New Friends

Mini-Steve's attempts to override the cybercabs emergency systems were being met with surprising resistance for a non-military vehicle. The aircar was plummeting towards what appeared to be an enormous reclining Q'taitni female, but which Mini-Steve's map identified as "Approchable Annieh's Stellar Sexdome". The statue/building held a bowl in two of it's three arms that contained a swimming pool where a heated firefight was taking place. Mini-Steve was able to identify what looked like four security thugs taking turns firing at and leap-frogging towards a fifth being who was crouching behind a series of statues depicting seven of the two hundred forty-eight generally accepted Saortean coupling positions beside the pool. It was this same pool that the cybercab was currently falling towards with increasing speed.

While this did seem like the kind of situation that Eva would typically find herself in minutes after making planetfall, Mini-Steve did not identify the cybercab's target as being Eva. The being appeared to be a slim Weikuran male dressed in what could only be described as a wrinkled and slightly battered lounge singer's tuxedo. The Weikuran fired a few shots from a small blaster at the security team then spotted the cybercab a split second before it crashed into the pool next to him soaking all five combatants. The Weikuran dove into the cab the moment the door opened and he shouted "Blast off!"while firing from the still open door of the vehicle. The cybercab lifted from the water and banked away from the Sexdome's pool as blaster fire burned holes through the bottom of the vehicle narrowly missing Mini-Steve and  the laughing Weikuran maniac who had just commandeered it's cybercab.

The Weikuran slumped back into the taxi's seat chuckling softly to himself and checking his blaster's charge level when the cab beeped and asked, "Where to buddy?"

"Continue circling, Please" interjected Mini-Steve turning to the Weikuran who had not noticed the blue 'eyed' sphere crouching in the seat next to him.

Using two legs Mini-Steve pinned the being's arms to his sides in a gentle but unbreakable embrace "Welcome aboard, I'm S.T.V!" chirped Mini-Steve brightly as he opened a port on the front of his carapace to reveal the snout of a blaster pointed directly in the Weikuran's face. "You are a being who knows how to make an impression!"

The Weikuran stiffened and then quickly relaxed saying "Take it easy, er, S.T.V. I'm Reachu Dahsh, The Cosmic Crooner, and I'm as you could see I needed to make a speedy exit back there. Sorry I borrowed your cab, speaking of which, what the hell is a drone doing in a taxi?"

Mini-Steve scanned Reachu Dahsh's face and transmitted it back to the main ship so that it could be run through the Corgol's criminal database. Weikurans are an insectoid species which has many forms during it's maturation process. At hatching they are blind, limbless grubs which live in alkaline pools and eat voraciously until they are ready to form a cocoon and move on to their flying phase. During their winged adolescence Weikurans are trained based on their specific aptitudes or the needs of their hive. After decades of training Weikurans molt a third time, losing two sets of legs along with their wings and begin their bipedal phase. Weikuran training typically focuses on engineering, ship building, esoteric maths, boi-tech sciences and combat. While Mini-Steve was familiar with the artistic achievement of their extrusion sculptures which are treasured in many parts of the galaxy, it had never heard of a Weikuran singer. "I could also ask what a lounge singer is doing in a firefight?"

Dahsh arched an antenna and raised his feeding pincers in the Weikuran version of a smile saying "Sometimes beings just don't appreciate my stage banter."

"Those seemed like some pretty serious hecklers back there. To answer your question, I'm using this cybercab to find my best friend, Eva."

"Friends are hard to come by around here, S.T.V., and this is an easy planet to lose people on. You got any leads?"

Mini-Steve considered Dahsh's segmented chitinous face as the global crime report returned without any warrants or information for the giant insect which was more suspicious on a planet like this than him being on the most wanted list. "I don't have anything yet but my friend Eva is even better at making impressions than you are so I'm sure it's just a matter of time."

The cybertaxi swooped past a series of overlapping stepped pyramids which were overlaid like most of the buildings in the Hospitality Zone with advertisements for the delights within the casino or shopping mall or whorehouse.  The projection coalesced into huge sparkling letters promoting one of the planets more grisly entertainments, a pit fight. "TONIGHT ONLY AT THE MISGUIDED STAR GAZER" it flashed "GORZAL THE BONE EATER" over a moving image of a massive scaled creature with what looked like enormous clawed hammers at the ends of its arms and two prehensile trunks ending in fanged mouths extending from its armored head. It raged back and forth in the projection demonstrating its fearsome power, howling and slavering. The words continued to scroll, "VERSES THE TRIUMPHANT RETURN OF THE ONE AND ONLY...CHEYENNE!!!" The  picture disolved into an image that Mini-Steve knew all too well, his best friend in the entire universe, her confident smirk, fiery hair blazing and arms crossed defiantly across the top of the pyramid.      

Dahsh noticed Mini-Steve looking out the window at the flashing projection as the cybertaxi circled the casino. Mini-Steve loosened its grip on Dahsh and said, "My friend calls me 'Steve" what do your friends call you?"

"It's been a while since I had one of those, but I guess they called me 'Dash'."

"Well, Dash, do you want to meet my best friend Eva?"