The New Hope
Vance was tired, he had been on the run all day long. What had looked to be another boring routine survey mission into a simple uncharted binary star system had turned out to be quite a bit more.
Stopping for a quick breather, Vance pulled out his hydroflask and took a long pull of the lukewarm water. It might have been a bit stale, but to him it tasted sweet as cherry soda. The hydroflask sealed with a pop as he replaced it on his belt. It would slowly draw moisture from the air and condense it inside, refilling over time.
Good thing too, this planet seemed to be a never ending desert. Everywhere he turned to look the relentless twin suns beat down on his thick grey fur, causing him to pant heavily as he tried to cool himself down futilely.
Vance was Yeown, a member race of the Sapient Congressional Union. He stood just under two meters tall though his shoulders were hunched and his long arms were held at a low ready by his sides. His slightly werewolf-like features were currently scrunched into a scowl as he surveyed the surrounding landscape, trying to determine what his next move should be.
That's when he saw it, on the horizon, smoke. Smoke meant fire, and as so often was the case, fire often meant people and civilization.
A destination in sight and a goal in mind, he was now feeling much better about his situation. Vance took a few minutes of walking along the endless dunes to once more marvel on his situation. The fact that he was able to breath without his constricting environmental suit was a miracle. Naturally habitable planets were rare, not so rare as to be nonexistent, but rare enough that his chance stumbling blindly across one was likely a once in a lifetime experience. Well, once in a lifetime if he didn't find shelter was a near guarantee.
His people had evolved on a cooler, more temperate world. The Yeown homeworld of Bright Moon was a temperate world with large polar regions and thick evergreen forests that covered much of the planet’s surface. This relentless heat was slowly but surely killing him. If he didn't find a place to cool off in the next few hours he was likely to suffer heat exhaustion and die.
Vance shivered at the thought. His mummified remains would be lost to the endless sands of this cruel desert. He looked forwards again, the smoke did in fact seem closer now that he really scrutinised it. He grinned, pointed carnivore teeth bared in a terrible grimace. Any non-herbivore species able to see him at that moment would likely have had a fit, his bestial features less sapient in appearance than most other known races.
While this did not frequently bother him, it had on occasion caused some small disturbance to other member races. In particular dimwitted humans.
He snarled quietly, the SCU had only made contact with his people forty years in the past. Plenty of time for the other member races of the Union to become acquainted, but they hadn't. It seemed that many of them harbored an instinctive mistrust towards the Yeown. Whether it was born of ancestral fear or prejudice meant little to Vance, it was wrong. There were even whisperings of succession in some of the more extreme circles.
It would never happen though. The Union was truly vast, thousands of inhabited worlds spanning thousands of light years and with a population numbering in the hundreds of quadrillions of sapient beings. There was no realistic way that their tiny population of a few billion could hope to stand up to the might of quadrillions.
He put thoughts of rebellion out of his head, the Union wasn't some tyrannical galactic empire after all, they did seem to have the best interests of their citizens in mind. ‘Most of the time.’ He thought silently, bitterness reentering his thoughts in spite of himself.
The smoke drew steadily closer, thoughts of what kind of strange people might inhabit such a desolate world caused his mind to enter a tizzy. From what he knew of desert creatures they tended towards the more insectoid or reptilian. Mammals were a rare sight on such worlds, would they accept him as a sapient being? What if they tried to kill him?
Dark thoughts of murder and cannibalism entered his mind unbidden. Such creatures existed across the Union, Flesh tearers and the other psychotic bloodthirsty pirates that frequented the less populated regions of the galaxy. Was it possible that the indigenous people of this world would be the same?
His ship had not detected radio signals before he had mysteriously lost power. Only by switching to his secondary generator had he been able to prevent himself from becoming a glassed crater in the planet’s surface, barely. His ship had suffered catastrophic damage in the landing and he had decided to try and scout out the area.
