While there was no exact way of knowing what traditional time it was on the Ring, you could guess that it was now late evening by the faces people made when entering the Candid Cantina. Their eyes were low and droopy, their stances slightly slumped as they walked through the door in search of some special refreshment. People behaved the same way back on earth, Neil recalled. After a long day of work, the bar was a typical place to go to unwind from your life, or perhaps to simply forget about it. Of course, some of the patrons didn’t have faces to analyze or even stances- but it would appear that every species has at least some taste for alcohol.
As the guests slowly piled into the cantina, the group buckled down into a corner booth. Sophia was reminded of the time that she and her brother hid in a closet during a really bad storm, waiting for it to blow over. She looked over at her friends who were sitting and waiting anxiously for any sign of Jenny or some other suitably friendly alien to take them away from this nightmare. The girl realized then that this wasn’t like the storm, they couldn’t just wait it out, she would have to make the clouds go away herself.
Alex watched as some familiar faces walked through the door, he hoped no one would catch him staring. There was the blue woman from earlier, by the name of Sally the boy recalled. She clearly wasn’t having a good time as she plopped down in a lonely seat near the back of the bar and buried her head in her hands. Judging by the absence of a drink it would seem her financial luck hadn’t improved. The next person who entered caused a bit of a stir, and by stir, I mean everyone fell silent. Mr. Ham ducked his massive pig-like head as he passed through the doorway, everyone eyed him like he was a bull in a china shop. But he didn’t seem to care as he made his way over to a barstool and took his place, Pollum Mock was quick to serve him his preferred drink. Vander Extemorst came next, his usual grey, wet tentacle face now bright red and shining as he loudly yelled at someone over his earpiece. He raised his hands and snapped his fingers at the bartender before taking the largest seat in the place just for himself. Alex could have sworn he saw Pollum spit in the cup before pouring the liquid, though even if he was sure he wouldn’t have warned him.
“Does anyone see WaldAcker?” Asked Timothy, his head on swivel as he surveyed the crowd.
“No, but don’t worry about him now!” Sophia replied. “We’re looking for Jenny, remember?” The boy nodded his head, but deep down he couldn’t shake the thought.
As luck would have it, the pirate captain Jenny McClain walked into the bar followed by her three little green crewmembers. The group exchanged looks; this was their time. Together they stood and started to make their way over to where the crew had taken a seat in a booth close to the bar. “Guys, watch out!” Neil called, grabbing the two friends next to him, and pulling them back.
Unfortunately, Neil didn’t have a third arm to grab Sophia with and the girl found herself abruptly in the direct path of the bar's two new occupants, Corpus Rex and John-John. She held her breath and kept walking, acting like everything was fine, but unfortunately, the pair of thugs weren’t blind. “You!” Shouted John-John, practically jumping in his boots as he pointed a short stubby finger. “Oh! We’ve got you now you little…”
Suddenly Corpus threw a gloved hand over John-John’s mouth. The jittery man protested until he followed the gaze of his pal to where Mr. Ham sat at the bar, dwarfing everyone who sat next to him in size. A mutual understanding formed between the two, giving Sophia a deadly stare as they buzzed off to the back of the cantina. Sophia let out her breath, thanking her lucky stars that she was in a public space.
The rest of the group was a little surprised to see Sophia hold out her hand and motion for them to stop as they approached her. Alex mouthed the word ‘why?’ The girl didn’t respond, instead, she pointed back to their booth behind them and walked away. “What is she doing?” Neil muttered, doing as he was told and sliding back into his chair.
Alex looked down at his feet and let out a deep sigh. “She thinks we’ll mess it up.”
“Or perhaps she wants to do it by herself?” Timothy posited.
Sophia set her sights on the pirate captain, building up the nerve to go and speak with her. Usually, Sophia would have no problem dealing with someone, her middle-school bullies can attest to that with their collection of black eyes and bruised lips. But this was different, she needed something from someone, which was a thing the girl hated to admit. It’s easy to tell someone to buzz off, but it’s much harder to ask someone to stay and help.
Before she got to the booth however things got a little dark, literally. The lights above the cantina started to flicker and then in a second, they shut off completely. Sophia felt her heart start to race, being in the dark surrounded by God knows what is enough to elicit that response from anyone. The racing got worse when something collided with her hard, knocking her to the ground. “Hey!”
With a flash, the lights turned back on, and Sophia was surprised to see a metal machine standing over top of her. She recognized him as the robot from the announcements, ARI-46-Z, or whatever Timothy had called him. “Apologies, Fortune-Seeker!” It said, extending a coil hand to assist her up.
Not wanting to make conversation, Sophia accepted the offer and got back on her feet. “No worries.” She muttered, walking away.
From over at the booth, Alex watched as his friend and the robot moved their separate ways. Afterwards, the machine rolled its way over to the giant booth where Extemorst sat. To say that the businessman stared daggers into its bronze exterior would be an understatement, it would be more fitting to say that he stared an entire army’s worth of battleaxes at the tin can. “What the hell have you done, you worthless, miserable, piece of garbage!” Shouted Extemorst, his voice so full of rage that seemed to make his oily skin go dry. “Are you trying to ruin me?”
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The girl in green couldn’t help but pay attention to the conversation. “Of course not, sir! I was made to serve your every need!”
“My every need, huh? Then tell me, you bucket of bolts, why you’ve conspired to ruin my entire livelihood?”
“I’m sorry sir, but I do not understand.”
With a sudden quick movement, Vander extended one of his arms and decked the robot across the head. Some sparks flew as the machine struggled to rebalance itself. “You absolute waste of credits, YOU SET THE WRONG AMOUNT!” The words seemed to echo through the bar like a tidal wave. “You’re going to ruin me!”
