He checked the cards displayed on his forearm. Unfortunately, they didn’t compose a winning hand, but the rest of the table didn’t know.

Or did they?

He surveyed the three-tentacle eyes Trindback to his left. He couldn’t remember if they could read minds or not. The sharply dressed human across the table from him didn’t seem too troubled about playing next to the Trindback, so Mercury didn’t fret. He also tried not to glance at the Trind just in case they watched him.

The guards around the buzzing lower-level casino hadn’t removed him either. Part of their job was to filter out aliens who would have an advantage over the rest of the patrons, so Mercury decided not to worry.

The action moved around the table until it came to Mercury. He had a decision to make. If he bluffed it out, he could win enough money with this pot to fix his ship. That would mean more work for him and his crew and more money.

Or he could fold and wait for his chance at a sure hand to win, but there was no telling how long that would take. He pushed the button to call, and his coins transferred immediately with the sound of coins clinking into the pot, like metallic sand sliding down.

Mercury looked around at the players still in. The Trindback, the other human across the table, and the wolf/lizard creature Mercury couldn’t recall the name of the species. The lizard creature forked his tongue out when he had a good hand, so he didn’t seem like a problem. The Trindback didn’t give off expressions, so Mercury didn’t know how to judge him yet. Meanwhile, the other human kept a sharp focus on Mercury. That focus worried him.

“You don’t want in this pot,” the human across the table told him. The man looked out of place in the casino. His tailored suit and close-cropped hair fit more in a club on the top levels of the space station than here in the underbelly. He hadn’t been at the table long. He had approached the table just a few hands ago. The entire time, he had a meek smile across his face while he focused on Mercury.

Mercury chuckled as he wondered if the man was the one who could read his mind and not the Trindback. Meanwhile, the lizard-like creature shoved his hand, leaving the rest for the humans and the Trindback.

It was too late for Mercury to back out now. He put too many in coins already. He shrugged. “Maybe you’re right, or maybe I have the best hand.”

“You don’t, Mr. Johnson,” the man said. Mercury raised a worried eyebrow. He hadn’t told anyone at the table his name. His fingers brushed the gun holster on his upper leg.

“Have we met before?” Mercury asked, surveying the man and scanning his memory banks. The man’s sharp brow and blunted nose didn’t look familiar, nor did his dark brown eyes, bordering on black. “It’s your bet,” Mercury added. He hoped his bravado could help steal the pot, although now his focus had shifted from only the pot and players.

“My name is Harvey,” the man said, sensing Mercury’s unease. He rolled in his seat, trying to loosen up. “Why don’t we make this more interesting?”

Mercury didn’t want to add any more plot twists to this hand, but he felt he needed to play along to save the hand. “What did you have in mind?”

“I’ll let you take the pot. You can repair your ship and continue to work.” Harvey said emotionless.

Mercury knew a trap when he heard one. He didn’t hear any upsides for Harvey. Taking these types of deals never worked out well for him. Yet, curiosity compelled him to push forward.

“Sounds too good to be true. What’s in it for you?”

The corner of Harvey’s lips finally raised in a devilish grin as if he were fishing and had been waiting hours for a bite. “With your ship repaired, you’ll do a job for me.”

Mercury smiled as he thought of his ship getting fixed. But the hairs on the back of his neck tried to rise from beneath his off-yellow t-shirt. As much as he would benefit from the deal, he knew better. Jobs like this always led him into trouble.

“Hey, what about me?” the Trindback cried.

Harvey surveyed the conversation intruder. “Aren’t Trindback’s forbidden in casinos?”

The Trindback’s tentacles swirled and stiffened. Each eye swiveled toward the nearest security guard on either side of him. The tension at the table rose even higher.

Mercury chuckled, trying to defuse the situation altogether. “If he could read our minds, don’t you think he would have taken that pot four hands ago?”

The Trindback looked to Mercury with what he deemed a smile; even the species’s mouth didn’t curve like a human’s. The creature relaxed his tentacles slightly but still carried an edge.

“It matters not to me. I only came here to make an offer. You’re a tough man to find, Mr. Johnson.” Harvey said.

The casino must have had listening devices at every table to prevent cheating because mentioning mind-reading summoned the security guards. They began to close in on the table, which wouldn’t be good for anyone. The Trindback sat rigid again—his tentacles frozen in space. Mercury could feel its bipedal body vibrating.

Mercury cursed himself for even getting involved in this game. It had been wild from the start. He knew that he should have just taken the money and gotten the Gravity Spanner fixed. They could have taken some cargo or a passenger somewhere for more money and continued to make the repairs needed to make the ship whole again.

He had hoped he could have sped things up by winning some more. It would have freed them up to look for a relic.

