Chapter TWO748Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl8lFcwz94C
January 5th, 2164748Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡemtgTfWbmv
Once you begin to ride a motorcycle, feeling the wind embrace your shoulders and underneath your clothes, and having the desert road all to yourself. You feel your own Zen and peace.
The sand tapped against my helmet as I rode down the sand blasted stone roads that were now rarely traveled. The road was surrounded by sand dunes on either side, terraforming had to take place in order to create a single traversable road through what would originally have been just a bunch of desert dunes and canyons. I constantly checked the rearview window, scanning the tops of the sand dunes for hyena’s or the wandering ex-incarcerated.
The farther I ventured down the path and as my neighborhood slowly disappeared into sandy air, the dunes began to flatten out into a field of sand accompanied by mesa’s, canyons, and arches of orange with yellow and green tint marbled into the orange rock. I looked over my shoulder, and on top of a mesa there was a group of shadows that were just standing there perfectly still backlit by the blazing sun. The sharp scents of gunpowder and exotic spices filled my nostrils as I stared at the shadowy figures over my shoulder, a thought hit me like a bullet to the head, I was riding on a motorcycle.
I heard alien dialect; I looked in front of me to see a closely-knit caravan of hooded characters in robes riding in wagons pulled by Deva dragons, an alien reptile that was similar to a komodo dragon but much larger and covered with diamond shaped scales that was a shimmering jungle green that contrasted the flat sandy plains.
I quickly made a sharp turn to avoid collision with the caravan; I swerved tilting the motorcycle to such a degree that my face was literally inches from the guard. Sparks flew from the metal exterior scarping against the stone road, the sparks flew dangerously close to my face. I barely stopped in time get back on two wheels and narrowly turn around the caravan blocking the way in front of them.
The alien chatter resumed growing angrier and louder, after a minute of me stopped in front of the path one of the aliens dressed in a white robe and hood that was bordered with red lining on the edges. He wore silver shoulder braces, silver arm braces, and a silver neck brace. A red cape hung down from the shoulder braces, it flowed behind him as he walked against the wind, down the path, and towards me in a calm and menacingly slow manner.
His face was completely shrouded in shadow until he approached me; only a space of a couple feet was between us as he looked up revealing its face, It was a Demite, a nomadic species of alien that mysteriously wander all known worlds as merchants of often selling fine and mysterious goods. His face was scaly and sharply unforgiving, the scales were stark white in tone, and its eyes were sharp and angular boasting a piercing cold cobalt blue. It looked me straight in the eye like he was frozen; it flicked out its snake like triple pronged tongue investigating the close space of my face. He retracted his tongue back into the it’s extremely wide mouth that if curved into a grin would reach it’s ears end to end.
“Who are you, Sir?” his voice had no expression whatsoever, his voice had a cold hiss that sounded like someone was slowly letting the air out of a bike tire.
“You first.” I hissed at the Demite, demanding his name.
“Tex.” He hissed and spat, flicking his tongue through the air. His cobalt eyes scanned, with his lips pursed as if deciding whether or not he should tell me something. His eyes darted to my exit robe for moments on end and gasped, he quickly reached into his robe coming out with a blunderbuss in hand pointed at me. He saw my Karma issued pistol. “Karma… I ain’t done nothing, you will leave us alone.”
It was then and there I witnessed how the treachery of Karma has struck fear and doubt into the non-human populous.
“Tex, I need your help.” I quietly asked hoping to further ask about the storming of Pinto.
“I don’t help blue collars…” he looked down the iron sights of the modified blunderbuss aimed at me, holding a steady aim at my chest.
“I wanna tell you a secret,” I leaned in to his face and degraded my voice to close two inch whisper, “but I need to know you can keep a secret without hissin’ about to everyone.”
Tex let out a long hiss “Do tell.” He said sounding intrigued and suspicious at once.
“Karma was a fraud, why else do you think there’s scary lookin’ people everywhere?” I said to him as he listened intently, looking around as if he was afraid of being shanked in the middle of the desert which no longer sounded as crazy as it would’ve a day ago.
