Upon Vestia: Chapter Fifteen

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James narrowed his eyes, realizing he'd just given Esk some great ammunition to annoy him with. Oh well, too late now. "Yes it's annoying! How could it not be annoying?"

"Ah, the joys of actually growing," James said, snickering. "How tall are they? Like, Matt's height ish?"

"uh... yeah probably around about? Matt's about average height for a guy back home. A couple are a bit taller. I'm the shortest but then, i'm the youngest AND a girl so... you know." She shrugged.

"It'd be weird to be that tall," James said with a smile, "I guess it's normal for them, of course."

"its wierd for you guys to be so short." Luka countered. "I really wonder how Nurse Freidman coped. I mean here it's not so bad, he's only a little bit smaller than the rest of you guys but back home? No wonder he's so grumpy, i'd be grumpy if I had to convince everyone I was an adult and not a small child. I'm not particularly tall either, but at least i'm only a couple of inches below average."

"You must have to get used to seeing the tops of people's heads. Must be so weird at first," James said. "Yeah, Kay's pretty short even here, I'd get mad all the time if people mistook me for a kid too."

Luka nodded. "it's damn annoying. Out here i've been called kid a lot too, it's because terrans are stupid. They don't seem to mature till much later, which is bizarre because they look so much like us. Just smaller, scrawnier, paler. " She shook her head. "I had to resist the urge to break the arm of the last guy who called me little boy, I... I should probably have broken his arm. Would have made me feel better."

James nodded. "Terrans think they're kids until they're eighteen, at least. I guess they aren't used to cultures where people are considered adults at a younger age."
"Maybe you should have punched him. Some people are so annoying," he said with sympathy.

"Breaking arms is way more satisfying than punching." Luka laughed. "Which you should know. Wasn't breaking Esk's hand SUPER satisfying? I think because it takes longer to heal you know? I've only broken a couple of arms in my time, last one was a guy out here that didn't quite seem to understand that just because I was female didn't mean I was weak or about to take his shit. " She snorted. "the guys back home have this saying, Satare men are intimidating, but wait till you meet a Satare woman." She cackled.

"I dunno, punching Tala when i was freed was pretty satisfying too, maybe better because I got to actually decide to do it," James said. "You're terrifying. And that guy was a moron to not realize it."

Luka looked pleased. "damn right i'm terrifying, and don't you forget it." She hugged him. "I'm glad i'm not on that space station anymore, those people were assholes."

"Space station dwellers are stupid," James informed Luka, "it's just what happens when you stay in one place too long." He'd been on a space station for two decades, he should know.
He looked at Luka and tried to tell how drunk she was, she had drunk what, four beers so far?

4 beers in quick succession with only popcorn as food. Oops?
She was doing a fairly good job of keeping herself relatively composed though.
"Yes, I think you're right." She agreed. "Maybe it's the confinement."

"I think there's probably something wrong with anyone who would choose to live on a space station," James said. "It's like choosing to live at one of those truck stops they have in old Terran movies. Who does that? It's just weird to decide to live at some random point between A and B."

Luka chuckled. "I mean, I understand if you have a business there or... or you're in a job that means you have to be there and can't work anywhere else but yeah.. it is weird you'd chose, of all the universe, to live on a station, just sitting there. I couldn't do it."

"It's not the sort of place you'd choose to stay at forever, and the people who do tend to be strange." James smiled slightly. "Lots of alcoholics who have to work there for business reasons, but the ones who just want to be there? Most of them are germophobes who hide in their rooms and wear gloves a lot."

Luka laughed. "I'll take your word for that. Ooo I love this bit!" She pointed at the movie. it was an elaborate fight scene involving fighting on top of a monorail at high speed.

"Oooh, fight scenes. Gotta love those," James grinned. "Is there a tunnel coming up?"

"Of course, there's always a tunnel or something low laying." Luka laughed and leaned back to enjoy this ridiculousness. A low branch overhung, the hero ducked, bad guys got thrown. But then he was surrounded, how would he get out of this one?
There was the tunnel! A horn sounded, the hero dropped onto his belly. The screen went black.
When the train reappeared there were no bad guys. The hero stood up, brushed himself off and made some smart ass remark.

James laughed delightedly. "None of them realized they needed to lie down? Oops."

"Alien bad guys are always very very dumb, even when they're supposed to be of 'superior intellect'" Luka grinned.

The hero got back inside the train via a hatch in the roof only to find his female partner had been captured by the eeeeevil mantis man leader.

A fight broke out in the narrow confines of the train carriage.