The cooler with the scallops was uncomfortable to carry, especially since Lus had to balance the mesh bag with his two precious parals on top. Being in the crowds only made his situation more inconvenient.
The market was getting busier as the sun went down. String lights hung between all the stalls started to turn on, providing ample light for the evening shoppers. Lusac found it difficult to squeeze between people as he attempted to escape the square. He only hoped he properly remembered Yrqw’s directions to the restaurant. As much as he didn’t want to go, showing up late and ruining everyone’s evening was still something he’d rather avoid if possible.
His stomach was rumbling, drawing his attention to the vendors selling delicious smelling meals as he reached the edge of the plaza, but he forced himself onward with faith that Yrqw’s taste in food would be equally delectable. As Lus stepped out of the market place and onto the streets, he discovered that they were almost as bustling as the square had been. It appeared the entire city of Viccian came alive for the night.
Pushing through more throngs of people, Lus made his way to the address Yrqw had given him the day before. What he came to wasn’t really a building, but rather a grand patio complete with tall arches which looked like they could support a roof if the need came. Tonight, however, with the perfectly clear skies, the colors of the sunset was all the ceiling the restaurant had. Low hanging bare bulbs from the arches and various torch stands with holofire provided light to the tables spaced out on brick flooring that had been painted with designs robust enough to compete with the murals on the surrounding buildings. It was also shockingly busy, and Lus couldn’t see a single available table.
“Sheesh, Yrqw. Pick a popular enough spot?” he muttered to himself as he glanced around for any of the other date participants. His arms were growing tired of carrying his purchases from the day at the market, and he was eager to get a chance to sit down and dig his teeth into some real food after his small snack from earlier.
“Lusac,” someone shouted, and he turned to see Yrqw already at a table, waving to him. He wore traditional Kremel garb, mostly dark colors with an animal hide cape tossed over his shoulders and his black and gray hair slicked back.
Lus hoisted his cooler to a better position and made his way to his friend. He set the cooler on the ground under the table and slid into the seat next to the Kremel, leaving the two chairs on the opposite side of the table available for their dates.
“I’m impressed you managed to get a table. This place is packed.” Lusac had to half shout over the noise around them.
“It always gets like this at night, but the food is the best in the whole city,” Yrqw assured him. “I came an hour early just to be sure we’d get a spot. The crowd showed up only half an hour ago.”
“Thanks for that.” Lusac adjusted in his seat and straightened his shirt a little in hopes of seeming at least somewhat presentable for the occasion.
Yrqw smacked him on his shoulder. “I’m happy to help a couple of friends finally take things to the next level.”
“Yeah,” Lus chuckled awkwardly. “We’ll see if this goes anywhere, but I think we should try to keep the evening casual, yeah?”
“Don’t worry about me, Lus. I’m a great wingman.” Yrqw continued to smile, sinking what little hope Lus had of enjoying the meal.
“Do you know where Becky and Xwvl are? I thought they’d be here by now.” He changed the subject to something that wasn’t Yrqw imagining a relationship that didn’t exist.
“Women are always late to these types of things. Haven’t you ever been on a date before?”
Lusac shrugged. “Just when I was a teenager back on Treft, but I always went with a couple of other friends. Going out on a regular, solo date meant you were in a committed relationship.”
“You’ve never been out on a single style date?” Yrqw asked in surprise.
“Dating isn’t actually a common thing among Runners,” Lus reminded the Kremel.
“It is on bigger ships. The Argo is small enough that gossip spreads like wildfire when people go out. When you get moved up to one of the Gemini crews, then you’ll have plenty of opportunities. A lot more Humans on these crews too,” Yrqw explained.
“Why would I ever move from the Argo?” Lus queried. He’d never really looked into transferring ships, and during the time he’d been with Captain Tave, he knew of no one on the crew who had done so either.
“Better pay, mostly. The ships who take on the most dangerous territories also get the biggest chunks of valer and cryptin.”
“But you’re still on the Argo,” Lusac pointed out. “I don’t know of anyone who's even trying to leave the crew.”
“Captain Tave is a good leader. A lot of ships aren’t so lucky. I’m with him because I prefer the quieter, safer jobs. I spent a few years with Captain Sqhw handling jobs out of the central Gemini sector, and it was more than enough stress to last me the rest of my life. I wouldn’t trade the safety of the Argo for the money no matter what.”
Lus had never heard Yrqw speak so openly about the trouble of being in the richer sectors. He struggled to imagine how much more dangerous Gemini could be after everything the Argo had been through the past few weeks. Being in one of the rural territories meant that instead of facing COPS or the military, they dealt with dangerous creatures, some of which were completely unknown like the Shaquine. And thanks to this wide spread task they’d undertaken to get all the pieces of some artifact, they still had their own troubles with law enforcement.