Thats where he had made his first mistake, he had oriented himself towards the morning sun and started off, but soon after the first had risen then another sun had made its presence known in the ever brightening sky. His compass had been useless and his trail had been obscured by fresh blown sand. Soon he had found himself hopelessly lost.
With no landmarks to follow and two suns causing him to confuse the direction he had come from, he had started to lose all hope of making it off the planet alive. But then he had seen the smoke, like a beacon it inspired hope in his chest.
He took another large panting breath before taking a moment to rest in a shallow hollow. He cocked his head as he spotted the first life he had yet seen on the planet, a small scraggly bush, barely alive by the looks of it. Its wood was covered in gnarls and grey twigs, knobby and blistered by uncountable days of exposure to the harsh elements.
Still, where there was life there was water, that was a good sign as he was drinking from his hydroflask faster than it seemed to be able to replenish
He took another deep shuddering breath, his break had done nothing but drawn attention to his aching muscles and sore joints. Walking for hours through the soft sand had turned his legs to jelly and his feet to raw meat. His large clawed paw-like feet generally had no problems with the terrain, but the hot sand had slowly begun to scour the softer flesh between his toes. While he wasn't bleeding yet, the flesh was raw and tender, he knew that he would have to clean them soon so as to prevent potential infections.
Vance had received a universal inoculation when he had turned the age of twelve, but while it was essentially an immune booster it was not a cureall. One could still get sick, the inoculation simply boosted the natural strength of his immune system. The result was near human levels of disease resistance but at the cost of becoming quite tired while fighting off an infection.
As Vance crested the next rise he froze, the cause of the smoke was now directly in front of him. The low rolling sand dunes gave way to an expanse of flattened earth, less sandy, more dusty.
In the middle of this flattened land was a large sunken pit of some sort and a low hut-like structure. The hut was the cause of the smoke, the structure charred and covered in strange marks.
Vance hunkered down, all thoughts of his sore muscles and raw feet forgotten as he observed the scene. It looked like the aftermath of a war zone, a high tech warzone at that. The strange marks resolving themselves into some sort of burns like those made by energy weapons.
He swore loudly, then immediately snapped his mouth closed. Whatever or whoever had caused the damage might still be nearby, and from the looks of the place they would likely not have his best interests in mind either.
He waited a full ten minutes but no enemies appeared, he looked around and then swore quitely “Frine’s furred ass…” He needed a place to shelter and he couldn't wait any longer. Dangerous or not, the chance of death was better than certain death, and so he found himself moving towards the low round building. His body held low as he used his arms and legs to creep forwards.
He reached the side of the building and stopped, a new smell reached his strong senses. After nothing but the hot slightly metallic smell of the dunes and his gear, it was a bit of a surprise to smell something different. He smelled burnt flesh, the smell making his mouth water slightly. He had not had fresh meat for months, subsisting off the dried and freeze dried rations he was provided with by the company.
His stomach growled involuntarily and he swiped his tongue over his lips. He had a bad feeling that what he was about to find might not be a delicious home cooked meal though.
Sure enough as soon as he crept around to the front of the building he recoiled. In front of the door were the charred remains of two creatures, strangely familiar but unrecognizable due to the damage.
He looked closer despite his disgust, the creatures looked far too familiar, two legs and arms. A body shape similar to that of a human, but that was not too surprising he surmised. More than one of the Union member races seemed to take after that appearance, humanoid as the humans called it. And of course they would, they named everything after themselves the selfish hairless packbreakers.
Vance snorted, trying to get the smell out of his nostrils as he slunk by into the building itself. The building was larger than he had at first supposed. The doorway turned out to be a set of stairs that led underground in the direction of the large pit he had observed earlier. ‘They must be a burrowing race.’ He thought idly as he descended into the structure.
Indeed as he reached the bottom of the stairs it opened up into a small house built almost entirely underground. Though one of the rooms seemed lit, it must connect to the large open pit. The room was scorched, the look of a fire that must have raged out of control.
