CHAPTER 19 - GOODBYE, KAMOHOALII!
"I loved this," Kayden said as he sat down on the bed in the cabin, while Nheka was getting dressed in her coat again.
"Yeaaaaa, more dhings to do dhan Cocytus. Could ya have picked a dibherent planet instead obh that one?" Lai said.
"No it’s kind of a barren sector, it’s that or, I dunno, doing donuts in a crater with a rover. No clue what people on airless worlds do to entertain tourists. I guess they just don’t get many of those. Garden-worlds are just common enough that most routes can see mostly them."
Kayden then wrote a message to his mother. Of the incident at sea, he only wrote ‘If you have seen the news, we are fine.’
Soon, the ship undocked and zipped away from the planet. 5 days until warp.
***
9 Feb 2230
Kayden was at the eatery, enjoying some seafood medley with tea. He was alone at a table, and wasn’t eating in the cabin because he was worried he’d make a mess. Suddenly, a puppy someone was holding in a pet carrier– it indeed resembled the photo of a mragez that he saw on Alacrity– somehow went free and darted across the cafeteria in terror, barking at everyone nearby and whining loudly. Kayden stood up from his table and took a few steps to snap a few photos of the dog.
When he returned, he saw some nondescript man walk very close to his table, but didn’t think much of him.
Kayden finished his dish and washed down the shrimp and salmon with tea. He walked out of the mess hall into the corridor.
A pain suddenly ripped through his chest, as if he was stabbed right in the heart. He gasped for breath, crumpled onto the floor, and screamed as loudly as he could.
People immediately rushed out to investigate, but it was all a blur to Kayden. Everything went dark as he passed out.
***
Shrill beeping. Pounding heartbeat. Back on white table. Four harsh white lights and four masked faces, merging into two faces and two lights, and finally one face and one light. Respirator on mouth. And an acidic taste of vomit on tongue. Everything then split again… and merged again… and split… and merged. All accompanied by horrible, searing pain in all parts of his body, which was slowly subsiding.
"Patient is stabilized and conscious," the doctor said. He was the same elderly physician who bandaged his wounds early in the trip.
"Thank you sso much… He iss my dearesst friend…" Nheka hissed, unseen. Her voice soothed Kayden’s mind.
"So what’s the verdict? Poisoned or was the bhish rotten or what?" Lai’s voice resounded.
"I’m a doctor, not a detective," the physician responded. "All signs point against food poisoning, but no traces of any known poisons could be detected. However, our shipboard analysis equipment is of limited power. We might be able to get a definitive answer at Hephaestus. A few blood samples are currently in cold storage."
Kayden sighed deeply. The nightmare didn’t end, then. But what now? He certainly didn’t feel safe here. Going back wasn’t an option, obviously, and would have been certain death even if it was. Forwards was the only way, now.
He lifted himself up into a sitting position, causing a splitting headache to resonate through his brain. The doctor took off his patient’s respirator. "You may go. If I were you, I’d, for lack of a better word, keep my eyes peeled."
"Thank you so much, doc. And well… I will. Did they... My friends I mean, tell you what happened at Kamo? And before?" Kayden said.
"No."
Kayden explained the whole adventure, from the incident in the ruins, to the plane crash– Kayden hatched a theory that they had an insider in the airport there, which is why they went for sabotaging the flitter–, to Roni’s surrender, to finally the citizen’s arrest. He left out the part with Amani. The doctor sat on a chair and listened.
"You’re a lucky bunch. But you did good. I’ll keep this confidential… and so should you. Imagine the biggest set of crosshairs you can think of. Now picture them all on your back. That is your situation, Kayden Reynolds."
"I will try to stay safe."
***
Kayden informed security of his suspicions. A guard was posted outside their cabin: an imposing-looking reptile-like genemod with blue scales covered in little spikes, dressed in an armored red jumpsuit and armed with an electrobaton and zapper. Some odd noises were heard from the decks as Kayden waved to the guard and entered the cabin, where his friends were already waiting.
He sat down on the bunk bed. "Well I guess it was that guy who brushed against my table. He poisoned me. I think. God fucking damn it. I don’t want to die."
