“I’ll be ten minutesss early,” N’thr T’Lathll answered quickly.

  “Excellent,” Azazel replied. “See you then.” He ended the call.

  After several hours of much needed sleep and a large lunch, Azazel sat behind his desk as Mark escorted N’thr T’Lathll in. A special chair had been brought in to accommodate the Thrynn anatomy and Azazel gestured for him to sit.

  “Welcome, N’thr T’Lathll,” Azazel greeted him. “Thank you for coming today. After last night, I believe there are a few things you and I need to get straight between each other.”

  “It isss a pleasssure to be here,” N’thr T’Lathll said. “Thank you for the warm greeting, and yesss, I believe there are a few thingsss we need to get ssstraight between the two of usss.”

  Azazel smiled and clapped his hands together. “Fantastic! I’m so happy to know we’re on the same page.” He leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers under his chin. “Look, I think it’s best if I just get straight to the point.” He spun the screen on his desk around for N’thr T’Lathll to see.

  The image on the screen was of about a hundred small crates stacked together in a pyramid. Small devices were set on top of the crates all over the pyramid. Recognition seemed to flash over N’thr T’Lathll’s face, followed by dread. His mouth moved up and down, but no words came out.

  “I can see you know exactly what that is, N’thr T’Lathll,” Azazel said.

  N’thr T’Lathll nodded. “Headfruit.”

  “Correct,” Azazel said, a hint of evil in his voice. “But that isn’t just headfruit. That is all the headfruit available on Arth at the moment, including the shipment you were supposed to receive from Kazmire tomorrow night. Among that shipment is also the inventory of Droke, so don’t try to buy from him either. Fran wasn’t in the quadrant, so there was nothing to buy from him, but I’ve managed to secure the same deal with him as I did the others.” He grinned savagely. “From this point on, they will exclusively deal with me, and only me, in the headfruit industry.”

  The look on N’thr T’Lathll was priceless. His eyes darted back and forth from Azazel to the screen in horror as the realization of the situation set in. Headfruit was a melon-like fruit that formed from the heads of Elowan as a last effort to procreate. Inside the melon were the seeds of what would become their offspring. Thrynn considered headfruit to be a delicacy and believed eating it lengthened their lifespan. Naturally, Elowan guarded their headfruit with their lives, but that didn’t stop determined smugglers and thieves. It was forbidden for others to even see headfruit, so one could imagine the penalty for being caught stealing or eating one. And now, Azazel had control of nearly all the black market headfruit trafficking. Droke and Kazmire were the primary headfruit runners on Arth, and Fran was the intergalactic runner. Not that this was widely known information, but Azazel belonged to a certain crowd that knew these sorts of things. There were other smaller smugglers, of course, but they were unreliable and usually ended up caught.

  “It’s simple,” Azazel continued. “You work for me, now. The south side of the city belongs to me. When you leave here today, Mark and a company of my men will escort you back to your headquarters and make the necessary preparations. Don’t worry, I pay well and I’m not prejudiced. Thrynn will be paid and treated every bit as well as my current employees. In return for you cooperation, I’ll continue to sell you the headfruit for the same price you paid Kazmire.” He pointed at one of the devices on the screen. “Do you know what those are?

  N’thr T’Lathll shook his head, his eyes locked on the crates. “No. I do not.”

  “Those are thermite grenades, my friend. They’ve been remotely linked to this.” He held up a silver cylinder with a big red button on the top. “If you refuse to accept my terms, I will press this button and destroy the entire lot. After that, I will kill you, and order my men to raid your facility and kill everyone in there. Except K’reaz R’Tarkth. I rather liked her. She would be most welcome to work here in my tower. As a matter of fact, I intend to offer her a position here as soon as we conclude this meeting.” He grinned and asked, “Anyway, what do you think of my offer?”

  N’thr T’Lathll lowered his head and closed his eyes. His body began to tremble. A moment later he looked up and said, “You do not leave me much choice, Mr. Black. If I refuse, we all die and the headfruit is obliterated. If I agree I lose my control of the south side and work for you. Either way, I lose.” He took in a deep breath, released it, and shook his head. In a voice not much higher than a whisper he said, “I accept your terms, Mr. Black.”

