One Must Go!

Night had already fallen by the time Gonzalo got to the Mare Inebrium Space Bar that stood not far from the Old City, on the planet Bethdish. The street entrance was in the middle of the North wall. The dark-haired, 30-year-old (almost 31…) man stayed there for a few moments under the lights of the almost empty area outside, before entering: once he had stepped inside, everything would start, and there would be no way to turn back. He understood that very well. Not knowing the details of the night that had begun – and that he was just stepping into – many things might happen soon. This was like a ritualistic way of approaching a place, any place. He would say to himself: ‘I don’t understand the details yet…but the circumstances will be inspiring to me…and so something will come to fill the emptiness I sense inside. Things always go this way.’ The man had learned long ago that this occurred every single time. ‘Not everyone is able to do the things I do, so a good start is the first point, every time.’

His eyes widened. The choices I have to make will be made, he considered. I will stop at nothing to do what has to be done.

There were only three steps down from the doorway to the floor. After he got to the anteroom, and then into the Main Room, his blue eyes saw that the walls were attractively paneled in a dark hardwood. The Mare Inebrium, as he had been told, consisted of several rooms on the main floor, as well as many other floors above the bar itself. The man had also been told there was the Mars room with walls painted with scenes from Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom books, which was something that leaned towards a retrostyle! He saw a sign indicating the way to get to another wing of the venue, the Red Dog Saloon, probably a sort of military-themed room. Each of those rooms had its own bar, bartender, and servers from various species.

He was led to a table for a single customer in the right wing of the Main Room of the venue, and the woman that had him seated was a tall, slim long-legged one with long, light-chestnut hair. She said her name was Trixie before opening her mouth in a huge smile. After looking-over the list of the beverages available, eventually he chose a Lkrtlmd, that translated as Freezing Wind. This was a drink well-known in the Mining Sector of Harry’s Star, though humans commonly reputed it to be too icy – but it had to be served precisely that way. The waitress went away with an expression on her face as if she was wondering what kind of job her new customer might have or what his real occupation might be.

A long stage for holographic robotized musicians stood to his right, with their figures walking in time to the music played as they sang their strange song in a language he had never heard before. The man felt he definitely needed something to savor, but it didn’t take long before he was served, much to his liking obviously. As the beverage he had ordered appeared on his table, he nodded silently then eyed it for a while. He could smell the vivid energy that came out of the top of the tankard once he took off the top cover. It was like it was the cold breath of a creature near someone climbing out of a crevasse of an ice-field, perhaps even of an unknown alien being that lived among the rocks of a dreary, empty and lonely asteroid.

The man’s job was in the service of a famous interplanetary agricultural industry that allowed him to easily travel from one system to another within the standard spaceways. His occupation centered on finding fertile soil on other worlds, soil good enough for elite cultivation capable of allowing the continuous growth of products meant for the richest customers. This meant that he was always on the go, which was an advantage for several reasons . In the first place, of course, it was a boon for what he did during his free hours/days and what he yearned most of all, on different planets, that was certainly illegal.

‘Let’s not even get into some of the weird things I did in the dead of the night while visiting the planet Dclutn!’ a careless Gonzalo thought as he eyed the place in silence while drinking slowly. ‘Still, looking back, I’m glad I did what I did there. All the blood that has been dropped, the many victims, certainly seem so vivid, and recent, before my eyes.’ He paused for some time, then added, ‘The same as I’m going to do today, to satisfy my compulsion.’ He knew that his sensation, his need for more alien blood, might be compared to what the mountain climbers at times experienced: an ever-increasing hunger to ascend higher!

Thinking back, it was a strange thing that it had all started when he was born about 30 years ago, or that the bloody deaths that he had made happen traced their long path back to the tiny and insignificant village of Rutland, Vermont, on Old Earth, where his family lived. The manor where he stayed was distinguishable only by its size, being twice as big as the largest cottage in the inhabited area, but that was where the differences ended. It had proven to be the birthplace of misfortune for so many, on several worlds, but also the place in which his path ahead had been clearly set.