As the guards neared the table, one of the guards placed a hand on his pistol. He didn’t want things to get messy here. The casino wouldn’t report to the Ascendancy about an incident unless someone ended up with a laser bolt in the chest. Still, he didn’t want to get caught up in anything.

He also feared what would happen to the Trindback if security caught up to him.

The tentacled creature stood from the table and pushed a button on his console. His hand projection disappeared. Mercury heard a sound coming from his console, like coins hitting the ground.

“Thank you,” the three-eyed creature said to Mercury.

Mercury cocked an eyebrow at him. Either the creature read his mind or his expression. “Everyone thought only for themselves when the guards started. You’re the only one who gave me a passing thought.”

Mercury found it hard to believe no one else thought of the Trindback, but he didn’t want to take it for granted. “Thanks,” he said, hoping the creature could escape unscathed.

“And for what it’s worth,” the Trindback focused two eyes on Harvey. “He’s telling you the truth about the deal. But there’s something else too. It’s too deep and hidden, but there’s something else there.”

“I figured,” Mercury admitted. “Get out of here before they get too close.” The alien nodded his tentacles towards the table and then started to move. The guards had moved too close. They would intercept him before he even got close to an exit.

Mercury shot up quickly and slammed his hands on the table. Then he pointed at Harvey. “Okay, buddy, that’s enough,” he shouted. “You want to handle this outside?”

The guards paused to survey the new scene. Luckily, the Trindback knew enough to keep moving and not turn back. Harvey, however, hadn’t been ready for any of this to happen and looked shocked.

“If you’re going to keep running your mouth, let’s just go outside and handle it another way,” Mercury added, flicking his eyes from the Trindback to the table to a door on the other side of the casino. He hoped Harvey could keep up with his ruse.

Harvey nodded and pressed a button on the table. The sound of coins falling again sounded from Mercury’s console, and then the cards on the console disappeared. The rest of the table seemed to breathe as Harvey, Mercury, and the Trindback left.

Mercury glanced at the Trindback. The guards hadn’t reached it as the three-eyed friend exited. With the mindreader gone, they didn’t care if he had left or been kicked out, so they returned to their stations.

Still, Mercury led Harvey out the other exit.

The neon signs in the underground district bathed their skin in pink and green. The smell of the vendors in the nearby area filled the streets, making Mercury realize how hungry he had become.

The people in the corridors coming and going didn’t give them much privacy. Mercury liked that. He didn’t want to be in a private area with this guy. Of course, after standing up and moving outside, Mercury had been able to size Harvey up. He doubted the man could lift a blaster, much less fire it.

Still, he didn’t trust him.

“I don’t think my acting would have won any awards,” Harvey admitted. “So I take it we have a deal?”

Mercury tucked his lips into his teeth. “Not yet,” he admitted.

“But I-“ Harvey started.

“I just have some questions before I agree,” Mercury admitted. “Why me?”

“You come highly recommended,” Harvey said with a wink.

Mercury nodded and then started to walk away.

“Where are you going?” Harvey demanded.

“You haven’t given me any reason to trust you. I’ll transfer your coin back to you.” Mercury tried to get his bearings as he walked away from the casino. He had come from the other door, so he wasn’t sure how to get back to the ship port in his station.

“Wait,” Harvey called after Mercury. “Okay. I asked around. You were recommended as someone who procures the type of item I’m trying to get my hands on.”

“And what is that exactly?”

“A relic from the before times.”

Mercury chuckled. He should have known. He shook his head. “You know we can’t make it to Earth. I’m sorry, but even if my ship were fixed, I couldn’t help you.”

“I believe this item made it off the Earth.”

Mercury grew curious. “What are we talking about here?”

“An item that, if found, could bring down the Ascendancy.”

“You know how many times I’ve heard that?” Mercury asked.

“You just have to have a little faith,” Harvey said. “It’s the pen of Martin Luther King Jr.”

“The pen that wrote the “Dream” speech?”

“Among others, yes.”

Mercury paused. He had heard of the pen before. People talked of the Dream speech, even though it had been delivered centuries ago. Finding the pen would be a fool’s errand, though. “A pen can’t bring peace.”

“It changed the world once. Why would we be so foolish as to believe it couldn’t happen again?”

Mercury didn’t have an answer for that. He had tried many times to find a relic from Earth, from the Before, but he hadn’t been successful.

Yet he felt tempted.

Mercury mulled it over. His crew wouldn’t like it, but at least the ship would be repaired. Finding a mythical item like a pen in this galaxy would be next to impossible. It was all too much.

Mercury looked Harvey in the eyes. He knew how his response would go over, but he hadn’t prepared even himself. “Okay, let’s find this thing.”

Mercury Johson Might Return

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