part0006

Like the unmistakable click of a fuse igniting, the name Quasser sank into memories so well hidden Dactyl had almost forgotten they existed. They slinked into his consciousness like smoke, black and staining, hijacking his usual measured response with one he thought he’d mastered. What a delusion.

Automatic and honed, the revolver drew, yearning to wreak havoc and cause harm, a yearning that had no business in his present. He had to remind himself, “I’m not him anymore.” That staid his finger from pulling the trigger, but not the words itching to leap off his tongue.

“Get the frick off Pardeep!” Whatever it took to keep his past from leaking into today and his future, he’d do. Craze couldn’t know. His beloved Rainly couldn’t know. Dactyl aimed the gun between the Sprinkler’s eyes.

If an associate of the infamous Mr. Q, she had to die, and he had no qualms about doing it. Not only would he kill her, the fact she’d ever arrived on Pardeep had to be erased. Unequivocally and without a trail.

Dactyl didn’t blink, inching closer to the pariah infesting Pardeep Station, meaning to pry her loose and scrape her every molecule from this place, his home. She couldn’t exist, not here, not if she knew Quasser.

Craze jumped to his feet, big and intimidating, but Dactyl knew the mountain of a Verkinn had nothing to back up that size. That race couldn’t breathe worth a lick on most Backworlds, and the thin atmosphere on this dust heap of a moon kept the barkeep weak as a ricklit. Without the special coveralls he wore, his legs and living hair floundered as useless as the insect’s limbs and antennae when flipped onto its back.

“Put the gun down. Jeez! I haven’t even opened yet. Let’s avoid a mess, huh?” Craze waved his hands around, taking up space.

He was good at that, and sometimes his thinking teetered on not completely screwy. Craze could never make up his mind as to what he was, though. A cold-hearted schemer, or a soft-hearted fool? Most times it didn’t bother Dactyl, but at this moment it did. Where Quasser was concerned, nothing wishy-washy could be allowed.

He scowled, ignoring the barkeep, poking at the Sprinkler with the barrel of his revolver. “Yous can’t stay here. Not yous. Not yous ship. Get the frick out. Now!” Dactyl grit his teeth and willed her gone. His thoughts felt as if they would blow out of his head.

The aqua gal with the crazy blue hair trembled worse than earlier. Fragile. She staggered, rising to her feet, holding up her hands. “Please! I can’t go back in there.”

Fear wafted off her in a stench. Dactyl inhaled deeply, rubbing the tattoo on his left arm. It represented an era when he had thrived on the stuff, when her vulnerability would’ve sent him into a frenzy from which he’d derive great pleasure. “Yous must. Yous tainted. Tainted by him.” He could tell by the dilation of her pupils she knew who he meant.

Her eyes rolled freely between her lids. “I understand the precautions, ‘n they necessary for him. But I don’t know him. Never came within my sights. Honest.”

No way did she fully understand how he itched to make her scream and cry, tearing her to bloody bits. No way did she understand the darkness he fought against. At least she didn’t appear to be a Minion of Dusk. Still, he didn’t want her here. She’d get his friends and gal asking questions. He didn’t want them to know, and he didn’t want to remember.

“Yous know of him, ‘n he had yous ship. That’s enough.” Plenty. Reason enough to blow her head to the next star system, reason enough to find a new world to call home.

Craze inched between Dactyl and the Sprinkler, blocking her from the revolver’s aim. His dark eyes narrowed, becoming mere slits in his wide brown face, almost disappearing amid the splay of his nose and cheeks.

Dactyl squeezed the grip of his gun, skipping one way then the other to get a clear shot. He’d not go back to what he’d been. The tree of a bartender kept pace, keeping the dangerous gal protected, behaving as asinine as ever. He had no idea what evil he’d just partnered with.

“Pauder rubbin’ off on you?” Craze asked.

What? Dactyl glowered at the off-base accusation. “Shut it or I’ll shoot yous, too. Move away from the space trash.” Wide and heavy as he was, Dactyl was still plenty agile. He quickly darted to the side and latched onto the Sprinkler’s sleeve. “Get moving, woman,” he barked.

