Planet Broker

by Eric Vall

  K’lox stumbled slightly as he reached up and around to touch his wound. His hand came away slick, and I watched as blood dripped down his arm and onto the shaft of the spear he clutched in his fist. The two of us panted as we squared off, and then K’lox lifted his spear to point at me, the edge glinting like a dark promise.

  This wasn’t right. None of this was right.

  I looked again to Cy’lass, but U’eh blocked my view of his son, and the chief’s face was as blank and unreadable as stone.

  I had to be missing something, but fuck! What was it?

  I turned back to K’lox, and we began to circle each other again, the Almort male’s blood falling to the dirt like drops of crude oil in the low light of this planet.

  The sight of the blood drew me up short as a thought began to form in the back of my mind.

  The Almort… the Almort were very medically advanced. Neka and Akela had sung praises about their vast resources of medicinal herbs, and the skill it took to cultivate and utilize them. Whatever they used had nearly healed over the wound the Malog gave me, and I’d only been unconscious for two days. They didn’t just stick a patch on me and pump me full of stimulants, like a Corporately paid doctor would. They’d actually healed me.

  K’lox feigned another lunge at me, but the move was only a half-hearted test. He retreated when I dodged and went back to contemplating my stance, my footwork, looking for any opening he could take advantage of.

  However, it seemed like the Almort male had slowed. I glanced down at the dirt and saw more blood scattered there than I anticipated. I didn’t think I had managed to cut him very deeply, the gash was only about fifteen centimeters, and the blow had mostly just skated off him, but maybe I had nicked a blood vessel of some kind.

  K’lox seemed to know he was weakening, too. It showed under the rage on his face.

  I needed to figure out this trial. Now.

  I shifted my grip on my spear and went through what I knew.

  The first two trials had been multi-tiered. They had levels. With the first one, I needed to kill the Malog, which demonstrated my strength, but I also had to bring its body back to the city, metaphorically to illustrate that I could and would provide for its people.

  The riddle of the second trial was obviously meant to test my intelligence, but under that, it had been meant to test my understanding of the Almort, to show that I understood they were a noble and honorable people.

  Honorable…

  I nearly dropped my spear as the realization hit me.

  When he began this trial, U’eh said I had to prove my honor. I needed to prove that I was honorable in return.

  I thought again of the Almort’s medicines, of Slal’ops’s horror when Akela had explained pollution to him. I recalled my time in the marketplace as I watched the people of Ka’le go about their lives. There had obviously been cliques amongst the tribes, but I had sensed no hostility between the different factions. They commingled in harmony. They were a peaceful people, despite their looks, and despite or perhaps because of their harsh and dangerous planet. U’eh had even described K’lox as their best hunter, not their best warrior.

  They were a peaceful people…

  I glanced up as understanding began to crash over me, and this time, Cy’lass was there when I looked for him. As I stared into the prince’s fierce eyes, the clues he had still managed to drop me finally fell into place.

  “Remember what you have learned and been told about my people. Look deeper, as you did yesterday,” is what he had told me.

  Look deeper. Find the hidden meaning.

  And yesterday, before I had even begun the second trial, as if he had known I would make it here, the prince walked into my room as Akela and Neka had lauded their medical practices and had given me the answer to this final test.

  I heard Akela’s voice and Cy’lass response as if they stood right next to me, as if the undulating crowd around us did not exist.

  “All I’m saying,” Akela had said, “is that the Almort really seem to pride themselves on their medical prowess, and with very good reason.”

  And Cy’lass had walked into the room, looked right at me, and replied, “That is because we consider all life precious.”

  We consider all life precious.

  All life precious.

  In front of me, K’lox was gearing up for his next and final blow. He hefted his spear over his uninjured shoulder, like he meant to throw it, but I didn’t give him the chance.

