The Bar Between the Stars:
05 - 06 - 25 / Day 29
The luminescent lights poured white dawn all over the blue steeled tables and chairs, spilling just enough to let the dark corners peek through for the uncongenial kind that happened to wander in.
Leading Engineer, Adym, preferred the bar. He was an old fashioned type of earthling. (Or so he liked to imagine.) The sleek touch of the glowing blue countertop made him feel a little closer to home, even if he was light years away. He looked to the window on his left side while he awaited for the bartender to return.
That particular ‘night’ was dead. Most earthlings were using their designated sleeping hours, especially for an M-night. (Yeah, that calendar shit died a long time ago.) Adym thought about his collection of cat themed ones – he truly missed keeping the euphoria they brought.
He tightened his lips and suppressed his sigh. The black void outside held nothing but distant stars. The far off one's twinkled in different colors like mini rainbows. None were close enough to shed any real light on the ship.
Foosh. Shoof.
The door from behind the bar slid open and closed. The bartender walked through with a chrome mixer. (Adym’s favorite device from the old era.)
He smiled as they gracefully glided to the wall of drinks. It grinned back with its shaved teeth and scaly cheeks. It mimicked a raspy female earthlings voice. (A perfect imitation.)
“What’ll it be then, Yankee.” They stared at him with green eyes that resembled a serpent’s.
He replied, now grinning. “Oh come on –”
“Nope. We can never be too sure here. Come on, Yankee.” They snapped their long claws together.
“Alright, alright . . . P-I-N–”
“Piñacolada! Boom, okay then, let us get started on that right away.”
“Okay, thanks.”
“Anything for the loyal Yankee.” They winked at him as their third and fourth arm grabbed some rum and lime juice. The other two held a large aluminum cup and a whole pineapple. They got to work in quickly dismembering the fruit.
He continued the small talk. “So, how’s the shift so far?”
Their body replied with an attempted shrug. “Eh, place gets dark on these type of orbits. Even with all the lights.” They signed two pairs of air quotes.
“Yeah, yeah, I feel that.” He leaned back and gazed at the stars again. Two blinked in green. He continued. “Definitely hard to sleep on these longer throwaways.”
The fruit was blended and sliced silently. They poured the rum into a shot glass. (To the brim.) Crushed ice went into the mixer, along with the shot. They glanced at Adym as he kept his eyes on the galaxy outside.
“Attested . . . thank you for being here. It is always nice to have your company.”
“Your company is a welcome presence too.”
They smiled to themselves as they extracted the pineapple juice from the blender. Into the mixer it went. All four arms were used to shake it into perfection.
He watched in a comforting silence as they poured it into the aluminum cup.
“Alright, now hand over your life.” They stuck out all four palms.
He chuckled. “Hey, hey! The silver is all I got –” He placed two grape sized dollops of meteorite metal onto the counter.
“That will . . . suffice – for now, my friend.” They swiped them up and pocketed them as Adym took a sip of his fresh drink. He sucked the coconut foam from his mustache. “A true artist. Thank you for this.”
He sighed in relief and kept talking without aim. (Ranting.) “Ah, these drinks feel like home. They come out perfect every-single-damn-time. Like drinking from blue skies and white clouds . . .”
The two wandering souls spoke between the stars. Losing track of the orbit itself.
The ship was floating through Andromeda. Its destination was a distant moon near a planet very similar to Mercury in the Milky Way Galaxy. Both of them were very far from what they knew as home – too far.
Even still, in this steel cage known as THE CASUS, they found some solace in each other. Among the abyss.
(Thank you for reading. A rare sci-fi experience. 700 words. Credit to
for the word formatting inspiration.)
Dig it!!
Only thing you got me fucked up was putting fucking lime juice in the piña colada! Wtf?? Hahaha
Nice voice activation with the parenthesis.
Could this be a series? This is fun!!!
And the 4 hands shaking the drink, all the details, so alive. Vivid. I want more 😊