Chapter 9: Run-Off

I don't know what time it was when I finally reached my room. The ship had a very large dormitory which greatly resembled a hotel built inside of the ship. The hallways and room were no different, though. It was all red carpet, blank white walls, and white ceiling. Even the keys were just normal keys. The fact that I couldn't feel the ship's movement made it seem like I wasn't in space at all. If it weren't for the small window I probably would have forgotten that we had ever left earth.

The size of the dormitory stunned me. Izzy asked as we walked through it if all the rooms were used. Sablin explained that less than a quarter of them were. In fact, most of the room did not have windows, being on the interior of the ship, but they had rather few people and so everyone had a room with a window. Our rooms were all right next to each other, one floor up from the main floor. Apparently the dormitory made up most of the front half of the ship; a design idea of Gaustal's when he thought he'd be recruiting many more people than he actually did.

I suppose it must have been around three in the afternoon. There were no clocks anywhere on the ship, or at least I hadn't seen any. It was that quest that led me into what was labeled as a storage room. I opened the door, hoping that perhaps there was some kind of clock stashed away there. Sablin said we were free to explore the ship until Gaustal called us, and that we could usually find someone who could help us in the bridge if we needed anything. I didn't feel like bothering anyone with my rather silly quest for a clock. The storage room, however, was not at all what I had expected.

The lights were very dim, but it surprised me because they were already on. The room was about the width and length of a tennis court. Unlike the rest of the ship, the floor was wood. The walls were painted in some kind of deep burgundy color which serves to amplify the dimness of the lights. There were a handful of bar tables and chairs placed intermittently around the room, and to the right there was a bar which appeared to be fully functional, complete with glasses and various bottles stocked behind it. I walked in before my eyes completely adjusted and before I could clearly see the other people in the room. Four rather odd looking figures were seated around one of the tables, over which hung a lamp which was one of only two sources of light in the room. The other was a similar lamp which dangled above the bar, illuminating a fifth figure who was laying on said bar with his hands behind his back and his legs crossed. There was one more figure, leaning against the wall on the far side of the table. It was Caleb.

All six of them looked at me as I entered, some with confusion, some with surprise, and Caleb with complete passiveness. I tried to shrink back into the door, hoping they would just ignore me.

"Hey!" the figure on the bar called. He looked a lot like Caleb. They had the same body structure at least. The primary difference was the fact that this one's fur was jet black, and his face was actually friendly. Despite this, I still felt uncomfortable at walking in.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you," I said sheepishly, starting to pull the door closed. The figure on the bar would have none of it.

"Where ya going? Come on, stay a while," he said, jumping down and running over to the door. I had no choice really but to oblige. "I'm Shadow," he said, extending his paw. Tentatively, I reached my hand forward and shook with him. "See, there ya go. Handshake, up and down, be friendly." Shadow was apparently mocking my hesitation, which really only made me more uncomfortable. I'm sure he didn't mean to though, simply because his face contained an odd mix of curiosity and excitement. Dropping my hand and grabbing my wrist he pulled me into the room and closed the door.

"Shadow what the fuck are you doing?" one of the figures at the table asked. This figure was easily the largest in the room. He must have been nearly seven feet tall when standing. He appeared to be almost human. He was some kind of dragon-human hybrid. It was obvious he walked upright. His body was human except for his dragon-like head, black scaly skin, clawed hands, and a very long spindly tail which was twitching impatiently.

"Don't mind Garret, he's just anti-social," Shadow grinned at me.

"You'd better mind me, Shadow," Garret threatened, his head tilting down and his eyes narrowing.

"But it's so much more convenient not to," another of the figures at the table said. This one also resembled Caleb, but instead his fur was pure white. He also had two notable accessories which, in the dim light, I could not immediately tell if they were real or not. One was a golden halo which floated above his head, and the other was a set of white feathered wings which fluttered behind his back. Overall they gave him the appearance of an angel.

"Got that right," Shadow grinned. "Anyways, introductions. The big guy's Garret. The white fluffy one is Blitz. He's my dad. Next we've got the amazing Larg!" Shadow indicated the third figure from the left seated at the table. He was by far the oddest one in the room. Two not quite spherical blue blobs, not connected to each other, seemed to make up his body. One was resting upon the chair while the other hovered above it. At either side of the upper blob a thick white hand with three very thick fingers and a thumb drifted, also not connected visibly to any other part of his body. His feet must have been the same, but they were incased in red tennis shoes, giving the appearance that a pair of tennis shoes was simply laying on the ground under his chair. His head seemed to be the only thing with connections to anything, though not to his body. Several blobs formed an elongated spherical head, a nose, and two long yellow strands of what must have been hair but could just as easily have been called rectangular sails. His mouth and eyes seemed fairly normal, and were the only things about him that did.

