The Black Hole: Book One of the Shadow Order: A Space Opera

by Mike Robertson

  As Seb pulled back from his fighting state, he focused on the room around him again and smiled at Mathusa. “I’ll take it that you don’t want a drink, then, shall I?”

  The pair stared at one another and neither spoke.

  Mathusa finally broke the stand-off. “I hate humans.”

  Seb smiled at her again and stared straight into her blood-red eyes. “So do I.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Once Mathusa had walked far enough away from him, Seb called the bartender over. The long green creature had kept his distance for the entire time Seb had spoken to Mathusa. Seb couldn’t blame him for that. If it kicked off, Mathusa would crack most creatures’ skulls, so why would they put themselves in the firing line?

  Unable to suppress his broad smile because he’d finally avoided a fight, Seb stroked his dad’s silver necklace. “Can I get another glass, please?”

  The bartender looked at Seb, and his lime-green eyes narrowed as if trying to assess his sanity. Not that Seb could blame him for that. No one knew of Seb’s abilities, so to see his behaviour around Mathusa—especially with the obvious size difference between them—would doubtlessly leave beings questioning his mental state.

  By the time the bartender had brought another glass over and poured Seb another drink, Mathusa had joined her tribe. The second she stepped into their fold, the large warrior regaled them with her fight stories all over again. She’d no doubt told each one a thousand times already, and by the looks of the glazed eyes, fixed smiles, and vacant expressions that surrounded her, no one wanted to point that out. When she glanced over, Seb smiled and raised his drink. The bartender jumped a couple of paces away from him so as to distance himself from Seb’s behaviour once again. Mathusa ignored Seb and returned to the beings who adored her. As Seb watched her, he took a sip of the fiery brown spirit in his glass. An involuntary spasm twisted through him as the liquid burned on its way down.

  Before Seb could antagonise Mathusa again, a short creature walked into the bar and hopped up onto the stool next to him. For all intents and purposes, she looked human, except she stood no more than about three and a half feet tall. A tiny being, she wore glasses that had been fixed with tape, and had her black hair styled in a bob so sharp it could cut through paper.

  When she looked over at Seb, he flinched. Magnified by her glasses, her large purple eyes drank him in. The small creature threw him a wonky smile before she turned to the bartender. The fingers on her hand stretched surprisingly long, easily twice the length of Seb’s. She held one of them up to the bartender and said, “One shot, please.”

  For the first time since he’d been in the spaceport, Seb had found a being he could understand without a translator chip. When she spoke, her mouth formed the words that Seb heard.

  Before the bartender could put her shot down on the long bar, the small creature took the shot glass from his grip and knocked it back. The crack as she slammed the empty vessel down called the attention of Mathusa, who broke away from her story and stared over. The small creature seemed oblivious to the attention she’d attracted.

  After a glance first at his latest customer, Seb, and then Mathusa, the bartender shrugged and filled her glass again.

  The small girl moved so quickly when she snapped the glass up, drank it, and slammed it down again, Seb barely saw it. The crack of the glass hitting the bar called through the crowded space for a second time.

  As the girl wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, her eyes widened and she said, “Another.”

  Although he tilted the bottle to pour her another one, the bartender stopped and looked at her. “How do you intend on paying for this?”

  The wonky grin returned to the creature’s face, and she winced like she already knew what the reaction would be. “Credit?”

  Seb couldn’t stifle his laugh at the bartender’s reaction. When the angry creature looked at him, indignant at his response, Seb leaned in the girl’s direction. “You’re lucky you got two. He asked me for payment after my first one. You must look more trustworthy than I do.”

  All the while, the bartender rocked with heavy breaths and stared in fury at the pair.

  At that moment, Mathusa broke away from her storytelling and looked across. The floor shook with her heavy steps as she walked over. She glared down at the small, and now slightly intoxicated, creature that had made herself two drinks in debt. No bigger than Mathusa’s forearm, the girl looked up at her and giggled. Seb couldn’t fight his own smile.

  “What’s going on here?” Mathusa asked.

