“Had too much to drink, huh?” a stringy guy with an abysmal haircut said, relieving himself at a urinal.
“Too much of something,” I said.
“There’s one thing that you can never get too much of,” the guy said. “And that’s hot pussy. And boy, I ain’t never seen so much hot pussy in one location in all my life.”
He got so excited, he missed the urinal and it puddled around his feet.
“Not that it’s such a big deal for someone like you,” the man said with a wink. “I’m sure a handsome guy like you can have the cream of the crop wherever you go. Not like me. It’s always been an uphill struggle. Oh, and have you noticed? There are hardly any guys out there! No competition! A bunch of drunk pussy desperate for a fuck! This is heaven. For me, it’s prime hunting season.”
He shook himself off, zipped himself up, and slapped a hand on the flush. He clapped me on the back and then got to work washing his hands.
I imagined a dirty big handprint in urine on the back of my jacket and it made me seethe.
“What do you do?” he said.
“I’m in the transportation game,” I said.
The man whistled. “You don’t say. What sort of things do you move?”
“Pretty much anything, so long as the price is right.”
The man splashed water over his face as I wiped my hands dry. “And how did you hear about this place? I didn’t know other guys knew about it.”
I gave him a smile I hoped look sly. “You know about it, don’t you?”
The man held up his hands and chuckled. “I can’t betray my sources. But the fewer of us there are around, the less competition there is. I hope you don’t intend on ruining the whole thing for us just because you’re handsome.”
There was the unmistakable look of anger in his face. This guy was dangerous, I thought. He had no place around drunk women.
“None of you or your buddies are at risk with me being here,” I said.
The man smiled his toothless grin. “Well, then. I’m glad we understand each other.”
He slapped me on the back again and my anger seethed even deeper.
The man moved for the towel.
“Want to know what my latest shipment is?” I said.
The man buried his face in the soft fabric. “Nope.”
“Women.”
The man froze and slowly raised his head. “Excuse me?”
“Women. There’s no more valuable commodity in the galaxy. I’ll be carting a shipment out of here tonight and taking them to their new owners across the sky.”
“Owners?” The man looked at me, unsure whether or not I was being serious. He gulped, his bulbous Adam’s apple protruding like a knot in a length of wood. “Look, dude. I don’t want any trouble—”
“It’s no trouble,” I said. “Usually, it takes me a little time to find my targets but tonight, I struck gold. A gorgeous lady—one of these hot pussies, as you call them—came right up to me. She’s traveling with some friends in a hen party.”
The guy’s eyes moved from me to the door and back again. Humans might not be technologically developed but their instincts were as sharp as any creature’s.
He sensed I was dangerous. He was right to do so.
The guy lowered his eyes and shuffled toward the door. He glanced at me when he reached it.
“Hey,” I said. “Wait a second.”
I aimed a pistol at his face and pulled the trigger. A beam of white light shot into his eye. It would travel to his brain and shut down key functions. His chin fell to his chest and arms flopped to his sides. He’d effectively fallen asleep on his feet.
He would be open to everything I said.
“Your motor functions have been switched off,” I said. “These are the kinds of tools we have developed in my corner of the galaxy. You will forget I was here. I don’t exist. Come to think of it, this place no longer exists to you either. You will not come here again. Oh, and get a new haircut. And shave that mustache off your face. It makes you look like a pedophile. Oh, and something else…”
I lifted his chin and looked into his eyes. “Treat women with a little more respect, huh? You might have an easier time of finding a good one that way. Now get out of here.”
The guy nodded and shuffled down the hall. He’d come back to himself within the next couple of hours.
I took the communicator from my pocket. “I’ve got them. Pick me up around back.”
I hung up and pressed my hand to my stomach. It growled and I felt sick again.
What is it? I’d wondered.
And I was still asking the same question as I vomited into the toilet on my ship. As the days leeched into weeks, the sickness only grew worse.
I was a Titan. A warrior species on the brink of extinction. We were strong, hardy people. This virus, this sickness, could not last forever. Eventually, I would pull out of it.
But my body sure was taking its time.
I had no choice but to shake the sickness. If I didn’t, my crew would remove me as their captain.
And I knew without a shadow of a doubt the moment I was at my weakest, that was when one of the crew would Challenge me to a leadership duel. A smuggler worked for money, not duty. They would turn on me the moment they knew I couldn’t defend myself.
With the way I was feeling, I had little chance of coming out ahead. I was as weak as a newborn babe, just as I was all those years ago when my mother clutched me to her dying breast…
My eyes rolled back into my head as my chin struck the floor. Out for the count.
My mother was
