way and making his guttural mutterings sound pathetic, he could be successful.
Cobb found this extremely hard to do, not only because it was contrary to his nature but because of his hatred for the Kirrians. This may explain why he failed to receive any remuneration until his eleventh attempt—a young, adult female. As he came up to her, she gave him a nervous but sympathetic smile and dropped a small coin into his bowl. Cobb could see the pity in her eyes and was swept by the conflicting emotions of revulsion, gratitude, and accomplishment.
Cobb studied the coin in his bowl and recognized it as a low Kirrian denomination. He wasn't familiar with Kirrian money since he used Alliance script for most of his purchases, but he had come into contact with it when dealing with local Kirrian merchants. It was made of bronze with a black patina and had the standing figure of a Kirrian holding a scale on one side and some type of abstract symbol on the other. He hadn’t really looked at Kirrian coins before, and he sure wasn’t impressed by this one, but he knew he had to wise up very quickly about Kirrian rates of exchange. He wasn't sure how much buying power this coin had, but he did know it was insufficient for his needs.
By the time Cobb reached the village square, the foot traffic had increased considerably, mostly laborers with a smattering of merchants. He managed to find a place to set up shop on one corner of the square. The square was a standard Kirrian park of lush green vegetation with a statue of one of their gods in the middle surrounded by flowers. Cobb knew even less about Kirrian religion than he knew about the coinage. Kirrian gods were not anthropomorphic, which made it even harder for Cobb to determine which one was which. Anyway, Cobb didn’t care. It was just another reason to consider the Kirrians subhuman.
Cobb squatted on the dirt path that delineated the park’s perimeter and leaned against a corner post. He crossed his legs near his body to prevent them from getting stepped on. He placed his bowl on the ground about a third of a meter in front of him and began making guttural sounds and pointing to his bowl as Kirrians passed. This technique was much more successful than begging standing up, probably because he was less intimidating and even more pathetic. On a regular basis, Kirrians, mostly females, would pause long enough to place a coin in his bowl and to say something to him in Kirrian, usually without looking him in the eyes. Even though he had no idea what they said, he found himself reflexively grunting a thank you whenever this happened. He had begun to adapt to the situation.
By late afternoon, he had accumulated about twenty small denomination coins. His hunger was becoming a major distraction, and his thirst was again significant. He had been watching the Kirrians dealing with the food vendors that lined the square and had formulated a plan for making a purchase. These vendors had carts with a number of shelves loaded with the various products for sale as well as a small hibachi giving off copious amounts of smoke. Cobb could tell from the cloud of insects around the carts that sanitation was not one of the selling points, but, as usual, he had little choice. Cobb stood up with a few grunted expletives and grabbed his begging bowl, its tinkling contents providing Cobb with a sense of satisfaction. He had already picked out a vendor of bread and drinks that he believed would be his best bet for pulling this off. The vendor was short and a little fat, and Cobb had seen that he was very friendly to his customers and tended to fawn over them. As he approached and the vendor realized that he was Cobb’s objective, Cobb could see the fake smile on his face fade to something approaching disgust and panic. Cobb knew he had to do this just right because he didn’t want the vendor raising a ruckus that could draw the local constabulary. When he was about a meter away, Cobb held out his bowl of coins and pointed to what he wanted with his other hand, his staff resting in the crook of his arm. He had seen Kirrians eating a round meat-filled pastry about ten centimeters in diameter, and he figured that its popularity probably meant it was also tasty, so he pointed at one of them. The vendor quickly realized that Cobb was trying to initiate a sale, and, though his smile did not return, his demeanor softened. He pointed at the pastries also, and Cobb nodded his head ‘yes’ and held up two fingers. The vendor grabbed two of the pastries and wrapped them in what appeared to Cobb to be not-too-clean paper, but he realized the irony in that judgment considering his appearance. Cobb then pointed at one of the half-liter containers of fluid along one of the shelves. The vendor quickly grabbed one of these and placed it with the wrapped pastries. He then reached into Cobb’s bowl and took all but three of the coins. Cobb could tell the vendor wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible and decided he would use that to his advantage. Cobb had no idea how much the stuff he had picked out cost, nor whether the vendor was trying to cheat him. But he pulled the bowl back and made a show of looking into it, as if studying its contents. He made a slightly angry grunt and thrust it out again toward the vendor. The vendor began to argue but immediately realized the foolishness of this action and placed one coin back in the bowl. He gingerly handed Cobb the items he’d bought and waved him off with some undoubtedly unflattering comments. Cobb grunted an acknowledgment that could’ve passed for thanks.
