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“Shut up,” I bark, striding for the transporter. “Let’s all just focus on getting out of here right now, before those mafia guards find me, all right?” I don’t even bother to ask where they’re going because anywhere is better than here.
The lock on the door to the room starts beeping as the guards work to bypass my code.
“Hurry,” I yell out, “they’re almost in. Hit it now for three beings.”
And then several things happen at once. Thankfully, the two men do as I ask, including me in their transport. They move onto their own disks and I race for the third empty disk, hoping to make it in time. I get there, just as the door crashes open and all three guards spill into the room.
“No!” my stalker-enforcer roars.
The three of them run straight for me.
I smirk and wave my fingers as the transporter sequence starts.
Father’s head enforcer throws himself right at me, and I watch in horror as this guy grows larger and larger. I have to force myself to stand still as his snarling face looms right in front of mine and then, he blinks out.
And then I end up on an entirely different transporter disk.
I blow out a breath, trying to reorient. Damn, that was close.
And…where am I?
“Who are you and why have you arrived on Salo?” an official-looking Gravian female asks.
I blink and force myself to concentrate on this new situation. I look around the transporter room, seeing nothing but human-looking staff, but I’ve left New Earth. “I’m on the planet Salo?” Oh, thank gods. This could’ve been so much worse. Salo is the home planet of our strongest ally, the Gravians. This species look like humans, but they are much stronger. This is also the planet where the multigod religion famously originated, hence the arrival of the two guys in priest robes.
Her lips thin. “Yes, this is Salo and why are you here? I have no prior notice of a female fitting your description arriving with this party. What is your name?”
I glance over and see the other two guys I arrived with being warmly welcomed by immigration, which means they were expected, but I’m not and this is the problem. “My name is Aliyah Williams,” I answer brightly, giving them my father’s last name which I normally never use, hoping this will keep my true identity from reaching the vid news channels back home.
She taps my name into a tablet. “And why are you here on Salo?” she repeats.
One of the humans I arrived with stomps over. “I want to know the answer to that too. We’re here for a pilgrimage to Salo and to join the priesthood. Our family are unigod practitioners and wouldn’t approve, so we snuck off in the middle of the night. But why are you here? And why were those guards chasing you?”
I lick my lips and glance nervously at the Gravian guards who crook an eyebrow at me. I’ve heard horror stories of them tossing females into nunneries for basically no reason. If in doubt, austere nunnery until they can decide what to do with you. “Sssh,” I whisper to the guy, trying to covertly get him to shut the hell up. But no luck.
“You were being chased,” he insists. “Are you a criminal on New Earth?”
I place my hands on my hips. “No, of course I’m not a criminal. I’m just trying to get to Tarvos so I can rejoin my sister.”
“Tarvos?” the immigration official asks. “You didn’t mean to arrive on Salo and have no official business here?”
Oh hells. “Well, yes, but I’m happy to be here.”
“This means you will need to be temporarily sent to a nunnery.” She taps on her tablet then looks up. “We’ve got your name and we’ve sent for guards to transport you to the Wailing Winds nunnery while we await final decision on your visa status.”
Both young men wince.
“It’s that bad?”
They stare at me with pity. “Yeah,” the blond one says. “The Wailing Winds nunnery is all about hard work, dispassionate pain and penance.”
“Sorry,” the other one offers as they leave the room, “maybe I shouldn’t have said anything?”
“You think?” Damn, I need to think up a lie and think it up quick. “I request asylum on Omega 9,” I blurt out.
The female pauses and looks at the other guards. “Is this a thing?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never heard of it…”
