Ultramax reminded me of Kamuy cadet school than the shadiest hardcore spot of the Narakan system. Hostile eyes met mine as I peered out of my cell.
'These prisoners have killed over ten individuals,' a leaving guard warned us.
None of the guards will bother to enter when fights break out. Earlier, there was a Hamazan fighting with another. These guards seem contented to watch us through the surveillance cameras within the prison quarters.
Why would they?
They may get jumped in the course of their interference and end up injured or dead.
With the open cell doors only shut during a designated time, similar to the brig lights down, sleeping beyond this timing is a voluntary death trap.
It brought memories flooding in from the time I was in cadet school. A light sleeper will survive the cadet dormitories, but never a heavy sleeper. The military didn't care who killed who in the cadet dorms. If I kill a cadet, he or she was weak.
The theme of the lesson from training in the cadet dorms was kill or be killed.
Another survival technique was to form alliances with others, but the idea of dealing with Zhiva and his fellow space pirates again made me hesitant. He may think I had something to do with his father's death since I left Eden too early.
I shut my eyes for a nap only to feel my top bunk moving, coupled with Trey's whimpering.
"GET OUT OF THIS CELL!" A hoarse sound of some female yelling at the top of her voice in my cell.
Some idiots coming in to make a noise about their mates' beds taken to create an excuse for a fight. Not my problem now.
*BANG*
I snapped my eyes open the moment I felt her hands pulling on my collar. This becomes my problem.
I stabbed two fingers into her eyes, causing her to drop me while dragging me down.
Fortunately, I landed on fours with my palms and feet on the ground. My hand yanked her ankle hard, making her stumble down next to Trey's curled up body.
If Trey stayed in another cell, some screeching bitch of a Hamazan who decided with her tiny brain cells to yank me by the collar of the prison uniform wouldn't be here.
She made a near-fatal calculation on my size to pick a fight with me. Underestimation kills.
"Oh, fight…" I could hear a prisoner commenting.
I stood up and grabbed her by the hair. She yelled, trying to claw at my hand. With all my frustration and strength, I slammed her face down on the metal floor, again and again.
"FIGHT! FIGHT!" someone shouted outside.
The noise grew louder, but I didn't care.
I continued bashing her face into the floor. My fingers feeling the moisture from her blood.
"AMA!"
The name triggered me. I pulled her up by her prison overall and flung her body past the approaching Thorian.
Her body slid down on the floor as the other prisoners came to watch, keeping their distance from the now angry looking Thorian.
I stood up straight and stared him down. Behind me, laid a crumpled up and battered Trey curled up on the floor coughing out a small pool of blood.
The aftermath left the floor with splattered blood.
"HOW DARE YOU!" He hollered.
How dare I do what? Rearrange her face?
Before and after I rearranged her features, made no difference to her original and new hideous scowl now. She won't be missing anything except two of her teeth.
Behind the Thorian, sat the Hamazan culprit to look at me with a bloodied, swollen face which resembled some Durgian meat mash. She should be thankful I let her live.
I could hear the gasps from the prisoners around when they saw her face.
If he didn't interfere, I would have killed that ugly bitch.
No one else went near her or offered her any help.
From the corner of my eye, I could spot the other prisoners gathering around the sides, subtly blocking all routes of escape to watch the drama unfurl.
I could feel all eyes on me, eagerly waiting for my next move to quench their bloodlust for a fight.
Whoever fought didn't matter to this bunch. The brawl, like every other brawl in Narakan's bars, established the hierarchy of the newcomers to the scene.
In this case, both Trey and I.
Trey sunk rock bottom in the hierarchy, but not me.
"HOW DARE YOU HIT A LADY?" The Thorian roared the dumbest shit of a comment I ever heard.
He needed an eye doctor. What fucking lady? Hamazans are the military tankers of the female world in this galactic quadrant.
Some prisoners started choking or snickering at his poor choice of words.
