Chapter 93 With sneakers at a wedding

Luke blinked, he was still dressed. Which was a good sign, Teheen next to him was gone. His mother stood in front of the bed and looked at him.

"So I'm going to do a few things in the basement with you."

Luke sat up, yawned and nodded.

" I'll show you where to put something."

He stood up, on his way out he saw neatly discarded clothes. He went downstairs, his father was standing downstairs a little unsure. 

"Hi dad," he said.

" Hi son, your mom said you were out rabbit hunting again. " 

He looked at his mother.

" What? Liz told me that. An alien babe, what....."

Luke sighed.

"Yeah. And she steamed off again. For whatever reason."

" Steamed off how?" 

"Stuffed her belly, fell asleep and then left. "

She looked at him skeptically.

He went down to the basement. Sarge and Liz had set up a gym here, Luke opened a door to an unused room, turned on the light.

"You can leave your things here."

His father looked around.

"It really is a lot of space, thanks."

Luke yawned, adding him to the list. 

He went upstairs to make fresh coffee, lit a Cigerette. With the cup, he sat down on the couch, activated the table and switched on the channels, looked at the overview and selected the one with Teheen's picture. 

Pictures of a glamorous wedding were shown. A bride who looked more like literally the Hulk as a woman - tall, massive, all over muscle in an elegant wedding dress, not She-Hulk, even though there were several of them in the audience - was being walked down the aisle by Teheen, who was elegantly dressed as always. Luke grinned when he saw the sneakers under her dress. His parents arrived half an hour later, sweating and panting.

"Wow, that was harder than I thought," he said. His mother grinned. Luke looked at them both.

"There are showers upstairs and even a box of Bill's surplus clothes."

His father looked at him in shock.

"The Bill?"

"Yup. He wanted to get rid of a few things. Take." 

His mother ran off and he stared at the holo image of the wedding. He didn't seem to realize what it was yet.

"What's that?" 

"A royal wedding, the beefy one is the bride."

He looked at him doubtfully. 

" Is so, she matches their hot bride scheme. "

" So like your aunt Slatvania."

Luke grinned. 

" Yeah. She'd be a hot number there. " 

Luke pointed at Teheen.

" That's the current regent, she's rated as goes there. Because she's wiry, not so pumped up. The body cult is crazy with them."

His father looked at Teheen.

"She's got muscles too..."

"Well. Although, for normal people here on the planet, she does. She can rip doors out without any problems..."

His father looked at him in amazement.

"But for me ... well ... "

His father continued to look at Bild, then something seemed to occur to him. 

"Nad just said there's music out there too..."

Luke nodded.

"Wait, I must be annoying someone." He pulled out the crystal, quickly typed in a message. 

With a message. " You look good, thought you didn't want to go. "

The picture showed Teheen looking at the bracelet, raising an eyebrow. 

" Luke what are you doing?"

" Oh, just annoying her."

He switched to the overview. 

"I see, and why?"

" Well, because she's the alien Mum was talking about. "

" So you're going out with her?"

" Well, I'm her pet," he raised his hand with the bracelet. " She's got a harem of fuckmeat dad. "

" And how did you get her around? "

" Massages and treating her like, well you know, like you treat mom before you get back together."

He scowled at him. Luke turned on the music channels. 

" Good. What interests you most about the music?"

" Whether ours is similar, where there are differences, what the taboos are."

Luke looked at him.

" You ask very good questions for someone who's on stage in a costume."

"All for money, but I studied music and was in the Musicians Corp." 

Luke raised an eyebrow.

"There was something like that. Well. Basically, music is almost the same everywhere, apart from the language. There are a few species that converse musically. "

He clicked on a music station that showed some kind of birds. His father tilted his head. 

" Ah, I notice. It has different frequencies. "

"What's on the charts right now." 

He clicked on the music station that was playing charts. Which, if you leave out the language, sounds like pop music.

"Then of course that's your section too."

He clicked on the metal section and metal music boomed with deep and bright screams.

"Is there a reason their voices sound like that?"

"More the abilities of the singers and their species. Some can only produce low tones, others high ones. For classical music, for example, orchestras look for species that can produce high notes. The pop industry..."

