Tease the Dragon Ch. 01

Welcome to my futuristic sci-fi world! As the story goes on, the characters will be explained a bit more as to what they are.

Thanks to my editor, pandybear311, for the help with the editing. :)

As always, comments and feedback are welcome as long as it's constructive. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy the story!

"Well, you're a new face around here," the bartender commented as he set my drink in front of me. "We don't get many off-worlders in this area. What brings you here?"

I sipped the drink and put it back on the bar with a grimace, unaccustomed to the harsh liquors of this backwater mud-ball. "Business," I said, hoping it would halt any further attempts at conversation.

"Oh!" He had come back to lean against the bar back. I should have known better than to come into a mostly empty bar, but they were the only place advertising food unless I wanted to go across town and sit at some nasty diner. "You're here for the off-world convention?"

I looked at him. He was fairly normal for a human male – about six feet tall, muscled and lean, handsome enough. I couldn't figure out why he would think I was here for a convention of off-world nerds who still thought science fiction was something to celebrate, and not the challenge it actually was. "No, I'm not here for the convention."

"Then I don't know what business you could be here for," he said, crossing his arms over his chest and making sure to flex enough to stretch his shirt over his biceps. "Not much business here for your kind."

"There's plenty of business here," I said. "You just have to know where to look."

The waitress came through the door from the back with a plate of food and what looked like a drink pouch. She glanced at me shyly and set the pouch under the plate, indicating I probably shouldn't show it to the bartender. Arranging my plate better, I let the pouch fall into my lap behind the bar where I could put it in my pocket when he turned away.

"Plenty have come looking, darlin'," he said, and I cringed inwardly at the familiar name. "No one seems to have found anything they can do that us humans can't do on our own."

Ignoring the bigoted remark to the best of my ability, I began to eat the food. The waitress and cook had obviously been off-world, because the food was fantastic and spiced to my liking. I didn't think the bartender could boast such knowledge.

"You wouldn't happen to know where I could get a room while I'm here?" I tried to make the question sound just pleading enough that the man would think I really needed his help. Truth was, I could have holed up anywhere but being out in the open would make it more fun.

"Little place across the street rents space by the hour, honey," he said, moving his hips in a disgusting show of male egotism.

"I'm not your type, 'honey.' I need a place for at least two weeks," I shot back at him, flexing my hip to make sure I had my knife on me where I could get to it easily. More than likely the situation wouldn't come down to threatening the man, but it was always better to be safe than sorry. "Besides, you wouldn't be able to handle me."

"I can handle anything you throw at me, baby. But if you're looking for long term lodging, there's a place a couple blocks north of here. It's a hole in the wall, but their rooms are clean." I hadn't expected him to actually tell me where I could find a room. A back alley place was probably more to my liking than one of the space motels closer to the port.

"I appreciate it," I wiped my mouth and put my napkin on my plate, slipping the pouch into a thigh pocket before standing and heading for the door. "Give my compliments to the chef."

~*~*~*~*~

The day was hot and bright as I stepped out onto the sidewalk. This little rural area outside the main suburbs of the space port wasn't important enough to rate the moving belts of the more populated areas. People here actually had to walk. It was a nice change, though, walking through the streets between the two- and three-story buildings instead of towering skyscrapers with the layers of moving belts and skimmer speedways. I almost couldn't believe that some of the wealthiest people in the area lived out here. Almost.

I found the hole-in-the-wall inn and got a room for two weeks, paying in advance. My appearance caught the eyes of the staff, but the older woman at the front shushed everyone and showed me to my room. It was plain, with a bed, a vid screen, and a catering slot. The bathroom had a water closet and a steam shower with hot and cold running water, though, so that was enough. I set the slim carrying case that had been strapped to my back on the bed and went to the bathroom for a quick shower.