  “She can’t pay her bill,” the bartender responded.

  Before Mathusa could say anything else, Seb said, “It’s fine. I’m buying these drinks for her.”

  The small creature fixed Seb with her warm and wonky grin. “You will?”

  “Yeah.”

  Despite the resolution, Mathusa continued to loom over the small girl. It seemed utterly pointless to intimidate someone so tiny. Heat flushed Seb’s cheeks as he watched the bully and said, “We’ve sorted it now, thanks.”

  The red in Mathusa’s eyes glowed like embers when she turned her focus back on Seb.

  “Tell her,” Seb said to the bartender without breaking eye contact with Mathusa. “I have the credits.”

  Mathusa looked at the bartender, who’d lost his rage in the face of hers. After he gulped, the bartender nodded at her.

  Mathusa grunted and walked off, her footfalls the only sound in the packed bar.

  When Mathusa had reached the other side of the bar again, the bartender held the bottle up in Seb’s direction. Seb nodded and he filled the girl’s glass. Unfazed by Mathusa, the small girl raised her drink at Seb. “Thank you.”

  Seb nodded again.

  “I’m Sparks, by the way.”

  “I’m Seb. Nice to meet you.”

  “You too, wanna sit in a booth away from those degenerates over there?” She said it so loud half of the degenerates looked over.

  The girl had spirit. Another laugh and Seb said, “Sure.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Although Sparks hadn’t been wrong to call the space they currently sat in a booth, it didn’t resemble what Seb would typically expect a booth to be. A near circular seated area, it had privacy, but it had none of the comfort Seb would assume it to have. A hard wooden bench with a hard, high back made it instantly uncomfortable to sit in. The angle of the back in relation to the seat forced Seb to lean forward slightly. The table in the middle had three legs and a stump where the fourth leg should have been, making it damn near impossible to put anything on it without losing it to the floor. The space reeked of dust and neglect.

  With both of his shot glasses in his hands, Seb looked over at Sparks, who mirrored his posture. After these four shots, he wouldn’t buy any more. He’d already spent a third of his credits on booze that day.

  With a raised glass, he nodded at Sparks and knocked the drink back. Sparks did the same, hitting one shot after the other before she slammed down two empty glasses on the table. The two sharp cracks snapped through the busy bar and Sparks shouted, “Woooooeeeeeeeeeee,” as she rocked back in her seat. After a glance at her onlookers, Sparks shouted again, “Wooooooooooooo.” The girl really didn’t care who she upset. A second later, both of her glasses slipped from the wonky table and smashed against the hard floor.

  Although she had quieted down, Sparks looked across the room and held the glare of those who stared at her.

  Seb laughed. “You’ve got some spirit.”

  “For someone who’s only three and a half feet, you mean?”

  No way would Seb be dragged into that. As he looked into the accusation in her eyes, he shrugged. “You look young. How old are you?”

  “Twenty-six.”

  “Twenty-six?”

  “Is there an echo in here?”

  Seb laughed. “Like I said, you have some spirit.”

  “I find you have to be able to hold your own in places like this. Especially when
you look like I do.”

  It might have been considered rude, but Sparks didn’t seem like the kind of girl to get hung up on etiquette, so Seb said, “Where are you from?”

  “I’m from all over. I don’t have a home. Although, that’s not what you mean, is it?”

  The intensity of her purple glare bored into Seb again, and he shrugged.

  “I’m Katan.”

  When Seb said nothing, Sparks rolled her eyes. “No one’s ever heard of us. We’re a planet at the arse end of the galaxy that has nothing to offer other than eels.”

  “Eels?”

  “Yep. Our planet—Katanish—isn’t quite as wet as this, but we have a lot of water. It makes it a perfect breeding ground for eels. We catch them and ship them around the galaxy. They’re considered to be quite a delicacy, but when you eat them every day, they get boring very quickly.”

  Before Seb could say anything, Sparks continued. “We’re an academic race.” After she looked down at herself, she laughed. “We’d hardly be a warrior race at this size, eh?”

