“Name her Little Hands.” The big, furry pirate grinned, exposing a row of jagged, purple teeth, and clapped her on the shoulder with one monumental paw. “You never know,” his growl lowered. “There was that one night after…”
“Hey,” Zora shouted over him. “Planetary Chief. What happened to Phylis?”
The Captain shrugged. “Last time we saw her was in the Andogian sector. She found a crew she liked the look of more than this lot.”
“Huh.” She would have liked to see Phylis. The droid had served as her sounding board on more than one occasion, and she figured, she needed a few minutes alone with her to wipe the memories. “So tell me what possessed you to go straight, Cap? A woman? Jail time? What?”
“None of the above.” He waved Hands aside and sat in the man’s chair. “It was money, of course. This cesspool is short on administrators, but long on cash. A surplus, they call it. Galactic funds. Turns out a pirate can make a killing in politics.”
“Go figure.”
“So, Zor.” He lowered his voice so that his next words didn’t reach the rest of the party. “Who is the lucky baby daddy?”
She heard the nerves in his tone. A bead of sweat graced his brow, right beside the tattoo. Zora glanced around the room slowly and found more than one set of eyes dropped nervously to the carpet. She stood up.
“Hey, everyone. Just in case you were wondering, nobody in the room could possibly be responsible for my little predicament.” She pointed at her tummy.
The Captain let out a hoot, and the chatter swelled back to party level. Shit, she hadn’t even seen any of them in at least three years. Apparently, the male knee-jerk guilt reaction had difficulty with basic math. They all relaxed, and she sat back down, shaking her head at the lot of them—at all men everywhere.
“Well,” Captain picked up where he’d left off. “When Stanton said he saw you, we figured you might have stopped by to join back up. Then your little announcement—well, if you were looking for us…”
“I wasn’t.”
“Right.”
“Did you have anything to do with our ship being detained?”
He frowned and shook his head. “Port authority has cargo jurisdiction, but I have a little leverage on them. What do you need?”
“A passed inspection and quick departure schedule.”
“Ah, you didn’t even miss us.”
“Sure I did.” She reached out and chucked him on the shoulder. “But I need off this hell hole you run as fast as possible.”
“Nice. Fine, fine. I’ll sort it out.”
“Thanks, Captain.”
“That’s Planetary Chief, these days.”
“Doesn’t roll of the tongue, does it?”
The door to the station lobby squeaked open and Stanton stuck his head inside. The eye she’d popped him in had swelled shut, and a purple ring spoke of bruising. Zora grinned at him, and he flinched.
“Hey guys,” He leaned into the room without fully opening the door. “There’s a suit out here accusing Zor of all kinds of nasty things.”
“I didn’t do it.” She stood up.
“What things?” The Captain followed her lead. He leaned in close and whispered. “What did you do?”
“Nothing!”
“This guys says she…” Stanton rolled his eyes and then nodded. “Liberated a planet from servitile.” He stumbled over the words. “That she saved some mullocks from extinction, that she donated forty percent of all the loot we give her to a bunch of charities…”
“Hey!” Zora stepped away from the Captain. “Is there any more cake?”
“That she’s been giving away her money for years, and then he called her something nasty.”
“What did he call her?” The Captain kept his eyes on her. She could feel them, even though she didn’t look.
“Is that punch spiked?” Zora pushed in between the twins. She didn’t know who the hell had come looking for her, but the son-of-a-bitch knew way too much for his own good.
“A Philipist.”
“Stanton?”
“Philanstriper?”
“Philanthropist?” The Captain offered.
“Yeah, that’s it.”
Zora poured a cup of punch and smiled at the floor.
“And who is this slanderer, Stanton?” The Captain asked.
“Say’s he’s her lawyer.”
She choked on the punch. Outside, she caught the sound of a familiar voice addressing Stanton’s backside. She’d never heard it quite so fervent, but she knew it just the same.
“I insist you allow me to see my client.” Ignatius. The Emperor had come to save her, but how the hell did he find out about her sordid good deeds?
“Ow.” Stanton shifted to the side, and Iggy pushed his way past the hulking Triploid.
“Charges are completely bogus and in the light of my client’s history…” He stopped just inside the room. “I insist you release her from this…from.” His eyes found her leaning against the buffet table under a spray of hover streamers and a sign that read: Welcome back Bloody Red. “From this party.”
She watched his shoulders sag. Damn. The Captain howled, and the whole room broke into a mad dash of cackling. Ignatius just stared at her. When Cap threw an arm over his shoulder, he didn’t flinch, but his eyes narrowed. He’d come to rescue her, and she’d managed to screw that up just like everything else.
“I love this guy!” The Captain spun Ignatius Superius I toward the cake and the rest of the crew. “Introductions, then. Come on Zor.”
She shook her head, but the twins pushed at her shoulders and she had to move. Introductions, sure. Hey guys, this is the Emperor who may be the father, and oh yeah, Iggy, this is the band of pirates I used to run with. I’ve only slept with 96.5 percent of them. Let’s party.
When she stayed quiet, the Planetary Chief took over. She watched him steer Iggy toward the twins and wished for all she was worth that they’d just throw her ass in jail. Rotting in a cell beat this shit by a far mile.
Next Episode
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