A Spot of Trouble - Part 1

The market is not without its charms and distractions - but one lone Darin is on a specific mission to find a unique part for a very special device...

Being blue has its advantages. I can fit right in with most races if you don't count the lack of extra limbs or eyes sometimes. In most cases, blue is the colour people also tend to avoid.

On Darin, the distant planet of the Yaris galaxy, the Darins have pale blue skin that shifts in the gathering darkness of dusk to a deep maroon, settling into the crisp blackness of night. I have no such features and the Darins are not extremely welcoming to strangers. Hearsay tells of an ambassador's visit from Jirenis, the neighbouring planet hellbent on domination and conquest, that didn't go quite as they planned.

Not only did the convoy end up wrecked on the planet, but nobody in the Jirenis contingent made it back alive. Its enough to make anyone shake in their boots. But, Darins aside, there are some more peaceful folk sporting a shade of cerulean on their features.

These ones happen to be poisonous. I am not.

I happen to be a mix between a Darin (somehow) and a Krivose. My mother was a rebel and my father was her captive. In the end, it worked out when they escaped Darin together so all I hear is stories. My blue is not the same as Darin blue... but here I am arguing semantics when there is a point to all this. There is an advantage to being blue - it mostly warns people to step off.

It just happened to be market-day on Rexis, the hub of all things shiny and impossibly rare. Now, market day is fairly regular on other planets, but the last time Rexis had a market day was well before I was even born! I've heard stories about it from my parents and a few from my Krivose grandmother where she acquired a special item that granted her immediate audience with her king.

She tells the story like it's special and I suppose it is... if you don't count that the Krivose king is so nice, he'll see anyone who comes round.

But I digress.

This specific day, I was out to find a very special item. It just so happened that I had come across a time-traveller's journal detailing their journey across multiple galaxies and lifetimes with a device they invented themselves. While they eventually settled down and had a family of their own (according to the last page, at least), the did also detail the means to building a wrist version of the time machine they used.

There was also a partially hidden code in the entire journal that I hadn't quite figured out. It was something to do with a hidden... something. Some pages were blank and missing key information and others featured important information in the margins. But I wasn't really as interested in all that as I was in the device itself.

While the journal noted quite a few (hundred) times that this was dangerous and should not be attempted, who was I not to try it?

If it worked, maybe I could even sell it and get enough money for a ticket home. Or... I could also travel back in time to stop myself from ever trusting that lousy son of a Grimsor that lured me into his life and kicked me back out of it as quickly as his utterly gorgeous and fabulously wealthy Francstic partner made up her mind to take him back.

That's what I get for trusting a Triven. NEVER trust a Triven. Grandma always said, but did I listen? Nope. And so, here I am, looking for the last piece of a time device to help me get back into my solar system at least. It's thirteen star jumps away for crying out loud! I huffed annoyed at the circumstances I was in but honestly when wasn't that the case?

So I hopped on the first shuttle I could get to Rexis. I would try in the first docking point I got to and then travel across the planet to try and find the piece I needed. It shouldn't have been too difficult. A bit of careful prodding had led me to this specific market day both as a last resort and because the people of Rexis were both ridiculously wealthy and genius inventors.

If I was going to find a gold-plated warp enhancer the size I was looking for, it would be here. I had scrimped and saved for it too. If you count the hours I had to slog at the inn I ended up in, working for low wages and rubbing elbows with the worst of the worst of society... damned Triven.

The shuttle stopped at a station not too far off from the nearest town. I was sure this would be a one-and-done trip. Nobody even bothered me as I swiped my traveller's card and was assigned to the shuttle heading to my destination. Usually, a lone Darin is asked too many hard questions (like, why do your people hunt mine or do you know what your people did to my [relation]? Mostly that last one), but like I said, I'm not quite Darin blue. I get my cyan spots from my dad and the teal torso from my Orberon grandfather. It's easy enough to hide - I'm not one for revealing clothing anyway.

When I got to the market itself though... now this was what a market day should look like!

