A successful market day later, Yrenisé is tinkering with her buy. However, it seems that trouble is brewing in town and, for some reason, she's right in the middle of all of it...

The inn I had chosen to settle in for the night was fairly decent. The lady at the front had led me to a small clean room with a comfortable bed. The meal was a bit bland but warm and filling - more than I had expected to get by coming on this foolhardy journey. And anyway, one does not expect too much from what is, essentially, grass soup.

I put down my pack and settled on the bed taking out my most recent purchase, a nano warp enhancer. It was the final piece I needed for the device I was building based on a book I had found (borrowed). With it, I could possibly travel through time - an action that was expressly forbidden by the galactic police.

However, such a device would also price very well on the black market. I needed the money desperately considering a few wrong turns and a disastrous choice in a romantic partner had resulted in me being destitute nearly thirteen jumps away from my home solar system.

It was a gamble. Even the black market wasn't safe. And if I was found out, I would be in really big trouble. My mind wandered briefly to the old man who had sold me the warp enhancer and his Trengese guards - in particular, Tilo. He had recommended this place to me in the first place.

He was, it seemed, a nice guy. The Trengese were a rather attractive race by most universal standards. I was certainly not in the market for another heartbreak but I could appreciate an attractive figure all the same.

I smirked, shaking my head. It seemed that I never learned.

I pulled out the notebook and my tools then got to work on the device. A few hours later, I had made decent headway. The warp enhancer was in place and I had placed the temporal adjustor and rewired the transition chip to remain in flux with the stasis core. I had just slipped the last chip in place and latched the final piece when there was an urgent knock on my window.

I knew nobody here save those I had come into contact with but there was no real reason for them to search me out... or so I thought. A worried handsome face met me at the window. He pushed his way in and ducked, shutting the curtains and dragging me down with him. Thinking it was best not to question the situation, I also shut off the room's only illuminator.

As soon as I did, a beam of light illuminated the area outside the street. We heard the quiet hum of a sentry as it floated past, stopping only briefly to scan the area before moving on. When we thought it was safe, I peeked through the curtains again. All was dark and quiet once more.

"Tilo? What's going on?" I asked clearing my work carefully and storing it in my bag.

"It's Maren. He's been... murdered."

I paused for a moment digesting that.

"Mur... murdered?"

"I saw it happen. One moment he was at his desk and the next he wasn't. There was blood. A lot of it."

The most likely weapon of choice was a mass disintegrator. It was a messy weapon but one that ensured the job was done... completely. All of this was surprising and worrying. The old man who had sold me my much-needed component had been equal parts eccentric and harmless. He had pretty much sold me the rare part for almost nothing.

"Why him? And why did you come to me?"

"The first part, I don't know," he said, the sadness touching his eyes. He looked so despondent that it took all I had not to wrap my arms around him. Some races, I found out, had problems with intimate bodily contact so it would probably have been inappropriate. There was also the matter of the Trengese being rather alluring. It was an accepted fact. Either way, I was not going to do something so embarrassing.

"As for the second, I thought I should come and warn you. Maren had a few enemies; clearly one thought it time to end their relationship. However, you did come to our shop today so it stands to reason that you may be in danger."

It made some form of sense. I was even more worried now. Was I going to be a fugitive on top of being a criminal? I was too far away from home. I couldn't die out here! My mind raced as I tried to think of a way out of this.

There was a chance that this had nothing to do with me. I had to hope that was the case because I honestly didn't need the entire galaxy after me. My mother would throw a fit, especially considering that she had been nominated for Elder Guard back home. It wasn't an honour bestowed to many, even with a monarch as friendly as the Krivose King was.

"What are we going to do?" I asked more to myself than anything.

"I think we should move. My brother and Dessa are already on the way to a safe place we know. I'm known to the people here but being here could also put them in danger."

This sounded worse and worse by the minute.

"I... okay." It wasn't a hard decision - stay and possibly die or leave and live. I liked living.

I looked around the room. I hadn't really had a moment to unpack and I had already paid for the room upfront. Since I only needed it for the night, I had already given the landlady her dues and come up to rest. What a waste of hard-earned money...

"Let's go," I whispered. We used the window again. I was sure to leave the door unlocked and the room neat and tidy, then I jumped out after Tilo. He deftly caught me in his arms, set me down and began creeping down the street. I wasn't sure if my heart was hammering from the adrenaline or because of... other reasons.

I didn't want to think too hard in that direction.

I have never been on the planet Rexis so I have never experienced a Rexis night. There are stars visible in the deep red sky. A few meteorites float close by, caught in the planet's gravitational pull. They make transit a bit difficult but shuttles still make it here - like the one I had boarded to get here in the first place.

The twin moons came into view, one orange, the other a gentle purple. It would have been a peaceful night, evoking feelings of wistfulness and romance... in those that were not, at that mom ducking away from sentries in dark alleyways.

We made it back up the street I had been in that very afternoon. Tilo was leading me back to the shop. I was about to protest but a sentry passed by again and we ducked in without hesitation. It seemed the Rexis patrols were a lot sterner about their curfew measures. Considering how rich the planet was famed to be, it was no wonder either.

It may also have had to do with the fact that the planet was ruled by a paranoid despot but that made little difference to our current situation.

A dim light flickered to life as Tilo drew the thick curtains of the shop shut. I almost didn't want to look around but when I did, I was more surprised than anything.

For all the blood that Tilo had mentioned had been there, there was no evidence to the same. I looked quizzically at Tilo and he heaved a heavy sigh.

"He was standing in here when it happened. The lack of blood now is the reason I'm convinced it was a murder." I waited for him to elaborate. Blood spatter didn't just disappear.

"Maren was working on something not too long ago for a known pirate. He never really questioned his clients' motives - he was a little chaotic like that," he said wistfully. I crossed my arms to keep from hugging him. What was with me today? I don't usually offer random hugs to strangers - it's not like I'm a Plerisian. Now those are huggers. I shifted and waited for Tilo to continue.

"The thing he was working on was secret even from Dessa, Ridis and me. But I snuck a peek once. It was a weapon that destroyed its target - completely. It was a brilliant, frightful beam that destroyed all organic matter it touched - fragmented into nothing. No witnesses, no evidence."

I shuddered as I looked around. Everything seemed as untouched as when I had left that afternoon. He may as well have just walked out and not come back. Who was to say that that wasn't what had happened? It had been completely foolhardy to just follow Tilo around, especially now that there was no evidence except the sadness that was still in his eyes.

He might even just be a really great actor.

But I had already left my warm bed behind. And it was best to err on the side of caution, no? This was better, decidedly, than possibly being obliterated in my bed with not a lick of evidence left to prove that I was ever there.

"Come, through here," said Tilo standing at a door. It opened into a tunnel with steps leading down into the gloom. Dim lamps, similar to the one in the shop, flickered to life one by one lighting the way into the bowels of the earth.

I took a deep, fortifying breath and stepped through the door. There was no turning back now - the door clicked shut behind us and I followed Tilo down the steps into the unknown.

A market-day gone wrong, led to a case of murder. A secret passage leads to adventures and a hunt for treasure; find out what happens in the next installment of A Spot of Trouble.