Black soil. Not peat-dark or wet from rain, but the black of carbon and nighttime, visible between clumps of grass so rich and dark and green, the green of leather on an antique desk.
The smell of rain on the air, lightning sulking among the peaks of distant blue mountains, bringing life to a dead, grey sky. Moisture on the breeze, tickling every inch of Xiù’s naked body as she walks nude beside a hip-high dry stone wall, enjoying the feel of damp earth under her soles.
A meditative moment, so real that the past and future are irrelevant. She isn’t even interested in recalling them. Where has she been? Where is she going? It doesn’t matter.
Here and now, everything is both too detailed, and yet lacking in detail.
She pauses by a giant stone man, buried up to his waist next to a tree at the crossroads. She is not alarmed by his presence, nor by the fact that she hasn’t seen him until just now. He looks down at her and smiles, even though his face is made of grey limestone, stubbled in lichen and moss. She is not not alarmed.
He gestures to the tree that he has been half-buried alongside. Objects hang in that tree: impossible ones, clearly too large and heavy for the boughs to support. Wooden cartwheels, huge stone tablets, enormous steel swords and more.
She points. “That one.”
The stone giant bows with a hand over his heart, and selects the enormous bronze coin that she has chosen.
He raises it above his head. She spreads her arms, tilts her head back and smiles, welcoming what he is about to do. He brings it down hard, and she woke in the instant before it crushed her.
“And then I said—“Walk home asshole!” and hit the button!”
“Oh man!” Allison giggled, then winced as the laughter sent a fresh stab of pain through her abused cranium. When she raised her hand to the pain, it met cold metal instead. She had endured an uncomfortable and boring night in the ship’s infirmary wearing a large and dorky helmet that Kirk had printed which used some form of applied alien science magic to clear up the lingering effects of being beaten in the head with a Huh. It looked like something out of a 1960s SciFi serial.
“Are you okay?” Xiù asked, concerned.
”…Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine, really.”
Xiù frowned at her. “Are you sure?”
Allison nodded. “This thing’s really working. I was so woozy last night, and now I’m feeling sharp again.”
“Yeah but…” Xiù’s smile was mischievous as she indicated the medical contraption that was clamped around her head. “You look like you’re having your hair permed.”
Allison pantomimed dismay. “Oh God, get me out of this thing! I don’t want to look like my Mom!”
Xiù flicked her own hair where a few strands had come loose of their ponytail. After years of having to make do in alien civilization while pretending to be Gaoian it had lost a little of its lustre, but she’d still done what she could to keep it healthy. “Too late.”
“Yeah?”
Xiù paused. “I… I guess so. I mean… I haven’t seen her in like five years.”
The deep therapy machine beeped in protest as Allison tried to lean forward and put a hand on her shoulder. “OKay, yeah. That’s rough.” she said. “I guess I can see why you’d want to go home.”
“You still want me to stay though, don’t you?”
“Girl, after the ass-whupping you just handed out? Hell yes!” Allison enthused. She settled back again “But five years is rough, you need to see your folks. I get it.”
“Don’t you want to see yours?”
“Oh hell, no.” Allison grimaced. “My folks and I…we never got along. I cut them out of my life a long time ago.”
“Oh.” Xiù cleared her throat and tried her best not to blush awkwardly. “Sorry.”
“No, no, it’s fine. Ancient history. But you can’t live at home forever, can you?”
“With Mama’s cooking?” Xiù demurred “Oh, I could. I know exactly what she’s going to make for me, too, when she sees me.”
“Yeah?”
“Mmhmm. It’ll be her special Paigu bazaifan, with Doufuhua for dessert.” She drifted off into a culinary haze. “She thinks they’re my favorites…”
Allison laughed. “She thinks?”
Xiù made a curious head-ducking motion again, then caught herself and grinned sheepishly. “Sorry, I’m still doing Gaoian body language. Yeah, she thinks that and… well, she’s not wrong. It’s just that those were my favorites when I was ten.”
“I get it. You could do with being ten years old again for a little while.”
Xiù smiled, whistfully. “Oh, I could…”
Julian poked his head around the door. “How’re you feeling?” he asked.
“Good!” Allison confirmed, beaming at him. “Much better than last night. Amir’s still out of it though.”
