Another Story Bit

Heaven. I had heard of Heaven. Everyone had. Heaven was a Gatari built station out in the middle of nowhere, far out on the arms of the Milky Way. Unlike most stations, Heaven was not actually within a system, but floating in the black in between. I’m not sure what her Gatari name was, but Heaven was the English name it won as soon as the earliest human travelers arrived. As the story goes, a pirate/smuggler/trader (depending on who is telling the tale) had docked, and when her captain walked onto the commons, he loudly announced “I’ve died and gone to Heaven.” No one is sure whether he was referring to the prostitutes that walked the decks in a dozen species, the sprawling black market, or the abundance of drug, violence, liquor and depravity – because shortly after the remark was heard, he was stabbed in the back there in the commons. He bled to death on the deck while scavengers sold his crew into slavery, and dismantled his ship for parts. Or so the story goes.