Number One Fan

Chapter 1: Back & Fourth

'Riley's Emporium For Antiques And Miscellaneous Hardware' was located on promenade level D, section omega-four-two, right in between Mrs. Chen's shop and several other shops and rest areas that took up this ginormous part of the ship. Riley's shop specialized in selling and trading various trinkets of authentic and valuable merchandise: tools, spare parts, toys, ration packs, and anything else that was considered worthy enough to occupy the shelves.

This was not the first iteration of the Emporium— back in their island tribe on Omeocoon, there was a duplicate store of the same name located in the town square. Of course, the shop back home was made of oak wood, had pretty stained glass, and was passed down through eight generations(give or take a few decades with the Xalorian war putting a roadblock on all Omeocoon trade.) Now, the shop belonged to single father Riley and his son Happy.

Today, the shop was not made of oak or stained glass. It had beams of solid titanium and brushed aluminum to hold up its walls, ship's status displays placed on every other bulkhead, and lights that became excessively bright from time to time as the warp cores flooded the power conduits with excess energy or excessively dim when the bridge crew routed power from nonessentials to other systems like propulsion and defenses. They were 'landlocked' into an inside cabin, so that meant there weren't enough windows. As they hit turbulence, the entire compartment would shake, so there were grab handles littered throughout the entire shop for that express purpose.

Four thousand square feet of shop space was reduced to 2,000 square feet of combined living and store space. For such a large ship, it certainly felt cramped. The living area was reached by ascending a narrow, steep flight of stairs that Happy enjoyed running through at full speed almost every day, much to his father's disappointment.

Happy's constant running back and forth made him sound like an army of Panthorians crossing a battlefield on their way to war. And what bothered him even more was the severe lack of common sense that led to the running. Riley smothered his head with his pillow to try and muffle the noise. Bump, bump, the swishing of a drawer being ripped open, and someone rummaging through it, loudly, then slamming said drawer. Then, the bumping. Over and over and over again with zero end in sight. "Happy—!" Riley snapped as he ripped the pillow off his face and drew the curtain that secluded his bunk from the rest of their living quarters. That was his only sliver of privacy on this entire ship, and his son was ruining it. He caught the last glimpse of Happy's heel as he gunned for the shop floor. Riley rolled around in his blankets for a bit to try and wake himself up before climbing out of bed— it was better to get the day started early anyway... he just expected his alarm to be doing the wake-up call, not his son. He put on his usual apron and followed Happy after making his bed... and then making Happy's bed.

He made sure to take his slate screen off the charging dock before heading down there. It was the 2103 equivalent of a phone or a radio. But much more bulky and quickly produced by the engineering staff. Happy liked to play with the little antenna on the top, pulling it out and putting it back in. He even broke it once, which was pretty annoying. As usual, Riley had it turned to the daily reports channel. Today, it informed the population of a class two wormhole, which should be an exciting sight as long as the ship stayed a safe distance away from it... to think that he'd never left the solar system six months ago, and now here he was seeing a new phenomenon every week like they were nails in a hardware store.

Happy saw his father dragging his feet down the stairs, still shaking his fatigue off with an annoyed glare stricken across his face. Happy was already at his usual position, the front counter, but his entire focus was less on the store and more on the comic book in his hands. He eagerly flipped through it as if the store would just run itself. "Morning, Pop. Did you know that they have comics for all the senior members of the Patrol? It's so cool how they pay attention to real events while putting a fictional spin on things!" Happy shouted at his father before he peacefully continued.