Krellt was in trouble. And the more he thought about it, the more it seemed to be his fault. He thought back to the beginning…
“Hey! Hello?”
Krellt walked into the warehouse.
I shouldn’t be here, he thought. It was dark. He wondered who had left the note telling him to come to Onu-Metru. It wasn’t like Jala or the others to do that.
“So, you’ve arrived,” said a gravelly voice. “What good fortune for you.”
He glanced up, and saw someone sitting on a pile of crates. He couldn’t make out more than a general shape in the darkness.
“I- I was wondering what brought me here,” he asked.
“Well, isn’t that a good thing to know,” the person said. “I think I’d better make sure the deal’s all clear, then.”
He pulled out a data pad, and scribbled something on it.
“Go to this address, and rent a boat from the owner. Then bring it to the dockyard. I’ll be there.”
Krellt nodded. It seemed innocent enough.
“But what about the Vahki?”
“Don’t worry. I’ll have that taken care of.”
He had done as the guy had said. Maku had been quite willing to rent him a boat, and it had been quite easy to navigate to the docks. That was when it all went wrong. The guy from the warehouse was there all right. And some friends. He had leaped aboard with several strange creatures, obviously stolen from the Archives.
“Let’s get moving,” he’d said. But the boat’s engine had jammed. Or something else happened. At any rate, they didn’t move. The guy then pulled out a disk launcher, and fired it at Krellt. The impact stunned him. Only when he hit the water did he realize that the guy was leaving him to drown. The water was cold. He couldn’t swim. He was about to sink under for good when someone grabbed him. A pincer shaped like a precision cutter. A green arm. He was dragged into a supply barge, and found himself staring into the eyes of a monstrous creature. But nothing happened. Instead, the creature shoved him to where the barge’s mooring line was, and told him to get back to work.
And that left him in his current state, wet, shivering, and late for work. He sighed.
I’m never doing that again, he thought.