Project Boussh: Gand On The Sand - Part 1
by Josh Nolan

  "Ooryl - what are you doing?"
  Josh dumped his bag into the boot of his hatchback, and looked at the
Gand with a frown on his face.  Ooryl tossed his pack to Josh, who only
barely managed to catch it.
  While Josh struggled with the pack, Ooryl replied, "You are privy to a
sensitive part of Project Boussh. I cannot allow you to go to this 'Gold
Coast' without a guard."
  Josh dropped the pack with a grunt of relief, then straightened up to
glare at Ooryl.  "What do you mean?  I'm not exactly going to make
myself a target, you know."
  "The risk is too great to compromise this part of the mission.  If you
are captured and interrogated, we will have no knowledge of it until we
are attacked.  With Ooryl along, the mission is secured."
  "Of course, dragging a Gand around the Gold Coast isn't going to make
it half obvious that I'm involved with Quiara's recovery somehow."
  "Ooryl will wear a swimming costume."
  Josh stared at Ooryl briefly, looked down at the pack at his feet,
then looked back up at the Gand.  "How the hell is that going to help?"
  "Ooryl has been swimming in oceans on human worlds before.  On
Coruscant, Ooryl swam often in the seas.  This is how Ooryl is in
possession of a swimming costume.  Terra's oceans are nowhere near as
polluted as Coruscant's."
  "And... a swimming costume would be something that covers your entire
body to protect from the pollutants?"
  Ooryl nodded.  "I have seen many of the documentaries on swimmers.
They wear swimming costumes.  Of course, they use bulky pressurised
tanks instead of artifical gills, and Ooryl has no need of either
anyway... why are you laughing?"
  "Um... okay," said Josh, and began rummaging through his bag.  "Ooryl,
we haven't actually reached the stage where everyone needs to wear
protective gear into the water.  The suits those divers wear is more to
keep them warmer underwater than to protect them from pollutants.  I
think.  The swimming costumes people... at least males... wear, are more
like these." Josh pulled out a pair of boardshorts and modelled them
against himself to show where on the body they were placed.
  "Then perhaps Ooryl can wear a female swimming costume?"
  "Um... they tend to be a bit more revealing, actually."  Josh gave a
quick grin.  "Hopefully.  But they tend to cover these sorts of areas,
instead..." he traced out the vague outlines of a bikini on himself.
  "Oh.  Hobbie Klivian has expressed a preference for wearing such a
garment.  Or at least he did while talking to Wes Janson, and Qrygg is
not sure if Qrygg was supposed to hear."
  "Can't say I'm surprised.  But still, Ooryl, you aren't coming to the
coast!  I wanted to get away from all this military stuff!  I haven't
played Diablo in about a week, the Ewoks are planning *something* - they
haven't so much as thrown a rock these past few days..."  Josh trailed
off as he stared at the blaster digging into his chest.  "Oh, smeg.  I
guess you're coming."
  "I am glad I did not have to ask louder," said Ooryl, holstering his
blaster again.
  "But you're the navigator, okay?"
  "Ooryl is glad to be of assistance."

  "Do you really enjoy this sort of music?"  Ooryl asked, as the sweet
strains of death metal drifted from the car's few functional speakers.
  "Can't say that I do," Josh replied, "But I really don't care for
what's on the other radio stations.  And this is the Three Hours of
Power - it'll stop in a few minutes."
  "It sounds like a nerf being tortured with a chainsaw."

  "Ooryl assumes from the width of the road that this is supposed to be
a main road."
  "It sure is.  Newly upgraded, too.  At four lanes, it's not quite as
wide as some of the highways in the US, but they reckon they need it for
the increased amount of traffic between Brisbane and the Gold Coast."
  "Then why are there no other cars on it?"
  "Ooryl, we left at midnight.  Most of the traffic's going to be during
the day.  And anyway, look, there's another car up ahead."

  "Are we there yet?"
  "No.  Look for an exit sign for Broadbeach."

  "All right, this isn't good.  There was that Nerang-Broadbeach exit
back there, and there's the Nerang exit coming up.  Ooryl, have a look
at the refidex and check to see if there's a Broadbeach exit coming up,
or if we have to backtrack somehow."
  Ooryl pulled out the plastic-covered book, turned on his glowrod and
began flipping through.  "Which page is the map on?"
  "Uh - 37, I think.  The orange section."
  "Gand has a question, Josh..."
  "Ask away."
  "What do all these symbols mean?"

  Josh rather angrily parked Kronos on the side of the small road
running parallel to the highway.
  "Gand does not know what all those words mean, Josh."
  "It's something called 'swearing', Ooryl, it's what humans do when
something goes stupidly, hideously wrong!"
  "Gand did not mean to offend."
  Josh took a deep breath.  "It's not your fault, Ooryl.  I assumed
since you were speaking English you could read it, too.  But that can't
be right,  you'd read Basic.  I'm sorry."
  "Qrygg is sorry, too."
  "It's cool, Ooryl.  Now, give me the map, and I'll show you where we
need to go.  Call out the turns before they come up, okay?"

  "Ooryl thinks you should go a bit faster."
  "Uh - I'm doing the speed limit, Ooryl."
  "But the map is not moving."
  "Oh, smeg."

  "Right - they said to find the Oasis, and give them a call from near
there.  If you can keep an eye out for the sign - oh, bugger."

  "Where are we?!"
  "We are here on the map."
  "Thanks, Ooryl."

  Finally, Josh parked Kronos in a bay near the Oasis shopping centre,
up the street from where the footbridge reached over the road.
  "Now, stay in the car.  Don't say anything to anyone, just point at me
if they ask you anything.  I'm going over to that phone there to call my
friends.  They'll come and get us.  Sit tight."
  Josh got out of the car, and ran barefooted across the road.  He
turned around immediately, ran back and opened the door.  "And for God's
sake don't pull your blaster on anyone."

  "Ooryl does not think they have received your message."
  "Josh is beginning to think so too... did I just refer to myself in
the third person?"

  "It looks like the sun is coming up."
  "Yeah.  The bastards.  They're proably out clubbing or something.
Andreas could have at least left his mobile on."
  "What would they be clubbing at this time of the morning?  Do your
friends attack people for fun?"

  Finally, a green car drove up, beeping its horn, the low drubbing bass
of techno clearly audible from outside.  The occupants waved at Josh,
and the car pulled up a little past Kronos, its engine idling.
  "Those'd be my friends.  Off we go!"
  The green car led Kronos down the road, taking a one-eighty at the
next roundabout, and led them back the way they had came.  They passed
the spot where Kronos had been parked, took the next right, and pulled
up.
  Three young men - a swarthy, blackhaired man with a goatee, a thickset
man with brownish-blond hair and a thin blond man - piled out of the car
as Kronos parked behind them, and called out, "Hey, Josh!" as Josh
climbed out of the car.
  Then Ooryl climbed out of the car, and the young men fell silent.
"Uh, yeah, guys?  This is my cousin, Ooryl."
  "Schwoah," said the thin blond.
  "Your... cousin," said the swarthy man skeptically.
  "Hey," said the thickset man.
  "Ooryl, this is Matt -" the thin blond - "Andreas -" the swarthy man -
"and Alex."
 Josh's friends nodded to Ooryl, and then Alex said, "Yeah, Josh, we're
tired, so we'll just go inside and we'll be off to bed.  That's cool
with you?"
  Josh nodded.  "Yeah."  With a sidelong glance at Ooryl, he added,
"It's been a long trip."