Approximately six hours later, Saleek and Patrick’s craft was nearing their destination – the planet Antorii Two.
‘So what’s the deal with this handover? How are we going to make the trade?’ asked Patrick, somewhat excitedly.
As much as he hated to admit it, he was actually rather enjoying the adventure that he was currently part of. He had never been to the Antorii system before so he had no idea what to expect with regards to the native species that populated the planets or their customs or cultures.
‘Dude, chill out, it’s nothing to get excited about,’ replied Saleek as he slowly tilted the joystick to make a minor course correction. ‘I do this kinda stuff all the time. We’ll dock at a small spaceport on the south side of the planet. From there, I’m gonna call my contact with the ship’s com link and tell him his package has arrived. Then we’ll wait for him to come in a ground-vehicle, we hand over the artefact, he hands us a chip filled to the brim with credits, then I say we hit the local bars for some drinks and work out how we’re gonna spend it all!’
The spiky lyan’s grin was especially wide as he said this.
‘You make it sound so simple,’ commented Patrick, slightly in awe of the green alien’s relaxed demeanour.
‘Trust me, it’ll be a breeze.’
‘Saleek is neglecting to mention the other occasions when delivery of certain clients’ packages has proved to be rather problematic,’ interrupted Zeeree, her face flickering slightly on one of the rear monitors as she spoke.
‘Yeah, but this won’t be one of those times,’ said Saleek casually.
Patrick paused for a moment, before venturing, ‘Should I even ask what has happened at these “problematic” deliveries?’
‘Just ignore her, Patrick. She delights in pointing out my mistakes. It’s her only hobby.’
‘That’s not true. I also enjoy doing puzzles,’ quipped Zeeree with a broad smile on her blue lips.
Patrick couldn’t help but laugh at Zeeree’s comment, which earned him a hard look from Saleek. Slightly embarrassed, Patrick stifled his laughter as best he could.
‘OK, we’re comin’ up to Antorii Two now,’ announced Saleek as he returned to looking at the view screen, which showed a large globe covered in sliver and blue which was getting larger by the second.
The planet actually looks really beautiful from this distance, thought Patrick as he gazed at the image.
‘Receiving Transmission from Antorii ground control,’ stated Zeeree.
‘I’ve got it,’ said Saleek as he read the message on his pilot’s monitor. ‘We’ll be clear to land in thirty minutes. Till then, we’ve gotta make synchronous orbit over the southern hemisphere. Zeeree, if you’ll do the honours?’
‘Engaging autopilot. Plotting orbital course and descent.’
The craft smoothly began to decelerate and gently moved into orbit around Antorii Two.
‘Well, I guess we’ve got some time to kill while we wait for clearance to land,’ said Saleek as he leaned back in his chair and propped his feet up on a nearby console. ‘You know any good stories to pass the time, Patrick? Why don’t you tell me and Zeeree ‘bout where you’re from?’
‘I wouldn’t say I’m much of a storyteller, really,’ replied the human. ‘Having said that...’
‘Yeah?’ said Saleek, raising a green eyebrow.
‘There is one thing I’d like to know about you that’s been bothering me for some time now.’
‘Really? Well, shoot. Just hope it ain’t too personal!’
Patrick chuckled and said, ‘I don’t think so. I just want to know how you seem to know all these expressions and words from human languages? I first noticed it when you introduced yourself back at the spaceport on Nexus One. I thought most of the species in this galaxy didn’t bother much with learning about humans, especially seeing as we’re generally thought of as being fairly primitive.’
‘Well, there’s a reason why I’ve learned about languages and cultures so much,’ explained Saleek. ‘It all started back when I was livin’ on the streets of Nexus One as a kid. Aside from sleeping and scoring food to eat, there wasn’t much to do for fun when ya got no money. Anyway, one day I was going through some bins looking for food when I found something I didn’t expect to see – an electronic notepad. I dunno why someone had thrown it out – the screen was cracked but that was all, it seemed to work just fine. It could even connect to the local data-stream network but it turned out that it could only display dictionaries, encyclopaedias and stuff like that. I ain’t no brainiac but I liked reading things and since there was nothin’ else to do, I often passed the time by using the notepad. I learned about practices and rituals from a hundred different cultures and I learned a load of basic expressions from just as many languages. I really liked the human stuff though, ‘cause it just seemed so different to all the others.’
The lyan paused before smiling and saying, ‘Don’t take this the wrong way dude, but humans sure are weird!’
Patrick laughed and a moment later, so did Saleek.
‘Yeah, I guess we are in some ways,’ admitted Patrick with a grin. ‘Maybe it’s because most of the other species in this galaxy evolved in close proximity to each other and became influenced by each other, so you all have a lot of similarities in your rituals and things like that. We humans had to travel many Galdrekks just to get from our home galaxy to the very edge of yours. Maybe that’s why we’re so different.’
‘You seem different in some ways, but underneath it all, we’re all the same,’ said Saleek. ‘Don’t care if you’re human, lyan or whatever – we’re all creatures of this universe together.’
Patrick looked at Saleek and smiled, wishing that other aliens in the galaxy shared his views regarding different creatures and cultures – sadly many did not.