It was surprising to find that the shower stall also had a drying unit, but it made sense that the establishment wouldn't have to wash towels. My hair, freshly dried and brushed, cascaded down my back to brush along the base of my spine. In the months it had taken me to prepare for this job, it had grown out enough for me to wear the dress that was in the slim bag. The dress itself was a deep, forest green with gold wires woven through it to make it shine. It stood out against my silver skin, and picked up the gold strands in my mostly black hair. It didn't do much for my violet eyes in my opinion, but it did the rest.

The hem fell to just above my knees and flowed out from my hips. I had tried to find it with wider straps, but it would have detracted from the overall look. So I dealt with the thread-thin straps by pulling some of my hair over my shoulders to give the illusion that they were more substantial. The back of the dress was a different matter altogether.

From the point where the straps attached to the sides to just above my ass was completely bare. The black scars that criss-crossed my back would be more visible than I would have liked, but my hair hid a lot of them. Because of the low cut of the front of the dress, I couldn't wear a bra of any kind. The saleswoman who had sold me the dress had also recommended little flower-shaped stickers to go over my nipples, but I decided against wearing them. Unlike a human woman, I could control every reaction my body might have to certain conditions.

With the dress on I went back to the bag and took out a slim black case that I slipped into a garter high on my left thigh. The case held my lock picking tools on the inside and a wafer thin black plas-knife that was sharper than anything made out of steel. The dress wouldn't allow for anything else to be secreted about my person, so I checked my hair and makeup in the dingy mirror and was satisfied with what I saw.

I had called for a ride to the space port ballroom and sighed when I saw the skimmer waiting in the street when I walked out. The driver smiled appreciatively as I walked up to the side door, but didn't say anything when I shot him a look. We set out a bit slowly from the town, but once we were clear of the edges the skimmer picked up speed and rose to the level that would take us to the ballroom. It took much less time to return to the space port than it had taken me to get to the tiny town. When we arrived, the driver quoted an obscene amount of credit for the ride, but I managed to talk him down by three-quarters with a few choice words and a flash of the knife. I was not just some ignorant off-worlder to be taken advantage of, and I made sure he knew that.

The slow-moving belt up to the ballroom was lined with people hoping to get a glimpse of a celebrity. I caught more than a few lustful looks my way, but I wasn't famous so they didn't last long. It wasn't enough to be unique in this place; one had to be famous as well. The dismissive glances were fine by me. I wouldn't be able to do the job if I garnered too much of a following.

Once I was inside the ballroom, I let out a sigh of relief. There was no way I would stand out in the crowd of off-worlders where the Terran Human was in the minority. This job was looking easier and easier as I slid through the crowd to a door that was obscured by a well placed vid-screen displaying a boring tapestry. I passed the door by, glancing around to make sure no one was paying any particular attention to me, when I saw him.

His skin had a copper-like shine to it, but it was his eyes that caught me. They were such a vivid green that even from across the room I knew I would see them in my dreams with no loss of detail. He smiled and turned back to the large marine male he had been talking to when I caught him looking at me. A quick scan of the room told me that no one else seemed to know I even existed, so I walked back to the door and slid my lock picks from the garter. The door put up little resistance and I had it unlocked within seconds. Another glance assured me that the party would continue without my presence. I pulled the door open and slid through.

I had walked into a service hallway that wasn't being used for this ball, and hurried along it to another door that opened into an empty office. Here, I had a chance to pull the legs of a skin-tight black body suit out from under the dress. The dress had almost not fit right to hide the body suit, but I had been elated when I found it would work. I removed the dress to pull the body of the suit up over my breasts and pulled the sleeves down to where the end hooked over my middle finger. With a few quick movements, my hair was up in a tight bun and the gold cuff was dropped onto the pile that was my dress.

From the blueprints I had studied of the space port, I knew that the air vent in this room would open directly into the admiral's office. I also knew that while the admiral was currently drinking and flirting out in the ballroom, he would have left only a petty officer at the door outside the office. The stability of the air vent surprised me as I lifted myself inside. I had been prepared for a small amount of noise, but they were made of a different alloy than the usual cheap material. It felt very solid under my hands. In the stronger-than-expected air vent I was able to make my way to the office quadrant faster than I had anticipated. When I reached the right office, I waited for a couple minutes to be sure no one was sitting in the office just out of sight.

