The Blooley bean liquor was plentiful and Boggs and his crew were throwing it back. I smiled at how loud the liquor made them. I didn’t even have to work to listen in.

Thankfully, I had found another group of scavengers heading into one of Hermeltin’s many seas to collect underwater treasures to resell. Had Boggs’s crew on the radar but never hit them yet. Of course. I only hit each crew once.

Overheard them planning to scour the Trinad Sea. The most tumultuous sea on this planet, but whatever, I’d go out on an excursion for any sea. Just as long as it wasn’t the Menoof or the Donnaswarrow. Those toxic seas would cook a human medium-well in under three minutes; and I ain’t that fast a swimmer. Even with my training.

“We’re heading out at five!” Boggs yelled to his crew.

I downed my Blooley and seltzer, paid my tab, and left.

I found Boggs’s rustbucket nestled between two larger, cleaner ships. Across from his ship, at the other edge of the dock was a pile of discarded boxes and trash. The sun shone brightly on the dock, but that tantalizing heap of trash had a spot in the shade. I popped my Phan-Pill and laid in the pile. The Phan-Pill would work in under a minute. It would knock me out and reduce my heart rate to nearly non-existent. Enough to trick the untrained into thinking me dead. The scavengers’ buyers on this planet loved treasure found on the floors of the seas… but not as much as they loved organs of the recently deceased.

Top dollar a functioning kidney would go for. And mine are likely alright, with the exception of all the pills I keep popping.

All this up and down will catch up with me someday.

How else would I get on board the ship? How else could I make money? Most people migrated to Hermeltin right away, found trades and jobs. I stayed on Earth, certain I could make it as a professional swimmer.

Stupid.

Still faster than most…

* * *

A sharp jolt shook me awake and I smacked my head into something solid. My eyes were plastered shut and it was a struggle to peel them open. Dim light. Dark wooden walls and floors and a low ceiling. The room swayed.

Right. On another boat.

My L-Watch screeched an alarm, linked to my biometrics, sensing I was awake. I was one step ahead, realizing I was in the middle of one of my plans. I read the message on my self-created alarm anyway, just for confirmation.

Take Adrena-Pill.

I fumbled through my pockets like a drunk.

Damn, those Phan-Pills are heavy-duty!

I located the shiny orange pill and dry-swallowed it. It would take a minute. I assessed my surroundings. My eyes adjusted to the light. I must’ve been in the hull of the ship. I lay on a dirty beige mattress. How kind of Boggs and his men to give my dead old sack of bones a comfortable resting place before carving me up. I assumed they’d save that for later. I was lucky I was right. To my left, several bulging waterproof sacks. I opened them all, each one filled with treasures.

Perfect! They already got their haul. I won’t have to pretend to be dead while I wait for them to ravage the shallow sea bed.

The ship lurched and I was flung back into that something solid again. A massive wooden board.

Time to get the hell outta here.

Even the smallest sack was brimming with loot. And it’d be the easiest to carry while I swam. I grabbed the sack. To my right… Boggs’s spear guns.

They really did think I was dead. They left me down here with everything!

The spear gun would only be needed until I jumped overboard. And if no one saw me, I wouldn’t need it at all. But I took precautions. I was a careful looter.

Spear gun in one hand, sack of loot in the other, I found the bulkhead and wasted no time. I nudged the door open and climbed out of the hull. The sky was a dark blue-gray. Dawn or dusk, who knows? Must’ve been hours.

I surveyed the ship. No one in my direct vicinity. Thirty yards away, near the edge of the starboard side, two of Boggs’s men talked over glasses of Blooley. The darkened sky would be my cover. I snuck to the port side silently, spear gun at the ready. The two men never noticed me, they were so entrenched in their stupid conversation.

“Now I’ve been on every sea on Hermeltin, except for one.” One man bragged. I scoffed and kept creeping towards the port side. “Donnaswarrow is the only one left.”

I reached the edge of the ship. I looked over the side and could hardly see the water below. But I could hear it.

“Only one of the two treacherous seas left then. You’d never been on the Menoof before?” The other man asked.

What the hell are they going on about?

I set the spear gun down quietly.

“No. And I had been on the Trinad Sea many times. So, I was glad we changed course last minute.”

I poised myself at the edge of the ship, secured my sack of treasures, and bent my knees. Ready to push off for sweet, sweet victory. As I leapt… I caught one last part of the mindless exchange Boggs’s men were having.

“Welcome to the Menoof. Most beautiful and most deadly sea on all of Hermeltin.”

He couldn’t have said that any earlier?

As I careened downwards, the sea rapidly approaching my body, I could see its frothy discolored waves. I splashed into instant pain.

The seas of Hermeltin were small and shallow. But even with that, I wasn’t fast enough. I was a world-class swimmer on Earth. I swam beyond well. On Hermeltin… I’ll be medium-well.