by Max Jager
As he paid for his lodging using his "credit card" it occurred to him that although he had enough funds to cover the cost, he'd better be looking into something that could make some money as well as one that could get him off this planet.
"We'll meet back down here in the lobby in one milacenton," announced Grak, "Things don't start jumping at Neb's until around then." Heading up to his room, Matt discovered that it was rather small.
"Prison cells don't have anything on this place," he thought. There was a narrow single bed with one metallic blanket everyone called "metablank's." The bed appeared to be a single metal looking base with a thin mattress and a wedge shaped pillow. Thinking the mattress was going to be rather hard, he lay down, but was mildly surprised to discover it was rather soft and comfy. As he lay there, he thought to himself.
"I wonder how guys like Drok could sleep on something like this?" There was a tiny desk built into an alcove with dresser drawers next to it indicating that the clothes dresser was built into the wall as well.
The bathroom consisted of a single shower stall with a fold-out toilet, and sink.
He also noticed a small TV screen set into the wall above the desk. It turned out to be a touch screen Loridian message board, with the keyboard incorporated into the screen. Typing in his ID number Matt was hoping for messages, but nothing came up. Finally it came time to join his friends down in the lobby. Grak and Karlt were waiting for him,
"Neb's in just a short walk up the concourse, said Grak, shall we be off.
As they walked down the wide walkway, Matt thought to himself.
"This truly what an alien planet should look like." He observed the building architecture, the stark and sweeping designs. The walkway was filled with people and not all of them appeared to be Golians. The walkway was semi-shaded with unusual looking trees that resembled palms but their leaves were almost in the shape of very large maple leaves. There were also several strange looking tree-like plants that resembled large mushrooms standing twenty or thirty feet tall. Asking Grak about them, he was told.
"Those are Sensal,"
"I saw several of them on Denedra," replied Matt.
"You probably did," came the reply, "They are native to Golia but they are quite popular because they absorb pollutants in the air. Anywhere you find the Loridian Company, you're sure to find Sensal."
Matt was completely awed by all that he saw, a world that many on earth suspected but one that he now knew as fact. They finally reached "Neb's Nebula"
Which on the outside looked like the other buildings along the walkway. Once inside, they passed through a crowded foyer into an inner chamber. As they approached, Matt could hear the strains of a strangely eerie music, Grak said was called "Semuta." However the thing that literally took his breath away was the bar and lounge area. For all intends and purposes, they had literally stepped into space. The whole ceiling glittered with stars, far-off planets, and a multi-colored cosmos.
"Isn't this remarkable?" Asked Grak, "I told you that you would like it." It was all he could do to keep from gawking as people were coming in and almost colliding with him.
"Come on, let's find a booth," announced Karlt. Before they began to move off, a gruff voice exclaimed.
"Grak! Karlt! Do your mother's know you're in a place like this?" Both immediately turned to see a somewhat larger Golian with a short van dyke.
"Rekton! What are you doing here?" Exclaimed Karlt.
"It appears that I'm doing the same thing you are, I've just spent three yarns hacking around the Tryn-Isha system, you two still working for Loridia?"
"We are," replied Grak, come on, lets go get find a booth and talk over old times." Matt tagged along as the three Golians worked their way towards the back of the lounge area while Matt split his attention between the "Universe" above him, and the darkened bar, trying to keep up with his friends. The sights and sounds filling the room overloaded his senses as Grak located an empty booth indicating that he should slide in first.
As he did so, Rekton got a good look at him,
"Who is this person?"
"Oh, this is Matt Grainger," stated Grak, "He's from earth; we're showing him a little bit of Golia." Rekton chuckled, then directed his attention to Matt.
"Earth eh, the last I checked, your planet had no interstellar travel capabilities, how did you find your way out here?" Matt gave him the short version of how he met Greg and Amber, travel on the Nora-Lee, and his current situation.
Rekton studied him for a moment, then said,
"Would it surprise you to know I've been to your planet, almost died there as well."
"You've been to earth?" Exclaimed Matt, "When?"
"Ten yarns ago, I and a few others were running a survey for Arpac which is one of Loridia's competitors. Anyway, we were way out beyond any recorded references, in a strange galaxy. Our scanners alerted us to this big blue planet that was showing an incredible amount of life."
"No doubt someone saw you and another "UFO" was reported.
"What's that?" Asked Rekton.
"Unidentified flying object" replied Matt, people report seeing them all the time." Rekton just grunted, and then continued his story.
"We landed in a vast barren waste, much like that miserable Ussen Ommo. Moments after stepping out, we were attacked by the natives riding strange four-legged beasts. They were shooting at us with weapons unknown to us. Whatever it was, was pinging off our ship, and whizzing past our heads. We managed to scramble back on board, and take off"
"What happened after that?" Asked Matt, Rekton gave him a hard look.