Julian checked on their slumbering pilot. “He’s fine. Just asleep.” he reported, reading off the display above Amir’s bed.
“Didn’t Lewis get hit in the head too?” Xiù asked.
“Honestly? It’s kinda hard to tell with Lewis.” Julian shrugged as he began to help Allison unplug. “He seems okay. He keeps playing with that ball thing.”
“The Huh? Fuck sake, I had my fill of that thing when Zane hit me in the head with it.” Allison griped.
“Yeah, why do you guys keep calling it the Huh?” Julian asked, releasing the catches on her helmet and gently pulling it off
“It’s a weird story.” Allison swung her legs down off the bed and ruffled her own hair. “Wow, I feel way better.”
“Short version?”
“Short version is, that’s what the word for that thing is in OmoAru. Huh.”
”…Oh. Right.” Julian removed the last sticky patch from her forehead and helped her to her feet, where she swayed alarmingly.
“Woah. Oh, okay. Still kinda… no, no, get off guys, I’m fine.”
Xiù let go of her arm where she had caught it. “Are you sure?”
“You go with Julian. I didn’t sleep well at all last night, so, I’ll be in my bunk.”
Reluctantly they let her go, though she had obviously recovered most of her balance and focus. She only touched the door frame lightly on the way out.
“So uh… when are we heading for a station with a relay?” Xiù asked.
The door and deck both being sized to admit a Guvnurag, they had no trouble walking side by side towards the flight deck, but it was still just narrow enough for her to be acutely aware of him walking beside her, and that awareness was engendering some acutely hormonal feelings. If he was at all conscious of the effect he was having, though, he didn’t show it.
“Kirk and Vedreg are keen to explore this whole hospital angle.” Julian told her. “Wish I could tell you how long that’s likely to take.”
He smiled at her crestfallen expression. “Hey, I’m sorry. But we’ve got other missions too, you know? It’s rough, I know, but we’ll get you back as soon as we can.”
“I guess… it’s just, you said this ship is really fast right?”
“Probably the fastest in the galaxy.” he confirmed “But it’s still a week to the nearest station from here. The galaxy’s a big place, and this is one of the empty bits.”
“Right.” she sighed. “I can’t ask you to take a whole fortnight out for me, I’m not that important.”
She realised that the sentiment had come off as bitter. “I mean! Um…That came out wrong.”
Julian chuckled. “It’s fine.”
“Allison wants me to stay.”
Julian stopped as they were about to cross the threshold into the common area. “So do I.” he confessed.
“Y-you do?”
He nodded.
“Why?” she asked
Julian didn’t even need to pause to think. “We’ve rescued people that the galaxy totally broke.” he said. “I remember one Polish lady called Maria, she never learned to speak a word of any alien language, never even figured out the whole… Deathworlder thing. She was pretty much starving and out of her mind by the time we got to her.”
“You’re different.” he continued. “You’ve learned the skills to survive out here, you speak Gaoian, you’ve kept fit and well fed and you did it by earning your keep. There’s a whole long section in your file written by somebody called Ayma which is just… Glowing.”
Xiù hesitated, suppressing a surge of guilt on hearing Ayma’s name. “Glowing?”
“Nonlethal takedowns of alien species, even some of the flimsier ones. Boarding one of the big Hunter ships solo to save a diplomatic vessel. Integrating into Gaoian society and making yourself useful. Surviving – thriving – incognito around the galaxy for three years… It all speaks to a skillset that this ship and our mission would find very useful, and I’m not talking about your ability to beat stuff up. You’re a competent woman, Xiù.”
Xiù blinked at him. “I don’t feel competent.” she said.
It wasn’t adequate, but… where did she begin? That she didn’t recognise the person he’d just described? That, okay, she may have done those things, but she’d been this close to throwing up the whole time? That she’d cried herself to sleep more nights than not? That she had felt alone, so alone for all of those years, and that even Ayma, Myun and all the others had been… well, they’d been great, but no substitute for home?
Julian smiled sadly. “Neither do I.” he confessed.
Xiù changed the subject. “We’d better… uh, what are we doing?”
“Nothing, really. I’m just heading up to the flight deck.”
“Oh… Uh, I didn’t exercise yet today. I’ll go get on with that, I guess.”
“Sure. But… if you’re interested, later on? Ayma left a message for you in your notes.”
