Page 4 of Found Treasure Bride

The man caught me looking. “One of our singers at The Crooner Lounge,” he explained curtly. “It’s on the casino deck.”

Suddenly all the heavy security made sense. Between how close the station was to No man’s Land and all the money floating about from the no doubt extremely wealthy patrons, they were taking no chances.

“I’ll be sure to check it out,” I replied, lying through my teeth.

We took a lift up a few floors, and when we exited, I gasped. We were on a level where the roof was made of plasteel, which had the appearance of transparent glass, which gave us a view of the universe around us. It was beautiful and terrifying all at the same time.

“Awe-inspiring, isn’t it?” he asked, this time actually sounding a bit n the friendly side.

“That it is.”

He let me gather my wits for a moment, then led me across the extensive promenade into a noisy but high-class bar with casino tables down at one end. A pair of polished gold stairs led to an upper floor that had a view of the bottom level via floor-to-ceiling windows and a floor that could be turned transparent as I witnessed it turn opaque as we entered after he knocked and was invited in.

I gasped when I saw the station manager. He was the same species as the looters! I hoped that didn’t prejudice him against me.

“Mr. Prilraziin, I’ve brought the ship’s captain as you requested.”

“Thank you, Fitz,” Prilraziin said. “You may go.” He rose from behind his desk, and an oily smile on his face as his eyes raked me up and down. I knew I looked a mess. I’d outrun a bunch of thugs, survived being shot at, and pretty much crash-landed into his station. “You don’t look the way I expected.”

I quirked one side of my mouth up. I got this a lot. Mention that you’re an archeologist, and they immediately look surprised because I’m neither male nor a dowdy-looking woman who looks interested in warbling about ancient tombs or some shit. Man! The stereotypes just never rest.

“I get that a lot.”

“I bet you do.” His eyes settled at my chest, where my amble bosom held his attention. Prick.

I gently cleared my throat, pleased when his eyes jerked back up to my face. “So, about the damage to your station, I have a credit chit from my sponsor, the Lindholm Institute. It also has the information on the insurance company, who can help settle the final bill,” I said silkily.

He broke out into a much happier smile. “Excellent! It’s always good news to hear one can settle their debts without unpleasantness. Now, my dear, why don’t you sit down and tell me how you came to find yourself in such a delicate situation.”

I didn’t want to sit down and go over it, but I knew it was something I had to do. I would much rather be back at Truth Seeker, talking with the engineers they were sending out and assessing the damage to my poor girl.

“Well, I’m a professor of xeno-archeology at the Lindholm Institute. It’s in the area once known as Minnesota. I received a grant to go to Peloynus IV, as our Institute was one of five that funds a team to decipher the access codes to several of the domes, and the team cracked one.”

I watched as his eyelid twitched. Yeah, he was totally hoping for the short version of the tale.

“Anyways, I got there, began recording the ruins, and the day before I left, another ship arrived ad some dangerous-looking guys began poking around the dome. They didn’t appear to have an access code, so I thought I would be alright, only I guess they did, have a code, I mean, because while I was at the museum, they came in ab=nd began looting. They saw me, and well, I left in a hurry.”

He relaxed a fraction. “I see. So, did you get a good look at them?”

“Not really. I can tell you their ship is a Z-class freight hauler, so not huge by any means, but with enough cargo space in the hold to probably empty a few rooms in the museum I was at. Um, and they were blue and very tall and burly.”

“Blue, tall, and burly,” he repeated. He looked at me carefully. “Are you saying they were members of my species?”

“I have no idea,” I hedged. “I’ve never met any of your species until today, and well, I legged it out of there as soon as I heard voices. I only saw them from far off the first time, and I was busy running away the next time.”

“I see.”

Something about his demeanor told me he wasn’t happy with my description of the looters. He was probably worried that I thought all of his species were criminals. He ran a casino so that he might be used to people making unfortunate assumptions. I could relate, what with how people reacted to me after coming face to face with me, previously only knowing me from what had been written.

He steepled his fingers together. “Well, I’ll send a report out to sector authorities about this incident on your behalf.” He held out his hand. “I’ll also accept partial payment and insurance information from you now for the damages to your ship and my station.” I reached into my pocket and fished the chit out, handing it to him. He took it before continuing, “I’ll return this once the cash has been received for the restitution.”

“Ca-cash?” I swallowed.

“Oh, my yes. Here on the fringe, many species that come through here don’t use our credit system. I have to pay them in their own currencies, which I buy with physical sols from a currency exchange merchant. They often buy sols from him to spend here and elsewhere on our side of the border.”

I swallowed. I had not anticipated this. It could take ages for the insurance company and the Institute to agree to send cash, get enough of it, then arrange for safe transport of it all the way here. I could be stuck here for months, perhaps even years! Even worse, the whole time I was here, I’d be running up bills. Damn it; I should have held onto that chit and contacted them my damned self.

Well, too fucking late for that now.