Chapter 3
I slammed into the back wall behind me. The protective suit took the brunt of the impact, but I was still slightly stunned and disoriented as I searched the room for whatever enormous object had come barreling toward me.
A large truck with six wheels and a huge cargo container on the back zoomed past me. Its path took it over the spot where I had just been standing just a moment ago, and as I looked at it, I imagined a flattened version of me lying there with tread marks across my body. The truck had been traveling so fast that there was no chance the driver could have stopped for me even if they had slammed on the brakes, which they obviously hadn’t.
“That would have been ironic,” I muttered as I got to my feet. “Earth’s savior makes it to space, discovers alien life, makes contact with species from another star system, and then gets run over by a truck before he can do any of the actual planet-saving part.”
“It appears that health and safety is not a priority on this floor,” Francine said.
“Really?” I said sarcastically as I brushed myself off. “Where’d you get that idea?”
I stayed close to the wall as I studied the deliveries level. This floor was less bright and vibrant than the welcome area upstairs, which made sense as visitors weren’t expected on this floor, so they didn’t have to make it showy and welcoming. There were no shops, trains, or random visitors to be seen. The people I did see seemed to know where they were headed and made their way quickly and easily around the enormous chasm.
Crevices zig-zagged across the ceiling like cracks, and light glowed from within them to light up the area. I could see a couple of small robots that scuttled across the ceiling and fixed parts of it with the blowtorches that were attached to their arms, and the sparks rained down from them like a glowing, fiery shower. The light from the torches and the glowing crevices revealed an area in need of a renovation, from the dusty floor to the scuffed walls. But since most visitors never made it to this level, I could understand why it wasn’t at the top of the to-do list.
The buzz of activity also would have made it difficult to do any touch-up work, and I could imagine the impact on trading that it could have if they closed this level down while they did any improvements. Carts, trucks, and some hovercrafts, which, of course, I gawked at, trundled across the floor and zipped through the air, though if there were any rules of the road, so to speak, I couldn’t figure out what they were. The pedestrians in the area were definitely taking their lives in their hands, and that included me, as I had just found out for myself.
I watched two more trucks drive right past me with boxes of cargo, sheets of metal, and other materials loaded on the back. I was sure there was a system at work, a method to what looked like madness, but I wasn’t able to work out exactly what that method was from where I was standing. Everyone just seemed to go in random directions, and there didn’t seem to be sections for different types of delivery, either. Everything was just piled up and driven around everywhere, but who was I to criticize it if it worked?
“Well, we’re definitely in the right place,” I said. “But I have no idea how we’re gonna find Darak in here.”
“Did you say Darak?” a voice to my right asked.
I turned to see a creature, bipedal and about my height, beside me. He had brown, coarse skin, sort of like the skin of a kiwi, and instead of having eyes like mine, with an iris and the white around it, his were entirely orange. As he blinked, a layer of translucent skin slithered across his eyeballs to wet them, and then retracted. I tried not to stare, but it was kind of difficult. He also had a few healed scars down his arms, which looked like they had been pretty deep wounds before they’d sealed up.
“Is your earpiece broken?” he asked. “Can you understand me?
“No, yes…” I replied as my brain switched back on. “Uh, yeah, I was told to look for Darak regarding a delivery job?”
“Looking to make some quick money, are you?” the guy asked as he crossed his arms and looked me up and down.
“Yes,” I replied confidently. “Well, hopefully.”
“Huh,” he said with a smirk, as though he didn’t think I stood a chance. “Well, good luck with that.”
“Thank you,” I replied. “So…”
“Darak is over there,” he said as he pointed across the room, and I noticed that he had claws for nails. “See that line of people?”
“Yeah,” I said as I noted the small group of aliens waiting next to a makeshift booth across the room from me.
“Wait there, and Darak will see what he can give you,” he said. “You might be in luck because today has been very busy, but Darak does like to use the same drivers a lot of the time. Still, you could be in with a chance.”
“Great,” I said.
“You have a ship, right?” he asked.
“Of course,” I said.
“Good,” he replied. “Then you should be… fine.”
“Thanks for the help,” I said.
“Don’t mention it,” he replied, and then he wandered over to one of his colleagues, who was the same species as he was, and turned away from me, as though it would stop me from hearing him. “Did you see that? That guy’s eyelids are weird.”
