“Trell, word just came from the orbital platform, the research team has just departed and will be arriving in Landing Bay Three momentarily.”
Trell sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. Research teams were fairly common on Avalon, most of the time they were mining prospectors or industrial surveyors that came through to inspect the planet they were orbiting for various resources. Occasionally they were zoologists wanting to take a look at the wildlife they were forbidden to study closely on Earth.
“Acknowledged. I’m on my way.”
Most of the time, they came to Avalon, conducted their business and left without any sort of interruption to the day-to-day routine. This time, however, Pryvani was very insistent that Trell, personally, be the one to meet this new team. A part of her wanted to blow off having to “welcome” the research team to Avalon, but she knew that she was at a very delicate place in her operation and the slightest red flag could blow the whole thing.
So she pasted her best fake smile onto her face and left her office, wanting to get this annoyance out of the way as soon as she could.
After a short walk, she reached the Landing Bay and used her security pass to open the door. Through the door was one of the open-air landing platform that was used by the orbit-to-ground shuttles bring people down from the orbital platform.
She arrived just in time to see the sleek silver vessel touch down on the platform and, with a hiss of escaping air, open its doors and lower a disembarking platform.
Trell hurried over as the first man disembarked. She stepped forward and greeted him.
“Hello, and welcome to Avalon. My name is Trell and I’ve been sent by Pryvani Tarsuss to personally see to it that your needs are adequately met.”
The young man smiled and Trell couldn’t help but notice how handsome he was. It took all her effort but she managed to keep a stupid smile and a blush off her face.
“It’s nice to meet you, miss.” Taron shook her hand vigorously. “I’m Taron. Our head researcher should be along in a minute. But in the meantime let me introduce you to the rest of the staff.” He indicated a young man and woman who were busily unloading their equipment.
“That’s Adge and Sejka, our interns.” He winked at Trell. “We needed someone to do all the real work, after all.”
Trell smiled, and nodded. She was quickly losing patience with this entire ordeal. He was cute, but not that cute.
“Oh and let me introduce our veterinary expert-“
“Brinn!”
“Trell!”
The two women stared at each other in shock.
Taron glanced between them in confusion. “Do… you two know each other?”
Brinn shook herself and glanced at Taron. “This… she’s my little sister. Trell, what are you doing here?”
Trell’s posture stiffened and she crossed her arms over her chest with a frown on her face. “I work here, obviously. Everybody has to work, right?”
Brinn scratched the back of her head. “Well, of course, but we haven’t heard from you in three years Trell…”
Trell’s eyes narrowed and she glared at her sister. “This really isn’t the time to have this discussion, Brinn.” She cleared her throat and straightened her posture. “Now, if you’d like I can have someone show you to your accommodations, so you can get settled in.”
“Actually if it’s all the same to you…” Zara said as she joined the group, a large crate in her arms. “I’d really rather get straight to work.”
Trell smiled stiffly. “If you’d like. I’ll show you to the workspace we’ve allotted to you.”
Zara nodded, a smirk on her face. “Excellent. Also, if you’d please ask Pryvani to meet with us at her earliest convenience, I’d be most appreciative.”
Trell raised an eyebrow, but elected not to comment. “Of course, come this way please.”
The group walked in silence for most of the journey. The two sisters walked next to each other, awkwardly trying to avoid speaking to one another.
Trell glanced at her sister and noticed the human sitting calmly on Brinn’s shoulder. “I see you’ve got a new human.” She stated to her sister, while keeping her eyes forward.
“Oh yes.” Brinn glanced at Trell uncomfortably. “His name’s Nick. I got him from Titan Station recently.”
It took every ounce of willpower for Trell not to grind her teeth in annoyance at hearing this. It would figure her own sister would buy one of the captive humans that Trell had ordered taken from Earth. By rights the male sitting on Brinn’s shoulder should have been hers. He should have slipped down her throat ages ago. And yet, there he was. With her.
The universe did enjoy irony, apparently.
Nick smiled politely and waved at the other Titaness. “Hello. It’s nice to meet you.”
Trell’s lip twitched as she suppressed the contemptuous sneer that was threatening to appear on her face. Her eyes narrowed as she glared at the little man, then with a snort she sped up her stride and moved to the head of the group, away from her sister and the little rodent.
