Flying out of Thim orbit proved to be slightly more treacherous than arriving had, due to several pieces of space junk that were bigger than the Nova Dancer.  Starr managed to reach clear space though, hitting nothing larger than a person’s fist.  Missing the tiny pieces was impossible, since they were as thick as soup.

“I’m glad we’re going to Gateway next,” he told Viv.  “A good hull inspection is probably warranted after this.”

“Have you plotted a transition point yet?”

“No, I’m going to do it right now.”

“I’ll get out of here then,” she said, getting up.

Starr spent more than the usual time calculating the positions of the gravity wells in the system. It wasn’t that it was a more difficult job than usual.  It was just that his mind kept becoming distracted.

Finally, he punched everything into the console, and then got up and started for the bunkroom.  Just before entering, he stopped.  Strange sounds were coming from around the corner—gasps, moans, grunts.  He carefully peered into the room.  The first thing he saw was Viv’s naked back, and then her naked bottom.  She was facing away from him as she bounced up and down on top of the new passenger.

His breath catching in his throat, Starr quickly turned around and retreated to the flight deck. There he sat, his mind replaying what he had seen.  He was bolted back to awareness by the transition alarm.  He hit it and the ship jumped into hyperspace.

“What’s going on?”

“Hmm?” Starr turned to see Viv back at her station, fully clothed.

He glanced at the ship’s chronometer and realized he had thrown the transition switch almost two hours earlier.  Two lost hours.

“Nothing,” he said, climbing out of his seat.  “I’m going back to check on the cargo.”

As he stomped past the common area, Prinda fell into step beside him.  She was probably the only one who would have fit beside him in the narrowness of the hallway.

“You’re upset.”

“I’m not upset.  What would I be upset about?”

“You’re attracted to her and she’s procreating with that other male.”

“She’s not procreating, and lower your damn voice,” hissed Starr.  “She’s just having a little fun, and she’s entitled to.  She’s not mine, and she’s too young for me anyway. Besides, she has terrible taste in men, apparently.”

“All right.  It’s just that you seemed upset.”

“I’m not upset.”

The captain opened the hatch to cargo bay eight and looked inside.  It was filled with stacking cargo containers, presumably full of recyclables.  Nothing looked amiss.

“Was there something else you needed?” he asked the Castorian.

“No, not at all,” she said, turning and heading back the way they had come.

Starr stepped into the cargo bay, closing the door behind him.  He grabbed a packing blanket and spread it across one of the cargo containers. Then he lay down and tried to sleep.

“What are you in here for, Starr?” asked Huppy.

Starr opened his eyes to realize that he had actually been asleep for a while.

“Just taking a nap.”

“You need to get up. It’s time for dinner.”

“I’m not really hungry.”

“Okay.  That’s good.  With two passengers, there’s no more room at the table.”

Though he wasn’t hungry and really didn’t want to sit with the others anyway, he followed Huppy back to the common room.  There actually was room at the table, though Starr still didn’t join Viv and Lexxon, who were sitting way to close, facing Prinda, and Huppy.  Instead he pressed the button for coffee and leaned back against the counter and listened to the conversation.

“I still have a hard time telling you apart,” said Prinda.  “Starr said the Karendians are the pretty ones.  You’re Zarian.  How do Zarians compare to other humans?”

“We’re the normal ones,” said Viv.

“I’m a Zarian too, aren’t I, Viv?” Huppy asked.

“Sure you are.”

“What about you, Mr. Lexxon?” asked Starr.  “I don’t place your accent.  You’re not Rialtan, are you?”

Lexxon’s mouth formed into a thin, mirthless smile.

“My people are from a little planet called Leonis-4.  It was a backwards little world, having just developed steam technology before it was invaded by the Nakh.  A good portion of the population was exterminated, and the rest were scattered about.  I grew up on a racially diverse planet claimed by both the Ozolians and the Providers.”

“The Providers!” gasped Viv. “You weren’t slaves?”

“No.  We weren’t slaves.”

Starr turned and picked up his now full cup of coffee, as he mused over Lexxon’s story.

The Providers.  They had been a major force in the galaxy for thousands of years, based on the trade of slaves—mostly human slaves.  There were countless minor human races who were the results of genetic manipulation by the Providers—like the Forty-fours, one of which had worked in the brothel on Armiger.  Then the Providers had picked the wrong side in a long series of interstellar wars. They weren’t gone though.  They were still around, one of a few races that humans generally avoided.

There turned out to be a huge amount of cargo ready to go to Gateway.  Starr was right in that the Grajanic ship was not headed in that direction. They were sometimes excluded from class-A starports because of poorly maintained equipment, though he didn’t know if that was actually the case in this specific instance.

“We’ve got a full load for the first time in I don’t know how long,” said Viv.  “You and Huppy aren’t going to be able to play hammockball.”

“It’s basketball,” said Starr.  “How long before we’re loaded?”

“Some of it’s outside the dome, so it’s going to be at least tomorrow before we’ve got it all.”

“I hope Prinda has another vid for us to watch.”

“She called it a movie, and she said she has more, but there’s also a museum over in the other dome. Why don’t we all go take a look?”

An hour later, Starr, Viv, Huppy, and Prinda the Castorian were riding on a tram from one dome to the other.  The merchant captain had insisted that they break out the respirators, so the three humans wore them, covering their noses and mouths.  They probably could have made do with a cloth over their mouths. The atmosphere wasn’t poisonous, just full of particulate matter.

The village inside the other dome consisted of some two dozen small houses a four-story apartment block, and an administrative building that contained a company store and the museum. The museum was located in a room that in reality was nothing more than an alcove, with artifacts arrayed on shelves covering three of the walls.

