‘Thanks for trying to rescue me, Syl. I’m sorry you got caught.’
‘It’s OK,’ I replied. ‘I have a friend. He’s… out there, somewhere.’
‘Your friend? You think he’ll be able to come back for us?’
‘I fucking hope so!’ I replied - the stigma of swearing be damned.
Fuck! Shit! Crap!
Mel’s face twisted into the smallest of smiles. ‘You’re not like any other Terran I’ve met.’
‘What? Why? Cos I swear?’
‘That… and I heard you and your friend assault that guard out there.’
I nodded and pulled an expression that said: “I guess you’re right about that.”
‘Seeing as we might be here a while before Te’rnu comes back…’
‘You’re sure he will?’ Mel repeated.
Why did she keep asking that?
‘I’m keeping positive,’ I answered. Mel raised an eyebrow again; she was less convinced, it seemed. ‘As we might be here a while… now might be a good time to tell me what got you into this mess.’
Mel took a breath and a moment to collect her thoughts. ‘I guess there’s no harm in it. Not most of it, at least. I tried not telling anyone and they still locked me up for what I’d seen.’
I held my tongue, resisting the urge to make any facetious comments that might put Mel off confiding in me.
Mel, now beginning to loosen up, began to ramble. ‘It started when my father invited me along on his business trip…’
He never invites me to come along with him, you see. But recently, I’ve noticed he’s started trying to be more involved in my life. I think it’s because he’s spent most of my life working, and we never really got to be that close. Now he’s realised he missed out on my whole childhood, and he’s trying to make up for it. I like that he’s making an effort, at least.
So, he invites me to come along to Z’h’ar with him. He’s got a lot of meetings to go to - because obviously he’s so involved with the GMU council and all.
Oh.
Maybe I should have started with that bit. For context.
Yeah, let’s rewind.
So, my dad, he wasn’t involved much during my childhood because his work at the Galactic Monetary Union Council took up all his time. I don’t blame him, really, it’s not like it isn’t important work. My other dad always called it the “G-MUC” growing up, I remember. Well, no, he called it “that bloody G-MUC”, but that’s a whole other thing.
In his position, he’s involved in negotiating trade deals between planets in the GMU and those outside it. It’s a careful balance, he said: you want the trading to be mutually beneficial for all involved, but not so much that these external trade deals are actually better than between GMU members.
He was on your planet, actually, recently. What’s it called? Terra? Yeah, when your lot came out of the GMU there was all this stuff to sort out. I didn’t see him for a few months during that whole thing. But he did a good job, according to his superiors, and - as is always the case when you do a good job on something - he was given an even more difficult task: Z’h’ar.
Z’h’ar have been talking about leaving the GMU for a few cycles now, especially since Terra came out… OK-ish. So there’s been a lot of renegotiations going on, the GMU trying to propose new things to keep the Iyr on board. But it wasn’t going well, so, lo and behold, Dad gets roped in.
So we travel over, halfway across the galaxy to come here, and Dad is hoping we will get a little downtime. You know - see the sights, spend some time together.
But… no. It’s the same old story as it always was: work needs him, he hopes he’ll see me later. I know that that means he will not see me later. So I have to go out and make my own fun.
I don’t know about for you, but for me, a good night out involves plenty of alcohol and some partying. Oh, right, good, I can see you smiling at that so I know you’re the same. You know how it is, then. You get to a new place, you try the local bars, you try the local spirits, you try the… locals.
I was at this bar, and I’m thinking: this isn’t quite the scene I was looking for. It’s cold, it’s awkward, and it’s a little bit hostile, even. But I make conversation with this local anyway - he’s drinking by himself, so I figure he might want some company. This Iyr, they tell me that these bars are where the Central Command drink, so it’s always gonna be not much fun. I ask them to take me somewhere that would be fun, and they do just that.
My date takes me to this underground place, no Central Command, just locals having a good time. I’ll tell you what, them having a good time is still quite a quiet night back on Itagurinatipilazutinafi, but at this point, I’m thinking: I’ll take what I can get.
I keep drinking, try some of the local Oy’ta - did you try that at all, by the way? No? You haven’t missed much. Fairly average. Gave me a nosebleed.
Anyway, all in all, I’m having an OK time, so I invite the Iyr to invite me back to their place. More trouble than it was worth, if I’m honest. We get back there, they take me to bed. I still have no idea what I’m dealing with in the groin area, cos of the mechsuits, you know? But I’m not fussy, I’m happy with anything, so I’m going with the flow.
And I expect my date to actually take the suit off… but they don’t. Or, at least, they don’t take most of it off. Just the crotch area.
I’m a bit… miffed, but don’t want to spoil the mood, so… you know, I guess