"Hhmm, so they do the same exploitation as we do here. What about poetry?" 

Luke sighed. 

" Wait a minute" He got up, went to the basement, rummaged in the translator's box, took out a set, went upstairs and held it out to her.

" What's this? " 

"Well, since I already have Tyreen boosters for diplomacy, it's a translator." 

He took it, looked at it, plugged it in and pressed the button. Irritated, he looked at the holofield.

"But they sing superficial things ..."

Luke grinned and sat down on the sofa. Returned to the wedding. It was over. Instead, Teheen was in the picture as he finished the ceremony and then made his way to his spaceship. Luke grabbed his face.

"What's going on? " 

" Oh, she just grabbed my ship." 

"If it was her, how did she get here? "

" Long range teleportation, only works to get here and is really only done by infiltration troops or stormtroopers. Conversely, she must have already dropped several long-range satellites... "

He grinned.

"One good thing about it, I don't have to go anymore. Ha," he switched off and took a drag on the fag. 

"How do you get recognized as a professional there?"

Luke looked at him.

" Hhmm, once the connection is there. That will happen. So let's use you as an example. Since you already have a successful career here, it will be recognized. The only question then is whether the profession fits in with other systems. 

Otherwise you'll just stay in your home system. I've now worked there as a mercenary, the easiest way to get money quickly. Then, because I wanted to have another mainstay, I had to go through the authorities there to be recognized as a masseur and get my license. "

"And why is that?" 

" More species, with different bodies and nervous systems. To earn real money, you have to be able to massage as many people as possible. At the same time, they want papers so it's legal."

He took a drag on the fag.

"There are illegals just like everywhere else, but you end up earning more with a license. You go to a paradise planet, with a vacation resort, book yourself a place in a busy area. Bam money."

 "Hmm ... Can you actually still play a musical instrument, despite all that martial arts? "

He pointed to Luke's hands, whose knuckles were scabbed over. Luke opened and closed his hand, it cracked. 

"Yeah, but I never got up to your level, it annoyed mom, and martial arts is just repeating moves. "

" Can you show me?"

" I don't have any musical instruments."

" I'll give you one." 

Luke sighed. " Fine with me..." 

He drained the coffee and went to get some more. 

Liz came down the stairs yawning and scratching her stomach.

" Is there a reason why my sister is rummaging through piles of clothes?"

"She's looking to see if there's anything good from Bill in there." 

" I see " she looked around." Where's the girl from yesterday?"

" She went to the wedding. "

" Uh-huh... And did you still nail her?" 

" Well, we had dinner, went dancing and she fell asleep in the car from all that."

" I didn't even know Gino had a dance floor."

Luke grinned.

"He didn't either, we were at the western pub." 

Liz looked at him and reached for Luke's cell phone.

"It says here you're banned from Gino's."

He sipped his coffee and his father came back with a music case, put it on the table, opened it and took out an old violin. 

"Try this out then, Luke."

Luke looked at him.

" Do you realize I haven't played since school?" 

" Schnick Schnack, once you've learned it, you don't forget it."

Luke sighed, walked over to the table and picked up the violin.

"Do I still have to tune it?"

" No. I always keep the instruments in order. Try that song you used to listen to as a child."

Luke took the violin, he had so no idea. He closed his eyes, thought and started to play. A melody that had been in his head for years.

"Good, you're extremely rusty, but you can still do it," came from his father. Luke put the violin down. In his mind, he told himself that he was done with the subject for the next few years.

"I'll leave it here for you so you can practise."

" Practice?" 

" You need a new challenge and martial arts, you're done."

" Well, here..."

" And according to Nad, in space too. That's where they banned you from that sort of thing."

Luke sighed. Liz pressed her fingers to his cheek.

"According to the media network, a guest was banned from Ginos yesterday for ordering and not eating."

"We ate, but it tasted like shit. I'm not going to upset my stomach and I paid in full."

"Ginos? My label wanted to take me out tonight ..." 

Luke looked at his father.

"Your call, wine naaa, food naaa. Water was good and bread too. "

He looked at Luke.

"How bad then?"