“Well it sounds like I should just stick with the Argo.” Lusac happened to like the crew, and he didn’t see why Yrqw thought he’d be eager to leave. He made plenty of money under Captain Tave, especially since he was on the mission roster and got hazard pay for each off-ship adventure.
“You say that now, but wait until other captains start showing you their offers. I know many ships that would pay a pretty valer for someone with a system.”
“My system isn’t all that great, remember. Nippy’s the one who will get poached before me.”
“Nippy’s already turned down more money in bonuses than I’ve probably made in my lifetime. That man is loyal to Captain Tave and the crew, through and through,” Yrqw said with a smile.
Lus nodded in understanding. Yrqw came to the Argo not long after Captain Tave took over, so he was easily one of the five most knowledgeable crewmembers when it came to understanding the dynamics of the ship and its leadership.
Before Yrqw could continue on about all the details he knew of what happened behind the scenes on the Argo, their dates finally arrived.
Xwvl had shaved her head completely and had earrings covering the edges of her double-pointed ears. She too wore traditional Kremel garments, with black pants and a spotted, furry vest.
Becky walked right alongside her, dressed in what Lus found to be far more tasteful apparel. She wore a blue patterned dress that came to her knees with short, puffed sleeves and a wide, round neck at the top. Her black and green hair was left down in tight ringlets, with just a few strands pulled up and out of her face, allowing the torchlight to reflect brilliantly in her deep, brown eyes.
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“Hi guys,” Becky greeted them as she walked up.
Xwvl seemed a little less pleased with the situation, but she grunted her own “hello” as well.
Yrqw stood with a beaming smile. “Xwvl, you look ravishing tonight.” His elbow (in a very not subtle manner) hit Lusac’s side.
“Looking good, Becks,” Lus said as his hand went to rub his sore ribs.
Lusac caught only a hint of the displeased glare Yrqw shot at him, but he still had enough manners to jump out of his seat and slide Becky’s chair out for her. Yrqw did the same, showering Xwvl with even more compliments.
Once they were all seated, a Human waitress came to their table, holding a small holoscreen in her hands.
“Hi. Welcome to Driftwood Stars, what can I get started for you all?” she said in a false cheery voice.
“I’ll take a glass of blood wine and then a thing of fried claws for the table,” Yrqw began without hesitation.
“Blood wine for me as well,” Xwvl echoed, barely glancing up from her menu.
It was Lus’s turn. “A beer please. Whatever you have on tap is fine.”
“Same here,” Becky replied with her usual happy demeanor.
“Great. If I could just confirm ages with some kind of ID for the two Humans,” the waitress said, pulling a scanner from her pocket.
Lusac’s stomach dropped. He’d forgotten that they would have to ID him for alcohol since he was still fairly young, but he hadn’t brought his physical card to keep his chip from being scanned. Yrqw and Xwvl were obviously old enough to drink, but he and Becky were still close enough to twenty that it was questionable as to whether or not it was legal.
Becky held her wrist out, her eyebrow shooting up when Lus didn’t do the same.
“Uh, can I just get water actually?” he muttered from the depths of his embarrassment. The only thing that could make this date worse was if he got the entire ship in trouble again from his mismatched ID chip that he had yet to get fixed.
“Change mine to a lemonade,” Becky requested with a smile of sympathy.
The waitress made the adjustments to their order and walked away.
“What’s wrong with your chip?” Xwvl asked bluntly.
“Zer-Dasht and Vlqtrn pranked me when I first joined by changing my ID to show up as a female Kremel. I keep forgetting to get it fixed,” Lus explained with a sigh. The only good news is that it had kept him safe when he ran into that COP, Varyna, back on Rika, but in situations like this, it really stank. “Not that I could use it anyway. With my background, I still have to use a fake ID so I normally keep my physical card on me for situations like these, but I forgot it this time.”
Since Becky didn’t go off-ship for missions and had joined the Runners without a criminal background, her chip was safe to remain attached to her actual ID.
“Ah, I remember that. Didn’t you get kicked out of like three different bars from it?” Becky reminisced.
Lus grimaced and nodded. “Four if you count the store I tried to get some beer from as well.”
“To be young again,” Yrqw mused with a grin. “I managed to find someone to kill off my original identity so I could attach a new one to my current face to make my chip safe again.”
“I just don’t have one,” Xwvl stated flatly. “I joined back when we didn’t have the tech to interfere with the assigned identities so we cut ours out.” She held her hand up to showcase the thin scar marking the chip’s removal.
“So what are you ordering, Yrqw?” Becky asked. She nodded to the tables around, reminding everyone about the many listening ears if they weren’t careful in their conversation. Lusac appreciated the chance to do something besides dwell on his embarrassment.