Instead of single stalls stretching out across acres and acres of land, it seemed that Rexis had decided to also take up the entire airspace as well. Shuttles and private vehicles stopped at floating platforms and walked right up to stalls settled on floating disks in the sky. Some featured ladders and steps and walkways to alternative stalls all the way from the ground to the highest stalls about two hundred feet in the air!

I grinned and stepped into the throng. Let the hunt begin!

A few hours later, I had been to every dealer, junk seller and scientist I could find in the market and I still hadn't found a miniature warp enhancer. A few of the people I asked gave me strange looks and one even started whispering to an associate so I made myself scarce.

It was getting hot and I was hungry but I hadn't thought to bring any food with me. I could probably afford a meal at one of the small cafes around but decided against it. Who knew what was in some of that soup. I would try one more time to find the enhancer and if I couldn't, then I would at the very least find a cosy spot to curl up in for the night.

I was about to get up again when two large strangers stepped into my line of vision. They were the impossibly, mesmerisingly deep gold, characteristic of the royal galaxy of Trenge. I couldn't begin to think why they would be even remotely interested in me, so I pretended (very hard) not to notice their bulk and skirt past them to go on my way.

A heavy hand settled on my shoulder and spun me around.

"We need you to come with us," said the first. The second tightened his surprisingly gentle grip ever so slightly.

"Um... I think you have the wrong Darin," I said, my mind scrambling for a moment to find a way out of this, "you know, not all of us look alike."

"Follow us."

I am not great at fighting. I never have been. My mother has tried to teach me many, many, many times but it never sticks. I'm more of a tinkerer... thus my currently interrupted pursuit.

Deciding that my options would probably be better with instead of against these beefy Trengese strangers, I made up my mind to follow them.

It didn't take too long to get to the shabby hovel they led me to, hidden behind several market stalls that nobody seemed to want to visit, and with good reason. I wouldn't say I didn't believe in magic - it just always seemed like a kind of different science that required non-specific interactions with matter to make it work. Whatever the case, there were very few people willing to admit they visited "magic" stalls though. I'm also pretty sure the stink eye that one guy was giving me wasn't just reserved for blue strangers and honestly, who wants to deal with a seller like that?

A door was opened nearby and out stepped a gallant lady dressed entirely in blue and gold. She smiled and ushered me and my Trengese companions (captors?) inside.

It was clean and tidy on the inside. The lady chirped on about the market day and everything she had found. The first of my Trengese companions listened with rapt attention and a soft look in his eyes. The second one rolled his eyes and I stifled a laugh.

The door opened into a Tinkerer's favourite dream. Several little mechanisms flitted about on the floor and a couple swooped in the air. I could see voltage metres and energy conductors, gravity buffers and force generators, several piles of little capacitor chips and one large device in the far end of the room at which a figure sat, draped in an apron as he considered the small robotic figure on the table.

He looked up as the door closed behind him and all instances of flirting also ceased. His eyes crinkled as he smiled and came forward.

"Ah! Here you are. I hear you're looking for a very specific item, young lady." I wasn't so sure I should be telling him about my slightly stolen journal yet. Okay, so I'd sort of lied about "finding" it but I really did find it... I just didn't put it back when I borrowed it.

"I am always on the lookout for a unique kind of inventor you see, so my question is... what does a pretty Darin such as yourself need with a warp-enhancer?"

"It's... uh..." I began looking around the room. All faces were turned curiously to me. "I just... needed it for a project I'm working on."

"I see. And what kind of project might this be?"

"A private one." The old man chuckled and proceeded with a gleam in his eyes.

"I'm sure it wouldn't be something as illegal as building a time-traveller's device, would it?"

I paused, afraid I'd been found out, then shook my head vigorously.

"No. Nothing like that at all. What do you mean time-traveller's device?" Okay, so all of that came out a little too quickly. I'm sure even he noticed I wasn't being quite so truthful.

"Oh. Pity. Because if you were, I'd have helped you out," he said strolling back to his screen and his project. "I'm sure Tilo or Ridis here can show you back out."

"Wait," I said after a moment's debate.

"If I were, for whatever insane reason, trying to build a device like that... would you happen to have a warp-enhancer?"

"I might."

"Nano-tech? Gold plated?"

