Stranga Nights

It was ten simple words uttered by his friend Thomas that ended up changing Hagen's life that day. "So, I don't think this is going to work out."

Hagen looked up from his coffee as he stirred in his cream and sugar, a frown crossing his face. "Wait... what do you mean?" For some reason, rather out of the blue, Thomas had sent him a message this morning saying that he wanted to talk. The two had ended up meeting at Starlight Station, the rather cliche name for the diner on the space station they lived aboard. Hagen had naturally assumed that his friend would want to discuss their moving to Stranga, after all that was only a couple of days away. "What's not going to work out?"

Shifting uncomfortably in his seat, Thomas avoided Hagen's gaze as he started dumping sugar into his own coffee. "Well... the whole Stranga thing. I guess."

Both sat in silence for a moment, Hagen waiting for his friend to elaborate for a moment before continuing. "And WHAT exactly do you mean by that?" he demanded, leaning forward with a scowl. The two of them had been planning for these last couple of months to move to the jungle planet of Stranga, mostly due to a very lucrative job offer. There was a brand new space port on the planet that had just been built, and they were looking for competent staff to man it. Fortunately both he and Thomas had been offered jobs at the facility, pretty cushy ones that mostly involved supervising maintenance robots. This past month had been an extremely busy one as Hagen made plans to leave, making housing arrangements on the new planet and putting in his two weeks notice at the maintenance bay here in the space station. So for Thomas to now be saying 'this isn't gonna work out' wasn't exactly cutting it for Hagen. "Well?" he demanded as Thomas was still silent.

"Yesterday... was our last day on the job, right?" Thomas finally said, reluctantly looking Hagen in the eyes again. Hagen nodded in return, of course it had been. "You had left early, to start packing. I stuck around for a bit to clear out my desk, and I was approached by one of the branch managers." Now that he was getting the story out, Thomas looked slightly more confident as he sipped his coffee. "He told me that the company really didn't want both of us leaving, so they offered me a promotion. And a pretty nice pay raise too. So I... took the job offer." With a miserable look in his eye, he once again broke eye contact. "I'm really sorry man. It was too good to pass up."

Opening and closing his mouth for a moment, Hagen found himself genuinely speechless. "So you just... took the job offer?" he finally demanded once he could manage words again. "Dude, we're supposed to be leaving for Stranga in TWO days to start this new job! We already arranged to get a place together!" The housing situation particularly pissed Hagen off, they had just put down a non-refundable deposit on the property mere days ago.

"Oh, well I actually have something to tell you about that," Thomas said, looking pleased with himself as he reached into his pocket. For a brief moment Hagen held out some hope that his friend had good news for him, even though there was a sinking feeling in his gut. Thomas passed Hagen an envelope, a grin on his face. "I talked to the property manager the other day about the deposit. I had to come up with one hell of a sob story, but I managed to get our money back. So, here ya go!"

Hagen had a blank look on his face as he took the envelope and started at it for a moment. "So... you're saying that now I don't even have a place to stay when I get there anymore" he said in a monotone voice.

The grin slowly fell from Thomas' face. "Well... uh..." both were quiet for a long moment as the sounds of the cafe went on in the background. "Well... Yeah, but... I managed to get your deposit back, right?" he asked with a sheepish grin that quickly gave way to a more serious expression. "Look, I really am sorry. It's not like I went into all this wanting to fuck you over. I really hope that you can forgive me for doing this to you."

Letting out a long sigh, Hagen slipped the envelope into a pocket as he looked at his friend's downcast expression. It wasn't really fair when he put it like that. "Ugh... fine. I forgive you, alright? I suppose there's no crying over spilled milk anyways."

A look of relief spread across Thomas' face as he let out a long sigh of his own. "Thank you, man. Geez, this was stressful as hell for me" he said as that grin spread across his face again. "I really thought you were going to-" he began, but stopped as his communications device began going off. "Oh, one sec. It's Dahlia. Do you mind?" Thomas asked as he glanced up.

"Go ahead," Hagen said with a wave. Dahlia was Thomas' personal android, one that he'd been getting more attached to as of late, at least judging by the way he pampered her.

With a nod of thanks, Thomas answered the call as an image of the short, feminine form of Dahlia appeared on the screen. By the looks of it she had a frilly maid outfit and cat ears on, which Hagen found slightly odd. "Hey Dahlia, what's up?"