Every shaky step she took threatened to topple her. “Don’t want no trouble.” Tears mixed with her drippings. “Just want to settle some place nice. Pardeep Station came up on the navigator like a dream. It looks so nice here.”

The fact Pardeep appeared on her navigation system without her tapping it in crawled down Dactyl’s spine like a warning. She must have been sent. Frick ‘n to bits!

He drove her toward the docks, sweeping his long brown waves over the front of his shoulder to keep them from dragging on the floor. “Too nice for anybody like yous.” He spat out the words and eyed her harshly.

The barkeep trotted after them, tugging at Dactyl’s shirt tail. “She seems kind of desperate. Let her at least tell her story.”

She’d sunk under Craze’s skin already. Dactyl suppressed the urge to kick the fool. “Yous something. Yous keep seeking love in all the wrong places.”

The tan coveralls covering most of Craze’s body squeezed in a rhythm to keep him breathing properly. Dactyl had never gotten used to the freaky, wheezing garment.

“Nah, nothin’ like that,” Craze said. “She’s got value. A Sprinkler. Fresh water for us all.”

Lepper bursts ‘n Fo’wo butts! “Three gallons a day isn’t enough for us all.” The crease between Dactyl’s brow deepened, threatening to give him a headache. “Nothing offsets her associations.” He prodded Dialhi. “Keep them legs churning. A little faster would please me greatly.”

Outside the tavern on the docking platform, metal sheeting covered the floors, walls, and ceiling. Craze and Talos’s latest get-rich schemes had put a fresh polish on the dark gray alloy. The refreshed surfaces reflected myriad images of lights and advertising screens. The monitors blared with Pardeep’s businesses: Rainly-Dactyl Premium Ship Repair and Upgrades, Craze’s Tavern, Talos’s Trading and Exports, Meelo Farms Fresh Produce, Pauder’s Fantastic Backworld Adventures, Pauder’s Realty, Pardeep is a World of Opportunity, Odd Jobs by Wolney .

Between the signs, sealed doors led to the berths. The Sequi was docked nearest to Craze’s place, he and Talos as close as a pistol nestled in its holster. Dactyl had to wonder at how spectacularly their latest scheme to control the mercenary Jixes would backfire. He didn’t doubt it would, nor did he doubt the pirate-like Jixes would make everyone on Pardeep more miserable when everything went wrong.

He edged the sodden Sprinkler toward the other occupied slip two doors over from the Sequi, the gate leading to her ship. The bridge connecting her vessel to Pardeep was a dimly lit corridor punctuated by soft green sconces. Down it, a shadow approached, blocking out lights, heading toward him.

If that was Quasser, this was new. Dactyl didn’t remember him casting much of a shadow or being very solid. It probably wasn’t him then. Most likely the Sprinkler ferried his Minions of Dusk—merciless soldiers who killed for the pleasure of it, every bit as bad as their master.

Dactyl cocked his revolver, sighting it on the entry. If a Minion stepped off that ship, he’d shoot without hesitation. He’d kill before everyone on Pardeep gasped their last breath. It’d be one or the other. No other options existed with the Minions. He knew and wished he didn’t. His finger hugged the trigger.

The shadowy figure became more solid. Dactyl tensed. Pink eyes lasered through the murky tunnel. He relaxed. Those eyes haunted him with beautiful dreams, the only beauty he knew. They belonged to his chrome-skinned love with the lovely pink eyes.

He lowered the gun and moved the barrel back to the Sprinkler’s head. When his beloved emerged into full view, he blew her a kiss. “That boat ready to fly, sweet one?”

“Sure.” Rainly’s chrome skin glowed like a beacon under the illumination of the brighter lights of the docks; his beacon, leading him away from what he never wanted to be again. She wiped her see-through hands off on a rag, leaving smears of engine lubricant and gear grease. So single-minded, she beamed at the newcomer and wet her supple chrome lips. “Your vessel is in good shape Dialhi…” Her pink irises latched onto Dactyl, the easy smile falling off her comely mouth. “Babe? What you doing? What’d she do? Why do you have a gun on her?”