Xiù’s heart manage the interesting trick of simultaneously rising and sinking. “She…? Oh… Have you-?”
“Nope. It’s a personal message.”
“Oh… uh, is there one from my family?”
“There’s a letter, yeah.”
“Oh.” She… actually didn’t know how she felt about that. Scared and excited at the same time.
“Why don’t you go read them? The gym can wait.” Julian offered. “See you at lunch?”
“Oh! Yeah. Sure. See you.”
“Duuude.”
“Lewis, are you ever going to stop playing with that thing?”
Kirk’s upper upper arm was encased in something that was a fair bit more high-tech than a cast, which served to immobilize the broken bone and deliver regenerative medicines through dermal contact. Having his coat shaved to apply the cast had been embarrassing enough, but now the damn thing itched, which was making him cranky.
“No, Kirk, dude, it’s… look at this shit, man!”
Kirk glanced at it. As far as he could tell the little object was still as grey and uninteresting as the last time he’d looked. Lewis’ expression, however, was rapt. “Put it down.” he ordered. Lewis made a complaining noise but obeyed, tucking the Huh into the pocket of his jacket, which was hung on the back of his chair.
Kirk grimaced as another eddy knocked Sanctuary off course. Amir would have handled the buffeting effortlessly, but even Deathworlders needed time to recover from being knocked unconscious, it seemed. They healed absurdly fast, with or without the ministrations of a deep therapy machine, but that was of small comfort when it left Kirk to deal with clear air turbulence.
“How big is this cell?” he demanded.
“Wish I could tell you man, but I’m still looking for a satellite that works. They didn’t build these things to last.”
“Well, where are we? We’ve got to be close to AmoUetu-RumuAo-Eiru by now.”
“Right above it, dude.”
Kirk frowned through the flight deck’s transparent surface. All he could see below him was a flat expanse of beige.
“Are you sure? I don’t see the river.” he said.
“That’s because of the sandstorm, man.”
Perspective clicked in. “Oh…” He said. “…We’re not landing in that.”
“Figured as much, bro.” Lewis laughed. “Survey says the turbulence shouldn’t go higher than twenty clicks if you wanna wait it out.”
“Yes. Let’s do that.” Kirk agreed. He punched the commands in and Sanctuary stood on its tail to ascend above the weather, eventually getting to the point where the autopilot was happy to take over again. Nobody on board noticed – ‘down’ was still defined by the gravity plating in the deck, rather than by the planet
Kirk set the ship to hover once they were clear of the turbulence, and relaxed.
“Fucking Class Nines…” he muttered. “Any luck with those satellites?”
“Nah man. Half of them just aren’t there any more and half the rest ran out of power years ago. Must be bits of space debris all over this desert.”
“What’s left?”
“Some of the stuff that’s in geosynchronous or higher.” Lewis said. “That’s about it, man. Best one I’ve got is… I dunno, a telescope of some kind? That one’s still kicking just fine, the rest…”
“Right.” Kirk settled back. “I suppose there’s nothing to do now but wait.”
“You mind if I…?” Lewis indicated his pocket.
“What’s so fascinating about that damn thing?”
“See for yourself, bro.”
Lewis dug out the Huh again and handed it over. Kirk sighed, and inspected it.
The Huh really was nothing more than a metal ball that fit well in his hand. He turned it over, looking for any sign of adornment, finding none.
He turned it over again, puzzling over it. Why should something so small be so fascinating to Lewis? It was just… smooth. What mysteries could what looked and felt for all the world like a big ball-bearing possibly hold?
No matter what angle he inspected it from, it was so round and so uniform in appearance. It managed the strange trick of being metallic and perfectly, featurelessly smooth, but yet it reflected nothing. He knew he was turning it over – he could feel the friction on his fingers and palm – but it seemed to hang motionless, an anomaly in his hands, as if it wasn’t moving, but the rest of the universe was.
Lewis snatched it out of his hands. “DUDE!”
“What? What?”
“You’ve been staring at it for like five minutes, bro.”
“Nonsense, I only just-” Kirk glanced at the timepiece and stopped mid-sentence. Nearly twelve Ri had gone past. “…I could have sworn…?”
“Nah man, you zoned the fuck out. Like, way worse than I do.”
Kirk shook his mane, trying to shake off a lingering feeling that he could understand what was going on if he just held the Huh some more. “Can I look at…? No, what am I saying? Lock that thing away!”