Suddenly, the intercom blared a message, a bit quieter than usual. "This is captain Jasmijn Evers speaking! This will be a lengthy announcement. Just now, a fight broke out in the starboard civilian hallways as a man suspected to have poisoned one of our passengers’ food started resisting a search. While our security officers have been trying to handcuff him, he shot the officer holding him with a concealed gun and broke free… and upon seeing that another detail was going down the hallway, flanking him, he opened a garbage chute and jumped in." there was a pause, and Kayden and Nheka glanced at each other, "Our engineers are currently checking the integrity of the Supercritical Water Oxidation tank. The injured officer is currently being stabilized in the medbay. Have a nice day, and stay safe!"
"Um… super-what water?" Kayden said.
Ray chimed in. "Waste disposed on ships via SCWO system. Explanation: water under extreme temperature and pressure acts as ultrastrong solvent. Only remains of almost all waste: oxidized chemicals and mineral ash. Due to simple chemistry, byproducts usable as fertilizer across all known biospheres. Consequence: byproducts fed into food algae tanks."
"Ah. So that guy is fertilizer now. Maybe he did one good thing in his life, then," he chuckled.
Lai looked down from his bunk. "I wonder ibh it hurt melting in the shit boil machine."
"Likely scenario: around 1 second of intense, searing pain until supercritical water enters brain through eye sockets, dissolving it. Unterrible way of death, compared to many other ways," Ray said.
"Yeah, like the one he tried to kill me with. But I wonder what he was even trying to do by flushing himself. Suicide to avoid interrogation? Thinking it led to some kind of space trash bin where he could hide?" Kayden said.
Nheka shook her head. "We will never find out…"
"Yep. Can’t probe a dissolved guy’s memories. Ugh… my head still hurts. I guess in due time there will be a Wikipedia article about me. Fun."
***
The guard, who was very quiet and spoke in single-clause sentences, accompanied Kayden and co everywhere they went on the ship. The next few days went without incident, aside from an uncomfortable amount of glances given and photos taken.
13 Feb 2230
The ship entered warp. Tau Ceti was the destination. In the grand scheme of things, it was right on the doorstep of Sol.
14 Feb 2230
The star became apparent as the radiant cocoon of the warp bubble winked out of existence. It was slightly dimmer than Kumulipo, though still solidly yellow. Tau Ceti was an older star, about twice as old as Sol, but thanks to its lower mass it was not near the end of its lifespan. Not that it mattered, anyways. Considering the level of advancement starfaring society has achieved in around 170 years, by the time inhabited stars begin to burn out, it would probably be possible to rejuvenate stars somehow. It wasn’t quite conceivable how it could be done now, but billions of years are a long time.
Three days left.
Kayden requested the news from the system’s info depot. Exactly what he thought: word of the events on the ocean planet had outpaced the ship. There were photos of him and Ray, taken by the patrol boat. Nothing about his convicted uncle Jonathan, yet– Kayden guessed that the information couldn’t reach New Arizona and back again yet.
16 Feb 2230
At the end of another news article, it was said that "the new evidence had caused the convicted researcher Jonathan Reynolds to be permitted a re-trial". Kayden actually shouted and clapped his hands upon reading this. They succeeded. They well and truly succeeded in their mission now. What was left was to make it to Earth and back safely.
17 Feb 2230
Hephaestus came into view… and so did its sibling Ares. Both occupying the sixth orbit of Tau Ceti, they were similar in size to each other, and so physically close that until the final stretch of the approach it looked like they were touching. Before the system was explored in the late 21st century, it was thought that this was one single ice giant, rather than a binary terrestrial planet.
Both planets were dry, smooth with dark splotches and patches of green vegetation, and had an insane amount of volcanoes dotting their respective surfaces. Hephaestus had somewhat more water on it, though still only about twenty percent of its surface, and a dull orangish-tan surface marked with darker brown streaks. Ares, meanwhile, was red like Mars, had about five percent of its surface covered in water, and possessed a visibly thicker and hazier atmosphere. Hephaestus had more city lights than its brother, but both were far more settled than any frontier world. Ships were visible rushing both away from and between the two planets. Kayden zoomed into the void between the planets as Hephaestus pulled closer and closer, and was extremely surprised to see what looked like a gigantic tether connecting the two worlds– though it was of course very thin compared to them.
"Why do that when we have torch drives?" he said.
"Torch drives unsafe to use near planet. Throughput lower due to that. Propellant costs more than electricity," Ray said.
The ship approached the spaceport, which was actually a rotating ring attached to the tether, at the usual height for a passenger spaceport. From here, it looked like a colossal, thick skyscraper, or perhaps a spacescraper, though of course without any windows, that gradually faded away to a point on the red surface of Ares.
