by T. M. Hunter

Life is all about choices. Sadly, I end up making a lot of poor ones. My decisions to trust attractive female smugglers, for example, were usually legendary in caliber.

I looked around the tiny cell, squatting down with my back against the dark gray, stone wall. Splotches of mold and mildew covered the ceiling and floor. By the overpowering stench, I figured past residents had used the opposite corner as a makeshift restroom.

Without any view of the outside world, I had no idea how long I’d been kept here even as my grumbling stomach gave me clues. I rubbed my bare legs for warmth, after having been stashed in this frozen tundra sporting only a white tee shirt and black shorts.

Oddly, not even close to my worst jail experience.

“Aston West,” a hollow voice yelled. I looked up at a metal door, the only way in or out. A small panel near the top scraped along its track. Bright blue eyes peered in against a background of scaly, green skin barely visible past iron bars. “Get up!”

I climbed to my feet, pondering what fun and games I had the misfortune of looking forward to.

“Step to the door,” commanded the voice.

I moved closer to the metal door, hoping my preconceptions were way off, and these people would release me soon. My life never ended up so easy.

Hinges creaked as the door swung away from me. “Out.”

A rush of dank, freezing air blew past as I exited into the corridor. Suppressing a shiver, I glanced over at the guard and the phase pistol focused on my chest.

Several layers of heavy green scales hid under his denim coveralls, obviously a little warmer than the outfit they’d left me. The beast waddled backward on a pair of fat, stubby legs, each the same circumference as my head, then slammed the door shut with his huge tail. The lawman’s wiry arms looked way out of place compared to the rest of the behemoth, but I didn’t bother pointing it out.

“Hands behind your back.”

I complied, hoping to get this over with soon. Electronic restraints tugged against my wrists and the monster snarled through his long snout. “Move.”

My sideward glances caught the sight of empty cells through open doors as we walked along the musty hall toward a set of lift doors. “Doesn’t look like a lot of crime around this place.”

“Not everyone is as stupid as you are.”

“I prefer to think of myself as daring.”

He shoved the barrel of his pistol into my back. “To think you’d smuggle booze past us, that’s stupid.”

I held my tongue. Granted, this wasn’t my first attempt to skirt local laws on purpose, nor the only time I’d been caught doing so. Still, it ticked me off. I was usually smarter than that.

But as I mentioned, I had this weakness for getting duped by beautiful women. That’s always the entertaining part of any story.

~*~

As soon as I walked into the cheery, well-lit room, something felt off. Sit-down family dining was a far cry from the hole-in-the-wall spots I preferred. The clientele differed greatly as well. Here, mothers’ eyes bored through my heavy black jacket while they drew their children close. Husbands’ death stares stabbed me repeatedly until I averted my gaze from their wives. With the reception I received, I couldn’t stop wondering, why was I here in the first place?

I needed the money.

With another look around the brightly adorned velvet red walls, a chocolate-skinned woman stood out as she sat alone in a dark gray jacket and pale blouse. Her attention was on a flat panel display mounted across the room, covering intergalactic news stories. Based on the messages we’d exchanged, the small golden heart hanging from her neck was how I’d identify her.

She certainly didn’t seem the type who needed to find, as she had put it, “someone who used discretion in hauling cargo.” But if someone was paying, I really wasn’t in a place to pass judgment.

While drawing closer, I watched her smooth face framed by short, dark curls. It was a welcome sight compared to the scum I normally dealt with. She caught my approach, and recognized I didn’t belong in this environment. Flashing a smile along with her glimmering deep brown eyes, the woman shimmied out to greet me. She smoothed out her short skirt before extending a hand.

“Aston West?”

I nodded.

“Diedra Cane. Care to have a seat?”

I looked around the room again. “Here?”

She returned to the vinyl bench seat. “Why not?”

I could think of many reasons, and most focused on the crowd. I didn’t do a lot of smuggling in the open. Neither did anyone else I normally dealt with.

She grew impatient. “Going to sit down?”

I stood there a moment with my brow furrowed, then eased down into the booth. The hairs on the back of my neck rose. I’d been in this business quite a while, and had long since developed an aversion to sitting with my back to the door. You never knew who might drop in unannounced.

A frumpy waitress in a pink skirt and top interrupted out of nowhere. She pushed brunette bangs from the front of her face. “What can I get for you?”

I didn’t plan to stay that long. “Nothing for me, thanks.”

Diedra followed my lead and waved her off. Disappointed, the server walked off to another table across the room.

I got back to business, wanting to get out of this place before everyone had the chance to memorize what I looked like. I spoke just over the background noise of the crowd. “So, your messages mentioned a cargo shipment?”