"Well let's just say, we dealt with the problem." Matt wasn't so sure what that answer implied, but the look the Golian gave him dissuaded him from inquiring further.
Rekton then turned his attention back to his friends who asked him more about what he had been doing.
"Well like I said, I've been three yarns out in the Tryn-Isha working security for Loridia. Finally they are putting their credits where their mouth is by getting the raider problem under control." Matt was about to ask him a question but was distracted by the waitress taking their drink orders. Topless, and quite well endowed, she obviously wasn't a Golian. He remembered the scrap dealer looking very similar but he had to ask Karlt what race she was.
"Vaeon," was the reply. She wore what looked like red war paint on her face in a sort of star pattern. Matt ordered the Golian equivalent of beer while everyone else ordered beverages of a much stronger variety. He then began to notice the waitress's were of different races and all wore varying modes of dress. Grak and Karlt were chuckling over his distraction with the half to fully naked wait staff.
"Come here enough and the prettier ones will do more than take your drink order," remarked Grak.
"Do they serve any kind of food here?" Asked Matt, both his friends laughed, and pointed towards the back of the room.
"They serve what they call "Chibat" which is their version of eabak. They add iza, a lot of ursil, spice the drek out of it but I guarantee you haven't eaten eabak until you have Neb's chibat," stated Karlt. Deciding that he'd give the dish a try, Matt excused himself to go in search of food. As he was threading his way through the darkened room, Matt thought to himself,
"Boy! Lucas sure got it right, this IS the Star Wars cantina." He observed that many were wearing side arms, as well as assorted pieces of flight gear. There seemed to be just as many females to males, all drinking and laughing at somebody's story. There seemed to be a line waiting to order a bowl of chibat, and he found himself standing behind a tall and very attractive Ruddorian who looked bored. Striking up a conversation, he asked.
"Ever had this stuff before, my friends tell me it's pretty good." The girl turned and gave him a curious look,
"Actually not this is my first time here, and this is the only thing they serve." She studied him further, then asked,
"I don't believe I've ever seen anyone like you before, what planet do you come from?"
"I'm
a human from the planet earth, as far as I know I'm the first member of our race to ever come to this planet, much less this galaxy."
"You don't say, well my name is Tiag, I'm here with my brother, what's your's?"
"Matt Grainger," he replied, "Nice to meet you, Matt." By now, it was her turn to order and Matt was further distracted by another near naked waitress walking by. As the girl finished up and Matt prepared to order she suddenly turned and asked.
"Wait, I'd like to see you again, and meet my brother, are you staying here in Khemna?"
"Yeah, over at the Loridian hostel, maybe I'll see you around ?"
"I'd like that!" She exclaimed as she disappeared into the crowd.
Since they only served the one item along with a piece of what appeared to be some sort of flat bread, Matt swiped his ID/credit card when a bowl of steaming chibat along with a "spork" appeared behind what looked like a microwave door. Well it smelled good anyway as he turned to head back to his table. Matt suddenly panicked as he realized that he'd forgotten where he'd been sitting. Taking a moment to collect his thoughts he remembered that they had been sitting directly under a small bluish planet. Scanning the ceiling he spotted it over in the general direction of where he knew his friends waited.
Carefully "navigating" his way towards the small blue orb he soon found his table.
"What happened Matt?" asked Grak, "We were starting to wonder." He quickly explained what had happened, and how he was able to find his table again. Both his friends grinned with Karlt patting him on the shoulder.
"You're learning Matt; you stumbled onto a little known secret of this place. Besides being a constant reminder of our home every one of those planets and major stars centers directly over a booth or table, if you never learn another thing about star navigation you'll have learned how to find your seat here at Neb's."
While he had been gone his beer had come, taking a sip, he noticed that it had a bitterness the beer he drank back on Denedra and Doradus didn't, it also tasted a bit flat, obviously these Golians didn't know much about beer making. Digging into his chibat, Matt discovered it was quite "hot" and the only thing he had to alleviate the burning sensation was his beer. Other than being hotter than he liked, the food was quite good, Karlt wasn't kidding, it was eabak with a twist, a little milder, and he could eat this stuff all day long.
At one point, both Grak and Karlt had to answer the call of nature leaving just he and Rekton at the table.
"You said you were out in the Tryn-Isha system?" Asked Matt, "Isn't that where Z'ha'dum is?"
"It is, what do you know of it?" Asked Rekton. Matt explained how the Neistra had kidnapped the people of Coryville so long ago and taken them there to mine Morbidium, and that eventually he wanted to fulfill Greg's wish and travel there.
