Benevolent by Hartley James

Author:Hartley James
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: scifi, aliens, alien invasion, scifi series
Publisher: Hartley James

Chapter Nineteen

Sapporan

Mahra slowly pushed herself upright, working her mouth, scanning the area immediately around her. The air was still full of the scent of earth and torn vegetation, but there was something else now, and then she realised what it was…alcohol. The smell of hard liquor and fruity concoctions mixed in with everything else. That’s right; she’d heard breaking glass. She levered herself up, got into a crouch and then pushed herself to her feet unsteadily, throwing out a hand to steady herself against a random piece of furniture. Nothing seemed to be hurt as far as she could tell. The few other people in the bar were also slowly getting to their feet or pulling themselves up onto chairs. Whatever had happened, it was like nothing she’d ever experienced.

Chutz. Where was Chutz? She felt the panic start to well up inside here like a cold hard knot deep in her belly. As if he had sensed her, cued in to the growing sense of helplessness, he was there, leaping from somewhere unseen to her shoulder. She reached a hand up, feeling him, then turned her attention to outside. The air was still muddy, and what had previously been a grey day filled with an overcast sky, was darker. Was it an attack? Had those things been ships? They were gone now though, and she had no way of knowing. She flashed back to The Cradle, those scenes of devastation that would always stay with her, but if those things had indeed been ships, there were not like anything she was familiar with. If they had been Sirona, she would have known in an instant. They were c

A noise of something crunching grabbed her attention, and she turned to see the bartender, Ray, pulling himself to his feet. There was a nasty cut on one side of his forehead and blood trickled down that side of his face. Shards and a sprinkle of broken glass lay in his hair and scattered over his shoulders and front. He must have borne the brunt of a number of the smashing bottles. Not one of the things you’d necessarily expect working behind a bar.

She tossed her chin and he nodded.

“You’re okay.”

He reached up to probe at the cut on his head and she waved his hand away. “Too much glass. Get that off you first,” she said. “You’ll just do more damage. Wait, I’ll help you.”

“What the hell was that?” he said, reluctantly drawing his hand away.

Mahra just shook her head and turned to look outside again. Movement from further back in the bar caught her attention and she turned to look back over her shoulder. A couple of the other patrons—they looked like haulers—stumbled out towards the door. Ray made as if to intercept them, but they waved him away, shaking their heads and clearly intent on getting somewhere else, anywhere else. Without even thinking about it, she lifted one hand to stroke her fingers through Chutzpah’s fur. He was chattering quietly to himself, but the tensions seemed to have disappeared for now.

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