Steven Campbell - Hard Luck Hank: Screw the Galaxy

Lewis and Judy Campbell, Michelle Walker, Stan Berezovsky, Sharifah Williams, Andreas Gustafsson, Christopher Smyth, Amanda Layton, Kim Turner, Ronald Richter

The space station Belvaille was not the most corrupt city in the galaxy, but we liked to think we were in the top five.

My job here was as a negotiator and general purpose goon. At the moment I was running late for an assignment to help settle a business disagreement. If I arrived too late, the interested parties would take it upon themselves to resolve their differences and things might get a bit gory.

I currently stood at the edge of the elevated railway. The train, in typical Belvaille fashion, had broken down and left me stranded. I was in the warehouse district by the space port. There were squat, metal, box-like buildings packed tightly all around me. Like a very unimaginative architect had gone mild when designing our city.

It was a five-block walk to the nearest stairs or a fifty-foot plunge straight down to the gray metal sidewalk.

I jumped.

After a lazy mid-air somersault, I landed approximately on my head. My guns flew from my holsters and I tumbled on the ground a good ten feet.

Ow, I said to no one in particular, rubbing my neck.

I sluggishly got to my feet and examined my clothes, finding my roll had torn a hole in my three-quarter length synth jacket. Not only that, but I noticed a bunch of small holes in the back of my pants. Where did those come from? I didnt think the fall could have caused them. Had I been walking around all day like this and no one said anything?

I recovered my four-barreled shotgun and my plasma pistol and looked around to see if anyone had noticed my ungraceful descent. Someone had.

Did you just dive headfirst from the train tracks? Garm asked, astonished. She had been standing in the street under the rails and must have seen my head plant.

I meant to land on my feet. I secured my guns back in their holsters under each arm, the shotgun bulging out closer to my waist.

I wish I had your mutation, she said wistfully, walking closer. I heard the train stopped so I came to see if you were stuck. Figures youd just throw yourself off a five-story platform.

Garm wore her usual decorative military attire, heavy pistol on her thigh and dark sunglasses. She was young, had that nervous energy young people have. I think enthusiasm is what they refer to it as. She was only about eighty-five years old and Id known her for the last twenty or so shed been on the space station. She wore her black hair short and straight like a knife. There wasnt a round surface on her, she was all edges, like she was made out of triangles. If she wasnt so intimidating she would be extremely attractive.

Garm ran Belvaille. I believe her official title was Adjunct Overwatch, but everyone just called her by name. She was the senior liaison with the Colmarian Confederations armed forces, which ostensibly governed our city.

I dont get you, Garm stated.

Whats not to get? I asked.

Youve been here on Belvaille longer than anyone, right?

No way. You know Chepless, the lady who runs that noodle shop in the southeast? Shes been here way longer. And Orgono Dultz, that guy with metal legs who works on the sewers? He was here before Belvaille even opened. Working on the sewers.

Yeah, but how long you been here? How many years?

About a hundred.

Right, so a lot longer than nearly anyone.

So?

And youre mixed up in just about every scam that comes by. Youre practically my employee.

Whats your point?

How are you so poor?

Who says Im poor?

I can see your underwear, she said, indicating my pants.

I turned around from where I had been re-clasping my boots.

What are you doing looking at my butt?

Im not looking at your butt. Im looking at your tatty clothes. You look like a vagrant.

So whats this job, anyway? I asked, trying to change the subject.

Its not far from here. We need to hurry. Follow me.

We started jogging. Or she jogged and I did my best.

What are you doing? she asked, in mid-stride.

Youve never seen me run before?

Youre running? You look like a fat kid with flat feet trying to dance.

I grumbled, but it was true. I was a class-four mutant. Most people, if they were anything, were class one or two. My body was dense, very difficult to hurt, which was how I could jump off trains and not suffer a scratch. In fact, I was pretty much bulletproof. They told me if I was made out of solid steel, I would weigh less than I do now, so its all weird stuff. Unfortunately my muscles didnt keep up with my size. I wasnt weak, but I was underpowered for my mass. I liked to think I had torque instead of speed, but that was probably me being generous.

I could also heal very fast. The government had done testing when they first classified me and they sliced off the tip of my pinky. It grew back after a few months, but felt stiff for years after. I kept thinking what jerks they were for doing that since they didnt actually know if it would regrow. But our government was not known for its competence.

Garm was also a mutant. I think she didnt need to sleep. Or didnt sleep much. Maybe thats why she was all hyper. You find a lot of Colmarians go into lines of work where they can take advantage of their mutations.

Garm ran a crooked space station and never took her eyes off it.

I was a punching bag.

Well, I finally know your weakness. If I ever get in a fight with you, Ill just run away. Garm had started jogging backwards to rub it in.

The fact she had picked me up personally for this particular job was unusualnot that we never dealt with each other, but she could have sent one of her soldiers. It told me she was personally invested in this deal. I didnt ask her about it because I knew she wouldnt tell me.

Garm and I had a great relationship. She always lied to me and I always lied to her. But each of us knew the other was lying.

I had to stop and catch my breath and Garm took the opportunity to fill me in.

A delivery to the space station has come and theres a dispute over payment. You should expect everyone to be armed and unhappy. The merchandise is for Zadeck, she said.

Colmarian dialect was the galactic standard and this was something we were rightly proud of. Seeing as like 99.99% of the known species were within our empire, it only made sense to use our language. That said, Colmarians had widely varying accents. The joke being that if you asked two Colmarians directions to the same location and followed them both, you would continually run in a figure eight. It took me a second to register the name because of Garms particular pronunciation, but then I got it.

Zadeck wasnt a big crime boss. He ran one whole block in the northeast. It was where all the truly upscale restaurants and clubs resided. He catered to those wealthy refugees on the space station who wanted the finer things.

Whats the shipment? I asked.

Booze.

Really? That struck me as an unusual product for Zadeck. But a mans allowed to diversify, I suppose. How much are we talking?

Garm looked off in the distance as she answered in a small voice.

1.3 million.

I blinked. That was an outrageous sum for consumables. Very rarely, the station would require some major components to be shipped over and those might run over a million credits, but the idea of food or even alcohol costing that much was incredible.