Franz and Tal left the ship in the care of Elio, Felice, and Kelsa. Franz wore his characteristic duster with his revolver and beam sword. Tal wore a gray coverall with a rifle strapped to his back and two pistols holstered on his belt. He also had several other tools holstered on his belt. Despite the fact that he would have nothing to work on while they were in Gehenna, he always made it seem like he was ready to do some sort of work.

  Lutz was not happy to be left on the ship and tried to go with Franz. Franz had to spend some time trying to convince the dragon to stay on the ship. Eventually, Lutz was convinced by Elio, who promised to play with him while Franz was gone.

  Franz and Tal walked through a hallway made of steel. At one point, the hallway must have looked shiny and new, but now the walls and floor were covered with oil stains. They arrived at an elevator to take them down to the ground floor. The elevator had a stark contrast from the hallway. The inside was stainless and well-maintained. Despite the height of their dock, it only took a few seconds for the elevator to reach the ground floor.

  The pair walked through a minimalistic lobby and exited through automatic sliding doors. The moment they exited the building, they were hit with the smell of smoke and garbage. A layer of smoke covered the streets, reducing visibility like a fog. The true Gehenna that lay under all the flashy lights. It was a smoke and trash-filled city where the universe’s scum gathered.

  “What’s with that scowl?” Tal chuckled as he patted Franz on the back.

  “Everything about this city,” Franz groaned. “The smell, the appearance, the blatant crime.”

  “The smell is part of the charm,” Tal said. “Also, you seem to always forget that you are a criminal.”

  “Yeah, but I don’t murder and cheat people,” Franz replied.

  “Right, you just rob them,” Tal shrugged. “In the eyes of the Imperium, you are the same if not worse. You need to learn to see other criminals as your peers.”

  “I’ll consider it,” Franz sighed as they walked down the street. “Did you manage to get in contact with a buyer?”

  “Yeah, one of my old engineer contacts. He manufactures and sells cores on the black market,” Tal said as he walked beside Franz. “He said he would give us a good price. So, try to be nice to him.”

  “I am nice, but if I left it up to you, we’d get ripped off,” Franz replied. “You have no sense of negotiation.”

  “I just like to keep friendly. Sometimes you negotiate hard, and our contracts don’t want to work with us anymore,” Tal said.

  “Name one time,” Franz said defensively. He honestly did not know if anyone refused to work with them anymore. He did not really keep track of their contacts and just assumed that Tal found the most suitable ones for each of their deals.

  “I could name a plethora of times, but how about I mention Carn?” Tal replied.

  “That fat bastard was trying to rip us off,” Franz argued.

  “And you shot him!” Tal snapped back.

  “Only a little bit. Besides, like I said, he was trying to rip us off,” Franz shrugged.

  Tal rubbed his temples in frustration. “He still could have been a valuable contact to keep. Just try not to shoot this guy. We went to school together, and I would rather he still likes me.”

  “I’ll try my best, but no promises,” Franz replied.

  “I wish you’d get my more assurance than that,” Tal groaned.

  The pair continued to walk through the streets of Gehenna. As they did, they passed a myriad of different businesses. The most common business was, of course, bars. The bars in Gehenna were almost an attraction themselves. Each bar catered to a different clientele and ranged from hole-in-the-walls to extravagant themed bars. The most common types of bars were western-themed and host-style bars. Most outlaws on Gehenna fancied themselves as some sort of cowboy in the new frontier of space.

  Franz and Tal ignored the bars and continued to a more worn-down part of the city. Business was not done at the bars. It was a place for those tourists and those who wanted a drink without worrying about the Imperium. The business part of town was considerably less dressed up. Small businesses took residence in falling-apart buildings. Not many repairmen came to Gehenna, and not many people wanted to pay for one. They would rather use the money they could make on other things.

  Eventually, the pair made it to their destination. A surprisingly well-kept garage situated between two abandoned buildings. Franz could not help but think that the owner made himself a target for crime. It was not very often that someone kept their building in good condition. If they did, they definitely stuck out like a sore thumb.

  They walked closer to the garage. Now that they were at their location, Franz took the lead. Before he could reach the garage, Franz felt like he was bounced backward by an invisible force. He stumbled to the ground and forced himself up. As he stood up, he wiped his hands across his duster. Franz looked forward and saw that a transparent blue bubble now surrounded the garage. He should have expected that. There had to be some way the owner kept himself safe.

  Tal pointed and laughed at Franz. “Sorry, I thought about warning you, but I thought it’d be funny seeing you thrown on your ass.”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  “Yeah, it’s so funny,” Franz replied sarcastically. “Can you get us in?”

  “Someone has to take you down a peg. The others in the crew definitely won’t,” Tal shrugged. “But yes, I can get us in.”

  Tal walked up to the force field and gently placed his hand on it. Instead of knocking him backward, faint blue lines of digital script circled his arm and flowed into the force field. A man-sized hole opened in the force field as the script finished flowing into it. Tal walked through it, and Franz followed after.

  “He sent me the passkey earlier,” Tal informed Franz.

  “And you didn’t think to share it with me?” Franz asked as he rolled his eyes.

