Katana and Dr. Light in: Closer Encounters!

Katana tried to pace herself as she rushed down the corridor, keeping her breathing even and fighting every urge to sprint as fast as she could. She knew that would only lead to her recapture, she had to pace herself, to reserve enough energy to fight when needed, to balance keeping moving with being inconspicuous. She paused at every intersection, gingerly glancing down the seemingly endless network of hallways to avoid detection by any of the crew. The corridors were different here, when she first arrived the rooms and walkways were purely utilitarian - function without form - as she and the other abductees were herded towards pens and holding cells of cold metal by inhuman captors but now several decks up there was a blandness to it all. The barest concessions had been made to the people who used this part of the ship and its atmosphere had changed from hellish naval vessel to militarized hospital uniformity. She was lost.

Colored lines stretched down its hard floors but without knowing what they meant and unable to read the alien script on the rare placards placed by doors and junctions they offered her nothing. She stopped at the latest intersection, not knowing if it was new or if she had run through it a hundred times, to catch her breath. Bending over she looked at her hands; they were stained purple-brown from when the crewman, crewwoman, crewthing, pulled her out of the line intending to teach her a lesson after she kept trying to fight the guards. Along, unarmed, terrified, she punched, kicked, clawed, and grabbed, her hands finding purchase and tearing into a hole in the head of the alien that was warm, wet, and caused it to sound like a microphone too close to a speaker. Grabbing tight, she slammed its face into the bulkhead over and over again until she, it, and the bulkhead dripped with a thick fluid that smelled like diesel but had the unmistakable sticky grittiness of blood. With a heart pumping so fast she could hear and feel her circulation, she grabbed the heaviest thing off the belt of the alien and began running. In the harsh, buzzing light of the hallway she finally got a good look at it; zero idea if it was a tool, weapon, or spare part, it was sturdy, fit in her hand, and weighed enough she was sure it would crack a skull in one blow.

Her break was interrupted by the distant clack of footsteps. She twirled, looking for cover, but this part of the ship had no recessed alcoves, no shadowy nooks to hide into, so she turned in the direction opposite of the sound and began running. She stopped caring about discretion, about hiding, and careful observation. Turns came and were taken as quick as possible, junctions sprinted through, unaware crew receiving a crackling THUMP as a running human passed. At last as the clacking grew louder behind her, she came to a T-junction with a panel a different color from the rest with two arrows, one up, one down, painted on it and a handle with a latch. With no better options she yanked the handle causing the panel to come free with slight difficult to reveal a dimly lit and dusty vertical shaft with ladder rungs sticking out the far wall. Jamming her weapon into her pants, Katana reached and stepped onto the ladder, her free hand working the panel back into place and wiggling it until she heard the latch engage. Above her the ladder ascended into an inky haze, below her it descended into an inky haze, and she held tight, sweat dripping down her face as she held her breath in the dull lights as the sound of footsteps and barked orders passed on the other side of the thin panel. After everything went quiet she allowed herself to breathe. She couldn't risk going back outside. She looked down. The other abductees were down there, potentially an army, but so were many of the crew. She looked up. Everyone had to be below decks helping contain the prisoners but she had no idea what lay above. More sensitive parts of the ship? She could try to find a way to communicate, reach the Justice League, the Green Lantern Corps...but how? She swallowed hard. Was she even still in the Solar system? Was she a billion, billion kilometers from Earth? Would her last moment on her homeworld be wondering why the streetlights seemed to grow brighter and brighter before every cell in her body felt like it was ripped apart? Without answering herself, she began climbing.

She wasn't sure how long or how far she had climbed, her counting the access panels to the decks was intermittent at best, only that her muscles screamed and she was having to take frequent breaks, hooking her elbows behind the rungs to keep from falling. Admitting to herself that she couldn't keep climbing forever, she slowly opened the next access panel as quietly as possible and slipped into the corridor. She nearly collapsed as she hit solid ground, tired muscles forcing her to kneel as she breathed deep, her moment of rest interrupted by a quiet noise to her left. Not three meters from her was another crew member, its skin a vivid blue and head low and flat with wide-set eyes opened even wider in surprise. Tatsu was back on feet with weapon drawn by the time it reacted, a turn to run away while shouting in a mellifluous gargle that contained the recognizable word "human." With a mighty leap Katana tackled the alien, slamming it into the wall.

"Do you understand what I am saying?" she rasped harshly into where she thought it might have an ear. "Do you understand what I am saying?" she repeated, this time in English, then again in Chinese, and finally in Markovian. The alien responded by slamming his head against hers and shoving off against the wall to send them spinning and sprawling. It slipped as it tried to get back to its feet and Katana was able to grab its collar and yank it back only to be met with a fist to her face. Not enough to deter her, she slammed her shoulder into his midsection knocking him off balance as he stumbled backwards towards the open access panel. Tatsu pulled the makeshift weapon from her waist as the alien grasped for something holstered on his, bringing it to bear against Katana just in time for her weapon to slam into his face. Her weakened muscles finally giving out, the heavy object left her grasp and flew into the open shaft, followed shortly after by the alien, its face partially crumpled. Tatsu rushed to the opening but only caught a last glimpse of the alien as it plummeted into the inky haze.