  Azazel beamed. “An excellent choice! You won’t regret it, I promise.” He locked eyes with N’thr T’Lathll and pressed the button.

  No less than fifty thermite grenades exploded on the screen. The boxes began to burn and glow as the thermite ate through everything in its path. Headfruit rolled out of crates and began to ooze and liquify. Within minutes, the entire pyramid was a flaming pile of ash and crystallized headfruit remains.

  “Noooo!” N’thr T’Lathll screamed and dropped to his knees on the floor. He crawled to the desk and gawked at the screen in disbelief. He turned to Azazel, who stared at him with cold, dead eyes.

  Azazel gave him a thin-lipped smile. “Get back into your chair and have some dignity.”

  The Thrynn did as he was told. Azazel continued to glare at him for several minutes before he spoke again. “In addition to the previous conditions I gave you, you will also be paying me double the price for the headfruit just destroyed. Consider this a demonstration of the lightest of punishments that awaits those who would stand against me.”

  He smiled brightly. “But not to fear. That wasn’t all the headfruit.”

  He opened the top left drawer on his desk. From it, he pulled out a single headfruit and set it on his desk. Azazel pulled out a knife and sliced out a wedge, exposing the seeds embedded in the meat. N’thr T’Lathll leaned forward and licked his lips, eager to accept the wedge. But Azazel didn’t hand it to him. Instead, he looked right into N’thr T’Lathll’s eyes and took a huge bite from the wedge.

  Azazel wrinkled his nose as he chewed. Juice dribbled down his chin and onto the desk. He took another large bite and looked up at the ceiling in thought as he ate. Two bites were enough, and he dropped what was left of the wedge into the wastebasket next to his desk. He also spit what was in his mouth out and shoved the remainder of the headfruit off his desk and into the basket. It hit with a thud and split into several pieces. He looked up to see N’thr T’Lathll staring at him in horror with his mouth open for, what seemed like, the hundredth time in their short meeting.

  “Disgusting,” Azazel grunted as he wiped his mouth on a handkerchief. “I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.” He shook his head. “I don’t know how you can consider that a delicacy. I’ll take fresh watermelon over that any day.” He gave a dismissive wave. “That will be all, N’thr T’Lathll. Please go with Mike and do as we’ve discussed.”

  “Yes, sir,” N’thr T’Lathll replied in a defeated tone and stood to leave.

  “One more moment, actually,” Azazel called with a finger in the air. He entered a few commands and a new window appeared on the screen. “Which of these flower bouquets do you think looks better? I have a date tonight and I want it to go well.”

  N’thr T’Lathll looked at him, then the screen, then him again. He reached up and rubbed the side of his head and let out small laugh. He shook his head and walked back over to Azazel’s desk to study the options. “Isss thisss a firssst date?”

  “Yes,” Azazel answered. “That’s why it’s so important.”

  N’thr T’Lathll nodded. “The first impresssion is alwaysss the mossst impactful.” He continued to look at the screen, then shook his head. “None of thessse will do, Mr. Black. They are too ordinary and can be found in nearly any ssshop. Sssearch for the Occcean Empresss.”

  Azazel entered the name into the search and to his great surprise, a gorgeous blue flower that resembled a cross breed of rose and orchid appeared on his screen. It was like nothing he had ever seen before. “That’s perfect!” he shouted.

  “Firssst Impresssionsss, Mr. Black,” N’thr T’Lathll said and turned again to leave.

  “Many thanks, N’thr T’Lathll,” Azazel called from his desk. “And one more thing…”

  N’thr T’Lathll turned in time to see Azazel shove the waste basket across the room to bump into his leg.

  “I reward those who do me a good service. Now, go prepare the south side.”

  The door shut and Azazel stood and turned to look out the window. A huge smile crossed his face. The city was his now. The whole city. There were many things that had to be done and the future looked very bright, indeed. But first things first. Ms. Delaware would be there soon, and he needed to go pick up her flowers.

