9
“Well, how does that feel?” Gwog asked as Dar came from a dressing booth.
“Nice, very nice,” he replied, running his hand over the smooth, black hide that covered his body from neck to ankles. “So soft.”
“Very durable too…The Catarins breed some bovidis just for their hides, the rest of their parts end up on our dinner table.”
Dar looked at the price tag on the jacket. “Two hundred drig.” Then he checked the tag on the trousers. “Three hundred and ten drig…I won’t have enough to get any boots.”
“Find a pair you like, little one.”
“Are you going to advance me some pay?”
Gwog tapped his finger against his chin. “No, think of it as a gift. You’ve more than proven yourself a good crew member, and I certainly appreciate your help in getting the external flux intake fixed.”
“Really? Thanks!” He began to look around. One pair in particular caught his eye. They were black, knee high boots with laces that ran up the outsides through shiny silver eyelets.
“You like those?” Gwog asked.
“Yeah.” He looked at the price tag. “Oh, but they’re really expensive.”
“Lemme see.”
Dar brought him the boots. He’d seen another pair that he’d be satisfied with, but this pair looked really cool. “There is another pair, ones not so expensive…”
“Will these fit you?”
“I dunno.”
Gwog handed the boots back. “How about trying them on?”
“Yes, sir.” He sat down on a bench and put the boots on, pulling the laces tight. “They fit like a glove.”
“Stand up, let’s have a look at you.”
Dar stood and slowly turned around. He couldn’t believe he was dressed in such wonderful clothes. His mother had always provided for him, but her means only went so far. Now he was dressed like a true space freighter crew member; nothing could be better.
Gwog folded his arms and studied Dar. In the few months he’d been on board, the youngling seemed to have sprouted into an adult. His body filled out; he no longer looked like a gaunt teenager. The expression he wore on his face was one of maturity. His level of responsibility far exceeded some of the other crew, Gwog just never let him know. Someday, he’d make a fine freighter captain, the instinct to explore and travel seemed to be in his blood. His mother was right in sending him, this is what he needed. “You look finely appointed, little one, how about we make our purchases and head back?”
“Yes, sir.” Dar collected his other clothes from the dressing booth. He wanted to wear his new ones out. So far, this felt like the proudest moment in his life. He wondered when he’d see his mother again, he wanted to show off his new clothes. “Sir?”
“Yes?”
“Are there any plans to stop by Erotis?”
Gwog chuckled. “You wanna show off your new trappings to your mother, huh?”
Dar tried to hide a smile. “Well, yeah, and I haven’t seen her in a while. I wanna make sure she’s okay.”
“Hmm, I suppose. We’re heading to Darminitus to pick up a shipment of kittens bound for Thokin. I might be willing to swing by Erotis for a few hours.”
“Thank you!” Dar beamed widely. He stepped up to the counter and pulled out his wad of gold drig strips. Carefully, he counted out the amount for the jacket and trousers, it left him with five drig. It didn’t matter, in a few weeks, he’d have another hundred or so.
“I’ll be paying for the boots,” Gwog said and he reached down and snatched the price tag off Dar’s right boot top. He didn’t bother looking at it, money was no object right now.
“Right, that’s five hundred and ten drig for the clothes, and another four hundred for the boots,” the shop keeper replied as he wrote up the ticket.
“This is the shuttle Cunis to Erotis 3, do you copy?” Dar said as he piloted the shuttle toward the surface. Gwog trusted him enough to let him fly on his own.
“Roger, Cunis, we read you,” came the reply.
Dar listened for a moment, the voice sounded familiar. “Garnic, is that you?”
“Dar!”
“So your father got you a job working in the long-range communications section, huh?”
“Yeah, Mokki Grudbit died, so father put in the good word, and I got the job.”
“Good for you,” Dar replied, punching in the coordinates for landing.
“Dar? Will you come by and visit while you’re here?”
“It’ll be quick, I only have six hours before the Cunik heads to Darminitus.”
“Please! Please! I wanna hear all about your adventures.”
Dar sighed. He wanted to see his best friend, but he wanted to spend much of his time with his mother. “Can you meet me at the Aknarra Tavern in four hours?”
“Sure, I can do that.”
“All right, see you then.” He looked for a place to land. “Ah, perfect, right near the store.” Banking to the right, he circled a few times and landed. Shutting down the engine, he hurried out the door, and down the street. He stopped just shy of the store, Dar wanted to get his composure. He was crew on a freighter; he didn’t just go barging in the door like a youngling anymore. No, he was an adult and expected to behave like it.