"Master, when are you getting back home?" Dahlia asked, looking concerned. "I should have lunch finished soon."

"I'll be leaving here in just a bit, don't worry" Thomas said with a reassuring grin.

Dahlia's face began to pout a bit as she looked away from Thomas. "...You were already supposed to be here, you know. You promised we'd spend all day together" she mumbled.

"Uh..." Thomas glanced briefly up at Hagen and back down again, looking distinctly more uncomfortable. "Sorry, like I said I'll be there soon" he promised.

"I recalibrated all of my input ports for you" Dahlia said in a husky whisper, as she gave Thomas a smoldering look. "So please hurry, master." With that, the phone call shut off.

Thomas gave a brief embarrassed chuckle as he continued to avoid Hagen's gaze. "Wow, she... really gets excited, huh?" he asked before sipping at his coffee.

"Hmm" Hagen said with a nod. "So, this new job offer is the ONLY reason you're not going to Stranga with me?" he demanded, narrowing his eyes.

Clearing his throat, Thomas looked like he wanted this conversation to end. "Well... maybe Dahlia... is kind of a factor there too. A bit. Um... are we still... cool?"

Letting out a long sigh, Hagen just shrugged his shoulders after a minute of making Thomas squirm. "Sure. She's a super cute robot, I don't exactly blame you after all. Now..." Hagen pointed a thumb at the door. "Don't you have somewhere to be? I mean, she DID just recalibrate all of her input ports for you." Hagen couldn't help but grin as he said those words.

"R-right." Thomas stood up as he finished his coffee, giving Hagen one last look. "And hey, like I said, I'm really sorry. But I'm still your friend, so if there's anything I can help with just let me know." With a final nod and a handshake, Thomas took his leave as he headed for the exit.

Now that Thomas had finally left, Hagen let out a long and annoyed groan as he rested his head on one hand. Well, now he was pretty fucked. He was officially starting a job on a new planet in two days, but he had nowhere to live. There was only one solution at this point, and it did not sound pleasant at all to Hagen. Pulling out his phone with a grimace, he began to search the Internet to see if he could find a solution to his problems.

-

It was nearly an hour later as Hagen was still in the same spot, bent over his phone as he browsed through multiple different links. Sitting back, he sighed as he put the device aside for a moment and sipped at what was now his fourth cup of coffee. This was turning out to be a lot more stressful than it had been a month ago. The new space port seemed to be bringing in some fresh faces from offworld, and as a result most of the free and open apartments that had been avaliable last month were now taken.

There were two practical choices ahead of him, going by his budget. The first was the large apartment complex located near the port itself. That was a tempting offer for a number of reasons, namely the rent was cheap and commuting to work would be simple. However there were a number of downsides, the first being the noise pollution from the ships taking off. By all accounts it sometimes went on all night, and Hagen wasn't exactly thrilled about the possibility. Then of course there were the other tenants to consider as well. This was largely temporary housing, all the contracts going on a month-by-month basis, so apparently there were a decent amount of shady characters living in the premises. The recommendation from the people online was to get a second lock for his door if he got a room there, pronto.

Then there was the other option, in other words trying to find someone to move in with. So far there had been no luck on that front either, Hagen had spent the last half hour messaging and replying to people only to be met with negative responses. He also made a profile on a local Strangan message board with his information and the rates he was looking for, but he didn't have much hope that would turn up anything either.

Sighing again, Hagen finished off his cup of coffee. He was just debating if he should other another or just ask for the check when he heard the ping of an incoming message from his phone. Curiously he picked up the device, though he cynically expected it to be more spam again. However it seemed to be from an actual person, the subject of the message reading "hey i herd u were lookin 4 a place". Curiously he tapped it and glanced over the brief message inside. 'hey i saw ur post! ive got a room i just clened out u can use. rent is 650 credits + im prety near teh spac port, ull hav ur own bthrm but we share kitchn + living rom. if u wana stay tho i got to meet u first 2 make sure ur not a loser ot anything LOL! :D oh + im a ma pilot btw, hope thats not weird 4 u! hop 2 c u son! -kanna'. At the bottom of the message this Kanna person had also included an address, likely to her (at least, he assumed it was a her by the name and the way she typed) home, that was equally as poorly spelled.

