Hard Luck Hank 01 - Screw the Galaxy by Steven Campbell

Author:Steven Campbell [Campbell, Steven]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2013-10-15T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 19

Delovoa and I stood in front of his statue of a robot for an hour, scared witless. But the Dredel Led didn’t move. We finally got up the courage to try and ask it questions, but it didn’t answer. The only sign that it wasn’t carved from inert metal was that when someone said “ZR3,” it would answer.

At the very least, it didn’t sound menacing. It didn’t answer with attitude. Each time it seemed as if it was being roused from a deep sleep.

Another hour of that and we decided there was nothing we could do. Well, I decided that. Delovoa wanted me to stay, but I’d had my fill of robots already. If every tool he owned had failed to scratch the thing, what was I supposed to do?

So I left for home and went to sleep.

I woke up and briefly everything was fine. Then the sleepiness wore off and I realized the sheer number of ways that I could die. My cube of delfiblinium could blow a hole in our space station; Delovoa’s Dredel Led could come to life and smash us all; the Navy could blast us from space; angry gang members could choke me to death; Jyonal could get a headache and melt all our faces by accident.

I never used to think about dying. Never. Not once in a century. Other than the occasional, “I wonder when I’ll croak.” Now the possibilities were so varied I could hardly keep track of them.

I used the bathroom and did my morning rituals. I then crossed into my living room for some breakfast when I noticed Garm was sitting on my couch. She was working on her tele.

“Hey Garm. What are you doing here?” I asked. I figured she had heard about Ddewn or ZR3 and was probably going to shoot me again.

“Just letting you get some sleep,” she said, not looking up.

“I was going to get some rations, you want any?” I asked warily.

“No, thank you.”

I got my food and sat down to eat, facing her. She was definitely up to something.

“So,” I began, “you heard about Ddewn?”

“Yeah,” she answered, disinterested.

I kept eating, nearly choking on my food.

“And?” I prompted.

“And what?” she said, finally looking up.

“About Ddewn,” I pushed.

“I suppose he had it coming,” she shrugged. “You done eating?”

“No,” I said hastily, opening another packet of rations. Was this my last meal? Did she figure out all the things I was juggling and was going to artillery my apartment?

I got dressed just so I could put on my guns. I had purchased the flare from Delovoa—or I guess more accurately, I had failed to return it when we got slightly sidetracked by the appearance of a new Dredel Led. I taped the weapon to the outside of my boot, it being too large to put inside.

I picked up my Ontakian pistol and really wished it was working. I clicked it on sadly and to my amazement, it came to life. The green glow. The deep rumble.

“Hey, Garm. Check it out, my pistol is working again,” I said, as happy as I had been in ages.

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