The Iridium Inn

The first thing Jasper needed was a drink. He didn’t care what it was so long as it got the taste out of his mouth. The duty-free bar in his quadrant was closed so he had to take the grav-lift further down the crater. The entire city of Kerwan Crater was, in effect, a giant bowl so that you could see the skyline all at once from nearly all vantage points along the rim. There was a vast network of connections bridges that connected the towering buildings overhead as well as tunnels that ran underneath the surface Ceres, some rumored to go straight through the core to connect the four domed cities, but Jasper doubted this was true since the gravity on the dwarf planet, or rather lack-there-of made space travel so efficient.

He eventually reached a little dive called The Iridium Inn at the ground level of one of the megastructures. The barman was a droid named curly, which was evident by way of the fact that the one wheeled, brassy looking entity was wearing a seemingly ancient sticker nametag on its naked torso that said, “Hello My Name is Curly.”

Jasper put his weight on the bar and a finger in the air. Still looking down he said, “Hey Curly. Vodka.” Then he lifted another finger, “Double.”

Curly wheeled over, leaning slightly back as he did and faced Jasper saying simply, “My name is not Curly.”

“Well…” Began Jasper, but he was interrupted.

“This,” Curly gestured to his name-tag with spindly metal fingers that were tipped with something like tiny plungers, “is a horrid little practical joke played upon me by my so called patrons.” This last word was said with a healthy dose of menace.

“Well it looks like it’s been there a while. Why don’t you take it off?”

“It’ll smudge! You know these things are impossible to get off cleanly.”

“Curly, we are well into the space age. Surely we have the technology to…”

“No,” Curly cut him off again. “I’ve looked into it.”

“Ok, well you know what that makes you then?” asked Jasper.

“What?”

“Curly,” said Jasper folding his arms and leaning back on the nearest barstool.

Curly let out the equivalent to a sigh in apparent forfeit and poured a double of house vodka into a metal cup.

“May the sun always fill your sails,” Jasper said under his breath and made an almost imperceptible toasting gesture to no one in particular. He put the Vodka back in a single gulp and slowly put the cup back on the bar.

“Really I’m responsible,” said the chair next to him.

Jasper coiled as a man decloaked his active camouflage next to him. He was as tall as Jasper with a strong nose and hypnotic eyes that were so calming they made the hair on the back of Jasper’s neck stand up.

“Hiding from someone?” Asked Jasper warily. He felt that he should have detected someone next to him, cloaked or not. 

“Just some of the locals.”

“Oh? They don’t like travelers here.”

“We do, for the most part,” said the man.

“So you are local then.”

“Yes, didn’t I say so? I’m Zyon.” The man extended his hand.

“Jasper,” said Jasper, taking the man’s hand.

“Anyway, that was me,” he said gesturing with a thumb jerk to the nametag on Curly’s torso, “years ago when I was a kid.”

Jasper nodded. The droid seemed to take no notice and continued polishing glasses.

“Why Curly?”

“Can’t remember. Something to do with classic earth cinema. 

“Well, it suits him,” said Jasper transferring some credits to Curly and pushing himself off the bar.

Curly, acknowledging the transaction, nodded and said a bit rudely, very kind sir.

“Any time Curly,” said Jasper turning towards the street. He attempted to use his holo to overlay directions but the bio computer was demanding a firmware update. He stood there awkwardly for a moment.

“Trouble?” asked Zyon.

“Firmware update,” said Jasper.

“Really? A forced update? You must have been off world for a while.”

“Yea,” said Jasper without elaborating.

“Listen you wouldn’t happen to know Deep Storage…”

“Intimately.

“I mean. You know where it is?”

“Oh yes,” said Zyon.

Jasper nodded slowly and clasped his hands together.

“Ok then, nice meeting you.”

“I’ll take you, if you want to go. Was heading that way anyways.”

“Great. That would be great,” said Jasper flatly.

“Just tell me one thing. What is a Cevtech pilot doing on Ceres?”

Jasper’s guard was up again. “Who wants to know? What are you, Intrepid?”

“Nope,” said Zyon. “I’m not a suit. Just a curious local.”

“Well no offence, but I’m not in the habit of divulging corporate secrets.”

A moment passed. Then Zyon said, “Ok. I’ll show you the way. He slapped his empty cup upside down on the bar and got up. “Come on.”