  “He doesn’t like me sharing it,” Tal shrugged.

  “You still could have told me about it,” Franz muttered in frustration.

  Tal laughed it off as he led Franz to the garage door. He knocked on it three times and then the door swung upward. The garage door was segmented in parts and came upward to the ceiling of the garage. An old school style that was very unlike the style of doors at the dock. When they walked in, Franz almost tripped over a gadget on the ground. There were gadgets and various parts scattered throughout the garage.

  “Careful, he’ll kill us if we ruin any of his stuff,” Tal whispered to Franz.

  “It’s junk on the ground. How important can it be?” Franz whispered back angrily.

  Before they could walk any further, a sphere-shaped drone flew towards them. The drone was covered in black segmented plates and had a singular green orb at the center of the plates. It looked the pair up and down for a moment before a man walked in front of it. The man waved his hand as if he were telling the drone to leave. The drone quickly followed the direction and flew to a different part of the garage.

  “I usually have him scan people for extra security, but I know I can trust you, Tal,” the man said to the two. The man was thin and hairless with red skin. While he had two arms in the spot that humans had, he also had two others growing from his back. He wore black coveralls and had a work belt filled with tools around his waist.

  “This is my old classmate, Layze,” Tal introduced Franz to Layze before he turned his attention to Layze. “And Layze, this is my captain, Franz.”

  “This is your captain? I expected him to look scarier. He’s kind of pretty,” Layze laughed.

  “I’ll show you pretty,” Franz moved his hand towards his pistol.

  Tal quickly moved to put his hand over Franz’s. “You said you would try to be nice.”

  “Fine,” Franz said as he shrugged off Tal and removed his hand from his holster.

  “Oh, he’s that kind of scary,” Layze laughed. “The kind that can go off at a moment.”

  “Yeah,” Tal sighed. “But don’t let his quick temper fool you, he’s skilled too.”

  “I would expect so. I can’t imagine you working for someone that you don’t respect at least a little,” Layze said.

  “Oh, you respect me?” Franz teased Tal with raised eyebrows.

  “He said a little bit,” Tal rolled his eyes. “Now, can we move on to business?”

  “Of course, that is why you are here,” Layze said as he reached towards one of his numerous tables in the room. He grabbed a tablet from it and started swiping on it. Once he stopped swiping, he squinted his eyes as if he was reading details. “Okay, so I have the report from Tal right here. I can do twenty thousand now or fifteen thousand now and fifteen thousand in a month.”

  “See? This is exactly what I meant, Tal. He’s already trying to scam us,” Franz complained. “That’s a ten grand difference. He knows that we probably won’t return in a month, and then he gets to pocket fifteen grand.”

  “I’m not trying to scam you,” Layze said in his defense. “I just need time to make cores and sell them. If you give me that, then I can get you more creds.”

  “Yeah, that’s not gonna work. We got stuff to do and won’t be back here to collect,” Franz replied. “I want twenty-five.”

  “Here we go again,” Tal muttered under his breath.

  “That’s ridiculous. You’re lucky that I have twenty to give you right now,” Layze said. “I usually don’t have that kind of money for an upfront payment. The only way you are getting twenty-five is if you shop around and sell to multiple people. You’ve already made it clear you don’t have time for that.”

  “Typical sales tactic,” Franz said dryly. “Try to convince me I can’t get a deal like this anywhere else. One of the oldest tricks in the book.”

  “I’m not trying to trick you,” Layze sighed. “This is honestly the best I can do.”

  “If twenty is the best you can do, is there anything you can do to sweeten the deal?” Franz asked.

  “You aren’t going to relent, are you?” Layze asked as he let out an exasperated sigh.

  “Nope,” Franz replied proudly. He took pride in not letting himself get scammed. Even if it annoyed the people he worked with.

  Tal started to grow impatient with Franz’s absolute refusal. For most of the conversation, he just blanked out and looked around the room. Then he realized a way that they could make a deal. At least he hoped so. The sooner they made a deal, the better.

  “I have an idea of how we can make a deal,” Tal spoke up. “Layze, you got any spare ship parts?”

  “Of course, ship repairs are the way I usually make money,” Layze replied.

  “How about you give us some parts in addition to the creds, and we make it a deal?” Tal suggested as he pulled out a small device with a screen. On the side of the device was a stylus, which he took out and used to navigate the device. “Here, I just sent you the list of parts we need for our repairs.”

  A ping noise came from Layze’s tablet as Tal sent him the list. Layze looked over the list while rubbing his chin with the hand from one of his back arms. He made a wide range of expressions as he pondered the deal.

  “Throw in the beast armor, and you have a deal,” Layze said firmly as he reached his hand towards Franz.

  “Fine, that works,” Franz said as he shook Layze’s hand.

  “Good, I’ll collect the parts and be at your ship in an hour or two,” Layze said before he gestured his hand towards the exit. “Now, go ahead and leave. I got work to do.”

  Franz nodded and walked towards the exit. Tal followed quickly behind and waited to speak until they were out of earshot. “I guess I can negotiate, too.”

  “You got lucky,” Franz groaned as he shoved his hands in his pockets and continued to walk back towards the dock.