Drain Space

Chapter 2 - Asteros

After coming to my senses, I walked down into the dirty stone of the spaceship dock. I began wandering in the opposite direction from where the xenobites went. I took a big breath of air and felt the sweet touch of fresh air on my lungs for the first time in years. As I looked around I realized there was no water nearby the dock for traditional sailing ships as far as I could tell, I surmised that all commerce was done, on this part of the planet at least, through spacecraft. A quick glance at my new wrist mounted device caused a hologram to appear, the time taking up most of it, but I didn't need a device to tell me that it was about midday. The sun was high and the sky was clear blue.

To my right, I saw enormous constructions towering over the skyline, far into the distance. I had to stop and watch in awe as one of these pillars began to rise into the sky. I realized they must be some kind of shipping freighter, that was the only reason they should be so big.

The area of smaller spacecraft that I was standing in had rows of lots to set down one's ship, with space in between each row that people could walk down. Despite the fact that the sun was beating down, making me wish I had something other than robes to wear, it appeared to be a particularly busy day. I did not see a single unfilled lot, apart from the one the ship that dropped me off landed on, though even that was filled very quickly.

Spaceships lined the walkway I traveled along and floated above my head, casting shadows that allowed me to escape the heat for a moment. The ships I saw there varied in every possible way, shape, size, color, and state of repair. Some ships seem to follow human impressions of speed and elegance. One of the ships I passed caught my eye due to a cherry red paint job and ornamental spikes coming off the back of any part that stuck out, giving it the appearance of a vintage American hot rod. Still others seemed more plain. Many of the ships I saw were very squarish with no visible windows, and paint that was more often chipped and faded than it was intact. Then there were the oddities. I saw one that looked like a short office building, but twisted into a helix, another that was a large standing ring, a few that just looked like multicolored blobs, and one that was covered in what looked like bars bent at ninety degree angles, as if a bismuth crystal was painted- burnt sienna.

In general, the area was devoid of life. And I began to feel something I hadn't felt for five years, and wished never to feel again.

I felt alone.

I considered turning around and heading to the mission, but I decided to trust the Universe and continue walking. I calmed myself by reminding myself that I'll be able to hire a crew to work with me.

Every once in a while, someone or something would pass by. Some of them would be robotic workers, purpose built machines washing spaceships or more anthropomorphic robots serveiling them, possibly looking for policy violations or keeping the vessels from being damaged. They intimidated me so I avoided them as much as possible.

There were a variety of alien species, a sight that was no less shocking than meeting the J'kelri five years ago. It felt as though I did not ever see two that looked alike unless they were traveling together, though that only happened once or twice. In general it did not seem that anyone would leave their spaceship here unless they were here for business, legal or otherwise, so no one greeted each other. Instead they chose to focus on their own goals, perhaps to try to get out of here sooner. Out of common decency, I did my best not to gawk at the extremely varied passersby, a task that was very difficult at first.

Interestingly, many of the alien creatures looked somewhat human. They were largely of an upright stature, usually bipedal. They usually had hands with at least two fingers for grasping and feet for balance as well. While these mechanical similarities were good for me as I could use the infrastructure without much issue, the similarities all but stopped there. Eyes, facial features, even if their head was the uppermost feature on their body was not necessarily a given. One such specimen had their face on their chest, reminding me of a sketch I saw from an early European explorer.