“How alien are we talking?” Ishikawa wondered. “Did they breathe osmium tetroxide?”

“No, nothing like that,” the dealer laughed. “They were just, you know, a little different.”

“Ah, a little different,” said Shwartz. “That’s all right, then.” He started to take a drink, noticed his glass was empty, and switched to his second drink.

“Yes, that’s all right, then. We were afraid they might be really different,” Ishikawa explained. “Like, you know, their ship might kill us all.”

“Sho, how diju get this ship, an’way?” Shwartz asked.

“Would you like to hear the story while we drive out to my lot?” the dealer offered. “My car is downstairs.

“You see, the Necrogorgons of Delta Scorpii had run up quite a tab at Hooligan’s …” he explained as he shepherded the marks to the garage. “… And then they discovered the roulette wheel.”

Shwartz was wrestling with a sudden onset of Brownian motion. He collided with an HAVC grille in the wall, just as a pair of bloody hands gripped its bars from the other side.