Gary looked at him with a rather tired look on his face, his tongue pushing against the inside of his lips as he thought the deal over.
"Why would I ever do that Arthur?"
"I think it's the best thing you can do right now."
"I'm not a goddamn charity case."
"I never said you were nor did I ever intend to imply that."
Arthur looked at him with a tinge of sadness in his eyes, it seemed as if Gary truly couldn't understand that this 'victory' of his was nothing more than an illusion. He knew he had jumped the gun a bit with that suggestion, but Arthur truly wanted to help him get out of there.
"You know what Gary, don't worry about it right now. That can be a discussion for later."
"Fine then..."
"So where exactly are we going?"
"The ship is automated to take us back to our main station, it isn't outfitted for space wrapping so you have to give it a couple hours before we are there. In the meantime get comfy, not exactly a lot of entertainment."
...
Over the next couple of hours they chatted lightly about the places they'd been to, it turns out that Gary had never even left this solar system, he swore the reason he didn't recognize Arthur as a human was because the last time he'd seen a non-mutated human was when he was a child, and that was over thirty years ago. He tried to get Arthur to share a bit about himself but he wouldn't crack, although he assured him he'd open up at a later date.
Gary ended up working for the government on lease, he had 'bought' the vehicle from the Front, in reality it was more of a gift, an apology for allowing that to happen to him and so many others. They needed someone with the knowledge of the batteries to continue running the operation, he had the vehicle and it just sort of fit. Although Gary made it clear how much he despised working here, he had nowhere else to go, he didn't even remember where he had originally come from and even if he did, was quite afraid of how other human would treat him given his appearance. He fit in more with the vestiges of alien society than his own.
Eventually the ship shuddered, signaling its descent through the atmosphere of a planet. There were no windows on this massive vessel so Arthur just had to trust the automated systems of the ship. He watched Gary crawl down from the lounger and walk over to the back left of the ship with the refrigeration units. He reached inside and grabbed two bottles, walking back over towards Arthur with one arm stretched out. Arthur couldn't help but smile.
"Now how the hell did you get these Gary?"
"Where we are going, Klantar-9, it has a trading station, a lot of old relics end up there, this being one of the few items I picked up. They weren't cheap but I figured you could appreciate it."
A solemn look appeared on Arthur's face, almost sad.
"You weren't wrong, it has been a very long time though."
...
A young woman looked up as the behemoth one might call a ship descended onto the planet, the grass around her swelled and brushed up against her rapidly. Her hair blew around her head, her brown eyes watching in awe as the ship breached the clouds. After a few more moments of watching, she continued down the dirt path towards her modest home.
The ship landed in an immeasurably large yard, dozens of other ships around the same size and shape were laid out around the fenced in area. Arthur felt a slight change in pressure as the ship stopped moving, his knees bending bending a bit, much akin to an elevator reaching its destination. The yard was soaked in mud, the grass torn and covered in footprints. As soon as the ship landed two men armed with flight packs and hoses flew upwards and landed on top of the ship. Arthur looked up as soon as he heard the loud pangs of their footsteps, suspicious yet calm, he looked over at Gary.
"Should I be worried?"
"No, they are just here to clean the sand off the ship. The shit is like glue and can cause some corrosion, especially if it gets near the automated systems."
Gary walked over to the large door and inputted a command, when he finished the lights shut off, submerging them in darkness. The door began slowly opening, pulling the blinding light in.
"It should be about morning, c'mon."
Arthur stood up from the lounger and walked over to the door, squinting his eyes a bit. After the doors opened he stepped down, feeling the warm mud in between his toes. He followed Gary towards a vehicle, a vehicle that clearly was sized for Gary. It was shaped like a truck with an oversized bed, it was clearly geared for dragging large amounts of cargo. It didn't have any paneling, the frame of the vehicle was exposed and rusting, it stood at about five feet tall and only had one seat; the other seat had been removed and replaced with a rudimentary computer with a large screen.
The possible uses were beyond Arthur and he didn't feel like asking, as Gary's kindness had already been more than what Arthur could've asked for. Gary walked towards the gaping hole that used to house a door and turned back towards his fairly new acquaintance.
"Get in the trunk."
Arthur pulled the tailgate down and stepped onto the bed, it was surprisingly clean, only light traces of what looked like paint was sprayed onto the walls. He closed the tailgate and lightly walked towards the very front, leaning against what would be the cabin as he sat down. He reached behind him and tapped on Gary's shoulder, causing the man to turn and look at him questioningly.
"What do you want?"
"I'm just curious, where we are going."
"We're going to the market to get you some proper clothes, you look like a beggar right now."
With that he turned back and pushed his finger against a biometric scanner, causing the vehicle to stutter for a moment before roaring to life. He leaned over and rummaged around near the computer before turning on some old Earth music. Once he landed on a song he like he flipped a button and then reached down, pushing the vehicle into automatic. He reversed out of the spot the vehicle and been parked then went left, driving towards a gate a mile or two away.
Arthur watched as the massive heaps of metal flew by, they were various sizes, with the one Gary belonged to being one of the smaller ones. The largest one was hovering above the station, easily two miles wide, two large tubes were being fed up to the ship from a large building. It was being fed energy, consuming enough for presumably a large town. He looked away from the behemoth and scratched his face, some mud had been splashing onto him from the tires.
He reached down and grabbed a blue tarp from the bed of the truck, loosely pulling it over his body to shield him from the wet dirt getting sprayed all over the bed of the truck. He wondered how Gary managed to keep it clean when he saw another truck getting cleaned off, presumably a service offered by the company that owned this yard to its employees.
Eventually they reached the large gate and a large humanoid alien walked up to the truck and signed to Gary. Gary signed back and the alien walked over to the gate and pressed a button; after the large gate swung open, and he drove left, following a gravel path towards a town some distance away.
The grass was long and yellow, filled with flowers that swung in the wind. In the distance there were mountains that nearly pierced the clouds, capped with snow at the peaks and and grass along the base, growing sparse as it climbed towards the heavens.
Arthur couldn't help but be reminded of Earth, he had lived on that planet a long time ago. He was the only child to a teacher and an artisan before he was taken by the man. He had worn a mask that covered half his face, with tubes that connected to cannisters he wore on his back his hair had long been dyed by soot and ash, his skin dark. His eyes were a deep, piercing blue and his voice was hoarse, excitement still crawled through his throat like a plague. Arthur shuddered, he hated thinking about that demon of a man, but he could never forget, he was intent on finding him if he was still alive. He was sure of the fact he had to kill him.
The truck came to a stop, rolling into a lot filled with various vehicles. Arthur couldn't help but feel confused, as they were all old Earth vehicles.