Stepping onto the porch, Dar pushed open the door. Denrika looked up from her place at the counter. “Dar?”
“Hello, mother.”
She let out a gleeful shriek and ran to him, throwing her arms around him. “Oh, so good to see you, my son!”
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Same as always.” She let her hands slide and stepped back to look at him. “My, you’ve grown up so much in these last few months, I almost didn’t recognize you.”
“Bovidis shit, mother.”
“Dar! Watch your language!”
“Oh, come on, we all talk like that in space.”
“Well, you’re not in space right now, so I’ll have you watch your tongue.”
He grinned. “Yes, mother.”
She grabbed his hand and led him to the counter. “Have a seat, I’ll make you an Erotin sage root float.”
Dar licked his lips. “Oh, that would be wonderful!” He settled into the hard-backed stool. “We’re on the way to Darminitus to pick up a shipment of kittens.”
“How long will you be here?”
“Just a few hours.”
“Oh, I wish you could stay longer.” She scooped out a couple spoonfuls of sage and mixed it in with the other ingredients. “Did you hear Garnic got a job in long-range communications?”
“Yeah, talked to him on my way in. I’m meeting him at the Aknarra Tavern in a few.”
“The Tavern? Since when do you drink?”
“Umm, since I had Skrinnian fever and Gwog nursed me back to health.”
“Skrinnian fever! You could’ve died!” She paused before sliding the foaming glass over to him. “Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea letting you go into space.”
“I’m fine, really. Yes, it’s dangerous; just the other day my friend Rokit got killed when an asteroid hit the ship…Then I had to do a spacewalk with Jartis to fix the external flux intake so we could have warp engines again.”
Denrika held up her hand. “Okay, enough of the dangers, I don’t wanna hear that my son could be killed at any time…How about you tell me what some of the other planets are like?”
Dar reached up and took her hand, closing his fingers over it. He loved his mother, and perhaps it wasn’t such a great idea to scare her with all his perils in space. “I’ve been to Guonis and taken a tour of where the gold drig strips are made…Skrinnis, were I ended up sick, but it’s really an interesting planet…Jamarais was cool, I saw where they make the rum. Gwog knows everyone it seems, he took me all over.”
“And how much rum did you drink?”
He let his hand slide. “I tasted some. Malikin port is much nicer.” Taking a sip of his drink, he was silent for a moment, collecting his thoughts. “I’ve been to Newrillis and Sirrix; and the Gamma 3 space station.”
“Have you found any females to join with?”
“Mother!”
“You’re Satiren, it’s in your nature to join.”
“Umm, yeah, I have.”
“Oh, I’m so proud of you!” She reached over and grabbed his cheek, giving it a pinch. “And look at you, all decked out in fine Catarin hide clothes—those must’ve cost a fortune!”
“No, they weren’t cheap, and Gwog was nice and bought me the boots.” He thought for a moment and realized he should’ve brought her a present from his travels. “I feel bad, I didn’t bring you anything. I’ve been saving up all my drig to get clothes.”
“It’s okay, just having you here for a little while is a nice surprise.”
They talked for several hours, and Dar told her of life on the freighter and all the friends he’d made. Denrika was pleased that he fit in so well and everything worked out. Still, she missed her youngling; but before her sat an adult, going on with his life and adventures. She wondered when she’d see him again.
“Mother?”
“Yes?”
“Have any males made note of you?”
She sighed. “No, and I’m not exactly seeking them out either.”
“Why not?”
“Because when you get older, you find that you aren’t as attractive as you used to be, and the males don’t take notice anymore.”
Dar played his finger over the rim of the glass. “Too bad Jartis is far older than you. He’s half Satiren, half Priddin. He’s a great engineer.”
“And what makes you think he’d have me?”
“I dunno. And like I said, he’s much older anyways.”
“Dar, don’t worry about me. One of these days someone will come along. If not, I die knowing that I gave you a good life. That makes me happy.”
He reached into his pocket and checked his time piece. “I suppose I should get going so I can see Garnic.”
Denrika went around the counter and put her arms around him. “I hope you come back soon, as much as I say I’m fine, I do miss you.”
He hugged her close, smelling the scent of the Softsuckle flowers she wore in her hair. “I miss you too, mother, and I’ll come visit any chance I get.”
