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MBFD Part 52 – Messy Business

Fredrick and Dushavee are on the move again, having left The Warehouse with various pieces of machinery and other little doodads to sell.

Of course, Fredrick is the one carrying the merchandise; In the very same metal crate that fell on her head, nonetheless. They simply loaded it up with everything they wanted to sell and he turned it into a rather funny looking backpack with a bit of rope and some good, old-fashioned elbow grease.

Wordlessly marching next to the reptilian, Fredrick tries to come up with a good game plan on how to get a good deal at the scrapper’s.

Dushavee on the other hand is still a bit wobbly on her feet, but is doing alright after resting for a bit earlier.

Although getting her to rest was a whole other challenge.

She vehemently insisted that she was fine, even though she could barely stand up without any help.

Fredrick simply couldn’t believe someone would actually be that stubborn.

After a few minutes of back and forth, and a bit of tactical help from Luna on top, the reptilian woman finally caved and let him do the work, acting as if she was the one doing him a favor.

And so, the trio are currently on their way to a scrapper that Dushavee apparently knows and recommended.

As they descent through the levels, the scenery around them gradually changes from mostly warehouses and various industrial-looking establishments to small stores and residential buildings.

At a certain point they pass what looks, and smells, like a food bazaar, quite similar to the one he visited with Kirri’i a few days ago. It is full of all kinds of people, some barely the size of his chest and others almost three times his size, although that seems to be the case everywhere in this place.

The trio stops as the aroma of grilled meat and fresh vegetables reaches their noses, and Dushavee turns around to him.

“Ya wanna grab a bite? Ah could use a good fill right about now.” she asks him, carefully rubbing her bandaged head.

He shuffles the metal crate on his back as he answers.

“You hungry?” he asks.

“A bit.” she tells him “Y’know, I’m actually surpised ya didn’t say anything yet. With ya bein’ as strong as y’are, y’er probably gonna need twice as much as me!” she laughs.

“Eh, I not know.” he shrugs, looking down at Luna and wordlessly asking her if she wants a bite as well.

The young beast eagerly nods in response, burbling in anticipation.

“But, sure, why not?” he tells the reptilian.

“Nice. Ah’ll treat ya two, then. Follow me!” Dushavee grins, leading the way.

They go on a little detour through the bazaar and the masses part around them as soon as the first people start noticing Luna, hushed murmurs and surprised noises accompanying every step.

Worried about how she might take being treated like that, Fredrick keeps glancing at Luna all the time, even though their bond lets him know that she is doing just fine.

At least he thinks so, considering there are no negative emotions seeping through at the moment. This whole ‘bond’ thing is still pretty new to him, after all, and he still has a hard time trying to grasp the concept.

Without anyone blocking their way they quickly manage to find something to their tastes and they plop down on a few stools hidden away to the side.

Dushavee got herself a small box of steaming-hot lettuce that actually smells a lot more appetizing than it looks and Fredrick got himself and Luna a box of mixed meat each, giving her half of his own portion on top.

Just to be safe.

The young beast certainly doesn’t complain about getting more food for free and happily digs into her serving, absolutely annihilating it in mere heartbeats.

He could swear she straight-up inhales her food at times.

Funnily enough, Fredrick is the last to finish his portion, even though his was the smallest by far, and this funny turn of events reminds him of home.

<Nico always chastised me for eating too quickly.> he fondly thinks back to the countless discussions that have been had at the dinner table.

While he is busy getting rid of their empty boxes and realizing that his memory has gotten a bit better again, Dushavee has been staying back with Luna.

“Ready to head out again?” she asks the girl.

“Mrrwah.” Luna responds happily, wagging her stubby tail.

Nothing like a healthy portion of meat to lift the her mood.

“Alrite then.” she briefly rubs her head, getting a happy bark-purr in response “Seems yer dad is headin’ back our way, anyways.”

“Amirite, dad?” she nudges Fredrick as he returns.

“Right with...?” he asks her confused.

“Oh, nothin. Just makin conversation.” she mysteriously replies.

“Sure.” he shrugs her off, used to her antics by now.

He quickly asks if Luna was happy with her meal and, with their bellies empty no longer, the group is off again.

