Given you enjoy it I might extend this series a little, have some more fun with Kiraea and co.
Chapter 8
“That one is pretty,” Lyaea opined staring at the golden tiara in the display case, like many of the items in the Treasures of Thustra Exhibition at the Commenor Galactic Arts Gallery the gold had a purple tinge to it, much like the skin of the Sephi who created it.
The exhibition was extremely popular, they only just managed to get tickets for the last few days, and the crowds were huge…of course not around the four of them. Lyaea was absently projecting a Naus-Field around them while keeping a small bubble within it to avoid Maynard being effected. The crowds orbited them like a distant ring, dotted in the gaps were gallery attendants mopping up the vomit of the less well constituted species and those who got too close.
The Naus-Field created a strong nausea sensation in most every bipedal aliens, on feeling it most simply backed away…children and species with less ability to supress retching reflexes….
“Would I look good in that one?” Kiraea asked,
“Not bad,” Maynard replied continuing their code for scoping out which ones to prioritise, “But I think you’d look nicer with the ceremonial gauntlets,”
Whilst the security in the Gallery itself was not overly difficult to overcome, why take the risk when the items were far more vulnerable during transit in three days time.
“I still like the robes more,” Adaea added, gesturing toward the Sephi Kings traditional coronation garb, intricately detailed deep purple with gold thread and bound in gems, above it the ceremonial headdress a pale, and again purple tinged silver with deep blue sapphires.
“I could sew a nice dress out of them,”
That would probably be highly offensive to the Sephi Kiraea mused, their traditional artefact cut into pieces for a dress…but if they were stupid enough to put these precious cultural relics in harm’s way…Her People would never do such a thing, their relics were in the land and their stories, and most of all in their shared blood and ongoing family, not petty trinkets.
Still as she looked across the holograph displays beside each object with the Sephi virtual assistant that explained the items and answered basic questions she did find herself feeling almost…respect for their having traditions at all…so much of the galaxy she had seen was just a commerce machine…these objects showed at least some genuine life behind it all…
The next display shattered any sympathy she might have had, a vibrant marble frieze commemorating their first travels to the stars…If they wanted to have their culture fine, but don’t go to other planets interrupting other people who just wanted to be left alone…A rage filled tear slowly trailed along her cheek, as her anger blazed…it was quickly caught up in in Adaea’s arms as she embraced her from behind,
“It’s OK Kiri…” she said softly,
“No…no its not…they should’ve left us alone…” She replied.
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She grimaced as she used the aether to pull the damn fabric out again…it just kept riding up in uncomfortable ways…she really didn’t know why they even bothered with it.
Kiraea was many things, but a good waitress was not one of them, she stalked along with barely concealed disgust as the patrons of Koshan’s Komfort Lounge and Bar leered at her in the too tight two piece outfit. It was made of a special optical distortion cloth that remained opaque most of the time, but became transparent around the ‘Reveal Points’ on the middle of the tables where customer had to pay 20 credits for ten minutes to get a look. Naturally such customers wanted to look a lot so would constantly need to call a waitress over, and needing an excuse to do so bought lots of drinks and tentacle food.
The Lounge was dark and red lit, the round tables widely spaced so Reveal Points didn’t overlap and customers could remain anonymous while watching the mainly Twi’Lek dancers in the middle. She supposed she understood the economics of it…but she would have preferred just to go naked.
“No no no, mines the Liminous Lasat, his is the Yellow Yarat silly girl!” the old codger squealed with a raspy voice,
She rolled her eyes and swapped the drinks around then went on to deliver the next lot. Halfway between the tables she felt it coming…but let it happen…another one pinched her butt, she turned around with startling speed shocking the diminutive Blarina. Her greatest advantage as a waitress was that with the aether she never spilled a drink no matter how fast she went.
She couldn’t tell from its weird face but sensed its lecherous intent in the aether, she smiled and bent down toward it,
“Aren’t you handsome,” she cooed emphasising her words with the aether,
“You like my curves,”
The little creature nodded frantically, typically talkative this one seemed oddly quiet…perhaps from shame…perhaps from over stimulation…
“Well you know what’s even better,” she strengthened her mental push,
“See that Wookie over there, see how smooth his skin is, how supple his rear is, isn’t it nice…why don’t you go and give it a lick and nibble!”
The Blarina looked at her, then at the Wookie standing at the bar, a huge black and grey furred thing with more than a few old gnarled scars, rapidly nodded then hurried off.
She spun quickly back to her next table, her true target, the group of three young and one older Sephi, Maynard had pointed them out…no matter how civilized he said “everyone wants to see some hot young vugu while on holiday,” she wasn’t sure what vugu meant until Lyaea thought to be helpful by looking it up on the holonet, it was a catch all term yielding more pictures of different alien reproductive organs than Kiraea imagined could possibly exist in one universe.
