This choice: Rick Rhienheart, a single guy in your mid thirty's. • Go Back... Your Rick Rhineheart, a tourist from Earth. Your an average looking fellow in your mid thirty's, with a somewhat shy, generally calm, slightly sarcastic personality. Your employed as an engineer by a major Earth corporation, single, and slightly out of shape, though nothing a few trips to the gym couldn't fix. If you could ever find the time that is, something that you find rather difficult with all the demands constantly placed on you by the company, coupled with your own workaholic tendencies.
Your honestly amazed that Brandon was able to get you out of the office for even one day, let alone the two weeks that the two of you are scheduled to spend vacationing in the cluster. The Cluster! You've heard so many stories about the cluster, each more incredible than last. Unfortunately, you've never met anyone who's ever been fortunate enough to have been there, which makes it difficult to separate fact from fiction. If even a fraction of the stories are true though, it's suppose to be an amazing place, a sex drenched paradise full of technology far beyond anything that's been developed back on Earth, with scenery to match. You'll definitely have to remember to thank your best friend for inviting you along, this is the sort of vacation people dream of taking all there lives, but most never get to see it happen. You and Brandon wouldn't have either, if he hadn't managed to win that lottery money. It hadn't been life changing money to hear him tell it, but it was plenty to help pay for this trip the two of you had dreamed of taking ever since you were just a couple of horny teenagers.
Suddenly your thoughts are interrupted by Brandon bursting into your cabin. He seems slightly out of breath, and really excited about something.
Brandon Sharpton has been your best friend since the two of you were in kindergarten. He's slightly built, and a little shorter than average for a guy, standing about five and a half feet tall, with sharp features and deep blue eyes, capped off by a shock of bright red hair. He's gets excited fairly easily, and tends to fly off the handle when things don't go his way, which has gotten him into trouble more times than you care to think about over the years that you've known him. Most of the time though, he's a funny, likeable fellow, and most people enjoy being around him, especially the ladies for reasons you've never understood.
To say the two of you are close would be an understatement. You've been together for almost as long as you can remember, and he's become as close to you as you imagine any brother could be. Not that you'd really know that since your an only child. You figured growing up that the two of you would wind up being separated sooner or latter, but your both are in your mid thirty's now, and it hasn't happened yet, and your starting to think it never will. The two of you went to the same schools, attended the same collage, and even managed to end up working for the same company. Truthfully, if it weren't for the fact your both guys and neither of you are gay you'd probably be married by now. As it is, the two of you are just good friends, and that suits you just fine. Brandon your not so sure about sometimes. He seems a little obsessed with you, spending as much time with you as possible when he's not out doing his own thing, seems to become slightly possessive of you whenever the two of you around other people, especially women, and you can't prove it, but you know for a fact that he's changed his own life plans on at least two separate occasions just so he could remain close to you. It's a little creepy actually, but hey, he is your best friend, so you pretty much ignore it.
"Hey Rick, you've GOT to come see this! It's amazing!" Brandon says excitedly.
Setting aside the tablet you were reading, you address your closest friend and part time stalker. "Slow down Brandon, what's so amazing that you had to run all the way in here to tell me about it?"
"We're here! We've made it to the cluster! The ship is scheduled to come out of warp any minute now! We have to hurry if we're going to get a good spot at the view screen for when we make planet fall!" Brandon explained.
It got your attention. Planet fall is one of your favorite things about space travel, seeing a whole world spread out below you in all it's glory and splendor is something you can't imagine ever get tired of. "Well what are we waiting for then?!" you reply, leaping up out of your bunk and racing out the door of the cabin, leaving Brandon standing there gaping after you, not used to seeing you move so fast, before picking his jaw up off the floor and rushing after you, trying to catch up.
It's good that Brandon came to get you when he did. The available space in the main viewing room is already starting to fill up and you haven't even dropped out of warp yet. A little bit later, and you might not have been able to get in at all. You both grab seats as close as possible to the viewing window and strap yourselves in so as to be prepared when the ship drops out of warp, as things can sometimes get a little rough during the transition. Fortunately, this wasn't one of these times. The ship smoothly exits from warp space without so much as a bump, leaving those of you in the viewing room with a clear, uninterrupted view of the planet slowly spinning beneath you. You just can't get over how much it looks like Earth, or at least the way Earth used to look back before all the pollution and nuclear warfare ruined the planet. You look across to where Brandon is sitting next to you. "Hey Brandon, what planet is it we're visiting again?" you ask. He should know, since he made the travel arrangements.
"Well Rick, I thought it might be fun to do something different on our vacation, so I thought we should visit__________________?  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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