AN: This idea popped in my head and I just had to write it down! I don't know where it's going, or how frequently I'll update but let me know what you think and I'll take all ideas and criticisms into account.

Arthur Sullivan grinned as he pulled on his leather flight jacket and grabbed his satchel from his bunk. The seventeen-year-old had only graduated from space academy five months ago and was the newest 'space jockey' on the Spirit's Adventure. He had never been anywhere else but Earth so the prospect of being on an alien space station and seeing other forms of life was exhilarating. Of course the rest of the crew found it hilarious how excited he was and he had been the receiving end of jokes for the past week, ever since he found out where the ship was be docking.

The captain, Jack Richards, had been the only one who had not made fun of Arthur.

"It's actually refreshing to be reminded how new I used to find space too."
The Spirit's Adventure was not a large ship, only used for hauling cargo all over the Sol system and sometimes picking up shipments that required the ship to travel to other systems. Still, Arthur had never seen anyone but humans his whole life, though he had seen pictures of various aliens in the academy, and so he was really looking forward to his first shore leave. Of course he received a lot of helpful comments from various crewmembers, and some comments that he was not sure were serious or a joke. Arthur definitely memorized what he should or should not do in order to avoid offending some aliens. It was bizarre how being seen as aggressive by some species could start a fight, while others would pick one if they thought you were soft.

When the Spirit's Adventure docked with the space station, Arthur was practically jumping from one foot to the other in nervous anticipation.

"As space stations go, Art, this one isn't all that exciting," Thomas Arlington, the navigator, tried to tell him. "The liquors watered down to prevent drunken brawls, and the only women around are crew members from other ships that are so hardened you wouldn't even think of getting close to one."

At seventeen, Arthur was not looking to get drunk or to find a woman. The captain had cracked a smile when he said that Arthur was a perfect crewman for the ship, since the boy's spirit seemed to be thirsting for adventure though Richards doubted Arthur would get many while running cargo shipments.

"Alright lads, listen up," Richards said. "You'll have five hours to explore the station and do whatever else you want to do. We're scheduled to detach at 1400 hours, which means you must be back on the ship by 1330, no later than 1350 because we'll need ten minutes to prep for departure. Once we detach we will not be able to re-dock as this is one of busiest stations in this quadrant, with ships scheduled for docking in every slot. So, here's your warning, if you get left behind you will need to book passage with a ship that is going to our next stop or back to Earth, depending on when that ship is leaving and whether or not you think you can catch up with us or not. Go have fun, but keep an eye on your chronometers." Richards held up a hand to signal Arthur aside, allowing everyone else to walk through the hatch. "Here, Sullivan, take this." The captain handed Arthur a pouch, "I know you have your own credits to spend but this is your emergency fund. You are to use it only if you get left behind, understood?"

Arthur gulped, the prospect of actually failing to make it back to the ship in time becoming very real now. "Yes, sir."

"Go enjoy yourself."
Arthur wondered just how he was supposed to do that with the threat of being left behind looming over him. However, as Arthur stepped into the space station and into a throng of people moving through the hallway he found the captain's words swiftly becoming a distant memory. The grin was back on his face in a second, and Arthur followed his crewmates, becoming slightly separated as none of them were trying to stick together and the horde of people, humans and various alien species, moved towards the hub of the station.

Walking out of the hallway, Arthur looked up as the space station opened up, just like one of Earth's shopping malls, and there were markets and venue stands lining up all along the walls. The station was four tiered, having an upper and lower deck for visitors. The lowest deck was for the space station's employees and Arthur read the signs to avoid that level at all cost since the Hornheads, as the aliens running the station were called, were not known for looking kindly on those who wandered were they had no right to be.

Arthur saw a few of the station's employees walking around, their scaled skin and the three horns in their heads making them kind of look like a triceratops. The human lad sidestepped them, knowing these were one of the species that dealt swiftly with confrontation by thumping their alien opponents on the head, thus knocking them swiftly out. Getting a headache on this adventure was not on Arthur's list of things to do, so running into a Hornhead was not to be encouraged.

Passing a stall that was selling Popsicle shaped food, Arthur dug out a credit and bought one of the snacks. The burst of flavor on his tongue had to have been the best thing Arthur had ever had, and he took his time lapping at the frozen sweet as he walked around. One of things he quickly found he liked to watch was seeing others barter with the shop owners over prices or trade. Not everyone had the same currency system so in the academy they had learned bout bartering or making a trade, but Arthur had never really excelled in those classes. He found that he was just not pushy enough or argumentative enough to haggle, and several times his classmates had gotten him to agree to paying more than the actual price just because he wanted to return to his seat as quickly as possible. Leaving the academy and being assigned to a ship that had none of his year mates on it had been a blessing that Arthur would never complain about.

