Cycles Go ‘Round

No Space for Family [Chapter 11]

“I know them!” I shouted probably too loudly, even for the bustling alleyway.

“Yeah, I’m sure I’ve seen that name in your dad’s files here,” added Grandma.

Dad jerked back and shook my shoulder. “What are you two talking about? Aida, why are you in my files?”

I reached up and grabbed my dad’s wrist. “Dad, Cycles Go ‘Round is here,” I said pointing to the restaurant.

“They’re operating out here?” He said with a squint. With a parting wave to apologize to the shopkeeper, he allowed himself to follow after me. “If that’s true, that’ll be a stroke of luck.”

Cycles Go ‘Round was our insurance company. Some of my dad’s longest meetings were with them. Even before our first job started, they visited us and the ship and looked it all over. Then we paid them a lot of money. I guess that means they would help us if we were in trouble. It was something that my dad had set up, so it didn’t matter to me much.

Dad took the lead as we marched into the restaurant. Both the booths by the windows and the tall seats at the bar were full, and more people were pouring out into the aisle, shouting out weird-sounding orders. Glowing signs in scripts I couldn’t recognize dangled above the patrons’ heads. A pig-faced fellow glared down the length of my dad’s arm and to me as we walked in, heads swiveling back and forth.

“Sir?” he said with a snort. “This ain’t be quite the place for childrens, yaknow?”

My dad looked at me then the man before tilting his head. “Uh, of course not. This is… my sister. Older sister. All the females of my species grow up to be about this tall. Or are you just gonna’ just a book by its cover?”

I cleared my throat and made my voice deep. “He doesn’t look like he’s ever seen a book, bro.”

Dad yanked me harder than normal and pulled us both deeper into the less restaurantly-seeming place. “Your sister?” I asked him lowly.

“Shh. We look enough alike. And saying you’re my wife… too weird for me.”

“Good call.”

“Shh,” he shushed again. “…should have just brought Terren.”

I was forced to cling close while passing through the sea of people. I could feel myself sweating through the heavy layers as the sweltering mob buzzed around. I thought I smelled more burning booster fuel, but it was probably something else.

“That could be him,” Dad said under his breath.

I ducked under his arm and clung to his side. At a snug, tall table under one of the dirty windows was a male dressed in a pristine, puffy, insulated jumpsuit. The fur-lined hood was pulled back to reveal a thin dark-haired male, vaguely humanoid, with dark whiskers modeled into a human-looking mustache. Sharing the table with him was someone fitting the dirty, well-insulated local aesthetic. The mustachioed businessman cracked his fingers while the local signed away at a tablet.

My dad and I crept in close enough to hear the conversation. “A trick I see a lot, you know, is to install a secondary black water tank. Say that your primary one sprung a leak. The folks at checkpoints don’t want to poke their eyes and noses into a tank of you know what. But little do they know, it’s just free storage space and a way to fudge the numbers on any weigh-ins. Then if you’re underweight… remember what you gotta tell my people at Cycles Go ‘Round if you encounter one of those… pirates, right?”

“AI processors,” said the local in a lumbering tone. “Pirates stole the processors I was shipping.”

“AI processors is correct! The hottest most stealable stuff.” The agent said back, pinging his fingernail on the side of his drinking glass. The local pushed the tablet back his way and he gave it a singular glance. “Very nice. Looks good to go. Thank you for allowing Cycles Go ‘Round to watch over your business ventures!”

The local stood up with a grunt and shuffled off back in the direction of the bar. Before anyone else could take the seat, my dad pulled me up close behind him and hefted himself onto the well-used stool.

“Hi there,” he said with a smile.

The agent blinked at us for a few moments before flashing his own wide smile. “Yes, hi there. Look at me, what a popular man I am today. Interested in an insurance policy?”

“We’re actually already customers,” my dad nodded, patting me on the shoulder. “My older sister and I of course. She’s mute, by the way.”

Dad and I glanced at each other. We reached a silent agreement and turned back to the agent at almost the same moment.

“You… with Cycles Go ‘Round. I see,” he said, intertwining his fingers. “You must have… signed up with my colleague.”

My dad nodded. “One of your colleagues, yes, but there must be a lot of you out there, of course.”

“Of course,” repeated the agent, shoving his words in before my dad could take a breath.

“It was probably an Alpha Standard year ago, way off in the Callus system, if you’re familiar with it.”

The agent clapped a single, loud clap that pulled the attention of the closer half of the restaurant. “Is that so? Well, I went and thought that I had gone forgotten the face of one of my dear customers. Our dear customers. The name’s Plip. And frankly, since we’ve just expanded into this here neck of the cosmos, I wasn’t expecting to meet any far-flung travelers who make use of our business.”

