Andrew was hiking through Cudenso canyon on Yuta2. He had just come to a trail crossing, when he was startled by a voice he knew.

  To his surprise it belonged to the most beautiful woman he had ever knew, Linnie, “ANDREW!!!!”

  They had been on a few dates by this time and he had decided already that she was the woman for him, but was reluctant to push her to fast, though he couldn’t tell you exactly why. Though he suspected it was that he felt she was too far out of his league, even though she had yet to turn turn down a date without having a good reason and setting a different date with him.

  “Linnie!? What are you doing here?”

  “What are you doing here I thought you had combat prep training today?”

  “It got canceled. I called you but your phone didn’t even ring. I guess it makes sense.” He said motioning to the immense canyon they were in.

  “Yeah, this is one of the only places left on Yuta without great coverage.”

  “Makes sense I mean we only have some many satellites up and you’d have to have one right over head with these walls.”

  “I’m sorry I missed your call, but you want to join us?”

  “Us? Umm I don’t mean to question your sanity, but it’s just you,” he said with a impish grin growing on his face.

  “Oh, where did those two get off to? They always do this when we go hiking, ditch me to go ‘explore’ something,” she said while looking around.

  “We didn’t ditch you, Linnie, we just didn’t keep up. Who’s this?” said the deep voice of Linnie’s boss Jack, as he and a blonde lady came into view.

  Jack did not look how Andrew had imagined him. Instead of a nerdy guy, he was well jacked with one of those pencil beards that only douchebags have. His hair was clearly dyed, and not well, and his hair looked like someone who had hair transplants. His shirt and shorts didn’t look like anything you’d hike in. Both were likely a size and half too small, likely so he could show off his muscular physique.

  “Oh, Jack this is Andrew!” pride clear on her face.

  “So, this is guy whose swept you off your feet?”, as Linnie turned red, he turned to Andrew and extended a hand,”Nice to meet you, I’m Jack Salbatzailea and before you ask yes my mom is that Salbatzailea.”

  “Hello, I’m Andrew Lather.”

  Andrew shook his hand, but got the feeling Jack was anything but happy to meet him. There was something he couldn’t place that just seemed chest bumpy about the man’s stance, expression, and his name drop of his mom who was one of the Tired 19. Andrew also didn’t appreciate that he didn’t seem to care about the blonde lady behind him. Looking passed Jack he said

  “And you are?”

  “I’m Stacey” she said with a model bright smile.

  Andrew could see how she was the type someone with low self-esteem might go for as she was plastic perfection. Though she was about as far from Andrew’s type as he could imagine, though she did seem nice enough. Her hair was tousled with sticks and leaves in, which told Andrew exactly why they couldn’t keep up with Linnie.

  “Nice to meet yall, where are yall headed to?”

  “Oh, I’m just along for the ride, these two had some plan. I’m not really much of a hiker,” Stacey said clearly annoyed to be out in the wilderness, but not wanting to be left out.

  “We’re heading to Sledovatel pass, it’s a super difficult hike, you’re of course welcomed to join if you think you can keep up.”

  “Jack, I told you he’s a great hiker! Plus, you would need to keep up with me first before you posed a challenge to Andrew,” Linnie said clearly unhappy with Jack’s behavior, but tried to minimize the situation by lightly tapping Jack on the shoulder so he would seem somewhat playful.

  “Oh that’s right, she told me you were some kind of skydiver or something?”

  “Something like that yeah.” Andrew said, rolling his eyes to Linnie where Jack couldn’t see them.

  “Ok first group to the pass is the winner”, Jack said as he grabbed Stacey’s hand almost dragging her down the trail Andrew had come from.

  “I’m guessing as they went the wrong way we don’t have much to worry about?”

  “Jack’s a better guy than he seems and those two have been together for awhile so they make a killer team for Charades, but outdoorsy isn’t something anyone but Jack would call them.”

  She said with the smile that he had fell for.

  “I get the feeling he’s got an issue with me”

  “Oh Jack’s harmless, he just wants to make sure I’m not with someone worth my time.”

  I’m sure that’s it and not how he looked at your backside

  Andrew thought but decided not to say outloud, instead saying,

  “I hope I am”

  “So far so good, speaking of good we better get moving before their implants gets a signal long enough to tell them they’re going the wrong way.”

