Clover
Clover was not having a good day and it was only getting worse. It wasn’t anything in particular that went wrong, just little things driving her batty. For example, there was a certain undeniable thud-thud sound coming from somewhere within the walls of her ship and she just couldn’t figure out the cause. It was irregular enough that by the time she heard it and tried to track it down, it stopped, not sounding again until long after. After crouching with her ear craned to the wall for half an hour, she stood up and then it sounded again. Clover was about ready to start tearing off wall panels.
The temperature gauge on the life support unit was off, too. It was just slightly too warm, which wasn’t bad when she only carried cargo and she could hang out in her skivvies, but it was entirely unprofessional to go around wearing next to nothing when she was carrying passengers.
She preferred cargo, which was another thing that bothered her. She had a six week contract all lined up, right in a nice cold zone, far away from any Suhlik activity, but about five minutes ago, she’d gotten a message saying ‘thanks, but no thanks’ from the scurvy cargo manager. She was on her way to give him a piece of her mind. He was a slug, both figuratively and practically literally. His yellow skin was covered in slime and when he got nervous, he was a walking, stinking booger.
Clover preferred to message him when possible rather than meet in person, but this required a personal touch. The a-hole thought he could cancel her contract at a minute’s notice. That violated about five Mahdfel codes alone. The Mahdfel were very big on honoring commitments. The tall, sexy aliens that guarded most of the space stations and outposts in this sector were actually relatively easy to deal with once you got over their macho bullshit.
Shit. That had Clover thinking of the other thing that had been bothering her - one hot, sexy Mahdfel in particular. He was definitely trouble. When she’d set out on her own, as a captain making mostly cargo runs, she’d made a few rules for herself. The first was not to be afraid to say ‘no’. The second was not to mess with the Mahdfel, or more accurately, mess around with the Mahdfel. Human and well, most other alien male species were fine for a quick screw and a good time when she was in a particular port, but the Mahdfel didn’t do quick screws. They mated for life.
She really hadn’t worried about them until this morning. Usually, one sniff and the Mahdfel was ready to move on to business. Somehow they could smell if you were a mating match. It was weird, Clover had to admit, but it was so much simpler when she could just let them get a good whiff and then be satisfied.
But the mint green, bald-headed Mahdfel she’d collided with hadn’t bothered sniffing. One second, he was catching her and pulling her into his arms and the next, his mouth was glued to hers. And what a mouth it was. Clover lit up like a string of lights and for a moment, matched the thrust of his tongue with just as much eagerness.
It wasn’t until people in the corridor started to hoot and holler that she realized she was putting on quite a display. For his part, when he finally let up the kiss, he looked as stunned as she was. It was impossible for her to miss his gigantic hard on pressed against her, either. For a moment, she considered inviting him back to her ship and seeing that monster in person but then it clicked: Mahdfel didn’t sleep around. They picked a woman and then had babies with her - lots of Mahdfel sons. That was not what Clover wanted to do with her life.
At least when she pulled away, as he reached for another kiss, he let her go. Clover tried not to run, she really did, but he’d been running through her brain ever since. And if she didn’t get this cargo from Sluggo, there was a chance that she’d run into him again. No, it was safer to get the cargo, and run, and then spend the next month using her trusty vibrator and her imagination.
Clover ignored the fact that she was getting wet just thinking about Greeny and approached her target, Sluggo. His real name was actually Soldoggo, but she renamed considering his slimy appearance. A glance at her and his body began to excrete profuse amounts of slime. It stank. It also meant he was really nervous about something.
“What. The. Hell.” Clover crossed her arms and said nothing more. He knew exactly what she was talking about.
“Not my fault. Blame the Mahdfel. Not my fault. Cargo’s already loaded and gone. But got another job,” he stammered, the word ‘job’ coming out as blob as a glob of slime rolled past his lips. She stepped out the way to avoid getting splattered.
“What do you mean?”
“Trip to Terra. Moon Base. High priority passenger.”
Trips to her home planet were few and far between from this region of space. It was about three weeks out in her ship and anyone who was anyone chose to use one of the faster, more heavily armed Mahdfel ships to make a journey so close to the Suhlik corridor. It wasn’t exactly a hot zone, but it wasn’t chilly either.
“That’s the wrong direction.”
“Take it or leave it. Also, a cargo’s waiting for your return trip, too. Something late, I think. Carbon late.”
“That makes no sense,” Clover stated. Sometimes, they heard a word in English and the translators mucked it up when they tried to repeat it without direct translation.
“Take or leave. I’d take. Lots of cash.”
He handed over the pad with the figures. She took the non-slimy end and read it upside down. Yeah, that was a lot of credits. Nearly double what her original load was going to be. It would give her enough of a cushion in case that thud-thud turned out to be something super serious.
“Take. Send me the deets. But don’t think I won’t report this if this passenger turns out to be an asshole.”
“Already done.” Sluggo grimaced, and Clover tried not to gag. She turned and headed back to her ship.
Clover’s eyes were peeled for Greenie and she was ready to sprint the other way at the slightest glance, so of course she spotted him immediately once she entered the docking port area. Her Mahdfel was standing right out in front of her ship. She was going to have to go through him to board. Shit.