Walking into the local cantina for what had to be the hundredth time, at least that’s what it felt like, I scanned the brightly lit room for my old opponent. I’d been trying my luck at winning a game to get my hands on a star ship, yet Gallon Two Fingers kept killing me every time I would get close to winning. But that was about to change.

You see, what he didn’t know was that I’d been practicing my quick draw and I’d snagged a cheap personal shield. It wouldn’t protect me from a fire fight, but it should be enough to take a shot or two in the chest or head. In that time, if I couldn’t put Two Fingers down then I needed to stop playing right now.

This VR game was a bit weird. Even though he’d shot and killed me five or six times, he didn’t act like he did. It was more like I left and came back later. I wouldn’t call it a reload because things didn’t reload. When you died and respawned, time kept going. It was different, hard to explain.

Two Fingers saw me as soon as I walked in. He offered me a sly smile. Not a pretty sight looking at the small dark cavern that passed for a mouth. He had blunt teeth, made more for chomping rather than tearing, like an animal that grazes. But there his looks lost the grazing animal comparison. He was short and thin with gray scaly skin and I was glad most of it was covered with titanium armor.

“Want in on our game?” he asked, as he gestured toward the other dark-haired man seated at the table. “Winner gets my ship.”

Since I had done this before, I knew, somehow, he was cheating; he never loses, but I had been unable to prove it. But this time I would expose him.

We began playing twenty-one or bust and put in our credits. I had enough for 3 rounds but that was all I needed.

As predicted, Two Fingers won the first round with twenty points. He scooped up the credits with his long gray fingers; both of them.

“Another round?”

I could tell the other guy at the table suspected him too. I nodded. I put my credits on the table and the other guy did the same. I tried to send him a ‘keep cool’ look. But I didn’t think he caught it.

Sure enough, Two Fingers won again with twenty points. The cheating was obvious now.

Before I could make a move, the other guy at the tabled yelled, “cheater!” This had never happened before something was different this time.

As soon as he said this, Two Fingers produced a laser pistol with lightning speed and shot him dead. Even with just two double-jointed fingers he was fast on the draw. The other player never knew what hit him as he fell to the floor.

I jumped up grabbing my gun. Two Fingers put two rounds in my head by the time I had my pistol out, but my cheap shields absorbed the shots. His opaque eyes went wide. I’d definitely caught him by surprise. I pulled the trigger. His shields flared.

Rotten bananas! I didn’t know he had shields, thought it was just armor. We both dove for cover.

Things were about to get dicey.

I slid in behind a bench seat. It wasn’t the best cover, but it would work for now.

The other patrons had already run for the exit, at least the smart ones. There were several who stayed, whipping out pistols and began firing in what seemed like random directions. I guess they didn’t know who to shoot at, so just started firing at anything that moved. Not a good place for me, I can tell ya that.

With all the commotion, I nearly didn’t see Two Fingers sneaking out through the kitchen area, heading for the back door I guessed. I quickly dove towards the kitchen door. The cook was swinging a huge mallet around at random. After a few seconds of analyzing the situation, I noticed the cook couldn’t see Two Fingers. I figured he must have thrown seasoning into his eyes.

I attempted to go around him, but he heard my footsteps.

“Come here, you two-bit waste of oxygen,” the cook yelled, nearly nailing me in the head with that lethal mallet.

With only a split second to react, I grabbed what looked like a bell pepper off the counter and threw it on the other side of him. Turning, he quickly smashed the counter with his mallet. Not wasting any time, I dove through the gap and hit the door to the alley. A chase through the alleys was not ideal but it was better than being smashed or shot dead.

I quickly surveyed the dimly lit alley. A trash can fell over down at the other end. With no time to debate, I went that way. As I turned the corner, I spotted Two Fingers dashing down a side street.

I wasn’t sure I could catch up to him, he was moving fast. I gave it all I had, pumping my legs as fast as I could. If something or someone got in my way, I wouldn’t be able to stop myself. As if the world read my thoughts a cart magically rolled out in front of me. Smack! I was now looking up at the sky. I got to my feet and shook myself, looking in the direction where Two Fingers had just been. He was gone. I’d lost him, what dumb luck.

