Uno Star System

TriStar Systems

TSS Pavone

It was nice to be home again.

Commander Aminta Caccia sighed in relief as her ship exited hyper on the edge of Uno Star System. Uno-3 was surrounded by a comforting level of warships and civilian traffic telling of the agreements between the Stellar Democracy and the TriStar Systems. She had successfully escorted her charge, a TriStar registered merchantman, to the snakepit that was the Confederacy and lived to tell the tale.

It was a close run thing, considering her run-in with Ionosphere and the pirates she had helped her defeat. She’d been almost disappointed when Admiral Tobin had forbidden the TriStar ships from participating in the trap, but she had understood his logic. Keeping The Admiral in the dark meant that next time she ran into a TriStar ship, she might not be as wary and allow them to take her down with a surprise attack.

But then Admiral Tobin and his battleship had suffered for the trick he had tried to pull and there wasn’t even any guarantee The Admiral was dead (though the captain that had taken over the mission once they realized Tobin was injured thought there was no way she was alive and no one had argued.) She hoped Desson was dead, there was no way she wanted to encounter the rogue Novu officer ever again.

“Well Coms? Speak to me, does Traffic Control know we're here yet?” Caccia said with a grin.

“Not yet Ma’am!” The communication officer smiled back at her. “One moment,” a few commands entered into their console later, “Uno-3 Orbital Traffic Control, this is TSS Pavone, requesting a slot in orbit, military normal priority.”

A second passed in silence, everyone in the bridge content to wait in in a happy quiet. Now that they were home they were undoubtedly planning visits to family and considering how to celebrate a mission well done.

“TSS Peacock, this is Uno-3 OTC, your orbit coordinates are being transmitted to you now. Welcome home.”

There was a pause to the chatter on the bridge, and the com officer looked confused.

“Helm, did we get those coordinates?” Caccia asked into the silence.

“Yes Ma’am. It’s properly formatted and exactly where I expected to be placed, in formation with the cruiser Cigno.”

“Coms, call them back and ask, just in case there’s a civilian ship we got mixed up with.”

“Yes Ma’am.” He flipped the channel open again. “OTC, this is the TriStar Ship Pavone, please resend the coordinates and confirm them, as we were addressed by the wrong name.”

“TSS Pavone, sorry for any confusion but I am currently teaching a new hire who is listening in and I’ve needed to pick up the habit of speaking Novu Solarian since they don’t speak TriLingua.” The voice from before answered, sounding apologetic. “I automatically translated your name without thinking. Coordinates re-sent and confirmed, welcome home.”

Caccia nodded. “Well then, helm, bring us in, let’s not keep the crew from their plans any longer.”

Uno Star System

TriStar Systems

First Central Park

Aminta was glad to be home. Well, technically Trio-3 was her birth planet, but the capital of Uno-3 was just as much home these days, where she had a small apartment and her sister lived here too.

It was a gorgeous day outside today, and dressed in a light t-shirt and shorts, she had decided to take a stroll in First Central Park on her first day of leave from her ship. She could visit her sister later, getting a bit of natural sunlight would be good for her.

There were quite a few people in the park today. More than usual to be honest; Central Park on Uno-3 was located in the center of Capital City as well as surrounded by tourist attractions, restaurants and museums. But this many people out here was kind of strange. As she looked around, most of them didn’t look like natives, their style of dress wasn’t quite right, the way they looked around and took a few too many pictures. Tourists? She didn’t remember First Central being this popular.

“Greetings Uno Star System! Are you ready to feel the beats of Sol?”

Caccia looked around, very confused for a moment, before she spotted a small stage set up in the park with a band readying instruments on it; a small crowd already gathered in front of them, eagerly waiting for the show.

“Oh my God!” A nearby woman with a ponytail that looked like it had been dipped in blue cried. “I didn’t think I’d be this lucky!”

“Excuse me,” Caccia said, the young woman turning to face her, “what exactly is this?”

“You’ve never heard of Waves of the Sun?” She sounded confused but still happy. “They are THE top band in the Stellar Democracy and have been kinda quiet lately so we all thought they were taking a break but they must have been traveling here!” The woman grinned. “Oh they are my favorite!”

“No but,” Caccia struggled for the right words for a second, obviously this woman was a tourist and didn’t come from Uno. "Why out in a park? We have perfectly good concert halls." After all, she didn’t come here to have her ears assaulted by random music and overly excited crowds. This park might be busy due to its location but it was never overly loud. Disturbing the peace of the park seemed disrespectful to those who just wanted to peoplexwatch and enjoy being.

The woman looked at her before realization dawned on her face. “Oh! You aren’t from the Stellar Democracy, no wonder.” She giggled, a bit too happy for Caccia’s tastes. “Well you see we have a tradition back home to promote music. Bands can, if they are respectful, set up stages in public places and perform for whoever is nearby, no cost. It allows new people to hear music they might otherwise miss, people get to enjoy a free show, and everyone benefits!”

