The guy laughed and repeated what I said to himself. "I like that expression. I tell you what. Finish this deal right now and I'll give you a spending chit for ten thousand that you can carry out the door with you. Spend it however you like here at Clark's. I can see that you are into exotics. There is a private club that I can get you into tonight. I guarantee that you will enjoy yourselves."
"We'll take the deal," Strawberry said before I could. "But no club, thank you."
We finished up our business and left the office without me saying another word. As soon as we got outside I asked her why she turned down the club visit so quickly. It sounded like fun to me.
"It is a setup," she whispered. "They get their money back and more if you go there. Trust me, we don't need that kind of trouble."
"What kind of trouble do we need?" Aeren asked, looking honestly confused.
"Girl, we already have more than we can handle."
We walked the station more casually after that. It felt like we were finally hitting our stride as a newly formed merchanter team. Strawberry even took me by the hand a few times. When I gave her a proud look, she humorously clarified that it was only for the purposes of slowing her down.
The floor curved upward if we looked far enough ahead. We were basically on a giant hamster wheel. The levels with lower ceilings made the structure design more noticeable, but we didn't spend much time on those.
We tried to get a table in the Rain restaurant but they flat out refused to let Teddy enter, and insisted that Aeren shed her hooded garment. So, we took them to Snookers instead. They barely batted an eye at our unusual group but did seat us way back in the corner. Both Teddy and Aeren fell in love with all the faux wood surfaces quickly, passing their hands across them sensually. Their appearance didn’t draw notice, but their fondling of the décor was starting to do so.
"Did you ever get it on with the bartender?" I asked Strawberry as I glanced to see if the blonde was currently working.
"Stars, no," my happy redhead answered. "I assume get it on means to have sex. All we did was some harmless flirting. I did find her incredibly attractive, though. She would be a nice addition to our crew, don't you think?"
"Why would we need a bartender?" Teddy asked as he leaned on the table. He had to stand on the padded seat to even do that. I had considered asking for a child's booster chair when we entered, but he was doing too well for me to embarrass him like that. "Is there a party section of the ship that I have not yet been allowed access?"
"What is a bartender?" Aeren asked before either of us could answer the first question.
The next hour and a half went by pretty much like that. Teddy diligently refrained from speaking when anyone was in earshot. When we placed one of the food orders in front of him, the server merely smiled and said nothing. It was Strawberry's idea to order four drinks of the house cocktail. I wasn't against having a nice soothing beverage myself, but there was no way our two guests could handle a full drink intended for average human bodies.
"We have something like this where I am from," Aeren told us after the first sip. I had to assume the drinks were not very expensive because I could easily taste the bite of the alcohol.
"Really?"
"Yes, we usually give it to our males before we perform rapid secession reproductive ceremonies," Aeren answered with her melodic voice.
I nearly spit out my drink when I heard that. "You gangbanging monsters used a date rape drug on your men?"
It came out as much more of an accusation than I had intended. Both Strawberry and Teddy stared at the hooded elf assassin impersonator to see her reaction. They had to be expecting her to get offended. Hell, after I heard my words come out I expected it.
"I'm sorry..."
"Yes," Aeren answered, not looking too upset about it. "I'm not entirely sure that I understand your terms correctly. But to be completely clear, our society had resorted to getting our few males drunk so we could line up and extract their semen into our vaginas. The higher your station in our community the closer you were to the front of the line."
We were all laughing at her story like it was some sort of a joke. Based on her stoic expression it most certainly was not. But that didn't reduce the humor in the least.
"The poor women at the end of the queue barely got any of the valuable reproductive fluid," Aeren continued with barely a smile. "It was not uncommon to see a female scoop up spilled cream from the male's testicle sack and plunge it into herself. I can see that you are all amused by this, and that it fine. However, it was no laughing matter to us."
After I apologized for our rude behavior, my mind went back to the doctor's wishes. "Do you still want to get pregnant?" I asked tentatively. When she didn't answer right away, I thought maybe my question was inappropriate. "I mean you would like your race to continue, right? And this galaxy could certainly benefit from more Xoticos like yourself."
"I would very much like to reproduce," Aeren declared with a tear in her eye. "The desire is almost as strong as my will to live. To be entirely honest, one of the reasons that we decided to flee our city with you is the hope that you would at
