Living in the Fray

Chapter 29

 'Mikey I can't BELIEVE you've never been to Avalon before!' Jess said to the young man as they stepped off the Osiris in to Avalon's visitors port.

'Yeah dude, you're gonna love it here.' Faye followed up. The twins had a strange almost listless way of speaking, sounding neither here nor there or too interested or invested. They epitomised the sound of a perpetually bored Valley Girl through and through, to the point where Michael couldn't actually tell if they were being sarcastic or serious. He figured it was the latter, as they then started giving him info about some of the best street food vendors they frequented when visiting Avalon.

Michael, Jess, Faye, Tony, Devin and Justin carried their luggage off the Osiris and out in to the bustle of Avalon's port. Zeke sealed up the ship and bid farewell to the crew, whilst he dealt with the port's own Docking security AI and readied himself for a bit of maintenance. The crew made their way through the crowds, the smells, the slightly humid air and the barrage of people from humans, to Voxon to Viznians and to the Usant; all bartering round market stalls in different languages. The crew weren't joining in on that just yet and made their way through the market to the commercial district, where their accommodation was located. The Lazy Dayz Inn wasn't much to look at, but the rooms were cheap, it was shockingly clean and the staff weren't complete drips. The crew stayed here a lot especially on their long distance jobs, when it wasn't really fun staying on a spaceship the whole time. At least the staff and the hotels AI knew them well.

Michael didn't think his room was that bad, all the basic twelve meter squared of it. It had a Queen size bed in there which he had requested, as he never got on with single beds at all and was more liable to fall out of them. There was a small shower room and toilet, a compact wardrobe area where he could hang his clothes and store his spare shoes and case. Plus there was a decent sized, but not too outdated holoscreen TV and an air conditioning unit. Everything you needed and nothing more, especially when all the fun was happening outside in Avalon.

Michael eventually made his way back downstairs to the reception area of the hotel to meet up with the others. Devin and Justin were already sat at the small, sometimes manned bar area a little off from the main desk. Thankfully, you could still get drinks through the hotels AI who would either charge your room or your own holowatch account. He sat at the bar next to Devin and pressed the service button, instructing the female sounding AI of the hotel named "Angie" to pour him a cold pint of Kirin before paying with his watch. Machinery whirred in the middle of the bar, producing a chilled pint glass that filled with the yellowy beer from the bottom up. Michael took the glass from its base and toasted Devin and Justin.

'So we're really gonna hang around here till Krieger and Ronson get back?' Devin asked Justin. He just nodded in reply before taking a huge gulp of his beer.

'Yep.' Said Justin. 'We've got plenty of stuff to do in the meantime, plus it gives us a chance to chill out for a bit. Kinda like having a real job where you finish at he end of the day and have time for yourself.'

Michael never thought of it that way. He had been with the Osiris company for a little while now and he actually enjoyed the irregular working times along with all their jobs being near enough completely different every time. But being here on Avalon he figured would be a sort of working holiday. He wasn't mad at that.

'Hey guys, I'm not late am I?' Tony's voice sounded out as he walked over to the bar.

'Nope not at all.' Justin replied as he ordered another pint through the terminal for Tony.

'Well I've just been in touch with Malik. We can go down tomorrow and order some replacement parts for the ship when Zeke's finished his diagnostic cycle.'

'Can we finally get the grav drive fixed you reckon?' Asked Devin, looking hopeful. The ships gravity drive had started to fail recently and was doing so at the most inconvenient moments. Devin and Tony could fix it when it did crap out, but it needed some replacement parts to get it functioning properly.

'I hope so. Remind me we need to stock up on oxygen filters too.'

'Sure thing.'

'Well we better get everything on the ship that needs fixing, fixed. Sooner rather than later.' Tony continued. 'Knowing our luck our two glorious leaders will want picking up when we can't go and get them.'

The men all nodded in unison. That was indeed how everything seemed to go. The Osiris crew didn't have much luck at the best of times and their bosses, had an uncanny habit of making it worse.

'Hey guys, sorry we're late.'

The twins had finally made it downstairs after freshening up and getting changed in to more appropriate clothes for Avalon.

'Jess managed to get us a reservations at the big Korean Barbeque place on level five.' Faye jutted her thumb over to her sister. 'We've got about forty minutes till then.'

'So I suggest we get the drinks in.' Jess said. 'Several drinks.'

Nobody needed telling twice. Faye ordered another round for everyone using the bars terminal.

'I feel like getting shitfaced tonight.'

Everyone nodded.