Niki and Trevor walked side by side rather than back to back, for once.

     "You're limping," Niki said. "You okay?"

​     "I'm missing the healers, that's for fucking sure."

     Niki walked and Trevor limped into a huge open area surrounded by what looked like ramshackle dwellings.

     They saw no people, though.

     And then they did.

     It was like they blinked, and suddenly they found themselves surrounded.

     Two dozen people. Half men. Half women.

     These people did not look starved, although they dressed simply. What ornamentation they wore looked fashioned from the refuse that constantly rained.

     Niki didn't see a smile anywhere she looked.

     She also didn't see any laser whips.

     What she saw were clubs. People hovered over them on anti-gravs. They, too, brandished clubs, like their clubs were an extension of their bodies or something.

     "Looks like we're in for a whole different kind of fight," Niki muttered.

     "I'll take clubs over laser whips any day," Trevor replied.

     "You say that now." 

CONTINUE