Day 05. The Sirrus 12 Docking and Departure Platform
Well I was almost thinking about not going tonight to meet up with Johnny Lightsmith at the docks and I had this feeling that I get sometime where I just want to run away from everything that’s going on and hide in a secluded corner of space forever. The whole idea just kept pressing and pressing on my mind and all I could do was keep thinking to myself that all this sounded like more trouble than it was worth and that I was just going to keep digging myself in deeper and deeper. I mean really, who am I to be getting involved with all these things going on in the galaxy? But then I remembered back to the Starship Alliance when they were being boarded by the authorities, the sincerity and hope in Lillie’s big wide eyes as she looked into mine, entrusting the destiny of that chip, something she held so critical, to me. I knew in my heart that I could not just run and hide this time, as I had done so many times before.
I left my room so that I could be there at the departure bay at twenty hundred exactly. There were people and aliens everywhere, walking up and down the corridors, a sea of faces in every direction that you looked, but then from the corner of my eye, I spotted a figure that seemed to be following me, large and dark. I thought it was just my imagination at first, but then after a few more turns, it was still behind me. Finally I got to the dock and it seemed like I had lost whoever it was. I thought maybe I was just being paranoid and there wasn’t anyone following me at all. I can get like that sometimes.
Standing at the departure bay I could not see Johnny anywhere, so I just looked around here and there at everyone preparing for their voyages. All the gazes and glances from the passers by, seemed to offer nothing but distain and mistrust or a vague uninterested sidewards stare. I started to get the feeling that everyone was watching me, even though not too many were looking at me at all. I swear I’m crazy sometimes, but these days I guess it’s hard for anyone not to be. Pretty soon Johnny showed up. He seemed different, really different from before, all serious and everything as he led me to his ship and not really talking at all. Just as I stepped on board, I looked around to see the dark shadowy figure from before just standing and watching us board the ship. I wonder who it was.
You’ll never guess who I just bumped into, little Johnny Lightsmith from back at Immotec Inc. Now there’s a kid who could sell just about anything to anyone, ice to an Eskimo I think the saying goes, but I’m not too certain where that comes from. He was never really too good with the technical side of things, but you’d have to be careful when around him because he could just about talk you into anything. I remember one of his favourite jokes was that he could talk anybody into anything, but was surprisingly terrible at trying to talk girls into going out with him. “I can generally talk a girl into doing virtually anything, as long as it doesn’t involve me” he was always saying. He was always quite a laugh back in the day.
It seems that time has somehow change him though – seems to change everyone – I mean he’s still the same Johnny Lightsmith, but I’m not sure anymore, just a little different, almost like he’s been through something substantial that has really changed him fundamentally, but like he is still trying to act like his old self. We ran into each other in the hall – literally I mean – as I was heading back to my room just before. I guess we were both looking the other way or something, or maybe it was that cute blonde who was walking past that took our eyes and minds off where we were going. “Oh my lordy!” exclaimed Johnny from the floor, “Now I’ll be damned if that’s not Fitzroy Stargazer himself. What brings you to these parts of the galaxy?” He went on to ask a whole lot of other questions before I’d even had time to answer any of them. But that’s Johnny for you.
Now I had planned on just going back to my room, perhaps reading a bit with some good tunes playing in the background or watching something decent on the reality screen, but somehow – like he always does – Johnny managed to persuade me into having a drink with him in the lounge. It was really good to catch up on old times; we talked about all the different antics we used to get up to and I told him about my ordeal with Daisy out there. “Oh, so that was you out there in the whale?” he remarked just before cracking up into hysterical laughter. Later he managed to get me to tell him the rest of my story, about Lillie, and a little about the junk freighter and how I ended up here on the Sirrus 12 Docking and Departure platform. I asked him if I knew any way I could get in touch with a member of the Free Radicals. At the sound of this, Johnny all of a sudden went quiet and as he leaned over across the table, he whispered in my ear, “It’s not safe to talk here about such matters. Meet me at the departure bay tonight at twenty hundred hours and we’ll take a short flight.”