Even with the oppressive smell of charr and soot it was cooler than the surface. He located what looked like the remains of a stool and wiped it off before sitting. He gave a long sigh before taking another long swig from his hydroflask. It felt good to be sitting, his aching muscles and feet groaned in protest as he tried to regain his strength.
After a few minutes his breathing had slowed and he was feeling much more comfortable. He flexed his feet, he needed to find something to wash them with, he looked around. He couldn't see any obvious means of water storage. The planet was hot, hot and dry. But surely the local life drank water, or at least knew of its existence.
He stood, wincing slightly as his sore feet protested, the sand between his toes a constant sting. He limped over to the far wall and moved a few charred items off a nearby shelf. Nothing of use it seemed, then he stopped. He looked at the end of the counter before moving quickly towards a large box at the end of the counter, it looked like.
“Yes!” He said triumphantly. It had been some sort of refrigerator.
It seemed that whatever damage had been done to its exterior was entirely superficial as the inside lit up dimly with a soft bluish glow as he opened it. He grabbed for the large container of clear liquid on the uppermost shelf.
He was about to take a deep drink when his common sense stopped him. He had no idea what the liquid was, it could have been almost anything, so he pulled out a small analysis tool from his belt. Generally the small device was used to assay rocks and other samples brought onboard by his probes, but it should do just as well identifying the basic elements of the liquid.
Placing a small drop from the jug inside, he turned the device on and waited as it whirred softly. After about a minute it made a series of low beeps. Checking the display he smiled, hydrogen and oxygen bonded into di-hydrogen monoxide molecules, more commonly known as water.
He took a tentative taste, the cool clean water taking away the dull scratchiness in his mouth. He took another swallow, this one deeper and more satisfying. Sighing contentedly he looked into the small cooling unit again, there were some other items of interest, not the least of which was a small, wrapped package of what appeared to be some meat-like substance.
While he wasn't hungry per-se, his instinctual craving for thick juicy chunks of meat was trying to get the better of him. He paused and then growled deep from his chest. There was no way he would pass up the opportunity if it was remotely safe to eat, and so he pulled out the protein analyzer from one of his vest pouches. While similar to the analysis tool, it would instead check the compounds of the product and check for incompatibilities. If none were expressly detected then it was in all likelihood compatible with his system. While he wasn't capable of the incredible culinary feats of humans who seemed to be capable of eating almost anything they could fit in their mouths, he could digest a wide variety of proteins and fats from many worlds he was not native to.
This ability made him confident that he would be able to eat the morsel without incident, though it was always better safe than sorry. He waited an irritating three minutes before the small device gave a chime and flashed green. That was a good sign, checking the screen on the analyzer it told him what he had hoped to see. What he had was a foreign foodstuff that seemed perfectly compatible with his biology, that was a little odd. Generally a food safe to eat from an alternate world would be at least partially incompatible with his digestion, but this seemed like it had been made specifically for him.
Shrugging at this turn of good fortune he grabbed the fist sized package and sat once more at the sooty stool. Unwrapping the meat fully he was hit with a delicious smell, like sweet and briny at the same time. He pulled out his survival knife and used it to carve off a chunk of the meat before taking a bite.
Immediately his mouth exploded with the flavors of the exotic flesh, it was tender and soft, hints of sweetness and a deep salty undertone that satisfied his cravings like nothing he had ever yet tasted before. It was like some cross of sea creature and cultured livestock, it was in all parts delicious. Vance found himself chowing down on the strange feast, before he knew it the meat was gone, his mouth still watering from the abundance of flavors.
He sat back on the stool, back pressed against one of the earthen walls and gave a sigh. He felt content. He felt a comfortable sleep threaten to overtake him and so sat up and then stood. There was still far too much to do before he could allow himself that luxury. He took the water jug and slowly poured a small measure of the precious liquid over his feet, taking care to maximize its usefulness in case he was unable to find more. After a minute of this he felt comfortable enough to take another look around.