"I feel tiny," Kayden said as the ship approached a docking port on the surface of the tether. "This thing probably cost more money than my homeworld’s GDP."
They passed customs, and ended up directly entering a very crowded lobby, with no furniture and bare metal walls, looking more like a thin and slightly curved corridor leading to the elevator down. The throughput of people and goods in the inner core was much larger than in the frontier and outer core. There were about as many genemods here as on Kāmohoaliʻi.
Kayden was surprised to see that the ‘elevator down’ was more sophisticated than on the previous stations. In fact, it was almost like a series of subway tubes, except vertical. There was a perforated metal platform with several ‘trains’ docked right next to each other, their sliding entrances wide open. The inside of the pod was dark and claustrophobic, with only one dim light, and all five of them took all the spots– with Nheka taking up two. As soon as it filled, the train jerked downwards to let the next pod fill up. This continued three times, until a voice resonated through the facility, instructing everyone to hold tight onto handles to avoid injury.
The whole train plunged down at immense speeds just after the doors closed. The walls and doors lit up, being viewscreens, showing the same sights as the regular space elevators did.
"...why is it so different here?" Kayden said.
"Well ya see, in the previous stations there were also multiple lanes, but all except one were for cargo and thus hidden. Here there's a lot more passenger transport," Lai said.
The atmosphere of Hephaestus was a dull, hazy, brownish off-blue color. Many dark cyclones and storm clouds could be seen spinning across the sky as the cab descended downwards. Where the sky was clear, dozens of active volcanoes could be seen in entire ranges, their wide craters often overflowing with yellow magma, forming short-lived hellish rivers.
Kayden expected the city of Aganju to be domed, but it wasn’t. Apparently, the terraforming had made the air breathable. Overall, it looked a bit like New Taichung, with somewhat blockier buildings that were darker in color, reaching into the sky like a forest of dead, scorched trees. The general appearance of the city was very ominous, but as the cab approached the ground, it became apparent that it was as lively as any other core world settlement, with people and vehicles traversing sidewalks and roads, lit up by copious amounts of blinking neon signs. Jagged, dusty mountains surrounded Aganju to the west and north, while the east was an open and desolate semidesert and the south bordered a vast, by this planet’s standards, sea with sickly gray water. The sky above was a dark, ashy overcast with streaks of white. Far off in the distance, the volcanoes were billowing pillars of smoke, feeding this foreboding blanket.
The vertical train opened its doors in the depot, and the group exited into the lobby. It was exquisitely decorated, with gilded, lacy ornaments on its walls of white marble, and various paintings hanging on the walls in intricate frames.
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As they were about to walk out onto the street, they were greeted by a local with swarthy skin the same shade as Kayden’s. "You don’t look like you’re from around here, for the love of God buy a mask! It’s like half an umec each. Your lungs will thank you," she said, and typed something on her datapad.
"Huh. Alright. You don’t seem to be wearing one however…"
"You don’t know? Here we’re mandated to get filters implanted or genemodded into our throats. You guys probably don’t. The vendor is to the left. Stay safe."
They put on said equipment– all adjustable, stretchy, and black in color, and walked outside. It may have been afternoon, but it was as dark as mid-evening would be on other temperate planets. And it was indeed temperate: around 15C. Nheka did not feel any need to take off her coat, and Kayden felt just a little cold. The air itself felt hazy, like on old photos of Terra’s overcrowded, polluted cities during the Age of Protests, before combustion engines and coal plants were phased out. There were none of those here, of course, but the smog hung over the entire city. Volcanoes.
Kayden turned to look at Ray. "But this planet is, what, eight billion years old? How can there still be tectonics?"
"Tidal heating from Ares’ close orbit causes high tectonic activity. Tidal heating also heats up planet: if planet was singular, temperature would be -50C."
Kayden looked up. Ares was visible through the overcast, as if behind heavily frosted glass. It was more massive than any moon he had seen, in real life or online, absolutely dominating the sky and tinting the clouds red. And, logically, it was tidally locked, thus it hung there endlessly.
Ray continued. "Semimajor axis of Hephaestus-Ares binary system will drift close to barycenter, gigayears in future, planets will tear each other apart. For now, tidal effect makes both only more habitable."
"Makes sense. And the native life…?"
"None. Biosphere introduced via terraforming: various resilient animals and plants, mainly Central Asian, North African, Mediterranean, Mexican origin."
"Yeah I can see that," Kayden said.
