“We’ll be expecting a refund.”
“No refunds given if the human isn’t alive. Goods must be returned in an undamaged condition. See you soon.”
That was a smart thing to say. That’ll buy her some time and give me a chance to get to the Aberk collective before she gets herself killed.
I cut the channel and turn to the old fella who is still hovering nearby like an integral part of proceedings.
“Does this station have a teleporter?”
“Sure. Sure.” He starts walking. I follow him, hoping that he’s leading me to it. Sure enough, the device sits behind the archaic fueling stations which I can only imagine are kept around for the purposes of show.
It looks like a brightly glowing pad on the station floor. It is one of the very few things not covered in a light patina of rust.
“May I use it, please? It’s an emergency.”
“It always is, isn’t it,” the attendant says with a gentle smile. “Love is so much trouble. But it is worth it, you know. Never give up. Never stop trying. Never…”
I step into the teleporter. It flashes up a menu before my eyes. I input the coordinates of the collective and am gone before the old guy can give me any more trite advice.
* * *
I hear the screaming the moment I step out of the machine. Did they even get her inside the building before it all went wrong? I think not. One of the little grey bastards is nursing what looks like a bloody wound on his junk. The others are surrounding her with electric prods, jabbing them at her to try to corral her.
She looks like a wild, feral thing. The woman I met on the troll planet, the one who accompanied me on my ship and marveled at the library, she is gone. Betrayal destroyed her. Now her eyes are wide and wild. There is a streak of blood on her mouth and cheek, remnants of revenge not well taken. I can see marks where the aliens have caught her with their prods and burned through her clothes.
The sight makes me utterly furious. Why is it so hard for creatures to look after others? I sold her, yes, but I never intended for harm to come to her, and certainly not this immediate, stupid, destructive cruelty which has rendered her useless to them within hours.
“ENOUGH!” I boom the word. Everything stops.
Ava looks at me, and there is a moment where I feel every past, every future condensing into this single moment. It feels like being stuffed to bursting.
“Return the human to me, and you will have your refund,” I say. I cannot believe I am doing this. I have never offered a refund on anything. I have never regretted anything. Now all I feel is sick regret.
“No! The human will die for her crimes against us!”
This is the problem with going for the junk. No matter the species, it really, really pisses them off.
“Why am I here, then?” I stride forward. “Why did you call me if you were just going to kill her?”
“We wanted a refund!”
“No refunds if you hurt her,” I remind them. I am closing the distance now. I am almost close enough to grab her back from them. They start to jab their little prods at me. I feel the crack of the electricity and ignore it. My skin is thicker than a human’s, and my resolve to save Ava from the fate I resigned her to is stronger than their desire to make me watch her die.
They are rich, but they are weak and small. I grab Ava, who screams in outrage at my touch, and carry her beyond their range, drawing my own weapon to encourage them to stay back from us. There is no teleporter pad here. I am going to have to negotiate for a shuttle of some kind.
“Put me down, you fucking asshole!” Ava is screaming at me now. I know I deserve her loathing.
“RELEASE THE BEAST!” Somewhere in the distance, an Aberk screeches the command. I don’t have time to worry about the beast, or any Aberks. I know that I need to make amends to Ava. It is the only way to resolve this temporal crisis and stop the cycle of endless agony. I have to be different, somehow. And yet, I know that this has happened because I was not different. Is this the first time I’ve sold her? Will it be the last? What outcome will forever be etched in time?
“Ava…” I put her down to try to talk to her.
She starts slapping me with her human hands, catching my shoulders and chest in her rage. The slaps themselves barely sting, but the intention behind them does.
“I fucking told you not to sell me! I told you and you did it anyway, you idiot!”