Free The Betwixt Book One by Odette C. Bell

like an audience member with nothing at all to do with
the show playing on around me. I must have had the blankest look on
my face.
    ‘ Very expensive – 4000CC,’ the Hantari brought up the picture
of the gun. ‘Comes in duel pistol and rifle form. The rifle has
secondary function—’
    ‘ We'll take both kinds – and maybe two rifles,’ Od jumped
in.
    The Hantari looked up and directly at Od. He obviously wanted
to know if the little monk was playing a game. ‘Have to be ordered
in, don't stock these – too expensive, too rare.’
    ‘ Very well – how long will it take. We are,’ Od looked at me,
‘short for time, I'm afraid.’
    ‘ Tomorrow,’ the Hantari was clicking his claws together
quickly. He wanted to see the color of our Central Credits, I could
tell. ‘Pay now.’
    Crag'tal started to growl, and I just stopped myself from
jumping at the unexpected rumble. ‘Only if payment is
registered.’
    ‘ Of course.’ Now the Hantari straightened up, his claws drawing
to a rest. Perhaps he thought we weren't joking any
more.
    ‘ Splendid,’ Od drew a hand into his robe, and soon the
transaction was complete.
    I didn't know much about the physiology of the Hantari, but I
could bet my still existent life savings that he was surprised when
Od brought out the Eluvian Platonium ore. If his race had eyebrows,
they would have jumped off and done a merry dance.
    It was agreed that the guns would be delivered to my quarters
tomorrow, and soon we left the lower decks, transaction
complete.
    Crag'tal followed us all the way up, our more than appreciated
bodyguard. But when he reached the promenade, he left with a
grunt.
    ‘ Hold on,’ I called after him, ‘can't I say thank you for all
your help? I could buy you a meal? Sea bass?’
    He slowed down a touch. ‘Getting off this station,’ he
rumbled, ‘first the ghost ship, now the GAM cruiser – not
safe.’
    ‘ Sorry?’ I caught up to him, face plastered with confusion,
‘what GAM cruiser?’
    ‘ Big one. Crag'tal heard the rumors – trouble in the engine
core.’
    I shook my head quickly, not following at all. Why would
engine trouble in a GAM cruiser cause a Crag, of all creatures, to
leave the station? 'I don't understand. I'm sure their engineers
will fix it – it would take more than that to make it go
nuclear—’
     
     
    ‘ Not destroyed, not nuclear. Something in engine core. GAMs
don't believe it, Crag'tal does. They closed off whole deck – lost
a GAM. Heard them talking in diner—’
    Od leaned up on the tips of his alien toes. His face had that
same stretched, almost manic surprise it had had the day we'd first
met. ‘Unexplained engine fluctuations, disappearing
crewman . . . ‘ he trailed off, eyes big.
    ‘ Crag'tal knows. Crag'tal told you yesterday, human – Twixts.
Got off the ghost ship, then to cruiser.’
    A chill was slipping across my back, as if a man whose hand
was covered in ice was touching his fingers along my spine.
‘Twixts, I croaked, ‘got off the ghost ship . . .
‘
    Oh . . . no.
    I put a hand up to my mouth, my eyes practically welded-open
in horror. There had been two, there had been two Twixts on that
ship! The one I had felt in engineering, then the one in the cargo
bay! I had – I had just left without finishing the job!
    I felt like doubling over and collapsing into a ball right
here in the center of the promenade. My brief victory at managing
to secure weaponry had burnt away in the flash of my horrible
realization. Crag'tal had said they'd lost a
GAM . . . someone had died . . . died
because I hadn't finished the job.
    Tears started to well up at the corners of my eyes.
    Crag'tal looked at me. I couldn't tell what he was thinking,
and I didn't care. I was crying in the middle of the promenade
because I had . . . I
had . . . .
    ‘ Non corporeal, non substantial entities from the in-between
dimensions,’ he said.
    I managed to look at him, eyes full of tears now, his