“Si, well I have to go,” his eyes were sneaking peeks at my pistol and then back to his caravan keeping his blunderbuss at hip level aimed at my kneecaps. “Au revoir.” He said as he tried to dash towards his caravan in a sense of urgency.
I leaned forward and clasped my hand on his shoulder, stopping him in mid sprint, “You know I can’t let you just go now, right?” I quickly swiped the blunderbuss out of his hand and pointed it back at him. “I’ll need to take a look at your fine goods.”
“P-please sir, we do not have much.” He backs up obviously intimidated.
I hold the blunderbuss up to my hip, ”Don’t make me do this Tex.”
He shook his head in sadness and disappointment. “No,” he said with a dead serious look in his eyes, “this is all we have left after Grange was taken.”
Grange sounded familiar it was a swamp town that was in the jungle that bordered the desert. I didn’t have much time, I’m sure word from Karma has reached Chancellor city of a traitor in the ranks. But I needed supplies, and even though I threaten to, I’m not prepared to shoot an innocent.
I slung the blunderbuss into my backpack; I was beginning to feel overheated from the tension that lingered in the air in between Tex and me. I tipped my head to say goodbye and stood my bike up again and put the helmet over my head. I twisted the throttle as the caravan cleared way for me as I rode in direction of the prominent skyline in the distance.
* * * * *
January 5th, 2164748Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp5cf9VKrfw
I rode down the stone road at a steady thirty miles per hour, watching as the sandy dunes and windswept sandy plains degraded and flourished into flat plains of tall grass and Majestic oak trees fanned out across the sky, a beautiful vegetation import from Earth’s savannahs.
The stone road looked newer and less weathered; the cleaner and well-kept stone road boasted a simple diamond pattern that linked with other diamonds, looking like diamond chainmail. I looked in front of me to see a chain link gate with black metal posts they looked like detectors. I slowed down my bike and stopped, confronting a Springheel android, a red light shining in the middle of it’s pitch black visor, the red light scrolled down and then up as if it was scanning me, my palms were clammy and a pit in my stomach formed.
“Mr. Finley, get off the motorcycle.” Said the Springheel with a high and warbled voice it didn’t move to show alertness or hostility, not even a gun in its hand. Just stood there completely still.
I took off my helmet and held it by the straps and got off the bike and kicked out the kickstand and stood it up. “What’s the problem bot?” I said in a deep voice uncharacteristic to me to have the android put in data that disputes the fact that my name is Ted Finley. I just needed to keep being someone else, this worked because it did not have an A.I. only a backup one that doesn’t seem to be activated at the moment.
“You appear to match credentials of Ted Finley, a man wanted of treason and endangering the populace.” It’s hand was lowering down to the side of his leg, I know for fact that there was a MMP inside it’s leg. “ We are ordered to eliminate on sight.”
I approached closer and stared it into the black visor, “Mate, you wanna let me in, or I’ll kick your robot can.” I now inherited an Australian accent further convincing the android that I was in fact a deep voiced Australian colonist from earth.
It’s hand raised up from his leg and pointed to the gate, “You have been admitted to Chancellor city, have a wonderful day.” The chain link fence slid to the side, I revved up my motorcycle and drove through the gate to enter a city of giant skyscrapers. The streets were busy with cars zooming up and down the streets of the Palpatine District, the skyline and most active district in Chancellor city.
The only sound of the road was the cars zooming past, no rioting despite the Prison break. I planned to drive to a nearby hotel to stay the night and in the morning look for a ride to Earth. Getting to Earth was not an easy task, the Lotus group fighting against the Noon Star rebellion occupies Earth making it a dangerous battlefield, Earth is classified as a no fly zone, that means you come within the boundaries you get a warning and then you get shot down, NASA has claimed Earth’s air space and has hired Karma to provide security between the atmosphere and Mars.
I arrived at the hotel it was grand and big, I slowed my motorcycle as I approached a roundabout with a group of steel cranes fixed in different positions around a rocky waterfall on a grassy plain. I turned right about a quarter of the way and turned into the entrance of the giant stone garage that was four levels tall. The main hotel that was a remarkable forty story’s tall dwarfed the garage.