“Bartender, can I get a Malikin port, please?” Dar said as he took a seat at the bar. Garnic hadn’t arrived yet. He’d never been in the Aknarra Tavern; it was dark and dusty with a few patrons sitting at tables nursing drinks. The bars on the space stations were much livelier.
“Are you old enough to drink, youngling?” the bartender asked.
“Yes, sir, I’ll be eighteen in a couple of weeks.”
“All right then, I better not have your mother come in here and cause a scene.”
“My mother knows I’m here. She works at the general store.”
“Denrika?”
“Yes.”
The bartender got closer and noticed Dar’s hair. “Ah, so you’re the half breed.”
“Unfortunately.”
“I heard you got shipped off to space.” He gestured to Dar’s clothes. “I guess that rumor was right.”
“Yes, and I’m doing quite well out there. I’m on the Cunik, the biggest freighter in the galaxy.”
The bartender poured his drink. “Well, at least you escaped this dirty old outpost.”
“It wasn’t that bad, except getting the shit beat out of me all the time.”
“And I think my son was responsible for most of it.”
“Krodus? He’s your son?”
The bartender frowned. “Unfortunately. I tried my best to raise that youngling right, and all he did was become the town bully…I feel bad for everything he did to you—you seem like a nice youngling—err, adult.”
Dar took a sip of port. “So, what happened to Krodus?”
“Mmm, not long after your class graduated, someone from a mining company came through looking for big, dumb recruits to dig Thidium on Ladnis 5…Krodus thought the drig would be good, and he wanted to get out of here.”
“Ladnis 5?”
“Yeah.”
Dar didn’t immediately say anything. “Uh, I hate to tell you this, but Ladnis 5 got overrun by Renthids and is nearly a dead planet…Most of the Crinians were exterminated.”
The bartender shook his head. “I’d heard rumors of that…I don’t know where he’d be now.”
“If there’s still Thidium to mine, they’ll have him digging. If not, who knows.”
“I told the youngling it was a bad idea. He could’ve stayed here and taken over the tavern from me. I’m not getting any younger, you know.”
The door opened and Garnic walked in. “By the light of a full Erotin moon, it’s my best friend Dar!”
Dar stood and greeted his friend with a big hug. “Ah, you look just the same as the day we left school.”
“Was that supposed to be a compliment?” Garnic said as he took a seat at the bar.
Dar sat down and grabbed his glass. “You want something to drink?”
“What are you having?”
“Malikin port.”
Garnic shook his head. “Shit, that’s way too strong for me. I’ll just have a Bodnarian ale.”
The bartender approached. Dar held up his finger. “My friend here will have a Bodnarian ale, please.”
“Coming right up.” He went off to pull a pint.
“You know who that is?” Dar asked.
“No.”
“Krodus’s father.”
“No way! I never knew he owned the tavern.”
“I was chatting with him before you got here. Seems Krodus went off to work in the mines on Ladnis 5.”
Garnic leaned close to Dar. “I heard the Renthids overran the planet to get the Thidium for the Versithians.”
“Yup. So poor Krodus is either dead, or a slave now.”
“Kinda serves him right for being such a bully.”
Dar shook his head. “I may not have liked him, but I wouldn’t wish slavery on anyone…When I was on Sirrix, they had some Priddin slaves being used to support their military. They looked so miserable.”
Garnic’s drink arrived. He held it up for a toast. “To my best friend, Dar, who I’m so glad to see in one piece, and doing well.”
He picked up his half-empty glass. “And to my best friend, Garnic, who I’m happy to see doing well…Have you picked up a female yet?”
“You just had to ask that didn’t you?”
“Just curious.”
Garnic touched his glass to Dar’s. “I’ve been seeing Martia Boknod, but nothing in stone as of yet…Did you ever find someone?’
“No, but I’m not a virgin anymore…Had a few joinings.”
“The blush is great, huh?”
Dar smiled broadly. “Amazing.”
“So, tell me, who was your first? A Satiren?”
“Nope, a beautiful Elemenel named Kikka.”
“Ohhhh, I hear they’re great.” Garnic took a sip. “Was it like they said in love class?”
“Uh, pretty much. Except I was scared out of my mind!” They laughed.
“Where are you off to next?”
Dar finished his drink. “Darminitus, and then on to Thokin.”
“I still wish you could take me with you.”
“Space is really dangerous, Garnic. Be happy and proud with what you have here.”