Eventually, they reached the lab and workspace that had been set aside for them. Trell issued them all keycards which would allow them access to the room, as well as their individual quarters. She left them, promising to notify Pryvani that Zara wished to speak with her.
She had only just made it into the hallway when she heard the door behind her hiss open again.
“Trell wait!”
The blonde woman whirled around, leveling a naked glare of fury at her sister that made the older woman freeze midstride.
“What Brinn?!” She spat. “What do you want? Do you want to tell me ‘how much everybody misses me’ and how I ‘should never have left for so long’? Is that what you want?”
She took a step forward, which made Brinn subconsciously step back. “Get this through your head, I don’t care about you or Mom or Dad. I LEFT FOR A REASON. I was sick and tired of dealing with your trash, Brinn. I was sick of you always being the favorite, of always getting everything you wanted, just because YOU were older. “
Trell continued to advance on her sister, until the other was trapped against the wall. “The fact of the matter is, Brinn, I didn’t want to ever see ANY of you again. So just do me a favor and keep away from me while you’re here!” Trell glared at her sister for another few seconds then, spun around to leave.
Brinn stared, mouth agape for a moment, before she was able to collect herself after her younger sister’s outburst.
Then her eyes narrowed as her own anger and resentment boiled to the surface. She stormed after Trell, grabbed her by the shoulder and spun her back around.
“Wait just a minute; I’m not done talking to you.” She glared down at her sister. “Is that what you think happened? You think that mom and dad just ‘gave me everything’ and nothing was left for ‘poor neglected little Trell’?”
Brinn was practically spitting in her sister’s face, as she pushed each word past clenched teeth. “The truth is, you couldn’t stand that they gave ANYTHING to me at all! Everything I had had to be yours as well, because you were a spoiled, rotten, greedy little child who would scream and rage and throw a fit whenever things didn’t go your way. I can see things haven’t changed a bit since we were kids, have they Trell?”
Brinn leaned back, fury blazing in her ocean colored eyes. “You’re still the same mean spirited little slag you always were. I take it back, Trell. I’m glad you left. It’s obvious we’re all better off without you.”
WHACK!
The sound of flesh-striking-flesh echoed down the corridor. Brinn reeled back from the shock of the blow, her hand flew to her reddened cheek as her eyes widened in surprise. Trell stood before her, chest heaving as she breathed heavily through her nose, practically snorting steam. She glared at her sister one last time, before she wordlessly turned around and stomped down the corridor.
After getting over her initial shock, Brinn felt a wave of giddiness overcome her. She suddenly burst out laughing.
“That’s right Trell, storm away! Go throw your temper tantrum and whine about how mean your big bad sister is! Run away and stamp your feet like the big girl you are! You’re a psychopath! Rotten little SLAG!”
Brinn took a moment to regain control of her emotions. When she had calmed down, she reentered the lab and found Taron and Zara, as well as the two interns, setting up their equipment. Sophia and Nick were standing on a desk watching Zara hook up a computer monitor.
Zara noticed the look in Brinn’s eyes, as well as the red mark on her face. “Is everything okay?” She asked, with a concerned tone to her voice.
Brinn sighed, and then nodded. “Yeah, I guess. I don’t really want to talk about it right now.” She leaned down and scooped Nick up, then tucked him into her cleavage. “Anyway, what’s our first step?”
*.*.*.*.*.*
“Well. That was interesting.” Pryvani smiled as she watched the security camera over Rixie’s shoulder. The two sisters had vacated the corridor, which now stood empty, but the heiress and the former soldier had seen the entire blowout.
“Did you arrange for that to happen?” Rixie asked the other woman, quirking her eyebrow quizzically.
Pryvani shrugged. “Not that specifically, I just took advantage of what was, essentially, a coincidence and turned it to my advantage.”
“Well, since I’m sure Trell won’t bother to deliver the message, I suppose I ought to go see what I can do for Zara and her research staff.”
“Pryvani wait.” Rixie stood and faced her employer, crossing her arms over her chest. “I just don’t get it, why not just fire Trell?”
Pryvani shrugged. “Because if I did, they would just send someone else. At least I know what Trell is up to, and I can keep my eye on her.” She smiled reassuringly. “Don’t worry, Rixie, I know what I’m doing.” She exited the security room and walked down the corridor towards the laboratory that Zara’s team was using.
