Total pages in book: 112
Estimated words: 105936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 530(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 530(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Until now.
Now I was going to use my talent to get the hell away from the Imperium Galaxy and the odious Grr. Malofice who Lyrah wanted me to marry. And luckily, I just happened to know of a ship that was leaving the galaxy for an extra-galactic trip—one that needed a new navigator.
The Illyrian—Turk’s ship.
I knew they needed a new navigator because I’d heard Turk telling my brother how his whole crew had nearly been killed by a brown dwarf star due to navigational errors made by his old navvie.
I intended to be the new one.
I checked the departure boards at the next intersection and saw The Illyrian was docked in Berth Alpha-Quadrex 17. I headed there, hoping I would be just in time to “introduce” myself and audition for the open navvie position.
I was determined to get aboard the Illyrian, no matter what I had to do.
6
TURK
Iwas looking through the crowd, wondering where the navigator I was supposed to meet was, when he finally showed.
“Captain Turk?” I heard a deep, burbling voice say.
I turned and saw a perfectly enormous Galafruxian standing there. He had green skin and greasy brown hair that hung around his ears, which poked out as small convex pods from the sides of his head. His purple eyes bulged and his teeth were brown—probably from eating Sherpla root, which the Galafruxians claim helps them see into the nothingness of space and avoid blind spots when they navigated.
I didn’t much care for the look of him—or his smell, which was rank and rotten, like fish left out in the sun. But Galafruxians were known to be the best Cross-Dimensional Navigators in the galaxy. I was willing to put up with a hell of a lot to not get killed during the jumps The Illyrian would have to make traveling back and forth across the Triplex Cluster.
“I’m Turk,” I said, holding out a hand to him before I remembered—to my deep regret—how Galafruxians greet strangers.
He spat in his hand—a brown, gooey mess—and clasped my fingers, squeezing tight until the brown phlegm oozed all over my palm.
“Gurflug at your service, Captain,” he burbled in a voice that sounded like someone gargling with mud.
“Fuck!” I growled, withdrawing my hand and wiping it on my trousers instinctively. I would have to get my uniform cleaned later.
Gurflug frowned.
“Are you offended by my greeting? I came to your call in good faith. Perhaps you’d rather I left again. Maybe you can make your own jumps to the Triplex System.”
“No, no—don’t go,” I said unwillingly. Galafruxians can be such Prima Donnas—they know they’re the best at what they do, which means they can charge a ridiculous fee and walk off the job if they don’t feel “appreciated” enough. Goddess of the Four Faces, it was enough to make a male shoot someone!
“Well…maybe I will stay. If the price is right,” Gurflug said, smiling broadly to show his brown-stained teeth.
I clenched my own teeth, thoroughly irritated already by the smarmy fuck. But he had me in a tight spot and he knew it. He was the only one who had answered my call for a Cross-Dimensional Navigator so he could pretty much name his price.
“What were you thinking?” I asked, prepared to start the haggling—though I had zero leverage to do so.
“Oh, say…thirty thousand credits?” he said casually, raising one greasy brown eyebrow.
“Thirty thousand?” I nearly choked. Even for a dangerous Cross-Dimensional trip, that was outrageous.
Gurflug shrugged his slab-like shoulders, his baggy brown vest puckering with the motion.
“Or I could just go.”
“You know you’re dealing with Clan Savage, right?” I growled. “If I wanted to, I could force you to come aboard and do the job for nothing!”
“Yes, you could,” he acknowledged calmly. “But then you couldn’t be sure I wouldn’t jump you right into the middle of a gas giant or a black hole. We Galafruxians do not mind dying, you know—we reincarnate immediately into an even better life than the one we left. So really, if I die, it’s a win-win situation for me.”
I ground my teeth together, trying to fight my irritation and the urge to pull out my blaster and shoot a hole in his guts. I needed him and he knew it, the smelly bastard!
“Thirty thousand credits is your price then?” I asked, feeling resigned. That was my entire budget for a navigator, plus the bonus I would get for a clean run. There would be no cushion left—if we ran into any trouble or got raided by the Imperium and lost some cargo, I would be making it up out of my own pocket. Still, what could I do? The Galafruxian had me backed into a corner and he fucking knew it.
“Thirty thousand and not a credit less,” he said, giving me that brown, shit-eating grin of his again.
I was about to grudgingly agree when a voice shouted,