Tin Star by Cecil Castellucci Page A

eat there alone, head down, concentrating on the plate in front of me, eating every last morsel no matter what it was and be grateful for it. I was like everyone else in the gutter, never knowing when I might eat again so I always ate everything in front of me no matter if it was a protein pak or a real meal.
    “A moment of your time?” an alien in the gutter dining hall asked. He’d approached my table uninvited.
    I glanced at him. He had information he wanted to trade, I could tell. But was it information that I wanted? I didn’t look up from my food. I kept putting the fork into my mouth, eating bite after bite. The alien hovered. I ate. He had thick legs, the size of tree trunks, and a tail that he balanced on. He started to shift his weight from side to side. That meant the information was good, and he thought it was valuable.
    It probably wasn’t.
    When my plate was empty, I pushed it in front of me and then turned my eyes to him and stared him down.
    He was a Minor Species. His snout was long. His nostrils opened and closed quickly. His clothes were filthy, and he had a sore on his forehead. I tried to figure out what he wanted. Coin? No. Medicine? No. Drugs? Yes. But he likely knew that I didn’t deal in drugs. I reached into my pocket and took out a card. It was a chit for the bathhouse. There he could clean up and most likely make a drug connection.
    “What’s everyone so excited about?” I asked, motioning to the invisible buzz around the underguts.
    “Imperium representatives found dead,” he said.
    “Dead?”
    Dead was never good.
    “Dead. Found stabbed and stuffed in a vent near where the Humans stay.”
    I knew that the other aliens were watching to see if his information was worth anything. A bathhouse chit was not worth much. He waited, hoping that I would put something else down on the table. After a few minutes, I put my hand out to take back the chit. The alien put his hand on top of mine. The deal was accepted.
    “It’s strange, don’t you think, that the Imperium would not answer those Humans?” the alien asked.
    “Everyone knows a message sometimes takes longer than expected to get a response,” I said, “especially when there’s been an emergency of some sort.”
    But that wasn’t the truth. They should have gotten an answer by now from the Earth Imperium Alliance members on Bessen.
    “Yes, of course,” the alien said and bowed his head to indicate that I knew better than him.
    Life was cheap out in the black. I had learned that, and it still hurt to know it. But those Imperium representatives being dead was trouble all around, and someone would be made to pay. I didn’t want it to be me.
    *   *   *
    Heckleck banged on the side of my bin with his appendage in the way that let me know that it was him. I pushed aside the curtain.
    “Have you heard? A shuttle docked with two Imperium representatives aboard,” Heckleck said.
    “And now they’re dead,” I said.
    Heckleck’s mouth changed to a diamond shape, which after knowing him as long as I had, I knew meant that he was amused.
    “Many would have killed for what they had. Look at this.”
    He pushed two data cards toward me.
    “Travel passes,” I said. “So what?”
    “Not just any travel passes. These come with immunity. They cannot be questioned. They cannot be revoked.”
    “Impossible,” I said.
    I’d rarely seen travel passes. They were beautiful. They glowed with color and holograms. Then I realized that they were open passes. They gave free travel access to anyone to go anywhere any amount of times. Since travel was now so strictly regulated, these passes meant absolute freedom.
    “How did you get these? Did you kill them?”
    He probably hadn’t. Heckleck was not squeamish about cutting off body parts, but he drew the line at murder. That was why I still did jobs for him on occasion.
    “No,” Heckleck said carefully. “I’m no murderer. Someone who owed me too many favors was lucky enough to find