“Mr. Shadow, I don’t know what they smoke these days, but you best cease immediately”
“But I’m not high! I received a—”
“Notice of an employment offer at Starlight Intersystem Logistics via the Setcom, yes, I heard you the first time. And that’s why you absolutely must be on some kind of mental inhibitory agent to think that Starlight would stoop so low as to hire some record-less nobody, not just from a backwater colony this remote, but an even more remote subsetlement orbiting it!”
“But I—”
“Can Barely walk in this gravity! How can you expect to handle the acceleration of a Luminance-Class Innersystem Freighter if you can barely handle .84 g’s?”
“Well they have dampeners for a reason…”
“Dampeners which suck precious energy and can fail. We have millions of applicants who can both survive g-loads which would shatter your legs AND have documentation of experience”
“But I have my flight logs! Easily over 20,000 hours!”
“We only except official corporate records, personal logs are just too easy to forge”
“So does every other ‘corporation’ in this entire planetary system! No one takes personal logs!”
“How unfortunate. Now please, for the 3rd time, we have no job for you, please depart our premises.”
“But—”
Sigh “Security to the front desk please.”
“But I—”
“No, Mr. Shadow.”
“Alright alright, you see? I’m leaving, I’m walking out the door!”
“And what a wonderful sight it is, Sir.”
————————————————————————————————
Lucky Shadow regretted it all. He regretted talking with the condescending secretary. He regretted entering the cold, gray, sterile lobby in the first place. Hell, he regretted believing the Setcom message that led him to believe he could escape this infernal collection of moons, rings and planet that had bound his life.
When he opened up his notifications list nearly a week prior and saw a message claiming to be from the premier logistics company in the whole of civilization, he thought his life might finally be on the up and up! Like his name actually meant something more than a cruel joke! Sure he had his doubts, of course Starlight wouldn’t approve his application. Of course they wouldn’t use such a causal form of communication. But the chance was too good to not take. And thus, he found himself buying a shuttle ticket with the measly scraps of currency his cousin could afford to pay him for flying the ring-miner. And what was his reward for bankrupting himself on this voyage? Rejection and being nearly kicked out by some security goon.
And now, here he was. On a street, paved with compacted regolith blocks. A tram stopped at a nearby station.
I could make it there before it leaves. He thought, If only I could afford it. Sweet Celestia, I’m tired.
His stomach took this opportunity to remind him that he hadn’t eaten since departing his home half a rotation ago.
And I’m hungry. Tired, Hungry, Broke. Damn it all.
The sky’s weird too. Too few stars, too much light. Completely ruined by this damn atmosphere.
I hate this place.
————————————————————————————————
He kept hobbling through the settlement. Looking down at the sidewalk, he noticed it had changed to partially rusted steel grating,
Probably scrap from one of the original colonial ships
In fact, now that he took a chance to look around, he noticed that nearly everything around him was some kind of improvised or scavenged level of construction. Crumbling grayish bricks, mismatched paneling, organic structural meshes. Why build when you can bodge?
————————————————————————————————
He continued in an abject stupor until he sighted the gray beach and realized he’d reached the end of the island this stupid little settlement was on. It was actually a quite beautiful sight, with the orange sun, dimmed by proximity to the horizon splashing light across the pink water, contrasted by the haze gray skies and gunmetal shores. A flock of Pegasi and a singular griffon flew over the wave tops, evidentially returning from one of the islands in this cluster. Cluster? No, that’s a word for stars and galaxies. Arki-pelge? No,
“Archipelago!” Lucky exclaimed!
That’s what this is… Dad… taught me that word…
Hearing a cough, he looked to his side and saw a chartreuse hippogriff to standing next to him and glaring. In the stranger’s claw was a cloth bag, with a number of crumbs on the ground around him. A bit down the beach in front of them were a couple tiny amphibians scampering towards the waves.
“Sorry…” He said to the stranger sheepishly and quickly slinked off.
His stomach, evidently annoyed that he had failed to heed its previous requests for sustenance took the opportunity to shoot out a debilitating wave of hunger and pain.
Cost be damned, Lucky thought after recovering from the crippling hunger pains, I need food.
————————————————————————————————
It turns out that growing up on simple protein & fiber rations and the odd vegetable dish did not prepare one for the smells of meat cooking. Despite the waterfront being lined with dozens of restaurants, the smells of frying meat from half the shopfronts churned his already discomforted stomach.
Finally, the restaurants on the waterfront ran out, replaced by an eclectic variety of housing. Even though he was now free of the revolting odors of burnt meat, the pain of hunger only increased. Finally, he bit the bullet, turned up a street and slipped into some kind of dive bar.
Looking around, he saw a darkened, bustling and packed tavern. Gray compacted regolith bricks lined the walls and the only light came from lamps over the bar and some candles on the tables. It looked like a real life set from an ancient science fiction film.
Seeing no completely open tables, pondered if he should wait for one to open, but his hunger quickly vetoed the idea. Instead, he went to the nearest table and just sat down on an open seat.
“Excuse me SIR..” Lucky looked up through the hunger. There were five other creatures at the table around him, a towering wall of bluegray feathers which had evidentially been the source of the voice, a brown cloak with a zebra muzzle poking out, a straw colored unicorn wearing an old ocean-navy captains cap, a pastel aqua hippogriff and a short fox wearing the faint lavender work suit of Starlight’s maintenance department. All of them were glaring at him
“Uhhh…” Lucky uttered.
No one at the table spoke until the fox spoke up:
“Can you, by chance, fly a SILC intersystem shuttle?”