Twinks in Space: Destination Unknown - Part One - 9. Chapter 9 - The Yunkdok

“Senklin, where’s my bloody ale?!” a pirate captains snapped at the silver-haired barkeep. “Hurry up, you scurvy old barnacle, and bring me my beer!”

The man behind the bar was disheveled. Every day was the same for Senklin; the only variation was how violent the pirates might become before the night’s end.

“Comin’ right up, sir,” Senklin replied. He grabbed an empty tankard and thrust it beneath the large barrel’s tap. As soon as the mug was full, he sloshed it in front of the captain, who raised it to his shipmates, and he began to sing.

One thousand miles across the stormy sea

Me ship can’t stand this fury

But the sirens’ voices sang so sweetly

And the harbor called out to me

Another man continued.

As the sun came up his name came floating back

I can still taste the wine that turned my lips black

His eyes glazed over as he drifted away from me

And from the harbor I floated out to sea

All the pirates joined in on the chorus.

If the night sky was our guide then the harbor would be our refuge

Upon the sands of time the harbor’s the one we’ll never go back to

If the night sky was our guide then the harbor would be our refuge

Before the sands of time the harbor was never for me

The captain continued as the others fell silent again.

The undertow is pulling me down

Me ship be smashed against the ocean’s ground

He’s lost at sea with no chance to be found

But would the harbor weep for thee

Drowning in the waves of me own creation

He cannot breathe under the weight of the sensation

More than ten billion grains of sand across the beach

And the harbor’s out of his reach

Everyone rejoined the refrain and sang to the song’s ending.

If the night sky was our guide then the harbor would be our refuge

Upon the sands of time the harbor’s the one we’ll never go back to

If the night sky was our guide then the harbor would be our refuge

Before the sands of time the harbor was never for me

As the song ended, uproarious applause rang out through the tavern, and the captain wandered through the bar among his men. The pirates were in particularly high spirits, and their violence so far that evening was at a minimum.

Senklin was grateful; he had seen more than his share of cruelty at their hands, and Senklin hated them. He was averse to violence, but he was powerless to get rid of the thugs who had made his establishment their own, and he was powerless to stop their violence. Senklin was unimpressive in most ways. He was not strong or authoritative. He did not have connections to anyone on the islands who was significant, and he felt trapped in his predicament.

Senklin loved mixing drinks. He had taken over the Yunkdok Hotel as a young man, and he enjoyed several prosperous years before everything in Boullia Bay fell apart. All his favorite customers were now nothing more than memories, and only pirates ever visited the hotel bar.

Of all the employees who once worked for Senklin, only a single person was still employed at the formerly prestigious hotel. She was a unique woman called Neffah. No one knew her real name. Very few beings possessed the capacity to comprehend it. The native ancient language of her peoples was comprised of unpronounceable syllables in audio frequencies beyond the hearing range of most other galactic species. Neffah was the name she gave herself for other people to call her.

Neffah wore no clothes. Her epidermis was green and textured, and her appearance was in some ways almost plantlike. Yellow veins ran down her limbs and across her chest, back, and face. Neffah’s body possessed humanoid bilateral symmetry, with matching arms and legs, but there was more to her physical form than most other races. Multiple tail-like appendages extended from her back in a row along her spine, and she was able to use them as extra limbs. Her eyes were without pupils or irises, and they were solid red. Along with everything else about Neffah’s unusual appearance, all of her teeth were pointed, and a pair of small green horns protruded from her chin.

Behind the Yunkdok Hotel’s bar, the kitchen door opened and Neffah came out of the back holding a tray of clean glassware. She set the platter onto the countertop with a smile, but as she placed the first glass beside the other empty tumblers on a drying rack, she bumped one of the pirate’s goblets. Its contents spilled all over the rack of glasses where she was about to place the others.

“Oi!” the pirate barked. “That were my ale!”

Another growled at Neffah, “Yer lucky it didn’t splash me.”

The pirate captain stepped back up to the bar and glared at Neffah. “You ought to be more careful, green wench. That’s a waste of good drink.”

“My apologies, kind sirs,” Neffah replied, bowing her head. “It was an accident. I’ll give you a refill,” she added to the goon whose drink she spilled. “And can I offer you another?” she asked the man who had almost been splashed. “You know, by means of properly apologizing.” Neffah’s red eyes moved to the captain. “May I pour one for you as well, sir? That rack-full of glasses now needs another washing,” she commented, “but this tray of glasses I just brought out are all fresh and clean.”

Without awaiting their replies, Neffah filled three large mugs with ale. She then filled three more, and finally another two. There was only a single clean glass still on her platter. “Wait a moment, please, gentlemen,” she requested as she placed drinks down in front of multiple pirates who were also almost finished with their beverages. “I’ve got a toast for you all!” She poured an ale for herself.

The captain leaned toward Senklin. “Now that’s how you take care of your customers,” he jeered.

“Gentlemen,” Neffah exclaimed, “may the sea and stars ever be the lovers you all crave, and may the tide and the void always provide!” She raised her tankard and started to chug.

The pirates with ale joined in as the rest cheered for the drinkers. Neffah was the first to finish, and she slammed her glass upside down onto the bar top with a laugh. The others all whooped and hollered as she headed into the back of the tavern with the ale-sloshed mugs. The door closed behind her and she stuck the glasses into a large bin of soapy water, but then Neffah peeked out into the bar. She held up her green palm toward a small window to the outside.

“Wait,” she whispered to the empty kitchen.

