My first expression of a smuggler-habitat was incredibly mundane and boring. The flexible airlock was a little interesting, obviously designed to allow a variety of different ship-types to dock without problem but other than that, it might have been a random outpost in the Federation. There were a few, obvious cameras in the airlock and after a short walk through the lock, we could enter the habitat’s proper. Again, the only thing that stood out was that nobody had bothered with artificial gravity and that the corridors and doors seemed to be quite a bit larger than I was used to, but otherwise, nothing stood out. It was a bland, off-white corridor cut into the rocks of the moon we were on and sealed with some form of vacuum-concrete. Nothing special.
The corridor curved, making me realise that it was going around the hangar-cave in a U-shape, funnelling everyone who came here into a specific location, most likely their immigration or registration, if they even bothered with something like that.
Turned out, they had, even if their registration was a single human, sitting behind a counter. I wondered if he was here constantly but somehow, I doubted it, there was just no need. Not like anyone came here without warning, just suddenly turning up. Unless whoever ran this place was completely incompetent, they had known we were on our way for two, maybe three days- While Airah simply walked up to the guy, I felt myself hang back, a little uncertain how to act. I could hear Airah speak to the guy, not that I cared too much, while I let my eyes roam over the area, trying to take things in.
The registration was surprisingly simple, Airah used her tablet to transfer some Federation Marks for our landing-fees and to pay for some services and named both of us as crew, with her using the name Airah and giving my name as Twitch, while adding that I was looking to acquire a new identity. At that, I let my eyes flick to the registration-guy, curious about his reaction but there was none, not even a raised eyebrow. It seemed that such a service was simple routine here.
The whole procedure only took a minute or two, mainly because Airah told the guy that she’d been here before and knew the rules. I would have to ask about those later, just in case I needed to know them. Once it was done, we were waved on, through another airlock deeper into the habitat.
Stepping out of that airlock, I had to take a moment to assure me I wasn’t just seeing things. We were standing on a walkway, some fifteen meters above a large, open plaza, looking down on it. The cavern the plaza was built in was, at a conservative guess, some sixty meters in radius, with a slightly domed ceiling and two levels of walkways going around the sides. On the plaza itself were quite a few humans, not enough to make it look crowded but more than I had ever consciously seen in a off-planet environment. Large structures like this one were, quite frankly, a pressure-emergency to happen and just trying to find a leak in such a massive room seemed to be a challenge and a half. Sure, there were ways but it seemed to be useless for every intent but as a gesture.
Tearing my mind from the impressive, if questionable, feat of engineering, I focused on the people and felt myself blink in surprise again. It weren’t just humans down there, even if they were the vast majority. On the second walkway, between the one we were on and the ground-floor, barely in sight, was a pair of massive beings that I could only identify as Lox. I had never seen one before, only heard of them in Airah’s explanations and they didn’t quite do them justice.
They were massive, no other word for it, walking on four pillar-like legs with a pair of trunks hanging on their face, which they used to manipulate things with incredible dexterity, at least according to Airah. Both were covered in a material quite similar to the ship-suits humans were using, only in a dark grey and one of them had a set of massive tusks sticking out.
Pulling my eyes away from the pair, I took in the rest, only to realise that I had missed another group of non-humans but this one, I could recognise from images. They were Tellurians, curiously the species closest to humans in form and temperament, and who humans had fought two costly wars against. Part of me wanted to tense up but when I looked over to Airah, there was only an amused look on her face. Coupled with the fact that she was obviously observing me, I felt myself blush, as I realised I had acted like a stereotypical rube, coming to the city for the first time.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
“It’s quite the sight, isn’t it?” she asked, once I focused on her.
“Yeah…” I replied, not quite sure if she was talking about the architecture or the people. “I hope you know where we need to go.” I admitted, letting her take the lead again.
“I do. First things first, your new identity, just because that might take a little more time.” she said, before taking a glimpse at her tablet, nodding to herself and looking back to me. “Follow me.” she added, before starting towards one of the ramps to the lower level.
Walking next to her, I let my gaze roam around the people, partially out of curiosity, partially out of vigilance. Sure, we weren’t in the Federation any longer, so there shouldn’t be Federation-Security planning to grab us but at the same time, there were a lot of people and, unless I had missed something, each and everyone of them was armed. As we walked, I noticed that there were quite a few doors, leading away from the plaza, all looking like sturdy air-locks. Some of them had signs, advertising what they were, a chandlery, a pizza-parlour and even a beauty-parlor, others just had numbers and again others not even that.
We didn’t have to walk far, just down the sloping ramp and maybe a quarter of the way around the plaza, when Airah stopped in front of one of the unmarked doors. After tapping on her tablet for a moment, the air-lock opened and she confidently stepped into it, with me following behind. If I only had half her confidence.
After waiting for a second for the outer airlock to close, the inner door opened and we were in a strange store. If I hadn’t known better, I would have thought we had just stepped into some sort of time-machine, taking us a millennium and a half or so into the past. The back of the room was dominated by a large bar, made to look like wood, with a few small, round tables standing around the front-part. It was mostly empty, with only a few people sitting at the tables and a man standing behind the bar.
The man behind the bar seemed to be a refuge from the same time the room was from, with a black, wide-brimmed hat and a white shirt with billowing sleeves. The rest of him was hidden behind the bar but I had a feeling that the theme continued downwards.
Airah simply walked up to the bar and hopped onto one of the stools, a feat much easier thanks to the low gravity. Again, I followed behind, not quite sure how to behave but emulating her seemed to be the safest bet, so I took a seat next to her, sneaking furtive glances into her direction, trying to get an idea what would happen next.
“Good afternoon, ladies. What brings two beautiful gems like you into a watering hole like this?” the barkeeper greeted us, with a wide, slightly predatory smile on his face.
“Good afternoon, Cowboy.” she greeted the barkeeper in return who raised an eyebrow, with a light frown, as if trying to figure out who she was.
“Wait a second, I remember you. Airah or something was it? Didn’t I make you a whole lot of new identities just a few years ago?” he asked, his frown now deepening. “Don’t tell me you already burned them all?!” he added, his voice exasperated.
“At least two are burned yes. I’m reasonably sure that the rest is still intact but I’m not here for me. You see, when I got burned, my friend here was caught in the blaize and now needs a new identity. I want it to be quality work, not some shoddy work that gets busted under a cursory glance.” Airah explained, speaking softly so only the barkeeper and I could hear.
“I smell that there’s more to it, but I’m not getting paid to ask questions. You know what I need, right?” he asked, glancing over at me before turning back to Airah.
“Yes, I know and I’ve got a file for you.” she told him, before turning back to me. “Twitch, do you have an idea what sort of name you want? I would advise to keep your name close, maybe Leona for the first name and maybe Torn for your last name? Would that work for you?”
For a moment, I was flabbergasted, not sure how to respond. Intellectually, I had somewhat known that a new identity would mean a new name, even if there undoubtedly were more “Leonora Horn”’s in the Federation, with roughly seventy billion people, that was almost a certainty. However, the idea to let go of my name struck something inside me, a strange, almost inexplicable sense of loss. Despite that feeling, I nodded, not quite trusting my voice just yet.
“Okay, I’ll add the name.” she fiddled with her tablet again, before looking at the barkeeper. “Transferring now, Cowboy. Do you have my account still on record?” she asked and after the barkeeper acknowledged, she told him to bill it to that account.
“Now, we have to run a few errands. We might come back later, but if not, please transfer the necessary documents to the Tyton, docked in bay 17.” Airah told him, before pulling me along, out of the strange store.