Satan's Forge (Star Sojourner Book 5) Read Online Free Page B

wide.
    “Have I not treated him with nothing but kindness and respect?”
    “Yes, Boss Slade. Ye have surpassed yeself with kindness and respect.”
    Boss Slade waited.
    “And…and ye have given him the best accommodations and…the finest horse in the stable!” she blurted. “What more could he possibly desire?”
    Appeased, Boss Slade sat at his desk. “And yet he repays me with defiance.” His eyes narrowed as he stared at the cracks in the newly-painted wall and the chips of cement on the floor.
    “Some aliens are just plain born stubborn,” Zora offered, “and no matter what ye do for them, they will always –”
    “Oh, get out, ye fool!” Slade slammed his sore fist on the desk. “Ye be nothing but a pritcull yeself.”
    “Yes, sir.” Zora hurried to the door and closed it softly behind herself.
    Slade rubbed his cheek so hard a few scales flaked off. “Damn pritculls all.” He stared at the window. Tel or no, he would not stand for the Terran's insubordinate behavior. He relaxed back into the chair and gasped as a sharp pain shot across his ribs. “By all the Idols,” he whispered and rubbed his chest, “I am cursed with my subjects.”
    “Zora!” he yelled into the computer.
    “Y-yes, Boss Slade,” the voice came back meekly.
    “Tell the painters to redo my office again.”
    “Yes, my superior.”
    “Zora!”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “Tell Azut and Kluth to bring that insufferable Terran to my office.”
    * * *
    “Don't you understand yet that I will not tolerate defiance from ye?” Boss Slade said in his raspy Altairian voice. Pieces of spittle flew from his mouth. “Isn't that clear enough, human?” He slammed his desk with a broad scaly green fist. The computer jumped.
    “I won't sell my soul to maximize your profitability,” I told him.
    He waved his fist at me. “We had a deal.”
    “You had a deal. I didn't sign a contract.”
    “If ye defy me again in front of my subjects, ye will regret it. I promise ye that.”
    “Then don't demand that I do your treacherous work…in front of your subjects or behind them.”
    He spread his clawed hands on the table. The webs between his fingers stretched. “Ye will do my bidding, Terran, one way or the other.”
    I bit my lip.
Spirit? I need help. You still owe me.
    Nothing.
    Star Speaker? Gwis?
Her Kubraen name.
Come on down from Nirvana, just for a while. I'm in deep shit!
    Nothing.
    Star Speaker said she would not answer my sends, that each lifebind was a small thing, not to be taken too seriously. It felt serious.
Great Mind?
I sighed. I was on my own.
    “Who are ye contacting?” Slade tapped his broad tail nervously on the floor.
    “Just searching,” I admitted. “Nobody's home.”
    I am here, Jules,
Spirit sent.
How do you desire that I help you? Yet again
.
    Spirit! Send a tel message to my daughter Lisa. She can receive across the stars. Tell her I'm a prisoner on planet New Lithnia. Make sure she relays the message to Joe Hatch, her grandfather. He's a former Counter Terrorist captain in W-CIA.
    I know.
    Can you do that for me? I'm in a mess here!
    Is there a time when you're not in a mess, Terran?
    It's not my fault.
    Is she on Earth?
    Yes!
    You tax me with your requests.
    Spirit!
    As you Terrans like to say, I'm on it. But next time, go ask Star Speaker.
    OK.
    He broke the link.
    I looked into Slade's scaly, green, flat-snouted face and realized just how much I hated him.
    “Are you done with your comlink call?” he asked. The tubes vibrated with a metallic sound as he drew in a breath.
    “There was nobody home.”
    He sat down and studied me. “I can offer ye anything a Terran could possibly desire, Jules,” he said too softly. “Wealth. Power. Fame. All I ever asked in return was that ye act as an overseer and inform me of any thoughts of conversations of rebellion ye pick up among my subjects. Was that so difficult that ye have to defy me and play the savior to these miserable subspecies?”
    I bit my lip.
    “Now,