Chances Are Very Good

Stefn Perry had always been a small man with a big dream. Using his head and his heart, and all the courage he possessed, he had found a perfect Blanchfeur touchstone on a world where life was a memorable adventure, or you died alone with no friends. True, the gem had cost him more than most space travelers were willing to pay. He had paid four years of his life fighting for a chance at happiness. Knowing Captain Bjorn's spacecraft would soon be orbiting above BloriX's blustering stratosphere, Perry prepared for what he hoped would be a new beginning, his second chance. There was only one hitch to his plan. Before discovering the priceless precious gem stone, Stefn Perry was just an ordinary guy... now he was something different, and he was not alone. Deep, miles deep down, while exploring regional ice caves on a journey from his station's outpost, Perry had discovered a clear crystalline crypt of unknown origins, a portal to another world.

Durning the winter months on the spherulite planet, howling storms raged across dark wind swept ice fields. Subzero temperatures dropped below weather instruments reading ability, on those days, only God knew how cold it really was. Even the giant woolly beasts indigenous to BloriX, hybernated in subterrestial ice caves that honeycomb the planet's northern hemisphere. Being the most dangerous planet in the Arangan star system, it is a place of dread and terror. Few had ever dared land a ship on the little known planet, and of those that did...few, very few ever returned to Earth. Stefn "Bootstrap" Perry was one of the lucky ones.

As an amature spelunker, Perry had spent several remarkable years searching for the fabled Blanchfleur touchstone. As a private entrepreneur with no strings attached to any company or government, he had made arrangements with the Captain of a Catalan cargo vessel hauling illegal ore through the outer limits of the Arangan system. Having little to lose, and everything to gain by booking passage with the known scallywag of a pirate, a parley under the most unusual circumstances had taken place between them.

The current rawbone snowstorm continued to batter the lone outpost settlement. For over three weeks grey skies generated tons of new ice, blanketing the already deeply-covered survival station. Stefn wasn't a man to roll over and give up in defeat. Born on the planet Earth, his Scotch-Irish and Native blood ran hot against adversity. His older half brother, Commander Norton Dean Sisiyou had called him a fool. Actually, Stefn enjoyed the planet his brother had nick-named, "The Arktos Ice Hell."

Weeks earlier, Stefn had received an unexpected and somewhat garrulous communication from the Catalan ship's Captain. Translation computers mangled parts of the message due to the atmospheric storm, but enough was readable for Stefn Perry to know that Captain Woodstick Björn had returned as per their agreement. The smisauropod savage with hair may have earned his reputation by "hook, or crook", as the old saying went, but a "deal is a deal."