Six Scifi Stories Volume Three

Star s*x-6

After another hour of kissing, Strayhorn pulled away from Dinah and rubbed his jaw. "I can't keep this up," he said. "We need to switch personnel."

"I know what you mean." Dinah's lips were sore, and her jaw ached--not that she intended to stop the kissathon anytime soon. "I think we'll be okay if we just take a break for a minute."

"No," said Strayhorn. "It's time to switch." He started to get up from his chair.

"Really," said Dinah. "I'll be fine."

"You don't understand," said Strayhorn. "We need to switch."

Just then, Blakey let out a loud whoop. "We have a winnah!"

"Yay!" Mahalia grinned and applauded. "This is it, Captain! We found the real deal!"

Dinah had missed the latest flurry of negotiations. She looked over to see Blakey shaking the tentacle of a seven-foot-tall orange-furred squid-thing. "What is it?" she said. "What's the deal?"

"Kioska here will fix Earth's atmosphere." Blakey patted the orange squid's rubbery spear-point head. "He'll even terraform the planet to reverse the global warming damage to the ecosystem!"

Strayhorn walked around the table to Blakey and Kioska. "What'll it cost us?"

"You're gonna love this." Blakey threw an arm around Strayhorn's shoulders. "How would you like to be the first man to set foot on an alien planet?"