cell, and turned her back...

Moments later, she stepped forward holding a tightly wrapped small item, offering it to the painted young woman...

Who actually spoke.

"Ew."

She pointed at the ground.

The captive human tossed the item where the Harlequin pointed, and then the brightly dressed woman kicked it a surprising distance away.

Then, with surprising clarity, the brightly dressed and painted woman communicated that they were okay, wouldn't be harmed, and they should just wait a little while...This chapter was first shared on the Ñøv€lß1n platform.

All without saying a word...

Then, she crouched down and stared at Mjrr's son!

She beckoned to him, smiling "pleasantly" (and without showing those horrible teeth).

He timidly approached. Every instinct inside Mjrr screamed that she should stop him, that what he was approaching was a dangerous animal, perhaps the most dangerous creature Mjrr had ever or perhaps would ever encounter...

But a more rational voice said that they were entirely at that demon's mercy, and the only thing she would do would be to alienate it...

So, praying with every bit of her soul to every single being she thought might listen, she didn't stop her son.

When he arrived at the wall of the cage, the Harlequin waved.

Her son, eyes wide, waved back.

The Harlequin took off her hat, revealing light silver/brown hair, and shook it soundly, showing the child the inside.

Then she rolled up the sleeve of her jacket and removed her purple-stained white glove, carefully showing the child both sides of her hand.

She then smiled and snapped her fingers.

Mjrr gasped. There was suddenly a brightly wrapped food bar where there was nothing before!

How could it be?!? Were they... magic?

The magical human then tossed the bar from one hand to the other...

And there were TWO bars!!!

She smiled and pointed first to her son and then to the other child in the cage as she gave Mjrr's overjoyed son the bars.

The Harlequin then rose and flipped her hat into the air with her boot...

where it then landed perfectly on her head.

With a skip and a jump, she trotted over to the next cage.

"Nobody touches those bars except for the two kids," Stephen said quietly and gravely, "The Harlequin are showing mercy to us. That can change at any second. If it does..."

He pointed at the horror that they had all been successfully distracted from for a few moments...

***

Not that much later, Mjrr, Stephen, and all the rest of the slaves found themselves being led down a corridor by the same cheerful and bright Harlequin in the red coat, now dancing and skipping along while waving two rods with long holographic ribbons that danced in impossibly complex patterns around her...

"Oh, we will," Grace said with a big grin as she clasped his arm.

She leaned in close.

"You guys can chop ships, right?"

"Oh yeah," the xeno whispered. "We can move just about anything you 'find'."

"Good to know," Grace whispered back and winked.

***

When they returned to the ship, the transport nearly dragging on the ground, they were confronted by a very unhappy captain...

"...Yeah..." Alan winced, "They do that sort of thing..."

"But you said that humans didn't do 'that sort of thing' anymore!" the captain exclaimed.

"Technically," Grace replied, "we said that it 'almost never happened'..."

"Almost?!?"

"...except for the 'absolute worst' of the houses..."

"And the Harlequin are pretty much the worst," Alan added, "well at least in the top five..."

"Yeah, they are real freak shows, the lot of them," Grace said nonchalantly. "I dated one of them once... total psycho. I had to... um... I had to be very firm when I broke it off."

"From what I heard, he was really 'broken up' over the whole thing," he smirked, "completely fell to pieces..."

Grace punched his arm and gave him 'the look'.

The captain and crew didn't notice such subtleties. They were kind of distracted at the moment.

"They say they are going to hunt down everyone who has enslaved or bought a human!!!" the captain stress whistled.

"Yeah," Grace shrugged, "So?"

" We bought a human!!!" the captain whistle-shrieked," Two humans!!!"

"And you then liberated us from slavery and offered some very attractive labor contracts," Alan replied, "What's the big deal?"

"The big deal is that those... flesh eaters... aren't going to know that!" the captain shouted the same way a tea kettle would if you kicked it in the nuts.

"Oh yeah..." Grace laughed, "that might be a problem."

"AAAAAaaaaaAAaaaaaa!!!!" the captain shrieked with horrified, frustrated rage.

Alan sighed and looked at Grace.

"No!" Grace shouted. "No fucking way!"

"We gotta, babe," he replied, "Even if we leave right now, there is a good chance that the eggheads are going to track us down. You know how they can get. If they say they are tracking down all the humans, then that's exactly what they are going to do."

“Fuuuuuuuckkkk...” Grace moaned and facepalmed.

"We gotta make this right," Alan sighed, "If we don't and we aren't here... Do you really want the Harlequin to pay these guys a visit, maybe drop by their colony...where their kids are... You know these guys are edible."

"Wait!" the captain exclaimed, "We're edible?!? When did you know that?!?... Why do you know that?!?"

"Hey," Grace shrugged, "we didn't know if you were nice guys or not when you 'saved' us..."

"So you were going to eat us?!? You said that never happened!!!"

"We said that it 'almost' never happened," Grace said defensively. "How long are you going to keep going on about that?"

"About the fact that you were considering killing and eating us?!?"

"We never seriously considered that," Alan said smoothly, "We hadn't really even figured out how to take the ship when it became pretty damn clear that you were okay dudes, and we wanted to be a part of this."

"And we weren't going to eat you..." Grace said, "...unless it was going to be a long trip..."

"What?!?"

"Nothing!" Grace smiled innocently.

"Can you please let the whole 'cannibalism' thing go... please!" Alan exclaimed.

"I'm finding that rather difficult at the moment!" the captain tea kettled.

"Would it help if I said that I would have felt bad about it?"

"No!!!"

Alan facepalmed.

"Look, Captain..." Alan sighed, "We found out how great you guys are pretty damn quick," he said earnestly, "we never maliciously planned to do anything to you, not really..."

