Arthur sat alone in a small family restaurant, he was rolling a salt shaker back and forth on the table. It was a small place, cracked orange paint splintered revealing brick walls, the old wood floor, although polished was covered in small scratches and blemishes. He sat facing the door, a pensive look covered his face. A large window painted his silhouette on the floor beneath him, his eyes couldn't help but watch the vaguely humanoid, mouse-like creatures behind the counter. They were hard at work making every surface in that shop shine, their reflections dancing in the polished glasses.
He turned and looked out the window, the street was filled with different species, some humanoid, some taken right out of a coloring book. He felt so peaceful here, finally at home.
Eventually he heard the bell hanging above the white door ring lightly as it was pushed open by two people. One of the figures, Coleman, signed to the mouse behind the bar. He hastily pushed three mugs to her and filled them with coffee. After he completed the task he walked around the counter and flipped the sign in the window, locked the door, and went into the kitchen of the establishment. She carried the coffees over and set them down, saluting Arthur.
"Stop that shit."
She pulled the beret atop her head off and set it on the table.
"Permission to speak freely, sir."
Arthur grabbed one of the mugs and pulled it close to himself, heating his hands with it. It had been two months since his attempt to escape the watchful eye of the Front, and it had failed miserably.
"When you are around me just assume you have it."
She sat down across from him and sighed, untying her black hair and letting it roll down her shoulders.
"I told you that plan was fucking stupid."
He rolled his eyes, he wasn't known for being particularly smart, he's just been alive for so long the information he has access to is theoretically limitless, in reality though, he really doesn't have access to the swarth of knowledge.
"Whatever, did you call me here to gloat?"
She smiled, her slightly oversized canines brushing against her lip.
"Maybe, I did get that promotion after all."
He scratched his neck and pointed at the guy still standing by the door.
"Who's your entourage?"
She looked back for a moment and rolled her eyes.
"Well, since they put me in charge of all field operations of the Klantar system, I'm considered important now so I have a dog following me. Besides what we are going to discuss here is important, if even one member of the CC heard about what we are going to talk about-"
Arthur interrupted, and began pointing at the woman.
"Why am I here? You got your promotion, I was supposed to get my peace."
She smiled lightly, and rolled the coffee cup back and forth in her hands.
"Oh no, I did you a favor and I'd like you to return it."
He looked at her, annoyance showing on his face.
"Are you saying I didn't do you a favor? I see three medals on your shoulders that say otherwise."
She looked down and flicked one of them before pulling it off and setting it down.
"It was nothing more than a consequence of your actions, besides I just wanted off desk duty, not to be put in charge of nearly three billion people."
He raised an eyebrow.
"Three billion huh, I didn't know the Klantar system had that many people in it.
She scratched her head and reached down, pulling a small communicator from the pocket inside her fatigues. She placed it on the table and pressed a button, which displayed a holographic projection of their current system and surrounding ones.
"Yes there is, and I need your help keeping it safe."
He leaned back in his seat but didn't look away, his annoyance growing.
"No."
She grinned mischievously, her lower appendages fluttered.
"If you don't this could affect you. Besides you haven't even heard what I have to say."
He crossed his arms and stared at the woman questioningly. After a couple of moments of silence she began to speak.
"Seeing as you haven't left I'll go ahead and get started. Now as you may or not know, the CC or Corpo-Capitalists had attempted to put you out of commission by hitting the ship you were on, launching you into the bowels of space for a rather permanent space nap."
She leaned back in the cushion of the seat herself, her arms outstretched holding the coffee.
"As far as we can tell they believe they succeeded in that task, as they have become more brazen in their attacks, they even launched a thermonuclear device on a cosmonautic port last week."
The communicator's image shifted to display a newspaper. The lines around her eyes became more pronounced, almost portraying a deep sadness.
"We lost thirteen million people in that attack, but we have managed to quell the chaos for the moment, that being said, we don't believe it will last long. Our newest technology, thanks to the findings of millions of researchers and even more data, have produced a device that can predict likely futures."
With that he tilted his head.
"What?"
"I don't have a whole lot of information on the device, from what I have been able to understand it uses compiled data from histories of planets and mass surveillance to mathematically interpolate the raw data into possible timelines or futures for just about every planet on our side of the universe. With that information we have stopped rebellions, diseases, hell even some petty crimes before they can happen."
Arthur shook his head.
"Why would you tell me that."
She looked at him, somewhat surprised.
"What do you mean?"
He looked at her darkly.
"I don't want to know about that kind of shit, besides I feel I know for a fact that becoming reliant on that feeling of invulnerability leads to numbness and then disaster."
It was her turn to tilt her head and that she did.
"I still don't understand."
He leaned forward and placed his elbows on the table.
"Well take me for example, I know for a fact that no matter what happens I'll be alive tomorrow. Despite knowing that, I'm still cautious and observant, if I became too reliant on that fact, I'd grow numb to everything and begin making mistakes. Besides, there is no such thing as good without the bad to define it."
Her eyebrows went up.
"Are you saying what I think you are saying."
He smiled lightly, feeling the dissipating rays of the setting sun disappear from his face.
"I'm not saying that literally, I'm saying a smart man would use that only as fail-safe. Keep inputting raw data into it, but stop only the truly terrible things."
She leaned back even further into the chair, looking up as her head rested atop the cushion.
"You are probably right, but that's far out of my control."
With that she leaned back forward, a shine in her eyes.
"Speaking of truly terrible things."