Escolia- Part 2

Jon walked confidentially toward the pilot's cabin, a steaming mug of coffee in his hand. He decided that it was best to pretend he hadn't humiliated himself the day before. After all, if he let Sylvie know that she had gotten to him, it would just encourage her.
      Jon sat in the commander's chair and called, “Sylvie?”
      With a loud popping noise, Sylvie suddenly appeared in front of him, causing Jon to jump involuntarily.
      “Do you really need to make a noise when you appear like that?”
      Sylvie grinned impishly, “That all depends on how much I need to see that look of terror on your face.”
      Shaking his head in exasperation, Jon sighed. “Sylvie, I need you to plot a course for Zrakthia.”
      “What's in Zrakthia?”
      “Well, every good pirate needs a pet of some sort, and the geneticists there are doing some great work with enhanced animal behavior.”
      A look of amused surprise crossed Sylvie's face. “You think you are a pirate?”
      Jon was a little embarrassed and defensive. “Well, I read about pirates in books, and I'm trying to be one. It's hard though, I don't have anyone to learn from.”
      “Did you ever think about trying to watch a movie about pirates? I mean, your clothing is all wrong, and you aren't even trying to to use an accent.”
      Jon was dumbfounded. “Of course! Why didn't I think of that?”
      Sylvie mumbled to herself, “Probably for the same reason that you decided to fly through an asteroid field that was out of your way.”
      “What did you say?”
      In answer, Sylvie set the ship's course for Zrakthia. Jon called up old 21st century movies and began watching them to see what he could learn.

The Zrakthian spaceport was teeming with life of every kind. Aliens with every imaginable bulbous protrusion crowded the marketplace. Most business was done in the orbiting spaceports, since a great deal of the planet's native life was quite deadly to the unprepared visitor. On a world where even infants shot lasers from their eyes, the wildlife was quite deadly. Jon's gaudy pirate's hat barely got a second glance, but that was no surprise, given the other outlandish outfits and body parts that everyone else had.
      Jon headed toward the geneticist's building, where mutated animals and creatures of all types were on display. A large chameleon with what appeared to be computer inputs sat under a sign that explained “Plug this chameleon into your ship and let its natural camouflage act as a cloaking device to make you completely invisible.” A bird had the dual purpose of chirping the most beautiful bird song that Jon had ever heard, as well as a programmable feature that allowed it to be used as an alarm. Tiny elephants that could fit in a human hand eagerly jumped around a glass container, to the delight of a group of children who were watching them expectantly.
      Jon realized with disappointment that he couldn't find any parrots and only one type of monkey which apparently did little more than play the violin poorly.. He continued to browse, close to giving up and trying a different store when he noticed an enormous fly. It was the size of a small dog, and a sign announced “Enhanced Intelligence.” Curious, he examined it more closely. Its description explained that it was able to understand and complete simple tasks. It wasn't quite a parrot, but it did fly, and it would be useful to have a pet that was so versatile. The price was a modest 500 million escolians. Not a bad deal at all.
      A piece of Jon's hair was used to genetically key his new pet to accept and obey orders from him. Such pets were coded in a way that prevented them from harming any living creature that was not threatening the life of its master. Jon decided to name his new fly Rakthor, as it sounded like a suitably fearsome name for a pirate's pet.
      Rakthor perched on Jon's shoulder as he walked toward the food market. A few popular food chains from Earth had survived for thousands of years, and Jon was pleased to see the familiar Starbucks and McDonalds. As he waited in line to get a burger, he noted with disgust that a single escolian would now only buy 3 chicken nuggets. He bought twelve nuggets for Rakthor and filled out a complaint card to let the management know how outraged he was at their overpriced nuggets. Argh, the dread pirate Jonathan Wyndham wants to tell ye that yer nuggets are too expensive. Shiver me timbers if I don't attack the first of yer ships that I sees, ifin ye don't do something about it. He would be surprised if the prices didn't fall within the week.

Now that Jon had a fly minion, it was time to do something suitably piratish. Kidnapping a beautiful woman seemed like the best place to start. His funds needed some replenishing, and a good ransom might be just the thing he needed. Since the market place was still full of people, he decided to walk the streets, looking for his first victim.
      An alien female with brilliantly orange skin caught his attention. She was wearing a large amount of jewelry, and her clothes looked to be rather expensive as well. Jon headed toward her, to get a better look and see if she would be worth the effort. Rakthor buzzed in eager anticipation, obviously as excited as he was. She did not appear much different than a human, other than her skin color. Only two arms and two legs, which meant that Jon wouldn’t have to wonder if any of the extra appendages had evolved as a type of weapon. Jon was not able to see any weapons on her in fact, something that made him a little suspicious. It seemed like most people in the market had a weapon of some kind.
      Rakthor suddenly began to buzz and squeak in outraged tones. Jon turned to see what could possibly be upsetting him so much and saw an enormous frog. The frog, which came up to Jon’s waist, seemed to be focused intently on the same orange alien female that they had been watching a moment ago. Jon watched in amazement as the frog’s tongue shot out lightning fast from an incredible distance and snatched several of the expensive looking pearls that the female was wearing. It seemed like no one but them had happened to see the thievery, and he was not entirely sure he had actually seen it.
      “Hmm, that might be a useful pet to have. Being able to take things from a distance like that would be nice.” Jon said to himself quietly. Rakthor was outraged and flew off of Jon’s shoulder and began angrily buzzing and squeaking in his face.
      Before Jon could act to quiet his upset pet, a small explosion sounded, and he looked in surprise to see what appeared to be the flesh of some creature flying in all directions from a point where moments before a particular frog had squatted. There was no great uproar of the incident, apparently exploding frogs were commonplace here. “Blasted frogs are always exploding,” a passerby confirmed.
      Jon quietly reevaluated the bright orange female. It would appear that her jewelry was for far more than show. He shuddered to think what might have happened if he had taken that woman on his ship with so many hidden explosives.
      Rakthor had landed in the middle of where the explosion had originated from and was rolling around on his back while kicking his legs in the air, apparently in great mirth. Jon decided to leave him to his celebration while he continued looking for another potential victim. He spotted her almost at once.
      There was not much that stood out about her. She was well dressed, but not extravagantly. Her height and attractiveness were also a bit above average, but not exceptional. A blaster was strapped to her leg, which made Jon decidedly more comfortable. If her weapon was obviously visible, he probably didn’t need to worry about any hidden ones. Jon followed her as she headed off toward a space ship and then called Sylvie tell her which ship to begin tracking.
      Jon returned to find Rakthor, only to see him now dancing in delight on the spot where the frog had met its demise, as if he had been responsible for the defeat of a great and terrible foe.
      Calling to Rakthor, Jon quickly hurried off to his own spaceship to begin his second great act as a pirate.