He moved around the room, checking the walls and furniture for other potentially useful items, nothing jumped out at him explicitly but he kept at it. As he finished the common area he moved into some of the adjoining rooms but they all looked the same. Charred and with pieces of broken furniture lying in smoldering piles all around. Before he knew it he stepped out into the open air once more, but it was shaded. He looked around curiously, it seemed to be some sort of sunken courtyard.
Along the walls were what looked like some sort of long boxes connected to the metal walls with pipes and wires, he moved closer and saw that many had small green shoots and fronds inside. So this must be some sort of farm then he mused to himself. In the center of the area was a tall machine of some sort, tubes and small vanes covered its entire surface and he stepped close to it. His sensitive pointed ears swiveled slightly to better pick up faint sounds and he smiled again as he heard the distinct sound of liquid moving through the smaller pipes.
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This must be some sort of atmospheric condenser, they were relatively common on dry desert planets but to see one on an uncharted and alien world was a shock. These people must be somewhat advanced to have electricity and condensers. Maybe if they had such technology they had a faster way of moving across the dunes. Some sort of buggy or skiff.
Vance looked around, well, it likely wasn't down in the pit, making up his mind he walked back into the underground house and made his way back to the kitchen area. Looking around for a moment he walked to the water jug he had left on the blackened countertop. Taking another drink from his hydroflask he poured out the small amount of water that remained and then refilled it with the much cleaner purified water from the jug. Now at least he would be able to drink it without tasting the inside of the micro condensers from his hydroflask.
He gathered all his gear and gave the darkened room one last look, nothing caught his immediate attention so he left, walking up the long staircase to the surface. He stepped around the two charred corpses at the front of the structure again and looked round. The area around the dwelling was flat and mostly clear, though about fifty meters away he spotted what looked like another tall condenser. Next to it was a small pile of boxes and crates, it was the only thing in sight that might hold something of interest so he started towards it.
As Vance reached the small pile he cocked his head, something went scampering from the cracks between the crates, a small creature that seemed to hop on two legs. It stopped a few meters from him and he looked at it intently. It was no bigger than a Znot, in fact, other than missing the extra limbs, it seemed remarkably similar. It had tan wrinkly skin that blended into the surrounding dirt and a long nose that it brushed a few times as he watched. It must have been some sort of small rodent equivalent native to this world. As he looked at the small critter It gave a small series of squeaks and scurried away, its tail disappearing back into the large pile of boxes.
He gave a small chuckle, it seemed like a harmless enough animal. As he walked around the boxes he stopped, on the far side previously out of sight sat some sort of contraption. The strange machine seemed to hover on some sort of antigravity cushion, as he approached and pushed on it it moved slightly but stayed remarkably stable. He gave it a look over, its purpose started to become clear to him the more he looked. It was long and thin, with a series of tubes and machinery along the bottom. The middle of the device had a saddle-like seat behind a pair of handlebars attached to a pair of long vaned tubes that jutted from the front. It almost looked like some sort of wheeless motorcycle, a popular type of vehicle frequently used in the more rural parts of the Union that he frequented.
He shrugged and climbed on, the seat was a little uncomfortable as it seemed designed for a smaller species, but it would be fine. He found the control stirrups and placed his feet in them. He gripped the handlebars tightly and kicked back on the pedals. The machine made a series of coughing noises and then returned to its seemingly inert status. It was still hovering however so it must still have been working.
Vance looked around and found a small switch on the body under the handles. He shrugged and flicked it, the machine seemed to whirr slightly but nothing else changed. Once more he pushed back on the pedals and gasped as the vehicle leapt forwards with an acceleration that threatened to tear the breath from his lungs. He eased off the pedals and the device slowed to a more manageable speed. He experimented with the handles and turned to the left, the vanes seemed to catch the air and the hovering vehicle made a neat left hand turn.
He smiled wide as the air rushed by his ears, the wind cooling him and weakening the oppressive heat of the planet. “What a way to travel," he chuckled to himself.
