Retired

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

It was a dark and stormy night. The lightning flashed as I stepped off the transport shuttle. The long journey home was finally in its last stages. The luxury liner on which I had traveled the starways, to bring me from the Imperial homeworld to this world on the very edge of civilization, had finally arrived. To most of the empire it was known as Sial'nief IV. The locals just called it Mud. It was a farm world. It was where I was raised by my parents. It was where my friend and I had shipped out to join the military so many years ago. It was home.

My foot had not touched the surface of this planet in more than sixty years. I was now seventy-eight years old and in the prime of my life. I was looking forward to a long retirement. With a healthy life and no more fighting, I could live another two hundred years.

The town of Starjump had not changed much since I left. It was still perpetually damp and musty from the large amount of rainfall this God-forsaken world received. It was still a collection of ugly buildings surrounding the star port. I moved to one of the news vendors and picked out a world newspaper, all seven pages of it. Nothing news-worthy ever happened on Mud. That is why I came back to retire. I tapped my card on the credit plate and paid my credit for the paper.

I headed out the front door and into the noise and rush of a star port city. Most of the produce and meats grown on Mud were shipped out through this town. Freight haulers and loader skiffs moved across the sky. They were all loaded with stasis crates.

I looked at the line of taxis waiting along the walkway, and headed out into the rain for the one in the lead. As I was reaching for the door, a young woman cut in front of me and jumped into the taxi. Before I could even protest, she had the door closed and was handing her card to the driver. I watched her red hair swing around her head as she spoke animatedly to the driver.

I just shook my head, as I stood in the rain, and moved to the next taxi in line. As I sat down, I pulled out a small card and handed it to the driver. "Do you know this address?"

"Yes, sir, it will take about fifteen minutes to get there, and the fare will be one hundred and seventy five credits."

I handed him my card, and a moment later he handed me the card and a receipt.

As the driver accelerated into the traffic, I thought back to that day so long ago when I left this planet with my best friend, Randall.