Just because the love of his life couldn't defend herself, when she attacked Trey and me to show off her prowess to take out two, isn't my problem.
I thrashed her fair and square for laying her hands on me first.
Never stand down. That's how they taught me in military school.
Standing down meant the person intimidated me. I intimidate, not the other way around.
Unfazed by how he towered over me, the Thorian also forgot his size. A fucking piece of meatloaf in a small container like the cell restricted his full range of movement.
The bigger they are, the sounder the beating I would dole out.
"Lady? Where?" I asked, pretending to look around, angering the Thorian.
Who exactly is intimidating whom?
"Holy Perun, Temari?" Zhiva's face emerged from the crowd.
Zhiva cringed and pointed to the Hamazan. "Yeaghh… what happened to her?"
"Zhiva, do you know him?" The Thorian tilted his head at me slightly before Zhiva could say another word.
I wanted to correct the Thorian on my true gender, but decided against it.
If the Thorian pointed at me, I would've broken his pointing finger for the heck of it to vent my temper rising to the boiling point now. Especially with the presence of that bad luck charm lurking behind him.
"Yeah, kinda," Zhiva said calmly, as though he had joined a tea party, not a brawl. "Although this one appeared Deridian when I last met."
"I don't think so. Deridians don't have red eyes," another Perunian cut in.
Zhiva gave him the side eyed for stupidity and he shut up. This space pirate's uncanny ability to adapt to any environment, including an Ultramax, amazed me. Not in a good way.
"Cap said one unknown species and a Kamuy. To lay off the Kamuy. But which is the Kamuy? The dude on the floor or this one?" A Durgian woman slinked up to the front and asked while slipping her arm around his amidst a few whistles.
"Kamuy," Zhiva pointed at me while the Thorian looked confused.
"How do you know?" She purred as though he was the most intelligent guy she met.
Zhiva flicked her forehead, making her yelp, and replied nonchalantly, "I don't. Up to y'all if ya wanna piss the Cap off. He gave us instructions not to disturb the two."
"Them snitches?"
My fists clenched, thinking of how much trouble Zhiva created for me with his words now.
"Minor crimes. Just cybernetics implants got them here. One Iktomin implants, the other Kamuy. That's what Cap said. If we value our lives, we don't hit either coz the Kamuy is a time bomb."
"Time bomb as in violent?" Someone asked.
Zhiva shook his head. "Time bomb as in blow us up into the next dimension."
Everyone backed away immediately when Zhiva mouthed, 'BOOM'. Some even left the area hurriedly for the hall.
"But he beat AMA!" The Thorian protested like some whiny kid.
"So she took a beating for trying to yank them outta over Tany's cell. Can anyone explain to me why we should fight over a stupid cell when Tany and the rest are stuck knee high in sewer shit?"
The rest of the prisoners murmured in agreement. Fucking Zhiva had the gift of an orator now.
"Just leave him alone, Thrain," a voice piped up. "Rest of us wanna live even if you feel suicidal."
"Yeah, if they took your cell, well then… but for those who went to the sewers, nah, not worth it," another voice spoke up.
"Just drag Ama back to her cell and tell her to keep the fuck away."
"Yeah."
The crowd started dispersing except for Zhiva standing there in front of me while Thrain dragged Ama away.
I turned around, ignoring his presence to help a groaning Trey up onto the bed.
"I can send Garan to you. He has a smuggled med kit, and this kid got pretty banged up," Zhiva spoke.
As much as I hated to say it, he is right. Even without my optical implant scrolling up all the damages on Trey, I could see the telltale traces of deep muscle injury and probably a hairline fracture in the skull.
I stood straight up and asked, "maybe call for medical help?"
"This isn't Eden. Why do you think we smuggled a med kit in? If it's a fracture of the skull, there's a molecular whachacallit device inside to fix…"
He is right. They won't fix Trey. They would fix me instead because of that damn legend.
"Ok. Call Garan then."
"Yeah, don't need to thank me," he made his way towards the other cells, waving his hand.