The pain in Sarah’s mouth had receded to a constant ache, and the bleeding had stopped by the time she and Grom arrived at the repair shop. The place had no front lobby, only a counter with windows that opened up into the street and a two door garage on the right. Grom approached the counter and tapped the silver bell in front of him, which made such a soft noise it was a wonder any of the mechanics heard it over the sounds of the crowd and that of the heavy machinery being used in the garages. But, someone did hear it, the owner of the shop in fact, who was an overweight, greasy looking halfsie with yellowy skin and long, oily hair. Sarah was certain he was part human, based on his facial features, but what made up the rest of him she hadn’t the slightest clue and was not about to ask.

“You must be Grom. My name’s Leon.” The halfsie reached one of his thick hands over the counter, as if to shake, but Grom kept his arms locked at his side. “It’s nice to meet you.” the shop owner took his hand back. “I’ve never actually met a Kylen before, believe it or not. We used to have a rule, not to, uh, accept work from...well, never mind that now. Times have changed, economies have tanked, and here we are. So, about your gravity drive.” Leon motioned for Grom to follow him over to the garage and disappeared through a door in the corner of the room behind the counter.

Sarah let Grom lead the way, surveying the odds and ends of the shop, noting what needed updating, what laws were being broken, and the shocking amount of illegal parts being sold. There were weapon enhancers, most of which had been outlawed by the galactic courts; shield tamperings, which violated most galaxy peace agreements; and endless piles of spare parts that were either broken or on their last leg. Either way, they most certainly should not have been for sale.

The old gravity drive sat in the middle of the first room of the garage. Some of its wires were exposed, and the charge compartment had been removed entirely.

“Yeah, this baby was on her deathbed when your boy Wex brought her to me,” Leon said, putting his hand lovingly on top of the drive. “I did all I could. But we lost her.”

“You’re saying we need a new one?” Grom asked. “There’s no way to fix this one?”

“Seeing as how he ripped out the charge,” Sarah answered, “there’s absolutely no fixing it.”

Grom turned to Sarah. “Wait, you’re saying he broke it?”

“Well—”

“Now hang on just a minute!” Leon moved his hands frantically. “I did no such thing. Look, the drive was dead on arrival. Your maintenance man said so himself! He said if I had the parts I could try replacing the charge, but that it was a one in a million chance. So, I tried, and it failed. End of story.”

Grom looked at Sarah to confirm. Sarah nodded, insinuating his story made sense, but added, “You still should have been more careful removing the charge. The connecting wires look shredded.”

“The thing was rusty!” Leon continued to defend. “I had to get aggressive. Anyway, we’ve got a new drive for you right here.” One of Leon’s workers wheeled a cart over and pulled the covering tarp off the shiny new gravity drive. It was an older model, Sarah could tell, but it looked like it hadn’t been used. “Well?” Leon looked to Grom for validation. “Isn’t she a beaut?”

“It looks fine to me,” Grom replied, then asked Sarah what she thought.

The human moved closer to the drive and inspected the main screen. It wouldn’t turn on, seeing as it wasn’t hooked up to a power source, but there were still ways to tell if the thing had life. Putting her fingernail in between the bottom of the screen and the rest of the drive, Sarah popped the screen out of its hold and went to look underneath it.

“Hey, hey! What are you doing? What is she doing?” Leon moved to grab Sarah, but Grom stopped him.

“Calm down, I’m just checking something,” Sarah reassured.

She got on her knees so she could get a better view of the back of the screen. Tilting it up even further, she was able to see the flashing green light on the underside. This light, along with the emergency lights, were powered by the skinny solar panel strip that ran down the side of the drive. It was another one of the stupid “for-show” safety additions the company put into Slipsteam gravity drives. They wanted to ensure that certain features of the gravity drive would work even during a power outage, so they hooked them up to solar power. Which, in hindsight, made very little sense seeing as these drives were made to go inside spaceships and would therefore never be exposed to direct sunlight. Upon realizing this, the company backtracked one last time and decided to include an artificial-sunray flashlight with every drive purchased. The entire solar-powered shift was a ridiculous rouse, but in this case it allowed for Sarah to determine whether or not the drive would even work, so she was grateful for this one instance of bureaucratic incompetence.

“Yeah, it’s in working order,” Sarah said, popping the screen back in place.