  As Sparks pushed her large glasses up her nose, Seb smiled. “Well, I’m human,” he said.

  “I know you’re human. Everyone knows who humans are.” When she lifted her glasses away from her face to look at Seb, her large purple eyes remained the same size rather than the magnification that Seb had previously thought them to be. “Quite a legacy you lot have left behind.”

  A shake of his head and Seb said, “Yeah, don’t remind me. And please, don’t judge me on the actions of my species. Our government made decisions that nobody supported, and the next thing we knew, we were at war with the galaxy. I’m not sure we’ll ever live it down.”

  “Fortunately for you, you were pretty good at it; or rather, at least good enough to destroy the infrastructures of other planets so you could go in and take their resources. After you lot have broken somewhere, it stays broke—from what I hear, anyway. Who would visit a place after it had been ravaged by humans?”

  A heavy sigh and Seb shook his head. “As a species, we’re the ultimate parasite.”

  After he’d knocked back his next shot, light-headed from the booze and with his mouth aflame, Seb spoke with a slight slur to his words. “So what are you doing in this armpit of a place?”

  “Just passing through,” Sparks said. “This ain’t the kind of place you want to stay in, is it?”

  “Although,” Seb said, “it also seems like it’s quite a hard place to leave if you don’t already have a ride out of here. I’m struggling to find the money or the transport to get me off this cursed planet.”

  Silence hung between the pair and Seb looked around the bar—mostly at Mathusa—while he stroked his dad’s necklace. The large warrior clung on to a tankard of ale and, if anything, grew louder in her storytelling than before. Those around her continued to inflate her ego as they laughed and shouted along with her.

  “I like that.”

  “Huh,” Seb said when he turned back to Sparks.

  Wide purple orbs locked on Seb’s neck. “Your necklace. I like your necklace.”

  “Oh, thanks. It was my dad’s.”

  Silence engulfed the pair again. Seb didn’t need to explain about his dad, Sparks got it. Besides, who told a virtual stranger about the deaths in their family? Next, he’d be talking about the itchy rash on his right buttock. The sudden attention to his rash made Seb desperate to scratch it. Instead, he shifted from side to side so the hard bench could do the job for him.

  When Sparks pulled out a tiny computer, Seb nodded down at it. “What’s that?”

  The wonky grin returned to Sparks’ face, and she looked over at the bartender.

  A glance at the long, green creature showed Seb he’d pulled his blasters down from the side and had them resting on the dark wooden bar. Mathusa and her crowd had grown louder, and he now watched the place, tense as if ready to use them.

  Several quick taps lit the computer’s screen up. Sparks’ fingers moved so fast over the device, they turned into a blur. Once she’d finished, she looked up, an impish glee in her purple stare, and she said, “Come on, let’s go.”

  Whatever she had planned, Seb knew he should leave with her at that point. The mood in the bar would probably take a turn for the worse very soon.

  As they exited the booth, the bartender looked over at them, a heavy frown on his face. Sparks made the shape of a gun with her long fingers and pretended to shoot him while she clicked from the side of her mouth.

  With his stare still fixed on them, the bartender reached out for his blasters and let out a low growl.

  Seb laughed again as he placed his shot glasses on the bar. If size were anything to go by, Sparks should be the meekest and mildest creature in the galaxy.

  Once outside in the spaceport, and a good fifty metres from the bar, Sparks removed her small computer again. A quick glance at Seb and her grin spread across her face before she pressed the screen.

  A pop sounded out, and when Seb turned back to the bar, he saw all of their lights had blown. The grin on Sparks’ face widened and Seb gasped. “You just did that?”

  Sparks nodded. “I didn’t like his attitude. That’ll take him days to fix.”

  A half laugh and Seb shook his head. “You really are something, you know. Well”—he held his hand out to her—“it’s been a pleasure meeting you, Sparks.”

  The small Katan stepped forward and threw her arms wide. When Seb kneeled down, she gripped him in a tight hug. “You too,” she said. “And thank you for the drinks.”

