Alex awoke suddenly when he heard a rustle coming from outside the room he’d refurbished into a bedroom.

It was early evening on Avalon and Alex had closed the bar to continue his refurbishments. Unfortunately, he’d over exerted himself and had decided to lie down for a nap.

Cautiously, he slid himself from his bed and reached for the cane leaning up against the wall and the sharp knife on his bedside table.

Slowly, he crept from the room, peering out into the tavern area to find someone rustling about behind the bar. The sound of the rain outside seemed to mask his unsteady footprints, because whoever the stranger was, they gave no indications that they heard him coming.

He held the knife at the ready.

“Who are you?” He snapped, stepping into the room.

The intruder let off a startled yelp, followed by a thunk as they hit their head on the underside of the bar.

A head popped up and Alex was startled to see his intrusive “guest” was a woman.

She looked to be late teens or early twenties, with tanned skin and curly dark brown hair that hung just above her shoulders. Her eyes were green and she wore a scowl on her face as she peevishly rubbed the back of her head where she’d bumped it.

“Slag it all, old man.” The young woman grumbled. “You about scared me half to death.”

Alex’s eyes widened when he realized she was speaking homebred Archavian- though it was strangely accented- rather than the version native to Avalon.

“I scared you?! Who are you and what are you doing in my bar?” Alex snapped, voice laden with suspicion. “…And I am not that old! I’m barely twenty-seven… at least I think I am, anyway. Hard to tell anymore.”

The young woman snorted, leaning back against the bar with her arms crossed over her chest. “Twenty-seven’s pretty old by my reckon, I’m not even four myself.”

“You’re from Archavia.” Alex confirmed. “But that doesn’t explain who you are or why you’re here.”

“M’name’s Shaar.” The young woman said. “I’m here to do a little work on your place. A friend sent me. The purple haired one.”

“Purple hair…?” Alex’s eyes narrowed. “Pryvani?”

“That’s her.” Shaar shrugged. “Called up a friend of mine. Asked us to do a little work for her. Said the fact I was a human would be a big help. Oh, speaking of… D’you mind if I get out from behind here, or are you going to stab me?”

“What?” Alex looked down at the knife, still clenched in his hand. “Oh. No. Go ahead.”

“Thanks.” The young woman hopped over the bar and landed on the other side. She reached into a large duffle bag that Alex hadn’t noticed before and withdrew a metallic disk that had roughly the area of a manhole cover.

“What are you actually here to do?” Alex asked as he watched her set the disk on the ground.

“Well… it’s easier if I let her explain it. There’s lots of technical type stuff involved.” Shaar shrugged and touched a button on the side of the device. The disk suddenly lit up and a holographic image flickered to life. This didn’t surprise Alex, as he’d seen holograms plenty of times. What surprised him was he didn’t recognize the woman whose image suddenly appeared.

If her hologram was proportionate, than the Titan before them was fairly short. She had curly red hair and gold eyes that were wide with amusement. The grin on her face was a mile wide.

“Hi!” The redheaded woman chirped cheerfully. “My name’s Myona.”

“And what, exactly, are you two here to do?” Alex asked. “Why did Pryvani send you?”

“You didn’t tell him?” The hologram asked, her eyebrows rose as she turned to look at Shaar.

“Nah. Figured I’d let you do all the techno-babbly stuff, plus I wanted to see how many times I could get him to ask before he got mad.”

“And why wouldn’t I be mad?” Alex retorted. “You did break into my bar!”

“You broke in?” Myona asked. Her voice sounded more curious than angry.

The young human shrugged. “He was asleep. I figured I’d be in and out no problem.”

“You can’t just barge in though.” Alex retorted.

“Sure I can.” Shaar asked, confused. “I do it all the time.”

Without another word, she bent down and began removing electronic components and tools from her bag, Leaving Alex shaking his head, resignedly.

Myona giggled. “Well, anyway…” She turned to face Alex. “As I said before, my name is Myona, and I’m a holographics engineer. Your friend Pryvani asked us if we could install some holographic emitters here in your bar.”

Alex blinked. “Oh.”

There was really only one reason for Pryvani, or anybody really, to want to put holographic emitters in his bar. Somebody who was a titan wanted to be able to talk to him without causing another panic attack (either in him or the city) And the list of titans who would go to this length to have a word with him personally was fairly short.

The thought made Alex’s heart thump in his chest.

“She could have told me this.” Alex muttered.

“She could?” Myona asked. “How?”

