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Omnimart

_ _

Anthony stood absolutely bewildered by the planet-sized superstore.

It had begun with the parking lot. Spindles of metal arms and tubes extended out from the planet sized superstore, the docking and transportation railways spread around the planet hanging like a massive spider web.

He could never count the number of cars in front of a Walmart, and there was no way he could even dare to guess at the number of ships, big and small, caught in the planet's web. He couldn't even begin to guess what kind of system had to be set in place for the whole thing to logistically work, but he supposed that was mostly Mary's job after Zack had manually brought their ship close enough to select a docking port.

Still, he was absolutely fascinated with the whole thing. He sat on the edge of the co-pilot's seat even after they docked, looking at all the wondrous movement outside through the windshield.

Zack's muzzle appeared at the edge of his field of vision. "Brilliant, isn't it?"

The awestruck human kept on staring out the front screen, the fact that he was staring at a planet-sized store trying to agree with his sensibilities. "There's even more than there were at the fueling sun."

"Heh, yep." The dragon's face disappeared from Anthony's sight. "Wait until we actually get down there."

Anthony's focus pierced through the parked ships and tracked the planet. It was an almost uniform color, a sterile grey very unlike the vibrant charcoal of Zack's scales, and the world was obviously of artificial make. There was one large section which was completely different and looked like a miniaturized version of the docking web stitched together over an open wound on the planet.

He mumbled without really expecting a reply. "Is that valet parking over down there or something?"

The ship's AI popped up onto her interface screen. "No, that's a ship lot. I'd actually prefer this old thing over one of those crappy Omnimart models." Mary raised her voice. "Zack, you ought to buy a new artificial gravity generator while you're down there, yours is giving me some odd, really iffy feedback. I'm expecting it to fail sooner rather than later."

"That's expensive," the dragon called back. "But I'll mark down some prices and see what I can do."

"Don't be a cheapskate," she said. "But I suppose that's your call. Shopping platform's ready, by the way."

"Good," Zack replied. Anthony felt the dragon's hand pat his shoulder, and the man's head reflexively turned around to look up at his gleaming face. "Ready for some grocery shopping?"

The man stood up from his chair. "Umm, sure."

"Great! At its most basic sense, it'll be quite like the way you shop on Earth, I think. Just, you know, more technologically enhanced."

Anthony turned around and took a step towards the exit before he noticed something odd. "That's cool," he said, "but why've you got clothes on?"

"Just some pants," the dragon said. "It's nearly impossible to be socially acceptable to all cultures everywhere, but most folks don't have anything against clothing, and they usually get that, practically speaking, I'm not going to wear a wing-tailored shirt because those are annoying to put on and expensive to buy."

"But you were naked when you stumbled out onto Earth. I thought it wasn't a big deal out in the universe?"

Zack waved a finger around. "Mostly, no. But like I said, it's difficult to find a common ground for all cultures. Heck, there's a planet where it's illegal to wear clothes, but having them on everywhere else generally isn't usually distasteful, and I'd rather not get into any arguments with a random conservative person while shopping around."

"Umm, okay. I suppose I should put my stuff on then, ragged as they may be. What should I be expecting?"

"It should be the same as a store on your homeworld, only not. I mean, the basic concept's the same. You pick out what you want, stuff it into a basket, and check out. Just, the environment is a bit different, that's all."

"Okay," Anthony replied, his mind musing over how familiar yet alien the planet would be.

"We should get you some new clothes too," Zack said, and then he beckoned him to follow with a claw. "Cleaning them didn't repair the wear on them." The dragon led his companion to the ship's hatchway. The side of the silver box opened as usual but the metal disappeared at the seams of the opening, sliding out instead of opening into a ramp as it had done the past few times Anthony had seen it open.

The reason it had been different this time was immediately clear. There was a connecting hallway attached to the ship's exit, kind of like a jet bridge at an airport, and it was a few steps down to a section of flooring squared off by dull black railings.

Anthony peered over a rail and saw that the platform was hovering, and the tunnel was lit with dim white lights in both directions to what seemed like infinity.

"So," he said, "is something supposed to happen now?"

"Oh yeah," Zack said as if it were obvious. "It'll be just the two of us."