  ********

  That was the day Linnie first told Andrew she loved him and he told her the same. It was at the lookout at Sledovatel pass while they sat entwined waiting for Jack and Stacey watching the sunset over the canyon. After they realized two hours had passed since they had got there, they gave up and headed back to his car. They didn’t get her car until the next morning.

  “Mr. Lather it is time to awake.” Said the voice of Doc

  “Any chance I can finish that memory before I have to get up?”

  “Sorry, no the Fourier have exited the ship, so we need to move you now.”

  Almost no sooner than he had said that the panel sealed him in opened to reveal the smiling face of Kopa.

  “I’m your handler today, and we need to go.”

  “Not that it matters, because almost anywhere is better than here, but where are we going?” Andrew said as he wiggled out of his hovel and got to his feet.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  “Dirt side, we need to get you papers before the Fouriers find you. As I’m our stealth specialist I’m your guide today. Have you ever been to a Troll planet?”

  “I’ve never really been to any Realm planet if you think about it. I mean I was on an Elven one but it’s not like I got to go sightseeing or anything.”

  “Well with elven planets you aren’t missing much, all your implants will fail to work or worse, there will be nature everywhere and even the bugs could be spies. No order to anything either, even their days are random amount of hours and who knows how many days in a month there could be. Simply they’re awful. Well Troll planets are only slightly better they are some of the only places you’ll see magic and tech used equally. Low level Implants and enchantments work equally well. Only high tech and high magical items and effects will have issues, but even that can be overcome with enough effort. You’ll likely also see more races on this planet than you normally would as all races can function here.”

  “Wait do dwarven planets all have the same number of hours per day?”

  “No but they’re always predictable, none of this 23.5hrs on this planet and 54.24 on another one. Each of our planets have number of hours which are divisible by 5 and there are always a number of days divisible by 10. So all you need to know is that number of days in a month and hours in a day and everything is easy from there.”

  “Wait what, do you change the number of minutes in an hour between planets or something to make that happen?"

  “That would be as illogical as the elven system. No there are always 100 seconds in a minute and 100 minutes in an hour no matter what world you’re on.”

  “Then how can you possibly have such order to your planets?”

  “Tech of course.” She said as they entered the cargo hold.

  “You mean you have machines that help make this happen?”

  “What no, Tech Energy. It ensures that things are logical. “

  “How does it do that?”

  “I don’t know, why does it matter?”

  “Because it’s unusual.”

  “How so?”

  “Ummm because it’s not how things work anywhere else.”

  “Says the guy who’s only been to three planets. Get in the crate. “ she said while signaling toward his old crate.

  “Wait why am I getting back into my old crate?”

  “Because we’re unloading these here and we decided it’s the least suspicious way to get you on to the planet. I figured that would have been obvious.”

  As Andrew got back into his crate he said, “I really appreciate what yall are doing, but I don’t understand why.”

  “Me either. I don’t like the Fouriers, but this seems to be a way to get us into more trouble if we’re caught. My guess is the captain is doing it because he’s got a plan on how to get something out of it, but it could also be because he’s a good man. Best I’ve ever met anyhow.”

  “Well I hope it’s the latter and not the former.” Andrew said as he got situated.

  “Doubtful, but it is a nice hope.”

  Before he could respond the lid shut and almost immediately he heard an unfamiliar voice.

  “Who are you talking to?” said the male voice he didn’t recognize, it had that tone of a sleezy man talking to a young woman at a club at closing time.

  “Myself. Have an issue with that, Murei?” said Kopa, annoyance clear in her tone as she leaned back on the crate.

  The man she called Murei walked into view as he approached her. He looked like a caricature of a sensitive liberal college student who was only in whatever the movement of the day was to get laid. His brown hair up in a man bun, which had a braid wrapped stylishly around it. His face was well manicured and trimmed to exacting perfection. Even his short two to three inch beard had not a single hair out of place. Andrew couldn’t place why, but this dwarf reminded Andrew of Linnie’s boss Jack. He guessed it was the slightly too tight clearly expensive shirt, but he couldn’t be sure.

  “My only issue is that you haven’t accepted my offer, yet” he said as he greasily leaned over her.

  “Yeah, you can drop that yet crap, it’s not going to happen.”

  “Oh, come on some Sruthan like you should jump at the chance to be with the heir of a Fourien house. Just think of what being my mistress will do for your social standing.”