"And next we have Mowza," Shadow continued. The final resident of the table was the first creature that actually resembled any kind of alien I had ever thought of. He was humanoid, but was far too skinny to be human. His head appeared to be a green crescent moon which someone had cut in half along the horizontal and stuck a pillar with a face into. Other than that, only his wrinkly green skin separated him from being human, along with the abnormal lankiness of his entire body.

"And from what I hear you've already met Caleb," Shadow said happily. I just nodded, hoping he'd let me leave some time soon. The next words out of his mouth surprised me greatly, though, making me forget entirely about leaving. "Great. He's my son." I suppose I had never thought about that. Of course, I hadn't had any reason to, really, but I had never considered what kind of family, if any, Caleb might have. It seemed like a novel idea, that he'd have a family. "Now, how'd you like to get into the game?"

"No, no, and no," Garret said before I had a chance to respond. The game was apparently a card game which they were playing on the table. I couldn't tell if they were betting with chips or some kind of strange money, but I was sure I didn't have any of whatever it was.

"Party pooper. Let her play," Blitz said, leaning back in his chair.

"I bet she doesn't even know how," Larg threw in, the first words he had said all night. His voice was rather squeaky.

"I don't," I finally managed to squeeze into the argument. "And I wouldn't want to intru . . ."

"That's fine, you can watch a few hands and learn," Shadow interrupted, pulling me up closer to the table.

"Shadow, just give it up already," Larg said. "I don't think she wants to play anyways."

Shadow finally looked at me, asking with his eyes if I actually wanted to leave.

"I think I'd rather just get going," I said. "I don't mean to be rude, but I don't think this game is for me."

"Alright then," Shadow said, seeming not to care either way. I waved sheepishly to everyone in the room, and then headed toward the door as quickly as possible while trying not to look like I was in a hurry. I shut the door and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Are we really that bad of company?" Shadow's voice right in front of me made me jump.

"How'd you get out here," I asked, trying to smile.

"I walked out the door. Don't worry, I'm really sneaky," he replied.

"I see," I nodded, smiling a little. He really didn't seem like a bad guy.

"So what were you looking for in there anyways?" Shadow asked. He was slightly taller than Caleb was, when he was standing fully erect at least. He tended to crouch forward much more than Caleb did. It crossed my mind that age might be a factor. I'd learn later that this wasn't the case, that Caleb's posture was simply an abnormality.

"I was, well, just looking for a clock," I admitted, blushing. As I expected, he started laughing. It wasn't a mean laugh, though. It was almost friendly. Somehow he managed to make me laugh a little as well. I decided that I liked him right then.

"Take a look out any window," Shadow said, recovering himself. "We're in space. There is no time of day. Sleep when you're tired and eat when you're hungry. You'll get used to it," Shadow said with a smile. "I've got an idea. How about I show you where the cafeteria is?"

"Okay. I was getting kind of hungry," I said.

"Right this way," Shadow said as he started down the hallway. He entered the dormitories and walked along briskly, calling back at me to hurry up.

"I'm not as fast as you," I said, frustrated.

"Well that's obvious. That's why I'm going fast. I'm making you faster," Shadow explained jokingly.

"I see," I laughed. I decided I could probably trust Shadow, so I decided to ask him one of the many questions I had. "Hey, Shadow. Why does Caleb act the way he does?"

Shadow slowed down to walk with me. "That's a tough question," he said. "Caleb knows a lot more about the universe than any of us. He's got a lot of secrets that he refuses to share. I suppose some of them are probably pretty scary or something, and that's what makes him so dark and emo and whatnot." Something about Shadow just made me want to laugh. I didn't want to laugh at his answer, though, so what came out of my mouth was a kind of chocked chuckle. Shadow just smiled. "I guess he's not really emo. He's got a lot of burdens to bear, you know. They say with power comes responsibility, and Caleb's got more power than anybody. Sometimes I think he takes the responsibility part too seriously."

"Was attacking me part of his responsibility?" I asked. Shadow shrugged.

"I have no idea. Caleb doesn't do things without a good reason. He's not evil, really. If you wanna know, you probably gotta ask him yourself," he told me. We passed out of the dormitories and into a long hallway.

"I was afraid of that," I replied.

"You don't need to be afraid of him. If he wants to kill you, you're dead and avoiding him won't change that. Otherwise you're perfectly fine, but avoiding him won't get your questions answered."

"That's easy for you to say, he's not after you," I said.

"Yeah, I guess perspective really is everything." He stopped outside a sliding glass door that was slightly larger than most of them. "Well, this is le café," he said rather in a rather cheesy voice. "I myself am not hungry, so I bid you ado, goodbye, hasta luego, adios, manana, banana, bye bye, and to-da-loo. Peace out!" he said, making himself laugh as he walked away back toward the dormitories. I laughed as well. He was a bit odd, but I couldn't help but like him. I walked into the cafeteria, waiting for him to turn the corner first.