Dark Vengeance by E.R. Mason Read Free Book Online

curved bottle watching the game intently.
    R.J. smiled up at him. “Sir, that’s an intriguing bottle of something you have there. You really must cash in and save us. She’s killing us.”
    The Golian’s tone was cordial. “If no one minds. I was watching on the monitor from my stateroom. I believe I understand the game. This particular beverage is renowned for its ability to make any game of chance more pleasurable, if you would all join me in a drink, as well.”
    The Golian introduced himself in the informal as Ian. Glasses seemed to appear out of nowhere. Conversations around the table were picking up. The Crystal sisters showed up and quickly became interested.
    “Can anyone play?” one asked.
    “Anyone must play, my dear. It’s a moral imperative,” replied R.J.
    The two sisters exchanged a few whispers and turned back to R.J. “We don’t know what that means, but we’d like to join you.”
    In less than two hours, an all out social convention spontaneously materialized; R.J.’s version of stone soup. It was a mixture of crew and guests coming and going, never less than seven players at the table, never less than a dozen others watching. Various liquid refreshments continuously appearing within the crowd and tasting too good. I had to keep reminding myself not to hold eye contact with Elachia for too long.
    There were several periods where both R.J. and I took breaks from the game and stood off to the side with our drinks, watching our all night poker game continue without a single human player. And, it may have been the drinks or not, but if you closed your eyes, from the sounds of it you couldn’t tell these people were not human.
    It may be that if you remove the prejudice, guilt, and anger from any gathering of almost any variety of humanoid species, they suddenly become children of the same spiritual parentage; brothers and sisters scattered among the stars by the evolution of a galaxy. It is a burdensome concept to consider given the wars that result from the simplest of anatomical differences, an irony once well represented by the story of two men pursuing each other across the galaxy in a fight to the death all because their black and white skin colorations were arranged on opposite sides of their bodies. It is even more a pointless tragedy when you consider most races know the physical body is but a temporary habitat.
    When I finally escaped R.J.’s stone soup merriment, my stateroom had finally become a welcome retreat. Fortunately the wide expanse of bed was too large to miss as I do not remember making contact with it.
    It seemed like only a moment later when an unwelcome shaking interrupted my dreamless sleep.               The intrusion was persistent. No amount of turning away resolved it. I offered half-opened eyes with a groan and was rewarded by R.J.’s demanding voice. “Adrian, you better get out there. Somebody’s dead.”
     
     
     
    Chapter 4
     
     
     
     
    I pushed up on one elbow, squinting from the artificial morning light coming from my artificial window. “What?”
    “Somebody died last night. You don’t think they’ll blame us because of the card game, do you?”
    “What time is it?”
    “It’s 07:00. They just found the body.”
    “Seven! No wonder I feel like I only slept and hour or two. I only slept an hour or two.”
    “We’d better get out there and get involved, don’t you think?”
    “Who died?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “How’d they die?”
    “Don’t know.”
    I swung around to a sitting position. Things were foggy. “So security’s on top of this? You sure they want guests barging in?”
    “There’s gonna be questions. Why wait for them to come to us?”
    “Well, you’re not directly involved, are you?”
    “No, but who knows about alien legal systems.”
    “I wouldn’t worry too much. It’s bad business to execute the guests, don’t you think?”
    “I seem to have no sense of humor at this point.”
    I stood stiffly,