Satisfied that I would not be interrupted, I pulled the grate to the side and dropped silently onto the carpeted floor. The office was well appointed – as was fitting for an admiral – with a large, heavy desk on one side and all manner of awards and certificates in frames lined the wall behind it. I wasn't interested in any of that, however, and turned to the wall of bookshelves. The admiral wasn't so naïve as to put his safe behind some fake books, but he was bold enough to put something very valuable on the shelf itself. My job was to find it, take it, and deliver it to the person who had paid so much to have it. The only problem was that it was a sheet of data-film and could be wedged into any one of the books on the shelf. I could spend hours searching for it.

For any other thief, this could be an enormous issue, an all but impassable obstacle to the mission. Me, on the other hand, I had a distinct advantage. I was known as a Copper – a being with an affinity for all things technological. With my sense, I knew that the admiral had no less than five pieces of data-film hidden on the shelf. I was also able to discern that there was no alarm system rigged to the book shelf or any of the books. Among other talents, I was able to change my body between the silvery form I took most of the time and the form of a small silver and gold dragon.

With a small amount of discomfort, I felt my hands shift into talons with no fingerprints and I went through each of the books that had flared on my other sense. All five revealed a thin sheet of data-film tucked within the sheets, and I put all of them in a slim pocket stuck to my hip. The man who had paid me could sort out which one he needed and do what he wanted with the rest. My mission finished without so much as a noise from the hallway, I lifted myself back into the air vent and replaced the grate.

The ball was still rolling when I slipped quickly back through the hidden door. I wasn't as unobserved as I had been when I slipped out since a server came up and said that door was off limits. I feigned having drunk too much and muttered something about looking for a ladies room. He pointed me in the right direction and pulled a key out of his pocket and locked the door, checking to make sure the lock was working. I left in the direction he indicated, but didn't make it as far as I would have wished before I was intercepted by the coppery man I had seen earlier.

His eyes were even more vividly green than they had appeared from across the room, his scent spicy and intriguing. "That was a long time to be lost looking for a restroom," his voice was deeper than I would have thought, but it fit him somehow.

"It's a big space port to take a wrong turn in," I said, turning in an attempt to get out of his grasp. He didn't immediately release me, so I pulled away from him with more force.

"I don't think it's so big a space port, Anya," his face lost it's slightly drunk look and I stared at him. How did he know my name? He smiled at my obvious surprise, winked and started acting intoxicated again, "I think we should divest ourselves from these folks and retire for a cup of coffee."

Not knowing what to do with this man who knew me, I nodded and began walking with him. Out of the corner of my mouth, I asked, "Who are you?"

"I'm the man that is going to get you back to your room alive," he said through a smile as he nodded at another man. "We can discuss intimate details later."

The guard at the door was walking toward us and the man steered me off to the side. It was obvious to me that the guard hadn't seen us veer off, and he walked to where we had been talking and started looking around. The man I was walking with tugged my hand as he continued to walk toward the door. No more guards came in while the one that had been looking for us didn't yell out.

We made it out of the space port without being stopped, and he pulled me to a lift that whisked us up to a parking hangar. We had walked past two aisles when a security vehicle hummed up the next aisle. Suddenly, he was pushing me against the base of a skimmer rack and kissing me, his hands on the sides of my face. I shoved him away after the skimmer had passed, but held back from beating him to a pulp. If they were looking for me specifically, he had just effectively obscured my face from being seen.

He pulled me down the third aisle and we took a lift to the third level of racks. The skimmer he opened was a new model, sleek and angry looking. I made a sound of appreciation as I slid into the soft foam seats, making sure the dress didn't ride up too much. The skimmer started smoothly and he pulled it out of the parking rack. We drove at a sedate pace out of the hangar and away from the space port.