I looked at the cart I had run into. There was a symbol on the side, a conveyor belt with three boxes. It was a standard transport cargo container logo of the Space Trade Federation. I was close to the space port, he had to be going to his ship. All I had to do was find which hanger his ship was in.

After looking at about ten hangars or so I was about to give up until I noticed what looked like a group of mercenaries heading into a hanger I hadn’t checked yet. Might as well check it out; it’s possible these guys were about to make someone’s night really bad, or they were just going to their ship and leaving the planet. Ya right.

I sneaked into the hanger quietly following them. Surprisingly, they were not watching their backs. There was six of them, all armed and pointing their guns toward the ship.

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I could hear talking but couldn’t make out what they were saying. Staying low to the ground with my pistol out, I got behind some cargo crates where I could hear them better.

All humans except the tall ugly one. Hmm, not sure what he was, some kind of weird alien. A little hard to describe; huge, muscular, no hair with just holes for ears, a flat nose, one eye, and a voice that scraped like gravel. Well, Ugly fit him perfectly.

“The Red Blade don’t like it when he is not paid, and we are here to collect.” Ugly snarled.

“Hey guys, I was just on my way to meet with him,” Two Fingers said with a not so confident smile.

Ah ha! There was the little bugger. And it seemed he was in trouble with Ugly.

“Well now, you pay up, and we leave without killing you.”

“Well, you see, I was going to ask for bit more time. I was on streak of good luck and made some of it back, but things got let us say, dicey.”

Ha! Too bad things are about to get dicey for you right now right here if you don’t pay all of it.” Had to give Ugly some credit, he knew a stall tactic when he heard one.

I made a decision, probably a bad one. But I couldn’t let this thug kill Two Fingers and get the ship I’d been working so hard to obtain for myself. I poked my head up along with my gun and waved to Two Fingers and pointed in the direction of Ugly and his group. He was a bit surprised but gave me a slight nod. Time for some good old Leroy Jenkins. I walked out from behind the boxes.

“Hey Ugly!” I yelled. As soon as they all turned to look at me, I started firing my blaster.

Ugly shouted at his goon’s to return fire.

Two Fingers started blasting them in the back as he ran towards the ship’s opening ramp. One of Ugly’s men shot toward the open ramp making Two Fingers skid and change course to duck behind some cargo containers.

I was able to take down two of Ugly’s men before my shields drained to 0 percent. Only four baddies left but by now we all had taken cover behind shipping containers. After a few stray shots, Ugly said something to his men and then he and two of his men came towards me as Ugly’s third man kept fire on Two Fingers.

I opened fire on the two men. I figured I wouldn’t have enough time to eat through Ugly’s shields before the two men got to me. It turned out I was right, as soon as I took down the two men Ugly was on me. He didn’t shoot at me though; he grabbed the gun in my hand and squeezed until the gun bent and wouldn’t fire anymore. This alien was strong. I briefly wondered if I’d made a mistake taking out the two men instead of him. Either way, it seemed I was goanna lose this fight. I was slightly afraid to die this time was so different from the last severely times I don’t know if I would get another chance.

He didn’t give me any more time to think about it. In a flash, he had his massively strong hands around my neck. He turned around with my feet dangling in mid-air. I could see Two Fingers starting up the ramp before Ugly called out to him. Two Fingers looked back and hesitated.

“That’s right, I have your partner. You attempt to leave, and he dies.” My prospects at this point weren’t looking too bright.

Two Fingers looked at me then back at the open door at the top of the ramp. I didn’t have much hope he’d be any help to me. He looked back at Ugly and said, “For the record, he is not my partner. I have none and never will have a partner. But I’ll tell you what, I pay you half of what I owe your boss and we leave.”

I was thankful for the offer, but I knew it wasn’t out of gratitude the offer was made. Two Fingers was using me as leverage to lessen his debt.