Alex scratched his head. “I… well… hmm.” It was a fair point. He didn’t exactly have a datapad lying around, and she wouldn’t be able to knock on his door for a chat.

“Say wait a minute…” Alex suddenly rounded on the two women. “How do I know you both are who you say you are? It’s not like Pryvani isn’t well known, or anything.”

Shaar rolled her eyes with a snort, but Myona nodded. “Okay. I suppose that’s a fair point. Hold on a second, give me five minutes.”

The hologram winked out and Alex was left alone with the strange young woman named Shaar again.

His hand found the hilt of his knife again, but he kept it down by his side.

The minutes passed by agonizingly slowly, as Alex watched Shaar work nonchalantly in front of him. Finally, the holographic projector flared back to life and Myona’s image reappeared.

“Pryvani says to mention ‘the watermelon incident.’” The young redhead’s brow quirked quizzically, but she didn’t ask beyond that.

Alex felt his face go hot, but he put the knife on the bar top. “Right. Uh… okay then. I guess you’re really who you say you are…”

* * *

“M’lord,” Yvenna Mirendy said, “I ask to call Pryvani Tarsuss to the stand as a hostile witness.”

“I challenge!” Hurassen yelled, leaping out of his seat. “There is no chance we’re going to allow this.”

“Your challenge is accepted. Ms. Mirendy, there’s no chance I’m going to allow that over a defense challenge.”

“Of course, m’lord,” Yvenna said, coolly. “In that case, we ask to subpoena the following individuals to testify. Pria, Brinn; Mavoy, Zara; Dande, Taron; Selil, Kharee; Tam-”

“May I ask why Ms. Mirendy suddenly wishes to depose every member of my client’s Avalonian staff?” Hurassen interrupted.

“I’m wondering the same thing, counselor,” the judicator said.

“Simple, m’lord. We have heard a great deal of testimony that the defendant’s focus has been on Avalon, not her company. We wish to establish this fact. We do not have many questions, but if Lady Tarsuss will not testify….”

“M’lord,” Hurassen said, “may I ask for recess, so I may consult with my client?”

“By all means, Mr. Bass. We stand in recess for ten minutes. You may use conference one.”

Hurassen led Pryvani over to one of the two rooms located off the main courtroom; he closed the door, and hit two buttons on his pad, causing it to briefly emit an electronic whine.

“I’m not under any illusions that will stop them from listening in,” he said, “but they’ll expect us to at least try to block snooping. What do you think?”

Pryvani looked down for a moment. “Things on Avalon are very dicey right now. I’m not comfortable pulling every member of my Titan staff away. Not because the Avalonians can’t handle it, at least not with Alex and Nick around to help, but because it leaves it open for my mother to cause mischief.”

“That could give us the proof we need, you know.”

“The Avalonians have paid too high a price already for my mother’s treachery. I won’t have them pay another credit.”

Hurassen nodded. “We could ask that the court reconvene on Avalon for this testimony.”

“And bring my mother to Avalon with it. No, thank you. I’ll testify.”

“You’re sure?”

“I am,” Pryvani said.

“Thought you’d say that. I’m going to ask that they restrict their questioning to Avalon. Most important thing for you to remember is that you need to stick with that. I’ll challenge questions that stray from Avalon, but if you start discussing other topics; that will open the floodgates.”

“I understand.”

Ten minutes later, Pryvani was seated in the witness stand, facing Yvenna Mirendy.

“Can you state your name, please?” Yvenna said, unctuously.

“Pryvani Tarsuss, G.E., O.T.E.,” Pryvani said.

“Sen. Tarsuss, I have just a few questions to ask. First, isn’t it true that you believe humans to be the full equal of Titans, Dunnermac, Ler, and Avartle?”

“Challenge, m’lord!”

“Denied.”

Pryvani swallowed, and gazed evenly at Yvenna. “All I know,” she said, “is that there certainly seem to be a lot of very smart humans out there. Like the professor at Tannhauser Gate, Niall…whassisname…you know, the human? Anyhow, he’s supposed to be brilliant, as smart as any Titan you’ve ever met, so I mean, I don’t know, seems like he’s equal to Titans, and if he is, who else might be?”

“So that’s a yes?”

“Sure, I suppose,” Pryvani said. “I mean, I remember there was a time we didn’t think Dunnermacs were smart, and that’s just crazy. Why couldn’t we be wrong about humans?”

“So you think all the humans on Avalon are the equal of Titans.”

