Five Years

Rover took his hat off and wiped the sweat off his brow with the back of his arm.  He leaned forward and tapped his forehead on the long handle of the growth simulator with an agonized groan.

Bored.  Bored!  BORED!  

He shifted, crossing his arms, propping them on the long thin device and resting his chin on them as he stared longingly at the sky.  A sigh escaped him.  Colors shifted and swirled among the clouds in Jssfloon's famous sky.  But that wasn't what he saw.  Beyond the clouds, beyond the colors, beyond even the sky was...space.  A vast, sparkling universe full of adventure and excitement. 

He imagined being out there.  He would have a ship--a big beautiful ship that could skip from star to star like a stone across a pond.  Everyone would call him 'Captain'.  He smiled.  "Captain Rover Finnigan."  He liked the sound of that.  But he wouldn't be alone.  Blue would come.  He had promised to come.  And Soorn.  He was attached to this silly old farm but once he saw Rover's amazing ship and truely understood all that the big wide outside had to offer he would come in a second.  

They would be out there, flying, free among the stars and nebulas.  Who knew what they would find out there?  New people, new places, new food!  Maybe...just maybe...there was something else he could find.

beep beep.  

He was torn away from his daydream by the stimulator's scolding alert that if it wasn't being used it needed to be turned off.  His gaze shifted to the rolling fields of dunefruit, each little plant needing an encouraging zap from the device in his hand.  

He wanted to leave, to go find Flyspur and catch a Droofin or watch the skimmers come in...or just sit at the beach with his feet in the water.

But...He let out a tired sigh.

But help had been scarce this year.  Soorn didn't have as many people working the fields.  He needed Rover's help.  

Rover gave a determined snort and puffed out his chest.  He spoke in as deep and gruff a voice as he could manage, mimicking what he hoped sounded like a big, mean Trail Boss.  "You ain't gonna sluff off on the job are you, cowboy?  You got work to do, fellah!  Get off your sorry kiester and drive them doggies!"  He snapped to attention.  "Yes SIR!  No more daydreaming!"

"Well, I wouldn't be that strict."

Rover whirled around to find Soorn standing behind him, his lower arms crossed and a smile of amusement on his blue face. 

Rover grinned sheepishly.  "I was just...trying to get in the mood."

Soorn looked out over the field, noting the plants that Rover's stimulater had coaxed open.  "You have made a lot of progress.  I think it's time to take a break."

Rover frowned a little, kind of ashamed of himself for wanting to abandon his work when it really needed to be done.  "I'm alright.  I can finish it."

"You can come back to it later.  Come on."

Rover shrugged, secretly grateful.  He powered down the stimulator and shoved it in the ground so he could remember where he left off and followed Soorn.  The Jssfloon reached into the bag that hung over his shoulder and pulled out two water bottles and handed one to Rover, who downed it in seconds.  

"I appriciate all the work you have been doing the last month."  Soorn said as he took a sip of his own bottle.  

Rover shrugged.  "Aw.  It wasn't nothin'.  Just tryin' to help is all."

"Yes.  But I know how much you dislike working in the fields."

Rover's ears reddened.  Sometimes he wished he wasn't so vocal about how much he hated farming.  But it was impossible to keep his big mouth in check when he just plain didn't want to do something.  That morning he had protested to high heaven before he had grudgingly stomped into the field to work.  

"Well, it ain't THAT bad."  He lied.

"You know, it has been five years since your little ship landed in my field."  He looked off to their left where part of a small spacecraft jutted out of the field of fruit.  

Rover didn't remember anything about the crash.  But he remembered Soorn being there when he woke up, dazed, confused and in pain--with no other memories than that very moment.  

They left the field, and on the other side of a line of trees was a small ledge overlooking the sparkling ocean, the branches of a massive candy-stripped tree giving them shade.

"The farm was lonely before you, Rover."  

Rover shrugged awkwardly, giving his guardian a crooked grin.  "Well, I am the best kind of company."

"You are not Jssfloon."

"Heh.  No kidding."

Soorn continued as if Rover hadn't interrupted.  "So I 'haven't the foggiest' when a human reaches their first metamorphosis."

Rover chuckled at Soorn's use of the human cliche.  The first metamorphosis was a big step in the life of a Jssfloon.  After weeks in an underwater cocoon they would grow a larger facial ridge and sprout the beginnings of their lower arms.  It was the sign of adolescence.  From what Rover had seen from the tiny info drive that showed him human life stories it didn't seem that humans went through metamorphosis.  It was generally a time of celebration that the young one had reached a new life stage, one with more wisdom and new responsibilities.  Silly, thing, really.

Soorn continued.  "But, after what I have seen from you of late, I am certain that you have long passed the human equivalent."

Rover blinked.  The thought hadn't really crossed his mind.  Age had never been of interest to him.  He never felt like he changed much.  Gotten bigger, sure.  But he never FELT any different.

"So I want you to have this."  Soorn slipped a small box out his bag with both lower hands and passed it to Rover.

Rover took it reverantly.  His mechanical left hand holding it and his right tracing the oval of the box top.  "But I..."  Rover was rarely a loss for words.  But he was now.  

"Just open it."

Rover slipped the lid of an gasped.  A piece of shiny metal sparkled in the sunlight, his name in Jssfloon engraved in deep grooves across it's surface.  He slipped it from the box and held it up.  "IT'S A BELT BUCKLE!"  
Soorn just smiled.

"An actual, real live, cowboy belt buckle!" 

"It seemed like something you needed."

Rover threw his arms around Soorn, engulfing the smaller alien.  "Thanks!  I couldn'ta asked for anything better!"