  Turn of Luck

  By William Joseph Roberts

  I dropped into the cockpit and activated the main drive of my fighter. As the systems powered up I slid on my helmet and locked it into the collar of my flight suit.

  “Command, this is Captain Blake Daniels, designation Alpha Two Nine checking in. Raptor is warming up, what’s the situation up there?”

  “Alpha Two Nine, you are on your own for this fight. The primary hangar bay was destroyed in the initial attack.”

  Good thing that I’d brought the old girl in for a few repairs, or she’d have been in the main hangar with the other fighters.

  Red warning lights strobed throughout the bay as the repair hangar doors opened. The bright jewel in the night that was Arth shined through the opening door, momentarily blinding me.

  “We’re picking up six new contacts inbound from coreward and less than a minute out from Starport.”

  “I copy, Command. Any idea who they are?”

  “Negative. The ship designs do not match anything in our database. All we know for sure is that the alien craft are heavily shielded. They are equipped with Class Five particle cannons and Class Two missile launchers.”

  “So, don’t get hit. Got it,” I mumbled to myself as I finished the preflight check.

  “And Blake,” the soft female voice from command trailed off.

  “Yeah?”

  “Come back to me in one piece,” the voice said in a sultry tone.

  How could I ever ignore a request like that?

  “You can count on it.”

  If I don’t make it back, then we may all be doomed anyway, I thought, but I couldn’t say that over the live comms.

  “Alpha Two Nine launching.” I disengaged the mag-mounts and bumped the throttles forward.”

  “Good luck,” the voice of command said softly into her mic.

  As soon as the repair hangar doors opened wide enough, I pushed the throttles forward to the stop and activated the hyperspace booster. In a sickening burst of speed, both the fighter and my stomach lurched as we slipped momentarily into hyperspace then back to normal space. Yowahslsh a large reddish-brown moon orbited by Sahhsyyrs, a much smaller green-grey rock, suddenly filled my view. The two Arthian moons backlighting Interstel’s massive orbital junkyard looked something akin to a predator looming over its prey.

  I spotted a gleam of light in the dark distance. Six objects streaked across the backdrop of the cosmos as I watched them growing closer.

  “Contacts spotted, Command. Moving to engage.”

  “We copy you, Alpha Two Nine.”

  I adjusted my course to skim the outer edge of the debris field before flanking the six unknown fighters and approaching from their aft quarter. They continued on their direct path toward Starport, unabated. Finishing my maneuver, I pushed the throttles to the forward stop and my fighter leapt forward at a nauseating rate, skipping through hyperspace. The unknown enemy ships never so much as flinched as they continued to close in on their target. If they had noticed my ship moving among the junkyard wreckage, they gave no outward sign of it.

  Targeting systems squealed with the tone for a positive lock on all six of the enemy vessels. They continued, unwavering as they held the same tight formation without variance.

  “Just a little closer,” I said to myself. One more burst of speed from the hyperspace skip and I’d be too close to miss.

  Why does this seem way too easy?

  Target locks sounded just as soon as my Raptor slipped out of hyperspace less than a kilometer behind the six unknown fighters.

  “Targets acquired! Missiles away!”

  I depressed the missile button on the control stick and launched two missiles at each of the targets. My Raptor rocked from the sudden deployment of munitions. I banked the fighter hard, changing position behind the flight of enemy fighters as I watched my volley of missiles streak ahead, impacting each of the selected targets. I pulled up to clear the explosions as I followed behind to avoid the debris. All six targets banked away, unscathed from the impacts.

  “Alpha Two Nine, we have a problem!”

  “You think I don’t know that, Command? I’m doing the best I can out here.”

  “New contact bearing six five mark two two point six from your position, and it is massive.”

  Target lock warnings erupted in my ears.

  I banked, rolled, and banked hard again. The spaceframe of my Raptor groaned from the strain as I evaded the enemy ship target locks. I punched it, shoving the throttles to the stop once again. Bursts of particle beams struck hard as my Raptor exited the hyperspace slip. Damage control warnings flashed across my displays. Secondary power systems damaged, life support was offline and two of the ship's weapons hardpoints were gone.