“Dude, it’s just another drug. You’re not used to it, that’s all.”
“Lewis. It’s dangerous.”
“For you maybe!”
“Humans have more sensitive neural structures than my species, you know that!”
“Maybe, but I’m the one who heard you and stopped when you said stop, man. You didn’t even hear me!”
“What in the hell are you two arguing about?”
Julian looked back and forth between them as he hauled himself into the flight deck. Lewis simply handed him the Huh.
Julian frowned at it. “You’re arguing over this?”
“Just… have a look at it man. Turn it over.”
“What, this thing? It’s just… I mean… well…”
Julian tilted his head back and forth and frowned at the object in his hands as he turned it over a few times, then blinked and shook it off. “What about it?”
Lewis aimed a triumphant smirk at Kirk. “See?”
“That proves nothing. It still mesmerised him, too.”
“Yeah, but only for like… seconds!” Lewis protested, and knocked on Julian’s upper arm. “Right?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah.” Julian looked back up from the ball. “I dunno, that’s kinda weird. Maybe we shouldn’t be messing with it.”
“Why?”
Julian’s expression was patient in a ‘you’re being kinda dumb’ way. “Well, I mean… we are investigating why ancient species go extinct…” he pointed out.
Lewis paused “…Ah. Yeah. Right.” He frowned at the Huh. “Okay, yeah, maybe lock that thing up somewhere.”
“Allison can look after it.” Kirk decided.
“Good call.” Julian agreed.
“Don’t let her study it. We don’t want its keeper to be under its spell as well.”
Lewis scoffed. ”‘Under its spell’? What is this thing, a fucking Palantir?”
“You know what I mean.” Kirk replied, patiently. “It’s clearly affecting and influencing us somehow: best to put it in the care of somebody who is as-yet unaffected and uninfluenced.”
“Aside from being beaten around the head with it.” Julian noted. “Right.” He took his T-shirt off and knotted it around the Huh.
“Swole as fuck, dude. I’m ‘mirin, no homo.” Lewis snarked, earning a middle finger from Julian in response to the old meme.
“When are we landing, anyway?” Julian asked.
“When I know, you’ll know dude.” Lewis assured him. “Soon, trademark.”
Kirk made an interrogative noise. “Trade-?”
“Old in-joke. Nevermind, dude.”
Julian and Kirk shared a glance that they had shared many a time over Lewis, then Julian shrugged. “…Right. I’ll, uh, go give this to Allison then.”
Allison gave him a sly grin and an appraising up-and-down when she answered the door, despite her obvious tiredness. “Damn, Julian.” she drawled. “You know how to make a girl feel better.”
He stroked a strand of blonde hair tidily behind her ear and they shared a little kiss. “Sorry, this is business.” he handed over the shirt. “Can you lock that up? Don’t look at what it’s got wrapped up in it.”
She frowned at it. “Sure, but you wanna explain why?”
“It’s the Huh. If you study it, it seems to just… fascinate you. We thought it’d be a good idea to leave it in your care seeing as it hasn’t affected you yet. Until we know what it is and if it’s related to the OmoAru dying out, you know?”
“I follow.” She took the object and vanished into her room to lock it away as requested. “You want the shirt back?”
“I’ll just print another one.”
“Coulda just printed a bag for it, you know?” Allison pointed out. She reappeared at the door and leered at him. “Not that I’m complaining about you turning up at my door shirtless.”
“It was easier this way.” He shrugged.
She made an appreciative noise. “Mmm, works for me. Just don’t let Xiù see you, she’ll catch fire.”
“You think?”
“Girl’s had a five year dry spell, and… call it a hunch, I don’t think she was getting any before then, either.”
He leaned against the door frame, folding his arms. “And how long’s your dry spell been?” he asked, enjoying the way she looked down at his upper arms and started to breathe a little quicker.
“Too damn long.”
“Just say the word.” He grinned.
“I told you, Julian, we’re not having sex.”
“There’re alternatives to sex.” he said, slipping his hand around her lower back and pulling her out of the room slightly, pelvis to pelvis.
She met his gaze with a cocky smile, draping her arms over his shoulders. “Got something in mind, Etsicitty?”
