12-11-2017, 11:48 AM
Well at least the tour wasn’t boring. Aello found herself enraptured by the sights that were laid bare before her. As far as the space-born girl could recall she had never been to a megacity before, not that her memory was all that reliable. Still, when compared to space station Helios, Coruscant was a crown jewel. Magnificent skyscrapers, built with state-of-the-art materials and fashioned in a manner of architecture that was designed to elicit a sense of wonder, covered the city like sprinkles on the perfect ice cream cone. Worm-like trails of hovercars twisted throughout the city, following invisible highways and roads. None of the technology by itself was particularly impressive to Aello, she had seen it all before, but she had never seen so much of it in one place. Despite this excitement the metal-armed girl had appearances to uphold and contained her childlike amazement, only pretending to adjust herself or stretch in order to get a better view of something.
Their cab driver, despite his strange appearance, offered a more than hospitable ride. He spoke with enthusiasm, and drew their attention to several landmarks and points of interest. Once the initial glamor of the city wore off and they found themselves trapped in a three-dimensional traffic jam Aello turned her attention to her new companion.
“So,” Aello said, “what’s your deal?”
Ada glanced out the window and deflected the question, “what do you mean?”
“Well, I don’t know, like where are you from, what do you do, that sorta stuff,” Aello said, “y’know, just trying to make a conversation.”
There was a moment of silence as Ada weighed her answers, “well, in this context, I suppose Earth would be the most appropriate answer, and as of now I suppose I’m unemployed.”
Aello chuckled, “oh come on, [i]Earth?[/i} Really? You don’t have to fuck with me, if you didn’t want me to know you coulda just ignored me.”
“What?” Ada responded, “I’m not fucking with you.”
“You’re kidding.”
Aello studied her partner’s face and came to the conclusion that, no she was in fact not kidding. Disbelief swept over the scoundrel like a curtain. She sank back into her seat and rubbed her forehead. Now there was no doubt in her mind; the Omniverse truly was one nutty place. Ada’s curiosity had been piqued. Not that she showed it, she knew better, but the conversation had moved on from being just simple small talk.
“Why is that so hard to believe?” Ada probed.
Aello scoffed and regained her composure, “well other than the fact that Earth has been under a galactic cordone for the past few millennia, I suppose that’s not so hard to believe.”
“Galactic cordone?”
Aello shrugged. Textbook knowledge came rushing through her skull, things she had learned but could not remember where she had learned them. She explained that Earth had once been a member of the Intergalactic Peace Syndication, a group of supernations that had banded together to create a utopian society. However as they strove towards their grand goal of peaceful unification Earth amassed an army and set out to conquer the galaxies. Eventually they were defeated and confined to a single planet. Their punishment? Complete and total isolation. They were stripped of their technology and hurled back into a primitive era. As the final nail in the proverbial coffin a fleet of ships were set in place, keeping them confined to their own miserable existence. Aello strained to remember the little details, but found herself unable to recall much more than the broad strokes.
“Though it seems like none of that really matters anymore,” Aello said, shrugging, “don’t suppose you got a smoke I could borrow do you?”
Ada shook her head no.
“Pfft, figures,” Aello said.
Aello watched as their craft picked up speed and peeled away from the hellish traffic jam. Their tour ran for another thirty minutes.
“So now that you’ve seen all there is to see, where would you lovely ladies like to go?” the creature asked.
Aello spoke before her companion, “well, I need a ship, and some smokes, so take me somewhere that sells spaceships, preferably a place that gives out easy lines of credit.”
“Spaceship,” the creature said, adding an upward inflection to the words.
“Yeah, you know, spaceship,” the girl said, pointing at the sky, “flies in space.”
The taxi driver’s belly rumbled as he chuckled, “oh, it took me a bit of getting used to too, but I’m terribly sorry, there is no space here.”
“What?”
“Yeah, I mean, you can go up pretty far, buuut eventually you hit an invisible ceiling,” the alien shrugged, “guess Omni doesn’t want to go through the trouble of keeping track of a bunch of spaceheads.”
Aello deflated. There was no space, and by extension there were no space ships.
“This place is bullshit,” Aello mumbled.
“Actually,” Ada said, “if you could take me to the EPD’s headquarters, it’d be much appreciated.”
Aello pulled out the business card that Boggs had offered her. Jet black letters on an eggshell white background read “E.P.D. Empire Peace Division”. Contact information for the kind Lieutenant was kept underneath. She was a stranger in a strange land with no place to live and no sure way to make ends meet. While she wasn’t exactly the type to be a model employee she figured it wouldn’t hurt to make some scratch while she sorted this whole thing out.
"I've got nothing better to do so I'll tagalong with the earth-girl," Aello said.
For a while longer the three of them shared small talk. The alien explained the other tiers of Coruscant and told them that there was nothing but crooks and pariahs below tier three. Aello made a mental note to see what the lower tiers were all about, after all crooks and pariahs were her kind of people. Eventually they floated down to the ground and came to a complete stop. Compressed air hissed as Aello opened her door.