"Huh?"

The ship's entryway shut closed, and the man realized he hadn't been talking to him. A slim pillar of light emerged from the center of the platform, beckoning him to inquire as to its purpose.

"You might want to hold on to the railing," Zack said before his companion could formulate a question. "It's really off-putting the first time."

Anthony grasped the metal bar closest to him. "Uhh, okay."

Zack touched the glowing light in the middle of the platform. Partially translucent menus appeared all around them, floating in place and humming with energy.

Anthony heard a synthetic voice quite unlike Mary's speak--it was dull and clearly synthesized compared to the patronizing voice possessed by the ship's AI. "Welcome to Omnimart. Your biological signature has been identified. Air pressure optimized, gravity set to eight point five meters per second squared, temperature set to seventy degrees Fahrenheit. Enjoy your shopping experience."

"It's an average," Zack said. "Our bodies prefer about the same environment, but I'm used to weaker gravity for the wings and all."

The man kept on holding the rails. "I see."

"Alright, let's grab some toilet paper first so I don't forget."

The dragon wandered over to one of the hovering menus and tapped an option with his fingernail-like claw.

Without any sense of motion, Anthony's hands automatically clutched the rails as the platform began moving at, from what he could see of the streaking lights, an incredibly swift speed.

"Oh dear god," the man screamed. "Damn!"

Zack leaned on the rails close to him with a dopey grin. "Said so."

"This is not fun."

"Focus on me. Ignore the lights."

That was easy. The dragon was the one thing his eyes were almost always attracted to anyway.

It took him about ten seconds to adjust to the disorientation, but Anthony was able to relax his grip. Zack, meanwhile, stood completely nonchalantly with only a small curve at the edge of his muzzle giving away what he thought of the human's reaction.

The dragon remembered his first time going grocery shopping had been quite the opposite. He'd gone with his mother when he was a little kid, his scales barely hardened (though his father's influence had kept them from becoming strong as steel--it was a tradeoff for having softer scales which pleased other unscaled beings around the universe, including Anthony, who often complimented how nice they felt), and he had leaned off the railings screaming in witless joy, horrifying his four-legged mother.

Then again, he supposed it was not as scary for someone who had wings, and his mother had just been a big worrywart.

A flicker of the light screen told him he should toss out another warning. "Hang on," Zack said, "stopping is about as disorienting as going."

The man decided it would be simpler to shut his eyes. "Just tell me when we're there."

Zack grinned when the platform stopped and opened another hatchway into the toiletry section of the planet-store. "We're here."

The man opened his eyes and, to his surprise, saw a rather familiar scene.

White fluorescent light illuminated aisles and aisles of stuff. The floor was the same sterile grey most Costco warehouses had, and there were blue shopping carts being pushed around on it.

In fact, the only odd part about the whole image was the people pushing the carts. They were mostly bipedal humanoids, however, and there wasn't quite anything as strange as Zack's jellyfish doctor.

"Are there actually any aliens that look like Eldritch abominations, or is the universe generally going to cater to my sensibilities?"

"Eldritch? Interesting word. Hmm. In a way, the universe will. The reason everything you see here as close to your qualities is because the Omnimart has divided sections. We're in a section that caters to creatures who find a seventy degree temperature acceptable, amongst other things. You remember about Alorkin and their incredible reproductive compatibility? They happen to share almost the same range of comfort you prefer. And I too, for instance, because of my father."

"So we could hop into the platform thing and pop out into another section where there's like worm and slug aliens?"

"Yes, if you want to override the settings manually for some reason."

"Okay. I think I'll just let you guide me wherever."

Zack smiled and stepped forward. "Sure thing!"

Anthony let the dragon guide him around the rather unusually mundane aisles filled with particular things found in a restroom. There was, however, a metric ton of various versions of the same thing. For example, there were an entire five aisles dedicated to toothbrushes, with every aisle segmented into different shapes, materials, and type.

That was actually nothing compared to the twenty aisles of toothpaste.

"All sorts of formulas and chemicals for differing species," Zack had explained while they were walking past the rows and rows of oral hygiene products towards the toilet paper. "Not to mention all the brands there are. Plus this is only for beings relatively close to our biological makeup, so you can imagine how many aisles for toothpaste there really is throughout the planet!"

