Big Time

Posted on 04 Apr 2015 @ 3:09pm by Lieutenant JG Kalos Jang Ph.D.

980 words; about a 5 minute read

Kal was fourteen the first time he handled a phaser. He and his friend at the time, Rezo, were at a bar called Xyla's. It was owned and visited by the class of people that Kal's parents had told him to avoid, but it wasn't a lesson he'd learned. This was back when Kal, Rezo, and a few other guys ran in a gang that indulged mostly in petty crime. Minor theft, assault, vandalism, nothing big time, but they got noticed by the right people. It was the only reason they were allowed into a bar like Xyla's.

Rezo said, "I don't even know what the hell you're talking about, Kal."

They were sitting at a table in the half-full bar, drinking from a pitcher of cheap beer which was all they could afford. Kal had been trying to explain to Rezo a journal article he'd read about positronic implants, and it'd been like trying to explain physics to a targh. "It's just...it's interesting, is all. How you can use positronic elements to maintain emotion, consciousness, even intelligence in people who have brain or neurological damage. It's like--"

"Dude." Rezo waved a hand. "Shut up. This is like the most boring conversation I've ever had in my life."

Kal threw his hands up and drank his beer. He was trying to grow a beard, and the peach fuzz was coming in patchy and scraggly. "Whatever."

"Why don't you use that big freaking brain for something useful, like how to rob a bank, or something?"

Kal snorted. "I'll get right on that, boss." Just then, the door opened and they saw a human named Declan Jones come in. Declan was an associate of the Syndicate, a guy that knew the right people and occasionally got thrown the right job. He was about the same age as Kal's sister, Bimi, and they knew him from around.

Declan looked around the bar, spotted Kal and Rezo and walked over. He dropped down at their table, and Kal saw he was sweating, his eyes bulging. "You boys wanna make some money?"

Rezo said, "Depends. What do you want?" Rezo never did like humans, and the scowl he spoke with showed it, but money was money.

"Come to the bathroom with me."

Rezo let out a blistering curse that made Declan wince. Even though the human had lived on Farius for years, he still wasn't used to their elaborate curses. "You better tell us what you want, or clear out," Kal said.

Declan grunted, reached into his coat pocket and withdrew something small. He kept his hands over it on the table, lifting one hand so they could get a look. It was a small hand phaser. "I need you to get rid of this for me."

Rezo laughed. "What'd you do?"

"Don't worry about it. Look, I can't have this. Just take it down to the bridge and throw it in the canal. You think you can handle that?"

Kal felt a little queasy, looking at the phaser. If he wanted it thrown in the canal, it was because he'd shot somebody with it. There wasn't any other reason to do that. Rezo was smiling, though. He knew he was onto something big. "How much?"

"I'll pay you a hundred."

Rezo let off another string of swears. "Five hundred," Rezo said, after he'd exhausted his vocabulary of filth.

"Come on!" He looked around the bar, nervous. If he was nervous here, Kal realized, it was because not everybody would like what he did.

Kal asked, "Who'd you shoot?"

Declan whimpered, reached into his pocket and withdrew a handful of crumpled, sweaty bills. Despite what happened in the rest of the galaxy, Farius still operated with paper currency. "This is all I got."

Rezo took his time counting out the money, coming out somewhere just north of 250. "Give it to Kal."

"What? I don't want it."

"Grow a pair," Rezo said.

Kal could feel Rezo and Declan both staring at him. He felt hot, embarrassed and nervous. His heart was pounding. Finally, he nodded, once, quick. Declan slid the phaser over to Kal, who picked it up with a napkin and shoved it in his coat pocket, moving as fast as his shaky hands would allow. He wasn't going to leave his prints and DNA all over a hot phaser.

Rezo stood up, and Kal followed him, as he usually did. "Pleasure doing business with you, Declan," Rezo said as he stuffed the money in his pocket, and they walked out of the bar into the rain. Kal had never seen anybody so relieved as the human was when they left.

Turning towards the canal, he found Rezo going the opposite way. "What are you doing? The bridge is over here."

"Don't be stupid, man. Declan just handed us a hot phaser. Somebody got shot who shouldn't have gotten shot. We're gonna go see the man."

"The man." Kal knew who Rezo was talking about, even without a name. "Are you out of your fucking mind?"

"No," Rezo said. "But the man either knows what's happening or will want to know what happened. We bring him this phaser, and we're in. Maybe there'll even be work for us."

"What if Declan shot whoever because the man told him to? What if we walk in there with a murder weapon he's tied to?"

"If Declan killed somebody on the man's orders, he wouldn't be scared of getting caught with the phaser." Rezo was grinning as he walked down the road. "The dumb prick should've learned to take care of his own business."

Kal stood there for a few seconds longer in front of the bar. The phaser sat in his pocket, weighing him down so that he felt like it would bear him down to the ground. Then, he followed Rezo, as he usually did.

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