  With a great and mighty yell, I darted forward. There were only a handful of meters between us, not enough for K’lox to throw the spear with any accuracy, especially as I ran headlong toward him. At the last moment, I tossed my own spear back into the dirt and threw my body into a slide aimed at his feet. My own feet connected with his ankles, and as K’lox tottered, I grabbed onto the shaft of his spear and tugged him forward.

  The Almort male grunted as he somersaulted over my prone figure, and since I still held on to his spear, the weapon was wrenched from his grasp. K’lox crashed into the dirt, and before he could regain his footing, I scrambled up to stand over him, and with every ounce of strength in me, I thrust the spear tip down.

  The Almort froze, his gills flaring and both sets of eyelids flickering asmy spear embedded itself in the dirt thirty centimeters away from K’lox’s head.

  Around us, the crowd had fallen silent as he gasped for breath. I snapped my head up to find Cy’lass, Slal’ops, and half a dozen other Almort men had jumped forward at the last moment. Some of them even still had their hands outstretched to stop me.

  I grinned in fierce triumph.

  I was right.

  I looked to U’eh then, to the surprise and the flash of uncertainty that was still visible on his face.

  “You said this trial was a test of my honor,” I called out to the Almort chief. My voice carried across the courtyard. “You asked to see what I’m worth.”

  I stepped back from K’lox and then extended my arm down to the prone male. He hesitated for a moment, but then took my hand and let me help him up.

  I turned back to U’eh and held my chin high as I declared, “I do not know the exact measure of my worth, but I can tell you it’s no more than his.” I gestured to K’lox, and the male dipped his chin to me in respect.

  “I have told you that I am a man of my word,” I continued as I looked around to the gathered Almort. “And here is the proof: I do not seek to harm you. I have lived amongst the dishonorable starmen, and I have seen what their greed and their blatant disregard for life can do. I do not wish to see their blight spread to your planet or your people. I seek only to help you, to provide for you, to learn from you, and to protect you from those who have no honor.”

  The echoes of my speech faded out over the crowd, and hundreds of dark blue eyes blinked back at me as I looked out over their faces. Beside me, K’lox shifted uncertainly on his feet as he clutched at his bleeding shoulder, and now that I knew his show of bloodthirsty rage had been just that, a show, I felt bad about his wound. I leaned over and pulled his opposite arm around my shoulders to support him, which was rather comical since he was nearly a meter taller than me. Still, he seemed to appreciate the gesture.

  Before us, U’eh had come down from the steps that led up to the tower. He walked past Slal’ops and the other Almort males who had tried to stop me. He stepped past Cy’lass, who grinned at me unrestrained now. I know the prince meant the expression to be encouraging, but his needle-sharp teeth made it more disconcerting than anything else.

  U’eh came to a stop two meters in front of us. He looked to K’lox first and clicked, “Well done” to the Almort male. K’lox dipped his head in reverence, but U’eh had already turned to me.

  The Almort chief had never been my biggest fan. From the moment I set foot in his city, he wanted nothing more than to make me leave. He didn’t trust me. As well he shouldn’t, I was a stranger, asking for the keys to his kingdom.

  But now… now there wa
s something else in his eye. It was something almost like… respect.

  “You have surprised me, starman,” he quietly admitted, his tone more than a little grudging. He tilted his head then as if he didn’t know what to make of me.

  “But have I appeased you?” I countered. “Have I proven myself worthy enough for us to enter into an agreement?”

  The crowd held its breath around us. U’eh considered me, his eyes scrutinizing me from head to toe. Then, in a move that shocked me, he held out his arm.

  “You have proven yourself amenable to our ways,” he replied, “and have proven yourself a friend to the Almort. How true of a friend is yet to be seen.”

  I knew he was referring to Warrick, but right now, I couldn’t give less of a shit about that stupid blond prick.

  “Does that mean I won?” I questioned the chief of the Almort, nearly breathless from anticipation.

  U’eh grinned at me then, an expression that was even scarier on his face than it had been on his son’s.

