About that time, a yell filled the barbershop.
They all were on their feet, but Vinka started across the shop.
"Stop it," Solkan yelled.
"What is the problem?" Vinka asked.
"We're combing his hair. Just wanting to straighten it out."
"Stop it!" Solkan fired back.
Vinka glanced at him, then at the barbers. "Give me a minute with him."
Kolvin turned to Marcin. "What do you think that is?"
Marcin shrugged.
It didn't matter. Whatever Vinka said, it seemed to work on Solkan, and he shut up, so the barber finished. At Vinka's insistence, the hair was left long on him, and he had joined the other two.
"What was that?" Marcin asked Solkan.
"I will put you through a wall," Solkan replied.
Marcin smiled. "Glad to see that freedom has not made you any more pleasant."
Solkan snarled.
Kolvin stepped between them. "Enough. This is a peculiar situation, and we need to gather more data before determining what is going on."
"Agreed," Marcin said.
Solkan nodded.
"Let us find out why we are here and what the protocol is. Right now, it seems far too simple and outside the realm of expectations," Kolvin said.
Vinka came up and must have heard him. "You got that right, cyborg."
She gestured for them to follow her out.
They headed down the main walkway, where more stores and vendors were, creating a kind of open market in the middle of the road. Sights of all sorts of aliens and all sorts of wares spilled out into the streets.
Food from every world, other kinds of exports, all there for the buying.
They moved along until they reached a fork in the path and headed to the right, where it didn't take long to see the change in the design. This was part of a ship, but a newer one--or at least, a refurbished ship, that was cleaner.
And whiter.
It was very bright compared to where they had been.
Clean.
And he didn't mind that.
More like the medical bay they'd been in before.
They reached a door, and Vinka opened it for them. "Here you go," she said.
Kolvin walked in. It was a vestibule or patio of sorts--over his head, he could see windows that showed the stars and part of Disguised Serenity. The overlay programming kicked in, and he could see a star map over the image, showing him his position to the Sol system, where the Rhimodians lived.