Getting the hang of the device took only minutes, after he had determined he understood the mechanics of the device he returned to the crate and dismounted, making sure to flick off the powerswitch lest the thing take off without him. That would put him firmly back to square one again.
He quickly checked the boxes, many of them were empty, a few held bits of machinery that he didn't know the purpose of. The last one he checked seemed to have some sort of mechanical device inside, it looked like a robot of some sort. Short and squat with a pair of wheeled legs on its sides. Its dome-like top was painted red and white and seemed to house a series of sensors and hatches. It appeared inactive and so he closed the top, not wanting to mess with something that he didn't know the purpose of. While he suspected it wasn't a device designed for destruction, there was no way of knowing and so it was better left untouched.
Vance climbed back onto the hovering bike, the hoverbike as he was starting to call it in his head, he flicked it back on and sat still. He had a means of transportation, but he had no destination. Which way would he go? He thought about heading back towards his ship but then thought better of it, there wasn't much of a point in going back to it anyways. It was done for, damaged beyond repair. Besides, from what he had seen of the area on the way over there was no life out in the dunes. He moved towards one of the high dunes on the opposite side of the place, stopping at the top he squinted and looked around. In the far distance he could make out what looked like a series of rocks. It was as good a place as any he figured, making a mental note of which direction he had come from he zoomed off towards the distant landmark.
If he considered the rotation of the planet and the rising of the suns being to the East as was common, then the direction he was heading was roughly north. He liked his odds of finding something north, it must cool down at least a little the further he traveled from the equatorial zones of the planet at the very least.
Vance reached the rocks in less than ten minutes, the same distance would have likely taken him hours to walk but he put it out of his mind. Signs of life were all around, small lizard-like creatures scattered into the rocks as he approached and he could see small shrub-like plants all around.
The planet wasn't as dead as it had initially looked he surmised, just the vast deserts lacked life. Here among the rocks more conventional life seemed to exist.
Vance slowed for a bit, taking his time as he wound his way through a series of canyons and deep clefts in the rock. At one point he thought he heard the sound of someone yelling, but it faded too fast for him to get a bead on its location.
The eeriness of the planet combined with his total lack of knowledge on what dangers may lay around the corner made his progress slower than it needed to be. He wished he had a weapon, a pistol, a stick, anything. Sure his retractable claws would put the hurt on anything that might come at him but he had no idea what he might be up against. The feeling of not being the top of the food chain sat ill with him, his hackles rose, the collar of fur longer and shaggier near the back of his neck. It had evolved that way to protect the neck from being an easily exploitable weak spot.
He heard a strange wailing noise, at first he thought it was some terrible beast and he froze. But as he listened closer it had the unmistakable undertone of a turbojet fan spinning rapidly. As the thought passed through his mind he exited the narrow canyon he had been traversing and he gasped. The land stretched out in front of him, kilometers and kilometers of open flat rock, and in the distance a settlement or some type. He could make out dozens of structures and a few larger circular buildings whose use he wasn't sure of. It looked to be several kilometers away, not a problem with his new mode of transportation.
High overhead he saw the unmistakable silhouette of a ship leaving the planet, if they had the ability to leave the planet then why had they never been contacted by the Union before? He shook his head and then zoomed towards the small town.
He reached it in minutes, slowing to a walking speed as he saw the main entrance point to the small town appeared guarded. He approached the entry slowly, unsure as to what he should do. He was obviously not the same species as the two white armoured soldiers manning the checkpoint, they looked humanoid in shape whereas he was much taller and lankier. His arms longer and his back hunched.
Another thought entered his mind just as he floated up to the two soldiers, how would he communicate? He racked his brains furiously as he tried to think of a solution, he waved at the two soldiers as they walked over and then nodded in a polite manner. He would just have to pretend to understand and hope nothing made them attack.
He nearly jerked himself off the hoverbike in shock as the first soldier walked over and asked in perfect unaccented common “Identification?”