"So," he said once we had gotten out of the busier part of the port city. "Where did you hole up?"

"About an hour outside of the city, a little town called Bastien or something," I told him which level to take out and about how long the trip would be in a skimmer as fast as his.

"You mean you holed up in Barsten?" He asked as we passed through the suburban areas surrounding the center of the city. "What in the galaxy made you go way out there?"

"I prefer not to be in the city," I said. "It's too close to the object of my job." I turned to face him as much as the seat restraints would allow. "Now, tell me who you are."

"My name is Grey. That's all you need to know right now. I can also assure you that I am not the only one at that ball who knew what you were there for, but I'm the only one that can kiss really well."

"The mariner you were talking to? Or the man you nodded at us as we left?"

"Both; and you'll meet them later," he glanced at me, his gaze going to the length of thigh that had been exposed when I turned in the seat.

Maybe it had been too long since I'd had a man look at me like that. Maybe it was the small amount of adrenaline that had raced through my veins when he had kissed me. Whatever it was, I didn't care that I was all but exposed to him. "Why were you there? At the ball?" I asked, leaning my head against the seat.

"We were there because we were your competition. You didn't think your man was the only one after that data-film, did you?" He smirked at the thought. "There's valuable information on that film, and plenty of people have been after it. My guy was going to go in when we spotted you and decided to hang back."

"I don't know what's on the film, and your man would never have found it without being caught," I turned back to the front and watched the scenery slowly turn more rural as we sped through the air.

"You don't ask questions about what you're lifting?"

"Nope," I pointed to the exit we needed to take to get off the level we were on and into the town. "I don't need to know what the client needs me to acquire for them, so long as the money's good."

"So you never even peek a little bit?" He sounded doubtful.

"I have no need to know. Get in, get out. That's always been my mantra. Leave as few ripples as possible and get paid."

"That's," he floundered a hand in the air. Giving up, he continued, "You have absolutely no idea what you have in that pocket on your hip?" I looked at him, startled. "Don't look at me like that, you're lucky that dress wasn't just a touch thinner or everyone would know you were hiding things under it."

He slowed as we rode through the town, and I pointed him to the door of the place I was staying. I lifted the door and got out, walking up to the door and not caring if he followed or not. He did, of course, and there was a soft chirp as the skimmer's security system was keyed on. I walked up to my room without a word to the lady at the desk and opened the door to my room. He stood just inside, looking around. "Quaint."

"It's sufficient for my needs," I said, unclasping the dress.

"Whoa, whoa! That kiss wasn't an invitation, darling," he had his hands raised in front of him.

"Don't flatter yourself. The bathroom isn't big enough for me to change in." I reached under the skirt of the dress and pulled the body suit down to my knees, then pulled the bodice over my breasts before letting the garment fall to the floor. "You could have just gone on your merry way, you know."

"Not as long as you have that film, Anya," he said.

"That's been bugging me. How do you know who I am?"

"You're Anya Sterling, best Copper thief this arm of the galaxy. The right people know who you are," he sat down on the bed since it was the only place to sit. "The unfortunate people find out who you are when you're done with them. My men will be here shortly, and then you can listen to us."

"Great, I'm not a very good listener."

He cleared his throat, not quite hiding the chuckle that came when I said that, and then looked at me, "What did you mean when you said my men would never have been able to get the film?"

I smiled, "I never steal and tell, but you can trust me on that one."

There was a knock at the door and he rose from the bed, "I'll get it. They're here for me anyway."

The mariner and the other man from the ballroom walked through the door when Grey opened it. Suddenly the room wasn't large enough. I knew why he would want a mariner on a job – they were strong and could get out of just about any kind of bind – but why he would bring a man that dabbled in casting was beyond me. Maybe that was how he had hoped to find the film in the office, though I doubted the man's abilities would give him the sight of a Copper.

"Hey, boss," the other man said when he was done assessing me. "We never stood a chance against her. If you hadn't seen her and stopped our advance, we would have been caught in the admiral's office empty handed."