Galaxy Cruise: The Maiden Voyage by Hart Marcus Alexander

Author:Hart, Marcus Alexander
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Canaby Press, LLC
Published: 2021-06-21T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Kellybean stood alone in the shade of the private WTF cabana overlooking the clear water of the Haliiloa Sea. She’d finished ushering her excursion group through their tour of historic Port Ardoba, herded them onto the hovercoach, and set them loose on the beach. In two hours she’d load them back onto the coach, feed them their box lunches, and escort their happy, sun-weary bodies back to the ship. In the meantime, all she had to do was breathe the fresh, seaside air and relax.

She leaned on the rail and gazed over the black dunes nestled in the cone of the extinct volcano. Her family of Krubb tourists played in the crystalline surf, scuttling like trash-can-shaped crabs on their tiny legs. A Screetoro couple on their honeymoon rubbed sunblock on each other’s mouth-stalks for significantly longer than necessary. But she barely registered them. They were all harmless.

She was keeping an eye on the troublemakers.

Jassi, Stobber, and Hax had found a set of broad paddles and were batting a ball back and forth. Stobber lobbed it to Hax. Hax volleyed it to Jassi. Jassi hit it as hard as she could into Stobber’s face. He shouted and cursed at her before picking up the ball and passing it back to Hax. Hax paddled it to Jassi. Jassi spiked it into Stobber’s face again. He roared and charged her like an enraged rhino. She raised her paddle in both hands, ready for a brawl. Hax rushed between them, arms out, always the peacekeeper.

Kellybean rolled her eyes. At least if they were fighting each other they weren’t bothering anyone else. She still couldn’t believe someone on her staff had actually hired Murderblossom to perform on this cruise. Hopefully their music was better than their interpersonal skills. That girl Jassi was the rudest, most disrespectful plant she’d ever met. Why were the hot ones always such a-holes? She shook her head. It didn’t matter, she had a job to do, and she wasn’t going to be distracted by—

“This is an outrage!” a brittle voice roared. “I paid good money for this trip!”

Kellybean recognized both the voice and the complaint. Not far from her cabana, Horman Gwapwaffle stood on a floating dock next to a small passenger boat, jabbing his finger at a muscled Halii man below, wading waist-deep in the shallows. Clermytha was by her husband’s side, arms crossed and shaking her head, tag-teaming his gripes. Kellybean sighed and muttered to herself. “Time to get back on the clock.”

She hurried down to the waterfront to find a collection of rusty tools spread on the dock. The Halii had the boat’s engine compartment open and was pointing into it, trying to explain something to the Geiko in his native language.

“Hello, friends,” Kellybean said calmly. “Is everything all right over here?”

“Hardly!” Horman snapped. “This con man won’t take us on our sightseeing cruise. We bought tickets! I have them right here!”

He swiped his tabloyd, producing a WTF excursion ticket for a private sea cruise. The most expensive add-on available for this port, paid for entirely in frequent cruiser points.

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