"Oh no, dear, gold is far too common and unreliable. In this age, we use Tiberium, the metal mined from the local moon; extraordinarily volatile, but just stable enough to hold a warp field a mile wide - with the right calibrations of course. "And, you're in luck. I just happen to have some in the back. Tilo, if you would?"

The second Trengese man stepped towards a cabinet near the table and pulled it open retrieving something from inside. It was a small box inside of which sat a tiny chip in the shape of the universal sign for infinity. It shone in the dim lamplight, a strange blue then green then grey and back.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" said the man reverently. "I haven't had to give one to a lone stranger for a while. You can have that one free of charge."

That caught my attention immediately and I narrowed my eyes at him.

"What's the catch?"

"No catch. I do like to get up to a bit of mischief in my later years... imagine the chaos of setting something as grand as a time device out into the world! Oh, what fun! Why, you could unravel all of history with one small decision and poof! No planets. No civilisations. No you! Fascinating, don't you think?"

I was having some serious reservations about this man and getting his help now.

"Oh go on. I'm only teasing. If it makes you comfortable, you can just give me whatever is in your bag that you won't miss."

I hesitated but slipped my pack off my back. Here was a boon and I was not about to miss my chance to go home because of a small illegal favour. Just owning the traveller's journal would be enough for me to be sent to the disintegration chambers. Interfering with the time stream was indeed as dangerous as the man said. Mother would be displeased but she would understand.

I rummaged through my meagre belongings for a moment. There were a few vital things I needed, a few sentimental things too. I had packed only essentials when I left the inn. I had nothing else from my failed relationship. Of course, the journal sat there too but I was definitely not parting with that. Eventually, my fingers brushed against a piece I had picked up on my way here.

It was a pretty little pin of green gemstone and white metal. It was the prettiest thing I had ever seen, was running for quite cheap and I only bought it because I thought it would look pretty on my mother. I pulled it out, holding onto it for a moment and then held it out to the man.

"Now that's some fine craftsmanship... Plytenis Steel, Lingorine gems and some amazing Fritzeris craft," he said appraising it. He lifted it to the lamp, "This is such an exquisite piece. You, little Darin, seem to be full of surprises, and you have a really good eye... Are you sure you'll part with it?"

I shrugged. It didn't mean anything to me except that I had wanted to give it to my mother so I felt it was enough of a fair trade.

"I accept. Tilo, hand over the warp enhancer. Little Darin Tinkerer... er, what is your name, my dear?" Took him long enough to ask, I thought but I answered him anyway.

"Yrenisé."

"Like the flower, quite rare and very lovely," he said with a smile, "well, it was a pleasure doing business with you. Don't go destroying any major timelines," he added with a wink.

I gave a small smile and followed Tilo out into the street. Ridis had stayed behind with the lady from before and the old man had turned back to his tinkering. I now had money and I had my warp-enhancer. I needed to assemble the entire device and then... I had no idea what. The black market? How would I even find myself in such a market? I couldn't just ask the nearest shady person either - anyone looking for some quick money could turn me in at the drop of a Uorpian Feather. All of this was so complicated.

"I apologise for Maren. He is a little strange to anyone who does not know him well," said Tilo scaring me out of my racing thoughts. He hadn't gone back in and I hadn't left as I tried to think about my next steps. It took me a moment to respond.

"Oh, that's okay. He was helpful enough."

"Do you have a place to stay?" he asked. No, I didn't. The most I had hoped for was to sleep against a building for the night preferably somewhere not too drafty. Now that I had money... were there any inns still open?

"Not yet... I'm sure I can manage."

"This late on market day, I doubt it," he said with a flicker of a smile, "I can give you a suggestion though."

I shrugged not really having much of a choice.

"If you go back down the street the way we came and turn right, you'll come up to the Plaza Hotel. Take a left at the hotel and take the path down the steps to the blue building there. They should give you cheap accommodations. Tell them I sent you."

I thanked him and he grinned. I had heard about Trengese attractiveness. I would have had to be blind to ignore that. However, it was clear that after this, we would never meet again. So, I nodded and headed off to find a place to stay.

Murder and mayhem await in the next installment of the story, A Spot of Trouble.