“I find that this place has phenomenal meat. Their chef is a grilling master, so I recommend something heavy on the protein, light on everything else,” the Kremel replied as he reopened his menu.
Lus looked over the dish options, finding many unfamiliar with strong Kremel words. He supposed he wasn’t all that surprised that a Kremel had chosen a Kremel-based restaurant. Reading through the descriptions, he noticed that every dish was almost entirely meat based with little options for anything besides animal protein.
The waitress returned with their drinks, sending another wave of shame through Lus as he and Becky received their kids drinks and the Kremel got their wine. She then waited to take their orders for the meal, going in the same order as before.
“Grilled prak chops with a side of charda prootas,” Yrqw said.
“I’ll have perman kechin kabobs,” Xwvl said after.
Lus faced the waitress, trying not to remember his previous embarrassing encounter from only a few minutes before. “I’ll take a gervin steak, medium rare.”
“Pasil kechin for me,” Becky said to wrap up the order as they all handed their menus to the waitress.
After she walked away, Yrqw started up a new conversation by asking Xwvl about her time on the Runners ship, Fared, run by the Nemarian captain Vera-Weler. Xwvl used to have a far more exciting job than managing crew quarters it turned out, and she captured everyone’s attention with her stories of smuggling goods while in the Apollo sector. Lus was almost a little disappointed when the food came and interrupted her tales, though his stomach was beyond excited to finally get something substantial in it.
Four steaming plates were set down, and Lus had to admit that the presentation was appealing, even though it was mainly piles of meat on top of each other. Yrqw dug into his food in an instant, forgetting some of his high manners he’d been putting on the whole night, but it gave Lus the license to dive into his food immediately too. His steak was just the right amount of pink and each bit gushed with flavor, the marinade and grill char working in conjunction to bring life to his tongue.
Little was said as they all tore through their food, everyone seeming to be as hungry as Lusac was, and the food even better than Yrqw had claimed. By the time they all finished, the sun had completely set, leaving a brilliant sky of the raw Cinder Rock Galaxy above them.
“This place is incredible,” Becky said, leaning her head back to stare up at the stars above them.
“The food isn’t half bad either,” Xwvl added with a smile, the first sign of humor Lus had detected from the Kremel all evening.
“I’m glad everyone enjoyed it.” Yrqw put his cryptin card on the table for the waitress to take since he and Lus had agreed beforehand that Lus would pay him back in valer. “Unfortunately we’ll have to rush to make the last shuttle off-planet. I didn’t expect the kitchen to take quite so long getting our food out.”
“I’ll sprint back after a meal like this,” Lus concurred with the sentiment shared by the others.
They all laughed as the waitress took the card and closed their check. As the four stood from the table, Lus recalled his earlier shopping and dug his cooler out from under the table.
“Some ingredients for a couple of personal practice dishes,” he explained as the others gave him questioning looks.
No more was said on the subject as they exited the open air restaurant back into the still busy streets of the city. They’d only made a couple of blocks when Yrqw loudly cleared his throat.
“Say, Xwvl, there’s this Kremel memorial I wanted to show you before we head back. It’s only a little out of the way. What do you say? Should you and I go check it out while these two go back to the shuttle and convince Oaty not to leave us behind?”
Xwvl smiled, obviously excited about getting some alone time with her crush. “Yes. Sounds lovely, Yrqw.”
As the pair split off, Yrqw shot Lus a wink and motioned him onwards.
With a reddening face, Lusac turned back to an expectant Becky. She rolled her eyes and giggled upon noticing his blush.
“Come on, Lus. Let’s go before Oaty leaves all four of us behind. He wasn’t in a very good mood when he brought my group down.” She grabbed his hand and led him onward as though she was taking a child for a walk.
“Sorry about Yrqw. He’s convinced we’re in love or something,” Lus apologized as they walked.
“Don’t worry about it, [Chef] boy. You forget that I’ve worked under Yrqw longer than you. He even tried to set me up with Relf when I first came on to the crew,” Becky comforted him.
“Ugh. That sounds miserable.”
She squeezed his hand a little tighter. “You make for a better date by far.”
He laughed lightly, though a new sense of nerves hit him as the crowds around them thinned out, leaving only them as they approached the landing pad. They were close to the shuttle when Becky pulled him to a stop.
“Fake date or not to save your cat, Lusac, I still had a lot of fun tonight. Thank you.” She leaned in and kissed his cheek before he could stumble out his own gratitude, and then she turned away and walked to the shuttle.
He stood there for a second, rubbing the spot she kissed and wondering if maybe there was something to this dating thing after all. When she waved him up to join her on the platform with Oaty, he jogged to pair, a smile on his face. It seemed that his system was starting to pay off in more ways than one.