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Chapter: Chapter 1: Dirtball

  • Calcery: Aw, that’s sweet. I’ll miss you too, Talita. Working with you made this fly-in-fly-out hellhole a much nicer place. Talita: Haha, well, you too. Calcery: Say bye to Idrisah and Gillie for me. Spend time with them outside work! Talita: Yeah, of course! Talita pauses. Talita: …Was the fight with Mel really that bad? Calcery: As attentive as they act, I’m not sure Mel is ever actually listening. But no manager could make staying on Dirtball WORTH it, you know? Talita: Yeah, I’m honestly surprised Ixion kept you this long. Calcery: When are you going to leave? Talita: Me?? I don’t know. It’s fine here. Calcery: No, it isn’t.

    Runaway to the Stars: Page 18

    May 14, 2024

  • Ferret 1: Friend of the A.I.? Ferret 2: We leafe soon. Ferret 3: It’s too late. Ferret 1: No, he’s still awake. Ferret 3: The centaur should just text hin later. Ferret 2: Don’t de rude. Ferret 4: No conns. Ferret 2: Fut in this jack. They shove a bug ferret headset into Talita's hand. Ferret 4: (signing on Talita's leg) You have a ninute. The ferrets leave. Talita looks dazed. Talita: Uh. Thanks. She plugs the headset jack into one of the server rigs and puts it to her ear. SFX: biiiii-boop Calcery: Hello?? Talita: It felt wrong to let you leave without saying goodbye “in person”.

    Runaway to the Stars: Page 17

    May 11, 2024

  • Talita: ...Buddy? She leans out over the crowd of ferrets to shout at two humans sitting in a forklift. Talita: Tod? Killian? Did they take his comms equipment already?? Tod is a tall fat black man in his late fifties with stubble and thinning hair. His forehead has a large white piebald patch. Killian is an extremely short genetically modified human in their mid forties with a long prehensile tail, thumbed feet, and crinkled whiskers on their eyes, jaw, and wrists. Both of them look tired and slightly irritated. Tod: No idea.  Killian: Ask the ferrets. Talita approaches two ferrets speaking in tactile sign by tapping each other's arms. One is sitting in a forklift. Talita: Um, excuse me... Ferret 1: Yesh? Ferret 2: Can we helf you? They turn their heads to address her but do not pause signing. Talita: Is Calcery still online? I’d like to say goodbye.

    Runaway to the Stars: Page 16

    May 09, 2024

  • Bug ferrets abound. Their faces have stalk eyes with a pupil shaped like a serif I, two triangular fan-like ears, flat frog-like ears, insectoid mandibles, and a "goatee" of two tufted antennae. Talita abandons her cart in the hall and awkwardly wades through them to get into the server room. Talita: Sorry. Excuse me... SFX: HUFF. rr. eef. HF! wuff. Ferrets are scuttling in and around the room, moving stuff. There is a row of numbered black server rigs taller than Talita, each labeled "Calcery." Talita: …Cal? Hello? SFX: huff. Rr. wuf.

    Runaway to the Stars: Page 15

    May 07, 2024

  • Mel: Sigh… I don’t know. It’s not like he’s talking to me. Talita: I’ll go check. Mel: Oh, real quick– Could you send me those old schematics you drafted for your apartment? Talita: Uh, sure. Why? Mel: You’ll find out! Mel: (walking away cheerfully) Don’t trip on the bug ferrets! Talita tugs her cart of phone boxes further into the facility, exiting the vehicle bay and entering a hallway with bug ferrets in it. They are low-stanced hexapodal aliens with bug-like legs on fuzzy tubular bodies covered in whiskers, and not very covered in clothes. They have a variety of large spotted fur patterns. They tap each other's arms and quietly vocalize. SFX: WUFF. YIP. HURF.

    Runaway to the Stars: Page 14

    May 04, 2024

  • Talita: I’m gonna recharge them at my place. If their CPUs weren’t fried by engine radiation, I should be able to ID them. Mel: Thanks, Tal. Mel: So... how was the temp crew? Talita: Well! Nothing more field experience can’t fix! Mel: You can always come to me if there are… issues. I know people sometimes make weird presumptions about centaurs. Talita: It’s fine! Really! She waves a hand in frantic dismissal, the feathers on her face prickling in embarrassment. Talita: You know you’re my manager now and not my legal guardian, right? Mel: It’s my concern either way! Talita: Anyways! Do you know if Calcery’s packed up yet?

    Runaway to the Stars: Page 13

    May 02, 2024

  • Mel: How was the reclamation run? Talita: Nothing special, just prepping scrap for the automated night cycle. But you know that fusion ship that just came down the launch loop? Mel: Oh yes! Nice ship, isn’t it? Most of it we can just dismantle and resell. Talita: Check out what I found in the habitat capsule. She pulls over a cart with some large boxes in it. Mel: Eight boxes— Of quantum phones?? These are... worth a LOT of money. Talita: Yeeeah.

    Runaway to the Stars: Page 12

    Apr 30, 2024

  • Talita puts her glasses on. They have an elastic band that holds them behind the rear ridge of her skull. SFX: THWAP! Mel: Talita! Talita: (From inside the suit she's taking off.) Ah! Talita takes off the middle section of her suit and speaks with the mouth at the end of her trunk. Talita: Mel! What’s up! Mel: How was the reclamation run? Mel walks over from the direction of the admin wing. They are a thin middle aged human with a greying close-cropped beard and feminine proportions.

    Runaway to the Stars: Page 11

    Apr 27, 2024

  • Talita starts to take of her suit in front of the staff lockers. She twists off the air hoses to her helmet, undoes the latches at the base of her neck, twists the neck seal open. Human crew members walk by, their heads barely taller than her lower torso. She pulls off the helmet to reveal her face. Her neck is tiger-striped with an integument somewhere in between fur and feathers. Her owlish face tapers into a short slender trunk with lips at the end, and a larger mouth in a more predictable place has two round, dark patches of skin on either side of the lower jaw. She picks up a pair of rectangular glasses on top of the lockers.

    Runaway to the Stars: Page 10

    Apr 25, 2024

  • The recycling crew returns from the junkyard with a swarm of heavy equipment vehicles, passing through the airlock. Text labeling features inside the industrial interior of the recycling plant is bilingual, with English and an alien language. Talita: Now you can unlatch your helmet, Dominic. Dominic: Sorry.

    Runaway to the Stars: Page 9

    Apr 23, 2024

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© Jay Eaton 2024