AGORA ONE - A SPACE ADVENTURE - SLICE 2

Welcome to Agora One.  The faster-than-light city.  The adventure continues......

They took steps that led in an arch over the transport pods and back down to the other side of the corridor, where a large, arched door slid open and they went into the “open air”.  Tequi’s head craned skyward so fast his cowboy hat almost took a tumble.  

They had entered the core habitation area, where the bulk of the populace of Agora One lived.  Thousands of feet up, a few fluffy white clouds were meandering around in the artificial air currents.  A few big-headed, rail-thin Heliumites floated by, their helium supplies provided by an invisible tank that was protected by a force field.  Gaudy lights flashed from multiple angles.  Dozens of species walked, floated, or spun by.  An anti-gravity fountain, that was on its regular, elliptical route, slowly crept nearer.  Multi-tiered buildings with terraces galore shined.  Many were housing units, others were commercial, some were both.  Nearly all were made of nano-flex materials and other exotic elements, which allowed for greater flexibility in case changes were desired.  

A couple of tipsy, floating furballs accidentally slammed into Tequi.  “Watch it, furball.” 

Six twisted eyeballs popped out from the floating furball, “Ez’rah’me!”

Tequi face-palmed as the others laughed at his expense.  Tequi shouted, “Your translator isn’t working!”

The furball wobbled in mid-air.  Zay said, “The furball said excuse me.  Or, tried to, anyway.  He’s had a few drinks.”

Tequi looked surprised, “You speak Ducled?”

“I speak Ducled.”

Zay spoke ten languages fluently, actually.  And had passable skills in three others.  Typical Songardian, quite a masterful species when it came to languages.  She also had other attributes of Songardians, such as visual acuity ten times better than humans, and able to zoom in from up to 100 kilometers away.  Her reflexes were also three times faster than the typical human, and she put this to good use by being a multi-tiered champion in two different forms of martial arts.  And she was the top pilot of the fanciest, newest, and highest technological marvel this side of Andromeda, Agora One.  In short, she was a major certified bad ass with a minor in kick ass.  She was also torn between two species, though, human and Songardian.  And nothing she ever did was good enough for her father.  She also had never been to Earth, knew very little about Earth, and had almost zero desire to know it.  

They kept walking and made their way to one of the more low-key corners of the flying marvel, a little bar with low lighting and thick, dark wood décor called Zip’s.  

Raw chastised playfully, “Pilot number one drinking on duty?”

“I’m off duty, wise guy.”

They grabbed a corner table and browsed an extensive cocktail list from a colorful, holographic menu just above them.  The place had a low, energetic buzz in the air and was nearly packed, and a mish-mash chatter of multiple species gave a surreal ambiance to the swanky digs.  

A Cascadian waitress came over promptly and greeted them.  Tequi was taken aback, “Service from a real life form?”

A handful of Artificial Intellects took exception to that and threw disapproving glances in response.  Zay explained, “Lots of service and hospitality on this ship is done by biologicals.”

Tequi marveled, “Well, ain’t that a kick.”

Raw laughed, “I love your archaic quips.”

“You’re heard that one before?”

“Of course.  I’m a history buff, remember?”

They ordered their drinks and the Cascadian flowed away gracefully. Dans bent her thin, swirling neck down and said in a hushed tone, “Don’t look now, but an irresistible looking Talem is floating this way.”

They naturally all turned, much to the chagrin of Dans.  Tequi commented, “I call them crushers.” He called them that for good reason.  Talems were a very unique species from Cigar Galaxy Eight.  They looked pretty much like a bowling ball, except for the holes.  They were made of a sort of intelligent semi-metal that was naturally occurring on their home planet.  They had no limbs, so they didn’t walk, but floated and flew instead.  They didn’t have mouths or any other cavities.  All of their communication was completely telepathic among themselves, but around other species, they used their mental powers to create movement of sound waves that mimicked a voice.  

Most striking of all was their density.  They were a hundred times denser than lead.  This gave them extremely unique abilities, such as crushing, for example.  Another “talent” they had was that they were extremely absorbent, and so had quite the ability to drink copious amounts of victuals.  They were also slightly malleable, if they so desired, and could change some of their outward appearance on a whim.  For example, since they had no face, if they wanted to give off a more comforting look to another species, say, human, then they could change their structure to show a makeshift eye on their “body”, or a smile, etc.  And one last thing of note is they could occasionally be clumsy, which had a high potentiality to create accidental mini-disasters.  