“They’ve built cities, all by themselves; I think that’s pretty interesting.”

Yvenna rolled her eyes. She had enough experience with Syon to know that Pryvani wouldn’t give up an own goal. But she also had enough experience with Syon to try a different tack.

“There was, according to rumors, an outbreak of a disease on Avalon, not long ago. According to records, you started spending corporate resources to treat it, only to be stopped by the lawsuit we’re dealing with today. How much would you have spent to keep those humans alive, knowing that you could simply replace the dead with pets at a fraction of the cost?”

Pryvani smiled. “You know, Yvenna, the funny thing is, you stopped by Valhalla just before that broke out, and you didn’t even stop to say hello! I mean, that’s rude.”

Mirendy blinked. “Lady Tarsuss, I asked a question.”

“I know. And first, I mean, those humans on Avalon have been there for generations. They’ve been cared for by the Tarsuss family for, like, a thousand years. They can’t be replaced, ‘cause they come from Earth. So, I mean, yeah, I would have spent corporate resources on them, like my family has been for a long, long time.”

“Is there any amount you wouldn’t have paid to care for them? Would you have bankrupted your company to save them?”

“Wow. I mean…that would be a lot of money,” Pryvani said, and there was a mild chuckle from the gallery. “I mean…if it was that hard to treat, I’d worry it would cross over to Titans. I mean, can you imagine if the disease that was affecting humans started to hurt Titans? I mean, that would be awful.”

Yvenna took a deep breath. “Now, it’s not just money you’ve spent on Avalon. You’ve also entrusted them with corporate secrets. You stored the Gateway Project prototype among the humans, allowing Trell Pria to steal it with ease. Isn’t that true?”

“Trell tried to steal it,” Pryvani said, “but we caught her.”

“Still, she nearly got away. Who would she have sold it to? The Insectoids? The Drazari?”

“I don’t know,” Pryvani said. “Do you?”

Yvenna smiled in spite of herself. Pryvani’s façade was a bit different than Syon’s, but the cold steel behind it was remarkably similar.

“Lady Tarsuss, you care very deeply about the future of Avalon, don’t you?”

“Well, of course. I mean, it’s part of my family’s legacy.”

“And you’ve put a great deal of energy into maintaining it, while letting corporate underlings run Tarsuss Corporation.”

“I think they’re doing a good job. Why wouldn’t I let them run things if we’re making money?”

“But you have to admit, over the past year, you have focused on Avalon more than the company. We have records of where you’ve been over the past year – plaintiff exhibit beth-ishaytan-tef, m’lord – and you’ve spent over ten months on Avalon, not to mention time spent traveling to Titan Station to purchase animals for the planet.”

“Avalon’s my home,” Pryvani said.

“But the Tarsuss Corporation is headquartered here. How can you manage it effectively if you aren’t here?”

“I make calls on my pad,” Pryvani said. “And look at the computer and vids.”

“But you aren’t hands-on. You aren’t managing. And that’s your job, as president of the Tarsuss Corporation. That’s part of your family’s legacy, too.”

“Challenge,” Hurassen said. “M’lord, we’re straying from Avalon.”

“Agreed. Ms. Mirendy?”

“I have no further questions,” Yvenna said.

“Your witness, counsel.”

“I reserve the right to recall Sen. Tarsuss during our part of the trial,” Hurassen said.

“Very well. The witness is dismissed.”

Pryvani stepped down, and walked back to her seat. She caught her mother’s smirk out of the corner of her eye.

* * *

Sam sat despondently in the carrying case. He’d won his latest bout with minimal injuries, but he couldn’t enjoy the fleeting sense of victory. He felt a deep dread in the pit of his stomach because the Titan carrying him- who was not Yvenna- had taken a different turn than the path that led back to Syon Fand’s office. This, to Sam’s mind, meant only one thing:

He had a “client.”

The young man shuddered with revulsion at the thought that he was soon going to have to perform for the twisted entertainment of one of these enormous beings.

He didn’t have long to contemplate it, however, because before he knew it they were standing in front of a massive door.

The Titan carrying him pressed the call button. After several minutes of waiting the door opened and Sam could see the figure of a woman standing in the doorway.

Well, at least it wasn’t as bad as it could be.

“About time you got here.” The high pitched voice snapped peevishly. “I’ve been waiting for ages.”

“Apologies ma’am.” The titan carrying Sam demurred.