Thankfully it doesn’t take them long until they reach a certain scrap-shop, which looks a lot more professional than the ones they previously passed on their way here, Fredrick notes.

“This is the place I was talkin about.” Dushavee points a claw at the glowing sign.
“Marluuk’s got the best stuff around, but he’s a shifty bastard, so keep yer wits about and let me do the talkin’ for now. Bastard loves rippin’ people off at every opportunity. Get?” she tells him.

“Get.” he nods.

“Alrite then. Time to see how many credits we can squeeze out of that balruk.” she grins and enters the store.

A deep, rough voice calls out to them as soon as she steps through the door.

“Well, if it ain’t my favorite Raug-Kir on this whole damn moon.” the being behind the counter, most likely Marluuk himself, greets them.
“Don’t tell your boss I said that, though!” he laughs.

“Marluuk.” Dushavee responds briskly, making her way to the counter.
“Hoped Ah wouldn’t have to see yer ugly mug again, but I guess here we are.”

“The old man’s been rubbing off on you or something?” he laughs “Normally I’d say you’re looking good, but that weird fabric around your head makes it hard to say that. What in the void happened? Did a vent-horror chew on your head or something?”

“Box fell on mah head.” Dushavee shrugs “We’re here to trade a few things.”

“I see. Well, happens to the best of us, right? Does your visit here today mean you’re going to participate in this cycle’s Gambler’s Run again?”

“Ah don’t know yet. Things have come up an’ I don’t know if I’ll get the chance.” she responds.

“Real shame.” he leans on the counter, shooting a look over at Fredrick and Luna “Would have liked to see you in action again, but I also can’t help myself but notice that you’re with very ... interesting company today.” he notes with curiosity.

Dushavee grins at his response, casually leaning on the counter as she responds.

“Ah see yer not completely blind yet.” she jabs “That fleshy fella over there is Fredrick and that fuzzy cutie is Luna.”

“Nice for meet you.” Fredrick responds and Luna happily bark-purrs a greeting as well.

“Pleasure meeting you two.” Marluuk slaps the counter “So, what business do you have with me? Trading, you said?”

“Well, for starters, I’d like a cred-chit and one of those gen-five comm-units for mah friend here. He kind of doesn’t have any of those right now.” Dushavee answers.

“A cred-chit, you say?” Marluuk responds “Sure, got some right here.”

He reaches below the counter and quickly produces a small device, made of tarnished steel-colored metal. He twirls it around his fingers he sets it down on the counter, gesturing her to take it.

“One that’s not been tampered with.” Dushavee locks her eyes with his.

“Oh, I can assure you-” Marluuk starts talking.

As if on cue, Luna jumps up at the counter to take a look at the strange new device and Dushavee nods at her as she holds eye contact with Marluuk.

“-that I ... would never sell you one of those, of course! Hahaha!” he changes his mind.

With a nervous laugh, Marluuk quickly grabs the device and hides it back under the counter, much to the chagrin of the young girl, who just wanted to take a look and gets back on all fours to complain to her dad with a pouty growl.

“And... the comm-unit, um, a gen-five, yes? ” Marluuk nervously asks Dushavee, briefly eyeing Luna.

“Yep.” Dushavee responds nonchalant, not even sparing him a glance as she inspects one of her claws instead.

“Of course. Give a moment, yes?”

Dushavee dismisses him with a wave of her clawed hand and Marluuk quickly scurries away, disappearing through a beaded curtain behind the counter.

“Shifty old bastard.” she mumbles, turning to Fredrick “Always tryin’ to scam people out of their money...”

“Certainly make him think twice about.” Fredrick muses, astounded by how quickly that person just did a complete one-eighty after getting a better look at Luna.

A few moments pass as they wait for Marluuk to return and Luna starts exploring the shop, wanting to take a closer look at the pieces of machinery and random tools displayed on sturdy metal shelves all around the place.

Fredrick follows her and keeps an eye on her to make sure she doesn't hurt herself or stick her snout into something dangerous as she explores.

There are all kinds of parts on display and he can’t make out any of them. Some look a bit like a sci-fi version of a jet turbine, but others are just a mess of jumbled wires and weirdly textured metal boxes.

