Continued from Ficlet http://ficlets.ficly.com/stories/3845

“Marauder. Meat.” The nearest slave-mech made its most obvious assumption.

It also indicated its IQ with the same move—the marauders don’t like smart slaves.

“Guys! Great to meet you!” Ignoring Jiana and Sweeper’s protests I stepped away from the bike. Those guys could easily make it back to Jiana’s ship alone. “I’ve managed to get myself lost in here.”

“You pretty big lost,” the leader stepped forward. “Now we eat for lunch.”

“Darn,” I shook my head, then brightened. “Hey, you wanna help me steal something from the library first? It’s important.”

Behind me Jiana and Sweeper groaned. Wow! The first time they’ve agreed on anything.

The slave-mech looked puzzled. “Why Maruader steal from library?”

“Well. Truth is I’m not marauder, I stole this thing to sneak in here. Complicated story, would take me days to explain, and by then it would blow up in my face.”

I didn’t think he wanted to hear about the bomb Jiana’s folk had placed in my chest.