It took Hagen a moment to decode the message. At first he was inclined to think this was a joke, or possibly even some kind of scam, and even if that wasn't the case the fact that this Kanna person was an MA pilot sent red flags up. True most of the MA pilots he'd met had been perfectly fine people, but others... hadn't been. Frowning to himself, Hagen drummed his fingers on the table as he first deciphered the address and then entered it into the web browser. "Hmm... it IS pretty close to the port..." Hagen muttered to himself as he checked the info closely. It was actually closer than the house he was going to get with Thomas, that and the rent was cheaper as well. He was originally going to be paying 800 credits in that house, so this was a notable drop in price as far as he was concerned. It was all very convenient. Almost suspiciously convenient. There had to be a catch, right?

For nearly ten minutes Hagen sat there, arms crossed as he considered. Finally with a nod, he looked up with a determined expression and typed a quick response to Kanna's message. 'Sounds good. My shuttle to the planet will be landing 2 days from now your time, sometime in the afternoon. Will you be around that day? I can stop by as soon as I'm able.' Sending the message, Hagen turned and waved towards the robotic waitress. "Check please?" he asked.

It was right when he was paying the bill and getting up to leave that he heard the chime of another incoming message, once again from Kanna. 'sure ill b aroud all day! heres my # btw just call me whn u lnd'. The message managed to bring a small smile to Hagen's face despite the crappy last hour he'd just endured. Well this was probably gonna end up being a bust, but he might as well check it out just to be sure.

-

As Hagen rode along in the automated cab headed towards Kanna's address, he couldn't help but think he'd made a huge mistake.

It wasn't like anything particularly bad had happened since landing here on Stranga. In fact Hagen's shuttle had turned up an hour early, and since he was one of the few people here in this remote spaceport it had been easy as pie to get his bags. However his feeling of trepidation had begun almost immediately as he was leaving and he noticed the large posters along the wall. They had the words "WARNING - REMAIN WITHIN CIVILIZED, HABITABLE AREAS OF THE PLANET! REMEMBER TO CHECK WEATHER FORECASTS AT LEAST ONCE EVERY THREE HOURS AND SEEK SHELTER AS NECESSARY! IF YOU ARE BITTEN BY ONE OF THE FOLLOWING SPECIES, CONTACT POISON CONTROL AT ONCE!" In large, bold red letters, along with around thirty pictures of various dangerous-looking creatures on the bottom.

Of course it wasn't just that, there was also the weather to consider as well. He had heard that it was a bit hot and muggy here, but he had no idea it would be as overwhelming as it was. Right now he was just enjoying the brief respite of the car's air conditioning as he very much did not look forward to stepping outside again. Then there was the last thing, namely Kanna. He had called her right when he got off the plane like he'd said, but he hadn't got a response, and it was only now while riding in a cab to her home that he realized he hadn't actually talked to his person beyond a few quick messages. He didn't even know what Kanna LOOKED like.

Hagen pursed his lips as he considered his options, staring down at his feet. Though he hated to admit it, he was actually thinking of going back to the space station. From what he'd heard they hadn't quite filled his old position yet, maybe he could just go and beg for his job back. Sure it'd be humiliating, but he wouldn't get bit by some weird spiked hornet on an alien planet. Maybe he could even get a shuttle back to the station today if he went soon.

The cab came to a halt, stopping any more thoughts. "We've arrived at your destination, sir" the robotic cabby chimed as it opened the trunk and turned to face him. "Your account has been charged six credits. I hope you had a pleasant trip."

"Oh... right. Thank you" Hagen said with a brief smile, looking out the window. The place was pretty much what he expected an MA pilot's house to be like, namely a large metal bunker to house a tank with a metal structure bolted onto the side. However there also looked to be two large greenhouses to the far right, which was a bit curious to him. Kanna obviously liked gardening, he supposed, though that seemed excessive. Reaching up to the handle, Hagen hesitated before opening the door. It'd be very easy for him to just tell the cabby to turn around and head back to the spaceport, after all.

"...Sir?" The cabby eventually asked, snapping Hagen back to the present. "Is everything alright? Did I perhaps go to the wrong location?"

