Riley In The Galaxy (work in progress)

2290 A.D.

I remembered from the start.

It was dark.
Quiet too, even with my muffled breaths.
I tried peeking through the keyhole but couldn’t see anything. I must have waited a while in the kitchen closet; it was so small I barely fit.
I will admit it’s not original for a hungry ten year old. And like it was the usual routine, I always try to scare my dad after he returned from his job or ‘hunts.’  It was one of the few pranks I loved to play.
Still that was no excuse for allowing me to hide 20 minutes in an obvious spot. If I continued to hide like this, I swear I’d pee.
What’s taking him so long?
Finally giving up I stepped out of my hiding place. I looked around for my father and found him in the living room speaking into his ear piece with his back faced towards me, I still had a shot of sneaking up behind him, but I shrugged it off. That moment had already passed.

Dad was a bounty hunter but a private one. This meant he didn’t work for the ever so vigilant Earth United government who tend to policy over a certain amount of freedom when it comes to bounty hunting. It wasn’t the morally right job to do but dad was good at it.

I mean really good. Like the coolest most awesome bounty hunter in the galaxy.
He would capture anybody or thing. Human or Alien it didn’t matter. He worked for a corporation called Trident. That’s pretty much all what I knew about anything concerning my father’s work.

Last few weeks of work had kept him a little more distracted as usual but he never took a long time from his trips. Not more than two days.

Anyway it was just Dad and me. Mum died giving birth to me. He never told me what happened exactly and I never actually asked. Maybe I just didn’t know to bring it up. We lived in a small housing block in Troy, which was the capital city of Titan one of Saturn’s 62 moons. Unlike my parents I was born here. It’s one of the colony planets of Earth United. Both Dad and Mum were from Earth. I’ve never been there though.

My parents had moved to Titan before I was born. Life here was dull for me. I didn't get to be out often and I barely made any friends. Dad was strict about that, telling me it was safer at home.  He sent me on day care my first few years as a toddler. After that it was all online schooling or when Dad’s close buddies would come over to teach me a thing or two for a few hours. By then I managed to take care of myself at home.

I did mention aliens didn't I?
  From what I could recall is that by 2140 humankind developed faster-than-light travel, and sooner than you could say ‘ookieelakapookie’ we were noticed by our neighbors. As it turned out we were not the only species in the galaxy; as most people would have you believe at one time. Pretty sure everyone hoped for that too. People loved the idea; ever since the science fiction was born.

As my father would always remind everyone “Throw in a couple of hostile race wars, peace treaties, breaking the language barrier and being recognized in the galaxy, humanity finally started getting its foothold into the galaxies and beyond.”
So far, in this gargantuan yet complex universe we’ve only charted the closest two galaxies—the Andromeda and the Canis Major.  As far as my father often reminded me, that there are three alien species that we have maintained contact with—the advanced yet humble Plandrays, tough but less advanced Grayzols and the mysterious Pyrovores. In the case of Pyrovores, it took a longer time to establish a stable relationship as they saw us as a brash young race or as their elders would call us something sounding like a ‘parasitic abomination’.

When I mean stable I meant, we stayed out of their regions of space while they stayed out of ours; which meant no confrontation. There are other species too but these are the only species we know so far that have fully developed FTL travelling means. These were one of the many things Dad and his friends taught me that any normal kids of my age wouldn’t know.  Things I shouldn’t know.

Dad was done talking on the ear piece. I ran up to him to give him a hug from the back.
“Hey Jacob”
“I thought I could scare you, but you took so long”
“I know buddy, I had a call. Sorry’’
“Its okay”
My father turned to face me and then speaking in a deep yet soft tone, he said “Look here Jake; I know I’ve been busy lately”
No kidding.
Bending down on his knees to my level and he continued slowly “as much I know you’re not going to like to hear this, you’re going to have listen. I have to, unfortunately be gone again.”
Wait a sec…what?
“Again?” really hoping he was kidding for real this time.
“Yes”
“Like today?”
“Yes today”


“Why?”
“Because it’s a very important job that your Dad has at the moment”
“But you’ll be back soon right?” 
“Sorry kiddo, not this time. I’m going to have to be gone for a while so you’re going to stay with your cousin Kelly”
 “Kelly?! Why can’t I stay here?”
“You can’t be by yourself for too long”
“I can take care of myself. Kelly just bosses me around!”
Kelly is older than me by two years but I still don’t have to listen to her amusingly dictating me around. Its okay when she’s being overprotective, which she is most of the time.
 Kelly is an only child, like me so to an extent I can see why she would be a little in charge of everything. Only she enjoys it.