The moves of another waitress walking nearby caught his attention and Gonzalo slowly came back to reality, of course. ‘But I’m getting ahead of myself. I must choose tonight’s first victim, and take him or her before I can say it is done. There is no point in thinking again about my past accomplishments. I have killed individuals from many different alien species, but the collection of deaths caused by my hand is not over. It is not completed! There are many species out there, in the known worlds, and at least one individual from those other alien societies is going to fall because of me, of course. This is what I will do, and what I want to do, until the end of my own days.’

Then, his eyes focused on a group of aliens from Hyjkly 8 that were singing something in the near distance, as if it was a holiday in their culture. Their arms were a little too long, their fingers too slender and their eyes were too small for their strange bulbous orange heads. Well, it was always a festive day somewhere in space , on one of the many worlds that had intelligent beings living there, when a person thought of the huge area full of suns near Bethdish. The tallest one, among them, dressed in a fashion similar to the others, seemed to be completely out of his mind. Or so Gonzalo thought as the alien stroked his hair.

There seemed to be a theme night in that wing of the Mare Inebrium Space Bar, where a variety of spicy main courses were on the tables like Oklw stews and Xthkt meats. The side courses were bestowed with a full arsenal of toppings and the alcohol flowed like rivers. He remembered that he had also been told that there was a new section of this Space Bar called ‘Beyond the Last Star’, which was meant for the miners and management of Asteroid InterSpace Corporation. They had started coming here, from time to time, since some very rich mining sites had been discovered in an asteroid field nearby last year. That seemed to have an interesting ambience filled with live music, with a huge selection of bourbon bottles for them to choose from!

‘I’ll admit I didn’t think it would be this weird to start with. There are so many different species in this venue, many more than I’ve ever seen in any other Space Bar, which makes it even more difficult to select the right one, the first individual whose death will give me the biggest high.’

Sure, the night was supposed to be long and clear. Too many things might still happen. It would be ghastly for some, but possibly good for him!

The man remembered very well the first victim he had taken, when he was still in his twenties. That alien had been from a species on the planet Oklunt’. Have you ever tried to stab a mattress? It’s harder than it looks; the unusual muscles they had made the skin tough, and the bony parts beneath it was harder than most living beings. Therefore, without a lot of force, the point of his knife at that time simply bounced. So he had stabbed it over and over. The creature started cursing, not something in words that he could understand. What a strange and unusual sensation he had experienced…and the outcome of that killing had simply left him thoughtful.

This was what had made him study the different languages his prey spoke. He wanted to figure out what they said before dying! He wanted to remember the words they had let out before going to the afterlife. As he had grown a bit older, he admitted, having handled many corpses, death was no longer an abstract concept, but had become a specific image fixed in his head.

After a short time, the man saw a drawing on a wall in the Space Bar, and looked it over. The longer he stared at it, the less it seemed like a regular wall. He could almost swear that it was staring back at him! There was something just downright horrifying about it. Something that forced him to act, to make his bloody move sooner than he had planned, actually.

It was starting! The new inspiration was coming to him. This was good, bloodily good! A world of cruel wonders was waiting for him just past the corner of most streets.

This also made Gonzalo remember the last victim that he had recently killed. Actually, a full month had passed since then. It seemed like a very long time to him, which is why he had to act again and do it tonight! The last time he was standing in front of his prey was something he had to relive soon, that deep sensation had to be renewed! On that occasion, he had been sent to the habitable moon of planet Zlemn, which was surely not the best place in the known worlds as it was full of snow and tall summits where only a few colonists lived. But there were underground farms, and the agricultural industry he worked for was planning to buy some land there to meet its goals. At first, when the man had cornered his target (a blue-skinned male of the species that just lived in that system) he had wounded the alien’s left leg. It had happened in an icy wood full of wry orange dwarf-trees, his prey making him travel along an insidious path to track it. This had made him slow. He had begun to think that if he could somehow reach the area outside the woods without being killed by any of the wild creatures of the place, he would leave a bloody trail in the snow. Gonzalo loved following and chasing his prey of the day! However, the unusual patterns the wounded alien had left behind looked more like those that a drunken bird might have created by accident on the ground, instead of somebody who was purposely walking around.

