Realizing that I was stranded, I did the only sensible thing and headed to the nearest bar for a drink.
The fifth planet of Gorinal Prime is the only one in the system that’s habitable, if you’re willing to stretch the definition of the word. G-Prime V is essentially a giant desert, with oceans of sand instead of water. Fortunately, the spaceport is on the planet’s north pole, where the weather is cool enough there to have clouds, rain, and even a couple salty seas. With nowhere else to go, I decided to try what was left of my rapidly deteriorating luck.
Every spaceport in the galaxy has a seedy cantina somewhere nearby. At G-Prime V, that’s a place the locals call the Oasis. Finding humans in the Orion Arm isn’t too hard; xenologists, merchants, vagabonds, and men of fortune like myself are all pretty common in that corner of the galaxy. But the Gorinal Cluster is in the Scutum-Crux Arm, on the far side of the galactic core. Out there, humans are as rare as ice on a neutron star.
So you can imagine my shock when I saw a twenty-something blonde at the bar—one who was definitely not happy to see me.
Gunslinger to the Stars
Sam Kletchka here, freelance gunslinger and interstellar privateer. This, my friends, is how I went from being stranded in the armpit of the galaxy to becoming the luckiest human being in the universe.
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