Alien Skin Market by Lizzy Bequin

CHAPTER 16: JRAYK

Jrayk’s wrist-comm buzzed, signalling an incoming call, but he ignored it. It was Tristn, no doubt. Well, he would just have to void off. Jrayk had no interest in talking to that stuck up, highborn bastard. Not right now. At the moment, all his attention was taken up with the prospect of winning a cool two hundred galax.

Jrayk was perched on a stool in a dark and smoky port-side saloon called The Red Dwarf. The tables and chairs in the center of the saloon had been pushed back to form a circular ring, and a raucous crowd of spacers were cheering and stamping their boots and exchanging bets.

In the center of the makeshift ring stood two hulking figures. One of them was a Krytonian Golem, a brutal warrior composed of living stone and covered in tangled green vines that served as muscles and tendons.

The other figure was Jrayk’s first mate and best friend, Vaul.

Vaul was a Raksha, just like Jrayk, but he was far bigger than Jrayk was. In fact, Vaul was the biggest and strongest member of his species Jrayk had ever seen—a fact that had earned both of them a fair amount of money in saloons and gambling dens all across the galaxy.

At the moment, Vaul was swapping blows with his Krytonian adversary. It wasn’t a fight so much as a test of strength. The two warriors took turns hitting each other squarely in the face with as much force as they could muster.

Currently, it was Vaul’s turn.

“Come on, Vaul!” Jrayk roared, making his voice heard over the din of the crowd. “Hit him so hard his ancestors feel it!”

Vaul grinned and swung his balled-up fist at the Golem’s angled jaw. His knuckles connected with a deafening crack like two boulders slamming together.

The Golem took a step back…but remained on his feet.

A cheer surged through the gathered crowd.

Shit, Jrayk thought to himself. This Golem was tougher than he had expected. The big rocky bastard shook off Vaul’s punch, grunted, and readied itself for its own turn. The crowd silenced in anticipation.

Jrayk was nervous as xheol.

He wasn’t worried about his friend getting hurt. Vaul had been in a thousand brawls. He would be just fine. No, Jrayk was more worried about the two-hundred galax he had riding on this bout. If Vaul got knocked out by his opponent, Jrayk didn’t have enough cash to pay. Then they’d really be in deep muck.

Just then, the tinny voice droned out of Jrayk’s wrist-comm again.

“…are you there, Jrayk? Jrayk, do you copy?”

Goddess damn it, why did Tristn have to bother him now of all times? Didn’t he realize Jrayk had better things to do than hold his hand?

Jrayk brought the device to his mouth and spoke.

“Sorry, doc, but I’m busy at the moment. I’ll get back to you in two blips.”

“You idiot! This is an emerg—”

Jrayk silenced the device just in time to see the Golem draw back its gray, stony fist and drive it into Vaul’s mouth. The impact was so brutal, Jrayk could feel the vibrations of it through the legs of his stool.

Vaul stumbled backward.

For a gut-wrenching moment, Jrayk thought his big friend was going to go down, but he managed to regain his balance. Orange blood trickled from his lip and into his beard. He drew the back of his massive hand across his mouth, studied the blood, grinned. His eyes fired with rage.

That was a good sign.

By nature, Vaul was not a particularly violent or aggressive Raksha. Jrayk and Vaul had grown up in the same underprivileged housing sector, and even as a kid, Vaul had been big—bigger than some of the adults even. Nobody had dared mess with him, so he never felt like he needed to prove himself by acting macho. It was only when Vaul got really angry—when someone picked on Jrayk, for example—that he would let his mean streak show.

Normally Vaul didn’t get too upset when somebody hurt him. That was probably because nobody could hurt Vaul badly enough for it to make a difference. But this Krytonian Golem had seemingly done enough damage to flip Vaul’s switch. And when Jrayk saw Vaul spit out a dislodged tooth, he knew the match was about to be over.

Silence settled over the crowd once more.

Vaul’s hand drew back.

The punch was a blur, so fast Jrayk almost didn’t see it. The blow connected like a crash of thunder, and Jrayk could have sworn he saw sparks strike off the Golem’s chin. The big rocky bastard didn’t just stumble, he flew backward through the air. His unconscious body crashed through a table and landed atop a few unfortunate spectators. It took a half dozen other saloon patrons to drag him off.

Jrayk slid off his stool and walked over to Vaul. He gave his friend a soft punch in the shoulder.

“You had me worried there for half a blip.”

“Sorry boss.”

Jrayk grinned. “No need for apologies, Vaul. You just earned us a nice fat paycheck. Come on, let’s go collect.”

With Vaul following behind him, Jrayk sauntered across the room to the unconscious Golem’s keeper, an ugly Krytonian Lizardman.