She sat down on the floor and closed the access panel. For a moment she was lost in thought about nothing at all beyond the black specs at the corner of her vision but slowly returned to form. She made note of her surroundings; the aesthetics had changed again and she found herself thinking that barring the almost stereotypical spaceship paneling on the walls she might as well be in the hallway of a luxury hotel. The few doors she could see appeared to be made of wood, and the hallway was lined by thick, highly decorated carpeting and lit by naturalistic lighting from ornate fixtures. The wide corridor was softly curved and led to an open area with artwork and seating, and Katana realized that the alien she fought was wearing something closer to fancy uniform than the jumpsuits of the others. Not knowing what else to do she followed the hallway until it terminated at a courtyard filled with plants and fountains, surrounded by carefully manufactured follies of ruined stone draped in flags that bore would she assumed was some kind of family crest, that stood in front of massive sets of doors that would have looked more at home in a cathedral than space ship. Recognizing it probably wasn't the best idea to use the front door, she slipped out of the courtyard and began searching for another way in. Tucked discretely down a side corridor tucked discretely down a side corridor she found an almost hidden doorway that popped open with a click following a thorough manhandling to find out how it opened and led into a small room with a table and some chairs and more doors. Picking one that faced the right direction more or less, she opened it to find a short hallway that lead to a larger room and immediately made note she had found a servant's entrance.

Tiptoeing quietly she had to cover her mouth to stop the gasp where she found herself. A grand ballroom was before her, stretching at least a hundred meters in all directions, supported by columns at least half as high that held up a vaulted ceiling painted with a hologram map of the galaxy. Beneath it on the walls lay alien vistas and dramatis personae depicted in twinkling jeweled mosaics mounted over shimmering and shifting stone. The floor was a dizzying intersection of geometric designs and golden damascene where statuary so lifelike you could almost see them breath frolicked. She felt joyous, dizzy and rapturous after the claustrophobia of the rest of the ship, while her head and footsteps grew faint. A river of ruby and wine colored stone cut through the center of the floor, terminating in a grand staircase at least three stories tall that Tatsu, having no better idea at the moment, began to climb. At the top was an enormous painting ten meters tall; its subject a breathtakingly beautiful man with almost translucent jade skin, long pointed ears, electric violet eyes, and waist-length ebony hair riding a fearsome and bucking alien beast while dressed in an elaborate and filigreed uniform, his cape the pelt of a smaller, different, yet no less fearsome alien beast, reins in one hand, sword in the other while in the background a ferocious battle raged and a shattered moon hung in the sky, its exposed core burning like a second sun amid dueling starships. Katana reached up to touch the painting, half convinced she was hallucinating, and the moment she touched the frame it beeped softly, and a holographic display popped into existence with a flurry of scripts before settling on Japanese and displaying the title of the painting as "Subjugation of the K'lomeni Empire by the Starjammer Mercantile Consortium."

She drew her hand back with an instant suspicion. Why did a painting on an alien ship know Japanese? Broken from her trance, she quickly made her way down one of the halls flanking the painting which lead to an ornately furnished parlor at the end of which held the entrance to what she assumed was a stateroom. With no other paths to take, she carefully opened the doors and crept inside. Her breath was taken away by the vista, all of Earth plainly visible floating in the blackness of space through a window the size of a three story building. Trying to keep moving in spite of her awe, she made her way down off the mezzanine and into the bedchamber that made up the lower floor. Upon the bed was a woman, apparently human, clad in nothing but strategically placed jewelry gazing languidly at the stars; Tatsu approached and the woman, startled by the sudden appearance, let out a scream and scrambled off the bed.

"Shhh," Tatsu, motioned her to be quiet. "It's okay, you're safe, we're going to ge- KIMIYO!

Dr. Light's mouth fell open, "TATSU! What the hell are you," she quickly moved her arms over her breasts and crotch, "what the hell YOU doing here?"

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?"

"I'M SUPPOSED TO BE HERE!"

"What?"

"I was invited! How did you get on a space ship? You don't even own a car!" Kimiyo looked around frantically, "My bra has to be around here somewhere..."

"You're joking right? I was abducted!"

"Who'd want to abduct you?"

"Whoever invited you here for..." Tatsu motioned Dr. Light's naked body, "Me and at least one hundred other people."

Kimiyo rolled her eyes, "Don't be silly, that's..." She trailed off, her eyes flicking back and forth and her mouth twitching as she thought. The mouth twitches slowly turned to chewing on her inner lip and the eye flicks narrow squinting. Finally she let out of a huff and waved her hand over the bedside table, activating a holographic projector.

"Gradius..." she cooed in a sultry, enticing voice, "Oh, Gradius..."

A shirtless figure appeared in hologram that Tatsu recognized as the man in the painting, "Patience, my darling radiant blossom, I will have breakfast ready for us shortly, then we can continue filling our other, more carnal appetites."

"About that, Kimiyo dropped the sultriness, "this whole late night rendezvous wine and dine wouldn't happen to be a distraction so I wouldn't notice you doing something like, just as a hypothetical, kidnapping a large number of people to, again hypothetically, sell on the Khundian slave markets?"

Gradius' ears fell flat against his head and he stared blankly at Kimiyo, "Don't be silly, of course not." The hologram cut out immediately and there was a clattering sound somewhere in the distance.

Kimiyo inhaled deeply and put her head in her hands, "I think my dad might be right about my choice of men," she sighed as Tatsu nervously glanced her up and down. "Quit staring before I start thinking those tabloid rumors about you are true," she barked.

"Sorry," Tatsu turned her head away politely, "I wasn't expecting you to have piercings in...places."

"Shut up and find my cape."

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Pub: 30 Jun 2025 08:34 UTC

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