Manual labor, Stan thought, manual labor. We save their lives and they put us to work. He waddled down the corridor, his arms full of a box. A stupid box full of stupid stuff that was only going to cause trouble. Granted, nothing had happened yet, but he knew that didn’t mean it wasn’t going to happen. And from what he’d experienced, the longer trouble took, the more trouble it was.

Whatever he was carrying made a lot of noise, like musical instruments. “Be careful with that,” Coral had told him. Be careful. He didn’t want to carry it. If she wanted it carried carefully, she should carry it herself.

Xev followed Stanley, dragging an ugly creature behind her. It had either been the monster or the box and Stanley had gotten first pick. The leash bit into her skin where she’d wrapped it around her wrist to keep a hold of the animal, and it really didn’t want to go wherever it thought she was taking it. Xev looked back at the grotesque little thing. Green fur, purple claws and two waggling, off-center eyes. She supposed it was almost so ugly it was endearing – “Ow!” – if it would only stop pulling.

Xev looked back to Kai, who followed her. In his arms, he carried a little ball of fur with a thin, prehensile tail and doe-eyes. From where she was, it looked soft. And far more complying. Its lengthy tail wrapped affectionately around Kai’s neck and it buried its velvety little head under his chin. Xev thought she almost saw a smile on Kai’s face, but the demon she was carting suddenly yanked the leash, pulling her attention back to it. She considered asking Kai to switch, his arms wouldn’t be hurt by the leash since he couldn’t feel anyway, but somehow she doubted that fuzzy little beastie would be as calm with her. Animals didn’t usually like her. In most cases, it was mutual.

Grunting and straining with the heavy load, Stan carted the box to the bridge, just as Coral had instructed. Job done, he thought, and he let the crate drop to the ground with a cacophonous jangling. Something sounded as if it might have broken. Gasping for breath, Stan couldn’t bring himself to care.

Xev pulled and pulled, dragging the obnoxious purple-clawed creature with her. It had been growling incessantly and, in the short walk from the cargo hold to the bridge, Xev’s nerves had been worn raw. She gave the leash another yank and managed to slide the animal, which had, in an unusually passively resistive move, simply taken a seat. The last ten feet had been gained by pulling the thing along on its backside. She paused, taking a breath. The animal growled at her, baring its teeth. Xev’s narrowed eyes slowly turned back to it. It had been growling at her the entire way down the corridor and now, when she stopped, it had dared to bare its teeth at her. Xev bared her own teeth, feeling the cluster lizard growl building in her throat. She let out one, harsh, low screech.

The animal froze and sat quietly, awaiting her command.

Xev smiled and dropped the leash. This was far enough.

Mot passed her, carrying two cases of snakes. “I’m impressed,” he complimented. “He’s a guard animal. He tries to eviscerate most humans.”

“He must sense the cluster lizard in me,” Xev coolly replied, examining her fingernails. “Most animals do.”

Xev enjoyed the look of surprise that immediately washed over Mot’s face. “Cluster lizard?” he asked, incredulous. “Wow.”

Smiling, Xev looked to Coral just in time to see the woman mask the look of interest in her eyes. These people claimed to be oddity dealers, but they had probably never seen anything as odd as her - or as the Lexx and its crew as a whole, for that matter. A love slave with her own mind had gotten her enough surprised looks. The cluster lizard DNA was the jewel in the mix.

Xev turned to see Kai enter, his pleasant charge still curled around him. She didn’t want to come near it, but at least it was cuter than Squish. Still, it made her feel uncomfortable. It made her feel sort of…hungry. She sighed and looked away. The jewel in the mix, perhaps, but the cluster lizard part of her could still cause a lot of trouble. But she should try to overcome that and force herself to-

Her attention was suddenly and wholly gripped by Bor and Evette who entered the room – hauling a cryopod. Xev felt Stan move to stand beside her, his curiosity equally struck dumb. The pod looked a lot like the ones in their own cyroroom, but it was filthy. Black filth caked the edges and a thick layer of brown dust completely obscured the scratched and scarred windows. Xev tried to find a clear spot, some section that might reveal the pod’s contents, but it was disgusting. Every inch was covered in slime and dirt. Xev glanced at Kai, but his attentions were on the cuddly creature in his arms.

“Who’s, uh, who’s in there?” Stan asked, his voice edging at concern.

“Just one of our antiques,” Mot replied.

“Our best antique,” Coral corrected with a sharp, accusing look at her compatriot. “I bought it off a freak show,” she continued, smiling charmingly at Xev and Stan. “It still does all its tricks. We can show you the demonstration, if you’d like.” She turned her attentions to Bor and Evette, hauling the wobbly pod. “Set it up over here. We’ll use this area.”

