I'm better at verse than at just plain 'ol writing. But I've been thinging of making sci-fi short stories for awhile.
The systems of Alpha Centauri were conquered. All of the fear the people of earth felt that they would be attacked by beings far superior to them was unwarranted. They made it into space and found that the races of Alpha Centauri were much less advanced than the combined nations of Earth, and the two habitable planets had a bounty of resources. Earth found allies in a group of aliens known as Wanderers, a race that fled their planet due to imminent destruction. They were too few in number to conquer the planets of Gagarin and Armstrong, which revolved around Alpha Centauri A and B, so their fleet set up stations on the lifeless planets of Alpha Centauri A and B, as well as the dead system of Proxima Centauri. They had scouted out earth in the 20th century, but found that they had lost too many scouts to continue funding their projects, but they apparently felt no hard feelings in their alliance made with the NoE. The wanderers provided the NoE with several services in exchange for the exclusive rights to the Gagarin and Armstrong slave trade. With the support of the numbers of the NoE, they proved to be brutal warriors and helped speed the war along with minimal casualties for the people of earth, according to the news networks.
That the war had ended fifteen years before didn't matter to Orion Smittan, he had to live it every night over and over again, fighting the jungle-things of Gagarin. The weapons that he had were meant for fighting humans, not those vile creatures. Tonight he was screaming in his cot. Adelaide Mu couldn't take it anymore. She got on the intercom. “Rise and shine passengers, the Hydra will be arriving at the Barnard's Star in several hours and docking at the UAE's wondrous base city of Independence!”
“Fuck you,” Orion said groggily as we woke up, still sweating from his nightmare.
“There will be plenty of hookers in Independence, Orion, I'm sure you can wait a few hours for that release. Now, get showered, you smell like a Uranian. People might forget you were born and raised on Titan.”
“Yeah, whatever.”
Orion walked into the showering room and slammed the door so that it made a cold metallic clank.
Adelaide looked to her jacket's right arm. She undid a velcro flap to reveal her personal computer.
“Tolek Minicomp model C765 At Your Service, Adelaide”
“Could you pull up the current mission briefing file and patch it to the ships hologram projector?”
“Yes, Ma'am.”
Adelaide turned her attention to the holo-projector to see the image of her boss, Eli Randolf- Chief of the Interstellar Police. The Interstellar Police are an organization responsible for police matters that involve multiple star systems.
“Captain Mu, Sergeant Smittan, here is your next mission. We are loading a detained psychotic Gagarin Centaur responsible for the deaths of three wanderers and two humans into the Hydra right now. You are to take him to Independence City for his trial, it is farther than Earth, but we want this to be low profile, and then you will have to transport him to a prison colony. There will be a welcoming party on landing platform 23 for you one week from now, so you'll have to leave at 1500 hours to be on time. You'll have a few days in Independence City, don't get into trouble. Chief Randolf out.”
“I kill them, I kill them,” the Centaur screamed in his native tongue. He pounded on the door with his enormous reptilian hands, but nobody seemed to hear. He stood on his hind legs and thrusted his front legs into it. Still, nothing happened. “They not do this to I! I Hlopek!”
Hlopek struggled some more, but it was no use, he was not going to free himself.
“I feel like I've known you forever!”
“Oh, there is a lot you don't know about me, I only just met you and got you drunk,” Ryp said as he gently moved the mess of blonde and blue-black hair out of the pathway between their lips. He pulled back. “Wait, this is wrong. I don't really know you.”
The drunk blue-black haired woman pulled him close “My name is Gean, I work for Smithfield Arms company. Now kiss me!”
Ryp obliged her. “I used to work at Smithfield Arms company! What do you do there?”
“I work on their transport ships. The pay is great, and I only need to be there the day that they take off,” She kissed him again, “I don't have to work until next Monday, gotta get up early though, because the ship will take off at noon
She was lucky. He wasn't a ripper. He wasn't going to have sex with her than kill her. He didn't have any alien STDs—which can be quite nasty. He was just a man who found liquor and sex an effective way to loosen lips. He wasn't even very amorous, but he considered himself in debt to her for the valuable information she just gave him.
“The Hydra will be coming out of superlightspeed shortly. All crew and passengers secure themselves,” the ship's computer announced.
Orion took the co-pilot seat. “God, I hate Independence city.”
“But it is on a cold dumpy little moon revolving around a gas giant, it should remind you of home!”
“I hate home, I'm waiting for the day I can afford a nice place on good old fucking Earth.”
“At the rate you break protocol I don't think your going to make chief anytime soon,” Adelaide reminded him. “Time to start the landing procedure.”
“Aye-aye cap!” Orion said with an irritated look on his face. He tuned his radio to the controller frequency, “this is Interstellar Police ship Hydra, requesting permission to land on Dock 23, over.”
“Negative Hydra, Dock 23's hydraulic system just went out. Proceed to Dock 17, over,” the controller replied
“Roger that, over.”
“Transmitting now, over.”
“Received, we will land shortly, over.”
“Alright then, Officer Nilko will meet you shortly for customs, over and out.”
Adelaide brought the ship over the landing pad and let it down gently. With a lurch, the hydraulics lowered the whole pad into the pressurization room. A hallway extended to the ships starboard door. Orion got up, picked up his bag, and immediately opened the door
“Greetings, I'm Officer Nilko.”
“Smittan.”
“Right, we'll scan your bag and. . .hello Captain, Captain Mu, correct?”
“Yep,” Adelaide nodded.”
“Right. We'll scan both your bags and confirm your ID, then you can be on your way.”
The officer's aid picked up their bags and used an Y-ray wand to detect the contents.
“OK, Orion Smittan, blue eyes, black hair, pale complexion, that all checks out. I got to do an eye scan and get your fingerprints.” He pulled out a small pen like device and a pressure pad, synced them to his wrist computer, and finished the ID check on Orion. “And Adelaide Mu, brown hair, medium complexion, green eyes, I got to scan you too,” Nilko said and then identified her too. “Well, you check out. You can be on your way. We'll unload your cargo after the ship's exterior is brought to this pressure level. Enjoy your stay in Independence City!”
Adelaide and Orion grabbed their bags and entered the elevator. The door closed.
“Welcome to Independence my ass. Let's go get some fucking beers so we can forget we are here.”
“Sounds like a plan Orion,” Adelaide said as they got off the elevator and left the building.
Under a sign saying, “Independence City, Now 5 Degrees Warmer!” (they raised the city temperature to -5C just that year) were some protesters. “Abolish alien slavery!” they shouted and harassed wanderers that came past.
“Orion, don't let anyone know we brought a centaur here. That would start a shit storm. Even the abolitionists are afraid of Centaurs. Sure they love the other Gagarin races, but centaurs can rot in hell as far as they are concerned.”
“Hell is too good for most of them.”
Adelaide looked to a bar on her left. “They've got a fine selection of imports here and the bartender can make a great Black and Red, he's been here forever, I think he got his license the day the city opened 20 years ago.”
“Sounds great.”