Nebula

A Goodcat Gone Bad

"You want a job? Kyspaia."

That's what one of the security guards on Mars told me days before I was due for take-off. A friend of a friend of a friend has a job that I might be able to do in the Kyspaia system, on Kyspaia. My first intergalactic transporter job and I was already assuming that it was mine. A job that might leave me with a hell of a lot of creds or could leave me floating somewhere in the Presley's wreckage.

Yeah, only a small margin of error.

I had a long list of planets and systems that I wanted to see in the Milky Way. The Darwin moons, the Frozen Sun of the Skiea people, the Shakespearean forests of Jupiter Alpha and maybe partying in the night-life district on the Durian planet Louche. I know, Durians partying? It's weird, but not entirely unheard of. And those were only a small fraction of the list I used to have.

Kyspaia wasn't on that list. It was a cheap tourist planet which had nothing that could interest me. At all. Not even the famous underground labyrinths that ran the whole course of the planet could spark my interest. People had been tortured and killed in those halls, which was a bit too morbid for me.

Things have changed since that time.

The planet was positioned just a tiny bit closer to their sun than Earth, meaning that it was almost entirely desert. But as we learned a few centuries ago - a desert isn't exactly a lifeless. Kyspaia in particular is probably the best example of that, with weird reptilian people as their primary life forms.

My dad used to have a saying about the Kyspian people. It went; don't expect a Kyspa to save your skin when they shed a hundred of their own. Something like that, anyway. But the point always was that they were the shadiest, greediest people in the galaxy. Snakes by looks, snakes by nature; untrusted, slithering little shits. They'd be willing to sell their own mother to people if it meant a few extra credits.

Credits they'd use to buy their primary narcotic, water. Stranger things have happened in that part of the galaxy.

Kyspaia's gravity was only a bit heavier than Mars. It wasn't much, but I could certainly feel it as I landed. It felt as if I'd landed hard from a foot drop. And every step felt the same, which is a weird sensation to say the least - at least at first. But my bones would hold. It was my first time off of Mars in a few years, so I did feel like groaning and complaining like a baby.

I felt like it, but after stepping out of my shuttle I snapped my mouth shut. Because in that place, only the strong survive.

Kyspaia's ship port was busy with a huge amount of cargo ships from all corners of this galaxy and beyond. Dusty light brown walls in huge dome structures with electrical satellites strapped to each one; each one. Sometimes it was a different colour and sometimes there was a luxurious air conditioner that managed to keep the temperature below sweltering. Boo-hoo for us poor mortals who had to make do with the shade we could find.

It also had all sorts of species here which made humans seem insignificant compared to them - huge blundering rhino like creatures that stood eight feet tall and could smash a skull like an orange; floating, slim beautiful creatures with pale green skin from the outer galactic planets; golden skinned supermodel-tourists; Durians, of course.

At the time, I was impressed with what I saw. Because those guys were much different from the aspiring police officer that I'd met in my rebellious years. They were shining with their crystalline blue skin, wearing ceremonial robes, or at least they looked like they were ceremonial. Expensive, at the very least. They weren't just struggling to make a living on Mars - these guys were living it up, a full assortment of servants and gorgeous women behind them.