A million questions flooded my exhausted brain, but before I could get any of them out, one of the birdpeople jerked its head to the side and gave a cautious whistle. The human who called himself Shiro raised a finger to his lips again and pulled me close, hunkering down to my height. The five of us stood frozen as heavy footsteps passed the front of the curtained-off stall.
When the sounds had passed and we all started to breathe again, I took a good look at the other birdmens’ faces. All of them had moving eyelids that blinked, and their nostrils flared when they breathed. Only Shiro was a human in a bird mask. The rest were real birdpeople.
“We need to get you out of here,” Shiro said. “And nobody needs to know what a human looks like.” His face split into a grin. “Darned lucky you’re all mucked up with green stuff. I don’t think anybody here would recognize what you really look like underneath all that slime and dirt.”
I patted my crunchy hair, which was standing straight out at all angles from my head. Yeah, that’s a carrot in there.
“But where—” I began, and Shiro cut me off.
“Time for all your questions later. And time for all of mine.” He nodded to the birdmen. “Let’s get you back to our ship so they can finish their transaction and get us out of here. Not the safest place to be after dark.”
I shook out of his grasp. “Look, thanks for rescuing me and all, but I can’t go with you. My brother and the rest of my people are captives on a ship in orbit. I came down here on a shuttle, and I’m not going anywhere until I find that shuttle. I need to get back to my brother.”
Shiro’s eyes narrowed. “What shuttle? How many people? Where did you . . .” He shook his head. “Nope. No time now.” He whistled to the birdmen, and one of them peered out the front of the stall for a moment before whistling back. Shiro turned around and pulled out a knife, cutting down a large swath of the thick brown curtain hanging from the back of the stall. He whipped it around my head and shoulders, creating a makeshift cloak for me. “Look, we can sort it all out once we’re somewhere safer. Keep this over your head, and don’t look at anyone. Stay close to me and we’ll get to our ship. Then we can figure out where your people are and what to do about them.”
I started to protest, but he fixed my gaze in a stern glare. I shut up and nodded.
Finally. Someone who can be in charge of all this. As much as I wanted to race from the stall and find the green aliens’ ship, the weariness of the day had caught up to me. Shiro was a human. He would help me sort this out. I finally had allies who could help me rescue my brother.
Shiro replaced his bird mask and pulled up the hood, shadowing his face. It was a good mask. Under that hood, no one would guess he was anything other than a real birdman. We shuffled out of the stall, and I stayed pressed up against Shiro’s side. The sun had nearly set and the area around the livestock pens was almost deserted. Shiro placed a gloved hand on my shoulder, and I moved in closer to his cloaked side. I didn’t dare look up to see where we were going, but soon we had left the pens full of bleating, snarling, and wailing animals behind us and moved out into the long shadows of the parked shuttles. After a long walk, he squeezed my shoulder, and I looked up to see a huge, sleek, silver craft in front of us. It was narrow at the front, with wide, triangular wings at the back. A hatchway opened with a hiss, and a long ramp descended. We trooped up the ramp, and Shiro guided me through a large cargo bay and through another small hatch into the cockpit area. It had two rows of seats behind what must be the pilot’s chair and dark windows down each side.
“Sit here and be quiet,” he said, striding forward into the control area. “We’re here to do some trading, and then we’ll be on our way. We’ll figure out who has our people and what to do once we’re off this world.”
Our people? I pressed my face up against the window. Shiro reached out and flipped a switch, one of a thousand controls labeled in a scratchy language that looked like no writing I’d ever seen. Outside the shuttle, the ground lit up around us.
“Stay here and stay silent,” he said. “You can take the curtain off your head now, but I’m locking the door behind me. We’ll be back and we’ll get out of here.” He slipped out the hatch behind me, and I heard a click after it closed.
The very end of the ramp was in view if I craned my neck backwards. The other three birdmen glided down to the bottom of the ramp and stood waiting. Shiro, his mask replaced and hood pulled up, joined them. In a moment, dark shadows plodded around the side of the shuttle next to us, a big, black, hulking thing shaped like a pyramid.
When the shadows moved into the light, my heart skipped a beat.
“It’s them!” My voice echoed in the empty cockpit. “Oh, stars, it’s them!”
Nine of the familiar green aliens clustered around the birdmen at the bottom of the ramp. Even at this distance, I was certain one of them was Eddie. I jumped up and turned to the hatch, but it didn’t open despite my pounding. When I scuttled back to my seat and peered out the window again, Shiro’s mask was staring straight at me. I could feel his glare through the glass eyes and shrank into my seat under its force.
As soon as they open this hatch, I’m out of here. Gotta follow them. Find my brother.
The green aliens produced five small boxes, setting them on the ground in front of them and stepping back. The birdmen picked them up and opened them in turns, peering in and appearing to sniff the contents. They whistled to each other and set the boxes on the ground again.
Shiro and two of the birdmen disappeared up the ramp. Soon they reappeared with two large crates and a sealed tub. The green aliens peered into the crates and lifted the lid on the tub, checking out the contents. Apparently satisfied, one of the greens produced a small chip and handed it to one of the birdmen. The birdman handed back a similar chip. Was it payment or a receipt?
The aliens dragged the crates and tub away, and Shiro and the birdmen carried the small boxes they had traded for up the ramp. Through the back wall of the cockpit, I heard the ramp retract and the large hatchway slam shut. As soon as the small hatch opened, I jumped at Shiro.
“That’s the ones! That’s who has my brother!”
He pulled off the mask and stared at me. “Are you certain? They all look different. Are you sure those are the ones?”
I nodded, trying to shove my way past him, but the others blocked my way. “It’s them. We have to make them give our people back!”
Shiro’s face fell. “I hope you’re wrong, kid. I really hope you’re wrong.” He glanced out the window to where the green aliens had disappeared, heading back to wherever their shuttle waited. “Because if the Botanists have your people, then wherever you came from, you’re the only survivor.”