  “First, who said I was a Sruthan? Second, you’re heir to a minor house, so stop acting like you could some day ascend to be their Khan. Third, you have to have a bride before you have a mistress and last I checked you have failed to drug someone enough to agree to marry you.”

  He stood up anger clear on his face.

  “Ohhhh I have though, just you wait. I have made a deal which will bring my house back into the lime light and increase the status of my lineage tremendously. When it gets announced you’ll wish instead of running your mouth off you’d have used it in more productive ways. To show you how generous and forgiving I can be, I’ll forget your insults and offer you 1000carbon to do exactly that.”

  It took everything in Andrew’s being not to burst out of the crate and sock this waste of space right in his smug mouth. To his surprise, Kopa’s demeanor changed to that of a woman who was interested in the man in front of her.

  “Wow, a thousand you say? That’s quite the offer and all I have to do is use my mouth in what you called a ‘productive’ way?”

  “That’s it for now. I knew you’d change your tune once you saw what’s in it for you,” the man she had called Murei said as he started to lean in to get a kiss before she put her hand up to stop him.

  “Woah there. That’s not what I agreed to. Use my mouth in a productive way was our agreement. So here you go. Drop the bun, grow your beard and learn not to be a sexual predator who uses his wealth an influence to try to force a woman to have sex with him. Oh and get a shirt that is the right size, you don’t have the arms or chest to pull off that look. There that should help you with your goals, One thousand I believe was the agreed upon rate for productive use of my mouth I believe”, she said with a predatory smile on her face.

  He grabbed her face while all but shouting, “You stupid Sruthan whore, get on your knees before I make you so ugly nobody will want you. I tried to do it this with kindness, but apparently strength is the only thing you’ll understand!”

  Again before Andrew could make a mistake, suddenly a knife appeared in Kopa’s hand as she pressed it to the man’s genitals, forcing him to let go and raise his hands as a sign of surrender.

  Before she responded in a tone Andrew would describe as the sound an annoyed king might have for a particularly dense subject, “That is the last time you ever touch me if you want to be able to sire kids one day with this imaginary wife of yours. To be clear the only reason I am not castrating you now is because I’m fairly certain doing so would nullify our contract and that’s not fair on the rest of the crew. So while I will tell the Captain of this, if you leave this hold now and never attempt this buffoonish behavior again, I will ask him not to throw you out of an airlock quite yet, sound like a good plan?”

  “You bitch, I can’t believe you’d assau…..” he was cut off by her increasing the pressure.

  “Maybe you’re too dumb to get this asshole, but that was a yes or no question. Does it sound like a good plan or should I just castrate you now to save the realm the hassle of having deal with your potential offspring?”

  It was clear Murei wanted to respond differently but managed to squeak out. “Yes that is an acceptable plan.”

  “Glad to see even you can grasp simple concepts when forced to. Now run long before I change my mind,” she said while removing the knife from the man’s crotch and waving it in the direction of the exit.

  The man left so quickly Andrew half expected he had to have run, but when the man got to the airlock he turned back.

  “Per our agreement I won’t do anything while on this ship, but just you wait until the great challenge and the Fouriers regain the throne, then you’ll be mine!”

  “There’s no throne asshole, it’s a democracy and has been for 100s of millennia if you haven’t noticed. As for the challenge there’s no way Andress the fourth is winning over Drena. She’s the best hammer pilot who has ever been Khagan and he has only piloted them in duels.”

  “Ohhh you’ll see, he’ll win of that there is no doubt. I can’t wait to see that smug look fall from your face when you realize I knew what I was talking about and when Andress gives you to me.”

  With that he dramatically exited and the airlock closed.

  Kopa looked at the box, “Thanks for not trying to ‘save’ me and causing us bigger issues.”

  “Apparently, you didn’t need it.”

  “No, but I had better go talk to the Captain as I know Doc keyed him in once that waste of a title started to hit on me. The Capt might throw him out of an airlock before I can stop him and so he can warn his mom that there is clearly a plot against her in this upcoming challenge. I know it will be no surprise as Fouriers have never won one of these without treachery, but still good to have confirmation.”

  “Thank you again, see you dirt side.”

  “In won’t be long I promise, then to get you creds and send you on your way.”

  “See you then, thank you.”

  “Stop it, for all you know I put you in that crate to sell you to the highest bidder.”, she said with a smile before she shimmered and disappeared. Only a moving villainous laughter could be heard as she moved away from him.

  “Well that’s ominous.”