Dancing in the Dark - Part 1

Part 1

As Jack Terrence stepped through the front door of his apartment, he dumped his jacket on the hat rack he'd picked up... somewhere, barely noticing the way the lights came on unbidden and the soft sound of music began to fill the air.

"Good evening, Jack," a feminine voice said from seemingly nowhere. "A good day?"

Running a hand through his short dark hair, he ambled into the lounge and dropped himself into a sprawl on the couch.

"Meh."

"The same as usual, then."

Jack smiled tiredly to himself, glancing over at the screen that took up most of one wall and shrugging. "Pretty much, yeah. Did I miss anything whilst I was at work?"

The household AI, though definitely of the non-sapient variety, was still very efficient and well programmed. The wall screen came to life, various windows shimmering into life on its surface while behind them an image of some rainforest or other provided a backdrop.

"The latest episodes of your selected shows have been recorded and are ready to watch at your leisure. Three mails await your attention from official sources, as do fourteen calls from your mother."

Jack snorted at that last part. With a week or so left until she got married again - for the fourth time - his mother was demonstrating all the calm and serenity of a hamster on amphetamines.

"Monthly bills have been paid," the AI continued, "and the dinner order you mailed me earlier has been passed on. Estimated delivery time is forty-three minutes."

Absently, he nodded, muttering a "thanks" as he kicked off his shoes, hauled himself to his feet, and shuffled off toward the bathroom. A short while later, freshly showered and feeling moderately more human after a day at work, he took a moment or two to study himself in the mirror. Working construction was not the sort of job to promote physical fitness, these days. Not when most of the job involved bossing drones around as they did all the heavy lifting.

That didn't mean he wasn't going to let himself fall out of shape, though. There was a gym only a few minutes from his apartment, and he saw no reason not to use it... And besides, it actually worked out cheaper in the long run than body sculpting, and had even become a pretty major part of his social life.

With that thought in mind, he tapped the corner of the mirror, glanced at the time/date display that appeared just under its surface, and nodded to himself. There was plenty of time yet before he was due to meet up with a bunch of his friends, and with dinner on the way, he was going to be able to fit in at least one of those recorded shows before heading out.

As he tried to decide which one to watch, he shrugged into a bathrobe and wandered back to the couch. "Gimme Void Hunters please, Amy."

"Of course," the AI replied, and the wall screen blazed to life with the opening credits of the show.

---

Pleasantly stuffed by good pizza, and dressed in a ratty jeans and t-shirt combo most places would have tossed him out for daring to show up in, Jack stepped through the door and into the breezy, open plan bar. Off to one side, the counter stretched across one bamboo wall, whilst tables, stools, and chairs dotted the bare wooden floorboards. A pleasant breeze wafted in from the beach outside, and something cheerful and bouncy warbled out of the old-looking jukebox in the corner as he nodded amiably to everyone that was already there.

"'Sup guys," he said loudly enough to be heard over the music, then stopped and blinked in surprise at the sight of what was standing behind the bar counter. Of all the things he might have expected to see there, a two meter tall cartoon rabbit with pale blue fur and a fat cigar in its mouth was not one of them.

A couple of chuckles sounded from around the place at his reaction, then he sighed, shook his head in bemusement, and ambled over that way.

"Your kids get at your avatar settings again, Duke?"

The rabbit grinned, pulled a frosted bottle from under the counter, and handed it over.

"And I suppose that's how you look in meat space, hmm?"

Jack just shrugged again, twisted the top off of the beer, and took a swig. In fact, his appearance was pretty much accurate, though probably a bit more attractive than he figured he was. That was one of the perks of cyberspace, of course, and there was no way at all anyone here was going to be able to tell that he was actually laid out on his couch at home, still in his bathrobe, with a wireless 'trode headset resting on his brow.

Just like there was no clue as to where anyone else in the bar was in reality, in fact.

"Yo, Jack!" came a call from one of the tables, and he grinned as he walked over. A hand was waved at one of the empty chairs, and he nodded in friendly greeting at the trio of guys already sat there.

"Gentlemen," he said, then his smile turned sly. "For want of a better word."

That got him a couple of laughs, and one of the three - Sahim - grinned back at him and started shuffling a deck of cards. Laying a hand on the tabletop, Jack concentrated for a second, then lifted the hand away from the stack of poker chips that had materialised on the wooden surface.

Things dropped into a well-worn groove at that point, with friendly banter, casual insults, and the latest domestic gossip from four widely scattered parts of the world, flowing with ease as hand after hand of cards was played. It was easy to loose track of time, and Jack did - though the occasional breaks for someone to head over to the bar for refills gave at least some measure of how long they'd been at it.

