Celestial Galaxies

Chapter 1

Sweat was running down my neck underneath my hood.

"You said you would get me ten buckets for five hundred Credits. This is only nine."

"I said I would try. I also said, that I can't do much, if the vendor doesn't want to give me even more discount."

I nodded towards the other boxes on the table of her small booth: "At least I got you two more of the pink liomens."

Her dark eyes left my sweaty face and scanned the various fruits all stacked up around her, negotiating inside her head. I wiped sweat off my forehead.

Every time I went delivering to Tarakkala I swore to myself, that I would go and get myself one of these climatic suits that could compensate heat and cold with just pressing a button. But I knew just as well, that, as soon as I saw the price, I would convince myself that it wasn't so bad and that I could just put on my hood and scarf again.

The woman pulled out her Credit Pass. The chip in my ear translated the throaty clicking sounds she made: "Alright, but only because we've done business so long already."

I lifted one corner of my mouth, unable to hide a small smile, and pulled out my own Credit Pass from the breast pocket of my shirt, which was also sticking to my skin. Disgusting.

The connected Passes buzzed shortly and I put mine back safely.

"I will quickly unpack the rest", I informed the Tarakkalan woman and returned to the air conditioned storage of my ship.

The coolness was just what I needed. Even if this sand planet was one of those with an actual atmosphere and temperatures closer to a regular desert on Earth a few decades ago, this was still terribly dehydrating.

I took my hood off and unwrapped my headscarf, wiping down the sweat with it. I didn't dare to smell wether or not I could use it again without washing. Quickly I tossed it aside onto an empty shelf, before I put my hood back on and grabbed a couple of stacked boxes. Unloading the storage alone in this heat was a killer.

"You thin skin need water", the Tarakkalan said after I had carried almost all the boxes to her booth.

She gave me a small flask and I unscrewed it thankfully, taking a few sips.

Tarakkalans with their thick orange skin reminded me of lizards or dinosaur like creatures I had learned about at school. They didn't need much water and could survive only on what they got from fruit and vegetables, especially transplanetarian goods from planets with cooler atmospheres.

"Thank you", I gasped, lightly out of breath from chugging the water and gave the woman her flask.

She opened her mouth to say something, when suddenly a noise disrupted the air. Was that a shot?!

Loud calls emerged from the distance and I turned as someone hit my shoulder running past.

"Ow! Come on, watch your-"

But the person was already dashing around the corner and gone in the crowd of early market visitors. I rubbed my shoulder.

"Hey!"

Another call echoed through the booths and stalls, turning everyone's heads. Angry and demanding a group of armed terrestrials pushed their way through the small crowd. Celestial Hunters.

I stumbled backwards against the booth, just as another terrestrial collapsed to the sandy ground. His breath was going fast and the mask he wore to breathe in the Tarakkalan atmosphere hung loosely on a cable.

The Hunters reached him before I could grasp the situation.

"Where is she?!", a heavy bodied terrestrial with a squid like face and two tentacles on top of his head demanded, "Where is your ship?!"

He pressed the long shaft of his gun into the chest of the victim, who gurgled in pain. It was painful to watch, but at the same time I couldn't look away.

The Celestial Hunters were widely known and feared, but so far I had only ever heard stories from other people. I had never personally seen them, let alone been so close to the action.

The squid terrestrial, who apparently was some sort of leader, reached down and ripped the breathing mask from the victim's face, tearing even more cables and tubes with green and clear substances leaking. He deliberately placed his gun to the chest again.

"Again. Where is your ship?"

The pale terrestrial struggling down in the sand didn't speak. His wide mouth was pressed shut, his four breathing slits almost flaring.

The market had gone so quiet that I could hear him growl: "Go fuck yourself, you fat monster."

I flinched at the loud shot tearing through matter, leaving the pale terrestrial spilling blue substance onto the red sand. His eyes went blank, his head falling back.

"Take him back to the ship", the squid Hunter demanded.

His shiny purple orbs for eyes gazed the terrestrials around, making me shudder when he stared into mine for a second. My eyes darted to the ground.

The market came to quiet life slowly, just after the last Hunter had left, pulling the dead body behind on one limb. It was devastating. When I turned to the Tarakkalan woman, she was already casually displaying the fruit.

"You have to forget some things once in a while", she said while placing a basket full of grapes onto a table, "to make it through every day. Things like this happen here every now and then."

I didn't reply. Tarakkala was a poorer planet with less perspectives for terrestrials to make it out of their solar system. The Hunters could count on their secrets staying on the sand, they were just that calculating. I knew I would better follow the example.

The unbearable heat came crushing down again and I quickly said goodbye to the woman. I needed to get these sweaty clothes off me as soon as possible and started my ship.

As soon as it passed into microgravity I let the autopilot do the work. While the ship slowly drifted further, I took my shower. It felt to me like the sweat was clinging, unable to be scrubbed off my skin.

I was trying hard to think only about the soap and shampoo bottles in front of me. Unfortunately the contents looked a lot like what the pale terrestrial had leaked, after he had been shot.

I returned to the cockpit, still ruffling my damp curls. The ship on autopilot had reached the asteroid fields on the outskirts of the Tarakkala system already.

Sighing a deep breath I wished the violent pictures out of my mind, and swung myself onto the pilot seat. But they stayed, a penetrating scene layered above the view I had on the glimmering asteroids floating around my ship.

The asteroids were made of Zaltan, I remembered, a special kind of rock only found in this area that reflected light in little violet and blue glitter specks. It was like a little sky of very close stars, all blinking and-

I stopped my ship immediately. Only a few asteroids above there was a small spaceship, lights blinking. A giant hole gaped on one side, the metallic pieces slowly floating about. The dead terrestrial left my brain on the second.

I pulled my ship up and docked at the entrance door, which was slightly bent inwards, as if the ship had just come out of an asteroid storm. The door split open with a screeching sound, giving me entrance into chaos.

Bottles and boxes of the storage had almost all fallen out of the cupboards and shelves. In between blinking lights popped up everywhere, from misconnection and emergency alarm, telling the that the side was damaged badly and the level of atmospheric contents was sinking.

I was glad that I wore my breathing mask, for the passengers of this ship did not breathe oxygen or anything similar to it.

Wait- the passengers!

I stepped over the spread contents of the storage and towards the cockpit door, that hung loosely in it's frame. The loose contact made one side of the double door draw back and forth continuously. A quiet scraping sound in the blinking silence. I pushed past it.

In the messy cockpit it was rather dark. Even more red lamps blinked and rotated and coated the room in an eerie light.

Parts of the ceiling were broken off and laid on top the empty passenger's seats. Although the pilot's seat...

"Hello?"