A heavy-set woman in a brown jumpsuit was moving from left to right across one wall, a small cleaner in her hand, sweeping away the accumulated reddish dust that slowly drifted down from the air to cover everything.

“Hello,” she said.

“Hi,” Viv replied. “We’re here to see your museum.”

“Well, welcome, welcome. Come in and look around.”  The woman’s accent indicated a Capellan, which wasn’t much of a surprise.  Capellans were everywhere.  “I’m Olla Winty.  I’ve tried to put together the most complete collection of Ancient Thim artifacts anywhere.”

“So, this is all your work?” asked Starr.

“My husband is one of the recycling team foremen here.  Most of what they pick up gets recycled or sold as art.  There’s a big market for art forms of extinct species, you know. I’m working on my graduate degree in archeology and as part of my dissertation, I’ve established this museum.”

“Very commendable,” said Prinda.  “Where should we start.”

“Right over here,” said Olla, stepping to the other side of the room.  “Here we have some examples of the Thim alphabet.”

The writing was on several large ceramic sheets, each with ten to twenty large symbols.  The writing was the same color as the background, slightly raised.  It might have been that the Thim had some sort of sensor to detect the variation, or it might have been that all the coloring had simply worn off the letters. Each letter was a square, all the same size, with holes or cutouts to make them different from one another.

“I think these are the equivalent of street signs or storefront signs,” said Olla Winty. “There has been very little other writing discovered.  Their society converted over to digital media millennia before they died out, and most of that has been lost.  Nobody has found any equivalent of a physical book.”

“Sad to think of all the knowledge of an entire civilization lost,” said Prinda.

They continued around the room, looking at artifacts.  Most were small electronic devices that were warped with age and whose original functions were unknown.  A few were metal tools held in whatever the Thim had used for hands.  They might have been the equivalent of combs, toothbrushes, or hammers.  Without knowing what the Thim looked like, there was just no way to know.  The last exhibit was a pile of wire spools about eight centimeters in diameter, and each containing thin, rolled wire, that had it been let out might have stretched a hundred meters or more.

“These rolls of wire have been found all over the planet—entire rooms filled with them,” said their guide.  “No one has yet determined what they are, though one theory holds that they are the Thim form of currency.”

“I’ll bet these are your books,” said Starr.  “Predigital societies often use magnetized metal or plastic plates or tapes to store information in the form of sound.  I’ve heard of magnetic wire used for that purpose on other planets.  If you run it across a recording/decoding head, it should play something.”

“By heavens!” cried Olla. “I’ve got to contact somebody. Maybe Dr. Lintul at the Gateway Institute might be able to help?”

“We’re going to Gateway,” said Prinda.  “I could deliver a message for you.”

“Thank you.  When are you leaving?”

“Some time tomorrow, probably after mid-day.”

“I’ll record it right away and deliver it to your ship by morning.”

“How’d you get so smart?” asked Viv, bumping Starr with her hip as they left the tiny museum.

“Twenty years in the Zarian Scout Service.”

There were food dispensers in the administration building, but none offered anything that wasn’t available on the Dancer, so they took the tram back to the starport.

“What does everyone want for lunch?” asked Huppy, as they walked up the loading ramp.  “I’m going to have number sixteen: fish sticks with macaroni and artificial cheese sauce, apple bake, and rice cake.  Viv, do you want number twenty-one: artificial crab cakes with long grain rice, fruit medley cobbler, and wheat crisp?”

“You know me so well, Huppy.”

In a universe so far in the future that Earth is considered a myth, Captain Rann Starr and his small crew fly through the galaxy in their starship Nova Dancer, negotiating primitive settlements and vast space stations alike, carrying freight, as well as the occasional passenger who might belong to one of a thousand alien species. Dealing with soldiers and gun-runners might be everyday business for Starr, but the breakup of his little ad-hoc family is something he won’t stand for.

Nova Dancer is available as an ebook for 99 cents from Kobo Books.

In a universe so far in the future that Earth is considered a myth, Captain Rann Starr and his small crew fly through the galaxy in their starship Nova Dancer, negotiating primitive settlements and vast space stations alike, carrying freight, as well as the occasional passenger who might belong to one of a thousand alien species. Dealing with soldiers and gun-runners might be everyday business for Starr, but the breakup of his little ad-hoc family is something he won’t stand for.

Nova Dancer is available as an ebook for 99 cents from Apple Books.

In a universe so far in the future that Earth is considered a myth, Captain Rann Starr and his small crew fly through the galaxy in their starship Nova Dancer, negotiating primitive settlements and vast space stations alike, carrying freight, as well as the occasional passenger who might belong to one of a thousand alien species. Dealing with soldiers and gun-runners might be everyday business for Starr, but the breakup of his little ad-hoc family is something he won’t stand for.

Pick up your Kindle edition of Nova Dancer now for just 99 cents.

In a universe so far in the future that Earth is considered a myth, Captain Rann Starr and his small crew fly through the galaxy in their starship Nova Dancer, negotiating primitive settlements and vast space stations alike, carrying freight, as well as the occasional passenger who might belong to one of a thousand alien species. Dealing with soldiers and gun-runners might be everyday business for Starr, but the breakup of his little ad-hoc family is something he won’t stand for.

Pick up your copy of Nova Dancer in any ebook format at Smashwords for just 99 cents.

In a universe so far in the future that Earth is considered a myth, Captain Rann Starr and his small crew fly through the galaxy in their starship Nova Dancer, negotiating primitive settlements and vast space stations alike, carrying freight, as well as the occasional passenger who might belong to one of a thousand alien species. Dealing with soldiers and gun-runners might be everyday business for Starr, but the breakup of his little ad-hoc family is something he won’t stand for.

Pick up your Kindle edition of Nova Dancer now for just 99 cents.