The next day it was fun to dress his human. He helped her get ready in all sorts of interesting ways, but soon it was time to get himself settled to the task at hand.

He cleared his mind but was distracted as he glanced over at her. She was holding something, inspecting it as the light hit it.

“Want me to throw your shiny gem in my bag?” he asked.

She smiled and held it to herself. “Aw, yes, please do. Wouldn’t want to lose this… uhm… whatever it is.”

He inspected it. “It’s a grayva, a piece of outdated junk for a reconstituter model that no one uses anymore.” He shook his head. “The thing’s worth maybe three, and I paid twelve.”

“Well, it’s worth everything to me.” She tossed it to him with a grin. “It’s my first souvenir from outer space.” She smoothed her slave outfit, inspecting herself. “I think I’m ready to go work this outfit like I own it.”

He gave a quick laugh of appreciation. “You own it all right.” He slung his pouch over his back, scooping Tiny up. “Just don’t smile. You don’t look near beat enough.”

She grimaced. “I almost forget, being in here with you. This place is horrible. Why doesn’t someone shut it down?”

“Same case as everywhere I expect: you buy the right people; you do what you want. There’s plenty of money here, where it counts.” He paused at the door. “Ready?” he asked, glancing back.

She nodded, so he pulled the door open, and let it lock behind them.

As they left the hotel, he watched her visibly wilt as the hot air hit them both. The climate here was intense, worse than yesterday. His tail rubbed against her leg to comfort her. Haze glanced around at the neglected street. Odd to think about the almost palatial lodgings just up the road.

“Should we check on the shuttle?” she whispered. Her hand reached down to touch his tail, feeling along its length.

That was distracting, to say the least.

He shook his head. “If people found it, we’re done. If they haven’t found it, we’d be leading them right to it. Better to get this over with as quickly as possible. …Uh, just don’t touch my tail like that, not if you want me to pay attention to anything else, that is.”

“Oops.” She released it and clicked her teeth at him with a sly smile. “Good to know.”

That made him choke down a laugh. He glanced around quickly, keeping his tail in check, trying to remember she was his slave, not his girlfriend, not his… whatever she was to him. It was wild; he actually had someone who could be something to him. And somehow perfect for him in some crazy way. She had good spunk, that’s for sure. It tweaked his tail to think of it.

He led them back to the merchant’s.

“Ah, Mr. Gosa, you return,” Merchant Yarda called as they entered the store. “May I provide you both with some refreshment?”

“She’s fed,” he said glancing down at her as she moved through to stand beside him. Vi’s head went down, and she sidled to the side, holding her hands in front of her like a repentant statue.

Haze guessed she was playing the just-beaten slave today. He could work with that. He moved forward, leaning against the counter. “How’s it looking for my parts?”

“We have almost everything you need on hand. I need to get word back on the regulator. The E3 model can be difficult to come by. I should hear something back from my contacts shortly. So, how was your stay? I trust The Carvada was to your liking?”

Haze heard a door close behind him but continued, “It was a bit much. I spent most of my earnings to buy that one last year.” He nodded his head toward Vi. “Worth every gardenos.” He gestured to her, and she sidled over. He made to look at her, as though she were some bit of property, then pushed her away. “There was a place to stay down the road. It suited me fine.”

The man studied Haze. “Ah, that’s a pity. Perhaps on your next route through?”

“Yes, I’m sure that others on my ship would be likely to partake.”

“Hazryn! You’re a slaver now?”

Haze froze at the voice and turned around slow, dreading who he’d find. Sure, enough, it was the two-headed, spineless, Larthan slaver he’d run into a few years back, in an entirely different galaxy …far, far from here. Just his luck.

“Nethar.” Haze inclined his head to the more prominent of Nethar’s heads. Haze’s heart sped up. “It’s Gosa now. I left Hazryn behind.”

The man, Nethar, continued forward, one of his heads wore a swarmy grin for Haze and the merchant. The other head looked around the shop, pausing to look at the guard, then stopping to stare at Vi.

His Vi.

Haze readied.

“I didn’t think you Mahdfel was capable of anything other than killing Suhlik,” the man said, still looking at Haze while his other head made no secret of leering at Vi.

Haze tapped his fingers on the counter, trying to look nonchalant while the rage grew.

Had he really needed to make Vi’s costume quite so authentic?

“Times change. I joined a new crew, better pay.”

The slaver scoffed. “Right. I’ll bet. You steal your slave or buy her personal?” He stepped in front of Violet, a little too close. For Vi’s part, she stared at the floor not moving.

Then the man ran a hand up her arm, while continuing to smile at Haze with one of his heads, like it was nothing.

Haze faced the waste-of-space fully, abandoning all pretense, his voice deadly quiet. “Get your hands off my woman, slaver, and take a step back. Now.”

The yellow-skinned slaver took a step back, his hands behind his back, both heads finally facing Haze. He said to Haze, placatingly, “Sure, slaver, whatever you say.” …Except it was said with both mouths, so it came out with a creepy echo effect.

Haze adjusted his shoulder, causing Tiny to shift slightly, as though by accident, but all of Nethar’s eyes immediately flicked upward.

Haze leaned against the counter, facing Nethar fully, sending the message as unambiguously as possible that Nethar had Haze’s full attention, and that it wasn’t exactly a good thing if Nethar chose to push it any further.

Nethar took another sideways step away from Vi. With one of his heads, he spared the merchant a glance while his other set of eyes stayed locked on Haze and flicked back to glance at Tiny again. Nethar licked both set of yellow lips nervously.

The guard moved forward to stand next to the counter by the merchant, not pushing things but making his presence known.

Haze gave the guard a once-over and turned back at Nethar, his head cocked to the side to see what the next move was. He had all day.

Nethar, for his part, really couldn’t keep both heads on the same page. He was smiling at Haze with one head, obediently, but with the other head, he was back to darting glances at Vi.

The slaver used zero number of his brains for any purpose.

The merchant said, in a soothing voice. “We don’t want any trouble, Mister Gosa.”

Haze smiled then, big, showing his teeth. Not that he had fangs, but he knew Nethar would cotton onto the sentiment.

“If I wanted trouble…” Haze said to Nethar. “…it would be over long before you even knew you had any.” He held Nethar’s gaze a second longer.

He turned to face the merchant again, dismissing the slaver to his peripheral. “…Just so he keeps his hands off my property. …Now, as we were discussing before, the parts I wanted, when can they be delivered?”