I drove in hearing the rumbling of my battery echo throughout the garage. I took a parking spot and kicked out the kickstand and plugged a charger plug into the small circular slot of my bike. As soon as I sealed the plug into the circular slot the charger stand that looked like three silos, the middle one being about six feet the one on the left being four feet and the one on the right being three feet. Each silo was plated with decoratively steampunk iron with tall oval slits that showed the blue and purple liquid that created the electricity that charged the vehicle’s battery.
With a hiss the pump started charging my motorcycle indicated by the faint blue and purple light that shown under and through the casing. I walked through a dark brown oak door with a simple square pattern and walked in.
The temperature quickly went from cold from almost uncomfortably warm as I walked in. There was only a dimly lit hallway, lit by stamped bronze half circle shaped wall lights that shone light upwards. The carpet was red, short, and rigid, the bright scarlet carpet was decorated with intricate golden lines that formed circles and loops that entangled and intertwined with each other. To either side of the hall, directly parallel with each other was a men’s restroom and a ladies restroom.
I looked directly down the hall to see a monster of a man, he was at least eight feet tall and his biceps had to be as big as if not bigger than my head. He was bald without a single sprout of hair on his head, it must of all transferred under his nose, all the way down to his strong chin, and then even creating sideburns that stopped abruptly at the top of his ear. His nose was plump and wide like a bull’s nose, his eyes were a pungent green and wide but also strangely squinty. He also wore glasses that had the color of caramel and dark oak wood mixed together.
He stood there with his legs spread and his hands clasped together in front of him, where he could easily and quickly reach his hand into his pocket and draw his assumedly silenced pistol from his pocket. He wore a white tuxedo with a black dress shirt underneath topped off with a white bow tie; he wore comfortable looking white slacks.
Behind him was an iron door with an iron turn wheel that looked like a door found in a submarine. Above it was a group of outward facing light bulbs that spelled out ‘Hound Dog Lounge’ in curvy lettering. The light bulbs brightly lit the area where the burly man stood at guard.
Before he could see me I slinked into the men’s bathroom and tiptoed stealthily into a stall and slowly closed the door, cringing at the amount of creaking it caused. I took off my backpack and set it on the toilet and took out my MMP and tucked it into the back of my pants. I slung the backpack over my shoulder and as I made my way towards the door, I caught my image in the mirror, my beard was beginning to grow in again it grew back faster this time though, how weird.
I pushed past the door, and waved in a friendly way at the guard who looked at me and then straight forward again, frozen. I approached him and stood in front of him, he then side stepped in front of the door.
“So how you doing sir? Could you just step to the side so I can get in?” I asked trying to gain admission through the iron door. He snorted out a snicker. “This isn’t funny, sir. I need to get in, I’m on a timeline,” I tapped my watch “Now move.”
“Ain’t no casual comin’ in no matter the timeline, shortstack.” He smiled as he said his while looking at me up and down. “Story is I have a job and you have a timeline, truth is I don’t give a flying f*** about your timeline. I do however care about my job and my job is to kick your casual a** if you don’t get outta here.” He looked at me straight in the face, squinting he said, “So go.” Shooing me away with his hand.
I met his gaze and simply said, “no.” I leaned my face in closer towards his “Now scurry along, I’m on a timeline.” I said with a white smile.
He let out a snorted laugh and threw a fist at my face; I caught it in my palm and looked into his eyes distracting him while I pondered on my next move. He remained frozen with his fist caught in my palm, as I quickly reached for my gun with my left hand, released his hand and then ducking under his arm and popping up in his arms, where I quickly hit him in the face with the hilt of my pistol and then putting him in a choke hold until he was incapacitated.
I dragged his heavy body into the bathroom and sat him in a stall, stripped him of his suit, and slacks. I made it look like he was taking a duce, before I walked out while fastening the white bowtie to my collar. I then searched his pocket and found his gun; I screwed off the silencer and put it on my MMP.
I walked down the hall observing the painted murals that were the halls; they depicted what looked like old savannah creatures from Africa on Earth, including elephants drinking from a sapphire pond, giraffes craning their necks to eat leaves from a Majestic Oak trees, a pack of lions feasted on a downed zebra, and a cheetah chased an antelope in hot pursuit.
