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“No way it was a real samovar,” concluded Inan.
Inan Suon has just joined Response as a marksman for Fire Team One, and his first ‘assignment’ has turned out to be a curiously peaceful one. He received an invitation from Sgt. Kiseleva to join her and the team on an informal visit to the Gohhi station.
He knew most of the Response team members by sight and some by reputation, but he didn’t know exactly what to expect from an event like that. He wondered briefly that it might involve some sort of hazing, as most tight groups relying on each other for personal safety did, but then decided to free himself from any expectations and just go and see what happens. After all, he wasn’t a random pick – he’d put a lot of effort into becoming a candidate worth picking, so getting the spot was a reason to celebrate in and of itself.
What he got however, was a peculiarly well plotted scenic route through the giant station that included visiting obvious vistas of tall open avenues full of tourist attractions stacked in many stories on top of each other, big must-see places like the Large Museum of Planetary Arts, and also some quieter moody bystreets that deepened the many contrasts the place had. The trip left him with a whole different kind of an impression from what he reckoned most people would take away from Gohhi. The route pinnacled in the seediest-looking watering establishment he had ever seen – The Nozzle bar.
“How’d you know it wasn’t real?” Lorissa inquired, popping a cheese puff and looking at the new guy pensively.
She hadn’t had the time to really get to know him yet, but she liked what she had learned so far.
Inan was not particularly distinguished and he would have to go through a lot of squad alignment training, but he had consistently good performance review scores. And above all he was a hearty, easy-going fellow off-duty, and that ability to switch tracks was a valued one in any high-stress job.
“Well, uh . . .” He seemed to have lost his train of thought under her gaze. “I dunno, it just seems so astronomically improbable that one of those things ended up here all the way from Earth.”
“From Earth? Wait, what the hell is a samovar anyway?” asked LeMarr, having been distracted from his tablet by the mention of the ancient planet. He seem to have missed that old chunk of brass because he was admiring a huge fossilized skeleton of some kind of a dinosaur on display in the next hall. LeMarr didn’t know if the skeleton was genuine, but it was presented very well – the menacing posture and all.
Lorissa took a sip of her nitrogen beer and looked as if she had enjoyed it thoroughly, effectively relinquishing the responsibility of describing the appliance to Inan.
“Its supposed to be this glorified firewood external combustion kettle slash tea making machine . . . thing I suppose,” Inan smiled at the intentionally imbecilic expression of LeMarr’s face.
Lorissa glanced at him too and snorted a chuckle into the beer foam. She could swear the man could drool at will.
“So, are you basing this assumption in probability then?” she got back on topic meaning to gauge how much Inan was relying on his intuition in this matter.
“Well, its also this place. It’s so overtly by-all-sell-all you know? I guess I just find it hard to imagine finding anything genuine here. At least on display. That guy can call himself a ‘curator’ all he wants, his place still looks more like a pretentious neon pawn shop than a museum to me . . . What’s wrong?” he asked awkwardly having caught Lorissa’s unblinking stare and blank expression. Then he realized she was looking past him towards the entrance.
“Not sure yet,” said Lorissa taking another sip, still keeping her eyes fixed on the peculiar group that had just arrived at the bar.
Other Terrestrial 
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