“Whatever.” The Titaness growled, snatching Sam’s cage and turning to go back into her room. The door hissed shut behind her.

Suddenly, the ride became a lot smoother for Sam. He watched as the impressively sized room passed by. He was carried over to a small table and set onto the surface. With a snap the lid on his cage was removed.

The titan who carried him slowly, and gently, tilted the container over until it lay on its side, with the opening now in front of him.

“It’s okay, Mr. Rodriguez. You can come out, I won’t harm you.” The massive voice said from outside. Her voice sounded different, however, the pitch had deepened into a pleasant alto sound, and the demanding tone was gone. She almost sounded… respectful.

Figuring he had nothing to lose, and knowing she could just drag him out anyway; he stepped out of the cage and onto the table top.

He looked up at the giant alien and found her smiling down on him, reassuringly. She was pretty, with blonde locks cascading down the side of her face and her orange colored eyes- though unusual by Sam’s standards- seemed friendly enough.

“Would you care for some clothing, Mr. Rodriguez?” She asked lowering her palm to the table and showing him a plain red shirt and- wonders never cease- a pair of blue jeans. “I hope they fit, human sizes are hard for me to judge, but you look like you’re about the same size as a friend of mine.”

“What’s going on here?” Sam asked, even as he picked up the shirt and pants and pulled them on. Both were a little tight, but it was better than being naked.

The giantess sighed. “I know you have little reason to trust Titans, Mr. Rodriguez, and even less reason to trust me specifically, but you should know first off that I’m not going to harm you. I’m here to help. My name is Rixie Tam and I’m actually a big fan of yours.”

Sam stiffened and his eyes widened in horror.

The Titaness frowned. “What did I say?”

“Nothing.” Sam muttered clearing his throat. “It’s just that you’re not the first Titan to claim to be a ‘big fan’ of mine.”

The Titan looked down at him, brow creased in confusion, before comprehension dawned and she nodded her understanding.

“I see.” She smiled. “Then perhaps it would be better to say that someone I care for, a human like you, is a big fan of yours.”

Sam blinked. “A human?”

“Yes.” The Titaness replied. “His name is Alex, and he’s from Earth. He was abducted the same time you were.”

“There were others?” Sam gasped. “Not just me?”

“Yes, unfortunately.” Rixie sighed.

“I’m betting none of the others are being forced to fight for their lives for the amusement of Titans.” Sam muttered bitterly.

“No, not any of the ones I’ve met so far, anyway.” Rixie responded sadly. “But, I’m here to get you away from that.”

“What?”

“You won’t have to fight again, Sam. I’m here to smuggle you away from here.” Rixie explained.

“And then what? Because from what I understand, going back to Earth is out of the question.” Sam responded skeptically. “Am I going to be someone’s pet?”

“Not at all.” Rixie assured him. “I know a place where you can go, a civilization with humans that are free.”

For a moment, Sam was tempted, but then he shook his head. “I… I can’t.”

Rixie didn’t respond at first. She was sure she’d misheard him. “Wait, what?”

“Look, I appreciate the offer… Rixie… And under normal circumstances I would have jumped at the chance to get out of here. Even if you were lying, it can’t really be much worse than where I already am…”

“But…?” Rixie prompted.

“But I made a promise to a friend. She needs my help.”

Rixie shook her head in confusion. “I don’t understand.”

“Her name is Renna.” Sam explained. “She’s the only Titan that was ever remotely nice to me, until you. But she’s up to her eyeballs in debt and… I told her to bet on me. She doesn’t know what actually happens to me. I think she thinks they have us race or something. If she knew, she’d never have agreed to it but… She needs my help.”

There was a moment of silence as Rixie tried to process what she’d just heard. Of all the reactions to her intention to free Sam, refusal hadn’t been one of them. She couldn’t help but marvel at the resiliency of humans. Sam had every reason to consign her entire species to the void, and yet he was willing to put his life in danger to help a titan.

“I see.” Rixie nodded, a small smile on her face. “I must say I’m not sure I would make the same choice in your place, but I can respect your conviction nonetheless.”

“Yeah well, I’m still not sure I’m not crazy, lady.” Sam muttered with a shrug.

Rixie smiled. “At any rate, I hadn’t intended to still be here by this point, having planned to be smuggling you out of here… but your minder won’t be along for another few hours. So why don’t you just relax, Mr. Rodriguez… and enjoy being a person again… at least for as long as I have you.”

“Please.” Sam shrugged. “Call me Sam.”