Match, Inconclusive…

A moment that felt like an eternity, and then, the man’s eyes continued towards Jenna, and he tipped her hat towards her in a placating manner. There was nothing more there. No recognition as he saw me, only a hat that could’ve been worn by a million different people. He couldn’t have been back there. It was impossible…

Still, that feeling of unease was still there as Mikayes looked over as well, only for his angered, “And what in my mother’s freckled arse is that?” to ring in my ears. The foxlike man had just seen the massive desert I was carrying. “Which part of not ordering something ridiculous did you misunderstand?”

“The part where you’d miss out on another insightful investment for the future,” Jenna stiffly said, stepping forward to sweep the sundae from my hands, firmly place it on the table, and nudge me towards an empty seat. “I hope you all have gotten the rot out of your brains by now, because this is Yamien, our last and latest addition for this venture. Yamien, these are the Slobber Knuckles. Feel free to ignore them if they say something dumb, which they are bound to do.”

She sent Mikayes a glare, causing our foxlike employer to bounce to his feet as she herself took the seat beside me — the one nearest the booth’s exit and as far away from the hat wearing man as possible.

“Right, introductions.” Mikayes coughed. “Kid, this is Kassem—”

“Pleasure to meetcha,” that same hat wearing man said, tipping it towards me with a toothy grin. He looked to be in his mid-forties, with bushy sideburns that connected across his lip with dark stubble.

Despite being a sinewy and weathered man, however, and despite Jenna’s deliberate distance from him, his friendly eyes glimmered with life from underneath his hat. In short, his demeanor was a far cry from the bitter ideologists that’d set the galaxy aflame in my past life.

“—Edris—” Mikayes continued.

“Another child, is it?” a pale woman with an ashy bob-cut sighed. Her one eye was covered by her hair, and the other lacked any eyelid. She simply didn’t blink, and her lips were the same sickly blue as the claw-like nails that marked the end of her spindly fingers.

“—and…was it Cassandra or Tammy today?”

“Your mother’s butt is freckled, Micky?” A girl who barely seemed to have reached her twenties giggled. “I always took her for a refined lady without a single speck on her body.”

She’d been Tammy that day, but over the coming weeks, I would come to know her as Colors — from the bright pastels she’d been wearing that day.

The girl changed names as often as she changed hairstyles, and everyone called her something different. She didn’t seem to mind the nickname I’d settled for. Whenever I called her by it, she’d just giggle and ask what shade she was on that particular day.

“—and finally, Georgie,” Mikayes finished, gesturing towards the furred man that was tucked into the inside corner of the booth. He hadn’t looked over since our arrival, his hands and face had just remained pressed up against the window, perfectly motionless as he watched the street below.

Only as Jenna had put down the over-sized sundae on the table did he show a first sign of interest. Large, yellow eyes flickered towards it, and now, upon hearing his name, he shuffled over, knees pulled up against his chest as he eagerly leaned across the table.

Before he could reach the dessert, however, his hand had been slapped away by Kassem’s hat. “Hey, you big oaf, what have I said about stealing other’s food? This is the kid’s! Ask him first if you want some.”

Georgie’s distant, yellow eyes turned my way — hand still stretched towards that sundae I’d never wanted. For a while, he just stared at me without a word, clearly waiting for my approval.

“By all means, go…” ahead, I’d meant to say.

Georgie scooped up a fistful of ice cream, chocolates, and pieces of fruit before I could finish my sentence, now retreating back in his seat to lick the mixture from fingers.

“Spoon!” Edris cried out as some of it inevitably spilled on her. “Use a fucking spoon if we’re going to share, you slob!”

“As I told you,” Kassem lectured, sounding as tired as he did scolding, “This is the kid’s sundae, he carried it here himself. If you want some, ask him first.”

“Ah, please, feel free,” I said before the annoyed Edris’ gaze could turn my way as well. “I’d never be able to finish this all by…”

Once more, I was never allowed to finish my sentence before Colors scooted forward with a cheerful ‘Yay!’ swiftly scooping some sugar-dusted noodles into her still half-full glass of fizzy drink.

“…myself.”

“Much obliged, kid.” Kassem sighed, giving me an apologetic smile. “Even if they don’t show it, they are grateful for your generosity. Isn’t that right, y’all?”

The only agreement he got was a few muffled, gurgling sounds from Colors. She hadn’t spared a second before gulping down the witch-brew she’d just made, now swallowing it in all too large mouthfuls.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Edris was eating from the sundae as well, and she seemed too focused on her spoon to answer. Perhaps she’d simply felt the glare Jenna had given them all, now settling in on Mikayes.

“Erm, actually,” Mikayes coughed, halfway back down into his seat, “t-that desert is Yamien’s, and you really shouldn’t…”

The only one to hear his weak objection was Kassem, but the man just laughed as he patted our young employer on the back. “Come on now, Micky, the kid said he was fine sharing. Don’t worry about it.”

Able to feel Jenna stew there besides me, I figured I might as well help Mikayes out – he’d helped me cover my lip, after all. “Is this all of us?” I asked.

Although seven was more than three, it remained a rather optimistic number for exploring an entire planet.

“A doozy, isn’t it?” Kassem smiled, though the subject seemed all but amusing to Mikayes himself. “Micky wasn’t all that pleased about it either when he realized, but his extended vacation inevitably made most folks move on for greener pastures.”

“How come you stayed?” I asked, my UI still busy subtly scanning the man. Everything from his cadence to his manners were being stored and compared, but the more I saw of him, the less he seemed like that shadowy figure back at the pit.