The chase had gone on for almost ten hours, without him letting the other know what he looked like or why he was after him, of course. Then, when Gonzalo thought that his prey was tired enough, despite the weaker gravitational field of the moon, and he likely thought his situation was hopeless, he reputed that the time for a face-to-face meeting had come. Before the murder happened, obviously! So, the man had let the other see him, and he had also thrown a knife on the ground at his feet, meant for the target of his chase. He knew his prey was tired and had lost lot of blood, but he was certain he wouldn’t lose the chance to finish the deed. The man knew that most aliens from planet Zlemn were trained in the use of a traditional knife, and in knife fighting, but he didn’t know if this particular one was an expert with that. After all, he had merely selected one single individual found at dinner at that bar in the outskirts of that village on the moon, and this was all!

The alien prey had almost displayed a kind of regret on his face upon seeing his killer’s face, exactly as if he had seen something he shouldn’t have. Better, he had seen something he didn’t like: the features of his human pursuer, as a real image!

“Do you want first strike?” the man had simply asked the other as he saw sweat running on the alien’s bruised face once he had stepped ahead, and smiled as he kept his own knife well visible in his right hand.

“Why?” asked the flat mouth of the blue-skinned alien. However, he wasn’t sure about what he really meant because it might also be translated as “How”. The man had never been much into the alien language of this system: as always he learned all the main words he thought he might need when visiting a place where he had to look for a new victim. Though, obviously he limited his knowledge to knowing something about the environment, the weak points of the species that lived there, and what he deemed necessary for his ‘hunting activity’.

The tired prey did not lose the opportunity and took the knife previously thrown into the ground. As he was not armed, anything might be of use, of course. Gonzalo knew what was going to happen was dangerous, because even if the alien was fatigued and wounded, he might prove a valid opponent. But there were other things to be considered: he was weak, he had lost lot of blood and he was alone.

So, the best chances were stacked in his favor. While he perhaps should look at it as an advantage, this didn’t change his situation, or how unpredictable it might turn. But he loved to prove himself better than any of his victims, or get out of a difficult fight, even under the worst conditions. Otherwise, what was the point of it all if he couldn’t enjoy the contest? And the man could almost taste in his mouth, and in his nose, the smell of other, and much more, blood dropping out of that blue skin of the poor prey once he pierced him through as vehemently as he liked. And as wildly as his mad mind required!

The fight had been brief, that time, the man had to admit, and his opponent had not proven to be good enough at stopping all of his lunges, and cuts, so everything was over in a few minutes. After trying to get to his feet again, the alien failed and fell unconscious. In Gonzalo’s perverted mind, he envisioned the scene as if the prey had eventually raised his arms and the crowd around had gone silent due to the shock – though there was no one else there except the two of them! Of course there may have been some wild beasts that were staring at them from the forested area, who knows? Finally his dead body lay unresponsive, mere inches from the knife he had held in his hand, the one Gonzalo had provided him with. It had to be acknowledged that this encounter had left him a bit disappointed: more struggle and more moves might have made his day far more likable and interesting. Damn’ , he had cursed, the entertainment should have last longer!At least he had the chance to satisfy his love for others’ blood by looking at all that mess on the ground that his attacks had caused and that was presently giving an extraordinary darker color to that snow on the ground.

As he looked at the sky, he was almost sad that the coming snowstorm – as predicted by the weather forecast - would be so heavy that no one would find any signs of what had happened for days. If he had stayed there, in a few minutes he wouldn’t even be able to see ten feet ahead. Then, the mist came and he disappeared into the haze while walking away.

Gonzalo looked at his table now, and saw that the tankard was almost empty. So, he knew he needed to add another beverage to his order – what about a Kavaklıdere, the typical Sauvignon Blanc wine? - and it also had to be accompanied by some tasty snacks, including a small meat dish! To be sincere, all that bloody scene he had seen again in his mind made him full of hunger, actually. In just a matter of minutes, the beverage and the rest appeared on his table, and the server left him with a huge smile, again, saying, “You’re most welcome!”