He had to stop himself from stuttering, the words frozen in his mind at this strange new discovery.
The other soldier, this one with an orange shoulder pad, walked over and asked “Is there a problem here?”
Vance shook his furred head and dug out his ident card, there was no reason it should work but hey, stranger things had happened. He handed the ident card to the first soldier with a muttered “My apologies.”
The soldier seemed to scrutinize the card before looking at him, the featureless black eye lenses of the white helmet only deepening the feelings of paranoia he was feeling at the moment. The soldier turned to his superior and spoke “It's not a form I am familiar with, sir.”
The other soldier took the card and looked at it before handing it back to the trooper “It looks like a match to me. You know how these backworlds are. Let them through.”
Handing the card back the first soldier waved him through saying “Move along.”
Vance did so without another word, tucking his ident card away. He was in disbelief, that had worked? What were the odds? He stopped and took a second to compose himself before his jaw dropped again.
All around him were strange wonders and marvels. Aliens of almost every description wandered to and fro in the streets, strange hovering contraptions moved down the thoroughfares and large almost lizard-like creatures lowed at street corners where small vendors seemed to be hawking wares. He saw strange furred beasts with great horns pulling hovering carts, and a multitude of what seemed to be robots all around. He shivered at the thought of them, artificial intelligence was abhorrent.
It was a most incredible sight and for several minutes he marveled. His examination was cut short as a small hooded figure approached and started speaking at him. This time he was unable to understand the words and shook his head.
“I'm sorry I don't understand. What do you want?” he asked the diminutive creature. He couldn't make out its appearance under the heavy hooded robe it wore, but he could just make out a pair of shiny orange eyes. It seemed to become agitated at his remark and shouted again, his time drawing the attention of several passers by.
The creature made one final scathing alien remark before marching off. Several of the onlookers snickered, likely understanding the insults he had blindly weathered. He growled in a predatory manner and most of them hurried away. While he was not large for a male of his kind, he was much larger than most of these puny creatures.
He started along the street once more, he needed to find a place to get information. A message board, an information kiosk, anything. He shook his head once more, this entire experience had been surreal. The journey feeling more like some crazed dream sequence more so than an actual real series of events.
Many of the aliens he saw looked disturbingly human, several even looked slightly like the slaaveth, though with some minor differences. What was this place, where had he stumbled into? He racked his brains for everything he knew about this region of space. All he could come up with though was that it was near Drivil and uncharted, about three hundred light years past the corworlds border. An area of space generally referred to as the great frontier.
Suddenly he stopped. He looked again to his right, there across the street next to a pile of wreckage sat another of those strange hovering contraptions. This one a dusty red in color, but that was not what had captured his keen eye. No, next to the hovering vehicle was a low building with the unmistakable look of a bar to it.
He smiled, an alien bar, well, if it was like anything else he had come across it might in fact be more familiar than anything else he had encountered so far. Hopefully they spoke common in there as well. He made his way across the street and then flicked off the hoverbike before dismounting. He looked left and right but saw no way of securing it.
“Oh well.” he said quietly to himself as he walked towards the door of the building. It wasn't like the thing had belonged to him anyways. Maybe it would be there when he came out, probably not. He would just have to cross that stream when he got to it.
Vance walked to the door which opened automatically at his presence, he was immediately hit with a wall of smoky smells and funky noises. A catchy tune that made his long narrow tail twitch in tune and made him want to bob his head. He smiled, his wide grin glinting as the light met his long canines. This seemed just like his kind of place.
He sidled up to the bartop, one of the other patrons giving him a long look. He nodded to the strange green alien and then asked the bartender, a disturbingly human looking alien wearing a tan shirt.
They looked him up and down and asked “Yeah? What will it be?”
Vance frowned slightly and then replied “Information.”
The man seemed to tense and said “That isn't something I generally serve here, a dangerous commodity that is.”