She made it there in pretty good time, knowing all the right shortcuts to take to get her quickly across the compound. It wasn’t long before she stood at the doorway.
After inserting the security pass, the door opened quickly to admit her and she stepped inside.
As she entered the entire research team, almost as one, turned to look at her.“I was told you wanted to see me?”
Zara rose with a smile on her face “Nice to meet you, Pryvani. I’m Zara Mavoy- the lead on this research project. I just want to thank you so much for generously allowing us a peek at your civilization and for allowing us the use of this space in your compound.”
“Think nothing of it, of course.” Pryvani replied. “If there’s anything I can do to help, don’t hesitate to ask.”
“Actually, there is.” Zara nodded her head towards the tale where Nick and Sophia were standing amidst a small pile of equipment. “You see, we’ve decided that the best way to study your humans without disrupting their society too much is to send Nick and Sophia in… undercover, shall we say?”
Pryvani nodded. “You need me to get them there.”
Zara nodded, her smile brightening. “Right. We figured you probably wouldn’t be comfortable with the idea of other titans interacting with them.”
“Not exactly, no. I can help you out with this though. Just send a message when you’re ready.” Pryvani excused herself and left the rest of them to make their preparations.
“We’re ready to try out the equipment Zara.” Taron called from across the room where he and the interns were watching Nick and Sophia donning small hidden cameras.
When they finished, Taron, Zara and Brinn settled themselves in front of a pair of computer monitors which were showing the feed from the cameras the humans wore.
“Wow.” Brinn muttered as she watched the images of the two interns on the monitors. “Is that what we look like to them? Remind me to invest in better skin care.”
She was still a bit shaken up after the encounter with her estranged sister, but she was making every effort to appear normal and nonchalant. There would be time to go over things later, with Zara if necessary, but not then.
“Doesn’t look like Nick minds the way we look too much.” Zara pointed to the screen, which showed a clear view of Adge’s cleavage.
Brinn gasped mockingly, throwing a hand across her smirking mouth. “Scandalous! What a little pervert!”
“Um, actually…” Taron replied peering at the screen, then at the scene the camera was recording. “That would be Sophia’s view.”
The two women burst out laughing. “That’s my girl!” Zara exulted.
Oblivious to the conversation going on with the older members of the team, Sejka made one final adjustment to the hidden cameras, and then closed his tool kit with a decisive snap. “It looks like we’re all set.”
“Good.” Zara beamed. “All we have to do is go over the city’s layout with Nick and Sophia and we’ll be ready for Pryvani.”
*.*.*.*.*.*
Alex was bored.
He’d managed to stave off boredom for the first few days in their new home as he explored both Rixie’s apartment and his own smaller accommodations. He climbed every stick of furniture, traversed into every nook and cranny, and patrolled over every square inch of carpet, tile and flooring.
After all that, he’d discovered the robotic vacuum cleaner (which fortunately wasn’t big enough to suck him up) and had amused himself by riding the contraption and going along on its never ending quest to rid the apartment of dirt, debris, and dust bunnies the size of Shetland ponies
It was on one of these “joy rides” around the apartment that he noticed the crack in the wall. Well, it wasn’t a crack so much as one of the metal plates near the door frame apparently hadn’t been welded properly and so had come loose from its neighbors. The result of this little mistake was a small break in the wall that was just big enough for Alex to fit through.
He now had the opportunity to leave Rixie’s quarters and explore the compound on his own. He could travel through the walls and see where the tunnel led him.
The question was: Was he brave enough to do it?
On the one hand, he could travel through the walls so his chances of running into a Titan (and all the complications that might entail) were small, or so he assumed.
On the other hand… that was a pretty big assumption.
Alex paced in front of the broken seam for quite a while, trying to work up the nerve to enter and see what fate had in store for him.
Finally he sighed, rolled his eyes, realized he was being stupid because he knew deep down that he was going to go in there, and entered the seam.
The inside of the wall was fairly grungy, but that wasn’t much of a surprise. The only available light was what was able to peek through the vents that were spaced along the wall. The air had a smell that was equal parts metallic and dusty.
Alex couldn’t suppress a shudder of excitement as he realized that, for the first time in months, he was on his own. Not only that, he was on his own in a world of giants.