One of the pirates suddenly cried out in agony and fell to the tavern floor. Then another groaned and dropped to his knees. Everyone in the Yunkdok, including Senklin, was staring at the two men who were down, but then a third pirate doubled over and vomited onto a table.

The captain gritted his teeth as a shock of pain radiated through his poisoned guts, and he looked down at the dregs of his ale. “That green bitch!” he shrieked.

In the kitchen, Neffah made a fist at the little window.

The pirate captain’s glass slipped from his grip and he launched himself at Senklin behind the bar, screaming at the horrified barkeep, “I’ll fucking kill you!”

Senklin managed to get out the words, “I didn’t do…” but he was interrupted.

The door to the kitchen burst open and a warrior exploded into the tavern wielding a pair of daggers. One of the wicked knives found its mark in the captain’s wrist, and the blade stabbed deep into his flesh between the two bones of his forearm. He wailed as the attacker yanked the knife back out and hurtled it through the air. It impaled into the chest of another pirate on the other side of the bar. The warrior spun, and his second blade moved through the air in a majestic arc. Held fast in the man’s grip, it too connected, slitting the captain’s throat.

Senklin screamed, as the body of his would-be assailant crumpled to the floor behind the bar.

“Get out of here, now!” the warrior yelled at Senklin, as a Blue-skinned man barreled out from the back, firing blasters with both hands.

The bartender instantly obeyed and fled his establishment.

Two goons who had been seated together outside on the patio leapt to their feet. They went to rush inside the bar, but to the shock of one of them, the other’s head suddenly exploded! A shower of brain matter and bone shards sprayed through the air like gooey shrapnel, splattering the pirate in the slime of his companion. He watched frozen as the headless corpse collapsed to the deck.

Then an arrow came screaming through the air into the man’s eye and pierced into his brain. He screamed and fell, writhing beside the other body.

To the shock of the pirates, a woman made of stone suddenly stepped into the doorframe of the Yunkdok Hotel’s main entrance. The jagged texture of broken rocks comprised her entire body, and she was faceless.

Two pirates opened fire upon her, but their blaster bolts were nothing against her, and she charged into them like a living wrecking ball. Their bodies went hurtling back and slammed into and through a wall.

Some pirates ran from her, while a few tried to fight back, but the stone woman was nigh invulnerable. Her range was only limited by her reach and her speed, but she was tall, and she was fast; her arms were long. She swung at one villain after another, and her mouthless form issued a wailing cry that filled the pirates with terror.

“Tenki,” the bladed warrior behind the bar yelled to the Allarei man, “a bunch of pirates just hoofed it up that flight of stairs!” He sheathed his dagger and pulled his own blaster from behind his back.

“Clear this room first!” Tenki shouted in reply.

Their weapons fired round after round, to the screams of the dying pirates who had been caught unawares. Several of them managed to arm themselves, but in the chaos, their aim was off, and the attackers continued their assault.

“Lyoth, cover me,” Tenki ordered. “I’m taking the stairs!”

“Go!” Lyoth shouted back as he darted out from behind the bar at a full run, firing his blaster, and Tenki ran out in the opposite direction. Both of them leapt over multiple pirates who were incapacitated from the poison or had smoldering holes in their flesh. Lyoth charged at an overturned table where the remaining enemy force was attempting to rally. He fired his final three shots and hurled the spent blaster in their direction, causing them to duck back. Then Lyoth drew a short sword.

“No survivors!” Tenki bellowed as he raged up the stairs. The cybernetic weapons that were part of his body seemed to have an unlimited supply of ammunition.

Lyoth pounced on his targets behind the table. They did not expect his ferocity. One pirate’s arm suddenly went spinning through the air. Two men screamed and were both silenced in an instant. Another gurgled and collapsed, and Lyoth rose and stood alone above their brutalized corpses. He rushed to the bottom of the stairs.

“Lingkrati, cover the first floor!” Lyoth shouted to the stone woman as he raced past her to catch up with Tenki.

The Blue-skinned man was roaring. He had managed to drive the pirates on the second story to a pair of double doors that led out onto an outdoor balcony, but the structure was in disrepair and had been cordoned off from guests to the Yunkdok Hotel. The pirates shoved their way out onto it and started firing back in through the open door. Tenki ducked into a disheveled bedroom and Lyoth joined him, as blaster bolts exploded against the doorframe and wall near them.

The pirates suddenly stopped firing and started screaming. Lyoth and Tenki ventured a quick peek toward the balcony doors, and they saw one of their enemies fall to the floor. An arrow was in his neck. Another man collapsed beside him with an enormous hole blasted through his chest.

One pirate tried to run, but his knee exploded like the head of the man on the lower patio only a moment earlier. He howled like an animal and fell onto the moldering boards of the upper deck. They gave way, sending him plummeting through to the floor below.

The screams diminished, and after a moment, there was silence. No blaster bolts echoed through the night. No screams rang out from the injured or dying.

“Time to go,” Lyoth said under his breath.

“Agreed,” Tenki replied.

The two slipped out into the hall, and they were both impressed with the amount of arrows that now protruded from corpses. Quite a few of the bodies were headless.

“We need to gather Stawren’s arrows,” Lyoth stated.

“She and Fonith both have wicked accuracy,” Tenki commented as they ripped the brutal projectiles from the many bodies, “serious skills with their weapons.”

When the arrows were collected, the two men descended the stairs.

“Lingkrati, the skeleton asp venom you procured for us,” Lyoth said to the woman made of stone, as he glanced at all the corpses, “appears to have been brutally efficient.”

The trio disappeared into the dark city streets.

All the pirates at the Yunkdok Hotel were dead.