Anthony nodded and stared at the aliens they were walking past. A surprising number of them looked rather like bipedal animals, and none were particularly weird or horrifying to look at--in fact most were like Zack and actually rather handsome. What was more startling, however, was the number of Alorkin--he felt it was odd to be on a whole different planet while being around aliens who looked relatively very close to human. But he was more surprised at their sameness than he was at the different aliens.

Some parallel evolution theory, he'd thought. Like the stuff science fiction used to waive off why everyone in space looked humanoid. Except it was true. Still, he supposed, there was enough variety, from what he'd seen at Zack's doctor's office (who himself was a floating jellyfish) to still make those shows seem rather unrealistic.

After traversing through a few more rows, Zack found toilet paper made from the appropriate materials safe for the vast majority of Alorkinoids with a texture and thickness similar to the rolls Anthony had back on Earth. It was actually one of the very few things Anthony had used his small amount of money and his motor vehicle to fetch from the stores down his mountain cabin before leaving his home. It was more expensive than the nearly empty rolls he currently had in his ship, but his experience on the human planet had taught him it was worth every penny to splurge on this critical piece of hygienic tool.

The dragon clutched a bulk wrapped dozen of the stuff and sauntered off with Anthony following. The pair moved back to where they'd started by the platform hatchways and stopped.

Zack stood next to one of the many gates. "Good thing it's a weekday, otherwise there'd be lines to get back onto the platform."

"Biological signature identified," a computerized voice said. "Returning shopping platform."

Anthony raised an eyebrow, though the dragon couldn't see it through the stack of paper rolls. "You have weekdays? How does that work?"

"Galactic standard," the dragon said. "Calendar's based on the capital of the universe, the ridiculously congested planet Primus."

An image of Coruscant popped into the man's head. That was only the capital planet of a galaxy, and he couldn't imagine how complex and tall the buildings would be on the capital of the entire known universe!

"Three hundred fifty five days in a year," Zack added. "Twenty-five hours a day. I think that's close to your Earth's cycle."

The man mulled over those numbers a bit and determined it to be incredible. "That's uncanny," he said. "That's improbably close."

"Existence tends to do that," Zack said as the hatchway opened.

Anthony followed him into the platform. "I guess."

"I'm sure there'll be more coincidences as we explore the universe," the dragon said as he opened the hovering menus. "Hang on again, if you'd like."

The man did not refuse his suggestion this time and held firm to the railings. The second time, naturally, was not as upsetting to his sense of kinesthesis. He eased off a bit after a few seconds, relaxed his shoulder, and loosened his death grip on the rapidly warming metal.

"So," he said with a short huff of breath, "where to now?"

"Microwavable food. Hydroconvectables too. Instant meal sort of things, cheap and easy."

Anthony nodded. He knew what a hydroconvector was from seeing it used on the RV, and in essence, it was pretty much the same device that made a tiny looking pizza become a full meal for a family in Back to the Future. "Okay," he said.

"I'm thinking of making it a game," Zack said. "A little social experiment. Do you want to play?"

"Err, depends what it is I guess?"

"Basically, I'm going to leave you to find some food yourself." He pointed a finger at the human to stop him from interrupting him with a question he knew he was probably going to answer in a few sentences anyway--he was a curious being, though Zack would never say that was a bad thing. "Omnimart has free samples for practically everything. I just want to see if you can interact with the samplers without any drama. It's just a test of your adaptability, I don't mind if you don't want to do it."

The platform stopped. Anthony kept his hands gripped lightly onto the railing and thought for several seconds. He pushed himself off, turned back once, spun around, and nodded. "Okay, I'll do it."

The hatchway opened. "Great," Zack said, standing firm. He reached into a pant pocket and pulled out a familiar looking cylindrical device. "Take the UID, you don't have an optical interface but I've got it set to your bio specs as recorded by Doctor Jellyfish. You just need to point and press the big button here. There's a little light on it that will turn green if you can eat whatever they're sampling, and red if you want to go back to the doctor's office."

