Diversion To Urasha
Chapter 15

Lottie sat, twirling her drink straw around and around in her apocoli. It was interesting, to see the shapes and patterns swirling deep inside the pinky fluid. It was a relaxing sight...well, as relaxing as it could possibly be in this stupid restaurant. Lottie could not believe that she was sat here, in this derogatory place. Okay, so tonight the restaurant was actually pretty quiet. It did not resemble the overly loud chaotic place which had been filled with half naked exotic dancers, whom of which, clearly had no self esteem or respect for themselves. No, tonight the palace restaurant was quiet, like that of a small little country pub on a weekday evening.

Oh, how Lottie missed those cosy little pubs from back home. They were far nicer than this dump, that was for sure. The only reason Lottie had come down here was because of Lisa. The woman had insisted that they’d better both make the most of the free drinks being offered during their stay here on this god-awful planet. God-awful - those two words wouldn’t exactly be Lisa’s choice of words, but they were Lottie’s.

Karl, on the other hand, where could Lottie even start exactly? The elderly fellow was far too comfortable on this planet, spending little time with his actual human allies, and more time with those sneaky Urashans. Even now, as Lottie sat with Lisa, she could see the man table hopping, endeavouring to befriend the entire Urashan population.

Lottie sighed, being left with Lisa wasn’t such a bad thing. In fact, Lottie liked the woman. Lisa was a right tough nut, and a real tomboy. Okay, so Lottie didn’t exactly class herself as a tough nut, but she was definitely a tomboy. And besides, not only that, Lottie could tell that Lisa was just as uncomfortable as she was. She could tell that Lisa was just as suspicious. It was just, frustratingly, the woman wouldn’t admit it. If James were here, would he admit it? James! Gently, Lottie felt the green jewel in her hands, embracing its warmth, wondering if there were any remnants of James’ very own warmth left in the necklace. Of course, there was, Lottie concluded. There just had to be. James was the warmest person she had ever met in her entire life. She would even feel his loving heat if he were on a completely different planet, in some Galaxy billions upon billions of lightyears away. Lottie missed James, and she wanted him back.

As Lottie took a sip of her drink, she nearly spat it straight back out again, all over an unfortunately positioned Lisa. That man was here. The king of Urasha was here, in this restaurant, surrounded by his usual little entourage of depressing looking individuals. Lottie could feel it, she could feel her head getting hot. She could feel that little vein in her temple beginning to throb. If it throbbed any harder, her glasses would snap straight off her head.

Taking Lottie by surprise, and perhaps soothing Lottie’s flaring anger, Lisa’s voice sounded. “The others will be back soon.”

As Lottie’s eyes flitted over to Lisa, her lips began to tremble. “You think? Because I’m not so sure myself.”

“And what makes you say that?”

“Well,” Lottie began, “they’re stuck with them, aren’t they? Plus, they’re having to face who knows what out there.”

Lisa took a sip of her drink, sitting back in her chair calmly. “Phil knows what he’s doing y’know. And they, they’re not actually that bad.”

Lottie gasped, shaking her head in disbelief. “You know, if one of them had ended up crash landing on our planet, we would help them, we wouldn’t ask them for anything in return. We certainly wouldn’t expect them to risk their lives for a fricking stone. It takes a cruel bad race of people to make a species do that, seriously.”

Lisa took a big frustrated breath of air into her lungs. “Maybe they’re not as kind as we are. But that still doesn’t make them bad, Lottie. James and the others will be fine, trust me.”

Lottie shook her head. This was her only problem with Lisa. The woman just would not admit how she really felt about all of this. She had to take on that annoyingly calm leader act. Lisa was not Phil. “You can stop doing that, you know,” Lottie mumbled petulantly.

“Stop doing what?”

“Trying to be...I don’t know, rational about all of this.”

Lisa chuckled into her drink as she took another sip. “How else can I be, Lottie? Neither of us may like this, but what choice do we have?”

“So, you do admit that something’s not right?”

Lisa sighed. “I never said that, Lottie. I just...I don’t like the situation any more than you do, but I’m trying to deal with it in the best, and the only way that I can. For now, we just have to sit and wait it out.”

“But you admit that something isn’t quite right?”

Lisa stared into Lottie’s determined, all seeing eyes. There was no keeping the truth from that girl. “Fine,” Lisa admitted. “Yes, I agree with you. Something about all this just doesn’t add up.”