Sneak peek part II

She nodded, and examined the star maps again.

‘I doubt you wanted to tell me just this. So out with it.’

‘Err… yes. What I really want to know is why I had to come with you?’

She looked up and raised her eyebrow again.

‘You are a bit slow, aren’t you? I’ll try to explain it using small words,’ she said, mockingly: ‘We are pirates. Ap-pa-rent-ly your pla-net is made of a very va-lu-a-ble mi-ne-ral called Calm-ci-um. Are you still following this, native?’

‘Yes-Cap-tain,’ B’ork said, without thinking. The girl gave him the briefest of smiles.

‘Splendid. If we didn’t have a slight mechanical problem, we wouldn’t have landed on your planet at all, rest assured. And then it turns out that you, gallant though you may be,’ she gave him another brief smile: ‘nor the rest of your species have any idea what you’re hauling every day.’

‘Ehm…’ B’ork began.

‘Oh dear, I can see I overestimated your abilities. The big building we grazed back on your planet is run by Engineers. Nod if I’m correct.’

B’ork nodded.

‘Good. Engineers are employed by the Merchant Fe-de-ra-tion. Still with me? Good. The Mer-chant Fe-de-ra-tion is very rich and has lots of big ships with even bigger guns. And the Mer-chant Fe-de-ra-tion gets even richer by you lot hauling rocks every day.’

‘Yeah, about those rocks…’

‘Oh, you really are slow, aren’t you? Haven’t you been paying attention to what I said? It’s Calmcium. It’s practically priceless! And that’s why we make sure we get away from your planet as fast as we can, before we are spotted.’

‘But why?’

‘Because we’ve accidentally landed on the biggest depository of Calmcium known to man, lizard, blob and crustacean. With your planet you’d be able to buy half of the Galaxies on this side of the Universe, that’s how much Calmcium is worth. If word of this gets out, the Merchant Federation can pack its bags.’