Spaced Out

I'm Commander Shepard & This Is My Favorite Store On The Citadel

Over a meal of raw fish, unlaced rag tea and two fingers of honey curl which Doctor Puu smoked, he told her a bit about Kaptune and about Titians.

The doctor sucked the silver tip of a curl hose that looped from a silver pot heated with chunks of glowing crystal. "Kaptune's terrain, with the exception of a few roving hot spots such as this, is predominately glacial." Smoke clouded from his moving lips. "Barge cities, like Myskuul, follow one of the six Pillars that revolve around Kaptune's surface."

The methane geysers were called Pillars out of tradition. Ages ago, the sea colored aliens worshipped the blazing columns of burning gas and the stars which they believed patterned past, present, and future. Though the old religion fell out of fashion long ago, modern Titian customs traced to it.

"The Pillars' blasts are so powerful they thaw the ice around them for hundreds and hundreds of miles. The nearer to the geysers, the more ferocious the clime becomes. At the far reaches of the thaw radius the fleet would encounter ice flows."

"I'd rather live on the ice in the fresh air," Lily said, sipping from her bitter, but cold, rag tea.

"The tundra have their own unique difficulties. Spectralline is glorious, though. Well worth suffering the ice and snow."

They left the café arm in arm. Their guide awaited them in the walkway outside, the floating awning nowhere in sight.

The Titian girl twirled her long hair into a thick bun atop her head. "Sun's low. They're setting up the Twilight Market now. If we don't hurry the Market Street will be a clog. I have your goods transport hitched up there."

"Transport" was a big bull of a creature. A mat of long, curly fur covered its bulky body like a lama crossed with a sheep dog's coat. Cloven hooves—or were those toes?—capped its stout legs. A blue snout poked from a tangle of its cream colored fur. A gold ring looped through its nostrils and two more pierced its floppy ears. Silver gnats swarmed about its head in a glinting cloud. One of the pests hummed near Lily's ear. She slapped the side of her face and whimpered at the sting.

"Ample storage for our needs." Doctor Puu slapped the animal's flank. Its ropey tail slashed the air. The doctor jostled the utility saddle fitted to its humped back. Large packs attached to the sides of its belly and an open crate crowned its hump.

Their guide knotted the flapping panels of her tunic at her lower back. Excess fabric wrapped her legs. The formerly slit-sided skirt transformed into a pair of sloppy breeches.

"All the air pallets were reserved," she said. "Lucky I found a gambul at all."

The gambul in question craned its head towards Lily. The wooly creature snuffled at her neck and face and tested her cheek with a fleck of its long, purple tongue. Grunting her disgust, she covered its snoot with her hands and shoved away its head. She wiped her cheek with the back of her hand. Giggles broke up the Titian girl's chatter about her work hardships.

While they ate and drank and puffed away the height of the turn, Myskuul's temperature improved. The sun dipped so low it touched the watery horizon line. Kaptune's rings glowed rosy in the purpling sky. The evening's shadows brought Titians and a surge of savvy tourists out of hibernation. Main streets flooded with pedestrians, lowing gambuls, and droning air pallets laden with purchases. Market Street throbbed with raucous cacophony, shone with dazzling sights, and puffed out tantalizing scents as the Twilight Market awoke.