[ACT 1]
The next morning…
The Helios arrived at Koilingen in the dead of the night, when its occupants were in deep sleep. Since Miledi didn't need to rest, she was the one who piloted and anchored the ship.
Technically, Miledi needed to sometimes enter a 'sleep mode' to maintain her body and memory, although not as frequently as humans needed to sleep. She once told Milanor that she did that two or three times a week and she felt it was enough.
Anyway, here they were in another one of the independent city-states on the fringe of the known galaxy. Koilingen was obviously way smaller than Runanthor since it was an artificial satellite colony instead of an asteroid city. Even with that fact though, the cylindrical shape of the massive structure still towered intimidatingly over the puny ships moving around it in comparison. Helios of course was no exception.
They disembarked at the Civilian Port No. 5 and were now discussing what they would be doing in this place.
"…"
"…"
"Umm… Fia? Look, we can't just leave Naya alone to do her shopping, can we? She's our precious employer."
When Milanor said 'we' he meant himself, Fianna, and Naya. The three of them would go around the city buying things Naya would need for daily life since she didn't bring anything much with her when they left Runanthor.
That was Milanor's plan at least. Until he realized that he had promised Fianna they would go shopping together in compensation for yesterday. He had completely forgotten about it.
"…What I said last night, Mil."
"Ugh, I can't help it, I tell you. You grilled me so much after dinner that I had to turn my brain into overdrive trying to calm you down! I was exhausted after all that happened yesterday, alright!?" he tried to justify himself with all his might. "And heck, I was sure you knew about what we're planning to do today!"
"T-That's…" Fianna faltered after his retort. "Mmmuh… That's all just your excuse, Mil!'
"What!? That's not an argument!"
"…Are we going to go shopping or what? You two prefer a shouting match instead?"
While they were arguing, Naya sighed with clear irritation beside them. "T-That's right! We can't waste time going back and forth about this, we have things to do! I'll make it up to you another time, Fia, I promise."
"Really? Right after forgetting your promise? You can be so bold sometimes," she put her hands on her hips while giving him a doubtful look.
"This time for sure, serious! You know I'm not the kind of man who breaks promises just because he can get away with it."
"Is that what you're really thinking…? Hmph, why can't Naya go with Miledi?" Fianna made an unreasonable proposal.
"You know we can't do that… I can't leave the ship completely empty in the event of an emergency, I know I have told you that…" If Miledi also came ashore, there would be nobody to watch over the ship.
"Alright, fine! Let's just go." She finally acquiesced to reason.
"Right," Milanor said to hurry them along before she could get grumpy again. "Then we'll discuss what we need while walking to the commercial district. Come on."
They began to head into the heart of the colony, strolling through the bustling and kinda narrow streets. Even if its size was way smaller than Runanthor, this place still had a dense population of around 500.000 people. The many streets in the shape of walkways superimposed on each other in a complex labyrinthine layout. If not for the ubiquitous direction signs posted almost everywhere, they would have gotten lost immediately.
"Damn, for a city located in the middle of nowhere, it's hella packed…"
"You're talking like you never come to this place before," Naya responded to his murmur, trailing beside him.
"That's cause I hadn't… For the average spacers, this city is as much of a boonies as you could get. Though, looking at this crowd that may be hard to believe..."
"Hey, hey, look there Mil! That must be the local AR dives that are popular around here! I like, totally wanna take a look!" Fianna soon got excited after she saw a commercial about what looked like an AR (Alternate Reality) film that she was so fond of.
"W-Wait, no, no, no way. We're not doing some leisure shopping here."
"Oh, c'mon! It's just a preview! It's not going to take long!"
"Don't give me that excuse again. Even if you say 'preview,' you would get attracted to other films and want to watch those too, am I right? That part is definitely going to take forever." Of course, this was not the first time Fianna had tried to drag him into her obsessive mania involving her hobby.
"But you don't know when we will be able to go here again, right? We should take whatever chance we can get," she argued.
"I think that's your chance you're talking about… don't include me…"
Something like AR films would comprise a huge amount of data, making it impossible for interstellar distribution via the Network. As such, physical copies were the best and most popular way of circulation. Star Cruiser Helios had its own simulation room, which meant Fianna could enjoy her movie dives whenever and as long as she wanted.
Still, even that method had its own limitations. Hence, what was popular and trending was often restricted to the local region, usually confined to a single star system. Or at most, a star cluster that was filled with close-knit systems.
"Wait, now that I think about it… Didn't you buy a massive catalog just before we went to Runanthor?" Milanor recalled Fianna stocking up on a pile of new AR boxes for their long journey toward Runanthor. "Don't tell me you already finished watching all those…?"
"Don't be ridiculous, Mil! I would need like, 2 to 3 months to fully enjoy all of them, at best. Not to mention all the others I bought before those but haven't watched."
"And you still want to add more to your backlog!?"
"They're stockpile for emergencies, you get it?"
"I think you'll have way more important things to do than watching movies in an emergency!"
"Freaking hell… when can we move on?"
At Naya suddenly cutting in, Milanor realized they had stopped moving and were now just arguing at the side of the road.
"Whoops, sorry about that. Look Fia, let's just finish our real business first. I'm sure we will have some leeway after we're done and heading back to the ship later," he proposed a compromise.
"Mmm… Don't you forget, alright?"
It seemed they had reached an agreement on that matter, much to his relief. They once again began heading toward the city's main commercial district, a place the residents called Central Market.
"Wow, this one won't lose to most of the cities in the Empire. Looks pretty sizable," Milanor said as the district came into his view.
Foodstuff, clothing, luxury items, entertainment, and even armaments. This marketplace seemed complete enough. As a Class-C colony, laws regarding weapon carry were pretty relaxed, so the arms shops were not out-of-place.
"Let's see… For weapons, we already had our armory so… I guess clothing is the main concern right now?"
"Yeah, you really didn't bring much with you, right Naya? Oh, Mil, the refrigerator will need to be stocked up as well."
"That makes sense. I could leave that to you, but…"
He couldn't in a good manner go browsing clothes for a girl he just met. That sounded like something that would easily spiral into awkward situations.
Not to mention with two girls, the ETA (estimated time of agreement) before they decided to purchase their choices would skyrocket high past the clouds and punch straight into the exosphere. Milanor knew from his experience shopping with Fia alone so he was confident about this particular matter.
"Right, right, I'll be accompanying Naya to the apparel shop. Wait a bit," said Fia before she brought out her holotablet from her pocket. She typed quite a few words on the keyboard before turning it off again.
"I sent what you need to buy into your PAW, 'kay, later," she told him, her tone being slightly more crude than usual.
Was she mad that the day had not gone the way she wanted it to? Milanor wondered. He couldn't afford to think much about that line of thought as he had his own things to do.