Terminal Velocity - Day 2

The next day, or rather the next twelve hour period, I spent shopping. I needed to get a few things to make life a little easier (for me, possibly more unpleasant for others). Five suns in the sky, one blue, a baking hot day with a purple tinge. Some of the more enterprising store holders were taking advantage to get rid of their less popular wares, such as ill conceived shirts and nauseous coloured trousers. One was trying to sell Bannot fruit, a purple orange; but who could tell the difference in this light, apart from the fact that oranges aren’t poisonous.
“No thank you” I said, and when he persisted he ended up sampling his produce. Not fatal – just be close to a toilet for a couple of days.
After a quick lunch at Roy’s Burger Bar I headed into the seedier part of town, the kind of shops I wanted were located in the poor quarter where the thousand cred a week earners lived. A thousand credits! On my home planet (before it became an asteroid field), they would have been the high fliers, looked upon with envy by us poor assembly men.
The shop I wanted was situated down a back alley ‘Gun-U-like’ plastered proudly on the door. It was dark inside and it took me a second to adjust, a tiny shop crammed with weapons, shelves from floor to ceiling packed with blasters, grenades, force cannon and the like piled up haphazardly on top of each other. Diagonally opposite to the front door was glass counter and behind that another door.
”Can I help you?” a voice asked pleasantly.
I span, surprised, turning to face a fat man giving me a wide mouthed grin. His dead eyes stared at me as he pulled out a handkerchief and mopped his brow.
”What can I do for you?” he asked again.
I paused, puzzled by his fatness. His chins wobbled as they squeezed themselves out of a grey suit. He was sweating copiously, sheen coated his hands and face which he seemed to replenish with strokes of his handkerchief.
”I’m in need of a few supplies” I said, holding out my hand. He shook it, I tried to hide my displeasure.
”Quite a list Mr Tyrson, a veritable arsenal – and I had you pegged as a tourist”
”Oh? Why?”
”The careless way you entered the shop, I could have killed you before you even knew I was here.”
”Well I am on holiday.”
”Ha Ha” forced and squeakily unpleasant.
”Will you be able to deliver tomorrow?”
”It shouldn’t be a problem” he paused for a second before issuing a shark tooth grin “You’re Jake Tyrson aren’t you? You broke a Gratackan spine; top of the range the Armageddon IV. I’m intrigued as to how you did it.”
”You seem to know a lot about me Mr Welks, I'm at quite a disadvantage”
”Forgive me” he held out his hand and I shook it again, this time getting a totally different feed.
”Samuel Welks, owner of Gratackan” I feigned little interest. Owner of Gratackan, the largest chain of bodyshops in the galaxy! This guy must be loaded and here he was running a two bit gun shop. “Seems an odd sideline”
”This place is a mere hobby, hence the whimsical name; besides I find that a large number of my bodyshop sales are due to weapons damage.” He paused, smiling strangely “You haven’t told me how you managed to break our top of the range spine”
”I didn’t exactly break it, more cracked it”
”But still…”
”I fell out of a plane. If my leg hadn’t have got caught in a tree-like structure I would have splattered into the ground. The jerk cracked the spine and ripped my leg off.”
”Amazing, and you chose New Happy to collect your refund?”
”Well I did have a 100 year money back no questions asked guarantee”I could see his eyes twitch as he calculated the amount I would get on this planet, I would make a serious profit out of this, especially as Harry had picked up my food bill. Welks puzzled me though, the body must be a ploy, designed to fool; playing on a humans tendency to judge a person by their appearance. A folly that must have its roots before bodies were grown on trees.
”I’m picking up my refund at one of your shops tomorrow, perhaps I’ll see you there?”
His smile returned “Perhaps you will”
I left the shop, wiping my hand on my trousers, and headed back to the hotel.