“Great.” Grom clasped his hands together. “So how much do I owe you?”

“Well, it’s going to be fifty pinches for the time I spent working on the old drive, and seven hundred for the new one.”

Sarah was so shocked by the estimate that she accidently bit her tongue, reopening the small wound. “Ah!” she yelled, grabbing at the side of her mouth. Grom moved to check on her but Sarah waved him off. “Are you kidding me?” She spoke through the pain. “Seven hundred pinches is a total rip off!”

“It is not!” Leon argued, then spoke directly to Grom. “I don’t know who that slave of yours thinks she is, or what she is talking about, but my prices are fair.”

“Oh bull!” Sarah moved closer to the two aliens, forcing Leon to acknowledge her. “We sell these drives, and newer models, in my shop back home and they go for four hundred fifty pinches max. Plus, we shouldn’t have to pay you for the work you did on the old one considering you completely ruined it!” And, just to underline her point and to make it easier for her to talk, Sarah turned her head and spat a mouthful of blood right on the cement.

Having a hard time ignoring the blood, as well as coming up with a counter argument, Leon fumbled to find his words. “Now, hang on, you’re not accounting for the, uh, import fees, and the, uh, the Grendle planet taxes—”

“Even so,” Sarah doubled down, “those things wouldn’t add up to over 50 pinches. I’ll tell you what, we’ll give you an even 500, and you can keep the old Gravity drive to sell for parts.”

“That’s crazy! No deal.” Leon folded his arms. “I won’t go a pinch below 675.”

Grom pulled Sarah aside and whispered angrily, “Are you sure about this? We can’t afford to have him refuse to sell us the new one. His is the only repair shop on this port.”

“Look, pay what you want, but he’s ripping you off.”

“I don’t see any other option, unless I were to kill him,” Grom suggested as if it were the most natural back up plan.

“You can’t kill him!” Sarah said, just loud enough for Leon to overhear. The halfsie man started to panic, and Sarah realized he was reaching behind his back, most likely for a stashed weapon. “Woah, woah, hang on a second.” Sarah tried to deescalate the situation by putting her hands out in front of her and walking slowly towards Leon. “Let’s not do anything hasty. Now, I know the last thing you want is a situation on your hands. You’ve got about half a dozen code violations in this part of the garage alone, not to mention all the contraband. If you shoot us, and the Galactic Guards show up, what then?” Satisfied with her ability to intimidate, Sarah looked back at Grom with a smirk, failing to notice that the halfsie had drawn his weapon.

“Did you just threaten me, bitch?” the halfsie yelled as the rest of his workers cleared out of the garage.

Sarah turned back to Leon and froze. Her mind raced with possible ways she could talk her way out of the situation. She even considered trying to draw her secret knife and then immediately abandoned that idea given the sheer stupidity of it.

Leon broke his gaze with Sarah and stared directly at Grom, “Now, if you want your ugly little mongrel to get out of here in one piece, I suggest you two get the hell out of my shop now!”

“You’re making a big mistake,” Grom tried to warn the shop owner. The Kylen took a step closer to the weapon wielding moron, and Leon turned the gun on him. Before the halfsie could even form the words of his next demand, Grom’s humanoid form began to twist and elongate in a disturbing, monstrous display. Both Sarah and Leon watched with transfixed horror as Grom’s arms and legs grew twice their size, and from his fingers and toes sprouted long, curled claws the size of steak knives. His mouth protruded forward as his entire head swelled. The transformation took only a second or two, but Sarah seemed to be seeing it all in slow motion.

Once the man was gone and the dragon fully awake, Grom flew through the air with the grace of an alligator in the swamp. Using his arms to grab Leon, and one of his legs to kick the gun from his hand, Grom brought the now defenseless halfsie up into the air and, without hesitation, plunged his massive teeth into Leon’s neck. Once the halfsie was good and dead, Grom dropped his lifeless body onto the garage floor. The dragon landed delicately on his back legs and slowly began shrinking back to his regular size. At that point, a crowd had formed around the open doors of the garage, though they kept a safe distance. Sarah’s eyes darted back and forth between Leon’s body slumped against the side wall like a rag-doll, and Grom’s regained human form.

Licking the remaining blood off his fingers, Grom addressed the crowd with a hungry look in his eyes. “Now, is there anyone else who’d like to try overcharging me?”