Drelix

The Yetag is stalling, his face tentacles waving genially at me. We've eaten and now he wants to drink. Further, he's suggesting we change our current venue.

But he has the quantum booster, and I want it, with the minimum of fuss. The last thing I need is for the Golden Orion to get a reputation it doesn't have. Sarkarnii pay their dues to those who assist us. Only our enemies need be afraid of what might come for them out of a nebula.

It looks like I'm going to have to indulge him, and we leave the cafe for a bar a short distance down the dirty street. It is as unpleasant inside as it looks from the outside, but he is happy to sit closer to the back, away from prying eyes.

I order a pitcher of ale wine as he launches into a sales spiel for some other weaponry he wants to off load. My drink arrives and I down it in one, tired of his constant talk. I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand and pull the first credit chip out of my pocket.

"The quantum booster first, then the information, and then I might be prepared to discuss further purchase."

He gives me a wet smile and looks at the amount displayed on the chip, reaching for it with his single claw. I pull it back under my palm and extend my five claws, digging them into the table.

"The quantum booster." I glare at him, blinking away a shudder of color which halos about his head, silhouetted against the light. "Now."

He delves into the myriad of wriggling tentacles covering his body and pulls out the cylinder, placing it on the table between us.

"And the information?"

"You'll need to go to Trefa. I have a contact in the trading port, Tatunga. They have the information you require on your enemies. He's a Uhatx called Phxt."

Nev it! This is not the information I wanted. I do not need another chase across the galaxy.

I lean across the table, my limbs tingling with anger. "You told me you had locations, names, ship codes," I growl.

"My contact has more. They have details of those who really perpetrated the act of war on your planet," he says, grinning wildly and exposing his beak.

"The nevving Liderc destroyed my planet, I already know that!" I say, annoyed my words are being slurred by my rage.

"No, they did not." He sits back suddenly and my head spins at the movement.

I grab for the quantum booster as he bats my hand away, but he's not quick enough. I have his sensitive tentacle in my claws, and I make sure he knows it.

"Are you really trying to double cross a Sarkarnii?" I growl, hating the fact my head is filling with a weird fog.

"I didn't mean to, Drelix. They made me. I'm an honest trader, you know that," he gibbers.

I squeeze my eyes closed and shake my head free of the smoke. When I open them again, he's not quite the right shape. So, I dig my claws in farther and there is a squelching squeal.

"They made me, I'm sorry, so sorry."

"Made you do what?"

"Put the stuff in your drink."

"There was stuff in my drink?" My brain does not want to work, not at all. "What stuff?"

"The poison."

I have a swift, instant moment of clarity, but at the same time, my hand slackens and the Yetag pulls free. All the smoke returns, along with my strength as I hold on to the credit chip as his suckers attach to it.

"You can't poison a Sarkarnii."

"Not what I've been told," he grinds, redoubling his efforts as I attempt to grab the rolling quantum booster cylinder.

But my claws seem too big, and it rolls towards the edge of the table as I slam my other hand into his mass of tentacles, getting hold of what passes for his throat, and he begins to choke. The cylinder continues to roll, but I don't want to let go of either the Yetag or the credit chip, until it reaches the edge and teeters.

Any semblance of co-ordination I had disappears, and as I let go of the trader, the cylinder falls.

With a growl, I fling myself forward, heading for the floor in an effort to catch the booster which is tumbling and tumbling down off the edge.

It's going to hit the ground. And if it does, we're all in big trouble.

The cylinder doesn't make it. Instead it's caught in a tiny pink hand, which, as I follow up the arm, I can see is attached to…

"Crystal."

"Any particular reason you're on the floor?" she asks, cocking her head to one side and making my world spin once again.

"It looked as good a place as anywhere to be," I hear myself say, my face grinning idiotically.

"Did you need anything else from your friend?" She looks across the bar, and I see the Yetag, tentacles bouncing, racing out of the bar.

I drop my head back with a groan and attempt to get up as the sound of a pulsar bolt rings in my ears.

"Fuck! Now we're in trouble," Crystal says.