Watching those around him barter and haggle now made the classes back at the academy look like child's play. Everywhere around him, Arthur could see that the aliens, or humans, were professionals and some exchanges went on for a full fifteen minutes before both sides could come to an agreement. Sometimes there were compromises, sometimes the shop owner or the buyer declared defeat and gave into the other. Arthur saw a few of his shipmates take part in these and it was funny seeing Arlington getting stumped by a clothes merchant's refusal to lower his price on a fur jacket that would definitely come in handy in the coldness of space.

"Kid, hey kid!" Arlington waved him over and Arthur, finishing his Popsicle, walked over to see what the navigator wanted. "You got any money, kid? This crook won't come down anymore and I'm fifty short. Look at this jacket, kid, it's a beaut and it will come in handy when the heat's acting up again on the ship."

"Oh," Arthur said, staring at the jacket, which really did look warm. "Oh, well I—"

"I'll share it with you, you can have it on the odd days of the week and I'll have in on the even. What do'ya say? Help a fella out, won't you?"

Arthur checked the credits in his pocket, "I'm sorry, Tom, I've only got twenty."

"Oh, that's a shame, well…" Thomas caught sight of the pouch strapped to Arthur's belt. "Well what's that then? You wouldn't hold on me would'ya Artie?"

Arthur hated that nickname, "No, no, I wouldn't. That's the emergency fund the captain gave me, for in case I get left behind."

"He still giving those out to the newbies?" Arlington scoffed, "Listen kid, the chances of you getting left behind are a thousand to one. The captain just likes running a tight ship and keeping up on our toes. None of us have been left behind before he sure ain't going to start now. Besides, you've got to have over a hundred creds in there, just loan me fifty and I'll square it with the captain later."

Arthur bit his lip, looking from Tom's pleading face, to the fur jacket, to the shop keeper's unrelenting gaze. "I, I really shouldn't Tom. The captain loaned me this in good faith, he'll want it back when I get back to the ship and when he finds some of it missing he'll hold me accountable. I don't think buying a jacket counts as an emergency."

"Listen kid," Tom said, smiling easily, "I've known the captain longer than you. If you loan me the money I'll just tell the captain what happened and he'll be cool with it. Ya've got nothing to worry about." Seeing the undecided look on Arthur's face, Thomas backed off. "Never mind, kid, we'll just forget it."

Arthur was relieved, getting stuck like this was unpleasant and he was unsure who he should be more loyal too, the captain or his crewmate. "You sure?"

"Yeah, at the price this thing is it will still be here when we come back this way and I'll get it then. See ya miser!" Thomas called at the shop owner, steering Arthur away from the shop and back to the main hub of the space station. "Where've ya been so far kid? Have you been below yet?"

"No, I haven't," Arthur answered. "Isn't it mainly residential quarters down there for the shop keepers and tourists?"

"There's that," Thomas conceded, leading Arthur to the escalator going down, "but there's also a few more cultured shops that you should look at and it's not generally as crowded as up here." Thomas looked around before leaning in so Arthur could hear his lowered words, "Who knows, maybe we'll even catch a glimpse of a Yautja."

Arthur felt his heart speed up, "Really? They come here?"

He had heard of the legendary predators of course, and watched a few videos people had managed to tape of the space hunters when they came to Earth seeking trophies. Since Earth had reached a technological level to travel space and join trading routes with many other species, the Yautja had frequented the human home planet less and less. Although a few took it as a challenge to slip through Earth's defenses and go hunting, there seemed to be a consensus that once your prey had the means to find your own home planet it was just not as fun anymore.

Arthur had always wanted to see one in person and had confessed such a desire to Arlington a couple months ago. Since anyone who saw a Predator usually ended up dead, the only time to catch a glimpse of one was one neutral ground, such as a space station, since an area where other species convened together for the sake of trade and commerce was considered off-limits to the Yautja. That was a necessary law to have unless the Yautja wanted to be banned from space stations and market squares, and also lose merchants coming to their home world to trade.

"Alright, let's go."