I chuckled to myself as I turned and started to walk through the Deliveries floor toward Darak’s booth. I was reminded that every life form I spoke to considered me the weird alien, and that everything about me probably seemed strange, like my brown, floppy hair, my pale flesh, my two legs and arms, and apparently, my eyelids as well. I was as abnormal to them as much as they looked weird and wonderful to me. I did, however, make a mental note that I really needed to stop staring at new species when I first saw them.
As I walked across the room, I kept an eye out for any vehicles moving in my direction, but I also studied the cargo that was being unpacked. I spotted one group looking over some weapons, another loading some sort of equipment in protective wrap into the back of a ship, and a third group struggling to place sheets of metal onto the back of a truck.
At least I knew that this place definitely had a lot of the stuff I was going to need to get the ship in perfect shape, so all I needed to do now was get enough money together to pay for it. I was hoping that I would be able to earn enough in one go, but I didn’t know how well paid deliveries were here. Back home, delivery drivers didn’t make a ton of money, but they weren’t traveling across space, so I couldn’t really draw a comparison. The colored tokens seemed to be the currency they used here, and I assumed that it was sort of a universal monetary system, like credits, so that all aliens could use it no matter what planet they came from.
I walked around piles of unmoved cargo, crowds of workers that had stopped for a break, and more trucks of different shapes, sizes, and builds. Some of them, like the one that had almost plowed into me earlier, had six wheels, while others had four. A few even glided along on about forty small ones, but my favorite were the ones that floated about a foot off the ground.
It was an incredible operation the locals had set up, and I wondered what the other floors of the Aghoa Space Station were like. I also wondered how many different species were in the suspended building at one time, how many languages were spoken, and how many of these aliens were like me and were experiencing their first interstellar space port for the first time.
As I approached Darak’s station, I turned my attention to the aliens that were waiting in the line. I realized that every one of them had scars or wounds like the alien I had just spoken to a moment ago. I spotted deep gashes on many of their bodies, while others had pale grooves in their skin where the wounds had already healed. There were plenty of bandages with some kind of pale yellow balm to be seen, and a few of the aliens were even missing limbs.
Some of them looked over at me with their scarred faces as I arrived, but most of them didn’t even bother to waste their energy.
“Do you think this is the right place?” I muttered.
“Yes, this is where we were directed to go to meet with Darak,” Francine replied.
“But if these are the guys that do the same job I’m about to sign up for…” I said as I took in the cuts and bruises. “Then I’m glad you made me that suit.”
“Yes,” Francine said. “It would be ideal if you kept all four of your limbs.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I replied.
Bob beeped from beside me, and it sounded like one of mild concern. I bent down and patted him on his little yellow body, and that seemed to cheer him up a bit. Still, he didn’t seem all too pleased about what I was about to sign up for.
“At least I’ll have my sidekick with me, right, buddy?” I said to the robot.
Bob beeped with enthusiastic agreement and did a little hop, so I was pretty sure that I had convinced him.
At that moment, a door behind the booth opened. A Snooli entered a moment later, only this one wasn’t the cute and cuddly type. The new Snooli was huge, around seven feet tall, and though he still had the same light blue fur, it was singed and patchy, like he’d just been caught in a fire. Chunks of fur were missing and revealed his scarred, blue skin underneath. He was also missing one of his trunks, and the horn on top of his head was stained purple, although I wasn’t quite sure what the substance was. I assumed it was some unlucky sucker’s blood, but I reminded myself that I should never make any assumptions about this totally strange world.
He looked fierce, with beady eyes and a thin mouth, even though he strode across the floor on all fours. He didn’t stand up until he reached the counter, and then he cracked his back before he dropped his front legs on the counter and glared at the assembled drivers as though they were criminals that were about to be sentenced. He looked like a formidable judge on his podium, and I just had to hope that he selected me for one of the jobs he had on offer, or else I would have to somehow find another way to make enough money to get the materials I needed to improve my spaceship.
I could tell that he knew some of the pilots better than others from the look of recognition in his eyes as he took each of us in. He frowned, or did his equivalent of a frown, when he saw me, though I really did stick out like a sore thumb in that group. Then, he looked down at a tablet in front of him, which had the same raised writing that I’d seen on the other tablet. He put his remaining trunk onto the writing, felt across it, and then he looked up at us again. Clearly, this was Darak.
“I have a shipment to go to X-9,” he said, and he meant the next planet over from Aghoa, which was X-8. “Food produce. One hundred thousand credits. Sarn, can you take this one?”