"Z'ha'dum is a big planet," replied Rekton, "After the Neistra had died off or left, Z'ha'dum was pretty much up for grabs. If these humans were taken there it was probably somewhere in the Shurkhal mountains, I think we picked up some signs of life but we couldn't be sure if it was two or four legged."
"What do you think killed off the Neistra?" Asked Matt. Rekton thought a moment then shrugged,
"Hard to say, they were quite the reclusive ones. They never became part of the Loridian trading empire, they minded their own business, we minded ours." Then Rekton asked,
"Grak tells me you were on Ussen Ommo, was it as bad as I've heard?" Matt nodded,
"If that place isn't a monument to the disaster of war I don't know what is," he said.
"It's a ghost planet; I really hope Drok and my android friends can turn that place into something people can actually live on. Have you ever seen one of these purifier's?" Rekton nodded,
"Two yarns ago on Praia-Doryl, they are quite the thing to see, they can strip the soil right down to bedrock if that's what it takes, but they're everything people say they are."
Matt could see Grak and Karlt slowly coming through the crowded tables when Rekton asked him.
"So you're really from earth eh?" Matt nodded,
"You know I wouldn't mind going back there, If you're still around I could use a guide, I'd hate to land someplace as unfriendly as the last time I was there."
Chapter 40
Titan Stand Chapter 40
By this time Grak and Karlt had returned, picking up a story they had been telling Rekton. Matt continued to nurse his beer but mostly stare up at the ceiling, or observe the people sitting near their booth. He hadn't noticed it before, but every so often, a tiny light would streak across the heavens. Comets, asteroids, or spaceships? When he pointed it out, Grak replied,
"I guess I never noticed it before, but then I don't stare up at the ceiling all the time. After Matt had finished his meal it sounded like his friends were planning on closing the place down. Taking this as a hint, he announced,
"Guess I'll head back to the hostel, I think I can find my way." Then he thanked his friends, as well as Rekton.
"Are you going to be all right?" Asked Karlt,
"Sure, I'll be fine, I'm a lot more confident in myself that I used to be. If nothing else, I'll go look up Mr. Doltoda and see if he's still interested in going to earth."
Well good luck," replied Grak, "Maybe we'll see you around."
"Well you guys take care, I'm sure I can find something around here. I'm going to try and get back to the Fort; maybe I'll catch you guys back there." Then turning to Rekton, he added.
"If you do decide to visit earth again look me up, I post messages under 3x5526, I can show you where to land or people to meet that won't try and kill you."
"Thanks, I'll do that," replied Rekton, see you around." Matt made his way back out to the street, but not before checking to see if perhaps Neb's carried a line of souvenir tee-shirts, or even shot glasses. Sadly not, other than the Spork he got with his Chibat, it was obvious the Golians didn't go in for advertising of this nature. He then wondered if they were into souvenirs at all,
"Sure would be nice to have something that says I've been to Golia."
As he was coming through the lobby of the hostel, he happened to look to his right and spotted the Ruddorian girl he had been talking to in Neb's. It looked like she was doing something on an iPhone, but since he knew they didn't have such things here, he figured it to be a small computer.
"Hey, nice to meet you again," he casually announced. She looked up at him and smiled,
"Is it Matt? I think that's what you told me your name was." Smiling, he replied, "You remembered, now as I recall, your name is Tiag. Is that a computer you're fooling with?"
She held it up,
"Oh it's much more than that Matt. Communicator, computer, imager, medical encyclopedia, all known data on every planet in the Loridian trading empire, plus few outside of it. Why, do you have one as well?" He grinned,
"Yeah, but I left it at home."
"Oh that's too bad," replied Tiag. Matt shrugged,
"About the only useful thing on it would have been the camera, but I brought my regular one. Were you talking to someone?"
"My mother, she…So tell me a little more about yourself, my brother Slavek is getting something he left on our ship, he should be here any time. Oh, I hope you don't mind, I told him you were from earth, he wants to know more about it."
Matt studied her for a moment, for just a casual encounter, she seemed awfully interested in him, he wondered why. Pointing to her communicator, he said.
"Back on earth, we have phones like that; we can take pictures, and talk to pretty much anyone in the world, plus a whole lot of other stuff."
"Well let me show you something Matt." He could see that there weren't any buttons on the face, everything looked touch screen,
"I'm calling my friend back on Ruddoria," explained Tiag.
"Niope! How are you? "Oh I'm just fine. Right now Slavek and I are here on Golia, and I'm talking to this cute earth boy, here, take a look." She held the device up so Matt could see the image of an attractive Ruddorian female
looking at him. The girl then asked him,
"What is your name, and where is this earth…Never heard of it."