Interlude - A night at the pub

Jack kicked the door to the beer garden open with one foot before shuffling awkwardly through. He’d have used his hands, but they were currently occupied holding a tray with a half dozen drinks on. From the far side of the door, a rowdy cheer came up at his approach, followed by idle banter between friends as the drinks were handed out. “And Izzy, here’s that fancy beer you wanted.” He said finally, handing over a bottle and glass to one of his companions before sinking onto the low bench and taking his own glass. From across the table, a rather serious looking man raised his glass idly. “What are we drinking to tonight? Jack managing to not spill the drinks for once, or Marty’s promotion at work?”

The man he’d addressed as Marty grinned before gesturing “Or we could drink to Izzy finally having the good sense to call it off with that Canadian. Honestly, international travel is a handful of credits if you don’t mind traveling cheap, and they never even visited you once in what, two years?” Izzy shot him a glare. “Sure, sure, I’m an idiot ok? Why don’t we drink to Suze finally getting engaged?” That earned a wide eyed stare from the men at the table at the blonde in the corner, who flashed them a grin and held out a hand to show off a fine ring. “Martian craftsmanship, from the colony trading company right? Snazzy.” Jack said, before slapping the woman on the back. “Seriously though Suze, you know we’re all unobservant except for Izzy, you should have said something.”

From the end of the table, the final member of the group coughed. “Much as Izzy, Marty and Harold all have good points, and much as Suzanne’s engagement is a markedly better reason to drink than Jack not spilling stuff everywhere again before he’s even slightly drunk, I feel we should probably toast first to our absent friend. Have you seen the latest holo of the lucky bastard?” That drew the attention of the others. “The one where he’s playing guitar, jamming with that Rabyth woman, Reggie? Of course. I set an alert on my tab - what with wedding planning and all I’d probably miss seeing what he’s getting up to, even if every news channel does seem to want to play ambassador information every day.” Suze said, before sighing. “It’s got to be lonely for him up there in space.”

Jack chuckled at that, earning him a quizzical look from the others. “You haven’t heard have you? It’s doing the rounds on the under-net.” Harold rolled his eyes in a here-we-go-again manner, but Jack ignored it and continued. “Apparently, one of the things the Velcans and EarthGov didn’t exactly broadcast and to be frank I can understand why is that our daring ambassador is gonna be required by a bunch of species to have relations with them. Intimate relations. And you know what they say about the Rabyth… I don’t think Dustin’s going to be lonely.” Marty elbowed Izzy at that point. “You hear that Izzy? If you’d not called it off with Dustin so quickly, you could get t-shirts made up with ‘I dated the ambassador before it was cool’ or something.” Izzy punched him on the shoulder. “Dick. You know we were like six or something and only hung out together because his grandparents used to baby-sit me. Besides, just in case you didn’t get the memo over the last nine years, I’m gay as fuck dude. Now, if that bunny girl Dustin’s shacking up with happens to have a sister… Gods, the arms on that woman. Do you think I should message him and find out?”

The table groaned as one at that statement, although it was Suze who spoke first. “No, Isabella. Seriously, no. You were bad enough with that Canadian farm girl, or the Australian accountant.” Harold piped in with “Don’t forget those Chinese twins. Only you could get in the situation of dating twins and never actually meet them.” Finally Marty, still rubbing his shoulder concluded “you definitely do not want to get involved with an alien on a planet that you will most likely not get to visit until years after Dustin finishes his mission. Seriously, why do you do this every goddamn time you end up single? Aren’t there any girls in the whole of Contact City that you actually find attractive?”

From there the conversation drifted into other topics - but later, much later Isabella Chamberwitch found herself stood on the balcony of her small apartment, nursing one of her limited supply of cigarettes (a habit fortunately made far safer by nano-tech filters; it turned out humans weren’t the only species daft enough to inhale burning carcinogens, and other planets had solved many of the health risks a long time ago) and staring up at the stars. “Maybe I should message Dustin, regardless of what the others say. I mean, we were like siblings growing up - no matter how many hot aliens he has around him he could probably do with knowing he’s still got folk back home that care about him. Seriously hot aliens though. And introducing people to folk that might be suitable for them is a sibling thing to do, right?” Then she sighed and, stubbing her smoke out on the balcony rail turned to head back inside. As she went, she muttered to herself one final question. “How would I even get a message through to him though?”