Praying for Mantis

"If anything changes or you need something, I hope you'll call us," Marva had added later. He felt deeply fortunate, that he'd made his first real friends on Feiden. He agreed and told them he'd love to hear from them too and, finally, he'd boarded the waiting taxi pod the couple had summoned for him.

"Just tell it where you'd like to go, this ride is on us. It's the least we can do," Gelvin had told him as he climbed in. The door closed and the pod popped up into the air, moving generally in the direction of the city but in the closest thing to a leisurely fashion Kurt could imagine such a device doing as it waited for him to give it a target.

"Destination, please?" the automation requested and Kurt nodded his head. He'd known for a while where he wanted to go.

"Lower Feiden Extraplanetary Fertility Clinic, please." He smiled and thought about his new career as the pod accelerated towards the giant cosmopolitan city on the horizon. Kurt wondered if he'd run into Azarac, the worm-like creature that had brought him to the clinic. If so, he hoped he could buy the alien a drink or whatever was appropriate for that species. He had no doubt the operator had collected a referral fee for bringing him in, but he wanted to show his own appreciation.

As he neared his destination he considered for a moment if he should stop somewhere else first, then decided to stick to the plan. He could always look for an apartment later, there was no hurry. He had an Indigo Five classification and some credits to earn.