At 3am local standard Kindly Bob set the Anti-de Sitter drive to station-keeping, closed the wooden cabinet, and said “Standard pub.” A fractionally small section of space-time was manipulated by the the ship and it morphed into a tavern by melding into an existing structure. Kindly Bob had chosen this planet, this continent, this town, this street, and this building because everything about all of it was non-descript. Even the denizens of this town would only have a momentary uncertainty when they saw the sign. While it shared frontage with other businesses, even those proprietors would only pause a moment. “Was that there yesterday?” one would say. Another would just shrug. Since it was improbably there now, it must have been all along, and simply unnoticed like everything else.
“Hang the sign”
The Sign of the Screaming Monkey’s Head molded itself into existence above the tavern door. Kindly Bob surveyed the pub, sensing the placement of everything. “Home again,” he said out loud. He laughed a bit. He said that every time he evoked the tavern. It had been his home for a very long time, no matter where he was stationed. But arrival on any planet was always a homecoming.
He walked toward the main entrance and cast the heavy wooden door wide so he could breathe honest air. Searching the sky he stood for a long 15 minutes just taking in the starlight in wave-lengths his oddly blue eyes could register. He then spent the next several minutes searching along the ethereal galactic band of starlight for any signatures that indicated he had been followed. The balances appeared to be correct.
Taking a deep breath he closed the door. He would open at 6 am for the morning breakfast. Some 3rd shift factory workers would stop in, mildly surprised, and order some grub. Tomorrow there would be more, and in a few days everyone would remember that The Screaming Monkey’s Head had always been here.
Kindly Bob returned to the bar, sat on a stool and waited.
There had been many beginnings. Here is one. There are others. Seek.
Yay! More blogging!