“Well, I’d say you fellas owe us two hundred bones.”

The Lizardman hissed.

“The competition was not fair, Raksha. Your companion cheated.”

“Cheated? Now how do you figure that?”

“The final blow was a sucker punch. My Golem was not adequately prepared.”

“Well that’s your Golem’s problem, not mine. It was a punching match, friend. There’s no such thing as a sucker punch when it comes to swapping blows. Everyone in the room saw it. Your Golem got hit, and now he’s sleeping like a…well, like a rock. That means you lose. Now pay up, bub, or else you’re liable to have trouble. Unless you reckon you’re tougher than your own Golem, that is.”

As Jrayk spoke, he sensed Vaul looming right behind his shoulder. He knew from the look on the Lizardman’s face that Vaul was giving an intimidating stare. Vaul was good at that.

“You talk tough, Raksha. But I wonder how tough you are without your big friend.”

Jrayk settled his hand on the butt of his pistol.

“Don’t test me, Krytonian. I’m in no mood for games, and I don’t take kindly to spacers who welch on their bets. Now…pay up.”

Wisely, the Lizardman relented and started laying out his money on the table next to them.

“That’s more like it,” Jrayk chuckled.

His wrist-comm vibrated again. It had been doing that for a while now, but he had been too caught up in the proceedings to pay it any mind. Now he turned the device back on. Tristn’s voice exploded through the speaker with a stream of angry oaths.

“Jrayk, you Goddess-damned limp-eared bastard son of a motherless qorvat! You’d better answer me right now!”

Jrayk was tempted to tell him to void off, but his recent winnings had softened his mood.

“Calm down, doc. I’m here,” Jrayk replied nonchalantly, knowing that would serve to piss Tristn off even more. “What’s up?”

Tristn’s voice growled through the comm.

“I’ve found a human, that’s what’s up.”

“Oh void! You really found one?”

Well that was unexpected. Obviously, it was the entire reason they were on this mission. The Rakese government was employing Jrayk and Vaul to lug this obnoxious highborn Tristn all over the Goddess-damned galaxy so he could search for a human. They’d hired Jrayk for this job because he had a knowledge of the more dangerous regions of Covenant Space. Jrayk hadn’t wanted to take the job. The government wasn’t even paying him all that much, the tight-fisted bastards. But they had promised to expunge his extensive criminal record if he accepted.

And if he refused, they promised to throw his tail in prison.

It wasn’t much of a choice, really.

So here he was, playing babysitter to a dim-witted highborn while he gallivanted across the galaxy in search of a human.

Why the hell did the Raksha government need another human, anyway? They’d already found one. Sure, she had been a valuable acquisition. She had brought the entire species back from the very brink of extinction, actually. But why the void did they need another one?

Whatever. Tristn had somehow managed to rustle one up, and that was good news. Very good news, indeed. It meant this stupid mission was over. Now they could return to Rak, and if Jrayk played his cards right, maybe he could even wrangle a nice bonus for himself and Vaul.

Things were looking up.

“Good job, Tristn,” he said into the comm. “Where’d you find her?”

“Nevermind about that,” Tristn said between breaths—was he running? “Right now, the only thing I care about is getting off this planet. I’m heading back to the ship right now. Where are you?”

“The Red Dwarf Saloon. It’s right by the port.”

“Meet me outside, right now!”

Jrayk eyed the Krytonian Lizardman, who was taking his sweet time counting out the money he owed.

“Look, Tristn, give me half a blip. I’m in the middle of a transaction here, and—”

“Out—Side—Now!”

Jrayk sighed. He really needed the Lizardman’s money. The past cycle had been wasted chauffeuring Tristn to the ends of the galaxy and back again, and that meant he and Vaul hadn’t made their usual income from smuggling. The government was paying them a damnably low stipend for their efforts.

But…it sounded like Tristn really was in some kind of trouble. And besides, Jrayk was curious to lay his eyes on the human so he could see what all this fuss was about.

“Fine, I’m coming.”

He pointed his mainclaw at the Lizardman.

“I need to step outside for a blip, but I’m coming back for my money, so don’t go getting any wild ideas.”

He nodded toward Vaul, and the two of them headed for the door.

As soon as they stepped out into the street, they saw Tristn coming. He was less than a block away, sprinting toward them down the sidewalk with something pink and round slung over his shoulder. A shin-high ball of fur was loping along beside him, barking loudly.

“What in the ever-loving void…”

Tristn skidded to a stop in front of them.

“There you are…thank the Goddess! Come on, let’s get to the ship.”

