Just about now, that lone box, named Socks. Was flying through the galaxy at hundreds of thousands of miles an hour. But, compared to the amount of space contained inside space. It was going nowhere, very, very fast. Fortunately for it, a lone scientist had been peering through his telescope. He had happened to see this small box, and was amazed at his discovery. He is now watching this with interest.
Jones, who on the other hand, the crew of TheShepard was now thinking hard. It seemed they had been scammed, and were now 250,000 credits short of freedom. The three of them sat and thought deeply. They had all decided, not ten minutes before, that since they had already come half way, they should finish the journey, had gone back to sleep when the mammoth appeared and had missed the last thirty minutes of exciting dialogue was suddenly awakened with a brilliant idea.
“We can gamble!” The crew looked at Jonah.
Vida was the first to speak.
“Gamble? That’s crazy! We’ll just get a couple of jobs, within a couple of months we should have enough as long as we keep spending to a minimum.”
Jonah looked at Vida as if she was crazy.
“A couple months? Are you crazy! If we gamble, we can be there by the end of next week.”
Vida gave Jones her best motherly look.
“Obviously you’ve forgot about the down side to gambling, we could lose all our money!”
“Pssssshhh… Nah, that can’t happen, not if we play Zoggar.”
“Zoggar?” Adam had perked up. “Oh no, no no no.” Adam backed away from Jonah.
Jonah smiled.
“I remember he was telling me about his home planet. Adam was second place world champion in Zoggar.”
Vida turned from Jonah to Adam.
“You? A Champion?”
“Look, I played once, and now I stopped. I stopped doing that a long time ago.” Adam, for some strange reason had a look of terror on his face.
“Well, he would have been first, but there… there was an accident. But that’s beside the point. Look, let’s go, I know where they have a Gambling station. Its called Rombulous.”
Vida had that itch, she could feel that something was going to go wrong.
“Huh, fine. If you want to lose all this money go ahead. I’ll be there to laugh as you fail miserably.” Vida pouted. “Does no one ever listen to me?”
Jones looked at her. “Well, thanks for all your support! I at least hoped you wouldn’t start nagging us until we actually lost the money.”
Jonah turned back to Adam.
“So what do you think Capn?”
Adam cast his eyes across the others. Sometimes he hated being the decision maker. He hated pressure. As he came upon Vida’s face he couldn’t meet her eyes.
“Yeah, we’ll go.”
___________________________________________________________________
Adam and Vida were sitting on the floor near the back of TheShepard. Adam was patiently explaining to Vida the dynamics of the game, as the two other men watch in amusement.
“What the hell is a Zorf?”
“A Zorf lets the player gain an extra turn. But, only before you switch hands and fold down two cards, or else you would actually lose a turn.”
YOU ARE READING
Space is Vast
Science FictionFour friends pilot their mediocre ship across the galaxy in the hopes of finding fortune, adventure, and family. (This was written in high school)