He glanced up and down the quarters deck to make sure that they were alone then leaned in and murmured “I know my ABCs…”
She laughed, but bit her lip and took another good look at him. “Mister ‘Six Years Alone’ knows that trick, huh?”
Julian’s confidence stalled and entered a tailspin. “Well, uh… I know of it…”
Allison giggled, but her lip-bite intensified. She checked up and down the deck herself, and then grabbed his belt buckle and pulled him into her room.
“Alright, Mister Smooth. Show me.”
“Well this is fucking boring…”
Kirk shook his mane in irritation. Lewis always got restless when he had nothing to do. “How long until the sandstorm abates?”
“Told you dude, weather sats are fried. Could be five minutes, could be five months, could be there’s a second storm five hours behind this one. I’ve got a bot watching out for a working sat.”
“So, you’re not actually doing anything right now?
“Oh, don’t say it dude…”
Kirk snorted at him. “An hour’s exercise every day, Lewis. You biologically need it”
“Like fuck I do…” Lewis grumbled, but he stood up anyway, stretching and groaning as his spine popped in three places.
“You see? Your species isn’t meant to sit still for long periods.”
“Hey, I’m going, jeez…”
Shipboard gear was gym clothing anyway, so he didn’t need to bother with changing until after he was all sweaty, so that was one upside.
The second upside to today’s gym session turned out to be Xiù, stretching against the wall to the point that her ankle was higher than her head and damn was that an easy sight for the eyes. He picked the multigym and sat down, less interested in doing his mandatory workout properly than he was in having a good view.
“Shouldn’t you warm up properly?” she asked.
“This is a warm-up.” he replied, setting the resistance-based machine to its lowest setting. “I fucking hate exercise…”
“Yeah?” She grimaced slightly as she hugged her leg and held it as close to her torso as she could for a three-count.
“You can’t tell me you enjoy that shit? That looks uncomfortable as fuck.”
“This bit sucks.” she agreed. “But it stops me from aching all over when I’m done.”
“This going to be your regular exercise slot?” He asked as she changed legs. He’d make a mental note if it was.
“No, I usually do mine – rrrgh – before breakfast.”
Well that killed it. Exercise might be bearable if he had a gym-buddy like Xiù, but the only known force in the galaxy that could drag Lewis out of bed that early in the morning was a quarter of a pig, a gallon of coffee, and waffles with enough syrup to launch a yacht on. He hauled down on the bar in what he thought was a preacher curl. “So why’re you here now?” He asked.
“I was going to go back to my room and listen to my messages.” Xiù said. “But… um… Allison’s room is next to mine and, uh…” Her face went a brilliant scarlet. “Never mind.”
“Hey, what?”
“Julian’s in there…”
Lewis blinked. “No shit? Shit, did they get loud?”
Damn the girl could blush. If there’d been a world championship, Xiù would have taken the gold, easy. By incinerating the competition with her glow. “Little bit.” she squeaked the words in a way that suggested they were understatement.
She dropped her leg back down and bounced on her toes a few time. Lewis lowered his head slightly to give the impression that he was working the machine, hoping to ogle without being caught ogling.
“Uh, you’re… not doing that right.” she pointed out after a few seconds.
Lewis just shrugged. “You grab the thing, you pull on the thing, right?”
“Hǎo shāng xīn…” she muttered. “No wonder you hate exercise.”
“You saying I don’t enjoy it because I’m doing it wrong?”
She beckoned with one hand. “Come on, get up. I’ll show you.”
Lewis shrugged and did so. “Okay, what are we doing?”
“Taiji.”
“Tai Chi? I thought that was for, like, old people in the park!”
“It keeps you fit and strong.” she said.
“Moving all slow? Pull the other one.”
She rolled her eyes. “Copy me.”
Lewis snorted, but did so to the best of his ability, imperfectly mimicking the slow sweep of her arms and feet. His muscles started to burn within seconds. “What the shit…?”
She paused mid-motion, at the most awkward spot – he felt like he was about to fall over. His leg was shaking from trying to hold him up. “You’re still doing it wrong.” she said. “Move your right foot back a little and try to balance your weight between both feet.”
Lewis grunted and shoved his foot back a bit and the precarious feeling and shake both vanished. The burn in his muscled faded a little. “Hey, what…?”
“Now you’re doing it right.”
“Okay… That’s cool, but… no pain no gain, right?”
