It was rarely cloudless late evening. The trio of cream-red satellites illuminated the surface of the road with the light of a binary star, casting indifferent glances with their cold empty craters.
The shrill roar of a battered sandwalker broke the enchanting symphony of the night and scared off a few midnight dwellers who hid in the bushes. At this late hour, many local inhabitants had just started to live their intense lives.
Leaving dust trails behind and generously splashing the mud from the road in all directions, the vehicle passed the last turn and went onto the highway, lit by the multiple moons. Still focused on controlling the car, Mikai turned up the transmitter volume and, throwing a glance in the rear-view mirror, winked at himself with his upper eye.
“Krii taa bu palla, krii taa vu palla, krii en tu di ramoto — krii taa bu palla,” the transmitter chanted intricately. Mad speed, the empty road, cheerful melody — they all just complemented the overall picture of Mikai Arenali’s happiness on the last day of his bachelor life.
He had courted Tirra for a year and a half: at first, she was unapproachable (as, indeed, for all other applicants for the beauty’s tentacle in marriage), but Mikai won the girl due to his persistence and energy, continuing the courtship when any other man in his place would shrug off and go away. His attentions were honest, careful and delicate; he had never thrown mud at his opponents or tried to rush things. Perhaps, it was the combination of these qualities that had won her over.
Arenali harboured no illusions: Tirra did not love him. Nevertheless, she allowed him to love her, and that was even more than some couples had. Moreover, love and being in love are two different things. In a short time, without knowing someone intimately, you can only fall in love. True love is based on a partner’s qualities and actions. Of course, if another partner is smart enough to notice and appreciate them. Otherwise, there is no sense to connect your life with such an ungrateful, foolish woman. Or with such an ungrateful, foolish man. It depends on who you have.
“Krii taa bu palla, krii taa vu palla, krii en dinaro dbano — krii taa bu palla…” the transmitter sang sonorously and sweetly, but then it started to issue strong background noise and spit separate phrases, barely audible and muffled with the hiss.
“Well, I’ve lost the signal again. It looks like the storm is coming. How can you trust the forecast after that?” Arenali said to himself and put the airtight shields up with the display sensor button. Obeying his touch, the defences began to glide slowly. It blocked the windows and hid a direct view on a surrounding wasteland.
Now the sandwalker had turned from a mobile vehicle into a stationary sealed base, good enough for waiting out the crisis moment. That meant an inevitable delay. But such a small inconvenience couldn’t ruin Mikai’s mood this evening.
An onboard computer became the only source of communication with the outside world and a single device for monitoring the environment. It was capable not only of receiving signals from the external sensors of the sandwalker, but if necessary, also acquiring and sending information to a sub-orbital satellite of a private company that once provided Arenali’s father with this rattletrap by instalments.
Leaning back in his chair, Mikai launched the onboard stereo monitor, opened the glove compartment and fumbled inside. A flashlight, contraceptives, some keys, a photo of his younger brother with his friends and a girl, his father’s lucky charm, his mother’s notebook, some garbage and empty cans that had escaped being recycled, something completely unrecognizable…
…Oh, here it is! Got it!
Having fished the stocked can of thistles tincture by his tentacle, Mikai opened it with a light gesture and dipped his inter-finger proboscis in it, savouring the taste. On the one hand, drinking at the helm was not particularly welcomed by local law enforcement, to put it mildly; the latest models of a navigation system could even shut off if it identified a drunk driver behind the wheel.
On the other hand — how could this vehicle have the newest navigation system, if nobody had bothered to install even a standard radar in it? And after all, what harm might cause one innocent can, especially during parking? Even a child couldn’t get drunk from this, and it is enough time to drain a whole box of such cans while the storm begins, lasts and leaves. You’ll be sober as a judge when it’s over.
“But one
