The Quarry

[Rage Menelas]

[font=Lucida Sans Unicode]It appeared that he would be on extended leave while his wing commander was recuperating from his injuries. Ryan had just left the bedside of the doughty ROK marine whose spirits were high, his stubborn optimism writing checks his body couldn't cash unfortunately. The physicians, however, assured Ryan that the imbecilic invalid still had several weeks of painful rehab before he would be released—even if they had to strap him down at night to keep him there! Good enough! That would give Ryan a chance to sample some more of the excellent entertainment available on Urtyre, the finest spaceport in the known galaxy! He mused on that a moment; once a sailor always a sailor!

He had quite a few credits to do it with, too. The federation bounty on the three wanted fugitives he had fished out of the ruins on Hei'a 12 had fetched quite a tidy sum. Quang had insisted that he take it all, said if it hadn't been for Ryan making his forced march on the trail of the itinerant marine not only would they not have captured the three surviving Dalcachenes but Quang himself would have most likely died a horrible death. He would hear nothing of making a split of it so Ryan capitulated, and came out quite well in the bargain. He certainly had plenty of money with which to enjoy Urtyre.

Charlie had mentioned a sector of the artificial world that they had not gotten to, were actually planning on visiting the day they had been called away to tend to an irate Asian buddy of theirs. It was the Earth Sector. It seems that Urtyre had a small but thriving population of Terrans who had made it their labor of love to transform a small piece of the place into a plausible semblance of home sweet home. Ryan found that incredible but knew better than to doubt it. If Charlie said it, he took it for gospel.

Ryan's first view of the Earth Sector proved Charlie to be accurate as ever. He got out of the air taxi and stepped into Paris! ...or what was certainly an authentic Gallic facsimile, the street lined with bistro's and open-air cafes. Two blocks down he took a left and found himself in Rome, replete with street wine vendors offering Lambrusco to passers-by... He pressed on, enjoying the atmosphere; it was like a whirlwind tour of the world.

Finally he noticed his throat was dry, decided to stop and slake his thirst at the next opportunity. He had just left Greece behind him and up ahead there was another country. He played a little game of: Can you guess the next national flavor? Russia... India... Japan... he flitted through the possibilities. He was wrong. The first establishment he came to had the words Rick's Cafe Americain scrawled across its white-washed stucco facade. Oh course! Play it again Sam! He loved that old movie... Ryan rushed into the small cafe and found it lived up to its namesake admirably, even down to the pianist playing the appropriate ditties. Just remember this... a kiss is just a kiss... Yep, this was just the place to relax and lose himself for awhile. How incredibly appropriate, for Urtyre was certainly his Casablanca!