Stan and Xev’s faces moved with the cryopod as Bor and Evette wheeled it across the bridge, standing it up beside the assortment of crates.

“An antique?” Stan wondered aloud, looking at her. She simply shrugged in reply. They both knew you didn’t keep antiques in a cryopod. You kept *people* in a cryopod.

Xev turned to Kai, trying to pull her attentions away from her curiosity. She wanted to know what – or who – was in the cryopod, but she had been interrupted during a path of self- improvement. Sighing, she carefully approached Kai and his new friend. Her stomach growled and she abruptly stopped. This might be a bad idea, but she wanted to know she could do it – that she controlled the cluster lizard, that she was more human than lizard. Besides, she told herself, if Kai thought she was a threat, he would tell her so. He was much less romantic about the affects of her lizard DNA. She constantly tried to deny or ignore it or just enjoy it, but Kai understood that it was part of her and everyday was a battle between her two halves.

“Who is this?” she asked, daring to pet the animal. Its fur was a soft as it looked.

“Nyar,” Kai answered, his green eyes examining her a moment.

“He seems to like you.”

“What is it with you and ugly animals?” Stan asked, peering under Kai’s chin at the creature’s face and round eyes.

Kai’s brow furrowed and his intense gaze shifted to Stan. “He is not ugly,” he defended calmly.

Wringing his hands nervously, Mot approached the group. Xev saw him over Kai’s shoulder. The portly fellow eyed Kai, then walked far around him, as if Kai had a perimeter he did not want to breach. “Uh, excuse me,” he uttered, directing himself toward her. “We’ll need to hook the cryopod back up soon. Do you have a cryochamber or even just a freezer?” A freezer? Whatever was in that cryopod *had* to be a thing. They surely wouldn’t store a member of their group in a freezer.

“We have something that will be suitable,” Kai replied, noting Xev’s hesitancy to answer. Mot almost jumped when Kai spoke to him and he took a few steps back.

“Thanks-thank you, sir,” he stuttered. Then, he cocked his head toward Nyar, cradled in Kai’s arms. “She’s cute, isn’t she? Are you, uh, in the market for a pet?”

Coral returned to them in a flourish and put one tight, vice-like hand on Mot’s elbow. “We aren’t allowed to sell Nyar, Mot,” she whispered harshly. Then, her smile returned and her eyes raised to the rest of them. “Our real oddities are over here.” With a welcoming extension of her hands, she directed them toward a small section of the bridge they had made their own.

Stan followed Xev around Kai toward the display. Hmmph. Oddities. From where he was standing it looked like a bunch of crates – the crates they had had to carry – covered in blankets displaying a bunch of junk.

“We only have items that people want,” Coral informed as he and Xev looked over the wares. “Items with no practical purpose.”

Stan walked along, assessing all the items. Junk…trash…scrap. Then, his eyes fell on a large, silver box with an unusual carving on top. It looked like it housed something fragile and fragile sometimes meant expensive. Examining the possible treasure, Stan lifted it from the table.

Coral immediately slammed it back down. “I can let you have a discount on this,” she informed, a tight smile on her lips, “but I cannot let you have it for free.”

“But we saved your life,” Stan countered.

Coral removed his hands from the box and wiped the edges clean of fingerprints. “On the right planet, this box is worth six times *more* than my life,” she breathed.

Bor, carrying a box of snakes, entered the circle created by the crates. Coral’s eyes perked up and she delicately pushed Stan away from the silver container. “Ah, our first demonstration,” she said, looking to Bor. The purple-clawed creature Stanley had let Xev handle came bounding through the crates, unleashed. Stan backed up, bumping into one of the boxes. That thing unleashed couldn’t be a good idea. “This is Whisker,” Coral informed. “He’s a vicious animal by nature, but Bor has him trained so well, he’ll eat snakes from the palm of his hand.”

Bor reached into the box and grabbed a handful of slimy, slithering snakes. Stan felt the corners of his mouth turn down in disgust. Bor raised his empty hand high into the air. Whisker cried out happily, settled to the ground and flipped backwards, head over feet. His trick complete, he rushed over to Bor and greedily slurped the snakes from his hand. Stan watched as one thin reptile attempted to slither from the animal’s mouth only to be slurped up again. He felt a wave of nausea slide through his body.

“Were it not for an unfortunate sidestep, Whisker would have been a great hunter,” Coral explained. “As he is, children love him.”

