Upon reaching the settlement, they were instantly inundated with requests to purchase the skimmer, the most insistent being Flavin until he got a good look at them and realised who they were. He and the girl seemed overwhelmed to see each other, both smiling as they hugged.
Rhade slowly picked up the things they had brought with them and hopped out of the skimmer.
"I had thought you might die, my own transport was lost," laughed Flavin, looking the girl up and down.
"We might have done if we hadn't moved out," replied Rhade.
"I'm sorry about that, but that's the way of things here. Each man for himself. Now, we must leave quickly before people start looking at her properly. Come along. Leave the skimmer, it's of no use to us."
As they left, the skimmer was already being taken away, no doubt to some dealer who would sell it for a fortune.
Flavin led them to another rundown shack amid a hundred other rundown shacks.
"So, what about her?" Rhade asked the old man.
"She came through whole, like you," Flavin replied. "Just a few months ago.
"Perhaps not so whole, like me." Rhade said, indicating his stomach, which had so recently been bleeding out into the sand.
"You're the lucky one, you healed," Flavin pointed out.
"Lucky?" replied Rhade. "A man makes his own luck and that remains to be seen. What about you?"
"Ah, now that would be a whole other story and not one ready for the telling," Flavin grinned as he poured a drink of something yellowish for them all.
"I can understand the girl keeping out of the public eye and I understand that this settlement doesn't like 'aliens'," he pointed to his wrapped blades. "But what are you hiding out for?"
"Who says I'm hiding?" Flavin started to grin again but Rhade's clear disbelief chased it away. "Ah, well, technology is banned and I'm a scientist. In a nutshell that's it. I can walk in public, but when the people are stirred up, which is often, it's best not to be around. And it's not just this settlement."
"What about the skimmer?"
"Some people are more equal than others, and those that are more equal get to play with toys. It was better the skimmer disappeared than we get caught trying to sell it. Where did you come by it?"
"A couple of ignorant peasants that didn't like defenceless girls and aliens."
"Are they still alive?"
"When I left them."
Flavin shook his head. "You should have killed them. They were probably a couple of Anthony's boys and if they make it back they'll point you out as alien."
"Consequences?"
"Who knows?" shrugged Flavin. "There are no other aliens in the Seefra system. There are freaks of nature and godlike beings who reside in carnivals, but no aliens. Except you."
"Except me. I'm right in assuming that the term 'alien' is from the 'human' point of view?"
Flavin handed out the mugs and took a deep draught of his own.
Rhade took that for assent as he cautiously tasted the mead type drink. It was foul but nutritional and he swallowed quickly. "What do people do to make a living?" he asked, grimacing at the taste.
"Steal, kill, steal some more. That's about it. Unless you want to indenture yourself to one of the mine owners. But that's a death sentence in itself."
"A planet of lost hope," Rhade muttered.
"Nine planets of hope there never was," Flavin replied. "The only way to get a reasonable job is to see Anthony. Every settlement has someone like him who rules with his gangs and enforcers."
Flavin spent a lot of time tinkering in the small corner he'd claimed as his workshop leaving the girl to keep house, which she did happily, while Rhade scouted out the locale.
His main goal was to get off the planet and seek a way out back to civilisation and the best way to do that seemed to be to hire on with Anthony. Sooner or later, being a pilot, he might be able to find an opportunity to use one of Anthony's shuttles. On Flavin's advice he left the force lance behind and took a plain gun that the old man gave him.
Cont'd/.