Chapter 30
Crowds had never descended on Pardeep Station. Craze hoped it threatened to be the new norm. Gladdened by Meelo and Wolney showing up before the gate finished deploying and the first excursionists departed, he said hello to them with a skip and a grin. “Glad you came.”
“I-I always come to help.” Meelo backed away a few steps, fidgeting from foot to foot, shoving her hands deep into the checkered pockets of her long coat that had pockets in all sorts of fabrics sewn over it inside and out. Some of them bulged with lumps.
Craze hoped none of the bumps concealed a frizzer. She’d proven herself unpredictable out at the ash seas five months ago, but he didn’t want to get into an argument, not at this moment. So, he nodded. “You a trooper that way.”
“If I had some grenades.…,” Wolney started. She lobbed her arm as gracefully and gingerly as if she juggled fistfuls of eggfruits, and her soft green eyes bounced like wayward ball bearings. Once in a great while a flash of lucidity would settle deep in her irises, but it never made it to her mouth. Pardeep’s new age didn’t need her bwatshit ravings welcoming it.
He gave her a nudge toward the maintenance bay. “I’ll take care of them. You go install the virtual paradise system ‘n then service their ship. No speakin’ to anybody. You understand?”
“You one of them. I don’t trust you.” Her dark face scowled, and she crossed her wrists in front of Craze’s nose as some sort of curse, then she scampered off toward Rainly’s shop.
Craze exhaled long and slow and held out a box full of cubes for Meelo. “You’ll see to it everyone gets quarters?” He shrugged his elbow toward the other incoming ship. “There’s more help coming’. After Chenna gets her folks settled, you can handle instructin’ them on how to take care of the rooms, yes?”
Her mangled, little hands left the sanctity of their pockets and reached for the keys. The red, rough fingers shook. “I-if it helps, I will. But I don’t like so many here.”
To that Craze had no idea what to say, and was saved by the first tourists hopping off the gate, laughing and singing. They slapped each other on the back and took in the billboards on the landing deck. Craze noticed Pauder’s Fantastic Backworlds Adventures and swore at himself for forgetting to take it down. No way would he get away with no tours this time. He pinged Wolney to fix the all-terrainer when she finished the virtual paradise system.
His new hire-ons shuffled along in the next clump of Backworlders, flickering gloomy glances at the glossy walls and glitzy advertisements. Their shoulders hunched and lips frowned. Their clothing was entirely black.
He pointed them out to Meelo. “Our newest neighbors ‘n my new wait staff. They’ll be permanent unlike Chenna’s people. Once you get them handlin’ rooms ‘n guests like they’ve lived here all their lives, you can return to your farm. All right? If this goes well, someday soon I’ll have enough hire-ons to come out to get your crops, ‘n you won’t ever have to leave your place.” Yeah, she could stay out there and figure out how to grow his chocolate trees. Maybe by then things would’ve mended between them.
Her brows rose. “Th-that’d be nice. You think Pardeep will get so rich?”
If they didn’t screw up handling this tour, it would. “I know it,” he said pulling down his shirt cuffs and straightening his platinum wrist bands. “You know what to do. I have to go speed-train my hire-ons.”
His new crew wore expressions too sad to be good for much. The purpose of his tavern was to sell cheer and fun. He could only hope they’d improve with a strong suggestion or two. No way would he waste chocolate on them. Either they did the job and did it well, or he’d find folks who would.
When they drew closer, Craze grabbed onto the thin gal’s arm, pulling her to the side. “Welcome. We need to get to work,’ he said. “Which of you is Eina? The one who answered the ad?”
“Me,” said the gal he hung onto. She shifted the bag drooping from her shoulder and her field of hair vibrated. “I is ready to get to work.”
“Us too,” said the woeful guy and red one flanking her.
Clapping each on the shoulder, Craze tried to shake some glee into them. “Introduce yourselves.” He pointed at the two young men.
The gangly one, who very much resembled Eina, spoke lower than Meelo. “Mos,” he said, wriggling his fingers. With his hair shorn to his scalp, it wasn’t easy to tell whether it had the same grassy traits as Eina’s.
The bright red guy with the six arms rallied and his lips insinuated a livelier mood. “Nahv.” His chin thrust at nothing, and he crossed three of his arms over his chest.
Craze handed each of the three a tab with a layout of his tavern on it. “Don’t lose these. Ever. Or I’ll have to deduct the cost from your wages. Let me see you all smile. Now.”
The attempts of Eina and Mos were incredibly pitiful, but Nahv managed a rather pleasant expression. Perhaps in time he’d make a good employee. Craze had little hope for the other two.
“Nahv you section one, Mos section two, Eina section three. You take orders on your tabs, send them to me at the bar, deliver drinks, ‘n keep the tables ‘n chairs clean. Any questions?”
Eina kicked at the floor, staring at her shoe. “What about quarters?” she asked.
“For now, I’ll store your things in the cache behind the bar. Until I see you jolly ‘n makin’ merry with the customers, you’ll sleep outside in the dust.”
Her jaw dropped and chin trembled. The prairie of hair on her head shook with it. “You serious, mac?”
Craze narrowed his eyes and shook a finger at her and Mos. “If you ruin my business, I’m very serious. Cheer is a job requirement, so get fricken’ happy fast.”
Their lips made movements in an upward direction. Mos’s came off as more natural than Eina’s. Pity. She’d be a real beauty and sell a lot of liquor if she ditched the gloom.
“Better.” Craze led them into his tavern, tossed them some aprons, then waved the tourists in after them. It’d take some pretty tap dancing, probably with flags stuck into his ass, to convince these folks to love their stay on Pardeep. He didn’t want to have to use what remained of the mind-control chocolate, but he would if had to. Whatever it took to fan this little trickle into a flood.
Across the landing deck, Chenna gathered with her newly arrived crew. He couldn’t hear what she said, but he hoped to all the cosmos she planned on rescuing him from potential disaster. If he didn’t make these tourists happy, his future was over.