Imperfection

[Saerieve]

 

Part V: The Junkyard

It's been long since the last time he had spent time in a bar, especially one filled with scum. All those suspicious glances, hostile stares, nothing he had missed about places like this. Walking straight to the bar, he knew what happened to strangers in such places, especially ones with valuable cargo or unique ships. That's one thing he hated about Zoner bars - No weapons allowed, and yet, the ones with right contacts could always smuggle a handgun in with no trouble. Junker bases however, was a complete free-for-all. People could grab whatever they wanted long as they didn't make a mess of it, and those unlucky enough not to make it, simply ended up being the poor victims of "airlock malfunction", with no one really asking questions about how any of it happened.

A bottle of beer was the one thing he needed to keep things in perspective, and of course give him an excuse to get some useful information out of the bartender. Leaning toward the bar, with the bottle in his hands, he could easily hear the whispers behind his back. The bunch of scum probably talking about the stranger who had docked with a Katana less than half an hour ago, but clearly was not a Kusarian. He could bet all his cash that sooner or later someone would approach him, trying to start a small-talk just to get some answers out of him, to see who he is and where he's got the ship from. He was not a stranger to that place, but not with his new face. He looked nothing like the worthless pirate he was, back when he frequented that bar. No more leather jacket, no more jeans. Now he wouldn't take his flight suit off in public, so everyone could tell he's not a no-one.

He had learned the one secret to dealing with insecurity through the time he had spent in shady corners of Sirius - He knew the one way of feeling secured, was making everyone else feel unsecured. He knew the trick was to either ignore a hostile stare, or stare back long enough so the other stranger decides to finally break off and look away. That way, no one dared approach him, and that was enough time for him to get the bartender talking and find out about all he needed. The bartender wasn't the talkative type, or maybe he just wasn't friendly toward 'foreigners', but he finally told him about the ex-Hacker with a small equipment shop who could hack his ship's navmap for him and update it with charted files of surrounding star systems. That was his start, to make sure his memory won't fail him, and even if it does, a short glance at the navmap would solve the problem.
 

---