Pancake meets Eckerslike part 1

Who: Justin Pancake
Where: That Casino, New Tenerife
When: After last post, before Christmas
"Nice t' meet yer like." Said the man. "T' name's William Eckerslike.
You can call me Willy."
"Hello Willy!" Justin said to the fat man. He noticed that despite
the man being from somewhere in Yorkshire, he didn't seem to be very
tight with his money. He kept loosing stacks of chips, but just got
more out
and threw them down. He seemed to be quite rich.
Something about the man's name was familiar to Justin Pancake. But he
couldn't quite place it. He was probably quite important if he was
this rich.
"500 on red!" Said Willy, and threw some chips at the attendant.
"Five hundred dollarpounds!" Justin said with amazement. I've not
seen that much money in the world!"
"Erm… five hundred THOUSAND kid!" Said Mr Eckerslike.
"Oh erm… well I'll just put 253 on black." Said Justin. "No wait,
make that… 253 and thirty eight centpence"
The wheel spun and the announcer called out red had won. Eckerslike
smiled with satisfaction, but did not gloat, whilst Justin hung his
head in his hands.
"Bad luck kid." Said Eckerslike.
"I know. That was bad. Well goodnight."
"What? You going home already?!" Eckerslike said, checking his
watch. "But the night is still young!"
"Yeah but… I just bet away all my savings!"
"What?"
"All my savings. Every bit of money I have."
"Oh you stupid boy!" Eckerslike said. "I didn't realise that was
EVERYTHING!"
"Yep. Oh well." Justin said glumly.
Eckerslike saw Justin's unhappy face. "You look upset." He said.
"Yeah clever guy. I just bet away all my money!" Justin snapped back.
"No, I mean before that. You look upset in general. Are you having
problems with a girl?"
Justin sighed. "Nah, just problems in life. Some things happened to
me recently in my job."
Eckerslike clicked his fingers and drinks appeared for the both of
them. "Cheers" Justin said and gulped it down.
"So where do you work?" Eckerslike asked.
"A JMC starship." Justin said.
"Ooh really?!" said Eckerslike. "Which one?!"
"You're really inquisitive. Are you a spy?"
"No of course not. But I work for the JMC too! I'll tell you about it
later. Tell me your story first."
"Okay well…" Justin started. "I work on the Blue Dwarf."
"Really?" Eckerslike said and rubbed his chin. He realised he was
distracting Justin so urged him to continue.
"Well there was this accident that brought all these other Blue
Dwarf's from other dimensions into our dimension."
"Yes I heard."
"Do you want me to continue? Or have you heard that too?" Justin
snapped.
"Sorry. Continue."
"Well I met myself from another dimension. And he was well… he was
evil."
"Did he have a beard?" Eckerslike chuckled.
"No. But he did say something about the `corridor of infinite
perversions' which I didn't understand. But that's not what I wanted
to tell you. I wanted to tell you that he worked for the Hymenoptera!"
"Oh!" Eckerslike said.
"Yeah. Those big bad evil insect guys right?"
"And you feel bad for him?"
"No… well… not exactly. He was under the impression that I should
work for the Hymenoptera too."
"You want to work for the enemy? A race of aliens bent on making the
entire human race extinct?" Eckerslike said, looking around for a
security guard in case Justin was a Hymenoptera spy or something.
"No. No. No! Well… maybe."
Eckerslike raised an eyebrow. "Careful what you say kid. The
Spacecorps has ears everywhere."
"I know. And I'm not a traitor! I just…. Feel like… it might be…. My
destiny or something."
Eckerslike took a deep breath. Justin worried about what the next
words out of his mouth might be. Some people would probably kill
Justin for what he is saying, talking about working for the enemy.
"Do you think you should work for the Hymenoptera?" Eckerslike asked,
sipping his drink.
"No. Well… maybe…. I don't think they're as bad as everyone thinks."
Eckerslike was quiet for a moment. "Go on." He said carefully.
"Well like… they're just trying to survive aren't they. Like we all
are."
"But they take over planets with people on, and kill everyone."
"They probably have a huge population problem. They need all the
planets they can get, and as for killing people… they have to eat
SOMETHING!"
Eckerslike grinned at that. He didn't have to, and he probably
shouldn't. But he did.
He slapped Justin on the shoulder. "Kid. You've got balls to say what
you think. I like your balls."
Justin cringed a bit at that, and felt Eckerslike's fat sweaty
fingers on his shoulder.
"We're gonna get on alright kid."
<to be continued>