Chapter 27: Rats

'She was ready to fight the warship crew or was she after me like my sense indicated?' Safo Nur pondered, halted where he was.

"Don't mind her, she is always on the edge. We all thought that we had to fight to the death. But you know what? Our omnipotent king saved us. Moreover, thanks to him we will be home soon. I'm so excited to acquaint you with the New Tenga people, the King! Sounds good, huh?" Kutch didn’t know where to direct his excitement. He jumped and ran all over the place.

Soon his 3comm began to ring like crazy, receiving messages and notifications. Stage 10 had a poor signal for 3comms unable to support long-range signals.

Kutch with a thoughtful expression dove into the depth of his 3comm. Soon he established a holographic call with his friends from New Tenga.

“Kutch, my friend, where were you? We missed you so much, we needed you so much. News that you have to know piled up. So much to catch up on. You won’t believe what happened in the Cube! But first things first man.” Monkey-looking guy wearing a yellow spherical hat changed his face completely, an unsmiling grimace with an earnest tone suddenly made him look matured.

“Can you again ask your sister to marry me?”

"…"

All 6 guys on the holographic display exploded in laughter. All of them soon joined, interrupting and sometimes in unison. “No, she must marry me!” “No, no. It will be.” “Fuc* you guys it will be me.”

Kutch's eyes rolled back, it was not the first time that he was irritated by his loser friend. But he couldn’t blame them, her sister was beautiful and cold which added extra charm to her character.

His memories of childhood were full of admirers of her sister asking him to put in a word on their behalf. He used to abuse them and gain benefits in the form of sweets, games, and favors. He enjoyed it a lot because O’rmon never reciprocated with anyone. The only man she cared about was her little brother.

“Shut up you losers. She will never choose one of you, she into real men.” Kutch half-jested, he had no idea what kind of men she was into, maybe not men at all?!

They went on talking about their VD game which stands for Virtual Dimension games. Safo didn’t understand a word from their dialog. He grasped the faint image, it was a role play game with a level-up system. A world filled- with monsters, magic, and all sorts of weapons. Kutch promised to teach him and recruit him into his clan further in the game so Safo was fine with waiting a bit.

With Kutch being busy with his friend's reunion, Safo didn’t know what to do. Dost was doing droidy things, whatever they are, in his room. O’rmon had no interest in talking with Safo, and honestly, he was a bit afraid of her. Achraf and Safo had not much in common except Luna.

And for the first time in a month or so Safo was alone, practically lonely. With nothing else to do, he went to check on Achraf. Safo gave away a place to Luna so she could talk with her father while they had some free time. She had a stressful couple of days. Starting with the number of people on Stage 10 - she spent her last 6 years distant from any civilization. Followed by kidnapping, dangerous escape, and life-threatening skirmish with an aggressive warship.

{“Are you sure? You can play games or even watch virtual movies and concerts.”}

“Affirmative, 3comm was slightly damaged while my “KAMEKAMEHA'' so it is not working well. Don’t worry I’ll spend my time on my soul stone, maybe I’ll manage to open another water well somehow.” It wasn’t completely true, he wanted to be in solitary.

Swiftly they changed their positions. Once again Safo Nur found himself on his personal Blue Marble. Nothing had changed, still blue, still iced, still 5 water wells were closed by their white heavy lids.

Safo laid down on top of the iced surface inside of his soul room. As soon as he let himself relax, homesickness punched him in the face. His eyes went wet in an instant.

Images of his parents, friends, and girlfriend made his astral heart feel depressing pressure. His parents were probably worried about his well-being. They raised him and his small sister with as much love as one could possibly produce. Nothing but care and warmness, sweet feelings that are associated with his parents.

He was a bit of a troublesome kid, but their tolerance and good words always worked on him, giving him a clear view of the path of an honest and honorable man.

That was what his girlfriend loved in him, honesty. They met when Safo was 14, she was 16 at that time. The age difference never bothered Safo. Common interests, a friendship that grew into love. Jala, her name, was from a wealthy family. Her father’s pride, he was so confident in his daughter that he bought her an apartment at her age. To be more prepared for adult life, she lived there on her own.

Safo’s and Jala’s bond was strong after a year of their friendship. On one particular evening, they got an invitation to an underground party with seniors. Where Jala got herself in an argument with some visitors. Long story short she lost her apartment on a bet. In worries about telling her parent's reaction, Jala spent the night crying her eyes out.

Safo couldn't take it and let that misfortune happen to Jala. He went straight to the seniors only to find out that they made her sign a contract with some street thugs. They let her keep the apartment if she could pay it off. Safo, as a gentleman, that he was, took her debt, signing another contract stating that Safo Nur had been recruited to the gang as a “Rat”.

Rat - was a position of a person whose responsibility was hiding the drugs. Bookmark, or a place where the rat hid the drugs, would be texted to a customer only after one paid the whole price. The job was high pay but extremely risky. In 3 years Safo could put a whole payment for the apartment and free Jala from the contract, which he successfully did.

Jala knowing that Safo took the bullet, falls in love with her savior. They started dating when Safo was 15. Of course, there were periods of short breaks due to misunderstandings and their young-age tempter. But Safo kept working to cover her and she kept returning to him.

Recalling his past made him cry more. Safo’s dilatory tears forced their way through his face gently dripping to the iced surface. Safo could not still feel cold or hot while in his spiritual form. However, he could feel phantom pain in his chest, and the tears were real.

After an hour of nostalgic cry therapy, he jumped up energetic and ready to face new hardships and conquer them. Everything, for his glorious return to Earth, as the first human to witness aliens, planets, and other galaxies, as a King of a New Tenga.

However, with each minute Safo got more nervous about his future on New Tenga. 'How to be a King? What should I do? I'm sure it is hard, I’m going to fail so bad.' The pressure that comes with the title was as significant as the title itself.

Finally, they arrived! After switching places with Luna and Safo took back control over his body. When he went to the bridge to the planet everybody was there waiting for him already.

Kutch stretched his hands welcoming him to stay by his side. “Come, look at your territory. The system of New Tenga!”

Safo went closer and froze by the sight. Small red star along with 3 decent size planets circling at the same distance from the red dwarf. Even though the planets were at the same length from their star. They were in perfect orbit so they never met with each other but could comfortably contain life on all three of them. A true miracle.

Each of the planets had a huge silver ring on its surface. At least 3 on each planet.

“What are those... are they … litter portals?” Achraf being an engineer had some clue when Safo just stood knowing nothing.

“Yes, they are litter portals.” Kutch’s short answer was unusual, so Safo started to suspect.

“What does it mean?” He showed an interest in the matter.

Moment of silence.

“New Tenga is a dumpster of the Empire. We receive trash from everyone. To tore, recycle, landfill, incinerate it.”

“What the fuc*? You made me go through so much stuff just to be the king of a shi*hole?” Safo suddenly burst into anger, He couldn't that he had to abandon his family, his girlfriend, and his future child.

“Yes, but you’re a King of Psiora, the people who live there. Yes, it is a shi*hole, I know. Yes, we are rats, as everyone calls us but we survived, we overcame everything. It is your duty and you people....” Kutch was interrupted by Safo.

“What did you say? Rats?

“Yes, that’s what the Empire calls us.”

“I will be your King!”