“But… it’s a park, no one comes to the park to listen to a loud rock concert.” Caccia replied, mildly annoyed that this tourist seemed to miss the obvious point.

The other woman just shrugged. “Well the park will still be here tomorrow! I am going to go watch the show.” She happily trotted off to the now sizable crowd as the band, Waves of the Sun apparently, began to play their first song to the screams of the happy mass in front of their stage.

Caccia sighed, running a hand through her short dark brown hair, so much for her walk in the nice, quiet park. She quickly slipped out of First Central Park and into a small coffee shop sandwiched between a museum and an office building. With the door shutting out the sound of outside, it was quiet and peaceful here, only a couple of other customers sat at tables sipping drinks of their choice while the scent of freshly roasted coffee beans floated in the air. The music being played was soft jazz of a strain she’d never heard from the TriStars before.

“Welcome to The Three Bean Cafe!” A young woman with a similar color-dipped ponytail (though hers was lime green) called in a bubbly voice. “My name is Mary, I can help you whenever you are ready.”

As the TriStar officer stepped up to the counter, she inhaled deeply. “What are you roasting back there, it smells delicious.”

“Oh!” Mary smiled. “It's a new kind of coffee bean we just got in from the planet of Cankun, it's a complex coffee with an almost smooth, fruity taste that apparently comes from the fact coffee can grow naturally there and it adapted super quick to the planet. You want a cup?”

“Hm, a coffee from Novu Sol? That sounds interesting, how about a medium.” Caccia took out her credit chip and tapped it on the counter to pay for it.

“What would you like in it?” The barista asked as she grabbed the requested size and began to work.

“What is the best way to make it?”

“Bit of brown sugar and a touch of half and half.” Mary said. “Least that’s what I like.”

Caccia leaned against the counter to watch. “Sounds good to me.”

Mary was quick to finish the coffee and began to stir in sugar and creamer, before she handed it over with a smile. “Here you go! One medium Cankun Coffee, brown sugar and half and half!” She paused for a second. “Do you want me to write your name on it in pretty lettering?”

“Nah, I’m a naval officer, I don’t play in food holography.” Caccia took the coffee, sipped and gave an appreciative nod. “Very nice. Thank you.”

“If you need anything else, let me know, we have some lovely flake pastries we baked this morning as a side to the coffee.” Mary smiled and moved to clean up her station.

Caccia paused mid sip and decided to ask. “Look Mary, I’m old and out of touch. What’s up with the hairstyle? Brightly colored dyed hair wasn’t popular last time I was home.”

Mary finished wiping down a cup and laughed. “Oh, it's a fairly new trend being spread around the holonet called diptails! If you have long hair you do it up in a ponytail and then you dip it in high-concentration hair dyes. Whatever that one dip comes out as is what you got. It's a lot of fun!” She reached up and pulled her dyed hair around to show off the bright green dye job. “I think it started on Novu Sol as a joke in a TV teen movie but it caught on as a look of course because it looks amazing.”

“Huh.” Caccia frowned a little but covered it up with a sip of coffee. The coffee from a Novu world she had gotten to escape a distinctly Novu tradition in the capital of her star nation. “Thank you for explaining, too bad I can’t do it, hair isn’t long enough and my superiors would kill me for it.”

“No problem! It's slow right now and I’m always willing to take the time to help one of TriStars’ finest!” The young barista practically beamed as the music shifted from a slow jazz to a slightly more upbeat chillpop song. “Oh my god I didn’t realize my boss had purchased the rights to play the Ballad of the Core Worlds soundtrack! Oh that musical has the best songs in it.”

“Bet you’ll be sick of it by the end of the week.” Caccia joked and Mary shrugged.

“I’m a theater kid at heart. Any old musical numbers, especially from the center of humanity, tug at my heartstrings. It's nice to hear the music getting more traction.” She perked up as the door opened to admit a few more customers, the sounds of the loud concert in First Central Park filtering in for a moment. “Hello! Welcome to The Three Bean Cafe!”

Caccia excused herself and sat down in a comfortable seat in the corner, tapping the wall to bring up a hologram so she could browse the news while she half listened to the barista do her sales pitch to the new customers.

There was a lot of news from the Stellar Democracy, perhaps that shouldn’t be a surprise given that the star nation was the largest and most populated thus generating more news.

It just didn’t feel quite right. Like coming home and finding all your furniture moved two inches to the left, everything was there, it was still technically the same just not how it should be. It made being home here in Uno a little less comforting and she didn’t care for that. She was sure it was all in her head, especially given what had happened in the Confederacy. She just needed to readjust and relax and everything would fall back into place. She knew it would.