Hardman's Bar

By Hadrian Howell (Hardman)

Epilogue

I breathed into a glass and cleaned out the inside. It was a slow day at the bar, and I sighed. Maybe I ought to close down for a few hours. Business just hadn’t been the same since the Junocron incident.

I was just entertaining this train of thought as the door opened and a customer stepped in. He walked up to the bar with a buddy of his and sat down. I recognized him instantly, even though he did seem to be wearing a new collar of some kind.

“Hey, Torchman,” I said, “What’ll ya have?”

Torch looked at me with little emotion in his eyes. “I’ll have a gin and tonic, and I’m buying this guy’s drink’s too.”

“Well, that’s generous of ya,” I said, turning to his friend. “And what can I get for you?”

“I’ll have a whiskey,” the other robot said in a high, cold, emotionless voice. I took a look at the spiral that adorned his otherwise undecorated body.

“Sure,” I shrugged. “I guess I owe ya that much.”

I gave Torchman and his new master their drinks, and sat back as another group of people walked in. They sat at a table, and within five seconds, Cassandra stumbled out of the back room, throwing me one of those knockout smiles. She’d recovered well after the Siegema’am incident, but the scars would stay with her forever. Namely, the scar that ran from her neck down into her shirt that tended to throw people off. She didn’t get hit on very much at all anymore, but she didn’t seem to mind.

Someone put a few quarters into the jukebox, and a soft music began to fill the thick atmosphere of the bar. Another customer wandered in, and sat down heavily at the bar away from my other two drinkers. I made my way down to him.

“What’ll you have, Juno?” I asked. He looked pretty bad, probably having taken the same dive through the stratosphere that I had but without all the help. His armor was a patchwork, and there was still a gaping hole in his chest.

“Vodka,” he murmured, obviously unsure of himself here. I smiled a poured him the drink, and then went back to cleaning glasses.

I sighed and settled back into my routine. I love this job.