“My ballet teacher used to say that being strong is no good if you’re wasting half that strength with bad form.” Xiù said.
“I… guess?”
She laughed. “I had this trouble with my brother Wei. Uh… it’s like if you have a really fancy, shiny new computer but you’re running an old game on it. Most of that power gets wasted. Follow me?”
Understanding dawned. “Oh! I get you!”
Xiù started moving again. “It works both ways.” she said. “If you do it right it feels easier but you’re actually getting the most out of it. Doing it wrong feels harder and doesn’t do as much for you.”
Lewis was surprised to find that he was actually enjoying himself, and not just because of the company. Xiù was a patient teacher, happy to go at his pace, and the way she explained what they were doing drove home a point he had hitherto missed – that exercise didn’t have to be dumb, mindless repetition. That there was room for using your brain in there as well, thinking about it. Physical intelligence.
Maybe he had a reason to get out of bed early, now…
“Fascinating. I wonder what relevance it has to our search?”
Vedreg didn’t fit in the flight deck, but the corridor outside was capable of unfolding a bench from the deck for him to rest on, and it was from this that he was conversing with Kirk, sipping a surprisingly small glass of water considering his mass.
“Best not to speculate ahead of our evidence.” Kirk cautioned. “Lewis could be right, it could just be a drug of some kind.”
“True, though the whole concept of a drug was a completely foreign one to me prior to the arrival of humanity.”
“Likewise, and if ever there were fields where we were likely to learn of their existence, customs and legal representation aboard a major trade station would be them, even if they were perfectly legal.”
“And yet the OmoAru have been in decline since before the human World Wars.” Vedreg noted. “Tell me, do you think it a plausible possibility?”
“All too plausible.” Kirk shivered. “Even with that idea in mind, that this could be the object responsible for the decline and fall of their civilization, I still want to go down to Allison’s quarters and ask her for another look, and I was only exposed to its effects for a few minutes.”
“And Lewis and Julian?”
Kirk turned and checked the tracking systems for a second. “Lewis is in the gym with Xiù, and appears to be rather happy about it.” he said. “Julian has… not left Allison’s quarters yet, though I expect that’s just sex.”
Vedreg pig-snorted a Guvnurag chortle, pulsing hyacinth. “So matter-of-fact.” he commented.
“Why shouldn’t I be? I have no reason to be squeamish about the sexuality of another species, especially one so driven by it as humans are.” he glanced at the monitor where Xiù was correcting Lewis’ posture. “And Gaoians.” he added.
A curious cocktail of intellectual pink and uncertain blue swept up Vedreg’s body. “She’s not Gaoian.” he pointed out.
“Biologically? No.” Kirk agreed. “But concepts we have traditionally considered – for good reason – to be absolutes, appear to be more fluid for humans. Gender, mating proclivities…Species – purely as a mental and cultural construct – is on that list.”
“How can species be a fluid concept?”
Kirk just shrugged. It wasn’t a native gesture to Rrrrtktktkp’ch, and he knew that Vedreg was astute enough to get that subtle point. “It’s all visible in Xiù’s file, if you know what to look for.” he said. “There are a lot of… transition zones in her life. Places where she has straddled two things that would quite reasonably seem to be separate. They’re quite obvious from the elevated perspective that I enjoy, but humans have remarkable blind spots about their own motives and experiences.”
“Do they indeed?” The translation gave Vedreg a wry, ironic tone.
Kirk snorted, catching the thrust of Vedreg’s subtle jab. “I know who I am.” he asserted, and pointed at the screen with his mechanical arm. “They don’t.”
“And is that what draws you to them?”
“What draws me to them is that they’ve got to become somebody, and I want to make sure that said somebody can coexist with my own people.”
Vedreg rumbled, and a dark pink, almost purple, showed itself on his body.
“Suppose the Hierarchy are right.” he said, suddenly. “Suppose that’s not possible. What then?”
“Then by helping them escape the quarantine I’ve doomed my own species and several others.” Kirk said. “But I’ll fight to the last to prove that the Hierarchy are wrong.”
“Good. Then I think it’s time I put you in touch with Six.”
“Allahu Akbar.”
Amir was standing in the middle of the common area, barefoot and wearing clean clothes, addressing a little speck of blue holographic light that was hovering a few meters in front of him.