But after a quick tour of the shop, he quickly realizes that pretty much every single part and component here shares at least some parts with the others, almost as if they were designed by the same people, or at least share common parts.

“Hey, Scales?” he asks her across the showroom.

“Yeah, wassup?” she replies.

“Why are all part kind of same?”

“Kind of same?” she mumbles, walking over.

Fredrick shows her what he means, pointing at two different thruster-lookalikes that both look extremely different, but also weirdly alike.

“Seem pretty normal to me. One of ‘em is Tulan-made, an’ the other is actually Raug-Kir tech.” she shrugs.

That just confuses him even more. If those thrusters(?) are made by different species, then why do they share so many common parts?
Especially that weird boxy-thing that virtually every single part in here has got.

“Even more then!” he exclaims “Why is that same when is made by different people?” he points at the metal boxes at the base of the thrusters.

“Because they use the same interface like every other part in this galaxy? They’re all standardized, y’know? Are yer people really spaceflight-capable if ya don’t even know what a common interface looks like?” Dushavee raises her nonexistent eyebrow, looking at him like he just said something completely crazy.

<Standardized? How would they even manage to do that?> Fredrick wonders.

“I already tell Krognuar, did not? We reach space without help.”

“Sure. Y’all reached space and ya didn’t get any help.” Dushavee mocks him.

“I am seriously!” Fredrick crosses his arms “I not know why you two not believe me, but we really do!”

“Y’er just bullshittin’ me right now. There’s no fuckin’ way that ya managed to reach space without help.”

“Why?” Fredrick counters.

“Because nobody else managed to do that...?” she asks him “Well, except the First Ones, of course.”

Fredrick’s jaw hits the floor at her response.

<Did she seriously just say that nobody managed to reach space without being uplifted first?>

“So, you are try to say me that nobody, nobody, reach space without help of ‘sky-people’?”

The reptilian cracks up at his response.

“’Sky-people’? Did the bossman tell ya that word?”

“Scales, I am try to have conversation here.” Fredrick begs her.

“Sorry. Y’er right.” she sighs “Anyway- yeah. I’m telling ya that every single star nation in this whole damn galaxy uses that tech. There literally is nobody that knows how to reach space without it.”

“You are telling joke.” Fredrick dismisses her.

“Ah swear on mah brood, I’m tellin’ ya the truth.”

“But... that mean...” he takes a moment to process what he just heard.
“That mean everyone is rely on same technology?”

“And that’s why I’m tellin ya that yer people can’t have reached space without our help."
"Or, ya know, someone’s help. I meant, like, the galaxy as a whole with ‘us’, y’know?” she quickly corrects herself.

“But we did.” Fredrick insists.

“Softie, this is getting’ boring-”

“No,” he interrupts her, getting a bit annoyed “I keep telling you, I say truth! We build rocket, we build space stations, we build city on other planet. We reach space without help and we did very quick. [Hell], we even manage to split atom before we even left Earth!” he lists off, tired of not being taken seriously.

“You did what?” Dushavee asks him mortified, her cocky demeanor suddenly all but vanished in an instant.

“We built space station?”

“No, the last part.”

“We split atom before-”

“Yeah, that.” she interrupts him “How do you know about that?”

“Is common knowledge?” he asks her confused.

“Common knowledge mah ass! Do ya know how many people even know that an atom can be split in the first place? Who told you about that!?” she asks him seriously, grabbing him bis the shoulders.

_____________________________________________

Oh boy, 11PM, time to post another chapter!

Took me a bit longer again, but I finally managed to get a few more hours of writing in and pump this one out for you guys. "^__^

Today we found out that the civilized galaxy might have a bit of an overreliance on a few pieces of tech and that building nukes might be frowned upon.

Who knew, right?

Anyway, find out more in the next episode, cause I'm tired as hell and going straight to bed after uploading this one! :D

• Paperbag out.

Fun science fact #41:
There are more than 1.4 billion insects for EACH HUMAN on the planet, at least according to estimates.
Ants, for example, have colonised almost every single landmass on our planet and their population is estimated to be as high as 107–108 billion alone.
Quite a lot in comparison to the measly 7-8 billion humans...

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