Well, since he had remembered this, he also reminded himself of a scene similar to that of the moon of distant planet Zlemn, that had been the site of another of his killings. Only one year earlier, in a system completely new to him – that of Debestevs, a huge star whose name came from a Baltic sky god – he had killed a victim that he had found in the wintry areas of the westernmost part of the main inhabited planet they had there. The agricultural industry he was at the service of wanted him to survey some fields full of multiple fungi species-like. They believed that might be good to set a new cultivation of by-products based on the famous black vegetable available on Ekle-te-dhe which was very valuable and highly esteemed among the richest multimillionaires of many planets. Who could imagine it ?

Nevertheless, after spotting his target of the day in a megastore of fishing tools for those who hunted fish under the icy surface of the lakes in the surroundings, he had followed him to his small house. Luckily it had happened to be a lonely one-story building on the open ground - its stone walls and the main window outside glistened with ice - where he seemed to live by himself, and this had made it even easier. The man had pushed his way into the front room, at night, where the smell of the blood and death to come appeared to be heavy in the air. Maybe the smell was a foreshadowing of what was going to occur here, or maybe it was just the smell of the footgear of that alien homeowner, who still had the remains of the prey of his last fishing day on his soles. Whatever, the night was going to be great, and it would end in another winning point for him!

Aliens like his present prey, which lived on that world, had obvious avian ancestry. Their plumage looked like a very light, soft down that might nearly be mistaken for fur, usually in vivid shades of black and yellowish color with darker spots along the throat. Small eyes, and narrow neck, their curved beaks were filled with tiny teeth and their height was not much taller than that of a common human. But their strength could be stronger than any Earthling’s, so this made the fight even better, at least in his eyes. Of course, he always planned on taking his victims by full surprise, otherwise how might it ever be funny, indeed?

Once the man got the bedroom where the alien appeared to be lying on a very unusual berth-like bedding, and touched his shoulders, the other woke up suddenly, then figured out that somebody was in his space and tried to call out, to ask who he was and why he was there, but the knife that the all-smiles Gonzalo showed off and put near his face made him frightened – and certain to be dead soon, actually.

“No, I won’t kill you, not yet,” the human told him, trying to imitate the very difficult crackling language of that species. “You can even get out of this alive, if you can beat me…but that’s up to you.” And, with that being said, he threw onto the same bed a small knife that he invited the other to pick up. The alien appeared confused, still uncertain about what he needed to do, so Gonzalo swiped at the victim’s face again with his knife. Which is when the other seemed to figure out what was going on. So, the other’s hand took the weapon, and then the fight began, in that same bedroom.

With a clunky trembling step, the alien moved around and their knives crossed more than once. For sure, even if caught by surprise in the dead of the night, his target seemed to be good enough at using that weapon, and gave him a lot of troubles despite the abrupt circumstances under which he had been forced to face an unwanted guest – a visitor who seemed intent on openly killing him.

The opponent also connected once with his blade, as he hit Gonzalo on one side, which caused anger to rear-up in his eyes, though the strike did not draw blood. Obviously, the man also knew he had to wear a reinforced protective vest, worn under his clothes and unnoticeable from outside, every single time he was involved in one of his killings. But his prey was never aware of that, and when he, or she, found it out, it was usually too late.

“Stop, I said stop,” the alien pleaded, but Gonzalo’s mouth emitted a laugh that was colder than the icy landscape that surrounded that house.

Then he briefly replied by saying, “Why did you say anything? No words are necessary, just try to focus on wounding me.” He then shifted around to hit the alien. The man’s last charge produced fruit, and his stab pierced through the chest of his target. Immediately after, an overwhelmed Gonzalo took the blade out of the other’s body, and plunged another stab into the facial features of the poor prey.

The alien breathed shallowly, dark blood leaking from his chest. He then clenched his teeth, but forced both eyes to stay open.

This is almost over, Gonzalo considered in a sneer. Then, with his blood-covered human hands pressed to his eyes, holding it in, he forced his throat to swallow his knife whole. The voice of Gonzalo telling him, “Go to your alien hell, whatever was that!” filled his head so completely that his vision went black.

