Tevun-Krus #55 - May The 4th Be With You: The Space Opera Special

The Canticle of Corva Crow - A Short Story by @BellaBelk

The cantina smelled like piss and curry.

Imitation curry, that is- Xanthrians still had nothing on Earth cuisine, even after two hundred years of contact. I say "Xanthrians", but really it's a blended planet. Their first inhabitants weren't quite powerful enough to stop colonization by the whole damn Open Space Affiliation. OSA landed here, introduced themselves, and aliens from all over the galaxy moved to Xanthria. I had been everywhere, but Xanthria was my favorite place. I was a multicultural kind of guy, and didn't like anyone enough to assimilate elsewhere. So I sat in cantinas that smelled like piss and curry, complained that the food wasn't to my taste, and talked to strangers like old friends.

This day, however, it seemed Har'gil'fak's cantina was getting a special treat.

The door swung open and a padded black bio-suit strode through and chucked a head of mostly tentacles across the room. It smacked into the opposite wall with a stomach-churning squelch and hit the floor next to Har'gil'fak. The bug-eyed native Xanthrian turned a shiny umber head to the bio-suit and shrieked a curse in his language.

"I got your damn gorgon slaughtered," the bio-suit said. My jaw dropped as I recognized the voice. She pulled off her helmet. "Where's my payment?"

I stood from my back corner with a sly grin and spoke my first words that day: "Corva Crow- well, I'll be damned."

In these parts of the galaxy, there were assassins, and there were bounty hunters, and those were well and good. Respectable business-people doing their thing. And then there was Corva Crow, who defied any regulations of either profession and scoffed at any guilds that tried to recruit her. She didn't run alone based on some angsty aesthetic lone wolf bullshit- Corva Crow was just a true misanthrope. She hated everyone. Especially me.

Her lavender eyes turned to me, and a scowl shadowed her dusk-blue face. "Zenn. You sure will be. What are you doing back on Xanthria? I thought we had a deal."

My grin widened. "Yeah, I think Gritte Bontesnu thought the same thing."

Her scowl deepened. "I'll deal with you later." She marched to the bar with her helmet still tucked under her arm. "Har'gil'fak, where's my payment? You wanted the herptal dead, I killed it. Your livestock is safe. We had a deal."

Har'gil'fak still looked shell-shocked, as if he'd seen a ghost. He began to scrounge through the register, pulling out all the notes he had, and passed them to Corva Crow.

"It's all I have," he said.

Corva counted the bills in sharp flicks of her fingers and looked up. "You're three thousand short- did you really think this would stand?"

Har'gil'fak floundered for a response and Corva sighed and pulled out her sol-blade, pressing it to the Xanthrian's throat. He squeaked, bug-eyes going white around the edges.

"I don't get crossed," Corva said. "I do the crossing."

This is when it hit me what happened, and I stood. "Corva, wait."

She flashed her eyes at me. "What, Zenn?"

"I don't think Har'gil'fak's the one that crossed you."

She didn't remove her blade; the heat coming off the blade was beginning to singe the fleshy rolls of the Xanthrian's throat. "Then who did?"

"Zuldians are supposed to be extremely vulnerable to herptals because of your weakness in water. Har'gil'fak didn't have the money to pay you. But we all know Har'gil'fak doesn't get involved in shady deals, and he doesn't offer payment he doesn't have- he's a businessman, with a good, longstanding reputation for reliability. Plus he has no reason to cross you or try to get you killed. So- who did you piss off recently?"