She interlaced her long, slender fingers. “I need a container delivered to the Trocken system. As I mentioned in my message, payment is ten thousand upfront.”

I gave silent thanks we wouldn’t go through the regular negotiation nastiness. “I’m surprised the job’s still open. Ten thousand seems high.”

“It’s a bit more complicated than it sounds.”

“Oh?”

“Alcohol of any type is outlawed there.”

Contraband. I tried not to smile too broadly. It wasn’t the first I’d been involved with, and wouldn’t be the last. With her skirting the specifics in her communications, it really hadn’t been a surprise.

A blade jabbed me between the shoulder blades, three times fast. Thankfully, I didn’t get a close-up look at the tabletop right afterward. Instead, I jerked my head around and stared at a snot-nosed brat looking right back. His pasty white face was covered in freckles, and topped with a mop of red hair. The butter knife in his hand wouldn’t have done any damage to me or my jacket, but I sneered at him anyway. He threw himself against our common seat and the jolt caused a short spike of pain to race up my spine. I turned toward his parents, who were too engrossed in conversation to control him.

I had my own thoughts on that subject, but most of which were likely to get me arrested faster than smuggling.

Diedra caught my attention. “A buyer is waiting for the shipment to arrive. If you accept my terms, we can adjourn to the spaceport and go over the specifics.”

I turned back to face her. “You said payment was upfront?”

“Yes.”

“A welcome change from the norm. It’s not often you meet people with so much trust.”

She frowned. “I’ll keep that in mind next time. I’m still learning.”

“Don’t change on my account. Knowing you’ll get paid is always good.” Granted, there were probably just as many transport pilots out there who would stiff a seller. I wasn’t one.

She frowned. “People actually enlist your services and don’t pay?”

This lady was truly as new as they came. “More often than you’d think.”

“Well, I’ve brought the money, so no need to worry.” She lifted a small box from the seat with one hand and placed it on the table between us. Before I could stop her, she opened the lid and revealed four lines of stacked coins, all with silver rims.

A gasp escaped from behind me and I turned to watch the brat peering wide-eyed at the money. I pulled the flap of my jacket aside just enough to expose my Mark II blaster so he could see it, then winked.

His eyes grew wide, and he grabbed at his father’s sleeve. Both of his parents were still far too absorbed with each other to care. He looked back at me, and I shook my head slowly, an evil smile growing across my face. Defeated, he shot back down out of sight.

I turned back to Diedra. “Some free advice. Set these things up for secluded spots and don’t flash money around for everyone to see.”

“Sorry.” She bit her lip.

I smiled. “You’ll learn.”

Diedra closed the box. “Are you interested?”

“Definitely.”

She pushed it over to me. “Let’s get down to business. My cargo’s over in the space dock.”

I smiled and tucked the box into one of my jacket pockets. “What a coincidence. So is my ship.”

She rolled her eyes, before we headed for the exit. I could tell most of the other patrons were glad to see me go, but their elation wasn’t nearly as great as my own. We stepped through the sliding doors and I finally exhaled a breath I’d been unconsciously holding.

A handful of elliptical transports sat, lined up end to end, along the far right wall of the empty chamber. I climbed into the first white transit pod I came to and Diedra followed me inside, pulling the external hatch closed. A floral scent flooded the compartment, reminding me again how different she was from the usual garbage I dealt with.

She spoke to the on-board computer. “Space dock.”

A rotary crane located at the center of the chamber’s ceiling swung around and its attachment fitting locked into the mating receptacle atop our roof. The entire compartment shook and rattled as we were lifted over to a half-moon track segment. Hissing surrounded us while the pod accelerated on a bed of compressed air.

I ended the silence, intent on learning more about Diedra. It never hurt to know the people you dealt with. “So, you’re just starting your own smuggling business?”

She kept her eyes forward. “That’s right.”

“Any particular reason?”

“My father.”

“Oh? He’s already in the business?”

She chuckled. “No. He’s far too straight-laced for this.”

“Then why…”

“He gave me advice long ago, which I’ve always taken to heart. To be successful in business, you have to do the things no one else will, take risks no one else can stomach.”

Success never seemed to land in my lap, no matter how often I took risks. “That led you to smuggle?”

“It’s something even my father wouldn’t risk doing.”

The pod finally burst out of the chamber, rushing along the trough. Outside clear windows, dry and cracked desert plains stretched to the horizon. The track sliced a wide curve through the desolation and our pod banked as it navigated the turn toward the space dock in the distance.

I grabbed an overhead handle to keep from sliding down the bench seat into Diedra’s lap, but still caught myself glancing at her light brown legs stretching out from her skirt. I looked away. Beauty would only cloud my judgment more than the money already had.