Immediately after that, emitting a strange cry, the victim collapsed to the hard floor. And that was how the life of his prey ended that day.

Then, he had quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

*****

What made all of the man’s bloody activities very strange, maybe even funny, was the fact that he was a sort of unpredictable interplanetary serial killer who did not let the local policemen figure out who might be the one responsible for those victims. This was because those dead individuals, all killed in a very terrifying way, happened to be retrieved on different planets and moons. The protocols that ended up with having them killed always varied, according to his plans. This turned the whole thing into a nightmarish bureaucratic mess, as frequently authorities of distant planets, systems and Empires didn’t communicate with each other. Or they just hated each other…Even if they did communicate, the time required to exchange details and the base documents was excessive. Information was rarely exchanged, because that only happened if suspicions were sent from one alien world to another, and were deemed of any interest.

Wasn’t that bloody hilarious, indeed?

You know, there were not many agencies out there that might believe in such a thing as an interplanetary serial killer who simply traveled from one star to another, actually. He also tried to be certain the methods used in the killings were not similar. His not being caught was mainly the result of those researchers maintaining that the dead alien, every single time, had been assaulted by some unknown local, possibly for money or other unknown reasons to be discovered yet. It didn’t make any sense to them. What, they asked themselves on every occasion, was the motivation? Why him or her? And why here? But they could never imagine the answer that only Gonzalo knew.

Would it ever happen, one day, that someone would put it all together and follow the clues to the real human perpetrator, which was he himself? Well, the man doubted it. So far he had never been questioned about those facts, and had never been apprehended for further questioning on the matter, of course. However, you could never be certain, so wariness and preparation were – and had to be - always a must-have in his very cruel activities, undoubtedly!

‘C’mon. It’s not that bad’, Gonzalo told himself, and had a sort of laugh. ‘It’s what I have chosen for myself, and my job helps me keep doing it.’

Tonight, after he had emptied his glass and had had enough of this place, he would start in earnest what he had on his mind since he had selected this venue to drink in and for selecting his new target. He should be proud: he would soon add another victim to his own collection of deaths, but there was something else, something new, maybe. Instead of feeling excited, anxiety had started getting hold of him. It was possible that it was the place itself – actually, he had never searched for his next prey in a Space Bar so full of people and crowded with aliens from so many varied species (and, oh my! there were really a lot of them here…). This made his endeavors even more dangerous. Or perhaps that unsure sensation he felt inside could also come from what he had eaten here, to accompany his drinks, who knows?

In the end, he made his choice, and did not change his mind again. ‘One must go!’ he finally said to himself. He stood up and stayed focus on the target he had chosen – the male alien Ktlastelnv, from planet Clwqfv. He wore a gray gown and had a funny hairstyle. He was half monkey and half crocodile; at least that was what his facial traits looked like. The members of that species always smiled with a sidelong glance and their pointed teeth – that were excessively large - stuck out of mouths, which was not reassuring at all. When that alien moved away, Gonzalo prepared to follow him outside and take his life. ‘Remember, once you choose, you can never go back! One victim must go, and tonight, it is going to be that one.’

*****

Great was Gonzalo’s surprise as he found somebody waiting for him as soon as he exited the venue. There were several local armed police officers who had many questions to ask him. He eyed them doubtfully and started growing uneasy.

It was then that he felt that something wasn’t quite right. For once in his life, the man was speechless, with a pulsing warmth in his chest.

Notwithstanding all the times he had gotten away with it, without paying for his many crimes, on this occasion he felt lost. Certainly, he hadn’t committed any real crime on this planet, well, not yet… though he was planning on executing one. But what really frightened him was his collection of small objects he always took with him, his trophies. This was because he had collected so many of them. That collection, made up of the small remains from the several victims he had killed during the years - consisting of parts of their hair, skin and clothes, depending on his choice at the moment of the bloody perpetration - was kept in a metallic dispatch case he always took with him from planet to planet. And this, surely, being real evidence for his many crimes, would be of deep interest to the authorities.

Given enough time, the authorities would find proof of his relationship with the varied prey he had hunted, and killed. He had left victims on several worlds and alien moons, and those unsolved cases would now be solved, as he was unable to give any explanation on how those things were in his possession. He didn’t have a satisfactory reply about this.