This set of orders she remembered and she began to set them down with slow deliberate movements pushing out her chest…she didn’t have much of a bust but her toned legs and enthusiasm had, according to Koshan during the brief interview that involved a lot of holo pictures being taken, made up for it.
She felt through the emotions of the party, they were all young university students on hand to deliver talks about the artefacts as part of the tour, as well as help set them up, for many this was their first time off world…the old man was too hard a sell, the female too picky…the one on the left too dull…but the one on the right, he had shy look about him.
She gave him a slow wink and dipped a little lower as she put his orange and yellow Tatooine Twin-Sunset in front of hima roar came from behind as the Blarian flew high over the table into the wall.
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Her breath was misty in the cool night air as she waited for her prey, finally the lavender skinned Sephi waved off his companions and strolled over to her as she suffused a welcoming feeling in the aether, she had made sure to keep her flirting up for the last two hours as they bantered amongst themselves.
“Uh…hi,” he said
“Hi sweetie,”
He shuffled nervously, “Ummm so you work here,”
No I just like strutting around in front of perverts….what a brainless gobril,
“Yeah, but just till I finish my studies,”
“Really what are you studying?”
“Xeno Archaeology and anthropology,” she said sweetly twirling a lock of her hair
“Really, that’s what I’m doing my doctorate in,”
“Wow really, do you study at Commenor Public,
“No on Thustra, just here with the Exhibition,”
“Wow really, I didn’t get to see it…couldn’t afford the ticket, doesn’t pay much…” she hitched her thumb toward the Lounge then dipped her head,
“I would’ve loved to see just one thing in real life…just one…” she didn’t even need the aether to manipulate this tool.
“Well you know…it’s all packed up now…but…” he paused she could feel the conflict in him…normally he wouldn’t do this but the alcohol tipped him over the edge,
“I could show you some if you like?”
She beamed and grabbed his hand,
“Really!” she let a tear of disgust at touching the alien glisten her eyes and reflect he street lights.
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By the time they reached the space port he was starting to come off his previous high, but the adrenaline, or whatever hormone his species had, combined with her aetheric prompts kept him determined.
The bay was guarded by four stern looking security droids,
“Ident confirm,” one rasped as they approached,
“Jamaya Strolthis – Besh-5442,”
“Strolthis – Besh 5442, roger, confirm Indent,” it turned to Kiraea,
“ah…Dr. Seela Dotric University of Commenor, purpose…ah…radio-imprint analysis?” he went on starting to sweat, she placed a reassuring hand on his back,
The droid looked her over…droids she hated droids…dead empty things,
“Roger roger, proceed,” The smaller door hissed open.
Inside the elegant looking Sephi ships were quiet and dark, prepped to depart tomorrow, he led her into the larger ships cargo hold where the boxes were neatly stacked, all locked down with biometric scanners, more droids in alert mode beside them.
“I can’t open them all”, he whispered for no apparent reason other than his own unconscious sense that this was wrong,
“But I can show you this…” he input some numbers, a scan passed over his eyes and the top crate popped open…inside amongst deep purple synth-velvet was a collection of ancient gem encrusted ceremonial gauntlets and chest pieces of their ancient Monarchs.
“Wow, so beautiful…” she said actually meaning it,
“Yeah, yeah you are,” he put his hands around her waist as she leaned over the box…as supressed the instinct to snap his neck, she turned and placed her arms around his neck and led him away from the box…
“So are you handsome,” she backed up to one of the droids and formed an image of herself in her mind…she wasn’t brilliant at this like Valens was…as he leaned into kiss her she slid out and met “her” cold steel lips.
She stood just behind him levitating the objects out of the box and up into the hangars maintenance ducts to collect later while Jamaya lavished his affections on the illusion skinned security droid…wasn’t enough…she sighed and turned him round, he seemed suddenly confused,
“Why don’t you open another…” she tempted him,
“You can dress up like a King and I can be you Queen….then I can undress my King and you can undress your queen?” His confused eyes smiled and he dutifully complied, looking like a drunk Kowakian monkey trying to put on the old robes that Adaea wanted as the droids scanners absently passed him, picked up his biometric signature, then concluded he had permission to be there and ignored him.
She slid her hands down the coronation robe…it would make a nice dress…“Lets get those clothes off shall we,”
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She hopped into the hover car, Lyaea was learning to drive, Maynard sat in the back pale as snow,
“What’s wrong with you?” she asked,
He looked at her, then to Lyaea,
“What they were going too slow!” the younger woman said defensively,
Kiraea gave them a puzzled look
“She flung three speeders in front of us out of their flight lanes….”
Kiraea shrugged, impressed more than anything else she could catch and toss hover cars moving 300 kliks per hour...at least she wasn't lightning shorting traffic signs anymore.
“We need to rent a hangar in two days time…and someone needs to seriously scrub a security droid…”