Eventually, though, things wound down, and with Sahim and Carl saying their goodbyes as they took their leave and logged out back to reality. Christoph was soon engaged in a cheerful argument with a couple of other bar patrons over... something, and Jack leaned back against the bar, sipping at a fresh bottle as he gazed out at the sunny beach that lay outside the bar's open walls.

After a while, he became aware that he wasn't the only one doing so, and glanced over to one side at the person next to him at the bar. His immediate reaction was to wonder just how much the illusory buzz of the beer had dulled his senses, given that he'd somehow failed to notice when someone who looked like that had set herself so close by.

In keeping with the tropical décor, she'd clothed herself in a bikini and sarong, both in shades of deep red and doing an excellent job of highlighting a figure with skin the colour of good, dark coffee and was definitely worth more than a passing glance. He had to remind himself not to pay more attention than was polite, but the smile in her lips, humour dancing in the brown eyes looking back at him, suggested she might not really mind...

"Hi."

Her voice carried the faintly musical sound of the Caribbean, and Jack couldn't help but return her smile with one of her own. "Hi," he replied, then immediately felt a bit stupid and offered a hand. "Jack."

"Sparrow," she said back, giving the offered hand a shake before brushing a hand through an artfully messy mop of short, dark hair and nodding toward the beach. "That's a hell of a view. Not one I get to see that often."

"Oh?"

Sparrow gave him a lop-sided grin and a shrug that had him concentrating on her face instead of where he felt his eyes wanting to wander.

"Yeah, not a lot of beaches where I work."

He was torn between asking and not when a small window appeared in his vision, the digital equivalent of a business card, and the information she'd just sent him explained a lot.

"UN Aerospace Force, huh? That's... a hell of a job."

And not the sort of thing that had ever appealed to him... But he wasn't dumb enough to criticise anyone who signed up for the Peacekeeping forces, especially not the part that tended to involve spending very long stretches of time cruising in deep space.

"It's got its moments," Sparrow replied, then glanced over her shoulder to give Duke a nod of thanks when his fuzzy paw deposited a coconut shell of something on the counter for her. Jack nearly rolled his eyes at the tacky, over the top collection of little paper umbrellas and such sticking out of the top, but kept his mouth shut - mostly so the daft-looking rabbit behind the bar wasn't tempted to give him the same thing. "Including some very impressive sights."

He could imagine, and felt maybe just a tiny bit jealous of the fact he could only ever see such things on TV or online. Still, he wasn't going to complain, and instead raised his bottle to his lips and took a swig as Sparrow got a faraway look in her eyes. She shook it off after a second, giving him a lopsided grin, picking up her coconut and eyeing it as if she was trying to figure out how to get past the decoration to the actual drink.

"What's the furthest out you've been?"

Jack didn't really expect that to come out of his mouth, and very nearly apologised for it before she shrugged easily and simply pulled the assorted junk out of her drink, dropping it on the bar. "Let's just say that you don't get decent sunsets on Charon."

After a moment to place the name, Jack's eyebrows went up at the realisation of what her answer implied. He might have kept an eye on the news, but he'd never really registered the idea of people going that far...

"That's..."

He wasn't sure how to continue, but that didn't seem to matter as Sparrow laughed softly and shrugged again. "I prefer shore leave in this sort of place, though. More fun - and more new faces that I haven't already pent a few months getting sick of the sight of."

They both send a sidelong look Duke's way, then they're both chuckling.

"I take it you're on vacation, then?"

Sparrow answered his question with a 'so-so' waggle of a hand. "Last night before we head out again. Thought I'd get a little action in beforehand."

The rather frank way she looked him over as she spoke had Jack swallowing his drink rather awkwardly, and he had to take a moment to catch his breath. Sparrow left him to it, watching the waves lapping against the sand outside as she sipped at her coconut with a small smile on her lips.

"That's, uh... Not what I was expecting."

"Does it bother you?"

Jack shook his head quickly, and she gave a satisfied little nod before putting her drink down on the bar. Slipping a hand into his, she looked up at him with that same hint of a grin and a playful glint in her eyes.

"Well?"

"Well what?"

The moment it came out of his mouth, Jack wanted to kick himself for being that damned dense. In his defence, he hadn't actually had that much experience with this sort of thing, but that was no excuse for uttering something so... dumb. Sparrow just grinned, though, and a notification flared in the corner of Jack's vision, a message from the server hosting the bar telling him that she'd requested a private instance be set up, and inviting him to join her there.

"Want to help a sailor out?"

Continued in Part 2

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