Vance sighed and then replied “Ok then, answer me one question then if you would?” The man nodded slowly. “How does one book passage off this planet? Is there a spaceport I could go through or…” but was cut off as the man waved around the room.
“Off world? Anyone can get you off world, for the right price. I'm sure if you ask around you might find something suitable, now please, order a drink or leave me alone.” and the man scurried to the far side of the bar.
The strange interaction sat ill with him. He looked around the room, the many patrons of the bar laughing and drinking. Several tables appeared to have various types of gambling or betting going on at them. He smirked, the more things changed the more they seemed to stay the same he supposed.
He jerked as movement met the corner of his eye, turning his head he saw a man waving to him from across the building. He cocked his head and the man seemed to pause. They nodded and then waved him over again. Shrugging he wandered over, he had nothing better to do at the moment after all.
The man was leaning against the wall nearest to the door, his white undershirt and black vest doing nothing to cover the dangerous looking pistol strapped to his side.
Vance cautiously stopped in front of the man. “Hello there, I’m sorry but I couldn't help but overhear you are looking for passage off world?”
Vance nodded and asked “Yes, you have excellent hearing. Er, I must apologize that I am a bit lost here. Where am I?”
The man smiled charmingly and patted his shoulder while gesturing towards the door. “You are in precisely the right place my friend. I happen to have the fastest ship in the galaxy, where are you headed?”
Vance shook his head and said “Somewhere else, I would like to get back to the Union. But I'll settle for somewhere cooler if that's a start.” he said with a chuckle.
The man nodded and said “Well, that's a good start I suppose. You are able to pay of course?” he asked seriously as they exited the building.
Ah yes of course, money. Vance kicked himself mentally, he had his entire last paycheck in Osmir in one of his pouches. He hated using credit chips, he always felt that his money didn't even exist while using them, he liked to be able to hold it in his hand. Cash was always much more graciously accepted in the frontier where he worked too.
He reached into his money purse and pulled out a handful of Osmir. He handed a few to the man and said “All I have is Union Osmir, would that be acceptable?”
The man looked at the small handful of coins and asked “I suppose, it's not Imperial credits after all. But what is it worth?”
Vance pointed to a few of the coins and rattled of their values “Well, that is a ten credit Osmir, that one is fifty credits and the last one with the largest fleck is a one hundred credit Osmir. I have a few Osmiridium ingots on me. Should be worth a few thousand credits. Would that be adequate?” he said with a bit of a head bob.
The man smiled and held one of the coins up to the light “Osmiridium huh? Yeah I think we can help each other. The name is Han by the way.”
“Hello Han, I'm Vance.” he replied.
“My ship is in bay ninety-four, want to meet me there?” Han said to him.
Vance shook his head and said “I don't know where bay ninety-four is, are you going that way now? I could follow you there perhaps?”
Han smiled again and looked him up and down saying “Yeah. I think you should be fine to tag along Vance. Follow me then.”
Vance nodded and fell in alongside Han, they walked along the side roads for a few minutes, neither of them seeing a reason to speak until Han steered him towards one of the large circular structures he had seen from the city outskirts. There was a series of alien symbols on the door that he couldn't read but Han smiled and made a gesture. “Here we are, bay ninety-four.”
Vance walked inside and frowned as he saw what looked to be a pile of scrap in the rough shape of a starship. A design he was wholly unfamiliar with. “What is that?” he asked, unable to keep a bit of the shock from his voice.
“That?” Han asked. “That's the ship that made the Kessel run in less than twelve parsecs, friend. And time is money as they say. Please welcome yourself aboard the Millennium Falcon.”
Vance looked at the ship, its rough features giving him pause. His trained eye soon looked deeper though, under the scrap and grime he began to see it, the lines of a ship designed for power.
He stood for a moment longer and then turned to Han. the man asked “Well? What do you think?”
Vance gave Han a wide toothy grin as a new hope began to form in his mind and said “I think it's perfect.”
End of Story