Stanley chose to look away as the green beast sidestepped over to rest beside one of the crates and enjoy his snakes. Turning around to the display behind him, his eyes fell on a little black ball, encrusted with colored jewels. He picked it up and noticed a faint seam encircling it. Grabbing the top and bottom, he twisted. Immediately, legs extended and the jewels lit up. Then, the little black ball began to dance on his palm while obnoxious, tinny music droned from its core.

“That’s a real find,” Coral congratulated, stepping to his side. “Fun for hours.” She stood beside him, bobbing her head to the peppy music. Stan watched as her smile slowly fell and turned downward. Abruptly, she grabbed the ball from him and twisted it shut.

Across the way, Xev looked over a selection of bound papers. Each had a hard cover to them. She knocked on one and found that it was soft and velvety. Picking it up, she flipped through the pieces of paper. It was full of words.

“Do you like to read?” Mot asked, stepping toward her.

Xev shrugged. “I don’t know.” She had been taught to read at the wife bank, but only recipes and instructions. She had never particularly *liked* reading those.

“That one’s a classic,” he said, nodding toward the bound papers in her hand. “It has sword fights, pirate ships, handsome strangers…love…death…sex.”

Xev’s eyes widened and she looked down at the plain-looking velvety object. All of that, in here? she wondered. “Really?”

Back beside the command pedestal, Bor approached the pale guy holding Nyar. He was not nearly so afraid of the man in black. Fear would be neat, actually. *That* would at least be something, but, no, he felt no fear, or interest, or anything, really. Other than boredom and the faint need to make a sale. And it looked like this guy here would be the toughest sale of the bunch. “You can have anything you want, sir,” he gently reminded, patting Nyar on the head even though he’d never liked the little puffball. Common interest always helps a sale.

“I don’t want anything,” the pale man replied.

“I’m sure we have an item that would interest you, something you would want.”

“I don’t respond to want.”

Bor studied the man before him. He had a shrewd stare, a reserved taste in clothing, eccentric style of hair – a tough sell indeed. This would need diplomacy and calculation. He glanced around, noting Coral across the room talking with the guy in the little red hat and Mot chatting with the woman. Evette was standing mute beside the cryopod, but she never did anything anyway, so she wasn’t a concern. Then, he took the pale man by the elbow and leaned in conspiratorially. “You’re obviously a discerning buyer,” Bor said, “so I’m going to give you a deal.” The pale man’s shrewd eyes narrowed on him.

Xev, her chosen item closed in her hands, looked over at Kai and Bor, having overheard their conversation. She suppressed a laugh. Kai, a discerning buyer? That man had a much harder customer than he thought. Xev rubbed the velvety cover of her bound “book,” as Mot had told her, and wandered over to Stanley. He stood, watching disinterestedly as a flashing ball danced on his palm. “Have you made your choice, Stan?”

“‘Choice?’ How can I choose between one thing?” Irritated, he looked down the book in Xev’s hand. “Are you getting that?”

“It won’t become irritating as soon as that thing will.”

Stan twisted the ball shut and dropped it on the crate.

“Wonderful choice, Xev,” Coral gushed, stepping to them. “We have the whole series, if you’re interested. I can give you a discount.”

“No, thank you,” she replied, with a shake of her head. She had been good and patient. She had petted Nyar, overcoming her lizard tendencies, and had calmly chosen her gift of thanks for a rescue well done. Now, she thought, turning her eyes to the cryopod, I want to see what’s in there. “Could we see what’s in the cryopod now?”

Xev was happy to see Coral’s eyes instantly brighten. “Of course,” the sales manager replied. “It’s our finest demonstration. Bor, Evette, Mot, get the cryopod ready.”

Bor happily abandoned his futile back-and-forth with the pale man and rushed to the cryopod. While he wheeled the cryopod to the center of the circle, Mot and Evette opened one of the crates. It was filled with balloons.

Eager and excited, Xev sank to the floor, crossing her legs and resting comfortably, ready for the show. Stan sat down beside her. She glanced over, noticing 790 facing the opposite direction. The robot head had managed to be silent for the last half hour and such small feats in 790 were to be rewarded. Placing one hand on his head, she swiftly turned him to face the cryopod. She hadn’t expected any thanks and she didn’t receive any.

Kai stepped forward, standing behind Xev and Stan. He watched calmly as Mot and Evette claimed the balloons from the crate and began setting up pedestals in a semi-circle around the cryopod. Each pedestal supported a balloon, which, once set in place, rose straight into the air, drifting gently with the changing air currents. He felt a tugging on his pant leg. Looking down, he saw Xev pulling on the knee of his pants. Smiling, she gestured to him. He interpreted that to mean she wanted him to sit down. Careful not to lose hold of Nyar in his arms, he sank to the ground to sit cross-legged beside Xev.

