Skeleton Crew
Chapter 29: A Date
Kanti stared at the tiles for a moment, trying to recall where he’d seen the seven. He flipped one over. “Red three,” he grumbled. “Not what I need.” He flipped a second tile face down and then drew a third, sighing as he looked at it. “You know that Veni and his mate invited us over to play this exact same game, right?”
“We hung out with them yesterday.” Tish studied the tiles in her paw intently without looking up. “Besides, Aprisma kind of pisses me off.”
“Why?” Kanti asked. “Because she thinks that I have the soul of a murderer?” He grinned at her, evilly, until she gruffed at him.
“No, it’s not that. She… cheats. She cheats at tiles.”
Kanti opened one eye wide. “Oh really? And how does she do that? Can she see through the tiles with gamma rays?”
Tish shrugged. “I don’t know how she cheats, but she does. No one can be that lucky.”
Kanti rested his head on his paw. “I think you’re just being protective. Are you always so protective of your boyfriends?”
Tish growled and flung one of her tiles at him, bouncing it off of his nose. He picked it up from where it fell. “Oh, you little stinker. You had the black seven all along!”
“And for your information, I am not protective of my boyfriends!”
“Oh,” Kanti said with a grin, “so it’s just me then…”
Tish snatched the tile back from Kanti and held it in front of his face, menacingly. “You want to see if I can stick this all the way up your nose?”
Kanti put his paws up in surrender and rested his back against the couch. Tish lay down on the floor, resting her elbows on the rug. She didn’t look up.
“I’ve never had a girlfriend before,” Kanti explained. “So, this is all pretty new territory for me.”
Tish looked up at him suspiciously. “How is it possible that you’ve never had a girlfriend?”
Kanti shrugged, self-conscious again. “I don’t know. I’ve asked a few females out, but they’ve never really been interested. Why? Have you gone out with many males?”
Tish shrugged. “I wouldn’t say many. I’ve gone out with a few. I just didn’t… click with any of them.”
“Until you started dating me, you mean!” Kanti grinned.
Tish crossed her arms defiantly. “We’re not dating.”
“What?” Kanti sat up a little straighter, looking a little hurt. “What’s that supposed to mean? We’re sharing the same apartment… sharing the same bed… How are we ‘not dating’?”
“You’ve never asked me out on a date.”
Kanti looked as if he’d been struck across the face. “I haven’t?”
Tish shook her head.
With a sudden burst of energy, Kanti leapt to his feet and bolted out the door, slamming it shut behind him. Tish looked up in confusion for a moment before hearing a timid knock at the door.
She stood up to answer it, opening the door only a dozen centimeters. “Yes?”
Kanti stood on the other side, his eyes lowered. “Hey, um, Tish. You might not remember me. I used to work for you at the recycler.”
Tish put her paw to her chin, and tried to conceal a grin. She pretended to consider him. “Hrm, yes, I think I remember you.”
Kanti put his paw to the doorway and scratched at an invisible piece of dirt with his thumb claw. “Well, I was thinking… if you didn’t have any plans… perhaps we… um, you and I, I mean… could… you know… go out, or something.”
“Oh dear, I don’t know. This is just so sudden.” Tish covered her muzzle with her paw and shook her head. “When were you thinking?”
Kanti stuck his head in the doorway. “How about now?”
“Oh no, no. I couldn’t go now. I’m in the middle of a game of tiles,” she muttered. “Why, where were you thinking of taking me?”
Kanti smiled and stared into her grey eyes. He took her paw in his. She still held the black seven tile. “Someplace special, Tish. Somewhere I’ve never taken anyone, ever before.”
Officer A’hee stepped out of the airlock dragging the middle-aged geroo in behind him. With a shove, the fiery red chief of security tossed the pot-bellied male toward Sarsuk’s feet. “You wanted to see Doctor Hitera, Commissioner?”
Hitera groveled on his paws and knees, his face pressed against the deck. Sarsuk lowered his head down and sniffed. “Not a particularly impressive specimen,” he sighed.
The commissioner tapped his long, curved claws beside the crouching figure, waiting for the doctor to look up. He eventually tired of waiting and flicked him over onto his back. Hitera continued to cower, his trembling paws in front of his face. A strong scent of urine rose from his fur.
“So tell me, Hitera, what is it that the geroo fear more than anything else? Hrm? Doctors know that sort of thing, don’t they?” Sarsuk cocked his head. “Every race has something, I suppose, so what is it for geroo?”
The doctor trembled like a leaf. He sputtered a few sounds, but nothing that could be considered a word.
Sarsuk scooped the geroo up and brought him close to his face. “What about being burned alive, huh? Every race fears fire, right?” The commissioner turned his head to bring one eye closer to the doctor. “Help me out here, can you? Decompression? Suffocation? Drowning!” He blinked. “No?”
“Please! Please don’t kill me! I threw myself on the mercy of the court, and they took away ten of my years!” Hitera begged.
Sarsuk ignored his pleas. “Being ripped apart, perhaps? Disemboweled? Oh, I know! What about being eaten alive?”
“Please, please it wasn’t my fault. It wasn’t even my idea. I never would have suggested trying to bypass her infertility.” Hitera sobbed loudly, his face wet with tears. “It was A’jira! It was all her idea.”
The commissioner rested his chin on the heel of his claw a moment, trying to take a measure of his words. “A’jira, you say?”
The doctor rose to his knees. “Yes, it was all her. I was weak. I admit that. She tempted me with her father’s credits, and I caved in. But she was the one who actively disobeyed the law. I never even would have considered…”
“Is she pretty?” Sarsuk’s gaping, blue mouth was only a meter away from the cowering geroo. The stench of his breath almost made Hitera gag. “Would you call this A’jira attractive?”
The doctor’s head threatened to spin off his shoulders. “P-pretty?” he stammered. “Pretty?” He looked down at the blocky security officer and then back to the commissioner. His heart hammered in his ears. He could hardly hear his own voice. “Well, sure. She’s very pretty. Absolutely, yes. She’s gorgeous!”
Sarsuk looked over to A’hee, the barest hint of a smile starting to form on his amphibious face. The security officer shrugged. “Yeah, I guess so. I saw her in court. She’s really young, about my daughter’s age. It’s kind of hard for me to judge that sort of thing… without feeling dirty.”
Sarsuk nodded and sat back on his haunches after setting the doctor down on the deck. “Excellent! That’s great news. Go and fetch her, Officer. Bring her to me.”
“Oh thank you, Commissioner!” Hitera said, back to groveling on all fours. “You will not regret this. Thank you so very much!”
“You’re quite welcome.” Sarsuk returned his attention to his phone and tapped at the screen. “Executing the pretty ones is guaranteed to make an impact. Everyone will be positively glued to their phones,” Sarsuk said dismissively.
He flicked his claw in the geroo’s direction to indicate their dismissal. “Besides, two executions has far more effect on the crew than just the one.”
