Aara did, however, attend the tour of the pizzerias that afternoon. She found out that Vega 12 is a very huge planet, like incredibly massive, massively humongous, humungously mind boggling! I hope you get the point. Anyway Vega 12 is one of the biggest planets there is and that is precisely why the whole massive pizza company can be centered on one planet. This is good for business because you don’t have to say “I work at the great pizza factories of Vega 1, 7, 5, 8, 16, 9 and 12!” I just doesn’t have the same ring. A good way to think of it is to say that a total of 1286 Earths could fit the core of Vega 12 and the core is one 20th of the planet’s total size (YOU do the math) . The planet is only 28.754% water and all the land masses are consumed by either the pizzerias, the offices or the fields and growing places (Intergalactic Pizza prides itself on using ONLY Vegan 12 materials). Vega 12 is the eighth planet from the sun (please do not ask why this is for nobody really knows) in a large system of 15 planets, distance between Vega and Vega 12 is approximately the same distance Sol is from Neptune but because Vega is a large and hot star Vega 12 has about the same climate as Earth’s semi-tropic regions. Everywhere. Again the reason for this is unknown but it is still extremely pleasant. Another thing Aara realized was that is simply wasn’t safe to keep Mike there for long. He might die of cholesterol poisoning. She decided that it would be exceptionally boring to just stay here, she would have to pull a few strings and get them kicked off the planet in a rather luxurious and convenient craft. It was in this slightly evil state of mind that she headed off to annoy some carefully selected people in the large and ominous offices of Intergalactic Pizza.
Mike sat up carefully, amazingly his physical condition was greatly improved since the last time he had attempted to move, the only real symptom left of his space lag was the dull resounding thud of a mallet driving a blunt stake into his cerebellum. Nothing he couldn’t handle. He rose slightly unsteadily and began wondering how long he had slept, hearing the sound of movement in the next room he grabbed his worn Coors light t-shirt and put it on then went to find something appealing to put in his mouth.
Aara was indeed surprised to see Mike enter the kitchenette, she had almost gotten used to him being not around. He seemed to be feeling somewhat better and was even whistling feebly. She had the brilliant idea to wait for awhile before teasing him about having slept for 5 days straight. Instead she asked, voice dead serious; “Did you sleep well”
“Very well actually, I feel almost normal. That’s some achievement these days, got any Advil?”
Aara laughed, things were defiantly looking better, she couldn’t wait to tell him that they were leaving ASAP in a luxury liner, care of Intergalactic Pizza. How she had done this was infuriatingly simple, she had simply taken advantage of the Great Deal on the poster in the offices that advertised a FREE luxury spaceship with every purchase of 1,000,000 quad pizzas, what she had done was charged all 1,000,000 quad pizzas to her debit card back on Earth (this was in the western hemisphere which had been demolished) and asked for it to be delivered. Amazingly, her debit card was among the ones accepted at Intergalactic Pizza as it was never accepted anywhere on Earth. She told herself that it was an amazingly wonderful thing that she had done when she changed banks to that unknown dump 10 Km from anywhere. She had never really questioned why her card was called Galaxy Credit or why the banker had pointed ears and a third eye. She had passed it off as being a hallucination brought on by the quick onslaught of Monday morning so soon after Sunday night. Anyway, the pizza guy was so shocked that he gibbered for a full 5 minutes before stunnedly suggesting he get his boss, Aara had chuckled as she watched him walk into the wall and then the door of The Boss Of Over The Counter Sales (This was really not much of a title as they only got about 5 over the counter sales per year). The Boss Of Over The Counter Sales had done much the same as the B D O T (brain dead order taker) and suggested she see HIS boss and so on and so on until she was talking to the head of Great Deals who had actually posted the Great Deal poster as a sarcastic joke to his fellow employees. After doing his quota of gibbering (Aara was getting fairly sick of having people gibber at her) he had tried to explain this to her at which point she had become rather annoyed and demanded to see HIS boss who did indeed see her and, in turn, became very angry (enraged may have described the situation better) at the head of Great Deals. By the time she had cooled him down sufficiently to talk to her he checked her card and pronounced it fit to purchase 1,000,000 quad pizzas (Galaxy Credit had a vast limit or rather a lack of one and Aara never used the condemned piece of crap because of the odd stares she got every time she tried to and the unspoken promise to call the crack house if she tried to use it again). So Aara had skipped into the suite in the late evening after speaking to one too many bosses and been gibbered at one too many times, extremely ecstatic and the new owner of a beautiful, sleek, huge piece of scientific advance. About then she discovered Mike to be STILL SLEEPING. And he had recently woken up. 5 days later.
Aara waited until Mike was half through his 3rd cup of coffee before letting the wonderful news cascade over him in an unstoppable wave of excited chatter.
For a moment Mike was silent. And for another moment and another. Slowly a smile washed over his confused face. Without warning he jumped into the air and let out a yell of joy before collapsing face first on the sofa. Then he spoke in muffledly excited tones right into the pillows “You are the BEST, man!!! We finally have OUR OWN SHIP THAT IS NOT GONNA GET US INTO SHIT!!!!!!!” This was all the strength Mike could muster and Aara had to dig his head out of the couch and prop it up so he could breathe but she felt delighted.