“Sure, boss,” one of the aliens beside me, one missing one out of four of his legs, replied. “But if I run into Mesop again…”
“Yeah, yeah, you’ll shoot him,” Darak chuckled. “We’ve heard it all before.”
Darak honked, and another Snooli, a smaller one, hurried over to the booth. Darak told the shorter Snooli where to take Sarn, and then the newcomer led the three-legged, limping alien over to the shipment.
“If he’s allocating the shipments to people he knows, then we might be here a while,” I whispered.
“Pelt, the usual,” Darak said without looking up. “Three hundred thousand. X-4. I’ll give you an extra fifty credits if you’re back on time.”
“Got it,” Pelt, a brown alien with the same kiwi-like skin as the guy who had pointed me in this direction said, and then he sauntered off across the warehouse to collect his cargo.
“Alright, I have a shipment that needs to go to X-13,” he said. “Expensive cargo. Five hundred thousand credits for whoever wants it.”
“That is more than enough credits for the basics we need to upgrade the ship,” Francine said.
I expected all of the aliens to jump at the opportunity for that kind of payout, but all of them just avoided eye contact with Darak. Clearly, none of them wanted it, though I had no idea why. Still, if I could get enough credits with one trip to fix up the ship, then I couldn’t turn it down.
“I’ll take it,” I said as I raised my hand and stepped toward the booth.
Darak looked me up and down for a moment with obvious skepticism, but I looked back at him confidently. I knew it would be a risk for him to trust me with what he described as expensive cargo, but I held eye contact with him to show I wasn’t intimidated in the slightest by him or the job he had on offer. When I didn’t flinch under his hard gaze, he eventually nodded in approval.
“Alright,” he said. “Follow me.”
He dropped back down onto all fours and started to walk away before I could respond. Despite his heft, his long legs gave him a wide stride, and I had to run to catch up to him.
“I haven’t seen you around here before,” he said as I puffed along beside him. “Or your kind.”
“Yeah, I’m kinda the first,” I replied.
“Well done,” he said, and he sounded mildly impressed. “So, that’s why you’re so keen to earn some money fast, then?”
“Yeah,” I replied. “My ship works, but it could do with some improvements. Let’s just say that I was working with limited resources back home when I built it.”
“Fair enough,” he said. “Well, as long as it can get this cargo from A to B without falling apart, then that’s all that matters.”
“You said it was expensive cargo,” I said. “What is it?”
“It’s an element called Aghorian,” he replied. “It’s only found here, hence the name, and people pay a pretty price for it. It goes into weapons and spaceship engines.”
“I see,” I replied. “You’re offering a lot of money to get it to X-13.”
“It’s a longer trip than most of the ones we do,” he said, but I could tell there was another reason for the high payout as well as that.
“Still, five hundred thousand credits,” I said. “That sounds like a hell of a lot for one shipment…”
The Snooli stopped walking and glanced at me with his beady eyes.
“Alright, I’ll be honest,” he sighed. “The journey to the space station on X-13, where this cargo needs to go, is difficult.”
“How so?” I asked.
“Well, all the trade routes can be dangerous,” he said. “This one is obviously longer. Plus, there’s an asteroid belt around the planet that you’ll have to navigate through.”
“I have a small ship,” I said. “That shouldn’t be a problem.”
“Then there’s the small issue of the pirates,” he added.
“Sorry, did you just say ‘pirates’?” I asked.
“You didn’t think it would be easy, did you?” he replied. “I mean, the fact that no one wants it obviously tipped you off that there was something bad about this deal.”
“Well, yeah,” I admitted. “But pirates? Though I don’t even know why I’m surprised, at this point.”
“They’re everywhere, the bastards,” Darak grumbled. “Waiting around every corner to steal my shipments.”
“Can’t anyone do something about them?” I asked.
“We do have military ships that spend most of their time trying to catch the pirates,” he said. “But there are so many of them these days that they can’t catch them all. And as soon as you shoot down one, two more seem to take its place. They’re a plague.”
“I see,” I said.
“They’re getting bolder, too,” he continued. “They used to just go after ships that were operating near the edge of the system, but they’ve started striking near the inner planets as well.”
“But those are shorter trips,” I said with a nod. “So less chance of encountering the pirates.”
“And there are military vessels nearby if they do attack,” the Snooli said. “That’s not true about these runs out to the edge. You’ll probably be on your own.”
