HAWK

CHAPTER TWENTY: CAVEMAN (3/5)

Sudds escorted them through the twisting corridors until they came upon a flight of wide, shallow steps. As they descended, the murmur of a crowd blended with a delectable aroma of food and wafted up to meet them. With the scent hooked in their nostrils, Worm started taking the steps two at a time, her small feet threatening to trip and roll her down the rest of the way.

When they reached the bottom, they found the large room was filled with people. At least two-hundred men and women were huddled around benched tables, helping themselves to their own mini-banquets of food and drink while chatting merrily. Few seemed to notice Sudds and his two strange companions as he led them across the hall to the grand roundtable at the far end. There were large platters of food at its centre, each a palette of rich and vibrant colour.

Three people were already seated. Rhaspa and Mack had taken seats next to each other and were engaged in spirited conversation, while the third figure was hard to distinguish. They were sitting with their back to Kas and had hidden their body beneath a white hooded cloak. They were small, though, perhaps no bigger than Worm.

Don't tell me the old man's got kids...

As they grew nearer, Captain Mack happened to look up and see them approaching. He said something in Rhaspa's ear and the old man smiled and stood as he turned to address the new arrivals.

'Welcome, friends. Please take a seat.'

Kas picked the furthest seat from Rhaspa on the opposite side of the table while Worm took the seat beside her. Once settled in their places, Kas looked again at the small figure hidden beneath the white cloth and froze. It was not a child as she had expected, but an alien with blood-red skin and large golden eyes. Despite her foreign form, she was clearly female and even quite beautiful. She locked eyes with Kas and smiled.

'Hello,' she said in a soft, soothing voice. 'My name is Mana.'

Kas couldn't look away from her. Mana's eyes had no pupils and instead looked like they were made of solid gold. She could almost see her own reflection in them.

'I'm Kas,' she replied.

'Hello, Kas. And hello, Worm.'

Worm screwed up her face with suspicious curiosity. Unlike Kas, she'd never seen a real-life alien before and Mana was fascinating to her.

'I'll leave you all to it,' Sudds said - the only one still standing.

'You're welcome to join us,' Rhaspa replied.

'Thanks, but Pari and Beak will be waiting for me. Give me a shout if you need me.' He walked away and left the five diners in peace.

'Well, I hope you don't mind if I get started,' Mack said as he picked up some tongs. 'I've been looking forward to this for months.' He began stocking his empty plate with food. Rhaspa and Worm followed suit, leaving just Kas and Mana to join in, but they seemed more interested in staring at each other.

'Aren't you hungry?' Mana asked her.

'I'll get something in a minute,' Kas replied. She glanced down and saw Mana didn't even have a plate. 'What about you?'

'I only eat once a week. My metabolism works much differently from humans.'

'I wish it was the same for the rest of us,' Serez joked. 'We get through enough food here to feed... well, a small planet.'

'Mana's from the Verres system,' Mack said.

'Verres...' Kas repeated, searching her memory.

'It is only a small system,' Mana replied. 'I wouldn't expect you to know--'

'I know it. It's part of the Karande sector, along with Ossan, Tearaji and Pakoturi.'

Mana smiled. 'That's right. I'm impressed.'

'Don't be. The Federation drill that stuff into you pretty deep at the academy.'

'You went to the academy?' Rhaspa asked. His hand had frozen with a spring roll clutched in his tongs.

'Only for a while.'

'The Federation wasn't dangerous enough for her,' Mack jested.

'That and they don't pay as well.'

'Do you make a lot of money as a bounty hunter?' Mana asked.

'Depends on the bounty.' Kas looked right at Rhaspa as she replied.

The silence was long and heavy. Kas ignored it and picked up a pair of tongs and surveyed the banquet. There was plenty of food on offer, from steamed sun-peppers to fire-roasted fruits and crispy lettuce-wraps. She glanced at Worm and saw her plate was already piled high with one of everything.

'Where's the meat?' she asked.

'There isn't any,' Mack replied. 'We're a vegetarian community.'

Kas's stomach groaned. 'This place really is hell, huh?'

'If you think that now, be grateful you weren't here when I first arrived,' Rhaspa said. 'Now that really was hell.'

Kas began stocking her plate with yellow rice and fried apple slices. 'How long ago was that?'

'Twenty-nine years. I came here with eight other crew whom I lived with for two years inside a freighter ship. It was cosy, to say the least. In that time, we managed to scavenge enough equipment from the underground refinery to convert this cave into a crude habitat. We've spent every year since expanding and strengthening it, making it as comfortable as possible.'

'Where's this crew of eight? They at another table?'

'That's one way of putting it. They all died a long time ago. The people you see here have all been recruited gradually over the years. Captain Mack has brought nearly half of them here himself.'

'Not all in one go,' Mack smiled.

'So how have you survived so long?' Kas asked. 'The whole solar system thinks you're dead.'

Rhaspa stopped eating for a moment and seemed to give the question considerable thought. 'I'm not really sure. I think it's because I eat a lot of chocolate.'

'Ignore him,' Mana said as she took Rhaspa's hand in hers. 'He gets a lot of exercise and I have him on a special diet.'

Kas couldn't help but frown. She had so far been trying to avoid the obvious question - why Rhaspa, the infamous racist, was sharing dinner with an exotic alien. But it now seemed that there may have been more going on besides friendship. The way Mana was holding Rhaspa's hand and gently rubbing his knuckles was so intimate that, had she been human, she would have sworn they were a couple.