Thomas grinned and the two descended a level, they were still technically in the hub of the stores, but the shops down here were not as crowded and there was more room to move around without jostling anyone. The less shoppers around actually made sense to Arthur on why a Yautja would tend to be on this level and not above. From what he had read, the predator species tended to be shy around others, for lack of a better word. They were not, as a rule, a very social group outside their own species and many of the males went through 'loner' periods shortly after becoming an adult. In fact, the only Yautja you might see in a space station were bad bloods, and the arbiters pursuing them. Still, Arthur was excited at the prospect at seeing one, for all the harm and terror they had inflicted on Earth by ways of their hunt and coming of age trials, it was because of the Yautja that humans had pushed themselves to excel at space travel so they really owed all they had accomplished the gigantic hunters, not that humans would ever tell that to the Predators.

The shops on the second tier were more mechanical, carrying ship parts and interesting gadgets that immediately caught Arthur's eye. Drifting slightly from Thomas, the young human made his way into one of the shops. He waved the owner off, claiming he was just browsing and the alien, looking like a wolf on two legs, turned to his other customer. Arthur did indeed browse, and he inspected a few of the gadgets to see what they did.

Even though Arthur was a junior pilot he found a few interesting mechanical pieces that held his attention, even though the engineering of them escaped his comprehension. Finding a helm computation device that supposedly increased a pilot's control during tricky maneuvering, Arthur was captivated and plugged the device into a simulation machine at the back of the shop where people could test some of the merchandise. Choosing a flight simulation that had challenging turns, Arthur settled into the chair and lost himself in the game.

The device was amazing! Arthur had always had a talent for flying, none of his instructors had disputed that, but with the device hooked up to the simulation's helm controls, the human found his skills practically doubled. How long he played, Arthur was not sure, but when he became aware of the fact that his posterior and legs were numb he knew he had been sitting for a long time. Getting up to stretch and disengage the device, Arthur shook off the pins and needles feeling that swept up his legs and turned to look around the shop. Thomas Arlington was nowhere in sight and Arthur realized that he could not even remember the navigator coming into the shop with him.

Feeling a slight sense of panic, Arthur returned the device to the shelf and walked out of the store. The second tier's hub had filled with more people, and Arthur searched for Thomas, wondering if the man had gone off and left him or if he had hung around. Strange that Thomas had not told he was going off, a warning would have been nice. There were a few bars off to the side and Arthur wandered over that way, knowing that Arlington liked to drink even if the liquor had been watered down. Looking through the open doorways of the bars revealed only low lighting and shady characters, so Arthur was about to turn back towards the hub when he heard voices from around the corner, and one of them sounded like Arlington's.

"That stuff you sold me wasn't worth a lick of salt, bozo!"
"Please! I sell you wrong stuff, but I make up for it, yes? I give you good sample, at half price."

Arthur rounded the corner just in time to see three humans cornering an alien. The tallest of the humans grabbed the yellow skinned alien by the shoulder, and drove a knife into his belly. "I don't want your half price or cheap goods. I want my money back!"

The alien gurgled out an answer Arthur could not hear but that was the least of his worries as one of the other humans looked up and saw Sullivan.

"Skater!" The hissed warning had the human with the knife and other one turning to look and that was when Arthur's self preservation kicked in.

Turning sharply on his heel, Arthur took off, ignoring the angered calls behind him as he dashed past the bars, running into a few patrons as they left. More angry shouts followed in his wake, as well as the drum of shoes hitting the metal plating at a fast run. They were coming after him!

The crowd seemed to have thickened in the short amount of time Arthur had gone looking for Thomas and the young human was forced to jump, dodge and slide under aliens and fellow humans as he ran, each narrow miss had an angry voice yelling after him, some shouted for him to slow down, but Arthur had one thought at the moment and that was to get as far away from the humans he had seen attacking that alien as possible. He had witnessed a crime, and young as Arthur was he knew that leaving a witness around was never a good idea for criminals.

The way to the escalators was blocked, too many people of all shapes and sizes were on their way up or down and Arthur was forced to veer off if he wanted to keep his lead on his pursuers. Heading to where he thought the elevators might be, Arthur turned a corner at a dead run and ran smack into some immovable force hard.

Jarred from his sprint, Arthur stumbled back before he lost his balance and fell to the floor, landing on his posterior with a harsh impact that jarred his body.

His panic momentarily forgotten as his head spun, Arthur lifted two hands to cradle his aching skull as he looked up…and up.

AN: Please review to let me know what you think, and if this story stands a chance. Also, declare what you are: predator, alien or human, so I can see who this story appeals to more :)