“Got it,” I said with a nod.
“But, if you make it back here, it’ll be worth your while,” he said. “Five hundred thousand credits goes pretty darn far here. And I’m not exaggerating.”
“That five hundred does sound nice,” I replied. “I could see a lot more of the galaxy for that price.”
“Exactly,” the Snooli chuckled.
He led me over to a stack of three crates in the center of the room. He opened the top one with his trunk, and I leaned over it to see what was inside. The box was packed full of protective cushioning, but in the center was a metal case that was sealed tightly with a band of a wax-like substance around the opening.
“It’s just these three boxes,” he said. “Think you can manage this?”
“Definitely,” I replied.
“X-13,” he repeated. “Come back here when you return, and I’ll give you those credits. If you don’t come back, we’ll send a rescue ship after you when there’s someone free. Although, you could be waiting a while.”
“That’s reassuring, thanks for that,” I chuckled. “How much are you making if this is successful?”
Darak didn’t reply. He just smiled, winked at me, and then trudged away back to his booth.
“At least he thinks I have a chance,” I said as I looked down at the open crate of very expensive cargo that was in front of me.
“He would not give such valuable cargo to your care if he did not think you were likely to make it,” Francine agreed.
The boxes looked small and unassuming, to say the least, but if I could get them to X-13, the planet that was five over from Aghoa, then I was set. All I had to do was drive through an asteroid belt and deliver these three crates, all while avoiding pirates that wanted to steal the cargo and probably kill me for good measure. Piece of cake.
I picked up one of the crates and put it on Bob’s back, and then I took the second two on my own. Bob and I made our way carefully back to the elevator, without getting run over, and went back up to the main floor.
The doors slid open, and then the little robot and I stepped out into the crowded main entrance hall. I pushed my way through the throng of people while I kept a tight grasp on the crates and a close eye on Bob, who followed diligently behind me with the third box secured on his back.
Once we’d made it through the crowd, we arrived safely at the exit, where the Snooli I had met earlier still stood. It waved one of its trunks at me as I reached the door and pottered over to me.
“I see you met Darak, then,” it said when it saw the boxes in my hands.
“Yes,” I replied. “I’m heading off on a delivery now.”
“Where to?” it asked.
“X-13,” I replied.
“Good luck with that,” it said with wide eyes. “You’ll need it.”
“Thanks,” I said, and then I put the boxes down, reached into my pocket, and took out the purple token. “ Oh, and here. I don’t think I’ll be using this, but thanks for the offer.”
“You wouldn’t be the first,” the Snooli chuckled. “What’s in the canteen isn’t for everybody.”
“No, it is not,” I chuckled.
I picked up the boxes again and walked back into the hangar, which was even busier than it had been when I arrived. The Snooli honked goodbye at me, and then the doors slid shut.
I made my way back across the hangar to my ship, which looked pretty tiny compared to most of the ships in there. It was like I was in a fishing boat while the rest of the ocean was covered in yachts, but that didn’t matter. In fact, it was probably more ideal that the ship was smaller, since I would soon have to navigate an asteroid belt while I tried to avoid pirates. Maybe, if I was smaller, then I would go undetected, or at least, the pirates wouldn’t think I had anything of value on board.
I loaded the crates into the storage compartment at the back of the ship, including the one on Bob’s back, and then I picked Bob up, climbed in, and closed the ramp. I made my way over to the ladder, climbed up into the living area, and then made my way through into the cockpit. Bob trotted after me, and he seemed happy to be back inside the familiar ship. He sat down beside my pilot’s chair as I took a seat and strapped in.
“I am entering the coordinates of X-13 into the HUD,” Francine said.
“Thanks,” I said as I watched the front window light up with the directions as well as a map of the obstructions I might come up against.
“I have alerted Control of our departure, and we should be cleared soon,” the AI added.
I studied the map until Francine signaled that we had been cleared to leave. I used the thrusters to pull out of our space, and then I joined the line of ships waiting to leave. There were only a few spacecraft in front of me, and before long, I was staring out into the dark, magnificent, star-speckled void once again.
“We have been cleared, Will,” Francine said. “We can exit the space station whenever you are ready.”
“Alright,” I said as I listened to the whirring of the ship and the beating of my own heart. “Clearly, some of those guys down there don’t think I can do this. Let’s prove them wrong.”