I walked over to the door that the guard was stationed at and saw a velvet curtain hidden around the corner out of sight. I ignored it and I gripped my hands around the cold metal wheel and grunted and wheezed as I tried to turn it, but I couldn’t budge it not a single itch.
Frustrated, I stormed over to the velvet curtain and pushed it aside and walked into a pitch black space, after walking in I stopped in even more frustration after I felt a cold chain of some sorts hit me in the forehead I stopped and tugged on the chain. The room lit up with a single light bulb hanging unprotected, I looked to my right to see a velvet booth with a table in front of it. On the table was a beer can, I snickered to myself, casual. I walked in front of me and saw an iron podium with a lever, nothing fancy; a lever would only realistically be used for strong locks or to perform actions that require more leverage or power.
I gripped both hands around the lever and held the front of my foot against the podium, I pulled letting out a grunt it was almost as if it was frozen in place. I put both of my feet against the podium and used my weight plus the strength in my arms and the downward weight to pull the lever back with a sudden jerk causing to fall back on my elbows. Behind me I heard the hiss of an airlock releasing, I waved through the curtain and again gripped both of my hands around the metal wheel and spun it this time and was able to open the door.
The atmosphere then changed drastically the bright yellow light of a giant crystal chandelier violated my eyes as I walked into the main lobby where extravagant men in suits chatting and holding glasses half way filled with differentiating colors of wine. I tried to keep my face down without looking suspicious and made my way to the front counter and checked out a room on the top floor.
“Five thousand and five hundred credits sir.” Said a golden droid in a high pitched almost ear offending voice, the golden bot had shades that ran across the droid’s big ovular bright golden eyes the shades constantly turned downward every few seconds like it signified blinking. It had a little slit for a mouth that opened and closed at random points when it spoke, the mouth was smaller than it appears as the same sized slit continued all the away across the front of it’s face.
“I’m afraid I cannot pay that fee.” I said disappointed, the view would have to wait.
The droid blinked and stood in silence, unblinking. I took the time to study the droid’s features further; it had a round head and pistons connecting his torso and elbow that allowed it to move its arms in a clunky but functional fashion. The torso looked plain only displaying a pattern that looked like medieval gold plated armor. The stomach region was heavily plated allowing for clunky bending at the stomach. Due to its features I could tell that this was a second-generation service droid. The second generation was between 1980 & lasted until 2020 where bots were not yet popularized and only used as service and private use of very rich individuals and corporations.
After a whole ten minutes of silence the droid narrowed it’s ovular eyes, a function I didn’t know a second-generation bot was capable of doing. “Ted…” it said in a different more croaky voice this time. “Lookin’ for a ride off world? Risky business but I think I can service you, meatbag.” The bot took on a sarcastic tone and came off as quite rude.
‘Sure,” I looked over my shoulder where I noticed a group of men pointing at us and whispering. “Why don’t you show me to my room.” I said now whispering.
“Meatbag, your wish is my command, for now.” He led the way towards a silver elevator that I could see my wavy reflection in. The droid hit a button and with a sharp ding the elevator doors slid to either side.
I resisting going in, trying to make the droid enter first. “Please enter the inconspicuous elevator, you fleshy meatbag.” I stepped into the elevator cautiously as I stepped past the droid, the droid then stepped inside the elevator with me and pushed a lit up button that had a black number forty on it. The elevator doors closed with a ding.
I turned around and saw through the glass wall the hundreds of lights emitted by cars as they zoomed down the highway and roads. I saw my faint reflection on the glass wall and as we ascended I began to see the giant green treetops of the Moon Meadow Park. The park was named that because the meadows and the treetops would mysteriously glow a vibrant green and expel a light mist and the rivers glowed an enchanting aqua blue aura. That only happens on a full moon night like tonight.
The elevator stopped and the elevator doors slid to the side with a ding, I took a last look at the beautiful skyline and stepped out of the elevator. My shoes clicked against the glassy pearly white tiles on the floor that soon transitioned into rose red carpet patterned just like the entrance. The droid guided me down the hallway, passing hotel rooms some with do not disturb signs hanging on the golden doorknobs. Until we reached the end of the long hallway to a door that unlike the others didn’t have a gold plate with a black number etched into it next to it.
