Malparadiso Station Season 1.1

Science Fiction from a Rogue Asteroid

Season 1 Episode 1

Reptilian Klekovan Yroi Ozazal serves off-world passengers on the shuttle from the space station on Malparidiso to the first level tourist and business area, a place she can't afford to live. What she wants more than anything else is to get off world, out of the dangerous life she lives. When she meets a human who needs a babysitter to stay alive, she takes him on as her ticket to get away. Will he survive long enough, or will he leave her between the Stone and Nothing?

Episode 1: Out of Water

Malparadiso Station

“You there, kleek! Get me a list of the ten best restaurants in Malparadiso Station,” Passenger Lev25 demanded, his human face tilted so he could look down his nose at the flight attendant while remaining seated.

Yroi Ozazal raised her chin, lowering her dorsal lobe to her back, a sign of acquiescence and submission. She gritted her teeth as her digipods stroked the information into the printer. This human had been more trouble on this one shuttle run than everyone she’d served in a week. He’d wanted a pillow, and then he complained about the lighting, and wanted a complimentary globe of water—lots of attention but nothing he would have to pay for.

She brought him the list, cadged from memory—it wasn’t worth the time to pull something like that from the commlink.

“Sentient,” she said, lowering her lobe again. She added a bit of undulation to make her semi-transparent uniform flow across her banded skin. The human had been staring her all the way from Dome Seven, asking for some service or another every five minutes. It was enough to make her skin crack, and he was rude as well. Everyone knew that klekovans never complained, never stood up for themselves, and never talked back. He took advantage.

Yroi didn’t care about that—part of the job description. She wanted off planet. One day she’d find the mark to take her. She was pretty sure this wasn’t the one, but she played her part anyway.

“Which of these is considered the second best?” He was young, less than halfway to middle age, and not as well-dressed as most of the off-worlders who came through Dome Seven. Nevertheless, he had an imperial manner that spoke of privilege and estate, a youngest son, perhaps, hiding out from the family or disinherited, but he probably didn’t have the money to eat in the second best restaurant in Lev3, much less Lev1.

“Does Sentient inquire about the food only, the ambiance or the menu?” She tilted forward slightly to show off her chest, which didn’t match human standards, but it did serve to distract him. He was definitely a mark.

“Food, of course, kleek! All the dancing girls, animascreens, and costumed waiters can’t disguise mediocre food.” His face reddened. His voice raised enough to catch the attention of some other passengers who had been successfully ignoring him.

“CoreView’s the best,” growled the Saurian trader in R25, his huge, scaled body wrapped in a business toga that cost more than Yroi would make in a year. “Why take anything less?” His bony face and hard muscle expressed his general disapproval.

Yroi removed herself from the passenger space to allow them to speak without appearing to listen while she finished the end of shift tasks.

“I have my reasons,” the human said. “What would you recommend, then, for the food?” He glanced at the back of the shuttle where Yroi had disappeared.

“The Edge’s good, “ said a feline lady, her pointed ears aimed at the human, though she held a infopage in one of her four paws while the other three played with her jewelry. "Raw vat-printed meat, served at blood temperature. Prrrrtchp!” She chirped to herself, with a bit of a smile that revealed the sharp fangs behind her furred lips.

“I prefer the Stoner because they don’t use nike’rot,” added a space jockey, apparently human, but covered in a worn jumpsuit of reptilian skin except for his eyes, which were covered by shades. “I want to see and taste my food.”

All of them spoke to the human as if he was a Kleek, like he was nothing, laughing in his face with their suggestions. The Rim was a Lev3 meat market that would eat him alive—maybe literally—the Edge was a brothel catering to the most twisted of kinky cross-species entertainment. He didn’t seem to realize it though. Yroi felt a bit sorry for him. He wouldn’t last long on the Stone, but maybe his family would pay a ransom for him or at least send him enough credits to roll on. He might be worth the trouble to take care of.

Yroi sounded the bell that signaled the end of the shuttle ride, interrupting the conversation. “Welcome, Sentients, to Malparidiso Station, the trading post at the edge of the galaxy, where every exotic thing can be found for your pleasure. Please retain your seating until the shuttle stops. File out the doors to the left. Thank you for choosing the Malparidiso Station shuttle service.”

The human turned pale as he pulled his travel tunic around him, facing the door as if it led to the surface. He swallowed at least twice, but straightened up, listening to more suggestions from the other passengers, each of them a worse choice than the last.

Yroi decided she would play a tour guide to hustle a few more credits for her trouble. Her shift was over for the cycle anyway, but she wasn’t ready to go back to her pod. She’d take him to get a bite from Granny Claws at the Full Bowl. While not even listed on the tourist map, the food was excellent.

Not that the human would know the difference, for all his arrogance. They didn’t get many off-worlders there. The clan might enjoy playing with him.

Three fuzzcat cubs spotted the human as soon as he got off the shuttle. They crowded around him, their tails twitching and their paws patting him, promising him everything from the best price on kreef to their very own virgin sisters—as if any fuzzcat understood the concept. If he had anything loose in his pockets, it was gone by the time Yroi shooed them away.

“Get out of here, you little thieving furballs!” Yroi screeched, making a supersonic noise the human could not hear, but which made the fuzzcats cover their ears and yelp. She nicked the load of the one child young enough to pass near her. Although timid and meek, klekovans had a light touch.

She smiled, lowering her lobe to the human again. “Sentient, if you would like a guide, this one would be honored to...”

“I am quite capable of handling myself, Kleek.” He brushed himself off and straightened up again, sauntering off towards a tube that would lead him as far away as he could get from the restaurant spiral. She watched him for a moment. He couldn’t help hunching his head into his shoulders—a sure sign of an off-worlder. None of them appreciated a couple hundred meters of good, solid beryllion overhead.

Yroi shrugged, forcing her shoulders down to release both her tension from work and her interest in the human. She went to her workpod to change clothes. She hadn’t gotten much from the fuzzcat, a few creds and an ID tag for a Lev1 rim dweller—a drakinad. She couldn’t use the ID, but she could sell it or maybe get it reprogrammed. Living on Lev1 would be one step closer to off world.

Of course, it was also one step closer to being between the Stone and Nothing too.