The cryopod and balloons in place, Coral stepped forward, taking center stage. “This is the jewel of our selection,” she began, as Mot and Evette took their positions off to the side, extra balloons in hand. “It cannot be given away. I caution you to remember that.” Her shrewd gaze focused on each of them in turn, even 790. “The man I bought it from taught me the routine, but, over the years, I have improved it, as you may do if you own this amazing conversation piece.”

Bor lifted his hand to the pod’s controls, ready to open it when his cue came.

“He called it Maedra, the Deadly,” Coral continued, stepping to the side, out of the way of the cryopod hatch. “I call it Maedra, Mistress of Murder.”

At that, Bor quickly tapped in the code. Vapor hissed from the cryopod…

…tap…
…hiss…
…hiss…
…tap…
…and the cryopod opened.

The pod erupted with vapor, filling the room with the chill mist. Slowly, through the frigid haze, the figure of Maedra, Mistress of Murder began to take shape.

Arms and legs – a human, then, and not an antique.

Standing rigidly, unmoving.

Dark, no, black clothes. All black.

Dark hair, maybe even black and something over it.

No, more hair.

And hair draping beside the face.

The cool smoke cleared completely. Xev, Stanley and 790 stared in shock. Standing before them was a Brunnen-G warrior.

“Kai?” Xev whispered, barely able to force even that sound through her astonishment. Kai’s brow furrowed, staring at the unexpected figure.

She, Maedra, the warrior, was clearly female. Her cool, disinterested eyes focused forward on a point far above and beyond the heads of her audience. She saw nothing.

“Unpara-” Coral halted, casting a wary glance at Kai. “As yet unparalleled power and performance.”

Maedra lifted her arm and her brace screamed from her wrist, slashing into one of the surrounding balloons. It exploded in a shower of colored sparks and smoke. Mot rushed forward and immediately replaced it with another.

“Ruthless reflex and dexterity,” Coral continued.

Maedra destroyed the two balloons on either side of her, her turning and re-aiming almost imperceptible. Evette and Mot replaced the balloons.

“Deadly force under preternatural control.”

Maedra’s brace again shrieked from her wrist, hurtling toward one of the balloons. But the talons, rather than ripping through it, grasped it delicately by the string. Pulling it free of its stand, the brace extended again, shooting the balloons toward Xev. Stan let out a frightened and Xev jumped as the brace screamed toward her. But it stopped short, the balloon within easy reach. Glancing uncomfortably at the dark-clothed woman who still looked beyond her, Xev accepted the balloon. The brace flew back, returning to its place in the woman’s wrist.

“Contained in one form, the destructive capacity of a legion of soldiers. Lady, gentlemen, and robot head: Maedra, the Mistress of Murder.”

Maedra’s brace extended and, gently turning her arm, she began it circling, howling around and around. Then, she let it fly. Shrieking, it tore through each of the balloons in succession, each exploding in a cloud of sparks and smoke, filling, obscuring the stage.

Silence.

Slowly, gently, the smoke dissipated, thinning out, extending upwards toward the cavernous ceiling of the Lexx, trickling out into the corridor. Xev and Stan were frozen in place, staring at Maedra.

Kai was not. He immediately stood, allowing Nyar to leap out of his arms, and walked purposefully toward the woman. Smartly, the salespeople backed away. Kai stepped close to the woman, looking directly in her eyes, forcing her to focus on something other than that far distant point. Her eyes shifted to his – and immediately registered surprise.

Xev immediately hopped up, Stan right beside her and the two of them followed Kai, charging toward the stage.

“Who is she?” Xev demanded.

“What is she?” Stan followed.

Shock and concern covered Coral’s face. “She’s Maedra.”

Mot backed up further, standing beside Coral. “She’s a Brunnen-G or something like that.”

“That’s not possible,” Xev declared. “This is Kai and he is-“

“The last of the Brunnen-G,” Maedra finished for her.

Kai’s eyes narrowed. “Seemingly not.”

“I have dreamt of meeting you.”

“You have dreamt?” Kai’s expression darkened. He looked closely at the woman, inspecting her clothes, her dress, her bearing. “How did you come to be here?” he asked. “Few paths lead to being a six-thousand year-old dead assassin.”

“I am much older than six thousand,” Maedra revealed calmly.

“She is a rare find,” Mot interjected from the sidelines.

Maedra turned her eyes to him. “Shut-up, Mot.”

Stan turned to Xev, finding a confused and astonished expression that matched his own.