Sarah May Raxenpaxerflirk was new to the Dirty Comet Cantina, but she could tell when a customer was having problems. After dropping off a Streamwater Surprise to a space otter passing in from Lutrina Four, she made her way over to where K’Pid sat by the bar. “Doing all right?” she asked.
“No,” the captain growled. “I was this close to discovering a new wormhole. This close. I would’ve gotten mentioned in star charts and everthin’. And what happens? I get beat out by a sentient cloud of gas. Gas. My first officer won’t stop laughin’ about it. I can’t get taken seriously at starports anymore. All because of a stinkin’ cloud of-”
He had been about to use an expletive that would’ve shocked even Sarah May, who’d heard a lot of them at the Dirty Comet, when a sudden flare of mauve energy kicked up from the back, causing the captain to spin around on his seat. The flare moved closer and coalesced into a cloud, and sudden anxiety ran all over Sarah May’s tentacles. She hated when fights broke out.
“What were you going to call me?” the mauve gas cloud telepathically projected.
“Read my mind and tell me!” K’Pid shot back, glaring out of all three of his eyes.
“Flargle!” the gas cloud flared.
K’Pid drew a blaster. “Say that again, puffy.”
Sarah May was still working her way through university (the Cantina helped with that), and she hadn’t reached weapons courses yet, but she was still pretty sure that bad things would happen if you fired blaster bolts into a gas cloud. She started to reach for the alarm button just underneath the counter.
She didn’t get the chance. A Streamwater Surprise crashed into K’Pid’s head, laying him out flat. A micro-tractor beam enveloped the gas cloud, sucking it into a pocket-dimensional container flask.
The space otter picked the flask up and calmly clipped it to his belt. Sarah-May and everyone else stared in astonishment at him. “Sorry about that,” he said. “Should’ve intervened earlier. District Command’s appointed me marshal. Still getting the feel of the place. I’ll notify them about this.”
“W- would you like another?” Sarah May said weakly, gesturing with one tentacle to the smashed Streamwater Surprise on the floor.
“Nah,” said the space otter. “I should get back and make a report. Thank you, though. Evening, all. Ma’am.” He made a crisp bow to the other customers and to Sarah May, and then left the Dirty Comet without another word.
Sarah May stared down at the unconscious K’Pid and wondered what she was supposed to do with him. After a moment, she decided it was his problem and moved along to other customers who were more friendly, less likely to sling blaster bolts at each other. Sarah May Raxenpaxerflirk liked it better that way.