  “The starman Ccccolby Tower has passed the third trial,” the chief bellowed, his voice resounding in my ear. I reached out, almost numbly, and took his offered hand. As he clasped my arm tightly, U’eh cried, “The Akornath is complete!”

  The Almort exploded into cheers around me, and I looked around with disbelief.

  I had done it.

  I won.

  “CT!”

  I looked up as Neka screamed my name, and U’eh stepped aside just in time for my assistant to launch herself down the steps of the tower and into my arms.

  I caught her, breathless and laughing, and because I couldn’t contain the elation that swelled and crested in my chest, I spun us around in circles.

  “You did it!” she squealed in my ear as she hugged me tight around the neck. She pulled back, and from the moment I saw her grinning, joyful face, and her bright yellow eyes full of happy tears, I knew I wouldn’t be able to stop myself.

  So right there, in the middle of a cheering crowd of Almort, on a planet I never dreamed of I’d make it to, I pulled Neka’s face down to mine and kissed her square on the mouth.

  The cat-girl gasped but her lips quickly opened up willingly and enthusiastically under my own. I delved into her sweet mouth, tongue sweeping the roof, before I pulled back with a start as something rough tugged at me. It didn’t hurt, just startled me. I blinked in shock at Neka, before she stuck her own tongue out at me, and I saw the bristles that coated it.

  Cat tongue.

  “Huh,” I said hoarsely. “Didn’t think about that.”

  Now it was the only thing I could think of.

  Neka giggled at my hungry expression, but then someone cleared their throat beside us, and I turned to see Akela looking at me with her arms crossed over her chest, and her eyebrow raised.

  I set Neka down softly, and apprehension rose in me. I was still so unsure of how this all worked between the three of us.

  Akela must have noticed my dilemma, because the mechanic rolled her eyes and said, “Oh don’t give me that look,” before she stepped forward, wound her arms around my neck, and slanted her mouth against mine.

  The silver-haired woman didn’t have a bristled tongue, but damn did she know how to use the one she had. We stood there lip locked for what felt like years before we had to pull back for breath. Akela’s amethyst eyes sparkled like gems centimeters in front of me, and my heart felt so full it could burst.

  Then, there was a crackle of static in my ear and Omni said, “You’ll forgive me if I only wish you congratulations, Colby, unless you’d like one of my drones to follow Neka and Akela’s example.”

  I burst out laughing and tugged both women to my side. Neka purred as she nuzzled into my neck, and even Akela sighed as she wrapped an arm around my waist.

  “Thanks for the offer, buddy,” I told the AI, a stupid grin stretched over my face, “but I think I got all that I need right here.”

  Chapter 20

  I had learned many things during my week on Proxima V.

  But one lesson became abundantly clear as I looked out over the plains and waded through waist-high grass that flared in blues and greens around me.

  The Almort really knew how to throw a party.

  In the fields that surrounded Ka’le, multiple bonfires burned, and it seemed as if every Almort in the city, regardless of the tribe, had turned out for the celebrations. They moved through the fields toward the fires in pairs or groups or clumps of thirty, and their chittering laughter floated on the warm breeze that stirred through the grass.

  I glanced to either side of me and Neka and Akela grinned back. They wore variants of the same outfit which were similar but oh so enticingly different from what they wore to the first feast.

  The swathes of fabric across their chests were the same, bands that came over their shoulders, crossed over their chests, and wrapped around the opposite hip. This time, however, the extra fabric that flowed down from their waists actually formed the bottom of their dresses. No shorts this time. The dresses cascaded down to their thighs, and the back half extended passed their knees all the way to the ground, while in the front their legs were left bare down to their pale and delicate feet. We had all forgone shoes for this occasion, in true Almort style.

  Neka also wore the necklace I had gotten her from the market, the delicate silver chains glinting beautifully atop the ample curve of her cleavage. I vowed to get Akela something similar because I think the color would match her hair bewitchingly.