"No. No, sorry." Hagen smiled reassuringly as he opened the door and got out, holding it open for a moment. "But I was wondering. This may sound weird, but can you hang around for a few minutes, like thirty or so? I might need to go back if things don't work out here."

Nodding, the cabby tipped its hat. "Of course. I'll wait around the corner, so just call if you need me."

"Thanks" Hagen said with a grin as he shut the door and grabbed his bag. Hopefully he wouldn't need it, but it was good knowing a potential escape route was waiting if this didn't go well. As the cab sped off, Hagen made his way cautiously up to the door, or what he figured to be the front door. Frowning, he let out a long sigh before pressing the doorbell. Better just get this over with he supposed.

There was a long pause as Hagen stood there, drumming his fingers against his leg. Then, right as he was considering turning to leave, he heard a noise faintly from inside. "Just a minute!" came a cheery, female voice as he faintly heard footsteps getting closer. The door suddenly flew open a moment later, causing Hagen to take a tentative step back. There was a person standing there in the doorway, a decidedly female one at that, who was a little taller than him. "Oh! You're Hagen, right?" she asked, her face perking up.

"Uh..." Hagen said, finding himself speechless for a moment. There were two major features about this woman that his brain registered. The first was her head as she kept smiling at him. Not to mix words, it looked like a flower pot. However it clearly wasn't completely solid, at least judging by the way her expressions and mouth animated freely. The top of her head was blooming with a number of long green plants, styled back in a sort of hairdo complete with a flowering plant in the center. The second thing Hagen noticed (and the thing that was now taking up the bulk of his attention) was her shapely green figure. She had an extremely large pair of breasts, the green cleavage barely held in with a watermelon top and criss-crossing strings. Below that her waist was narrow and her hips wide again, frankly he couldn't help but stare like an idiot. It was just when he was looking at her clothing, a jumpsuit zipped halfway up, that he finally realized she was looking at him with some concern.

"Um, are you alright?" the flower lady asked as her face nearly stopped smiling for a moment. "And you ARE Hagen, right?"

"Oh, yes, I'm Hagen" he quickly replied, giving her a reassuring smile. "Sorry about that. It's been a long trip." Hagen was hoping that brief excuse would somehow explain away the way he was clearly gawking at her, and he held out a hand in a desperate attempt to move the conversation along again. "It's nice to meet you. You must be Kanna, right?"

It seemed like Hagen was nervous for nothing however, as she beamed right back with a huge smile and began shaking his hand. "Yup, I'm Kanna. It's really nice to meet you too!" Suddenly she dropped his hand, and without any warning pulled him into a hug. "Oh, why are we shaking hands? We're gonna be roommates soon! Get over here!"

"I... um..." Hagen stammered. He was currently being pressed right into Kanna's chest, his head resting right on top of her boobs. His mind went blank as he savored the feel, not really knowing what else to do. Finally she disengaged the hug, and Hagen could only smile stupidly for a moment as he tried to think of something to say.

With an excited look on her face, Kanna reached down and took Hagen's hand in her own, pulling him gently inside. "Alright well, come on. Let me show you around for a bit. I just cleaned your bathroom today too so you're all set to go!" It was only now as she turned around that Hagen properly noticed what looked like a tail at first glance, swishing back and forth as Kanna walked. It dawned on him though, due to the unusual shape, that it was more than likely a root of some kind. Made sense, she was a plant after all.

As they entered the house, Hagen looked briefly around the room as he placed his bag next to the door. Unlike the outside which was metal and uninviting, the inside was rather cozy. There were a few couches and chairs in various shades of green or pink, and the walls were painted with a pale melon-looking pattern. Though it may have been tacky for a normal person, he had to admit that it pretty much fit Kanna like a glove. Finally he glanced back to Kanna as he spoke, who was looking at him excitedly. "Well I'm really glad you're so excited but... are you really ok with me moving in? Just like that? In your message the other day you made it seem like you wanted to meet and talk first."

"Huh?" Kanna looked confused as she tilted her head to the side slightly. "Hmmm... oh!" Perking up, Kanna's smile brightened as she clapped her hands together. "That's right! I got so excited I nearly forgot. Well, why don't I just ask you questions while I show you around then?" she offered, turning and walking deeper into the house without waiting for a response. Hagen found himself rushing to catch up, still not quite used to her energetic pace.