There was a silver knocker on the wall, the droid stepped in front of me and banged the knocker against the door in a complicated pattern. Not an instant later a red tinted scanning field was projected from the doorknocker scanning the droid and me from the head all the way down to our feet.
The screeching sound of a mic being picked up blared through a speaker above the door that I hadn’t seen before, “Hey Greasy,” The droids eye shades moved in a way that made it seem as if Greasy was disgruntled with the name his assumed master had coined him. “Who’s the handsome looking stranger you’ve brought up.” The voice was distorted to make it unclear if it was a homosexual guy or an interested woman. The latter of which interested me.
“A potential customer, he wants a ride to earth, I suspect that he’s the Karma traitor, whom, mind you, is worth a couple million credits.” The mention of my bounty seemed to trigger some sort of human intrigue in Greasy.
With a hiss of an airlock the red door slid to the side, leaving the doorknob with no purpose whatsoever. At the door, a girl who looked about the same age as me her hair was dark black, wavy, and the ends were bright red. She had a slender face with a stout nose and big red lips, she wore a gunmetal blue body suit that captured every curve of her sleek body, and the kind of curves that should be reserved only for billion dollar Italian cars. She wore a steely grey cardigan over the body suit, grey straps and buckles lined her legs.
“Hello,” her voice was soft and gentle, she batted her fake eyelashes, “come in, I’ll make coffee.”
She left the door open behind her as she went to go make the coffee, Greasy led me in and sat me down in a stool in front of the island where the woman was pouring the dark coffee into a red coffee mug.
“Here, I’m April.” She handed me the mug and I sipped it, carefully. Bitter. Just the way I liked it.
“Thanks April, now about that ride.” I asked while holding the lip of the cup up to my lips, feeling the warm liquid embrace my lips.
“Well since I fancy myself as a pretty nice person, I will not turn you in.” the pit in my stomach went away. “It’ll be free, since I’m going there as well and could use a little company, hearing the same condescending voice from bolt bags over gets a little old.” She said gesturing towards Greasy, who looked again, annoyed.
“Alright, what are we ridin’?” I asked still wondering what April would be doing on earth.
“Good thing you asked.” She snickered leaving a smile on her face as she pushed a button underneath the countertop. To my right side I heard mechanical whirring, I looked over and saw two colonial style patio doors swing inwards revealing a shimmering pool. The whirring continued and a small starship rose from the assumedly deep waters, the pool closed up behind t a steel platform.
It has steel grey with gunmetal blue highlights, it has a triangular cockpit shape and the wings on each side were a hexagonal shape. The thrusters were spread throughout the ships body from the back tail side to thrusters on the wings. The door folded out beckoning us with bright lights.
“Welcome aboard to my favorite ship, Dice.” She said implying that whatever she did on earth earned her more than enough to afford more than one starship. She walked out on to the platform and beckoned me in to the starship. I felt a hot glow into my cheeks, attraction. Something I thought that I would never feel towards another woman again. So I climbed the steps and looked at the marvelous and rich interior, the walls were lined with hardwood panels and the walls were dark blue felt. After closing the door with a hiss, she walked towards cockpit and pulled back a red curtain and allowed me in. The cockpit was lined with various mechanisms ranging from the basic pilots control to the advanced defense mechanisms such as shields, EMP signals, and even light speed functionality’s.
“Take a seat skipper,” she motioned to the copilots seat. “At exactly 22:00 hours will take off for earth.” She pulled the throttle and the twin turbo engines revved up with so much energy that the ships floor vibrated underneath my feet violently. “ETA: 9:04 Earth planetary time, buckle and fasten your seatbelts,” she pulled another lever, the wings expanded twice its width as the outer plating expanded off the base wing creating two wings parallel to each other with a small space in between, increasing its aerodynamics. “We expect a helluva lot of Turbulence.” She said with a smile while looking at me, pulling another lever and with a start the ship ascending into the air floating stagnantly, and then burst forward and upwards in incredible speed, pits formed in my stomach and we flew through the darkness of space, destination: Earth.
748Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfodwLdgEAk
748Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAugTrxtpRm
748Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFxorOfdLtL
748Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcud7FWx2ZN
