I knew Tek-El had not yet grasped the rules of poker, but he was so keen on playing after we watched vintage re-runs of Poker Stars on the plasma screen. I mean, why not? We were hurling through outer space at ninety-thousand giganots, headed straight for nowhere. What else was there to do?

Tek and I sat at the round table in the sitting area. I had my feet on the table’s top, the spurs of my cowboy boots made silvery sounds every time they touched the steel surface. I leaned back, kept the brim of an over-sized Stetson low to shadow my eyes. I had a ridiculous poker face but I doubt it would have made much of a difference.

“Poker!” Tek nearly fell over when he dropped two aces, two kings and one nine on the table top. Slimy lil’ bugger was slightly larger than the cards. He had large frog-like hands and a tail that reminded me of a miniature T-Rex’s. Tek-El was green, not normal green but a bright emerald that turned neon every time he got happy, excited, hungry, or had to pee. His head was twice the size of his lil’ body (I reckon that’s why he needed the T-Rex tail, to balance, or else he’d end up face down every time he took a step). He had funny lil’ fox ears that rotated like satellites. Tek’s eyes were blue, luckily he only had two or else when I found him on my ship I may have freaked out. Tek was a stray. Some folks end up housing stray cats or dogs. I end up taking care of a teeny tiny alien called Tek-El Shamron.

When I first found him on-board, I thought he was someone’s lost pet. He was quick to correct me in telling me he was a runaway who was seeking adventure. He also ensured me he was no pet.

“I’m a pretty dull sort,” I told him. But he simply said he always wanted to fly aboard the Star Ship Enterprise.

“Do I look like James T Kirk?” I huffed, not wanting to be compared to a character that had been popular three centuries ago.

Ever since that day, Tek has called me James. I call him Dumby sometimes because my real name is Sally and I don’t look like no James.

I looked at him from beyond the shadow on my face and shook my head. “You don’t say pokerwhen you have a good hand. Besides, it ain’t even your turn.” I fiddled with my betting chips. There were days I thought about telling Tek we should play for something real, maybe the deed to his house, or a kidney, not just for fun. Tek never wins at poker, never till now. Glad all we were bettin’ were blue and red chips I’d picked up at a thrift shop last time I was on Earth.

I remember him telling me about the planet he’d run away from. It was one I had visited not too long ago. A nice lil’ place called Romulet Five where everything smelled of lavender and the sky was a remarkable shade of purple. When I asked him why he had stowed away on my ship, he simply shrugged and told me was seeking adventure (that was what he’d say every single time I asked him why he ditched his planet to hide away on a spacecraft with no set compass).

“You take too long, James.” Tek tapped his cards. “I decided to play twice.”

I rolled my eyes wishing I still drunk. I think that after a few shots of good ol’ whiskey, I would have been able to handle Tek’s madness easier. Dang you, sobriety.

“You can’t play twice!” I flipped the brim of my head up. “This ain’t a rule.”

“Why not make up our own rules?”

I drew in a deep breath. “Because someone already made up the rules for this kind of poker.”

Tek’s brows raised and he asked in a snarky tone. “Who was the genius that made up the rules? Mr. Poker?”

“Bah!” I tossed my cards on the table. I had a terrible hand and he probably would have won anyway, which would have been a first (good thing I didn’t bet that kidney then, eh?). “That’s it. I am never, and I mean NEVER playing poker with you again!”

“That’s what you said yesterday,” he reminded me, “and the day prior, and --”

“Stop it, Tek.” I didn’t need reminding how many times I’d told him I would never play poker with him again. It must have been a hundred times were it once. Just when I was about to give him a piece of my mind, I heard him scream and point to one of the windows.

“Aggg!!!”

I dropped my feet to the floor, ready to leap towards any sort of invasion. “Are we under fire?” We needed weapons! Missiles! An atomic bomb! My heart thudded wildly. I always flew in the safer parts of the galaxy. I was a lover, not a fighter. I could not deal with a pack of scalawags who wanted to attack us. I had nothing worth stealing on the ship, except maybe Tek and a Faberge Egg I’d been given before I left Earth.

Tek had his head tossed back, his frog-like hand pointing to the darkness of space. “It’s a YETI!”

Seriously, right then and there, I wanted to kill him. “There are no Yetis in outer space, Tek. I’ve told you before --”

“Yeti! Yeti! It’s flying outside the window,” he interrupted.

“Yetis can’t fly.”

But he would not listen. As if on a loop, he kept repeating "Yeti! Yeti!”

“Tek! Their heads would explode if they were flying outside our window. I told you that last week when you were screaming like a banshee about the Yeti you saw then.”

Tek’s lil’ body shivered. His chest rose and fell and he looked as though he was hyperventilating.

Though I often thought he was a loon, he was also my very best friend. Who else would put up with my grumpiness all these years? No one on Earth had. I’d been thrice divorced, none of my children ever called. My neighbors had never said anything to me in the twenty years I'd lived by them except for a Hey and a Can I borrow your lawnmower? which they never returned. That’s why I was so keen on buying my own spaceship. I had saved up for ages; when I finally retired, I had enough to buy myself a simple model but one that would take me off that stinking rock. I longed to find other planets, ones I didn’t hate so much.

I guess Tek was everything I needed now, even if he was a silly goose. 

I shook my head and sighed. I rose from my chair and walked over to the window as he paced back in forth muttering about how Romuletians are a Yeti’s favorite snack.

I lifted my hands to the window, pointed them as I would twin pistols and pretended to shoot the Yeti away. “Bang, bang! Git lost ya vermin. Next time it will be a bullet in the skull.”

I heard a small cheer coming from the table. I could try to teach him poker again, get out the rule book while we watched Poker Stars.

When I scooped him up, he stopped trembling and looked up at me. I walked with Tek out of the main room. It was past his bedtime. I’d put him to sleep in the lil’ shoebox I’d made into a bed. I’d make sure to leave a nightlight on in case the Yeti came back.

“You’re my hero, James,” he said softly, in a tone I knew was sleepy. When I switched off the light I saw him glowing.

Outside stars twinkled, a million if not more. But none as brightly as my lil’ buddy.

Follow Nyhterides and check out their work! Remember! New story will be posted every day!

Show some love to these fantastic authors! Vote, comment and spread the word!