This is my 31st rotation on this planet.
Planetary boogie
Planetary boogie
Planetary boogie
Planetary boogie
Dancin’ around the sun
And everyone in them
Is havin’ worlds of fun
"I love them crazy planets. Yeah."
Mother of Mars, how many times have I heard that flurppin song?
"Thank you very much! Hey, speaking of planets, Donald Duck and Goofy were in here a few minutes ago looking for Pluto. Man, are they a few million miles off or what?"
Every single night, man. This set is tighter than a sealed transmission relay.
"Hey, but really, compared to your sun, you guys really do have a small world. I mean, your sun is a hundred and nine times the diameter of your planet. How can something that big disappear at night? I stayed up all night last night trying to figure it out, and you know what? It finally dawned on me!"
And that's the final bell. A smattering of laughs and applause from what's left of another day at the Starlight Cafe. 30 rotations with Sonny and I don't think he's ever changed it up. The tourists love it. The locals sit outside.
Sonny Eclipse and I go back all the way to Zork. I went to St. Rickpat's with his brother, Chip. One Solstice I was bussing tables at a club called Algorhythms down the block from Vinny Voltage's place. You know the one.
See Chip told me his little brother had gotten good at the Astro-Organ and was looking for a gig. A group called Gary Platter & The Dark Triad was supposed to play Algorhythms one night but Gary's Cometcaster somehow disappeared before the show and they had to cancel. Poor fellas. Fortunately I had Sonny on standby just in case there was an opening.
Couple of rotations later Chip was off with Star Command, Sonny was touring with his cousin Zzzyxxx, and I had a few reasons to get out of Yew Nork. I told Sonny if he ever wanted a gig wherever I ended up that he had one.
I took the transport to Metropolis, walked into the first cantina I could find, and that's where I met Benny Umbra.
Benny was a St. Rickpat's kid too. Left Yew Nork five rotations before I did so he already had the beginnings of a crew going. What they were missing was a boss. That's where I came in.
At first it was just small jobs. A crate might disappear from behind the local Star Traders and end up with the Merchant of Venus. What? Did you think they really go to Venus to get all that junk?
The small jobs turned to bigger jobs, and then to even bigger jobs. Like all crews, we eventually came face to face with the big job.
Thirty million credits were on their way to the First Intergalactic Bank on the Cosmic Promenade via the TTA Blue Line. They thought maybe no one would notice, but our communications guy Wert picked up a poorly-coded dispatch. It doesn't hurt that Wert has six ears. Good listener.
The plan was simple. Almost too simple. If you read it in the Robo-Newz you'd call it lazy writing.
Which is why I was a little surprised by the situation we ended up finding ourselves in.
I had one hand on the hitch of a hover sled and one hand holding on to Benny, who was hanging out the back of a TTA Blue Line car. I think we were somewhere in the middle of the Tomorrowland Indy Speedway and I could see the flashing blue lights of TTA agents off in the distance. Wert was upside down, legs kicking out from the bags of credits sitting in the hover sled. Our wheelman, Roths, was piloting the car as best as one can with a windshield covered in Auntie Gravity's finest garbage. Don't misunderstand me, Auntie Gravity's has fantastic Galactic-style goodies, we literally drove through the garbage in the alley behind her place. Looks like yesterday was a busy day.
"Pull over, will ya?!" I screamed as the sled and car pulled a little further apart.
"Hold on!" yelled Roths.
The car, me, and then the sled all bounced over a high curb and into the nearest set of large bushes.
"Is everybody okay?" Benny said after the dust settled.
"If the definition of okay has changed to include Wert's ears shoved up my rear, then yeah." Roths said as Wert pulled himself up from beneath him. "I heard that." muttered Wert.
"Get down!" loud-whispered Benny as three TTA Agent's flew by on their patrol vehicles. "We need someplace to hide the goods and quick."
"What about the old Tomorrowland Terrace building?" Roths suggested.
"We can make that work." I said.
It was about 0500 hours that morning when we were finally breathing normally again, and we shoved together some chairs around a table by the main stage of the old Terrace restaurant.
Benny spoke first. "I don't think I ever want to do that again."
"We don't have to." I said. "We have enough credits to do whatever we want. To found something new."
The four of us sat silently, listening to our thoughts.
I looked up at the stage.
As Sonny was packing up his Astro-Organ for the night I thought about the first day he arrived in Metropolis. It was about a rotation after the big job. I saw him walking up to the big sign with all those lights with a glimmer in his eye. We heard his polished set for the first time, keeping the crowd going all the way to midnight. As the crowd filed out I noticed a few dirty looking stragglers hanging about. Benny, Wert, and Roths. Of course.
We met up and sat down at that table by the stage just like we had almost a rotation before.
"Hey Ray?"
"Yeah, Sonny?" I said.
"What do you wanna hear?"