Scenes From Space

Chapter Nine: Day Four of Ten

"Can I ask you a personal question," Graham asked. 

We were out to lunch at a shack of a restaurant. We had walked along the beach, in and out of the waves as they rolled over the black sand. Occasionally, we would come across a crustacean that looked like it was straight out of Jurassic Park, or a sea-bird that was hot pink. The plan was to grab food and then talk to the guy who hooked up Amber's tech at the Dance House. I really wanted to see if he had any advice for charging my phone.

"Of course you can, honey," I responded to Graham, with only a little sarcasm. I was proud that it was just a little. Graham rolled his eyes. We were both aware that we couldn't drop the cover while we were on Kiri'ee.

"Are you ashamed of your tattoos?" he asked.

"No, they're just very distinctive and I don't want a rumor of a tatted human making its way back to the Collective," I said softly leaning across the bench. I stole a bit of Graham's food. His rice-like thing was better than my meal. He frowned and moved his plate away from my fork. I pouted at him.

"You're not still Wanted are you?" Graham whispered. "Because you shouldn't be out of hiding if..."

The look on my face cut him off. "No, the time on my bounty has long passed," I sighed. "I'm just being cautious." I paused briefly. "You know, not reckless," I said with a raise of an eyebrow.

Graham snorted. I took another bite of my salad-like thing. I moved the blue fruit to the side of the bowl. It reminded me of mangos. I didn't like mangos.

"You going to eat the Kiri'eelian Gongo?" Graham asked. I shook my head and moved the bowl closer to him. He scooped the fruit onto his plate. He traded the fruit for a few bites of his lunch and slid the bowl back to me. It was almost like we liked each other, almost.

"The tattoo on your side looks like a flower painting that my mom did," Graham whispered.

"Was your mom from California?" I whispered back.

"L.A.," answered Graham.

I smiled real wide. "Santa Barbara, for me. The flowers are poppies." We finished our meal and took the dishes back to the green guy in the shack. Then, Graham grabbed my hand, with his human one, and pulled me down the street into town.

Amber's tech guy was a typical, equatorial Kiri'eelian. His green skin was tanned dark. His nails and hair were maroon. His hands and feet were webbed. Amber had told him we were coming so he quickly led us to the back room with a mention that his name was Brizichii. 

He walked me through converting the Earth wires to Waseatryn tech. I thanked him and transferred a few of the credits I had earned from the Dance House. We left his store, and for the first time in a while, I was optimistic for the future. I would have my pictures and music collection back, when I got back to RAFO, and back to my phone.

Graham and I wandered through the winding streets, window shopping. The streets were black cobblestone on the lower levels of the island. The island got more techy as you moved up the mountain. But here, by the beach the island was chill. No one wore shoes, the stores and restaurants were all open to the outdoors. I dragged Graham into a clothing boutique so I could try on an incandescent purple dress.

"Why are we doing this?" Graham asked from outside the dressing room.

"I need a dress for the ceremony," I joked before pulling the curtain open and stepping out. The dress glimmered between purple and blue in the light. The bodice was tight around the waist and chest, which pushed my breasts up awesomely. The sleeves hung down, loose around my arms.

"Ta-da!" I said and turned around in a circle. "Tell me I look good."

"You always look good," Graham sighed. "But you look really good in that dress." His lips were turned up ever so slightly. I bought the dress. It was on sale.

We wandered through a few more stores. Graham ended up buying a new button down shirt. It was black, plain black. I respected that choice. We bought matching ankle bracelets as a joke and put them on, immediately. Finally, we went out to dinner at a more upscale joint on the beach.

We were out on the second floor deck at a small high table. There was a fireplace roaring, a bottle of wine, and two plates of some sort of fish on the table. Our bags of goodies were under the table.

"I really needed today," I told Graham.

"Me too," he sighed. "I know that our time here hasn't been easy but I think it'll be worth it." I cracked a smile at him. All the faking it was going to my head. I wanted to reach out and grab his hand. I held myself back.

"Well, if it isn't my favorite dancer and bartender," came a voice from behind me. Graham tangled his feet with mine. I turned around to look at the three aliens we usually spent the night spying on.

"It is a pleasure to see your face without the mask," Dameryn said. The light from the fires cast a menacing orange haze over the blue-furred humanoid. 

"Thank you, Sir. How are you all doing this evening?" I asked with a fake smile stretching out my cheeks.

"I was a little sad to find out that you had the night off but I'm glad to run into you now," Dameryn said. "I was hoping to talk to you about the cost of your partnership papers." The other two Waseatryns looked a little exasperated at their third. I, a little, wanted to chug the wine right from the bottle.

"Oh, um, what about our papers?" Graham asked. My com flashed a few times and I ignored it.

"I was wondering if you'd consider my sponsorship of your union," Dameryn said.

"We could never accept that much money," I protested.

"It wouldn't be freely given. There would be an exchange of services," the dickbag said.

"What services?" Graham asked suspiciously. We knew what the answer was going to be. Cafferty and Bryrian had taken up at the bar. They both had drinks in front of them.

"Before you say no, I want you to think about what saying yes would mean," Dameryn said. "You could go back home immediately. I'll even include enough in my sponsorship so you can take a honeymoon after. I just want one night with the lovely, Miss Genevieve, here." I grabbed the wine glass and took a swallow to stop the bile that was coming up my throat. "Think about it." Dameryn turned and took a seat with the other two at the bar.

Graham grabbed my hand. "One of us is going to have to follow them when they leave," he whispered.

"I have the mask and a change of clothes," I sighed.

"You sure?" He squeezed my hand once. I nodded and squeezed back. We paid for the meal in silence and collected our things. Graham and I ducked into an alley so I could change into a skirt and jacket. I put the tech-mask on and set the programming to change my whole face. I pulled my hair back and put a hat on.

"Com me if anything goes wrong," Graham said and took a breath. "And, com your Captain back. When you don't respond, he bothers me."

"I'll be safe and sneaky," I promised with a nod. Graham left to take our stuff back to the Dance House. I waited in the alley for the three aliens to come out. I checked the message from Ben and sent one back to let him know that yes, I was still alive, and yes, obviously I had written the update from last night.