The Day Off

A small, sleek spaceship was seen slowly cruising over a massive parking lot full of spacecraft. It circled once, and then circled again, but it didn’t land. Inside, the famous intergalactic space photographer Captain Finnian spoke to his co-captain Quixly.

“I hate coming to crowded planets” Captain Finnian said, circling over the parking lot once again. “There’s never anywhere to land. That’s why I like our job. You can land anywhere you want on remote planets or moons. This place is ridiculous.”

Quixly nodded, his mind obviously elsewhere as he looked out the window at the stadium and tents in the distance. “I hear ya, Captain.” Quixly said. “I’m excited for our day off too.”

Captain Finnian gave his green co-captain a funny look. “You aren’t listening to a word I’m saying, are you, Quixly? What are you thinking about? You’ve been in a fog for the last hour.”

“Well,” Quixly said, a little sheepishly. “I’ve been thinking about Xankandria. She’s a girl I’m planning on meeting up with today at the Zroobothan tournament.” Quixly looked back out the window dreamily.

“Wow!” Captain Finnian said, both surprised and happy at the news. “I didn’t know you’ve been talking with anyone! How did you meet her? Do you like her? What’s the story?”

“Oh Captain, she’s so beautiful!” Quixly said, still looking out the window. “I met her on an intergalactic social app a couple weeks ago. We’ve been messaging almost every single day. She’s so funny and kind and smart and thoughtful. She loves Zroobothan, and I’ve been wanting to meet up with her, which is why I said we needed to come here for our day off. I can’t wait to see her in person.”

Captain Finnian smiled, everything making more sense now. While Zroobothan was one of the most popular intergalactic sports, Quixly was not much of a sports fan. Captain Finnian was originally confused when Quixly said they should come to the tournament, but he understood now. He was doing it for a girl.

A spot finally opened up in the parking lot, so Captain Finnian zoomed over to it and landed. “Let’s get going then, Quixly!” He said once the spaceship was on the ground. “I want to meet this girl of yours!”

Quixly and Captain Finnian exited their spaceship and jumped on a hover shuttle to get to the stadium and all the festivities going on over there. Zroobothan tournaments always drew huge crowds, so there would be fairs and games and food and other fun things to do in the area before the match started that evening.

On the shuttle Captain Finnian was playing with the settings on one of his cameras. He normally did space photography, but he wanted to expand his portfolio and take some pictures of the events they’d be at. He knew it was his day off, but photography was his passion, so he wanted to do some today. He hoped he’d get something good enough to add to his professional portfolio, or at least something they could hang up in the spaceship somewhere.

He looked over at Quixly again once he finished adjusting his camera settings. His co-captain was just staring dreamily out the window of the shuttle. Captain Finnian hoped this Xankandria girl was as good in person as she was online, because she had really made quite the impression on Quixly. He had never seen his co-captain so lost in thought before.

When the shuttle finally arrived and they got off, Quixly headed straight towards one of the food vendors. He talked quickly as he walked, Captain Finnian following right behind him. “Xankandria said she’d meet me by the foorufful stand. I wonder if she’s there already. Oh, I’m so excited to meet her! I’m a little nervous too, I’m hoping it goes well. Do you think I look good? I don’t have many fancy clothes, but I guess this is a sporting event. Hopefully she likes me. I think…”

Quixly froze in his tracks, and Captain Finnian almost ran into him before looking ahead at why Quixly stopped so suddenly. He saw nice looking girl wave at them and start walking towards them. The woman was a grebotrabin (the same species as Quixly), so she had green skin, four arms, and three eyes. Instead of a nose and ears she had two antennae sticking out of the top of her head that helped her smell and hear. She was wearing a jersey for one of the Zroobothan teams that would be playing today, and overall she looked very happy to see them.

“Wowza!” Quixly said to Captain Finnian. “Wowza wowza wowza! She’s even more beautiful in person than she was in her pictures! Oh goodness, I hope I don’t mess this up! Why did I ask to meet her in person? What is she gonna think of me? Holy scramoly I think I’m gonna faint.”

