After the strangeness: A Sentinel Fulcrum epilogue
12 Dec 2021Creamy Goodness III
It’s not the strangest thing that’s ever happened to me is somehow a comforting thing to say, but that didn’t apply this time. It was the strangest thing that Creamy had ever experienced, and it had happened on his recently rediscovered ship; that ship also happened the only ship he owned. Well, that was providing there wasn’t a salvage claim on it already. Creamy had a lot of questions, but Meowers didn't seem to be in the mood to talk as they docked, so Creamy didn't press her.
She was a difficult woman to get on with, and Creamy felt some damage had been done to the relationship between them. Maybe some distance would heal the rift. He left the Marshmallow the moment they landed, not wishing to press his former companion, but still paused to thank her for everything the formidable commander had done for him.
Mrs Muir hadn't been the person to find the Anaconda, it was the people that had sent her there to retrieve the Guardian thing Creamys' uncle, Creamy the Second, had left him. If the people that knew what that bit of Guardian tat really was had also claimed Extramarital Affair as salvage, Creamy wouldn’t have a legal leg to stand on, let alone the ability to grab his ship before they did.
Normally, Creamy would move on, but this time he was too low on funds for his usual shrug, and start again. Having no ship was a big problem, but he also had those people that were still chasing him for what he knew about Nerys. With them on his tail, Creamy had been let go from an excellent Show host job and easy money he would enjoy earning from it.
He made a to-do list, something he had never done before. On it was two items; convinces the ones that wanted Nerys he knew nothing more than they did about her whereabouts; that shouldn’t be too hard because it was almost true. He only had one more name than they did but he wasn’t going to give up Amata Lirein for an easy life; he hadn't even said her name out loud since learning he was being hunted. The other item on his list, get enough credits to buy a ship, or fund salvaging his recently rediscovered Anaconda.
Ninette, his personal assistant program, had projected the costs for setting up a decent ship for making credits, and another cost projection for salvaging his Conda. It didn’t matter what option he took, he didn’t have the funds to get either option started. According to Ninette, his best bet was to empty his Conda of his personal property and sell it to fund something more substantial.
All his musical instruments were crafted by artisans, not synthesiser reconstructions. The grand piano alone would fetch enough credits to make a start on something serious, providing the extreme cold hadn’t damaged it beyond repair. Creamys’ problem was going back on that ship alone. Mrs Muir may have been too blood thirsty and twitchy for Creamys’ taste, but he had been very glad she was there when the thing attacked.
In the vastness of the galaxy containing many ruins left by a long dead civilisations, aliens that flew organic looking ships and colonies of human explorers that had been out of contact with the rest of humanity for centuries, people still look at you funny if you mentioned a run in with a monster. At least Mrs Muir had been there with him when the man that had attacked her seemed to turn into a giant spider thing. Now Creamy needed to go back to that ship alone.
He was not a coward by any stretch, but the monstrous creature had been far beyond Creamys’ ability to defend himself. He'd watched Mrs Muir deftly and completely destroy the Type 10 the Guarianised Doctor had boarded, but just the image of it in his mind was enough to make fear creep up his spine. Thinking of going back to the place it came from alone made his hands tremble.
Creamy had plenty of fair weather friends, but not people that would follow him into a dangerous situation. There was one person that interpreted Noblesse Oblige the way Creamy did, but she was usually busy and just as dangerous to be around as the thing had been. As far as he could see it, Creamy had the choice of staying here on Aucharnie in HIP 90621 and renting a ship to salvage what he could, or go back to Citi Gateway and see if that black hole of the eccentric would offer up some people willing to take a risk with him.