Zay said with amusement, “That’s one of Agora One’s private security.” She smiled and waved as his slick, gunmetal gray, bowling-ball-like body floated within earshot.  “Hey Tabe!”

Tabe floated near them at eye level and created a steely curled “lip” and an “eye” on his figure.  “Tequi, just the guy I wanted to see.”

Tequi grinned, “Likewise.  Your super-absorbent kind are my best customers.”

“Feel like a drinking duel?”

“No, I don’t feel like dying.”

“I’ll even let ya use a detoxer at the table.”

An ice cold two liter bottle of Triskimo Ale hovered just above Tabe and tipped over, sending effervescent light-blue liquid splashing down.  Tabe absorbed it as fast as it fell, set the empty bottle on the table, admired the astonished looks of the others, and went on casually, “Tequi, I haven’t seen you since the Tooz adventure.”

Zay gave Tequi an astonished glance and flicked her whip-like tongue, “What were you doing on Tooz? Aren’t they having an intercontinental war right now?”

“Well,” Tequi began somewhat defensively, “I know what you’re thinking.  Yeah, the Tooz, overall, are still highly ignorant and immoral people.  And that’s true.  However, there are small pockets that have developed recently.  Knowledge of Natural Law is getting around and there are some gray and black markets, real free markets, popping up.  I went to Tooz to deal with them, I’ll have you know.”

Zay turned her red and while shimmering face to the floating bowling ball, “And you? What was your deal there?”

“Exotic weapons, of course.  That’s my main gig.  I only do private security part-time.”

“Dealing weapons on a planet controlled by authoritarian thugs?”

Tequi scratched at one of his scruffy cheeks, “Just because 90 percent of the population lives an immoral lifestyle, doesn’t mean that we should admonish the other 10 percent that know whatsup.”

Raw chuckled and smacked Tequi on the back, “I love your archaic English slang, ‘whatsup’.  Hilarious.”

Tequi said thoughtfully, “And don’t ya know that it was a minority that left Earth centuries ago? A tiny group that knew right from wrong and fled the terror of the state on their own planet? That’s why we’re here.  500-year-old news flash.”

Zay rolled her eyes.  She knew almost nothing about Earth, and didn’t care to.  She was only half human, anyway.  

Tabe said, “Well, it’s a good thing they got off Earth, otherwise your whole species might have perished.”

Everyone looked at Tabe awkwardly as he absorbed another bottle.  Tabe said curiously, “What? What’s with that look? I’ve become quite adept at reading human facial expressions.”

Raw said, “What do you mean by what you said? Why would all humans have perished?”

Tabe read the expressions quickly and figured they didn’t know.  “You didn’t hear?”

“Hear what?” Tequi asked anxiously.

“Word is that all humans got wiped out from Earth. Gone.  Poof.”

Raw leaned forward with elbows planted firmly on the hardwood, “A.I. too?”

“From what I heard, yeah.  All beings with higher cognitive processes.  Lots of animals got wiped out, too, apparently.”

“How do you know this?”

“Well,” Tabe began, “A reliable source, let’s put it that way.”

Eyeballs flashed and darted around the table.  Raw twisted his lips and narrowed his eyes, “Reliable source, huh?” He turned to Zay.  Her face flared and pulsed with energy, “He’s reliable.  Tabe gets good information.”

Tabe absorbed another liter while the others nursed their first couple ounces.  Raw tapped his foot excitedly and looked wantingly at the head pilot of Agora One.

“What?” Zay said.

Raw tilted his head, “Come on.  You’re not curious to know what happened?”

“Not really.”

“Come on.”

“Ok, maybe a micron,” she relented.  “So what?”

Raw suggested, “Maybe the board of Agora One would be interested in checking it out.”

“Why would they want to do that?”

“Because a lot of them are human, or at least, part human.”

Zay shook her head no emphatically and shot the rest of her tequila with gusto.  “I know what you’re thinking, Raw, and the answer is no.”

“It wouldn’t hurt to ask your dad.  He is on the board.”

“Even if that mattered, which it doesn’t, Agora One already has its route scheduled out for the next six months, and the trek to Earth would be at least 3 months.”

“Still doesn’t hurt to ask.”

“You don’t know my father,” she said tongue-in-cheek.

“But I do.”

“Not like I do.”

Slice 3 Coming Soon!

Thanks for your time and attention!

Just say "NO" to slavery!

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Please note:  While Agora One can be read as a standalone, I recommend finishing the James Bong series first, and reading SeAgora second, as Agora One is the final installment of a loosely interlocking trilogy.