A Fleeting Chance

The afternoon light pierced the grime covered window and shed what little illumination it could manage into the small shabby room. Aside from a heap on the darkest corner of the room, it was bare. The heap was the sole occupant of the room Brett, a small spindly man with a young looking face a mass of bedraggled brown hair and a patchy beard.

Brett has the appearance of a man who hasn't eaten in weeks, which is more or less the case. He is a man you might say low on luck and what luck he has is running out fast. A series of bad decisions and even worse gambling debts meant all Brett has to his name right now are the clothes on his back and the four walls surrounding him.

A loud bang on the door awakened Brett and signalled that his luck had just got worse. Quickly, Brett attempted to straighten his clothes and made a vain attempt at smoothing out his hair, this had no effect what so ever. He stumbled to the door, took a deep breath and reached for the door control panel, calmly he pressed the button to open the door and watched as it slid aside to reveal his latest misfortune.

The door opened to reveal Ray, Brett's landlord, a large jovial looking man with a kind face stood there accompanied by two law enforcement officers. Brett knew why they were here and in order to save face invited them in.

"You know why we’re here don’t you Brett?” Ray announced resignedly, Brett could only nod in response “I hate to do this to a friend, but you give me no choice, you owe me twelve hundred credits in rent for the last two months and the next six hundred is due.”

“I’m sorry Ray, I got no money, nor am I likely to in the near future.”

“Look pal, I’m prepared to forget the twelve hundred you owe me, but you gotta be out this afternoon. Times are hard, I need the rent. You understand?”

“Is that why they’re here?” Brett pointed at the officers “To make sure I leave without causing a scene?” Ray’s silence was all the answer Brett needed. “They’re not necessary, I’m going. You’ve been good to me Ray, I wouldn’t give you any grief.” At that Brett made a resolute movement towards the door, as he was stepping past Ray caught his arm.

“I think you dropped this pal.” Ray said as he handed him a some credits wrapped in a crumpled sheet of paper. Brett glanced and saw one hundred credits.

“Please Ray, I can’t take this. I can’t repay you.”

“Call it a gift for setting you on the way in your new life.” Ray pointed at the scrap of paper as he said this and turned to walk to his office.

Brett looked more closely at the scrap, it had the address of a bar downtown and the name Elle written on it. Thinking no more of it Brett stuffed the paper and the credits into his trouser pocket and made for the door. It was a glorious day on Rhemus Prime right in the heart of Alliance Space and headquarters to some of the largest Corporations in the galaxy. Brett had a faint smile on his lips as he stepped into the sun, despite being homeless, alone with no place to go, Brett mused things could be worse, it could be raining and walked with a bounce in step towards the shipyards, maybe he could find somewhere to crash there this evening.

As if things couldn’t be any worse for Brett he’d only gone a few hundred paces down the street when two big burly men rocked up either side of him and gently grabbed an arm each.

“Mr Derrick wants a word with you sonny” Said the man to his left.

With this they hustled him into a car which sped off towards the busy shopping district.

After travelling for about 2 hours the car pulled up outside a large town house with two large guards on the door, one was human, the other was a species Brett had never seen before. They stepped aside to let Brett in accompanied by the two men who had taken him off the street earlier.