First, I had to see Jyen. I wanted to know why she was putting this station in mortal danger by remaining here with her brother.
I hung around my place for another day or so, not quite voluntarily. I’d just lie down for a moment to rest and realize three hours had flown by.
I walked across the street to Jyen’s, rode the elevator up, and buzzed their door. Jyen opened it and the view of their apartment left me horrified.
It was completely furnished, with junk everywhere. When I came in I had wanted to see suitcases, not a living space that looked like its occupants never planned on leaving.
There were chairs, couches, rugs, tables, and a lifetime of knickknacks covering it all. It appeared they had spent every second shopping since I last visited.
“Why are you still here?”
“The port is closed. Besides, we didn’t know where to go, or how.”
“The port is still closed?” I asked. That seemed odd.
“Yeah. Not one ship has left or entered in more than a month. We’re stranded. Don’t you think Jyonal has done a great job on our apartment?”
“You realize more Dredel Led could be on their way, right? How pretty your furniture is hardly seems important.”
At this point a man walked into the room from the back. He was dressed well with a manicured black beard and large sunglasses.
“Hello, Hank,” he said casually.
It took me a moment to realize this person was the creature that had once been Jyonal.
“Is that you?”
Jyen walked over and proudly stood by her brother.
“He’s recovered a lot. I told you what they were doing to him while we were incarcerated,” Jyen said.
Absently, Jyonal injected a drug into his neck. So he hadn’t changed that much.
His eyes glowed even behind the obscuring glasses as he looked at the floor. I got the idea he was using his mutation, which was absolutely not what I wanted to experience first thing out of the hospital.
On the ground in front of me appeared a solid cube maybe six inches on all sides. It had swirls of colors all over it, mostly of dark, metallic shades.
“Do you know what that is?” Jyonal asked after his eyes stopped glowing.
“No idea,” I said. “It looks kind of psychedelic.”
“What’s that mean?” Jyen asked curious.
“Um, it means kind of crappy.”
“No, silly, it’s our payment,” Jyen said with delight.
“Payment for what?”
“For you saving our lives.” Jyen walked closer to me now, looked up into my face, one ear falling over her shoulder. “For fighting the Dredel Led. You could have just let him kill us.”
“And what’s that?” I answered, pointing at the cube.
“It’s delfiblinium,” Jyen said. “It was one trick we used to pay for our transport out here.”
Delfiblinium was some super alloy. It could only be created at the most prestigious labs and in minute quantities.
This slab of metal was worth a ton. In theory. The problem was finding a buyer anywhere within the entire state of Ginland. I’d be arrested immediately if I tried to sell it. It was just a highly illegal doorstop.
“Thanks,” I said, not wanting to touch the druggie-spawned metal. “But really, we need to get you two out of here.”
“How? The port is closed. Even the Portal is shut down,” Jyen complained.
“The Portal too?” That was really bad. The military controls the Portals. I might be able to get something out of the port, with Garm’s okay, but that was irrelevant if the Portal was shut down. It would take thousands of years to travel to the next inhabited system without a Portal. It simply wasn’t possible.
“So are you back to full strength?” Jyen asked, after some time of me standing quietly.
“For the most part, I guess. My teeth are growing, but that will take time.”
“If you want, I can take a look at them. I made all these myself,” Jyonal said, and he pulled back his lips with his fingers to show off his teeth, which made him look crazier than usual.
“No, thank you,” I said a little too hastily.
As I saw it, there wasn’t a whole lot left to talk about.
“Well, I’m off.”
“Hank, do you want to come over for dinner later? You’re the only person we know on the station and we’re not sure how safe it is to talk to others,” Jyen pleaded.
I paused for a bit. I could see being lonely here. I did feel sorry for them in a way. But they were also the kind of people you didn’t want as friends because of their baggage. You know, the hunted-by-two-galactic-empires baggage.
“How about later this week?” I asked. Hoping Jyonal wouldn’t turn me into a mushroom at the delay.