  However, the best part of their dresses, besides their overall sexiness, was the color. It seemed Cy’lass and Slal’ops had orchestrated a small gift for the two women, because Neka’s dress was dyed the perfect shade of orange to match her hair, and Akela’s was made in the exact same hue of her amethyst eyes.

  The pair had nearly stopped my heart when they walked out of the bedroom after getting dressed. Even Omni had commented on the dip in my vitals, which only caused Neka to giggle and Akela to smirk, but both of them had blushed.

  Now that I got to see them like this, though, bathed in the glow of the fire, under the faint light of this planet’s perpetual starlight, my heart could barely keep up with its own frantic rhythm. They were so gorgeous, my assistant and mechanic, my crew, my women.

  “Are you going to stand there all night gawking at us or are we actually going to make it to the celebrations?” Akela teased me, her head cocked to the side and her mouth tilted upward in a smirk.

  Neka giggled and pressed herself against the outside of my right arm. “I don’t know,” she mused playfully, “I kind of like his slack-jawed look.”

  Her tail came up and tickled at my chin. I shut my mouth with an audible click. Had I been drooling, too? Fuck, these women were going to kill me.

  But what a way to go.

  I shook my head to clear my thoughts of any R-rated fantasies. Not the time, but… maybe later.

  I smiled at Neka and Akela and offered them both an arm. “Miladies,” I intoned with grand ceremony as I bowed to each of them in turn. “May I have the honor of escorting you to this magnificent alien feast?”

  Neka beamed at me and wrapped her arms around my bicep, and her tail brushed coyly up the back of my neck. I shivered and then turned to Akela.

  The silver-haired woman considered me for a moment, and I suddenly recalled when we had been in this same position weeks ago, when I offered to give her a tour of the Lacuna Noctis. The reticent mechanic hadn’t taken my arm then, but this time, she stepped forward with a shy smile and slid her arm into mine.

  Even in the dark, with the flames and dancing shadows, I could see the faint flush that wound up Akela’s neck and blossomed on the apples of her cheeks.

  My heart pounded in my chest, and I wanted nothing more than to kiss the mechanic, and then Neka, and just continue that cycle until we were good and tired as well as satisfied.

  However, the drums beckoned me once again from the fireside, so I followed their siren’s call deeper into t
he grasses, my women on my arms, and the Almort flooding in around me.

  It took us a while to wind our way to the largest of the bonfires. Along the way, many Almort had called out to me and gave me their congratulations. They called me ‘starman’ and clapped me on the back, or raised a glass in my direction, but for the first time, the word didn’t feel like an insult.

  By the time we reached the largest fire, the smell of smoke and charring meat already had me salivating. From across the flattened grass, Cy’lass spotted me and raised his arm with a loud, chittering cry. The Almort nearest us echoed the call, and before I could blink, cups and plates were being pressed into my hands.

  This feast seemed to be the most informal of all. There were no grand speeches in sight since U’eh had said all he needed to say about my Akornath. I was incredibly grateful.

  Neka unwound herself from me to accept a plate heaped with fish graciously. Her wide eyes dilated with hunger, and she licked her lips repeatedly. Akela looked more interested in her glass and slid half her food onto Neka’s plate.

  “She eats more than the Stuogror,” Cy’lass laughed as he approached us, gesturing to my assistant as he referenced the large beasts of burden we had seen on the way to their city.

  “I’ll take that as a compliment,” Neka sniffed before she slurped something with tentacles off her plate.

  “As well you should,” Slal’ops said sagely as he appeared behind his prince. “The Stuogror is a majestic creature.”

  I chuckled as Neka tilted her head from side to side happily, but did not stop eating. That was my cat girl.

  I turned to Cy’lass and smiled at the Almort prince. “Well,” I said as I raised my glass, “here’s to making it through the week.”

  I meant it as a joke, and Cy’lass did smile, but there was a seriousness in his expression. “You did well, CccT,” he told me. “My father is impressed.”