Anthony took the tube-like scanning device and tucked it into a pocket. "I sure wish I had one of these when I was living alone."

"Yeah," Zack said. "I don't think there's a book that covers every edible object in the universe."

"Heh, alright, when will you be back?"

"Let's say fifteen minutes."

"Okay. What if I get lost?"

"Just use the UID. It's got a link to my optic implants, remember? I can track where it is whenever you use it."

"Okay."

Zack could hear the confidence (or rather, lack-of) oozing from the man's voice. "If you want me back, just hold the button for let's say ten seconds."

Anthony nodded and stepped through the hatchway. "Fifteen minutes."

"Fifteen."

Zack closed the hatchway with a swipe of his claw, leaving the human to experience social interaction with other sentient beings. With another tap, he drove the platform somewhere else.

Anthony began shopping for hydroconvectables by avoiding eye contact with any aliens. He did glance a bit at the variety of bipedal creatures roaming the shopping aisles, but he always did so while pretending to stare at packets of food.

It wasn't hard to find the free samples. The food demonstrators were shouting rather loudly, and he couldn't avoid them any more than he could avoid pop-up ads on Internet Explorer.

He went around pointing the UID at whatever the workers were offering, utterly ignorant of whether or not it was considered rude to point without asking. Since nobody raised an eyebrow, eye ridge, or eye crest at him, he went on pointing at a few trays until he found a green light.

It was brown. It smelled...acceptable. He hoped it was meat of some sort. "What is it?"

The sample-giver was a colorful bird-like character, his feathers bearing varying shades of blue. "Vorian deli. Stasis-frozen fresh." The bird offered a piece of the brown meat. "Sample?"

Anthony took it and laughed at himself inside his head. He was getting free food from a planet-sized Costco. The people in it might've looked different, but some things seemed to be universally constant. "Thanks," he said, and then he bit the meat off the wooden stick.

The bird clapped his talons together. "Good?"

Anthony nodded. "Tastes like chicken. I'll take some, I guess."

"Chicken? Everyone says that if they don't taste enough food in their lives. But here, here, four packs for five dollars!"

Anthony nodded politely and took four of the packaged Vorian meat. "Thank you," he said.

"Thank me? I'm just doing my job. Why are you thanking me for getting you to buy food?"

"Umm, I don't know. It's just a polite thing on my world, I guess."

"Funny world you come from then. Thanking people for doing their jobs. Silly."

Anthony mulled over that for a while, but the idea was far too ingrained in his head to remove on a whim. He'd said thanks to the doctors on Earth even when they had told him they couldn't do anything for his mother. "Err, right then. Have a good day."

He went around sampling a few more green-lighted things. Some were vomit-inducing like the green ham or the black broccoli thing, but by the ten minute mark he'd gotten an armful of packages. Nobody swore at him or anything either, so that was a plus.

He thought he had enough food, so he went back to looking down the aisles and stealing glances at the other living things wandering around. There were very pretty people, and some not-so-pretty, but he noticed that there wasn't anyone who looked old. It was odd. There were no dull colors, wrinkled skin, patches of bald fur, or grey hairs on anyone.

He started looking around for anyone he could describe as old, but in his scan he forgot about the young.

Something rammed into his hips and knocked him onto the ground. The packages he was holding scattered all over the floor and fanned out across the entire aisle.

Anthony looked around from his ground seat and saw a little girl. She looked almost human except for her slightly elongated ears. He assumed she must've been an Alorkin.

She had her hands clasped together and she seemed like she was pleading at him. "Sorry, mister, please don't tell anyone I'm here!"

"What? Did you run into me?"

"I said sorry! Don't tell on me, please!"

"Hey, calm down. I'm not going to tell on you."

"Don't tell, don't tell!"

"I won't! But can you help me clean up this mess?"

The girl started picking up the fallen packages. "Yes, just don't tell anyone where I am!"

The man uplifted himself and waited for the girl to pile everything onto some empty space on a nearby shelf. "Jeez," he said, "who are you running from anyway?"

"Umm," she said, fumbling with a pack of Vorian meat that nearly fell off the shelf again, "my mom."

Anthony raised an eyebrow. "Your mom? Why?"

