“So, what happened after the slave auction?”
She sighed. “I was bought by a band of empath shapeshifters. They were kind enough to free me, so long as I signed an employment contract. I’m working for them now.”
“Empath shapeshifters?”
“It’s a race we haven’t catalogued yet. They feed on emotional energy, and can alter their physical form to match most alien races.”
“Sounds like an interesting bunch,” I said, accepting my cocktail from the barkeep. I drizzled some of my home brew into it and handed the flask to Jane. To my dismay, she refused it. Guess her trust only went so far.
“They’ve been treating me all right. Humans are new to them, so they’re eager to learn as much about us as they can. They run a sort of host club for alien races, catering to their emotional needs.”
“A host club?”
“Yeah. They do what they can to pleasure their clients, and feed off of the positive emotions that ensue.”
“So, a brothel, then.”
She stiffened. “I’d rather not call it that. Sex isn’t the only service they offer.”
To my credit, I kept my mouth shut.
“In any case,” she continued, “they offered me a secretarial position and free room and board, with the understanding that I would help them adapt their skills to humans.”
“Sounds like a cushy job,” I said, taking a drink.
“It’s not like that,” she said, her cheeks blushing red. “I swear, most of the time, I just—”
“Is this man bothering you, my dear?”
It’s strange enough to meet another human on the far side of the galaxy, but it’s even stranger to hear an alien speak English. Not that the empath shapeshifter didn’t do a good human impression. He looked a little like a young David Bowie, which is to say that he’d crawled out of the uncanny valley, if just barely. High cheekbones, pursed lips, and eyebrows that looked more than a little metro, with a wild red carrot top.
I looked from him to Jane and back again. “Empath shapeshifter, right?”
Gunslinger to the Stars
Sam Kletchka here, freelance gunslinger and interstellar privateer. This, my friends, is how I went from being stranded in the armpit of the galaxy to becoming the luckiest human being in the universe.
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