Summary: By John Moran Read by Josh Roseman Discuss on our forums. An Escape Pod Original! All stories by John Moran All stories read by Josh Roseman Rated 13 and up for violence Next Time, Scales by John Moran “You’re too restless,” the lizard whispered into my brain. “And you’ve been at the reactor fuel again.” Marla slapped her prehensile tail onto the table, cracking its surface with her paralysing stinger and rattling the chess pieces. The blow echoed through the control room. “I hate it when you do that, Steven.” “Do what?” “Think you can read me.” I smiled. “Your underarm scales are pale, which means a supercharged diet or zero-gravity. As we haven’t been off-planet, it must be the food. Plus, your breath stinks of sulphur and your claws have white rings.” Marla pointed one crimson eye at the table, but kept the other on me. “Your move,” she said. “Give me time. Why do you think I’m restless?” “Because you’ve spent the last three weeks researching Loris, and done each patrol fully armed.” I glanced through the window, as if by chance I might catch our thief creeping up in plain view, but all I saw were two huge moons glowering over the ruined planet, its civilisation long-dead, part-excavated and full of secrets. I couldn’t let Marla know the site had me spooked, though. Her people had been hunters for a thousand years, and, through a quirk of fate, she believed in me. “Right.” I said. “Let’s patrol.” I got most of the way to the door before I realised what the click behind me had meant. “And you can put that piece back.” “Damn,” Marla said. The night was darker than usual, but I left off my flashlight and navigated by the excavation’s amber glow. After two months I’d learned the drill pretty well: walk three steps from the door before turning right, drop down through the first causeway, crunch my way over rubble and calcified ferns, pass beside three thousand year old shop windows, then into what people said were the temples of the spider-creatures that had once ruled Artemis. As I walked, Marla leapt from one wall to another like a shooting star. She looked beautiful, her scales shining like jewels. “Why you care so much about an urban legend?” she asked. “Because he’s a mystery. For two hundred years, Loris has been stealing artifacts, leaving only the letter L engraved onto the wall. Who wouldn’t be interested?” “He’s only human, Steven.” “I’m not sure. We didn’t have the technology to grow new bodies two centuries ago, so if he’s human, how has he lived so long?” Marla was silent for a while, then she said, “however good he is, I bet you’re better.” I walked away, unhappy with false praise. Instead, I ducked through the first arch, and stepped out below the huge, half-buried alien machine. Next to it, the laboratories and excavating machines looked forlorn and tiny. Forty archaeologists worked here in Artemis’ summer, but none had yet figured out what the machine did. “Perhaps you regret our melding?” Marla whispered, her voice quavering. “Not for a moment.” “Then why do you seek out complications?” “What do you mean?” “Loris, for instance. He’s just another hunt. So —” “— Marla?” “Yes?” “The machine’s active.” She appeared at my shoulder, scuttled up to the machine and crouched, eyes twitching in different directions. What had previously been a mountain of dark metal now held a tiny panel that shimmered like oil on water. As we watched, it faded to black. “Intriguing,” Marla said. “Still think Loris is a myth?” “I think we need to be careful.” She left in a blur, dancin[...]
