Space Travel

Page 3

We did find it, mostly because my sharp-eyed fugitive comrade noticed a piece of space-paper floating in the void that read "Moved Seekrit Space Stashion to Nil Kura PS Pleese dont tell STA". From that fragment of communication, I deduced that we would be able to find the haven of Latet Navalia near the moon of Nil Kura.

And find it we did.

It loomed over the horizon of Nil Kura, a smallish for space station terms, but imposing nonetheless, construction of jagged metal and mismatched parts. I turned my ship to the right, heading towards Nil Kura and away from our planned hideout. I quickly explained to my passenger* that it was safer to park on the moon and take a space-taxi over so we would be harder to trace. I explained this quickly, you see, because I happened to notice that taking off from the dockyards on Latet Navalia was the ship of an old, let's say, acquaintance of mine from back in the days when I smuggled space-geckos into Caducus Silva as pets whom it was probably best if I did not run into again. I sped down to the docks, parked in a hurry, and flagged a space-taxi as we leaped for cover behind another, more carefully parked vehicle. I should say I leaped, actually. My companion** sauntered over to the space-taxi, shaking his head as he did so. It looked to me like he was getting tired of my having to speed around everywhere and hide from every third vehicle we saw, but hey, he wasn't the one who sold common dry space-newts as valuable space-geckos.***

So we finally made it onto Latet Navalia. It was kind of fun to watch my companion discover the bizarre collection of semi- to very-illegal businesses, restaurants, bars, and more questionable establishments there. I had been here so often, so busy dropping off deliveries and not asking questions that I had forgotten just how eclectic and interesting a place it was to experience for the first time.

We were, at the time, of course, pursued, unbeknownst to me at the time, by an STA interceptor. I really did think the STA stayed away from Latet Navalia. Anyway, we were, so soon after arriving we didn't even have time to order drinks, stopped by the aforementioned authorities. It was too bad, really. It had been a while since I'd been here, and I was looking forward to showing my new friend the sights.

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*Whom I began to feel was becoming more trouble than he was worth...

**And who, now that I think about it, never gave me his name...

***Or plain space-daffodils as carnivorous toe-sucking yellow tubeflowers, or rocks with feathers glued to them as pygmy sloth-owls, or moon-sand as Mirisian wonder-spice, or any number of other wonderfully clever deceptions that did nothing to boost my popularity among certain organizations.