Page 5 of Catching the Kot'oll Driver

I toggle on the screen to double-check the destination. It is another warehouse with numbers and letters that I won’t remember past a minute of delivery.

“Hello, I’m the incoming cargo.” I read out the number of my cargo and leave a voice message for the warehouse so they will be ready to take care of my spaceship.

Now, there is plenty of time to wriggle my fingers and do nothing.

I press the button to stop at a guiding light, waiting to be merged into traffic. On this planet, they use glass tubes to indicate roads, seemingly making me an animal in a cage.

My spaceship slides into the tube, following other ships. I hold the controller, finally needing to focus to get the job done. My spaceship has cargo and is bigger than most of the ships that are meant for use on a planet. If I’m not careful, I may bump into others. One hit will cancel out everything I will earn from this trip and more.

A spaceship zooms past the lane to my side. That’s fucking stupid. Are they in a hurry to die?

Inside the city, traffic is bad. I’m a bit too used to my weeks in the space where I can drive as quickly as I want and go in whatever direction I want. There isn’t another spaceship around me, which gives me a lot more personal space than...

There are sirens. I tap a button for the backend camera. There’s a spaceship with a blinking red light behind me. I suppose I should move my spaceship to give room, but I’m stuck here with spaceships all around me. I can’t move without bumping into others. The side where the potential criminal sped through should be fine, but the police ship isn’t heading there.

There are a few smaller spaceships breaking out of the big police ship. Two head to chase the spaceship that zoomed past my side, and one... heads to me...

A blinking green light goes off on my dashboard. I sigh and press the button to allow for communication.

The system beeps. There are a few crackling noises from the speakers before—

“What the fuck did you do?” That’s a female, and she sounds pissed.

I clear my throat and take a sip of water to get myself to talk. But before I can open my mouth, her voice comes again.

“How dare you pretend to be dead? Stop your spaceship and open the door.”

I have the worst luck ever.

“Fine.” I tap the button for the door to open. This is such a crazy female...

It doesn’t take long before there are stomping noises coming down the corridor towards me. I turn around to face the corridor, waiting for the crazy police to show up.

“If I were you, I’d be honest. Your hands on your head.” She grunts as she gets closer and closer.

It sounds like she is alone... I guess she isn’t that smart. But she is lucky. I’m not a bad being. I just want to be done with this so I can collect my money and take a break before flying back.

The door to the corridor slides open, and there comes a laser gun pointing at me. “I said your hands... Well... You have quite a few hands there, huh?”

I sneer at that. “I’m a kot’oll, so Ihave four hands. What’s the problem?”

“No, nothing.” She is a human with blonde hair. I wonder what gives her that much courage to be shouting at me when I’m more than a size bigger than her. This one looks to be more athletic than Winnie, but compared to me... Even the dumbest kot’oll can win over a decently trained human. Not to mention... Does she think that her laser gun is that strong? I have two guns too, and I can fire them all at the same time.

She eyes me up and down. “You’re arrested now.”

I lift my brows. “What did I do?”

“You should give way to the police ship.”

“That’s impossible without running into other ships. There’s a path to the side you could have used.”

She scuffs as if I’m dumb or something. “Your ass is in the way of the shortcut, so we can’t catch that bank robber.”

Oh... I thought all three lanes headed in the same direction.

She gets even closer. “Stand up. Keep your hands on your head. All the hands.”

I roll my eyes. I’m not here to fight her or anything, but she sure is annoying. I take a step to the side. “Like this?”

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