"Not really?!?"

“(sigh)... It's just that..."

Alan pondered things for a moment.

“This world... galaxy I mean... It's not a nice place, and not nice things happen because of a lot of not nice people. We wanted to believe that we found a nice place and that you were nice people, good people..."

"We really did," Grace said without her usual swagger.

"As long as you were exactly what you said you were," Alan continued, "we were never going to do anything other than fulfill our contracts and do exactly what we have been doing. Since you are some of those rare few good people in this messed up galaxy, you had absolutely nothing to worry about from us."

"Yeah..." Grace said earnestly, "we really like you guys... We..."

She looked down.

"We want to stay," she said quietly. "We want to try to build a life here, with you guys, just a quiet little life where we can fix ships and pick through scrap."

"If you don't trust us anymore," Alan said, "and you want us to leave, we will. We would hate it, but we will. We'll be just fine..."

He looked at the captain with a very serious expression.

"But, regardless of your decision," he said, "we'll clear up things with the humans, so you don't have to worry."

"We know a guy..." Grace said as she smiled.

"At least let us fix up your ship before you make us go, huh?" Alan said hopefully.

The captain stood there and pondered things.

They needed these humans. It wasn't a matter of want. They needed their skills.

They were so very close to failing, and if they did, they would become slaves themselves... if they were lucky.

Ruin on one side and humans on the other...

Great Heap, give me warmth...

***

Grace and Alan twisted nervously before the grim-faced grey-haired man wearing a charcoal grey business suit who looked disdainfully at them from thousands of light years away.

"You actually were captured and sold as slaves?" he asked in a perfectly calm, even voice.

Alan squeaked.

"Well, any concerns about us dragging you back are now completely unfounded," the man replied in the same professional tone.

His attention turned to a very nervous feather duster trying not to wiggle behind the pair.

"And you are the one who purchased them?"

"He is... sir..." Alan stammered.

"Slaves do not speak until they are spoken to," the grey-haired man said as Alan's soul perished, "Captain, Vexp is it?"

"Y-yes... shirp?" Captain Vexp said, trying to use the human word.

The human smiled.

"Such honorifics are unnecessary between free men," he smiled, causing both Alan and Grace to shrink even further. "You can call me Quinn. I am a representative of the Forsaken and empowered to speak on behalf of them and on the behalf of Jessica Morgan, a name you perhaps have heard recently?"

The captain nodded nervously.

"The... Harlequin... are one of the houses who serve her... and the Forsaken, of course," Quinn smiled. "Word of humans being victimized in your region of space reached us, and the decision was made to take decisive action to discourage these abuses in the future. It seems that they are doing the job that they are known for. Have you seen one of their little 'shows' yet?"

"N-no... Quinn."

"I would advise against it," Quinn said with a thin smile. "Please rest assured that they are not representative of a typical human nor represent the... spirit... of the Forsaken as a whole. You will find us very reasonable and easy to deal with as long as our people or our interests are not threatened."

He looked at Alan and Grace.

"These two are also not representative of us," he said coolly, "They are willing slaves. I would advise against believing that is the norm. The next human you 'save' could very well slaughter you all before they realize that you are actually offering (scoff) an employment contract."

Grace looked like she was about to throw up.

"I will never buy another human again!" Captain Vexp cried.

"That would be exceedingly wise," Quinn smiled. "Normally, I would insist that you bring the humans someplace where we could separate them from you for physical examination and questioning to ensure they aren't being coerced or otherwise influenced, but I know the boy and have some capacity to detect things from here..."

He does?!? Vexp silently gasped.

"Your slaves can give you the details concerning that," Quinn smiled. "Oh, I know they are no longer officially slaves. I know what they are. But from where I'm sitting, there is little difference where those two are concerned. I would rather just file this under 'birth defects' and move on. There is no need to expose our embarrassment to the Harlequin."

He looked at Grace, who wanted to melt and ooze under something dark.

"I have spoken with your people as well, and they believe the same," he smiled, "In fact, they do not even wish to speak with you."

Grace made a strangled noise.

"From what we understand you... eloped..." he hissed. "Obviously, none of us is pleased with this one bit but considering that neither of you are members of our families anymore, the personal affairs of 'slaves' is no concern of ours. You want to run off and get married? Fine. Both of you choose a new last name, email it to the Forsaken omnibus for registration, and never call upon us again. Do you understand?"

Both Grace and Alan nodded.

"Captain Vexp," Quinn said with a much more pleasant tone. "I wish you well in all of your future endeavors. Can we count you as a friend of humanity?"

"A-absolutely!"

"Splendid," Quinn smiled, "and we consider you a friend of ours as well. We may have liberated slaves looking for work, actual work. If your people are as fair as these two labor contractors claim that you are, there may be others who wish a similar deal. As long as you treat them fairly, and by that, I mean as you specify in your contract, we will have no problem with you. Humans do not need to be treated gently or with any undue preference. Work them until they drop if you wish. We are actually pretty good at that sort of thing. Just don't abuse the contract or treat them to any cruel, unsafe, or otherwise unexpected environments. I have a very low opinion of the two you currently own, but they can provide guidance... and supervision... should the need arise."

"T-thank you... Quinn..." Captain Vexp replied, "But I think... I think I need a break from humans for a bit... at least until I find out how these two turn out."

"Probably for the best," Quinn smiled. "They can get you in touch with the right people should you desire. Any questions or concerns before I terminate this call?"

The captain's plume twitched nervously.

"Actually," he said cautiously, "I do. H-how common is... is... humans... I mean, how often do you... actually... um..."

"Eat other sapient races, including our own?" Quinn chuckled.

Captain Vexp nodded.

"Oh, it hardly ever happens," Quinn replied politely as he terminated the call.