Tempted by Celestial Bodies

Chapter 2

chapter two

roxy

“Don’t let them see you, Sha,” I warned.

My copilot shifted effortlessly from their Kelki form—all purple tentacles and beaks—into a human man as they flipped switches on our craft to land at the Aeon Trillium Cabaret & Casino.

“I swear to Dilf, Roxy, don’t tell me how to shift my shape.” Sha glanced at me and shifted their hair color closer to mine. “All humans look alike anyways.”

I zipped my boots up under the long, red evening gown I’d chosen for this escapade. “You can’t wing it, Sha. They don’t look the same on visual record.” I depressed the activation node on my infomatter. “Show me Count Borrdaff.” I tossed it to Sha. “Here.”

Sha spruced themself up with the new information, adjusting their face to a match for Borrdaff Kahcksuccerce, the Minor Crime Count of a nearby system. “I guess we’d better do a good job retrieving this Llurren for IFUCS. Maybe they’ll throw us more business.”

“I don’t give a good fuck what IFUCS thinks,” I said. “You know the Admiral of the Intergalactic Federation of United & Conjunct Starsystems wouldn’t have hired us if they had better options. We’re expendable to them, and don’t forget it. We’ll be lucky to make it out of here alive, much less successfully extract the Llurren scientist. But you’re right about one thing—we can’t afford to fumble this mission. We need the money.”

“ Faaaa ,” Sha balked, their voice modulating up and down along a lower register, trying to match the videos of Borrdaff they were now watching. “ You can’t afford to fumble this mission. I can’t believe you’re taking your half of the money to retire and leave me to my own devices.”

I ignored that jab, placing the custom untraceable weapon-dampeners I’d fabricated onto my boots and leg straps, as well as a variety of other tricks and baubles. Sha only lashed out because they were going to miss me. We’d worked together a long time, traveling all over the galaxy as soldiers for hire. But this payout was all I needed to retire to the planet of my choice and continue inventing my anti-weapons. I’d even have enough to hack the LonelyStars database to find out what happened to the being I’d been messaging. Next week would mark six months since PowerPurr838 sent his last message: Thank you, Pretty. I love talking to you.

“I could retire on this haul if I wanted to,” Sha said, breaking my thoughts from my lost…friend? Maybe future lover? Whatever me and Purr had been.

“Don’t give me that shit, Sha. You don’t have but a hundred credits saved. Do you know what I think?”

Sha’s violet eyes rolled toward me as they flipped switches and our ship descended onto the casino’s landing platform. “What?”

“Brown eyes, Sha. I think you love the adventure. I think you’re addicted to being a mercenary.”

Sha’s eyes shifted brown as their human face grinned. “Been at it long before you were born, and I’ll be at it long after you’re gone, baby girl.”

I stuck my tongue out playfully. “Why do you constantly have to rub my life expectancy in my face?”

Sha chuckled in Count Borrdaff’s voice, and my eyes fell on the visual record of Planet Liminato I’d hung up in the cockpit, its green, rolling hills and blue skies calling me. I would’ve gone there long ago if I wasn’t stuck, penniless, in this life. Purr was stuck, too, wherever in the galaxy he was. We both yearned for what we called “an afterlife while we’re still alive,” a peaceful life on a farm with someone we loved to balance out the strife we’d borne in our quarter-century of living.

I hoped he’d gotten unstuck, not gotten himself in trouble. I didn’t know Purr’s situation, but I’d been on the run since I ditched the orphanage on Hupfrair at sixteen to join a smugglers’ guild. Thank Dilf that Sha found me at seventeen and took me away from those cutthroat criminals, teaching me almost everything I knew and letting me join their ship. They’d even indulged my tinkering, stealing endless amounts of equipment and supplies for it.

Smiling, I watched their hands shift between Kelki and human appendages at the controls as they prepped our ship for a quick getaway, just in case. I wrapped my little human arms around them, and they bore it with a smirk and a sigh.

“I love you, Sha.” I would’ve added, You’re the closest thing I’ve ever had to a parent , but that would just embarrass them.

“Sure, whatever.” They accepted my human affection with feigned resignation but loved it all the same. I could tell by the way the shifted human skin on their hand involuntarily tinged green as they patted my arm.

They waited until I removed myself before adjusting their skin color back to a deep, tanned peach. “Didn’t we get a visual record of the Llurren?”

I shook my head. “They didn’t have one. He’s been in a top-secret location and normally works alone.”

Sha rubbed their whole human face with a purple tentacle before morphing it back into a human hand. “Llurrens. Remind me—tall and scaly? Or short and furry?”

I rolled my eyes and fixed my stare on them. “You know what a Llurren looks like. I’ve seen you impersonate at least ten of them in the time I’ve known you. Just imagine a tall human, maybe a range of six to eight feet. But with skin in colors like blue, green, and gold—our target’s gold. Llurrens are really muscular—built like those ideal human joining droids. Pretty hairy.”

“Are we talking full body hair?”

“Some do, but some have hair like humans—mostly on their head, chest, and limbs.” I checked my weapons one last time. The docking crew approached our craft with a Gaming Ambassador, who, thanks to our impersonation of the Count and his daughter, would be our guide to the Casino and unwitting accomplice to our rescue of the Llurren.

I turned to Sha. “Ready?”

Sha ran a hand through their salt-and-pepper human hair. “I was hatched ready.” They flipped the switch to open the craft door. “Wait,” they stage-whispered. “What’s my name again?”

“Oh sweet Dilf. You’re Count Borrdaff Kahcksuccerce.”

