ALONG CAME A ZHI ZHU -Chapter SIX

By BlueHandTwoByTwo (LarryL)

“Let me get this straight: you woke me up in the middle of the night to talk about rutting spiders?” Rutherford asked.

“Green Nile Zhi Zhu’s in particular,” Zoe nodded.

Rutherford’s face never changed. “I see. I do believe I’ve heard of that particular species but I have no personal experience with them so I don’t imagine I can be of much help.”

“Uh-huh,” Zoe remarked with a sigh. She turned and addressed Book, who was standing behind her. “Book, our ship’s a little heavy. We’re burning too much fuel. I want you to go to the cargo hold, find the most expensive piece of art, and flush it right out that hatch.”

“You’re the boss,” Book tipped his head and turned to leave.

“Wait!” the voice called out from the monitor. Book stopped in the doorway, looked to Zoe who motioned for him to wait. Rutherford took a deep breath, then said, “Green Niles are highly illegal in eighty-five systems and outright banned in thirty more. Transporting them across the Intergalactic Grid is punishable by very hefty fines and even jail time if you’re caught. You flush anything that belongs to me out your airlock and I will call the authorities. Your flying junk heap-of-a-ship will be confiscated and every single one of you will be bound by law. You don’t scare me for a second, little lady. I call your bluff.” He smiled wide, showing off an unsettling collection of rotted, yellow teeth.

“Is that how you want to play?” Zoe asked, not the least bit intimidated. “Okay, Rutherford, try this on for size: we got Alliance on our tail right now so I don’t even bat an eyelash over your little threat to call the gorram Parcel Patrol. And just for your information, aside from your eight-legged contraband, we’re also harboring two, very well-known fugitives at the moment. As soon as the Alliance boards us and finds out who we’re carrying, they’re going to impound our ship and everything on it. They’ll comb through our manifest logs and what