“So, has business been as lucrative as you imagined?”

“Actually, it looks promising, even if this is my first shipment.”

Bolts of fear shot through my body. I took a deep breath and decided it would be my attempt at risk bringing me success. The money box pressed against my chest and I relaxed. “Hopefully the first of many.”

She smiled. “That’s my plan.”

We lurched forward as braking panels on the top and sides of the pod deployed and deafened us with a mighty roar. Moments later, we entered another room similar to the one we’d just left. The compressed air shut off and we fell onto the bare metal, skidding to a stop before another crane lifted us onto the platform.

Diedra opened the door and stepped out, offering me an opportune view of the backside of her short skirt, which made it even more difficult to maintain focus on business. I shook my head to clear those thoughts, then followed as she led me through another set of sliding doors into the hangar. If there was any saving grace here, it was the fact there weren’t many ships on the pad, making most of the restaurant patrons local residents.

The familiar silhouette of my ship stood off in the far corner of the vast chamber, maintaining its distance from the handful of others just as I normally tried to. I pointed. “There she is.”

She pulled a small sphere from her jacket pocket and pressed a button on the side. We walked toward my ship. “Bay twenty-one.”

A tracked vehicle rumbled from the shadows along the opposite wall, dragging a cargo container behind. As the driver pulled up next to my ship, I lifted my jacket sleeve and spoke through the embedded transmitter. “Jeanie, load the container.”

“Acknowledged.”

A motor’s dull whine filled the air while the forward near-side hatch opened. A mechanical arm atop my hull reached out and lifted the container.

As my ship’s computer took care of the logistics, I struck up a conversation with my newfound friend. “So, any information on the buyer? I could use some.”

“The buyer is waiting for me to tell him when the shipment departs. He’ll meet up with your ship when you land on Trocken.”

A buyer interested in anonymity was the first piece of this whole situation which fit the mold. “Nice doing business with you, Miss Caine.”

“And you, Mister West.” She turned and walked for the doors as the tracked vehicle roared off.

I started up my entry hatch steps, and walked inside my ship. “Jeanie, set a course for the Trocken system.”

“Already done.”

I tossed the money box on my cot. Jeanie was always a step ahead. Thoughts of a quick stop on Trocken flooded my mind and I smiled while figuring up ways to spend my newfound wealth.

~*~

I frowned as the scaly beast shoved me down into a metal chair. I looked around the bare room and its pale green walls. At least this was warmer than the basement levels had been.

I muttered under my breath. “A change of scenery? How nice.”

The lawman smacked me in the back of my head with far more force than I would have figured possible out of those arms. With hands restrained, there was nothing I could do but sit there and take it. The beast shuffled away, and I kept my ears open for the door to close. Another set of footsteps approached before that happened. I watched as an old man walked past with a manila folder in hand. I followed his movements as he sat across the table.

The geezer stared at me with angry, black eyes, taking quick glances at information inside the folder. He slapped the whole package down on the table. “So, you tried smuggling a booze shipment past us?”

I remained silent. As ancient as the galaxy itself, his skin was singed and cracked. Wrinkles formed against his skullcap, and occupied the space where hair should have been. He ran a tongue over his dry lips, then slammed his fists on the table. “Answer me!”

I lifted an eyebrow. “Not much to say since you caught me red-handed.”

“Who sent you here?”

“What are you talking about? You people set me up.”

“It may have been a sting operation, but we wired someone funds, and it wasn’t you.”

“What do you mean?”

“I want a name.”

I blinked hard. My theory had been Diedra was in on the sting, but now it seemed she was just as ignorant as she’d appeared. Part of me was more than willing to rat her out to these people, but I mostly had newfound respect for her and the unconventional methods she used. “I did it on my own.”

He got to his feet, walked around the table and grabbed my chair from behind. It would have startled me had I not expected it. “There’s a seller involved. Give me a name.”

“No idea what you’re talking about.”

His forearm clocked my head from behind. I cursed as pain radiated through the back of my skull. Expectations never fully prepared you for physical abuse.

“Give me a name!”

Several well-suited ones for him came to mind, but I pursed my lips and shrugged. He tagged me again and I shook it off.

“I can do this a long time.” He snorted. I had no doubt of his statement, but I was as stubborn as he was violent.

“Beating me isn’t going to help you. I’m the seller.”

“You’re not smart enough to pull off this whole operation by yourself.”

The chair tipped backwards and I fell. My arms tied up behind me took the brunt of the blow, just before my head hit on the second try.

I regained my senses. “I’m not as stupid as you look.”

For that, I received a boot to the ribs. I forced back a yelp before it had the chance to escape my lips.

“A name!”