Captain Finnian patted his friend on the back. “You’ve got this, Quixly! She’s gonna love you! And if not, we travel a lot anyway, you never have to see her again if it goes poorly.”

Quixly was going to respond to that, but by then Xankandria reached them and spoke instead. “Quixly! Is that you!?”

“Hey Xankandria, yeah, it’s me.” Quixly said, obviously nervous. “You’re looking nice today.”

Xankandria gave him a huge smile “Thank you! You don’t look too bad yourself, handsome!” She then looked at Captain Finnian. “Is this your friend Finnian?”

Quixly started talking very fast again. “Oh yeah, sorry, I forgot to do introductions. That’s Finnian. I mean, Captain Finnian. I mean, you can probably just call him Finnian. And um, oh, introductions are always so awkward…”

Luckily, she didn’t seem to notice or care that Quixly was stuttering over his words because Captain Finnian jumped in. “Yep, my name is Finnian. It’s good to meet you, Xankandria, I’ve heard great things about you.”

“Likewise!” She replied, a huge smile still on her face. She then grabbed one of Quixly’s hands and rushed him off to the food stand she had been waiting by. “You’ve got to try this fooruffel, Quixly, it’s to die for!”

Captain Finnian hung out with the two of them for the next few hours, but he was smart enough to stay in the background for most of it. He was happy to see Quixly’s fear slowly melt away until he was completely his goofy yet lovable self again. Before they knew it the sun started to set so they found their seats in the stadium and started to watch the game.

Zroobothan was a game played by three teams of five players each. There were six goals on the circular field, and 10 balls, each a different color. The players all rode hoverboards while they played, and the winner would be the first team to a hundred points. The goals they could score in changed throughout the game, and the different colored balls scored different amounts of points and could only be used by specific teams at specific times, with those rules changing throughout the game too. People said it was easy to understand once you learned it, but Captain Finnian felt that it was rather complicated.

Xankandria was explaining the rules to Quixly while the teams played, and Captain Finnian happily listened in. Xankandria was obviously an expert, and he learned a lot from her. During breaks in the game Quixly would point up at the stars in the now dark sky and share his passion of space and navigation with her. They were having a lot of fun sharing their passions and interests with each other. Captain Finnian had fun listening in on it all while he snapped a few pictures of the game.

The game became intense at the end, with Xankandria’s team only five points behind the leading team. They were all on the edge of their seats for a few minutes until one of their star players scored with the golden ball, winning the game. Xankandria’s team won!

Xankandria jumped up out of her seat in glee. “Wowza! We won! We won! Quixly, we won! Wowza!”

Quixly was jumping up and down too “Yeehaw! Go team! We won!” He didn’t care much about the team or the game, he was just happy that Xankandria was happy.

The field lit up with the winning team’s colors, and Xankandria turned to Captain Finnian. “Finnian! Can you take a picture of me and Quixly so we remember this moment?”

“Of course!” Captain Finnian replied, pulling out his camera to take one more picture. The two grebotrabins stood next to each other smiling, but before he could take the picture Xankandria turned her head and gave Quixly a big kiss on the cheek. His eyes went wide with excitement, and that’s when Captain Finnian snapped the picture. A perfect picture for a perfect night.

Later, after they had said their goodbyes and Captain Finnian and Quixly were back in their spaceship, Quixly printed out the photo and pinned it above the control panel he usually worked at. In the background of the picture was both the Zroobothan field and the beautiful stars in the sky, but all Quixly could see was Xankandria.

“So, I take it we’ll be seeing her again soon?” Captain Finnian said, putting the spaceship into auto drive as they left the solar system.

“Oh yeah.” Quixly responded. “I’ve got a date set up in with her in three weeks. She said she’d meet me at the star system by the Waxerfinj nebula. We’ll be in the area to take a picture of that nebula in three weeks anyway. I didn’t want to waste any more of your time.”

Captain Finnian smiled. “You know I love photography, Quixly, but you’re my best friend. Anything that makes you happy is never a waste of time. Plus, Xankandria knew about all the best food stands today, maybe she’ll show us some more good food places at our next stop!”

The two friends laughed together and ended the day talking and thinking about all of the adventures that still lay ahead of them.