" Well, like Mum's homemade cookies instead of the recipe."

He turned pale. 

"That bad?" 

" Sure. I've eaten a lot of bad things."

" Hmm." He pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number.

"Paul, I'm, cancel the appointment at Ginos, like why? Paul, I don't care that it's a posh place where the celebrities go. They've banned my son just because he doesn't like it. Like which one? I only have one who threw up on your pants when you twirled him around when he was a little boy. " He laughed.

"Yeah. Wait, let me ask. Luke Paul asked if you had some musician dirt on you too..."

Luke sighed.

"Which ones?"

His father listened on the phone.

"Well, let's say..."

Luke went to the command desk, changed the menu, called up the order, clicked on Musicians.

"Take your pick. "

His father stared at him.

" Holy shit ... Paul, yeah, he's got the idiots in there too, and how about Apollo? Yes. Good. Thanks."

Luke thought about it, deep in his memory an experience like that came back to life.

"Aren't you going to get in trouble?" asked Liz.

"Maybe." His father grinned.

After a few minutes, Sue came rushing down after Luke had sent his father his choice of musicians on his cell phone.

"Why is it in the media that you canceled at Ginos? "

" Luke says the food there is bad. "

She came closer.

" Uh-huh, and how bad?"

" Your cookies?"

Sue looked at him and then nodded in agreement.

" Yes, they were bad, even the rats wouldn't eat them. Where are we going then?"

"To the Apollo."

" Oh, I haven't been there for a long time. "

Interested, he sat down on the couch, switched on the TV and clicked on the news. A young reporter was standing in front of Ginos.

"I'm standing here in front of Ginos, we've just heard that the biggest music label has canceled its event at Ginos. This has caused a chain reaction with other musicians, labels and celebrities who have also canceled their dates."

" Ha Paul pulls it off cold." 

The reporter walked towards the restaurant, in front of which Gino was shouting angrily into his cell phone.

"Gino! Do you have time for a short statement?"

Gino stared into the camera.

"This is all the fault of the blonde with the bitch from yesterday!" 

Luke lit a cigarette.

" Well, yeah..." 

" What do you mean? Do they believe in a conspiracy?"

" A dirty conspiracy! "

Luke pulled out his cell phone and dialed Cala's number. 

"What?"

"Yeah, hi."

" You ... "

" Oh, don't stress about it. Surely you know better than I do that Kia is just turning off."

He heard a sigh.

"Yes, unfortunately ... . So what do you want?"

He grinned. 

"Is the one from channel 9 on your station?"

"Yes. ... First-class gossip. Sleuths of the best kind. Why?"

" I can give you inside information."

"Wait a minute," he heard a click.

" Oh, Ginos again ... Barely out of the group. On a name-calling spree again."

" The one he's insulting is me. "

" I see, and why?"

" Yes, his food is bad, I paid in full and left. "

" Hhmm let me make a few calls."

She hung up and he grinned. Liz looked at Sue.

"I don't like it when he grins like that."

Sue nodded.

" He gets that grin from you, honey."

" Sure, but he got the intelligence from you."

The reporter reached for her cell phone and listened, then hung up. 

"New insider information, dear viewers. "

She looked at Ginos, who was still angry.

"Ginos, how do you feel about the reports you've removed about the decline in the quality of your food? Don't you think that's another reason why big promoters have canceled? " 

"Not at all! My food is fresh and top! Blondie! I know you're looking! !"

"Do you know his name?" 

"Sure!" he picked up his tablet and scrolled.

"This is Klaus von Stramberg and his wife Klaudia von Stramberg."

Luke grinned. Liz looked at him askance.

"Eh Luke, wasn't that a cover for you before you joined the corporation?"

Sue looked at her.

"You know that?"

Liz looked to the side ignorantly.

"Maybe because I suggested the name?"

"Then the question is, why are you paying under that name?"

" Stramberg, I'll find you and polish the food!" Gino shouted into the camera. 

"Luke, aren't you afraid he'll recognize you?"

" Well, I've changed my appearance a bit. " He blew out a cloud. 

" It's more notorious, especially when it comes to places I don't want to go. "

" I see..." came the reply.