How could he explain without revealing what he’d been? He couldn’t tell her about the things he’d once done. Not her. She’d never understand, and he didn’t think he’d survive long without her. “She’s got to go, sweet one. She can’t stay here. Her ‘n that ship is trouble. Huge trouble.”

Pink wires in Rainly’s see-through hands glowed as she flexed her fingers. The cybernetic limbs attached just below the elbow, and the strands of her white plastic-like hair swished whenever she shook her head. “Not that ship. You got it wrong, babe. That vessel is in great shape. Almost brand new. State-o’-the-art agro bay, too. Just needed a slight adjustment to the fuel core, nothing to worry over. ‘N she paid in advance. Put the gun down.”

Some of Craze’s dark hair pulled loose from its braids and coiled in soft waves, constantly rippling until a quick smirk tugged at his thick lips. He stepped in front of Dactyl, reaching for the revolver. “Hold up now—”

Dactyl jerked away, scowling. Rainly would have to mention great value: an agro bay. Craze would never give up the ship now, not without a full explanation and a lot of proof of imminent danger. Proof Dactyl didn’t have and neither did he want to spell out every tiny reason for kicking out the Sprinkler and her spacecraft.

He cracked the barkeep across the shoulder, hoping it would help settle in some sense. “Yous thoughts not needed in this. Yous understand? Yous thinking will only get us all killed. Shit.” He spat and managed to put a smile on his face for Rainly. He didn’t want to spook her. “Remember all the bothers ‘n fear when the Water-breather came? When the Fo’wo’s took over Pardeep ‘n threatened to kill us? Well, the trouble this gal can bring is worse than that shit storm, darling. Trust me.”

The charcoal smudged around Rainly’s eyes puckered. “Come on now. Dialhi can’t be that bad…” She peered deep into his desperate soul and after careful study gave into his urgency with a small nod. “If you think it’s best.”

Thank the cosmos and the Lepper she’d take his word for it. He pressed on the Sprinkler’s elbow, nudging her toward her ship. “Away with yous now.”

Despite the threat of being shot, Dialhi flinched away from the tunnel, sobbing. “Don’t make me go in there. Please! Please don’t make me.” She wheeled and latched onto the sappy barkeep, hugging Craze tight. “I’ll be the best worker you’ll ever have. Don’t make me go.”

Her tears and the reported value of her vessel would cement Craze to the other side, the side that would see them all dead. Craze had never said no to chips or sob stories. Dactyl wanted to kick him.

“Now, now. Don’t fret yourself sick. I’ll look after you.” Craze held the Sprinkler snugly against his chest, a smile lighting up his dark eyes. “State-of-the-art agro bay? What ship model?”

The Sprinkler nodded, sniffling. “A slightly used Olvis Deluxe.

Before Dactyl could exhale, Craze shouted, “Sold!” As if a long-lost lover, Craze stroked the aqua gal’s wacky blue hair.

Now he’d do what it took to keep her. Well, her ship, at least. Dactyl wanted to scream. The idiot barkeep predictably became blinded to a weepy woman and wealth, but Dactyl wouldn’t give up either.

He stomped over and brought his anvil of a foot down hard on top of Craze’s. “I’m not going to let yous condemn us for far-fetched dreams. Yous have no idea what we dealing with.”

The pain shone in Craze’s eyes, but he otherwise stood his ground, ready to defend his imagined profits, sneering. “Enlighten me.”

Shit. Dactyl couldn’t. “Sometimes yous just have to trust yous friends.”

Then his gal turned on him, inserting herself between him and Craze, holding out her tab—a thin, flexible data device the size of a card. “This ship has been here before. I thought it looked familiar, so I checked. We worked on it, gave it a thorough maintenance job ourselves, babe. It’s utfitted with a new agro bay, sure, but it’s the vessel that was in port when Lepsi disappeared. The one we’ve been hunting for ever since. It ‘n its captain can’t go.”