"They call me Cheeky," she said with a grin that pushed her red cheeks even wider. When I laughed, she said, "Your good-looking hunk of man gets it. Well, darling we are that good company."
"Yes, we are," a man said as he walked into the room from a back office. Based on how he was dressed I would assume he outranked our friendly greeter. The way he eyeballed my two ladies gave me the same concern as the last place. But this guy looked more like the kind that would blow a lot of money at the strip club and not put up a fit when the girls shut him down for after-hours activity.
"Shimmy, don't make these girls uncomfortable," Cheeky chastised him. If it weren’t for her appearance, I would have considered her own behavior exceedingly off-putting. "I'd hate to see their captain bust your head wide open with his potato lifter."
The woman went on to explain that they sell a lot of potatoes and she was referring to my hand and muscular arm. Strawberry began working her wiles on the woman but honestly, she seemed quite agreeable right from the start. I did know some cons in my day that would use a warm greeting as part of their game. Maybe Cheeky was like them.
"What are you selling, baby doll?" Cheeky asked in her louder than necessary voice. It assuredly completed the overbearing but comical persona.
"Sorry, we already sold to the rough guys next door. Our cargo was under contract."
"Those terd suckers!" she hollered. "Well, that ain't no sweat off my balls. What are you buying then?"
I tensed up as I realized that what sat Jabba-the-Hutt style in front of us might actually be a man instead of a woman. To me that made everything considerably less funny, but I didn't want to ruin the mood.
"We'll go fifty-fifty on food staples and exotics," Strawberry told her.
My first officer had already informed me in advance that we had more than enough money to fill our holds completely with potatoes and lettuce. Carrying high priced goods instead would reduce the amount of space required and increase our profit. Exotics though didn't sell well everywhere. That cargo may be more of a risk, depending on our next destination.
I learned a lot about transporting different kinds of goods from Cinnamon. She explained that anything that required a specific environment different than our cargo holds provided would be shipped in containers that supplied it, such as refrigeration.
Cheeky ran down the list of exotic foods that they had available. There weren't many. Then she told us about the unusual crystal art sculptures they had for sale. Strawberry shied away from them, but they sounded fascinating to me.
"The artist makes a wire shape and buries it just under the sand," Cheeky enlightened us. "He uses his special mix of chemicals to keep the ground moist and clinging toward his creation. A pole then is erected in that spot and connected to the wire. When the storms roll through, lighting strikes the pole and electrifies the whole thing. If he's lucky, it does. The result is some desirable artwork that sells well on the nicer stations."
Seeing my interest Shimmy went to the back and quickly emerged with a sample. It was strapped to a plastic panel to keep it from breaking, but it was easy for me to see the value. The crystal had formed in perfect shape with varying colors at the right points. The result was the form of a man running with a large bird flying above him, possibly in pursuit. It made me think of an attacking dragon. Connecting the two objects was an impossibly thin wire that must have ran through the entire sculpture.
I insisted that we buy two crates of the stuff. Strawberry fought me on it just enough to get a price reduction. Then we went heavier on the regular food stuffs to balance our risk. Cinnamon assisted in the assortment so that our central hold would be filled with the more valuable containers.
We returned to the ship after that in search of better air to breathe. Our respirators were designed to filter dangerous particles, but they couldn't completely remove the foul stench of this planet.
Once back inside Vanilla informed me that all our new recruits needed some outdoor activity. As if I didn’t already know that. Teddy, Aeren and Mixi were eager to exit the ship, but it was mostly Gako and Dawynda running amok. Unfortunately, it looked like at least one day before we could leave with our new cargo.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR:
I decided against bar and restaurant visits at this location. There was too much risk of stirring up trouble. This city was not accustomed to overly attractive women apparently. If Strawberry and Cinnamon got them wild in their pants, I could only imagine their reaction to seeing the exotic forms of Aeren and Mixi. Not that they were more beautiful than my human friends. But the combination of their physical qualities with their alien appearance could start a riot.
Everyone but the dragons got some time to hang around on the launchpad and dock area, shielded from view of onlookers by the creative stacking method Cinnamon used for our outgoing cargo. There was a nice, enclosed space that everyone was able to enjoy despite the need to wear the breathers.
When the incoming cargo started arriving the next morning, I had to put an end to anyone not human leaving the confines of the ship. Inside our vessel became a constant arena of activity as everyone wanted to move about. With Gako and Dawynda getting to use the toilets now they took the opportunity to roam through our narrow hallways more often than they should. I saw several crew members adopting my habit