  “I’m hit, Command. Heading into the junkyard to see if I can shake them.”

  Garbled static was the only reply that I received.

  Why wait till now to jam the comms?

  I nosed the ship over and aimed for the junkyard. That’s when I saw the massive mothership, half the size of Sahhsyyrs approaching from behind Yowahslsh, Arth’s largest moon.

  Sparks flew from a control console on my left.

  “Warning, core breach imminent,” the ship’s voice warning shouted.

  I rolled and banked the ship Arthward in a corkscrew maneuver then angled the nose to intercept a large transport that hung lifelessly in the junkyard.

  I can’t take too many more hits like that one.

  A new alarm roared in my ears. It buzzed and warbled like the tone of an obnoxious alarm clock. My Raptor’s heads-up display exploded in a shower of sparks and scorched ozone.

  “Core overload in ten seconds,” the computer warned.

  The alarm continued, blaring, drilling its way into my grey matter.

  The world flashed suddenly to a brilliant shade of white and continued to strobe in time to the roaring alarm.

  I blinked to clear my vision. Lumination panels embedded in the ceiling bathed me in their day star glow.

  The alarm continued, pounding its way into the side of my head. I turned in the direction of the annoyance and found a clock flashing 1000 in time to the bleating of the alarm.

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” I mumbled, then smashed the button to stop the incessant alarm. “Just enough time to swing by the Black Box for breakfast before orientation,” I said through a long yawn as I stretched. I smacked my mouth in search of the slightest amount of moisture then yawned again and caught the scent of my own breath. “Oh, Gods! That isn’t good.”

  Shower first, then breakfast.

  Instead of my normal rush out the door, I took my time this morning and enjoyed a steaming mug of stimcaff as I got ready. Admittedly it was tough to force myself to slow down after the last two years on the go in the academy. But today was my first day as a starship captain, and I planned to make the most of it. Breakfast at the Black Box, Starport’s premier captain’s lounge, was the best way I could think of to reward myself for all of the hard work and start the day.

  In no time, I found myself standing at the entrance of the lounge and in the presence of a goddess. Slowly, I made my way over to the bar.

  “As soon as the hatch opened and I stepped into the lounge, I knew we were destined to meet. Captain Blake Daniels,” I said as I slid into the empty barstool beside the female captain. I waved for the massive service android at the other end of the bar then leaned in against the dark wooden bar top.

  She was fun-sized. Short and petite with close-cropped brunette hair and those big beautiful bright blue eyes that could steal a man’s soul. A rare diamond—no— a rare Endurium in the rough that only crosses your path once in a lifetime.

  She let out a short chortle and rolled her eyes with a shake of her head. The ice in her glass clinked as she turned up her drink and drained the glass before turning her attention to me. She flashed an annoyed smile then looked at me with an exasperated sidelong glance. “I am not in the mood to deal with anyone’s bullshit. Are you buying me a drink or what?”

  “Greetings,” the android said in a tinny robotic voice. “I am M09, your bartender. What can I get you this evening?”

  “Um…,” I stammered, then smiled back at her with a nervous laugh. “Sure thing.” Perfect freaking timing.

  “Hey there, Sparky. How about a Downspin Flux for me and a Shield Nullifier for the lady.”

  “Scratch that,” she said, abruptly interrupting. “Make that two Downspin Fluxes with a whiskey chaser on the side.” She held up her glass and clinked the ice with a shake.

  Wow, that was a surprise. I shifted uncomfortably on the bar stool. “Not exactly what I expected, but alright.” I nodded at the android then smiled back at her. “Surprise and excitement wrapped up together in such a cute little package.”

  Anger flashed across her features to replace her previously annoyed expression. She sat up and turned her seat to face me squarely. “And what exactly did you expect? Did you expect to just waltz in here with your fresh-pressed uniform and shiny new captain’s bars to impress the first gullible slag you came across?”