Though the streets had lots of bushy terraforming trees planted beside the sidewalks, resembling maples in leaf shape and oaks in general structure, many cacti and desert thorns grew where the trees didn’t. However, they were all covered in a noticeable layer of soot. Kayden realized that’s the reason the buildings were painted in dark colors– to hide the built-up volcanic ash.
Is this really what the core looked like? This prosperous region more closely resembled some kind of dystopian hellscape. New Arizona looked more appealing… or perhaps it was just homesickness beginning to set in.
***
Their room was smaller than their previous ones, but everyone’s luggage still fit with plenty of space to spare. The wallpaper was bright green while all the furniture was sturdy, metallic, utilitarian, and painted dark blue.
"There were nicer rooms available but we barely spent any time in our last one, why piss away money?" Kayden said as he finished unpacking.
"Yeaaa good choice. At least ya didn’t sort by cost this time."
Kayden rolled his eyes.
They discussed where they should go during their two-day stay on Hephaestus. Nature here was quite dull and dreary, so all the attractions had to be within Aganju’s borders.
"Well there are the volcanoes, we could go see them up close, or one of the lava rivers…"
Lai blinked repeatedly. "Nope nope nope. I’m not going."
Kayden laughed. "Scared after that time eh? I understand. Not really something I’m too interested in either…"
***
Kayden stumbled out of a nearby cafe that served famous examples of local cuisine, clutching his belly. It felt like his mouth and stomach were on fire– and while the spiciness was tolerable while he was eating, it had really kicked in now. He bought a can of very strongly mint-flavored soda from a nearby vending machine and downed the entirety of it… with the only result being that the taste of extreme cold overlapped and almost amplified the extreme heat. Kayden’s eyes filled with tears.
Lai was the second of the group to walk out. The relmai sat down next to him and giggled.
"How could anyone actually enjoy this?" Kayden said, tossing the empty can into a trash chute. With a clunk, it was whisked away to meet the gnashing maw of a distant recycling plant.
"Dunno. My question is: how could anyone not enjoy dhis? I tried humie food once. Was like chewing paper," Lai said. "The adaptation of that dish was great however!"
"Your taste buds or whatever you guys have are likely burnt out honestly."
"Maaaaaybe maybe. We had this kinda food for thousands obh years. Have to in our climate, when ibh you don’t slather something with spice, the pests will get to it. Or dhe heat will. One obh two."
"Yeah makes sense. Same reason a bunch of tropical Earth cuisines are spicy. I personally don’t mind sorta spicy but not whatever these rolls were. When they said hot I didn’t think it was this hot. Still feels like I swallowed Flamerider and then drank Cocytus’ ocean."
Soon, the overwhelming sensations of taste wore off, and the group continued to their next destination: some kind of pavilion showcasing the terraforming tech used to make Hephaestus a livable place. It was in a small, old building made of concrete near the middle of the city, dwarfed by its neighboring towers. The inside was brightly lit.
In the first display case, near the entrance, was a very realistic pseudoholographic section of ashy desert inside a tall glass cuboid. Towards the top, the ‘sky’ got darker, signifying space. Kayden pressed a red button on the side of the case, and a slightly ghostly pseudohologram of an old-looking space tug materialized at the top, pulling a comet behind it. After it released the comet, the ball of ice fell down into the desert. After the mushroom cloud of ash and dust cleared, there was a large lake flooding the valley, with hints of greenery around it. The scene then reset with a flicker.
In the second case was a patch of terraforming grass growing on some wet sand under a hemispherical glass dome. Its blades were broad, thick, and on closer inspection had a branching, three-dimensional fractal pattern embedded in their porous, sponge-like matter, for greater surface area and thus greater photosynthetic potential. A screen on the display case informed that the atmospheric composition under the dome had less than 10% oxygen, and that the grass withers and crumbles to dust if the oxygen percentage reaches 20%, to make way for more appealing and less hyperoptimized flora.
The third case, the largest one, was occupied by a scaled-down model of a soilmaker robot. It looked somewhat like a tractor with a huge plow behind it, without a cabin and painted entirely in reflective silver paint. The superalloy blades of its plow were long and spike-like, made to cut deep into the hard, rocky soil and turn it into somewhere regular Earth plants can grow. The conditions on the planet were not ideal for this, however, forcing the colonial administration to settle for hardy plants used to harsh environments rather than the lush forests and grasslands they envisioned. Terraforming still wasn’t a perfected science in 2230.