He was beginning to fear that he was, in fact, alone on this world. Well, also alone on every planet he visited for reasons that were connected to his job, and to his search for victims. ‘Of course, I am aware,’ he considered without speaking. The man had no regrets, actually. He knew that he had made the choices he wanted, each time, and that he would never change what he had done, even if he could.

’You see,’ he thought then, with a short-lived smile, ‘that crimes are punished at times. With the most unpredictable outcome!’ What still satisfied him was that no one before today had ever been able to imagine who the real culprit of those deaths on many worlds might ever be, actually.

*****

Max, the Bartender of the Mare Inebrium, sat in his office, dressed in his gray colors. He wasn’t thinking about anything in particular. He tidied his short hair while he kept looking at the video on his display, showing what just happened inside the Main Room of the Space Bar.

As usual, the venue was exceedingly crowded tonight, which didn’t surprise him much. However, thanks to the facial recognition device - set on the features of more than 50 alien species known, that had been just applied to the holo-cameras of the Mare Inebrium - it was easy to spot customers who were barred-out because of their past crimes or trouble making. So, it was an excellent system to prevent something dreadful from occurring inside the most famous Space Bar on planet Bethdish, obviously! But there was something more on this occasion. The eyes of the man focused on a small blue and white holo-sphere that worked as a new display in an up-to-date device he had been given recently. So, he pointed to it and openly looked worried.

“I had hope it was going to be a calm night. But yeah, I knew. Well, it could have been just my thoughts, and my impressions, but it doesn’t seem that way,” he uttered. “It would have been nice actually to have an uneventful evening.”

It had been a small furry alien from planet Fletrtl - call him a sort of salesman, if you like - that had appeared at his office one day, about a week ago, and closed a deal. At first, Max didn’t believe much about what he had been told, and what to expect from that mechanism, though he was used to doing so with any other salesmen like that. However, the vase sized, copper-colored device he had accepted – just to give it a try - had proved to work perfectly before. It had revealed the unlawful intentions of a new customer who had been ascertained later to be a confidence trickster who had already been searched – but never apprehended – on several worlds, even though his facial features were completely unknown. So, how had they been aware of what that individual wanted to do at their Space Bar? Well, this was the interesting part of how that new device worked, and what it could really do!

In fact, the machine was capable of reading the minds of people…but not exactly the way you might imagine! That device didn’t do anything illegal, because it didn’t really read or let you really visualize exactly what thoughts the customer it examined had in his head. That would have been a problem from many points of view according to the terms of the laws. There were many protocols on the use of psych work, psychic powers and mind abilities in public areas, especially when dealing with common people who didn’t have similar powers. But this new device allowed you to know if that one had criminal intensions, as said before, which meant that you might know if he was eager to commit crimes, kill someone or the likes. This it did by means of invisible rays, that were completely harmless, which scanned the minds of the people it was pointed towards, and rendered what it read by using colors in a varied range that - on the holo-sphere it produced around - just indicated the worst aims or the bloody plans the targeted individual had in his mind. Well, as just explained, Max hadn’t put much faith in that thing once he had agreed on taking him for a free trial of one month, but it seemed that it really worked. And it had worked perfectly once before!

Now, he had to get to the matter at hand tonight. As soon as the bartender had spotted the vivid colors on the holo-sphere around that new customer he didn’t know anything about, his thoughts had focused on him. The man wasn’t certain if it had been the wild look in his eyes, or his overall appearance, but he had a lot of experience with customers, having been in that bar far longer than the length of any human’s lifetime. He was sure that something was wrong with that customer, ever since he had first set his eyes on him. That new device had proved he was right!

There was unrestrained evil in his thoughts, and his mind seemed to be bent on bloody and vicious deeds. There was much brutality in him, all of it undoubtedly heart-wrenching! The machine the bartender had been given had never displayed such a strong response while scanning an individual from a distance.

This was really worrisome.

