8.19.2005

The Corgol Hospitality Zone

The Corgol Hospitality Zone, just another casino planet in another C class system with an M rated planet. Not the best place to raise a family, not the best place to get a bite to eat. Hell, it’s not even a good place to use the bathroom. But if you’re looking for trouble, it fits the bill.

Many millions of beings come to this planet and others like it looking to blow off some steam, and maybe even make some quick cash in the various casino’s, racing tracks and fighting venues. But with its ravenous ship-jacking underworld it is for many beings, a place that you only get to come to once.

One way to make some money on Corgol is to enter the fighting tournaments. There are numerous classes to ensure that all manner of beings are able to compete, often to the death, on a fairly level playing field. Usually these beings are slaves or even semi-sentient creatures brought to the planet for the promise of open combat for profit. These battles can be elaborate in their rules and settings. Some taking place on massive fields with whole armys of creatures slaughtering each other for the entertainment of their owners and the paying customers of Corgol Hospitality Zone, others battling over the decaying remains of whole city’s in the less inhabited areas of the planet. But the most popular by far is the millennia old tradition of “pit fighting”, wherein two combatants (sometimes willing though this is not always the case) are dropped into a pit and there made to do battle until one of them is dead or in the case of non-living combatants, until one unit is no longer functional. Occasionally some being will come to the Corgol Hospitality Zone and enter themselves in the tournaments. Thought this is rare it is done for a great number of reasons, everything from fighting for personal glory and the possibility of wealth and fame to avenging a defeated brother/father/mother/ mentor/brood-sibling/ or family pet. Though in all the time that there has been blood sport on Corgol only one fighter has ever entered the pit for friendship.

Docked nervously in the planet-side spaceport of Corgol’s southern continent, sits the fully self-aware and ever-curious Sssurs S.T.V. model 305, or Steve for short. Steve, a mid sized cargo hauler retro-fitted for pleasure cruising (and occasional blockade running) is parked inside dock #4-322 awaiting the return of his Captain, partner and best friend in the universe Eva. Steve decided to send out one of his mini-selves, a small spherical device with four spider-like legs and two large round blue “eyes” set above it’s center line. This was one of the easiest ways for Steve to travel about when docked at a space station or planetoid, as it was only a foot in diameter and fully extended stood about 3 feet high. Using these “mini-selves” allowed Steve to interact with beings (and most importantly his best friend Eva), while planet-side, in ways that a massive star ship simply could not. Eva had been gone too long and Steve was beginning to wonder just what kind of trouble his best friend was brewing. While his mini-self was out exploring, Steve reflected on the conversation which led them to this particular planet…

The cosmic cohorts were rampaging across the universe, careening from one star system to the next when Steve alerted Eva to his current situation.

“Eva, it appears that I will need to make a stop in the nearest system.” Said Steve while momentarily muting the early 21st century “indie-pop” music, which Eva was so inexplicably enamored with.

“Sorry, buddy, I told you that if you had to go you should have done it in the last system” teased Eva slouching sideways in her oversized command chair in the center of the bridge.

“Ha ha, Eva, but unfortunately we will need to revert to real-space so that I may refuel, recharge my coils and take on more expendables for your meals.” Said Steve.

“Wait a minute, didn’t we just re-up, like 5 systems ago?”

“Yes, but we have been traveling at such an amazing speed that I fear we would not make it much past Quarnon before necessitating a stop for fuel, And” reminded Steve, “as a result of our last trip there you will remember that we are not welcome in that system.”

“Hey, what was I supposed to do? The local warmonger was way out of line and needed to be taken down a notch or two,”

“I agree, Eva, it was really fun teaching those Quarnons a lesson in self-control and more importantly in how to speak to a human fem. But destroying Menos-Qrt’s star yacht’s upholstery by filling it with the continuously reproducing giant-bacteria of Remellia and removing, forcibly I might add, both his feeding tentacles and reproducing claw could be seen as justification of his hatred of you.”

“Allll-righty,” sighed Eva, “ then what else’s around here that looks like fun?”

On the screen in front of Eva’s chair a display of their current position and their direction of travel appeared. Eva studied it closely searching for any planets or cometary groupings that she was familiar with. Tracing a line on the screen with her brightly painted hand, Eva suddenly stopped on a non-descript C class system with a sole M class planet.

“Now we’re cooking!” she announced.

“Ahh, The Corgol Hospitality Zone, that will be fun,” agreed Steve.

“We haven’t been there in ages, and with all the hyperspace travel we’ve been doing lately I bet most of the beings who knew us there have either died or forgiven us by now.”

“I hate to bring this up, Eva, but we haven’t really done much work lately, and well…”

“Come on, Steve, just say it,” interrupted Eva.” We’re broke!”

“Well, yes, that is what I was trying to say, but maybe we can pick up a contract while we’re there. Then we’d have the cred’s for a fill up and be on our way to another adventure!” said Steve hopefully.

“Don’t worry, buddy, I’ve got it all figured out,” said Eva with her characteristic mischievous grin.

“Did I mention how good your hair looks today?” asked Steve as Eva entered the coordinates in the navigation computer and they blasted towards their newest adventure! The Corgol Hospitality Zone!

Next week… Pit Fight for Friendship!

8.15.2005

THE BEGINNING...

Rocketing across the cosmos, an infinite number of times faster than the speed of light, there are billions of vessels, of all makes and designs, representing billions of cultures. These vehicles host myriad races both familiar to you and some so foreign as to be nearly unrecognizable from what you could understand as life. There are representatives of millions of cultures all intermingling and meeting. Exchanging goods and services, creatures of all kinds coming together and learning to coexist. Loving and killing. There are stories which would make you cry with their heartbreaking truth. Heros and monsters, super intelegent jellys and warlords bent on domination on some random arm of some random galaxy. These stories are sometimes about royalty or even slaves whose lot in life will only make them all the more generous when they suddenly become royalty. Sometimes these stories involve battles and destruction, conquest and suffering. But it is not just the beings that travel within these craft who weave these tales. Sometimes it is the ships themselves whose lives are worthy of mention.

Many of these tales are interesting, some harrowing, and others still which would enrapture any listener. Yet with all of that diversity and mystery none of these tales are of a friendship more profound or more powerful than that of a lone woman journeying across the universe in search of nothing more than a clear way, a dynamite lay, and a sweet payday. And an intergalactic ship she rescued from the event horizon of a black hole, who has pledged eternal friendship to this amazing and often imperiled young woman. He is a SSSurs Shipbuilderwerks: Space Transit Vehicle model 305, or S.T.V., but most beings just called them "Steves'". She is Eva, the Captian, partner and best friend of this extraordinary ship. Their journey is never-ending, for how could two best friends of such amazing caliber ever be separated? With an infinite universe at their fingertips and friendship as their guide they form more than just a team. Together they are...

...STEVA 3049!


NEXT EPISODE: New Years Day 3049! The escape from some casino planet's crooked underworld.