The Great Galactic Score!

6

6

There seemed no point returning to the brig. She doubted anyone would believe her an unwilling participant in the deaths at the bar, anyway. Instead, after taking some time to take a number of deep, calming breaths, that almost reduced her fury to seething anger, she wandered back to the bridge. There, she found Friss sat in the navigation seat, feet on the console, crossed at the ankles, while Lap appeared to have decided to lay on the floor, their head beneath another console.

She glanced at the view screen but all it showed was the vast, empty blackness of space. There were barely even any stars noticeable in the view. They were, it seemed, nowhere near any planetary system. Lost in the void. She hoped they weren't actually lost but one look at the dangling wires and circuit boards on the floor, removed from the consoles, did not fill her with confidence.

"Where are we? Anywhere near civilisation? Somewhere you can drop me off and we can pretend we never met?" She looked towards Lap, flat, literally, against the floor. They didn't seem to be doing anything. They simply lay there. They could be dead for all Demi knew. "Is Lap alright?"

"Oh, yeah. They're just thinking. They do their best thinking lying down." Friss frowned as Lap crackled and crinkled something that sounded almost dreamy. "Drugs? What drugs? Okay. They're not thinking. They're high. Not the best of times, Lap."

Lap's flat body rippled and a staccato rustling sound emerged from them. Demi could swear it was a giggle. With nothing better to do, she moved to the navigation console, pushing Friss' boots from the surface, and tried to work out where they were. She had never really studied astro-navigation, but she had a talent for working things out.

On the screen, she saw various alpha-numeric identifiers. Lots of 'zeds' and nines, plurals and alphas. Nothing that she could fully understand at the moment. The first second she managed to connect to the Gal-Net, however, she would download everything pertaining to astro-navigation directly into her brain. For now, she switched the display to graphical representation, sending the results to the main view screen.

"We're outside the galaxy? How is that even possible?" She gaped at the blinking arrow with the words 'You Are Here!' above it, a sizeable distance from the outer rim of the galaxy. "Is this because of the emergency wormhole jump? Or did you plan ... no, no. Of course you didn't plan for this."

"Hey! I didn't know we could use the view screen for that! Nice!" Friss sat bolt upright and began tapping away at the console, tongue lolling from the corner of his mouth. "And, voila!"

The view on the large, wall-sized screen changed from a picture of the galaxy to a picture of Friss, standing in front of some alien shaped building, his fingers in a 'Peace' sign, huge grin spread across his face. Narcissist. Clearly. The building didn't look special, or famous, but Friss had obviously thought it worth posing in front of.

Demi took a closer look, stepping forward and then stopping her foot from falling upon the flattened form of Lap. She stepped to the side as one of Lap's thin hands tried to stroke her leg. The building didn't look familiar, but something connected in her mind. Something about the shape of the building. All layers and bulging protuberances. Walkways on the outside of the building and what looked like flags.

Other people stood in front of the building, behind Friss. Humans, various alien species of varying appendage configurations, all fascinated by the building, taking pictures, pointing. The aliens that appeared most in the picture, were insectoids. Pincers. Antennae. It all clicked into place and Demi looked towards Friss. It wasn't simply a picture of him.

"That's Imblibdor, isn't it?" She pointed at the picture on the view screen as Friss lifted his feet back on to the console, steepling his fingers as he nodded. "That's the building, the palace thing, that you 'parked' on top of. Did you do it on purpose? They're insectoids! That building probably held thousands from the same family inside it!"