“This is probably the stupidest thing I’ve ever done.” He muttered to himself as he pushed his way through the accumulated dust.
*.*.*.*.*.*
Nick and Sophia were sitting in the cupped palm of Pryvani’s hand as the latter walked along the path that led to her human village. She had elected not to ride Dawnstar this time as she wasn’t entirely sure how the two humans would fair riding on a creature so large. Plus, when she rode Dawnstar, there wasn’t really a safe place for her to carry the two humans.
So, she walked at a leisurely pace. She and the two humans could already make out the city in the distance, and as they had passed many of the outlaying settlements already, she was confident that the city dwellers already knew of her arrival.
Nick and Sophia were dressed in simple clothing that was of a type that was common in the city. Nick wore a simple leather kilt that came down to just above his knee. It had a pair of utility pouches on either side of his thighs and was cinched to his waist by a belt of interlocking bronze plates. On his torso he wore a ash grey and sleeveless tunic and a dark blue cloak. Both were made of a cloth that simulated wool, but was actually far lighter and breathed better to keep the sun’s heat away.
Sophia was garbed in a forest green sarong-like wrap that came down to the middle of her shins. It was made from the same material as Nick’s cloak, so she was perfectly comfortable. Both wore leather sandals on their feet, and silver pendants that concealed the cameras that Zara’s team were using to observe the civilization.
“It feels kind of weird to be wearing clothes again after being naked for so long.” Nick muttered, tugging on his kilt self-consciously.
“I know.” Sophia agreed. “It feels, I don’t know… embarrassing. Like we’re doing something we’re not supposed to be doing.”
“It’s weird. When I was in school, I was the guy who used to wait until all the other guys had left the locker room to change for gym class. I never thought I’d end up as a nudist.”
Sophia giggled and nodded her agreement.
“What can we expect when we get to the city Pryvani?” Sophia asked the giantess.
“Well, they’ll obviously know that I brought you, so you can expect to be something of a spectacle for them. They’ll probably stare, but most will also keep their distance out of respect. It doesn’t happen very often, but you won’t be the first humans I’ve brought to Atlantis from the outside world.”
“Wait, Atlantis?” Nick gasped. “Are you saying, Atlantis was real?”
Pryvani chuckled and smiled down at the two humans. “Of course not. My family has always been a bit fascinated with human cultures. We named the city ‘Atlantis’ after the legend, but it’s still just a myth.”
Nick rolled his eyes. “Yeah, so are Titans.” He muttered to Sophia out of the corner of his mouth, but soft enough so their hostess wouldn’t hear. They were in sight of the city now, and the gates had been thrown open in anticipation of their coming.
“I’ve had word from Zara.” Pryvani whispered to Nick and Sophia as they approached. “She says the camera equipment is working perfectly. Are you two ready?”
“As we’ll ever be.” Sophia replied.
*.*.*.*.*.*
Alex had been travelling through dirt, grime and darkness for what felt like hours. Every so often he would pass a vent that would give him a clue to where he was. Fortunately, he had a pretty good sense of direction, so he wasn’t worried about getting lost and being unable to find his way back.
Realizing he had to get back before Rixie returned to the apartment, he was just about to turn around and go home, when he heard a noise just on the other side of the wall he was following.
After back tracking a few feet to the vent he just passed, he was able to see into the corridor. He saw a pair of giant sized black leather hiking boots; which were attached to a pair of legs that Alex realized belonged to Trell.
She was dressed completely in black, with a black duffle bag the size of a barn at her feet. The Titaness’ attention was focused on a computer interface built into the wall that she was using, to what purpose Alex didn’t know, but she was thoroughly distracted.
Alex noticed that the zipper on the bag was open, and suddenly had the crazy urge to get inside the bag and see just what Trell was up to. He knew it was a bad idea, but it was one that just would not leave him alone.
“Well.” He muttered to himself. “If I’m going to do it, I’d better do it now while her attention is still focused elsewhere.”
Having thus convinced himself, he squeezed his way out through the vents, dashed down the corridor, and pulled himself up and into the bag.
Just in the nick of time too, no sooner had he settled himself on the bottom of the bag, did Trell finish whatever it was she was doing and hoist the strap of the bag back onto her shoulder.
“I was wrong before.” Alex said to himself as he was tossed among the contents of the bag with every step Trell took. “This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever done.”