The fact was that the new customer Max had been warned about by the new device - whom he was eyeing at present - had stayed silent, for most of the time, and kept staring at the place from the right to the left in a strange way, barely drinking anything. This behavior should have been an immediate red flag. And, well, surely it had proved to be so. He had seen it correctly! Being an Immortal, and about two million years old, surely was of great help in giving him knowledge on how to deal with strangers.

But he wasn’t the only one to become aware of it. His waitresses, Blanche and Trixie, had been watching that individual with attentive eyes since he sat down at the table, regardless of how crowded the Space Bar was tonight and the many things to be done.

So, the call he had sent to warn the police - after he had made sure the machine was working properly - had proved to be the perfect choice. It seemed that the suspicious customer did have much more that he was presently hiding: a bloody past, according to the short reports his friends in the police had given him once he had been apprehended outside the Mare Inebrium that same night. Some cruel humans had always used cruel tactics to dehumanize others, especially the worst serial killers known during the course of history, but this individual seemed to truly be psychopath, both when dealing with other Earthlings and with any alien species as well who had become his prey in the past! This made the bartender’s skin crawl. The police had explained to him that they were making efforts and would leave no stone unturned in the path to ensure equal justice for all the many victims killed by that man on a lot of different worlds – at least the ones they knew of, so far.

This machine, given to him from that small alien - his species being much more experienced in devices that had to do with brains and their signatures - was really something valuable. Having studied the history of that species – after the new device had proved it really worked – the man had seen that there had been many conflicts on planet Fletrtl in the past, whose sequence of events was steeped in violence, governmental surveillance other than racist hatred. Perhaps it had been this that had led to this new invention of theirs: a way to prevent bloody actions from occurring, a system to read the depraved intentions of people that had to be properly dealt with, before they came to a seat of power. This machine could throw up warnings before they led an army into the battleground, having in their mind the thought to be ready to just accept the loss of all of their soldiers in order to improve their career and their ranking, and to win a useless fight without caring about the price of many deaths.

Not that here on Bethdish the majority of people - who came from all over the galaxy - even knew about the small planet Fletrtl, which was the size of a small moon, and not extremely developed. In fact, the bartender had discovered that, even if there was sentient life on the planet with their furry bodies and their eyes that resembled those of a hare from old Earth, its army and its warships rarely showed up in space. In a way, aliens from that world didn’t like visiting other places. Their moons were populated largely by people from the ‘mother countries’ on their native world itself, who never became new colonizers nor were ever colonized. Their inhabitants did not want relationships with other space areas, except a few ones like that salesman, who just dared to go beyond their planetary system and wished themselves good luck in the business field, trying to find the path to become wealthy.

Max, to say the least, simply hadn’t comprehended what that salesman had told him that day, when he took it for a trial period, but the cost was almost non-existent for the present time and so he had given it a try. Later, maybe, they would discuss the cost for the definitive purchase, if it came to that, as the salesman had told him during the sales pitch. Then, for the limited time to be used, for his decisions whether to buy it or not, so far it had revealed its significance as it had showed him the real brain of that strange new individual and how evil he was. This device might be useful in other occasions, to protect his business and stop crimes from taking place in that area, even to stay safely away from problems with the police and their questions if anyone was involved in a murder and was ever arrested after spending the night in his Space Bar on planet Bethdish. of course…

Killings in the area near his venue along with assaults weren’t good for his business, if word got out…So it was good that he had given the device a try! “I need this Space Bar to keep afloat”, he said in a convincing tone.

So, though he wasn’t truly aware of how it worked, its capabilities were valuable. He might think about buying that for the right cost later, after all. But he was sure it would be very expensive, and at that time the alien salesman would be allowed to prove how good he was also in his field. A thoughtful Max remembered very well that phrase spoken by an old poet on Earth that went, more or less:

It was pretty easy to see what money could do.

THE END

Bio: Sergio is an Italian public servant who graduated from Law School working in the public real estate branch. He is also a co-Editor, together with Mrs. Michele DUTCHER, of the new Steampunk Anthology “Steam-powered Dream Engines”, published in march 2018 by Rogue Planet Press, an Imprint of British Horrified Press. His complete writing credits are longer than most short stories...

E-mail: Sergio Palumbo

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