“I’m sorry sir, but this information is incorrect!” ARI protested. “You personally handled the task of setting the reward for this year’s annual Extemorst Lottery, I was not tasked to this assignment.”
“What are you trying to say? Are you saying that I, Vander Extemorst, intentionally decided to pay out 40- goddamn- million credits to some gutter trash in the middle of nowhere?” His tentacle head twirled around like it was caught in a tornado. “It was supposed to be 40 thousand you waste!”
“Again, master, the incorrect sum was not inputted by me, I…”
Over in his booth, Timothy gasped loudly as he saw Vander’s arm grow larger and begin to whale on the robot. The sound of metal sang out through the bar as the businessman repeated and relentlessly brought his fist down on top of the defenseless thing. It went on for quite some time, Sophia had a closer view of the carnage and despite it being only metal being killed she still felt a little sick to her stomach while watching it. After a good long while the beating stopped, Vander breathlessly flung himself down into his chair and took a massive sip of his drink. “Pathetic.” He muttered as the shattered robot began rebuilding itself.
Slowly and gradually, the machine pieced itself back together. It was like watching a puzzle complete itself, only way sadder and with a hint of dread. As the final pieces clicked together Sophia saw that its nameplate had changed to ARI-47-Z. “Apologizes, master.” It spoke, slowly. “How can I assist you with correcting this issue?”
“You can’t.” Vander spat. “Did you at least prerecord the announcement?”
“Yes sir, it should be on shortly.”
Sophia forced herself to look away, she had more important things to focus on now. Jenny McClain had moved now, leaving her cronies behind as she took a bar seat. Getting her nerves together, the girl in green took the one next to her.
“You again.” Said Jenny, noticing the girl from the corner of her eyes. “Thought I’d gotten rid of you.”
“Yeah, well, I’m kinda hard to get rid of.” Sophia replied.
“I take it that you ain’t here for small talk?” The pirate took a giant swing of her drink and swirled it in her mouth for a bit before swallowing. “So, what is it, little dog? Come to beg me for a cab over to that mysterious ship of yours?”
“No, I ain’t begging.” Sophia held up the credit chip like a prized trophy. “I’m here to make you an offer.”
Jenny took a minute to observe the chip, and then another to observe the girl. The side of her lip raised into a half-grin as she let out a little chuckle. “Okay, little dog, now you’re speaking my language.”
“I want you to take me and my friends back to our ship, simple as that. You took us away from it pretty easily, I don’t think that it’ll be that hard to do the opposite.”
“’Suppose not, how much we talkin?’”
Sophia thought for a moment, “500 credits.”
It wasn’t a bad offer, the captain knew, but she wasn’t called a pirate for nothing. “Ain’t gonna do it.”
“Why not?”
“Ain’t worth the fuel it’d take.”
“Oh, really?” Sophia rolled her eyes. “What would you prefer?”
“I’d have to think about it.” Jenny took another sip from her cup; it was as if she was only half-interested in the conversation.
Sophia couldn’t help but purse her lips and grit her teeth, what was the point in all this back and forth? “Look, do you want to make an offer or not? Easy job, easy money. I know you could use it after that business jerk screwed you over!”
This sentence fully brought in Jenny’s attention. Her head turned and stared the girl down like a hawk watching a rat, “how did you know about that?” She demanded.
Shit. “I’ve got good hearing.” Sophia was keeping a good handle on her nerves, but her hands were shaking on her lap.
The pirate reached out a hand and grabbed the girl by the shirt, pulling her closer. “Nobody spies on me, little dog! Ya got that?”
“Yeah, I know…”
“No, it doesn’t seem like you do!” Jenny banged her fist on the counter, making several drinks jump and spill a little all over the bar. “What do ya think your doin’ by sticking your nose into other people’s business?”
“Look, we didn’t mean to piss you off, we just overheard, alright?” Sophia protested. “It’s not like we can do anything here anyway!”
The pirate captain shook her head and huffed. “Idiot.” Suddenly her frown turned into a pained smile as she let out another chuckle. “Oh, you scrapers, you don’t know how lucky you are!”
“What do you mean?”
“’Cuz if you’d done that to anybody else, you’d be a pile of skin and bones by now! But nope, you do it to me, and it just so happens I ain’t in the mood to kill you.”
Sophia opened her mouth to respond but was cut off when the ceiling screens lit on with a spark. The prerecorded face of ARI-46-Z glared onto the screen, the cantina went silent, it was time.
“Hello, Fortune-Seekers! Do you know what time it is? That’s right! It’s the time to announce this year’s annual Extemorst Lottery winner! The prize has never been higher, with 40 million credits on the line! Now, in just a minute, one eligible lottery ticket will be selected and the owner of said ticket will be declared as the winner! Now I know what you may be asking, “wait, how do I know if I’ve won?” Well, it’s so simple even an Ogredron can understand! All loosing tickets will omit a red light, while the one lucky ticket will omit a green one! You’ve got that, Ogredrons? Great! Now let’s begin the countdown… 10…9…8…”
The entire bar held its breath as everyone who had managed to get a ticket held the small yellow chip like it was made of pure diamond.
“7…6…5…”
Timothy was distracted from the announcement as his eyes caught WaldAcker traipsing through the door.
“4…3…2…”
“Corpus…” said John-John, patting his friend on the shoulder. “What’s that in your pocket?”
“1!”
Corpus Rex looked down at his pocket to see a bright glow lighting up his pants. Reaching a hand inside he pulled out an item he had forgotten about, a stolen lottery ticket. A green stolen lottery ticket.