“ Cocksuckers ?”

“That’s the name,” I murmured, a haughty smile plastered to my face.

“Hello, gentleman,” Sha boomed. A natural actor, they held their human arm out to me as if they’d done it a thousand times. “Thank you for your warm welcome. I’m Count Borrdaff Kahcksuccerce, and this is my daughter…”

Oh shit. Did they remember my name?

Sha turned to me with a wink. “Countina Sass Kahcksuccerce.”

Whew. I curtseyed. “Delighted.”

The Gaming Ambassador bowed both their waists low to the ground. “Welcome to the Aeon Trillium Cabaret and Casino, Count and Countina,” one head said. The other inclined our way and spoke. “Daddy Skirkild the Unrighteous is pleased that you have chosen his humble palace for your gaming delights and nefarious trading.”

Humble? The casino was built into Skirkild’s fortress floating at the edge of a mountain range near the top of a trio of waterfalls. The palace was five square miles of luxury, and the casino alone was one-fifth of that. As we walked into the structure, I counted no less than twenty spires reaching high into the clouds, all ringed with balconies.

“Daddy Skirkild the Unrighteous is expecting me, of course,” Sha said in Count Borrdaff’s voice. “I’ve been working on some globular disintegrating blasters that the Unrighteous will find most useful and entertaining.”

We passed through the long foyer of the casino and were spirited through the weapons check.

“Is this necessary?” Sha asked, lip curled beneath a silky mustache.

I held my breath as the guards powered the weapons finder. The screen lit up the dainty blaster tucked into my garter, but thank Dilf, none of my real weapons. I always liked to leave a little something small and dainty for them to find so they could feel like they were doing a good job.

A rather handsome Brachinme guard set his talons to his hips and his gaze on me. “Hand over the weapon, ma’am.”

I turned on a full pout. “But you wouldn’t take away a girl’s only protection, would you?”

The Brachinme shrugged with a lascivious grin. “House rules.”

I stepped my heeled foot up onto the weapons finder, the slit in my skirt running high up my leg attracting all the guards’ attention. Most aliens considered humans attractive, so I played it up as often as I could.

I pulled the little pink blaster from my garter and handed it over with an eye flutter, tiptoeing my fingers up the Brachinme’s chest. “Thank you for keeping us safe.” I winked and smoothed my hands down my hips, flicking my finger across the muzzle of the untraceable sonic blast nullifier attached to my belt, hiding in plain sight.

Sha complained loudly to the Gaming Ambassador about the guards taking his weapons—also sacrificial for surrendering—then we were admitted into the elevator up to the casino.

Three steps in, I sized up the primary gaming room, which I’d only seen on visual record. A small, shallow balcony policed with guards encircled the top of the room, and the main floor was clogged with nearly a thousand beings collecting around gaming tables, several bars, and at least two stages. But I didn’t see a single Llurren among them.

“Let me set my daughter up to play. Darling,” Sha said to me, “here’s eighty thousand credits to play with.” Sha dropped a small fortune of the highest quality counterfeit credits on the exchange table.

The banker didn’t blink one of her eight eyes at the gross display of wealth. She simply piled two slim trays of citrus-scented gaming chips before me, and I took them.

“Thank you, Pappa.” I kissed Sha’s cheek and let him lead me deeper into the room. Still no sign of a Llurren. This Dr. Tyos should’ve stuck out like a sore thumb—gold skin was pretty rare, even for a Llurren.

At least Sha and I had planned for a long game. It might take us days to locate him—if he was even on this planet—and even longer to extract him. I slid leisurely onto a stool at the castingo table, taking care to let my full leg show through the slit of my gown. A horned Ristoquarian raised his four eyebrows as his eyes scanned up my leg. I winked at him.

“Darling,” Sha said, “will you be okay here while Pappa takes care of business?”

Code for I’ll pull off some of the heat, and you find out if anyone’s seen the Llurren .

“Yes of course, Pappa. I’ll be fine.”

Sha nodded to the Gaming Ambassador. “Bring me to Daddy Skirkild.” A large contingent of guards followed Sha and the ambassador. I’d chosen the Count for this ruse for a reason—as a business partner, he notoriously offered both a high reward and a high risk. As predicted, Daddy Skirkild took the bait of illegal arms we dangled, but he knew well enough to keep the “count” guarded by his best men.

Dilf, this room was hot. I pulled my long hair back from my neck and shook it out, running my hand down my chest. Live music began from the direction of the stage, a pounding, sexual beat under the high notes of the brass and the low bass of the strings. The whooping and hollering of the crowd rose around the stage.

My next inhale caught a hint of the most intoxicating scent—spicy and fresh, almost like cinnamon and pine. A rush of aching pleasure infused my whole body, and my pussy stung from the rapid flow of blood. I grasped the table reflexively as a level of arousal I’ve never felt before overtook my senses. Sniffing the air like a cat on the hunt, I squirmed in my seat. Of the hundreds of smells in the room—the gambling chips, the body odor of at least three dozen alien species beneath snatches of perfumes and colognes—only one scent enthralled me, and its faintness was a tease.

There it was again. I shuddered, and with an effort, refrained from digging under my dress to pleasure myself in the middle of this room full of people. Had I been drugged? But no, I hadn’t ingested anything. The human at my table seemed unaffected, and Skirkild wouldn’t be drugging the whole populace—that would shut his lucrative enterprise right down. By all accounts, Skirkild awarded death to anyone who endangered his patrons.

Another teasing whiff of the scent made my whole body shiver, and I suppressed a whimper. What in Dilf’s name was this?