Free Shackleton's Folly (The Lost Wonder Book 1) by Todd Yunker Page A

communication terminated.
    Captain K’Dhoplon took his new prizes to the wall and found room to mount them. He took a metal plate off the wall and put it on the table while he organized the collection. The metal plate read “United Earth Survey Ship Mayflower .”

CHAPTER TWELVE
    The lunatic, the lover, and the poet, are of imagination all compact.
    William Shakespeare
     
    Dancer returned the artifact to Dolk; the rest of the patrons, still mesmerized by Electra, paid them no attention.
    Dolk gestured at the artifact. “Then you explain this,” he said as he tossed it high into the air. The Bouncer spun around and filled the air with the crackle of an energy weapon. The star chart smacked with such force that it buried itself into the wall. The Bouncer grunted and returned to his duty. Dolk climbed up the furniture with a knife in hand and dug it out of the wall.
    Dolk got down, using a towel from the waitresses’ station to clean up the star chart, and said, “See, not a mark and no sign of any damage. No heat residual.” He handed it back to Dancer, who ran his test again.
    Alec shook his head. “Worthless to me except maybe as a material sample. It might be valuable enough to analyze.” Alec returned his attention to gaze upon the night’s entertainment. He was captivated at once by Electra, who twisted and turned through the tables using the headscarf as part of her dance. One moment it would be wrapped around her shoulders and the next in front of her as a barrier between her and the universe. She paused, head bowed with long, cascading hair, glistening with the perspiration cooling her supple body. She raised her head up, her hair framing her face from above, the face veil below revealing her intensely hazel eyes. Her eyes met Alec’s and held true. In that instant, Alec felt something he had not experienced. Alec’s body warmed quickly to the pounding of his heart. His eyes took her all in. “Beautiful” — the word left Alec’s mouth before he could close it.
    *
    Electra stopped strategically to get a sense of the room and its patrons; her tactical training had gotten her this far. Success! Electra had wandered through star systems for nearly three cycles, finding nothing. The indignities she had suffered remaining a slave to hide in plain sight had finally paid off. Now here was her quarry, a Rover. She was ready to infiltrate and, if possible, recover the property that the Rovers stole so long ago. Electra sized him up quickly. Handsome yes, but, if he was a Rover, his ancestors had sentenced her people to death. He was with Dolk. She had to find a way to have herself sold to the Rover and leave with him.
    Electra continued her dance with a new vigor; there were only a few more tables until she reached an open space. She leapt high into the air to clear the last of the patrons and land on the open floor. A Mirr got up from its table and grabbed her by the waist. The tentacle stock within his mouth slid out and brushed back the hair flutes from his ear trumpets. Electra’s martial art response was so quick and furious the Mirr’s lumbering body crashed back onto the table; she continued her dance.
    *
    Dancer snickered as the hulking body of the Mirr flailed on the floor. Alec forced himself to look away from the scene and turned back to Dolk across the table.
    “What do you want for it?”
    “200,000 credits.”
    A wave of applause swept through the room as Electra finished. She walked demurely to stand behind Dolk, seated at their table, in an obedience stance, not raising her eyes to them. Electra had to play this just right in giving Dolk a reason to sell her to this Rover.
    Alec could not help but notice Electra’s perfume. Warm vanilla spice drifted from her heaving body as she cooled down an arm’s length from him. His breathing deepened as he tried to clear his thoughts. The Mirr picked itself up from the broken furniture and followed her path.
    “Is she your slave?” Alec nodded