Zzzzzrcht…
Zzzzzzzzzrcht….
Zzzzzzrchttttttttimothy
Oh no, not you again! Please, I asked you nicely to leave me be!
Mi-Mi-Mi-Mission-Mi-Mi-Mi In-In-In-In-Incomplete-In-In-In-In
What mission? What are you even talking about?
Zzzzzzzrcht…
Hello, where did you go? …Hello? …Hello!
Zzzzzrcht- Survival- zzzzzrcht
…
“Timothy, wake up it’s morning!”
The boy’s eyes opened to the sight of a surprisingly comfortable cantina booth. He sat up, finding it difficult as his body rebled against him, it wanted desperately to go back to sleep but thankfully his mind was the thing that was in charge. Stretching out his arms he let out a big yawn, his hand grazed passed his blond hair- he had a rather bad case of bedhead.
“Are you okay?” Alex was sitting in the booth across from him, using his shirt to clean off his glasses. “You were kind of twitching and moaning there for a second.”
Timothy wasn’t sure whether he should tell him about what he had been hearing, the last time he had done that he had gotten strange looks. “Well, um…” He mumbled. “I’ve been… hearing this voice inside my head.”
Alex stopped cleaning his glasses, he wasn’t expecting that. “Oh.” He said, trying not to sound surprised but failing.
“I know that must sound strange.” As the words left his lips, Timothy instantly regretted them. He recalled the times when he had said similar silly things, like the time he told the kids back at the orphanage about his imaginary friend called ‘Simon.’ They laughed and called him stupid, and for the next few months, they took to the habit of pointing at corners or other random spots, telling them that they had seen Simon too. At least it made them laugh, Timothy thought. “I’m sure it’s just my mind playing tricks on me, the stress and all.”
“Yeah, maybe.” He didn’t sound too sure. “But are you sure you’re, okay? What did the voice sound like? Maybe it’s an alien is playing a psychic prank or something?”
Timothy waved him off, “I’m sure it’s nothing.” He looked away, hoping the conversation would end. But to his surprise, he felt a hand reach across the table and grab him by the shoulder in a warm grasp.
“Hey, you know if something’s up you can tell us, right?” Alex said, looking at his friend with concern. “I promise that anything you tell us won’t sound half as crazy as what’s going on now!”
The boy laughed, a genuine laugh that echoed throughout his body. “Thank you very much, Alex, that’s very kind.”
The conversation halted as Pollum Mock clanged through the door. When he had left the place locked up nice and tight, leaving the group behind to fend for themselves. Now that the night cycle was over it was time to open again, and the bartender made no waste of time going about his business. First on the docket, check to see if anything was stolen. “Ya’ll didn’t steal anything, did ya?” He called.
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
Sophia and Alex looked over from their respective sleeping booths and shook their heads. “Nope.” Sophia replied, what’s here to steal, alien booze?
Pollum went to the back of the shop and got a Broom- that’s broom with a capital B because it was a living creature and coincidentally also happens to be what it was named. Neil practically felt his skin crawl off him as a slimy, snail-like thing came zipping by his seat, quickly eating up dust or trash that had made its way to the floor. The boy wanted to ask questions, but he felt that at a certain point he would just have to accept that stuff like that just existed and so bit his tung.
“Oh, we’re looking at a great day today!” Pollum said, kicking the snail thing off his shoe as it tried to eat his boot.
“Why’s that?” Alex asked.
“Heh, you lot haven’t looked outside recently have ya?” The alien laughed. “The nebula is looking mighty metallic if you ask me.”
The group exchanged looks before slowly making their way out the door. The moment they were out they noticed a change. Normally the Ring was dark and dim, like the inside of an industrialized cave, but now somehow it seemed brighter. All at the same time, the group raised their heads to the stars, only to find that now they couldn’t see them. Above them hug a million starships, layers after layers of small vessels lining up to the ring in a not-so-organized manner. The sheer number of lights from the crafts as well as blazing rocket fuel was enough to make the street seem visible, the group was awestruck.
“Guys…” Neil choked out, his eyes not leaving the sky. “We aren’t supposed to be here, this place… we’re like a fish out of water.”
“A fish out of water and tossed into space, more like.” Alex replied.
The ships were moving in hypnotic patterns, weaving in and out of each other like knitting. Pollum was right, the beautiful nebula that was once visible was now a distant memory. It was slightly terrifying, it felt like watching a truck speed towards you from very far away,
“We can’t go anywhere.” Sophia stated abruptly.
“What do you mean?” Asked Timothy.
“Look, if we go out anywhere on the street we are going to run into trouble. I don’t know about you but that’s the last thing we want, we barely survived this place when there was practically no one here, we don’t stand a chance with… with this!” She gestured towards the sky like someone scolding their pet.
Neil nodded. “You’re right, we’d be zapped in a millisecond! I doubt that all these aliens are going to know about the rules, or even care!”
“Well, what do we do then?” Asked Timothy, still looking at the ships with wide eyes and a slight grin.
“We stay in the cantina and wait for Jenny or someone else to bribe to take us back to our ship.” Sophia put blankly. “Unless anyone else has a better plan?”
The girl turned to Alex, but he looked away quickly. “I uh… no I don’t.”
With the matter being settled they turned and quickly reentered the cantina, well most of them did, they had to go back to get Timothy who was too busy staring at the sky to notice. Inside, Pollum rolled his eyes when he saw them come back. “Damn, you scrapers really like this place, huh? I have a half a mind to put kick you out!”
“Oh, we’re terribly sorry!” Timothy chimed. “We can pay for a drink, if that means we can stay!”
The alien raised several of his hands to raise several fingers but stopped when he realized he didn’t really care that much. “Fine, keep buying drinks and you can stay, what’s it to me anyways?”
Suddenly the screens on the ceiling flashed on, and loud static blasted through the air before the picture became clear. Like before the robot appeared on screen, Timothy got excited, “guys look, that’s ARI-46-Z, I’ve met him!” He pointed at the screen like a kid at a zoo.
“Hello Fortune-Seekers, we hope you are able to tune into this very important announcement! We at the Extemorst Casino would like to welcome all new visitors and guests to our premises! We would like to remind our guests that murder, thievery, embezzlement, blackmail and armed robbery will not qualify you for a free ticket! In other news, due to an error in this year’s 40 million credit grand prize, the lottery will be shut down effective immediately! Now, I know what you may be thinking! “What the hell, I paid good money for my ticket and now I’m being jibbed!” Fret and threat not Fortune-Seeker, because all those who have already purchased an eligible ticket are still in the running for the prize! And now for the big announcement! Now As you know, the lucky winner is announced in seven-days’ time, but surprise! This year’s prize winner will be announced very shorty, in fact, the winner of the annual Extemorst Lottery will be declared tonight! Stay tuned Fortune-Seekers, because this is a prize to die for!”