The Journeys of the alqizam al'ahmar

Yusuf sat alone at Rickardo’s, a low rent dive he'd visited a few times when he was in this part of Coriolis. Rickardo’s wasn’t so much a place where everyone knows your name, as it is a place where no one even asks because that sort of information can get a man killed... or worse. Yusuf began to ponder the mounted animal head that passed for decoration here, trying to work out its planet of origin and just how many limbs it had before it became separated from its body. “I reckon six and some sort of tail” he mumbled to himself without realising and the bartender grunted something indecipherable that could have been a confirmation or he could have just been asking if he needed a refill. He did He'd been nursing his fire kohol for the last 15 minutes and couldn't make it last any longer. He took one last gulp and signalled for it to be filled again. Yusuf didn't normally drink alone, but he wasn't in the mood for company today. Sure he'd usually start the ...

“Well, what do you think?” Karim slipped down the outside of the metal ladder and landed firmly onto the grilled floor with a solid ring. He stepped back thoughtfully and wiped away grease and sweat from his face using a band on his wrist. Youssouf leaned forward in to the light that was being cast down from the hole in the ceiling directly above and opened his arms wide in a gesture for openness. “Really?”, Karim answers, “You're actually intending to be serious about this?” Youssouf pulled a face, “Why would you even ask such a thing? If your poor father could hear you speak now! Surely boy you can see all the potential here?” Karim walked around the central spur of the engine room shaking his head gently and rubbing at the back of his neck. “It's insane, that's what I think of it. I think you have finally lost your senses, that is what I think.” Again Youssouf pulled an insulted and shocked face as though the very suggestion from Karim was some form of great out...