Well it’s quite nice here at the Sirrus 12 Docking and Departure Platform, very busy too, with beings from all over the galaxy, coming and going and amusing themselves in all the little department stores and caffeine huts on the second to top level, as they wait for their next flights out or for their loved ones to arrive. Sometimes I just like to sit there, right in the middle of all the complexity of interaction, just watching and observing everything that’s going on, kind of all under the radar, like everyone’s just the bright centre to their own private universe and their friends, family and acquaintances are all just different surrounding galaxies.
For lunch I went up and found a nice little restaurant with a view. I wanted to see if my little friend Daisy was out there. I sat down at a place called Endora’s Intergalactic Cuisine and got them to bring me the largest thing on the menu, but when waitress informed me that smoked giant starwhale was the largest thing on the menu, even though it would have been a touch ironic, I just had to go for the next item down the list. It was quite a good view out the large window and I watched with awe as a few Tansgalactic Starliners made the jump to hyperspace, but there was no Daisy. My food arrived and I consumed the whole plate with much eagerness and delight and when I had finished, I even thought about licking the plate, but I didn’t and instead I just asked for the cheque.
I looked out the window once more, but with little expectation, content with gazing at the stars, the millions of tiny points so far away and the flashing of various transports and starliners periodically passing by. Then just as I was about pay my starbucks and leave the table, with a strange silence, just meters from my window emerged the enormous head of Daisy the starwhale, casually floating by. There came a low, distributed gasp and murmur among the crowd, from various others in the restaurant and people passing by, turning to watch as Daisy breezed on past and as she did – it could have just been my imagination – but I sensed a certain expression, something in her relatively small eye – about the size of a dinner plate – that seemed to say that she was aware of my presence, sitting there at the window of the Sirrus 12 Docking and Departure Platform.
So I find myself now thankfully in much more familiar surroundings, on the large Sirrus 12 Docking Platform where they’ve just brought me from my encounter with the giant starwhale, which was quite an interesting experience. Now the management of this platform informed me that the name of this particular starwhale is Daisy and incredibly, have been keeping her as a pet – and tourist attraction – for past few years. They sincerely apologised for any inconvenience caused and have kindly provided me with a small room on board the platform for as long as I need to stay. “She’s not normally like this” one of the rescue crew assured me as they were getting me out, “I’m not really sure what’s wrong with her today.”
The whole process took a relatively short amount of time. The rescue boat arrived shortly after I had contacted them from the belly of the whale and they ran me through the whole process, which it seemed like they may have already done more than a few times before. The procedure for me was very simple. I just had to sit there, strap myself in and hang on. It seemed like Daisy had been through quite a bit of obedience training in her years in orbit with the Sirrus 12 platform. The crew read commands to her using their radiowave transmitter, which conveniently, I could also hear from inside the escape pod. Starwhales it turns out are especially sensitive to a very large spectrum of electromagnetic waves, of which some they use just like a sense of hearing.
“Daisy, Daisy, here girl!” came the first transmission. I felt a slight momentary jerk backwards as she responded and I heard a loud squeal on the same radio frequency, presumably Daisy’s exclamation of excitement “Good girl, now stop!” another jolt forwards. “Who’s been a naughty little girl, Daisy? Who’s been a very bad girl, swallowing our guests?” came another transmission followed by a low-pitched apologetic squawk from the whale, as though she knew she was getting into trouble. “Now, give it back Daisy, like a good girl, drop it. Give it back.” I heard another low squeal then began to feel some movement. Soon I was thrust back into the freedom of space along with various other objects and substances that were accompanying me in what I now know was not actually one of Daisy’s twenty-three stomaches, but was merely in temporary holding inside one of her storage glands. You learn something new each day. Nevertheless, I think I’ll still be telling the story of how I was almost eaten by a giant starwhale, for many years to come.