My dad laughed and patted the edge of the table. “Well, far-flung is a pretty accurate term. We’re already a bit off the beaten path, and then we ran into an… incident back in the Greenmire system.”

“Shame, I’m sure.”

Dad looked over his shoulder before leaning back in closer. “Might we find a quieter place? Perhaps you’d like to stop by our ship so we can hash things out? And perhaps tell us if we’re covered?”

Plip drummed his fingers on the table. He glanced at me, who was trying not to stare at him too much. “Your and your sister’s ship? Suppose it can’t hurt. Uh, big or small ship?”

“Not too big,” My dad said, making an unconvincing box shape with his hands. “An old… converted… freighter. You’ll see.”

Plip stood and opened his hands to the aisle to let us through. He wavered back and forth through the bustle behind us until we were all outside. He hung behind us, glancing and nodding at the passing locals.

“You should know, Mr…”

“Oh, my apologies,” replied my dad, glancing back and bowing his head. “Umburter. Jefferson Umburter. Our ship’s the Ora. I should have brought our policy card, but I left it on board. Never thought I would run into one of you. You may look us up if you need.”

“Uh, I’ll take your word for it. But Mr. Umburter, I’m a simple agent, a salesman most days. Not quite an expert on complex systems. An… adjuster could certainly be a better judge of the cost of various repairs, but I am also low on the pole. Tell us again, what’s the cause of your discontent?”

“Unforeseen solar activity.”

“The worst kind of solar activity,” Plip nodded.

Dad kept glancing back to make sure the agent was following us as we crept closer to the edge of town. The outskirts were more loosely packed with buildings and people and their sounds. I noticed that we were headed in the wrong direction to get back to our ship. One thing that never happened was my dad heading in the wrong direction, so I said nothing and waited to see what was happening.

Dad sighed. “Yes. We… blew a gasket… or five… on our cooling system trying to… keep things together. Heading back through Greenmire wasn’t an option, of course. Actually ending up here was a stroke of luck. And that we would run into you.”

“That makes the both of us lucky, don’t it?”

Dad glanced back and forth. We were about to round the corner of a house when he turned around. “More than you would know,” he replied, stopping all of a sudden and pulling me around behind him. “Before we go any further, I’m going to need you to tell me—“

I glanced around my dad’s waist and saw the flash of metal. Plip had jerked back and pulled out a blaster from his padded boot, pointing it our way. “Ain’t neither of us going any further! I knew you were trying to track me down! You won’t get me this time!”

“Dad!” I shouted, hiding my head.

My dad raised his hands in the air. “Whoa, what the hell! I don’t know who you think we are!”

“You’re the CGR goons, the real thing!” Plip said, jerking the hand blaster at my dad’s stomach. “Trying to take me down finally. I knew these backwater tools would get to sending in claims to the company right away!”

“Cycles Go ‘Round goons? Why would the company be trying to take you down? What sort of employee are you?”

“You tell me that!”

Dad stomped back. “Tell you what? What do you think I’m doing here? With my little daughter in tow!”

Plip lowered his gun slightly. He glanced around my dad’s side and took a peek at me before I was pushed further back. “Now you said she was your sister. And non-speakin’!”

“Because they don’t let kids in bars! But there was no way I was going to leave her in a busy alley all alone.”

I wagged my hand out from behind my dad. “I thought it was a restaurant.”

“Shush, girl.”

“Sorry, Dad.”

Plip wagged his gun at the floor. “Yeah, shut it! Big daddy, explain!”

“I’ll ask you not to talk to my daughter that way.”

“WHAT. ARE. YOU. HERE. FOR?”

My dad shoved a hand against Plip’s mouth. “Okay, hear me out.”

The agent jerked back and spat on the ground. “Talk then, damn you!”

“We don’t need to file a claim with Cycles. I just need your ear.”

Plip clicked his tongue. “Your head is not on straight, is it?”

My dad ignored him and continued. “You seem to be acquainted with this place. Regardless if you’re a model agent or not. Our ship, and most importantly, my family, are in possible danger if we can’t get a move on. Everything I told you about the condition of our ship was true. We need to get fixed up and get out of here, but the locals aren’t too keen on helping outsiders. We will pay you what we can if you can get us access to a shop. Get us fixed up— on the down low, if possible.”

Plip looked my dad up and down. “Got credits?”

“Enough.”

The agent nodded his head and slipped the weapon back into his boot. “Now you’re speaking my language. Man, I might be able to get out of this place sooner than later. Gentleman’s agreement?”

My dad watched as Plip extended his hand. My dad took it up and shook it. “Deal. I’ll give you our communicator frequency and you get us details on the fix. Once we have the parts ready for us, then I’ll pay up.”