  As he stepped back, slightly wonky from the booze, Seb nodded. “My pleasure.” The pair backed away from one another. “See you around, Sparks.”

  Sparks saluted Seb, howled at the sky, and stumbled off in the opposite direction to him.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Seb woke with a warm glow like his head had been wrapped in a hot towel all night. A slight fuzz sat in his brain, numbing his thoughts and taking the edge off the low-level panic that had jangled through him since he’d been dropped off on Aloo. Drunk enough last night to have fun, but not so drunk he had to deal with a major hangover, Seb lay on his back and stared up at the cracks in his white ceiling.

  As he woke up more, his surroundings came into focus. The wind outside howled and the moisture in the air battered the only window in the room like a wet fist knocking to get in. When Seb turned his head to look at the frosted glass, he let go of a weary sigh. At some point, he’d have to go out in that again.

  The damp in the air had worked its way into the room and into Seb’s sinuses. Tightness gripped his face from the moisture having been pulled from it and left his skin taut. The edges of his eyes, around his mouth, and beneath his nostrils buzzed as the sting of developing sores returned.

  After he released a long groan, Seb covered his face with his hands. Cold from the room, they also reeked of salt. Maybe he could stay in bed today.

  The previous evening flashed through Seb’s mind. He’d insulted Mathusa, drunk more than he should have done, met Sparks, and paid for her to drink too. No way could he stay in bed today. With the amount of credits he’d spent in the bar, he’d have to find work much sooner now.

  As Seb sat up in bed, his head thicker than he’d first anticipated, he stretched to the ceiling. He stood up on shaky legs and walked over to the grimy sink in the corner of the room. As he rested on the cold and dirty ceramic, Seb leaned forward and stared at his reflection. “You spent too many credits yesterday, you f—” The word left Seb and his jaw fell loose as he stared at his neck. “What the …?”

  Although his reflection made it pretty damn clear, Seb grabbed his neck anyway to feel his lack of necklace. He rushed over to the chair beside his bed. Not that he needed to. It didn’t take a genius to work out what had happened. To confirm it, Seb lifted his trousers and plunged his hand into his now empty pocket. His necklace and wallet. Gone! The little … And he’d bought her drinks too.

  As Seb stood in his room, he clenche
d his fists, drew deep breaths, and rocked on the balls of his feet. He’d reached out to Sparks in an act of kindness and the little cargo rat had robbed him blind.

  Despite the violence coiled within him, Seb continued to draw deep and slow breaths to calm himself down. A balled rage locked his muscles tight, but it wouldn’t serve any purpose to smash the room up. Besides, he didn’t have the credits to pay for the damage now anyway. Sparks, on the other hand, she’d feel the full force of his wrath when he got a hold of her.

  Several more deep breaths and Seb put his clothes on.

  ***

  Once he’d reached the bottom of the stairs and the hotel’s foyer, Seb poked his head around the corner to see the receptionist behind the desk. With no one else in the place, she’d be bound to ask him for his rent that morning, and no way would he be able to sneak past someone with two heads.

  As he hovered by the doorway, Seb scanned the place, chewed on his bottom lip, and tapped his right foot. When he saw the trigger for the fire alarm close by, he stared at it for a second. Too much more thought and he wouldn’t do it, so Seb punched the glass at the front. He jumped when the shrill bell drove needles into his eardrums and echoed through his skull.

  As he stepped out into the foyer, Seb looked at the receptionist and hooked a thumb over his shoulder behind him. “I think I smelled smoke back there.”

  The one eye on each of the receptionist’s heads spread wide, and she nodded at him in stereo. “Thank you, thank you.”

  As the receptionist went one way, Seb rushed for the exit. At some point he’d have to face up to the fact that he had no money left, but if he could prolong it for as long as possible …

  The sharp wind smashed into Seb when he stepped outside, and the points on his face that stung now burned as the salt corroded his skin. He could feel the edges of the sore spots spread with every passing second. He wasn’t built for this environment. With his head dipped against the elements, Seb marched off toward the bar he’d been in the previous evening.