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

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

Corva removed her sol-blade from the Xanthrian's throat and put her hand on her hip. "Who haven't I pissed off recently?" She turned to Har'gil'fak. "You may go."

"It's my bar!" He squeaked.

"And my patience is thin and I feel like killing someone," Corva snarled through gritted teeth. "Go if you don't want it to be you."

Har'gil'fak ran through the door behind the bar, escaping into the cantina's stock-room. The patrons sat frozen at their tables, watching the exchange, and Corva raked her eyes across them before turning back to me.

"I don't like you, Zenn, but you might be right about your theory. Is there somewhere we can talk without the whole damn town listening?"

A few watchful eyes shot to their tables or the smooth bronze floor. I downed my drink and smiled brightly at Corva. "Let's go, then."

XXX

I was staying at a dusty motel for my two-week stay in Xanthria's coastal region. My room overlooked the waste-disposal factory and a junkyard of old metal scraps. It wasn't exactly a luxury suite.

Corva didn't seem to mind; she made herself right at home, making use of the coffee-maker and standing by the window as she drank liquid that looked like muddy water and tasted like turpentine. She lounged on the window-frame with one leg crossed in front of the other and kept her eyes on the outside world.

"How thin are these walls?"

It was her first question upon entering the room. I cleared my throat. "I heard a man three rooms down with a- er- lady two nights ago, but aside from that all you can hear of the next room is a distant murmur. I can't even tell what's on their teles."

"Good." Corva turned to me. "Your reference to Gritte Bontesnu may have been spot-on. I heard he's been plotting something big, some transport of resources, a war arrangement somewhere. So he's calling up every crossed deal for currency. He may have paid the cantina wench to put me up to something. I knew there was something weird about that deal- for one thing, herptals aren't that common on this planet, and for another, five thousand is a lot to offer for a simple extermination. So maybe it was Gritte. But who's pressuring him so badly he's trying to rob outlaw corpses?"

"There's always a bigger fish," I said with a shrug. Corva remained unamused.

"So it's not going to matter if I stake revenge on Gritte. I need to find out why he's doing this."

"You probably shouldn't have confirmed those rumors that you have hidden caches of currency across the galaxy," I said. "That was a bad move."

She rolled her eyes. "You're focusing on the wrong things here, Zenn. You can't blame someone for getting murdered."

I shrugged. "Maybe I'm not the right person for you to have gone to, then."

She cut her eyes at me. "You know I don't have many choices."

"Again: That sounds like something you brought on yourself."

"Are you going to help me or did you just bring me here so you'd have a reason to fill the room with snide comments?"

"I prefer to think of them as smart comments," I said, smiling pleasantly at her. She opened her mouth to retort, and then closed it again and groaned.

"You're insufferable."

"I'm all you've got."

She sighed. "So. We need to talk to Gritte and get information. But I can't do that, and as you just stated..."