There were other display cases showing various items such as dioramas of early cities, which reminded Kayden of his hometown, various tools, and so on.
***
The three aliens in the group had decided to split off to check out their species’ respective enclaves on this planet some time ago, leaving Kayden alone with Ray. Along the way, the two saw the woman who informed him of the necessity of masks on the planet, and waved to her.
"Batteries running low," Ray intoned as they walked across a crowded sidewalk. "Go do whatever. I go to recharging station."
"Alright, I’ll go check in on Lai then, he’s supposed to be leaving party town now," Kayden said. It would take a long time to go to the relmai enclave via the usual route, so he decided to take a shortcut through a series of semi-desolate industrial buildings and alleys.
Almost nobody was here, compared to the hustle and bustle of the residential, tourist, and commercial districts. There was only the hum of mostly-automated factories that towered over Kayden, with the occasional worker in colorful overalls walking between buildings along catwalks. A gust of howling wind picked up debris such as empty paper bags and aluminum cans, whipping them across the pavement. This place felt safe enough.
"Wait, were those footsteps behind me?" Kayden thought as he jogged into a narrow alley.
He turned around to see the woman from the depot standing behind him. She wore a black jacket with a hood, sunglasses, and baggy dark gray jeans. "Um, hi?"
"Hello there Kayden."
"What’s– wait. How the FUCK do you know my name?!" he shouted as he backed away. "I never told you..."
She grumbled something under her breath… and reached into her pocket. With a whipping motion and a click, a sharp-looking serrated switchblade appeared in her hand.
"No no no fuck off from me!" Kayden yelled as he backed away, then ran as fast as possible.
Everything was a blur of grimy dark colors. Turn right. Turn left. Up a ramp. Jump down half a meter. Turn right.
Kayden’s heart was beating like it was about to jump out of his chest, but it seemed like he lost his pursuer. However, he did not slow down.
This backfired as he tripped over some kind of cable lying on the ground and fell onto the hard concrete. He could not help but shout in pain as his knees and wrists took the brunt of the impact.
Running footsteps.
There she was, darting from around a corner, brandishing the switchblade. Kayden screamed and tried his best to stand up, but only ended up falling onto his back. Thinking quickly, he tripped his attacker with a quick motion of his leg, causing his bruised knee to crack painfully. Kayden gritted his teeth, and through the haze of pain and adrenaline, he could see and hear that she only lost her balance for a moment, and stabbed the blade into the pavement, producing a small burst of sparks.
The woman was raising her knife once again, aiming right at the poor traveler’s heart.
Once again, Kayden’s life flashed before his eyes…
Perhaps it was best to not go after the thieves? After all, who would care if some baubles were lost and sold for a profit? How would it affect him if they went into criminal hands, or even dal-ghar hands? Why didn’t he just say "nah this is shady" to Lai’s offer, back on New Arizona? Now, he would pay for this…
WHAP!
Half a cinderblock flew in from out of sight and hit his attacker on the back of the head. She stumbled and missed wide as another set of footsteps was heard fast approaching. The black-clad woman turned her bleeding head around, only to be bodyslammed and knocked down onto the ground by what appeared to be a tall, long-limbed, short-furred genemod of indeterminate species, wearing a glossy dark gray trenchcoat. She screamed as she ended up under them, but the scream turned into a horrible gurgling sound as four clawed hands grasped her throat, tearing it open in a spurt of blood. Kayden crawled backwards and gasped as his attacker tried to stab his savior in the back, only for the blade to be intercepted by a fingerless-gloved hand and wrested free. It was then stabbed into her chest and pulled forward, causing cloth and flesh to tear.
Kayden scrambled even further away as the genemod took hold of her head and bashed it against the pavement several times. Soon, the woman was limp and silent.
"What… the shit… I…" he whimpered. "Thank you so much… I was a few moments away from death…"
"I see someone’s getting killed, I help ‘em. Simple as," the genemod said as they stood up and kicked the downed woman, their voice possessing a slight snarl. Kayden got a better look at the vigilante.
Their fur, as far as Kayden could tell under the four-sleeved, closed trenchcoat and thick light blue scarf, was a lustrous black color. A long and narrow snout, with a shape between that of a dolphin and an alligator, except hairy, poked out above said scarf. Two ears, so thin that they somewhat resembled antennae, extended upwards from the sides of their head. Four beady eyes, placed in two pairs that resembled typographical colons, were partially concealed by blocky sunglasses. White fangs, like that of a vampire, poked out from under their upper lip. Their body was almost unnaturally thin, yet at the same time seemed quite well-built. Someone not well-informed about aliens could have very well confused them for one.