"I don't like her. She's mean. I want to run away and become a singer, everyone says I'm good at it! She says I have to go to school, but I don't want to!"

"Well, everyone's mom is like that. She's just trying to do what she thinks is best for you. You don't have to run away because of that."

She frowned at him. "You're just like all the other adults! They always say the same thing, but you're all on her side because you think I'm just a stupid kid!"

Anthony waved his hands defensively. "No, no, I don't think you're stupid. Look, everyone thinks that way when they're little. Believe me, I've gotten into pretty bad fights with my mom too. But once you grow up, you realize your parents are just trying to do what they think is best for you. Don't hate them for that."

The girl hesitated for a moment. "I--I don't hate her. I just don't like her. I don't want to go to school. I don't want to go home."

Anthony smiled amiably. "She'll worry about you, you know? If you run away, you'll make her cry. Just talk to her. Maybe she can be convinced to let you take singing classes. Trust me, your mother loves you."

The little girl shoved the last littered package onto the shelf. "Why should I trust you?"

The man blinked his eyes slowly. "Have you ever lost anyone you loved?"

"No."

"It hurts. It hurts like nothing else. When my father died, do you know who was the only person in the world who was able to soften the pain?"

The girl's voice squeaked. "Your dad died? But how?"

Anthony looked down. "He...his heart stopped working. We didn't exactly have the sort of healthcare the rest of the universe has."

"Oh...I'm sorry..."

"My mom kept me up, you know. She was the only person who understood what I was feeling. She was the only one who..."

Anthony couldn't keep his voice up. He sniffled and tried to stifle his eyes from producing tears. He was only somewhat successful.

"Mister?"

"Ack, sorry," Anthony stuttered out. "She's gone too. I'm sorry, I don't mean to cry like this to you."

"Err, I'm sorry for making you cry..."

Anthony wiped his eyes with his arm and recomposed himself. "Look. You don't like your mom now, I get it. Kids do that all the time. But take it from me, you're lucky just to have her. Me? I'd give anything to have my mom back. And dad. Anything in the universe." Except Zack...

The girl stared right into Anthony's wet eyes. Sincerity peered back at her. She realized her eyes were becoming wet too and gave them a quick wipe. "I--I guess I could give her a chance..."

"She loves you, I'm sure of it." He cleared his eyes again. "And you love her, even if you don't realize it."

"Anthony."

The man felt a hand on his shoulder and swiveled his head around. "Zack!"

---

Zack had used the sampling experiment more as an excuse to be alone than to test any social theories. The dragon stood in front of a wall of lubricants and sighed.

He should've kept the UID to find the best kind, but that hadn't really been an option. He shrugged and grabbed a bottle of water-based lube over anything fancier--it wasn't the best option, but water was pretty much safe for almost every living thing in the universe.

Not that he was planning to use it soon. Maybe. Just in case.

He brought up the time display in his ocular implants. Five minutes. He took another five to buy the lube, put it away in his ship, and go back to where Anthony was.

He brought up a mini-map display on his virtual heads-up-display, a feature which Anthony's less advanced ocular implants lacked, and tracked the location of his UID. He wandered towards the blinking dot on the map slowly, waiting for the fifteen minute timer to go up.

On the twelfth minute, he noticed the dot hadn't moved for a while. Anthony was in the middle of a random aisle, so he wasn't in line for any samples or anything. The dragon became a little worried and sped up. He was somewhat afraid that the human, incredibly adaptable as he was, might've gotten on someone's bad side and got into a fight or something.

He passed the aisle and saw him talking to a little Alorkin girl. Side-by-side, the human really looked barely any different at all, especially since the child hadn't really grown into her sharpened ears yet.

They hadn't noticed him. He ducked around a shelf of canned meat and perked his ears, utilizing his exceptional draconic hearing to listen in on the man's conversation.

Zack's heart felt like it was growing heavier as their little talk touched on a subject he knew was incredibly sensitive to Anthony. He could hear the man sniffle and hold back his tears. The dragon even felt a little wetness around his eyes as he listened on.

