Wreckers: A Denver Boyd Novel by George Ellis (ebook reader ink .TXT) 📕

grabbed someone’s drink napkin as we passed and handed it to her. She pressed it against the scrape.

I let my gaze linger a bit too long. Before I could watch where I was going, I had run smack into something hard. At first I assumed it was a wall, but then I turned to see a blue uniform. I tilted my head up and saw the tallest, biggest federation soldier I’d ever seen standing directly in my path. He calmly grabbed me with one hand and spoke into his handheld with the other.

“I got the kid and the girl,” he said. “You messed up now, boy.”

I gave him a swift elbow in the gut. It had no effect. When I tried to swing my toolbox up, he merely batted it away like it was a fly. Debra tried for her pepper spray again, but the guy saw it and shoved her so hard to the ground, it sent the canister tumbling into the mess of drunken legs of the revelers. Gone.

I looked over my shoulder and saw more feds fighting through the crowd toward us. We were screwed. I tried to think of a way out, but the fed was too damn strong – he had me in a vice grip. Then, I caught a glimpse of Sky’s eyes across the hall. He was standing behind the bar and quickly understood my situation.

He snatched a microphone hanging from the wall. “Drinks free for the next five minutes! Happy Friday everyone!” he shouted into the mic. The place immediately erupted with cheers and a massive push of people toward the bar. While I alone wasn’t strong enough to overcome the huge fed, a hundred people were. His grip loosened just enough that I was able to snake my body free. I dropped to the floor and crawled toward the exit, Debra right behind me.

We crossed the threshold and found ourselves in the red corridor. Like the beer hall, it was more crowded than the last time I came through. Debra and I stood up and began snaking our way past couples and triples and at least one quartet of people in various states of ecstasy. Some were naked. Others in the process of getting there.

We got about 30 feet into the corridor when I heard a commotion behind us. A couple feds were following us, ruining the fun for everyone. As we passed a threesome of people that had already disrobed, Debra grabbed their clothes and pulled me into an alcove.

“Here, put this on,” she said, handing me a gray cloak. Then she expertly pulled on the pink jumpsuit in her other hand and pushed me down onto the couch. Before I knew it, she had climbed on top of me and was kissing me, hiding both of our faces from anyone not looking too closely. I wasn’t about to complain. The kiss started out as an act, but soon, her lips softened and we found ourselves moving in rhythm to the thumping music in the corridor. For a second, I lost myself in the moment and forgot we were even in danger. All that I was thinking about was the way she smelled and the press of her body against mine. I reached my hand around her back and pulled her closer. She did the same and soon we were just another couple in the corridor enjoying ourselves. I honestly didn’t even care if I got caught at that point. Whatever the feds did to me would have been worth it.

After maybe a minute that felt like the best hour of my life, Debra licked my lips one last time and pulled back to peek around. No feds. She looked back at me and we just sat there for a moment. Her hand had been resting on my chest, and I knew she could feel my heart beating rapidly under the gray cloak she’d given me to wear. She leaned back in for another kiss, this one a slow, gentle affair. Finally, our lips parted.

“Thank you Denver, but I should probably get back to my husband,” she said.

It felt like someone had stuck me in the heart with a knife. She saw the look on my face and laughed.

“I’m fucking with you, Denver,” she said, patting me on the chest as she stood up. “But I do think this is where we have to part.”

“Oh, yeah…I probably need to get off this barge,” I stammered. “But thank you too. For…that?” It probably sounded horrible, but I was still a bit shook from the moment and sudden passion we had shared.

“You don’t have to thank me. That was one of the best makeout sessions of my life.”

“Same. Very much same,” I said.

“They don’t know who I am. I just gave them a little too much attitude when they tried to pick me up. But you…can you get back to your ship?” she asked, concerned.

“No, but my ship can come to me.”

A few minutes later, Debra was gone from my life forever and I was waiting by the garbage bins for Gary to swing the Stang around and pick me up. Ah, the life of a wrecker! I felt something tickle my neck. It was a long, dark brown hair that had intertwined with mine. I pulled it free and let it float away in the breeze of the air system vent.

Then I heard the familiar turbine whir of the Stang as it rounded the corner of the dock. I closed my eyes for a couple of seconds to remember every detail of the red corridor encounter before I stepped back on my ship.

Chapter 12

Phobos was home to the most expansive junkyard and parts exchange in the solar system. As a wrecker, it’s important to keep enough parts on hand to fix the most common ship problems. While towing a troubled ship is always an option, it’s much easier to just fix the issue on the spot and let the