Aurora Saga 2 Immortality for Life by Adrian Fulcher

a large circular space over three hundred metres in diameter, which had a high vaulted ceiling. Around the entire perimeter were the entrances to many bars, all with flashing coloured lights and bright signage trying to attract people inside. This area was once a grand leisure centre with a space in the centre for theatrical performances and adorned by plants and flowers, but there were now just areas of blue grass overrun by weeds and the remains of a central stage.
    There were a lot of people moving about between the bars.
    Zoren heard a noise like someone was aggressively knocking on a door.
    ‘What was that?’ Zoren said.
    ‘That was a railgun being fired, somewhere over there in one of those bars,’ Kalrea said, peering into the distance.
    ‘I hope that’s not the bar we’re heading for?’ he replied.
    ‘No, this is the place we’re looking for,’ Kalrea said, moving towards a nearby bar.
    Standing outside the door and holding a very large gun across its waist was a tall creature with a large head, which Zoren recognised was a Drulfian.
    On each side of the doorway there was a three-dimensional glowing red and blue image of a Gullin woman standing in a bikini. The two women were pictured life-size, with their arms stretched out high above their heads, so their hands were above the level of the top of the door. They were both supporting a muscular Gullin man who was wearing shorts and lying on his side above the door with his arm supporting his head, in what was an impossible pose.
    ‘Are you sure this is the right place, Kalrea?’ Zoren asked, feeling embarrassed to enter such a seedy establishment.
    ‘It’s the right place. I know that a lot of the crew from the Ringal are in there.’
    ‘What are we going to do?’
    ‘Well hopefully the captain of the Ringal will be inside. He’ll definitely know where the Agonians are. If he isn’t, then I’ll have to ask one of the crew where I can find him.’
    As Kalrea went to push open the door, the Drulfian put his arm out in front of her, preventing her from entering the bar.
    ‘Are you in the right place, lady?’ it asked her.
    ‘What do you mean?’ Kalrea replied.
    ‘This is not a tourist area of Xim’gu. I don’t think someone like you would want to go in a place like this.’
    Kalrea pushed its arm to one side. ‘I’m not a tourist, all right! And this is where I want to go.’
    Zoren shrugged his shoulders, when the Drulfian glanced at him and then quickly followed Kalrea inside.
    I n the large, noisy and smoke-filled bar were about thirty people. All the men were of a race he did not recognise, so he asked Kalrea quietly who they were.
    ‘Frinduls,’ Kalrea replied. ‘Some of them are the mercenaries who took your people.’
    Zoren had already met a Frindul, the previous day, when the Polnozoo was attacked and he had been trapped under the large girder on the space station, but that time they were wearing space suits and he could not see them at all, so he had made the natural assumption that they had to look the same as him. Instead, they were completely different.
    He gazed at a Frindul sitting at a nearby table who was smoking a stubby blood-red stick and was wearing a green feather covered coat. His light-green leathery face was long and thin, like someone had squeezed his cheeks together, pushing his swollen and cracked mouth outwards. The face appeared to be wet with two large snowy-white eyes, but there were no visible nose or ears. At the base of the back of his head was some long coarse hair.
    The Frindul turned towards him, and Zoren unknowingly made eye contact with him. He felt very uneasy and a cold shiver ran up his spine, as the Frindul’s large eyes seemed to cut right through him. Zoren turned quickly away.
    There were four Frinduls standing at the bar, laughing, drinking and playing a game with brightly-coloured circular discs. Next to them, a Gullin woman in a bikini, this time a real woman, had her arms around the necks