He knew Anthony was hurting. He was hurting himself to teach a rebellious girl why she should love her mother. He felt a little bit guilty about it--his relationship with his father was not the absolute best, but at least he was alive. He couldn't even imagine losing his mother since pure-blooded dragons lived exceptionally long, and he would likely be long gone by the time she passed on.

How would she feel then? How would she feel about burying her own son? He never really thought about it that way. He never really thought about how much he loved his father despite his ultimately failed attempts to control his life. Yet here was this girl who hated her mother because she was doing the same as what his father had done to him. Was he like this when he was little?

He made a mental note to hug his dad the next time he saw him. And his mother too, though he always was mommy's little darling, as his father would always call him, and he hugged her all the time anyway.

He was lucky. His mother had encouraged him to go wherever his heart told him to. She'd kept a rein over his father's reign. The girl didn't seem to have a father who kept her mother from being a control freak. If she had, she wouldn't have been trying to run away.

Zack shook his head. What was he doing? He was young. He was practically fresh out of college. What was he doing with thoughts like these? Thoughts about love, loss, and his own mortality...what was he thinking? Life was supposed to be all about doing whatever, wherever, and whenever without regard to much else right now.

The dragon hurt from just thinking about losing his parents. Or his mother losing him. Anthony had actually lost both his parents. He needed someone right now. He needed someone to close the wound the little girl had accidentally opened.

Zack shook off the crippling thoughts. He was here, now, where everyone he loved was alive and well. His friend, however, needed someone in a universe where everyone he loved was gone.

The dragon stepped behind Anthony and put his hand on his shoulder.

"Anthony."

"Zack!"

"Hey," the dragon said, "you okay?"

Anthony sniffled. "Yeah."

The dragon hugged him and folded his wings halfway around him. He looked at the little girl and gave her a gentle smile. "Go back to your mom. I'll take care of him."

"Umm...sorry, okay," the girl said, and then she broke away from Zack's eyes.

Zack saw her reach the end of the aisle, glance back at Anthony and him, nod, and run off. Once she was gone, the dragon peered back at Anthony's eyes.

The man was having trouble opening them.

Zack took a great risk, but he didn't have time to realize what he was saying. "I'm here for you," he said. "I'll always be here if you need me."

"Thank you."

They stood there for a few minutes. Nobody crossed their aisle.

Once the man recovered, the dragon unfurled his wings and smiled at him.

Anthony smiled back. "I'm okay now. For sure this time. Come on, let's finish shopping, yeah?"

Zack nodded. "Sure. Whenever you're ready."

The man tucked the packages the girl had put back onto the shelf into his arms. "Right. I'm ready."

The rest of the trip was a good distraction. The aliens, the goods, the incessant free sample tables, the fact that he was an Alorkinoid standard size large for new clothes, and the idle thoughts about how everything linked together to make the Omnimart work occupied Anthony's mind until they'd left.

Every platform had evidently been linked to each shopper, or at least each group of shoppers. The platforms acted as a big shopping cart until people were ready to check out, and Zack's had a small pile of stuff in it by the time he was ready to go back to the ship.

The dragon put down a gallon of a purple drink which Anthony thought tasted like oranges, something the translation chips had difficulty converting the meaning of since apparently oranges were colored orange, but orange did not mean oranges and something about that was confusing the circuits.

"Anyway," the dragon said, "that's everything on the list. Checked gravity generator prices, got food, toiletry, new clothes for you, yep, all done!"

Anthony watched him start tapping the floating menus. "Cool. How do we pay and such?"

"Just wait and hold on." The dragon tapped a few screens, and he pointed at a holographic button with the word 'Parking' on it. "It'll scan everything on the platform and charge me once we set our destination to the ship. Then I'll pay via my implant. They take other things like credit cards, so we can get you one if you want one later."

"Okay, that makes sense. I'll get one when I need one, I guess."

"Yep."

Once they returned to the ship and carried in the bags of stuff, the hatch sealed and the ship began to hum lightly.

"Welcome back," Mary's voice said from the ship's speakers. "You have a good time, Anthony?"

"I did," the man replied. "Thank you for asking."

"Good," she said. Her tone became several levels more condescending as she addressed the dragon. "And you, did you check the prices for the gravity generators?"