I looked up at his flushed face and silently hoped the veins bulging in his forehead would burst. That didn’t happen fast enough, so I forced words through clenched teeth. “There isn’t anyone else.”

Another boot to the ribs sent more excruciating pain through my side. He knelt down beside me, reached down and lifted my face up to his own by my hair. Pungent breath spilled out of his mouth, reminiscent of death itself. “Tell me!”

A familiar voice called out. “Enough.”

The old man dropped me and my head struck the floor again.

“I’ve almost got him talking.”

I looked over at the reptilian beast, or at least I figured one of the three swirling images in sight was him. “His wife’s here to bond him out.”

Wife?

I kept my composure, not wanting to tip them off to my marital status, or lack thereof. Someone was getting me out of this hole. That couldn’t be a bad thing from my point of view.

The green-skinned beast reached down and yanked me to my feet. Once he unlatched the electronic restraints, I rubbed my arms to alleviate the pain. Even his benign attitude had its limits as he shoved me toward the exit. “Your belongings can be picked up in the booking area.”

I stepped out of the room and was guided down another corridor until we reached our destination, and I finally received all of my belongings. Taking another last look at the most unlikely pair of law enforcement officers I’d ever met, I made quick work of sliding into my black pants and jacket. I was just glad I’d hidden my Mark II blaster along with the money inside my ship before I disembarked at Trocken. I was sure both would have been confiscated as the liquor shipment had been.

With a smirk, I continued down the corridor and stepped out into the lobby. The dark curls were instantly recognizable, as my mystery wife stared out a plate glass window into the dirt street beyond.

“Here he is,” the scaly beast called out.

Diedra turned and smiled, then rushed over to hug me. I flinched from my recent wounds, and she stepped back. “Oh, sweetie, what happened?”

“Rough day at the office.”

“Let’s get you home.” She gave me a kiss on the lips, which caught me unaware. Thankfully, I kept my composure until she broke away.

“Yes, let’s.”

The reptile interjected. “Trial date’s at the courthouse in five rotations. Be there or an arrest warrant will be issued.”

I held back a laugh. There was no way I’d be showing up for that appointment, which meant never straying back to this system. I didn’t particularly see that as a problem.

“Come on, honey.” I gingerly put my arm around Diedra and led her outside.

As we stepped out into the fresh air and bright light, I took a deep breath and kept my focus straight ahead. “Thanks. I owe you one.” We started down the road, amidst clay buildings standing in the arid heat.

“I was devastated when your ship’s computer contacted me after your arrest.”

Jeanie was always a step ahead. “Where is my ship, by the way?”

“Impounded,” Diedra muttered, then nodded down the road. “It’s down this way.”

I sighed, hoping I’d have enough in my accounts to cover it, or I might be making my trial date after all.

“Anyway,” she continued, “as soon as I heard what had happened, I had to come get you out.”

I considered explaining how the business worked, every person looking out for number one. But who was I to mess with a fresh perspective? Normally, I’d have been left to fend for myself. I’d mistrusted Diedra and she’d ended up one of the most honest people I’d ever met. I only hoped she didn’t figure that out or she’d likely realize smuggling wasn’t for her.

“Had to?”

She sighed. “It’s my own fault.”

“Well, thanks for saving my hide.”

We walked down the road until we reached the impound lot. My ship rested just inside the chain link gate. We broke free from one another, as Diedra handed me a rectangular token which would grant me access to the lot. “Fine’s already paid.”

Her touching generosity softened even an old skeptic like me. “I can return your original payment. They never found where I hid it.”

She waved me off. “Keep it.”

“Your shipment was impounded when they arrested me.”

Diedra smiled. “Good thing I made sure they wired me the funds first.”

Maybe she wasn’t so naive after all. I had to laugh. “If you ever need another shipment delivered, look me up.”

“After all of this?”

“Could have been far worse. Usually is.”

She shook her head. “You’re very strange, Aston West.”

I turned for the impound yard’s front gate with a chuckle. “Guess that makes us quite the pair.”

© 2010 T. M. Hunter
Original fiction debuting at Residential Aliens.

Did you enjoy this story? Then own the book!

Author T. M. Hunter brings together 11 short stories (including the one you just read) in Dead or Alive – An Aston West Collection, a new anthology from ResAliens Press. These space opera adventures feature Aston West, the lovable renegade and ornery hero in Hunter’s three novels, Heroes Die Young, Friends In Deed, and Seeker. For more, visit AstonWest.com.

Dead or Alive is available in paperback for only $9.95 from CreateSpace, or choose from a variety of ebook formats at Smashwords for $2.99.

Tags: science fiction, short story, space opera, T. M. Hunter

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