Cobb returned to his spot by the post, where he sat down and began voraciously eating and drinking. This action either made him more pathetic or confirmed that he was really begging for food, because the Kirrians seemed more willing to put money into his bowl, even some of the males. He wondered what the Kirrians thought he was—an injured soldier, a destitute laborer, a mental defective, or maybe something else? He couldn’t tell purely from their actions or their fleeting glances. They were wary of him, but that may have been because he was an unknown quantity or, more likely, because he looked and smelled bad. Regardless, in a little over hour, he had replaced the money he had spent earlier. Cobb never liked Kirrian food, perhaps more a result of his dislike for anything Kirrian than the actual taste of the food, but he had liked the pastry he’d bought. The drink was a fruit juice that was a little too sweet for him, but it had sufficed. Of course, the greater the degree of thirst and hunger, the better things tasted.
When the afternoon was transitioning into evening and the light was softening, Cobb knew he would have to head out. He had to keep moving west, and he did not want to spend the night in the village. It was too risky. He was mustering the strength to get up when a pretty, Kirrian female walked up to his bowl and placed into it what appeared to be a high-denomination, silver coin. She was dressed in a neat, clean kirtha that would pass for lower-middle class on Earth, so the coin must have been a strain on her budget. She locked eyes with Cobb’s and walked up to him to pat him on the hand. She softly said several Kirrian words to him and continued to stare into his eyes. For a moment, Cobb’s heart jumped into his throat, and he thought his true identity had been discovered, but then she turned and walked away without another word. Cobb sat there stunned for several minutes with his heart beating rapidly. Under normal circumstances, it would have been touching, but for Cobb it meant it was definitely time to go. He grabbed his food and bowl, shoved them under his serape, and rose to leave. He refilled his now-empty liquid container with water from a fountain in the square and purchased another two pastries from the same unfortunate vendor.
Cobb headed west out of the village, initially moving at a limping, leisurely pace that slowly increased as his soreness lifted and the crowds thinned. He made no attempt to beg as he walked; his main objective was to cover ground and to get as far as possible from the village before it became too dark to travel. He quickly reached the edge of the village with about an hour of sunlight left in the day. The road lead due west, but Cobb knew it was too dangerous to stay on the road, so he turned north for about a hundred meters before returning to a westerly course.
It was almost too dark to keep walking when Cobb came upon a small stand of trees. Exhausted and sore, he laid down on a moss-covered section of ground under one of the taller trees. As he ate some of the bread he’d bought, he reflected on his day. He felt some sat
isfaction that he had managed to pull it off and that he now had a glimmer of hope that he could make it back to his own lines, though he still knew the odds were slim. He curled up into a ball and fell asleep almost immediately.
Cobb felt movement. He woke up instantly and sprang to his feet with the laser in his right hand. He spun around looking for the source but failed to see anything to account for the movement. He then realized that small, furry animals had crawled into his clothes while he slept, probably for warmth, and were now falling or leaping from under his poncho. They were the size of small Earth mice, and they scurried quickly away when they hit the ground, losing themselves in the ground cover. Cobb shook himself like a wet dog and managed to rid himself of the remaining vermin. He thought to himself that it was bad enough looking like a filthy beggar without becoming a hotel for furry creatures. Cobb checked his belongings and found that his remaining pastries had small teeth marks in them. Thoroughly awake now, and with the eastern sky a dull red, he decided he might
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