"A thousand dollars, minimum. Nope. Look around the universal network for something used, will you?"

If the dragon had been talking to her at the helm, she'd roll her digital eyes at him petulantly. "You shouldn't screw around with something like that," she said.

"Yeah, yeah. You know I can't afford it though."

"Get a real job, then."

"You know I'd probably get fired the first day."

The AI digitally removed any sense of detectable sarcasm. "You would."

The dragon ignored her. He was used to Mary's personality, for the most part. "Undock us, will you?"

"Yeah, yeah. I could ask your mother, you know."

Zack shook his head at no particular sensor in the living area of the ship. "I told my dad I'd make it myself. I don't want her to keep helping me. Every time she gives me money, my dad wins points."

There was a digitally generated sigh. "Honestly, I don't get what's the big deal with him. This is a safety thing anyway."

"How are my stocks doing?"

"Up one percent."

"I'll be fine. Take us out of here."

"Fine."

Anthony could feel the ship start to move. "Umm, Zack, are you sure about the whole gravity thing? That does sound important, I think."

"I can buy a replacement myself. Erm, I'll wait for my next dividend payment." Zack started moving towards the cockpit but turned around. "By the way, I need to let you know that right now I'm still riding off the last time my mom snuck me some money, but I'm going to have to go back to doing cargo ferrying after a while. We'll still explore wherever we have to deliver stuff, but we won't have absolute freedom like we do now."

"That doesn't sound bad at all."

The dragon smiled. "It's not. Not at all. Sure beats asteroid mining. Pay's not fabulous, but I don't need a float-screen cockpit menu, a gold-plated hull, or a luxury mattress made from the feathers of the rare Flotaxions from a star system which went supernova a century ago."

"Sounds good."

The dragon grinned. "The mattress would make a quaint gift for my mom, though."

The man tapped his chin. "Could we maybe sell some of my stuff from Earth?"

"I think there's universal copyright laws involved with that. I don't know. If I did, I'd probably be much richer."

Anthony looked up in pensive thought. "That would make sense, I guess. Otherwise people would be going off exploiting the art of developing worlds."

"Yeah. Don't worry about money right now, we're good for a few months."

"Okay. If there's anything I can do to help, let me know."

Zack chuckled. "It would help if I could get a research grant, but that's practically impossible. Just be yourself. I'll write a book about us, maybe. For now, I have a good destination in mind for us." Zack went into the cockpit and set the coordinates for where he wanted to go.

Anthony felt alone when the dragon went into the front of the ship. The ship had extremely good inertial dampeners, but he had felt it begin to move in space.

The stars would be wheeling past them outside. He could go into the cockpit and look at them whish by. He'd seen it there before. It was a beautiful sight.

He wished he could've shared the image with his parents.

Zack came back out into the living space a short while later.

"I've got a nice place in mind for our next little excursion," the dragon said.

"Sounds great," Anthony said, but not with his usual enthusiasm.

"Something wrong?" the dragon asked.

Anthony's eyes wandered a bit before focusing on Zack's blue pair. "Everything's wondrous. Beautiful. Magnificent. The rest of humanity doesn't know what they're missing. But there's two people who I wish could see what I've seen."

The dragon hummed gently a bit, knowing the emptiness in Anthony's heart but not truly understanding it. "Your..."

Anthony sucked in a breath. "Yeah. Them. Sometimes I dream of them. Sometimes I see me with them in our little cabin, and that's when you decide to come tumbling down. They go to your jellyfish doctor with me, and they live on."

Zack didn't know what to say. He wrapped his arms around the man, hoping he would find comfort in what he could not verbally convey.

"I know," Anthony continued, his voice becoming more and more strained. "I know. I'm lucky just to be out here with you instead of rotting away by myself. But I can't help but think how those years seemed like just yesterday, reversible and malleable."

The strain was too much, and Anthony began to cry.

"That little girl," he stammered, tears breaking through his tension. "I meant completely what I said to her. I'd give anything to bring my parents back."

Zack's voice was as light as the wind. "I'm sorry."

The dragon's wings entombed Anthony into his own little sanctuary, allowing him to let out all his sadness in intimate privacy with the one person left in the universe who cared about him.