“No deal,” was the response. About what I expected.

As I felt my windpipe start to crush, Two Fingers activated his jet boots. I didn’t even know he had jet boots, and slammed into Ugly, knocking us all to the ground. Ugly was up faster than I would have thought as big as he was, but then, he is not human.

Two Fingers was back on his feet as well fighting with Ugly, giving it all he had. I could tell he was beginning to tire. I needed to help but I was still trying to recover from my crushed windpipe. I slowly got to my feet as Ugly was slamming Two Fingers into a cargo container. He was still in the fight but just barely. Time was running out. I began to crawl towards a gun from one of Ugly’s men.

Now I knew why they kept missing me earlier; it was a shotgun with large firing spread. I wasn’t paying enough attention in combat. I grabbed it and got to my feet just as Two Fingers was tossed on the ground. He was winded and not looking good. Ugly grabbed his pistol and aimed at him. I was too far away to do any real damage, but Two Fingers was dead if I didn’t shoot.

I fired the gun at Ugly’s back as he pulled the trigger. His shields flared but it was enough for his aim to go wide; he shot Two Fingers in the chest instead of his head. His shield held but it was weak. Two Fingers, despite being shot, aimed his arm at the ship’s hanger doors and fired.

Well look at that! It’s a grapple gun! He flew towards the ship grabbing me on his way into the ship’s open door. As we slid inside, he punched the door lock. I could see Ugly rushing towards the door as it closed and locked in place. I could hear him punching the door. I hoped it would hold. I knew that thing had to be strong. Right?

Two Fingers staggered off towards the cockpit. I followed him. He slipped into the cockpit seat and winced as he began to flip switches and press buttons. I tried to remember what he did in case I had to at some point. The ship’s AI said, “Emergency lift off override required.” He yelled at the ship’s computer, “OVERRIDE!”

“Acknowledged.” The ship jumped off the ground then tore through the side of the hanger since the doors where not open; Two Fingers made a new door. As soon as we were out, about a dozen small ships began to chase us.

“Crap,” he muttered. “Livy, shields up and return fire. Get me a hyperspace route.

“Shields are up and returning fire. Please note, a safe jump would require us to jump from space. I detect several cruisers and one Capital ship in orbit.”

“Let’s hope they are friendly.” he said, as he began evasive maneuvers.

“Highly doubtful as they are the planet’s police force, and the ships that are currently on our six are of the same origin. Two Fingers, your vital signs are dropping. You are losing too much blood. At this rate, you will pass out soon and may not recover.”

“I know Livy, but I won’t let them take my ship.” He glanced at me then punched in some codes on the consoles. “Buckle up kid, we might not survive this. Livy, punch it.”

“Be advised jumping to hyperspace inside atmosphere is…”

“I know Livy. Do it now or we won’t make it anyways.”

“As you wish. You might want to hold on to something.”

The ships behind us stopped shooting at us and dropped back. As our ship began to enter hyperspace, the cockpit filled with all kinds of lights. It was mesmerizing. Then there was a large jolt as we came to a dead stop in the middle of nowhere.

“Jump completed. Report: damage to hyper drive. Incoming debris.”

The ship shuttered and shook as stuff began to hit the ship’s outer hull.

“Alert: Shields are at 9%. Switching to emergency mode to save power. Gravity generator Offline. Lights Offline. Engines offline. Emergency lights online. Captain, we need…” She stopped mid-sentence.

I almost thought I heard the computer sob. Is that even possible? Was this thing a full AI?

I got up and put my hand on Two Fingers shoulder. He gasped. “Livy, active till death do we part code 12.15.22.5”

“Acknowledged.” I could hear the sadness in her tone of voice.

“Dexter, the ship’s yours now. She may not be pretty, but she will get you anywhere you need to go. Livy is an upgrade AI, take care of her and she will take care of you.”

He coughed a few times and just like in the movies, he stopped breathing. He was dead. I was the new owner of the ship. It was not exactly how I’d wanted to obtain it.