The Vastalimi Gambit Read Free Page B

alike.
    Wink at once felt very much the alien here.
    He saw a male with shoulders dyed a deep purple, and that one was strapped—a handgun of some kind in a hip holster, along with other items on his belt. A Shadow, but only the one. Either they were really good, or they didn’t expect trouble here. Probably both.
    As far as he could see, there weren’t any other humans in the terminal. No other alien species, either.
    He got more than a few looks cast his way. He could almost feel the gazes measuring him.
Hmm. A human. What an odd mix of prey and predator it is. Should we examine it more closely? Poke it and see what it does?
    Voices were audible in the terminal, but the background murmur was in a language or languages of which he had only a few words. Not because it was difficult to learn but because it was difficult for a human to speak. The shapes of tongues and mouths and vocal apparatuses was markedly different between these people and Wink’s own. He had a translation program in his com unit. He could use it to listen or to speak, after a fashion, at least for three of the most common local dialects. The computer could translate what the locals said into something Wink could comprehend, and vice versa. Plus it could read signs and approximate them. Although that was apt to be amusing, that reader. On the dropper, he had gone to the fresher, and the reader had rendered the Vastalimi words over the door as “‘Small Orifice of Excrement’; informally known as: ‘Asshole.’”
    There weren’t any restrictions as to personal weaponry here. You could carry a knife or a gun if you could manage it on your person, and Wink had both concealed under his tunic. Not that they were particularly comforting. He was well aware of his survival chances in a dustup with a Vastalimi, and they were exceedingly slim. Not that he intended to see how that would go. Even with his risk-taking and dancing close to Dame Death, he was not suicidal.
    Hey, bug-face, you don’t seem so tough. Step off—or else—!
    Yeah, or else
kill
me . . .
    Kay stopped and looked around.
    “You okay?”
    “Yes. It has been years since I have seen so many of The People at once. It stirs emotions.”
    “I don’t recall you ever said why you left Vast.”
    “Because I have never said why.”
    He waited, but that was the extent of her comments. She started walking. She did not appear to be looking for a reception committee.
    “Is your brother coming to meet us?”
    “No. He has much work to which he must attend. I am not a cub that I cannot find him.”
    Wink nodded. Different species, different social mores.
    “Our baggage will be routed to our
domus
, which my brother will have provided for us.”
    “Customs?”
    “Our passports were scanned before we left the dropship; had there been any problems, we would have been approached by the authorities by now. We need only to obtain a conveyance to the
bolnica
—our version of a hospital. There will be a cart waiting outside the port.
Droc
Masc will know we have arrived and will be expecting us.”
    Wink became more aware of the stares he merited as they walked. Lot of looks.
    Halfway across the terminal, a large Vastalimi moved to intercept them. He rattled off something in that tongue-twisting language of theirs.
    The auto-engage feature on his translation program didn’t seem to be working. Wink managed to flick his translator on manually as the speaker finished, routing the output to his earbud.
    “—walk with this
jebiga
prey?”
    Jebiga . . . Jebiga, ah, there it was: Fucking.
    Kay responded in her language: “Companion is a Healer and human and exempt from
prigovor
. I am also a Healer.”
    “And exempt from
prigovor
also?”
    “In this instance, yes. I can honorably decline; however, I will not. Do you offer Challenge?”
    The larger Vastalimi stood silent for a moment. He must have heard something in her voice that convinced him Kay was not to be messed with.
    Wink sure as shit