"Who… are you?"
"Fenix Tassis. You?"
"Kayden Reynolds."
Fenix knelt down. "So fuck did you do?! People get killed here sometimes but not so openly. There are cameras all over the place. What did you do to piss her off?"
Kayden sat up. "Long story. Basically… I exposed a criminal organization. We have been getting targeted before then because we got seen trying to do so and now especially after that. On Alacrity a few weeks ago they blew up a plane I was on. On the ship they poisoned me. Now whatever this was."
"Ah. I see then yeah. No good deed goes unpunished. A shadow of doubt was starting to creep up on me that you were the asshole there, but naaah. Still, was this lady not afraid of jail or what?"
"Look!" Kayden said as he pointed to her. Fenix jolted as he turned around too.
The incapacitated woman’s face discolored slightly. Then, after a few seconds, seams started showing on its edges. Right after that, the whole thing began shrinking and shriveling up with a sickening wet sound as blood poured from this fleshy mask while it transformed into something resembling an oversized, pale raisin. Within a minute, her real face, bearing differently-shaped features, was revealed.
"What the fuck," Kayden said with an expression of disgust.
"Mulligan. That explains it."
"What’s that?"
"One of the blacklisted genemod morphs. Basically you get a symbiotic slug shaped like a face that lives on your real face like a mask. And you can change its shape at a whim fairly quickly. Banned because it’s nigh undetectable and easily fools cams," Fenix explained.
Kayden rubbed his forehead with the back of his palm, since the front was soiled with blood and ash. "Don’t you need gene clinics for that sort of thing? How can they have it if it’s blacklisted?"
"In the old days, yeah you needed a whole-ass lab. Can’t hide that. But these days the equipment can fit in a large-ish basement. Sometimes a shipment of genemodding machinery, ahem, mysteriously disappears ya see?"
"That makes sense."
"Other stuff is blacklisted sometimes. Mostly, well how do I put it, fuck, things that you can realistically only use to commit crimes or generally cause mayhem. Finger lockpicks. Strong acid spit. EMP hands. Fire breath. And so on. The last you can get legally but it’s mostly neutered," the dark-furred genemod gestured while speaking, "Anyways, can you walk?"
Kayden very carefully stood up. His knees hurt but bent the right way. Nothing was broken. "Yeah. I think. Again thank you so much… but what do we do with her?"
Fenix shrugged. "She’s dead as a doorknob. If she wasn’t before our little conversation, she deffo is now. Good going. I’ll tell the police, they'll know anyways and I'll look less shady. Don’t touch the dearly departed meanwhile."
"Won’t you get arrested since you killed her?" Kayden said.
"It was in defense of an innocent person. She had a huge-ass knife, I had jack shit except my claws. I couldn’t afford to hold back because I like it when my insides aren’t my outsides. Acceptable force."
"You seem… nonchalant," Kayden turned away from the grisly, mangled corpse.
"I saw worse shit on a weekly basis back on Nuevo Alicante. Don’t worry."
Kayden paused. "I’m sorry…"
"Don’t worry, I said. I have things to do now however. Want my Spark handle so we can chat later?"
"Sure, but, um, I’m leaving this planet tomorrow," Kayden sighed.
"Then my TerraMail handle?"
They exchanged contact info and went their own ways.
***
All five were in the motel room at evening, lit up by a lonely warm lamp. Kayden finished explaining the incident to his friends. Everyone was silent as he talked, elaborating on the grisly details of the fight.
The other four were at a loss of words. Finally, Lai broke the silence.
"Well, whad noooow?"
"What now?! You know what now? Fuck this planet. Fuck that ship. Fuck them both with a rusty rake. They will find a way to kill me on the ship even despite the guard, because he’s BRAINDEAD! We will find someone willing to let us hitchhike to Earth on their ship. Now. Today. Fuck this HELLSCAPE! We’re going! To! Earth! NOW! I’m done. I’m so fucking DONE! WITH! THIS! PILE! OF! SHIT!" he slammed his fist on the table with every shouted phrase, and something cracked by the end of his rant.
"Iss that sso?" Nheka said.
"Yes. I’m set on this. Pack up the goods while I find a listing."
"But I juuuust made a bhew new bhriends!"
"You can mail them. My life matters more than you talking to your buddies."
Lai sighed and started preparing for the hasty trip.