As she stepped out she pointed a thumb towards Ada and said, “the earthling’s got the tab.”
Aello stepped outside and glanced around while waiting for her new friend to cover the fare.
“Fuck me,” she said, “this place has got a lot of cameras doesn’t it?”
Their cab driver, despite his strange appearance, offered a more than hospitable ride. He spoke with enthusiasm, and drew their attention to several landmarks and points of interest. Once the initial glamor of the city wore off and they found themselves trapped in a three-dimensional traffic jam Aello turned her attention to her new companion.
“So,” Aello said, “what’s your deal?”
Ada glanced out the window and deflected the question, “what do you mean?”
“Well, I don’t know, like where are you from, what do you do, that sorta stuff,” Aello said, “y’know, just trying to make a conversation.”
There was a moment of silence as Ada weighed her answers, “well, in this context, I suppose Earth would be the most appropriate answer, and as of now I suppose I’m unemployed.”
Aello chuckled, “oh come on, [i]Earth?[/i} Really? You don’t have to fuck with me, if you didn’t want me to know you coulda just ignored me.”
“What?” Ada responded, “I’m not fucking with you.”
“You’re kidding.”
Aello studied her partner’s face and came to the conclusion that, no she was in fact not kidding. Disbelief swept over the scoundrel like a curtain. She sank back into her seat and rubbed her forehead. Now there was no doubt in her mind; the Omniverse truly was one nutty place. Ada’s curiosity had been piqued. Not that she showed it, she knew better, but the conversation had moved on from being just simple small talk.
“Why is that so hard to believe?” Ada probed.
Aello scoffed and regained her composure, “well other than the fact that Earth has been under a galactic cordone for the past few millennia, I suppose that’s not so hard to believe.”
“Galactic cordone?”
Aello shrugged. Textbook knowledge came rushing through her skull, things she had learned but could not remember where she had learned them. She explained that Earth had once been a member of the Intergalactic Peace Syndication, a group of supernations that had banded together to create a utopian society. However as they strove towards their grand goal of peaceful unification Earth amassed an army and set out to conquer the galaxies. Eventually they were defeated and confined to a single planet. Their punishment? Complete and total isolation. They were stripped of their technology and hurled back into a primitive era. As the final nail in the proverbial coffin a fleet of ships were set in place, keeping them confined to their own miserable existence. Aello strained to remember the little details, but found herself unable to recall much more than the broad strokes.
“Though it seems like none of that really matters anymore,” Aello said, shrugging, “don’t suppose you got a smoke I could borrow do you?”
Ada shook her head no.
“Pfft, figures,” Aello said.
Aello watched as their craft picked up speed and peeled away from the hellish traffic jam. Their tour ran for another thirty minutes.
“So now that you’ve seen all there is to see, where would you lovely ladies like to go?” the creature asked.
Aello spoke before her companion, “well, I need a ship, and some smokes, so take me somewhere that sells spaceships, preferably a place that gives out easy lines of credit.”
“Spaceship,” the creature said, adding an upward inflection to the words.
“Yeah, you know, spaceship,” the girl said, pointing at the sky, “flies in space.”
The taxi driver’s belly rumbled as he chuckled, “oh, it took me a bit of getting used to too, but I’m terribly sorry, there is no space here.”
“What?”
“Yeah, I mean, you can go up pretty far, buuut eventually you hit an invisible ceiling,” the alien shrugged, “guess Omni doesn’t want to go through the trouble of keeping track of a bunch of spaceheads.”
Aello deflated. There was no space, and by extension there were no space ships.
“This place is bullshit,” Aello mumbled.
“Actually,” Ada said, “if you could take me to the EPD’s headquarters, it’d be much appreciated.”
Aello pulled out the business card that Boggs had offered her. Jet black letters on an eggshell white background read “E.P.D. Empire Peace Division”. Contact information for the kind Lieutenant was kept underneath. She was a stranger in a strange land with no place to live and no sure way to make ends meet. While she wasn’t exactly the type to be a model employee she figured it wouldn’t hurt to make some scratch while she sorted this whole thing out.
"I've got nothing better to do so I'll tagalong with the earth-girl," Aello said.
For a while longer the three of them shared small talk. The alien explained the other tiers of Coruscant and told them that there was nothing but crooks and pariahs below tier three. Aello made a mental note to see what the lower tiers were all about, after all crooks and pariahs were her kind of people. Eventually they floated down to the ground and came to a complete stop. Compressed air hissed as Aello opened her door.
As she stepped out she pointed a thumb towards Ada and said, “the earthling’s got the tab.”
Aello stepped outside and glanced around while waiting for her new friend to cover the fare.
“Fuck me,” she said, “this place has got a lot of cameras doesn’t it?”