Jrayk barely heard him. His eyes were glued to the long legs and thick, meaty lumps bent over the doctor’s shoulder. In the glow of the neon saloon lights, the skin appeared smooth and hairless, but Jrayk could just make out a thatch of dark fur nestled inside the cavity where the legs came together at the bottom of the rump. The sight of that dark recess, and the warm sweet scent wafting from its inviting depths made Jrayk’s cock swell and jump beneath his britches.

“That is a human?” Jrayk asked.

“Of course it’s a bloody human. What the void else would it be?”

Jrayk grunted. It sure didn’t look much like the pictures the government had provided. He circled around slowly, letting his eyes wander over her luscious curves. As he looked closer, Jrayk realized the skin was not entirely hairless, but it was softly furred with the tiniest little follicles that only showed when the light caught them just right. Something about that discovery excited him, and even more blood rushed into his cock. He was starting to feel lightheaded with arousal.

Goddess, this little alien made him horny. But why? She showed no signs of carrying a mating globule.

Did humans even produce mating globules?

Whatever it was, Jrayk wasn’t the only one feeling the effects of the human female’s mysterious pull. A quick glance revealed that Tristn and Vaul were equally turned on.

That was strange. If the three of them had been in the presence of a mating globule, they’d be ripping each other’s throats out right now. Even he and Vaul would have forgotten their friendship and come to blows. But when it came to this human female, things were obviously different.

Weird.

Jrayk continued circling. He wanted to get a look at the rest of the human. If her upper body was half as enticing as her lower half, the trip back to Rak was going to be an interesting one indeed.

“Jrayk, please,” Tristn grumbled. “There will be plenty of time to inspect the human aboard the ship. But right now we need to move…”

Jrayk wasn’t listening. All of his senses were focused on the female, and his attraction to her left no room in his mind for any other considerations. At last, he came around behind Tristn’s back, where the rest of the human was hanging.

A long fringe of dark hair draped down like a curtain. When Jrayk pushed that hair back, he discovered a pair of eyes that glinted like amber in the neon light. Those eyes locked with his, and something like an electric jolt zapped through his body.

“Goddess…”

“Mwuh!”

“RAWWWN!”

Jrayk had all but forgotten about the shaggy animal he’d seen racing alongside Tristn a blip ago. Now the beast reminded him of its presence by leaping toward Jrayk’s outstretched arm with the intention of biting him.

“Void!”

Luckily, Jrayk’s pilot reflexes didn’t fail him. He jumped back and pulled his arm out of the way just in time, and the beast’s sharp fangs closed on empty space. The wild tangle of pale shaggy fur landed on the ground between Jrayk and the human and growled protectively.

“Rrrrrrrrrrrrr….”

Okay, apparently the ugly little hairball didn’t like Jrayk touching the human.

“What in the Goddess’s name is that?” Jrayk asked.

“I’m not sure, but it’s coming with us.”

“What? Now just hang on a blip! That thing looks like an oversized void rat. The last thing I need is an infestation aboard my ship.”

Tristn sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose like he had a headache. “Look, the human is apparently fond of the creature. She went to great lengths and put herself in harm’s way to retrieve it from captivity. It’s coming with us, and that’s final.”

Jrayk stared down at the snarling mass of fur.

“Fine,” he muttered. “But you have to clean up its muck.”

“Deal,” Tristn said. “Now can we please get aboard the ship? I’ve got some very unhappy Arranian auctioneers on my tail, and I’d like to get out of here as quickly as possible.”

“Sure, sure,” Jrayk said. “But I’ve got some money to collect inside. It’ll just take a blip.”

He started for the door of the saloon, but Tristn grabbed his arm.

“Captain, forget whatever paltry sum you and Vaul just won. I guarantee it’s nothing compared to the bonus the government will pay you for the successful completion of the mission.”

“Bonus?”

Jrayk hadn’t heard anything about a bonus before.

Tristn nodded. “That’s right. Fifty thousand galax apiece to you and Vaul. But only if we bring a human back alive and in one piece.”

Jrayk’s pulse quickened, and he flashed a look at Vaul, whose eyes were wide and hungry looking.

Fifty thousand galax was a lot of money. And fifty thousand apiece added up to a hundred. A small fortune.

“All right,” he said. “Follow me.”

With Jrayk leading the way, the party set off toward the nearby landing pad where his ship The Longshot was parked. Tristn followed behind, with the human still draped over his shoulder. The hairball trotted alongside, and trusty Vaul brought up the rear.

Jrayk’s brain was already buzzing with all the ways he could spend fifty thousand galax. The government had better not hold out on him. If they did, he might just have to keep the human for himself.

Then again, he might do that anyway.

He couldn’t wait to get a closer look at her once they were aboard the ship.