He was far too light hearted, and not nearly as in control as that figure had seemed. “Because it’s hard to find someone who’s as willing as Micky here to fund our retirement and dental plans.” Kassem chuckled. “Isn’t that right, Georgie?”

The furred man briefly turned our way between ice cream licks, giving us a toothy smile that showed decayed molars and rotting gums.

Kassem laughed out loud.

“And following along with Micky seems more worthwhile anyway,” Colors chimed in, now slurping on a second serving of her strange concoctions.

She’d used her glass of peat ale as base this time, and her cheeks were already starting to take on a pinkish tint from the alcohol.

Maybe that was why she never noticed the sharp look Kassem had just sent her. I only did because my UI had picked up how stiff he suddenly became.

“What do you mean?” Mikayes asked.

“Apparently, someone reaaally important up in orbit is hoping to find ‘alien artifacts’ from this Expansion,” Colors cheerfully continued, causing both me and Kassem to freeze in our seats. “There were rumors going around during the ceremonies, you see, about how anyone who found one would be paid handsomely.”

Edris, who’d been busy sending Georgie disgusted glares as the man kept shoving pieces of chocolate strait down his throat — no chewing, no tasting, just straight down — snapped around as well now.

Before she could send a swift kick Colors way under the table, however, the girl had already continued, “Do you still have that scrappy claw thing with y—ouchie! What did you do that…for…”

Having perhaps picked up on the tension resting over the table now, Colors shrank back in her seat. I wasn’t sure if it was the general quiet, or whatever look Kassem had just sent her from underneath his hat.

Georgie had gone quiet mid choke, and Edris just stared at Mikayes with her unblinking eyes. Our young employer had gone completely stiff, and I had, too, and my fingers slowly crept for my gun as the gears within Jenna’s graft began spinning.

The two of them had seemingly picked up on the tension as well, but before things could escalate, Mikayes had just let out a loud curse. “Shit mongers and spit taxes! I sold the damned thing to a moon scrapper a few months back…” The groan he let out as he buried his head in his hands carried such conviction that I almost started to believe him. “I’m never getting it back now, am I? And you said it was worth a fortune…?”

To another array of quiet curses, Kassem just took of his hat with a chuckle, pulling back his greasy hair. “Just our typical luck, isn’t it?” he said, causing the rest of the Slobber Knuckles to draw a sigh of relief as he seamlessly continued, “Anyway, Micky, your fiancé is here.”

Where Mikayes acting had been near flawless seconds earlier, now, he genuinely turned pale as a sheet. “Vanessa is here?” he coughed, having just choked on the exaggerated sip of ale he’d taken to drown his regrets. “D-did she approach you?”

“I don’t think she ever cared to learn which crew was working for you.” Kassem shrugged. “We just saw her during the ceremonies, up there with the rest of them. The Jark twins were there as well, and I heard they struck gold with a stake on some moon beyond that gate that is 80% ore.” Jark as in the Jark Corporation…? “Shit for colonizing, but damn if they won’t mine it until there’s only dust left. Apparently, they’ve already started hiring official crews.”

“Not the fucking Jarks,” Mikayes whined. “They’re obnoxious as it is. They’ll never let me hear the end of it, especially after what I got. If only the natives had been hostile, things would’ve been—”

“Mikayes!” Jenna sharply cut in, the gears of her grafts having never fully stopped spinning. “Don’t joke about that.”

“He’s not wrong, though.” Kassem shrugged, scratching himself behind the ear with little care for Jenna’s glare. “Would’ve certainly eased up whatever regulations they’re bound to put on us now, especially if we get a stingy overseer…”

“Did I make a mistake in reporting the fact that the planet was inhabited…?” Mikayes asked, regretfully.

Although the question had been meant for Kassem, it was Jenna’s firm, “No!” that answered him. “If you’d hadn’t, I would’ve. We did the right thing.”

With the other three of the Slobber crew maintaining their focus on the Sundae, and neither me nor Mikayes being foolish enough to argue with Jenna, it wasn’t until Kassem let out a quiet chuckle that the awkward silence ended.

“And that’s why we’re lucky to have you, Jenna,” he said. “You keep the rest of us scallywags in check.”

“Not like we would’ve hurt anyone…” Colors quietly said, most of her earlier enthusiasm gone. If she’d been any shade right now, it would’ve been gray. “We’d just be skirting around the edges a bit. No harm in that?”

“Skirt a bit too much around the edges, and you’ll end up with genocide,” Jenna scoffed.

“More like: ‘and the authorities won’t get to do it for us,’” Edris chimed in, yet before Jenna could object, Kassem had loudly clapped his hands together with a smile.

“No need to feel regret about doing the right thing, is there?” he said. “Might not always be the easiest thing to do, but it sure makes us look cooler.”

As no one chimed in to agree with him, not even Jenna, he continued with an awkward cough, “Anyway, Micky, shouldn’t we start moving about now? Better early than late when it comes to these kinds of things, and we’re already late as it is.

“Securing supplies in time will be a nightmare, not to mention finding a survey crew that still hasn’t been hired by someone else. As I told you, it really would’ve been easier if you left your card with us…”

Mikayes flinched a bit at the suggestion, but his reaction didn’t seem half as animated as I would’ve expected.

Even his answer was a bit muted, “Ah, yes…I guess we better get the ship in order…”

Kassem, seeming to have gotten a better read on Mikayes’ emotions, just slapped him on the back with a loud laugh. “She won’t be laying in ambush for you there. Even a Sin’vitri doesn’t have that much free time.”