He lowered his hands gently onto his thighs and spoke again. The words were quiet, but clear – Xiù could only hear him because the rest of the ship was quiet.
“Subhaanak-Allaahumma, wa bihamdika, wa tabaarakasmuka, wa ta’aalaa jadduka, wa laa ilaaha ghayruka.”
She turned to Lewis and whispered. “What’s he doing?”
“Salat.” Lewis replied, quietly. “Five times a day. It’s, like, super important to him, so I just let him get it out his system.”
”…I’d forgotten.”
“Forgotten?”
“Prayer. I forgot that people even do things like…” Xiù indicated Amir, who was now bent at the waist, muttering something. “…this.”
“He’s always done this.” Lewis replied. “Had me program that little light for him. It points towards Earth.”
Xiù stared at it. “That’s where Earth is?”
“Yep.”
“How far?”
“Uh… as, like, the crow flies?” Lewis tapped on a wall console and pulled up the navigation display. “Looks like… about sixty thousand light years.” He tapped something, and nodded. “Give or take a couple thousand.”
”…how long would it take if we flew there right now?”
Lewis looked upwards and his lips moved as he performed some mental calculations. “About… roughly, uh… seven weeks? Bit more than? But we wouldn’t be going as the crow flies.”
“Why not?”
“Well, A: the galactic core’s in the way. Black holes, exploding stars, radiation, really bad hair days. Can’t go that way. B: Interstellar dust and gas leaves a charge on the hull. Let it build up too much and eventually… ZAP!”
Xiù jumped, and Amir shot an annoyed glance in their direction. Lewis raised an apologetic palm at him.
Xiù swallowed “Zap?” she squeaked.
“Yep.” Lewis replied in a quieter tone. “Like a fuckin’ bug zapper, with you, me and the whole crew as the bugs.”
Xiù shivered.
“So, the ID and the CA both run these lane-clearing fleets who sweep a path through the dust, and that’s a spacelane.” Lewis continued. “They form a ring around the galaxy, through what’s called the ‘Temperate World Formation Zone’. By spacelane, we’re more like three months from home, and this is a way fast ship. Like, zoom! And you can really open up on those spacelanes, too.”
“How fast?”
“Dunno. Kirk reckons she can do upwards of a thousand kilolights on a really long stretch if we don’t mind wear and tear on the power core. A million times the speed of light. Usually we just cruise at about half that.”
“That’s…” Xiù wanted to say ‘fast’ but the numbers were purely academic, incomprehensible.
“Fastest ship in the galaxy, we reckon.” Lewis patted the Sanctuary proudly. “Course, we don’t need to fly back to Earth. We’ve got the Jump Array.”
“All that distance and I can just… step home, huh?”
“Pretty much.”
Xiù shook her head and watched as Amir turned his head left and right, speaking gently, and then stood.
“That’s going to be so weird…” she said.
It had been far, far too long since Allison had had the opportunity to enjoy the feeling of skin-on-skin contact along pretty much the whole length of her body.
It was made a little unusual by the smooth plastic of Julian’s prosthetic foot, but other than that…
Other than that, the sensations of his body warm and firm against her back and buttocks, of his right arm under her head and his right hand cupping her breast, of his left hand trailing lazily up and down the shallow, athletic curve of her flank were sublime. As were the kisses he occasionally placed on her shoulder.
As had been the… well. What Julian may have lacked in experience, he more than made up for in attentiveness and enthusiasm. The way he’d communicated, the way he’d eagerly let her teach him how to use his tongue, the way he’d listened to what she wanted as his fingers played inside her, the taste of his cock, the orgasms plural, his expressions, his moans and…
Generally the whole general everything.
Especially the way he’d kept his head and said “no” when she’d literally begged him to fuck her. That part, she really appreciated.
She became aware that his hand had stopped moving, and squirmed slightly to glance over her shoulder and check that he was still awake. He wasn’t.
She gave it a decent interval and then carefully extracted herself from her little-spoon position to go take care of the inevitable post-orgasmic ablutions, spin through the shower and put on some clean clothing. Sex – or the next best thing – had always left her energized and hungry.
Lewis and Amir were using the galley as well, and while Amir cleared his throat and pretended to not really notice her presence, Lewis’ grin bordered on being a leer.
Of course, on a ship this small there were no secrets, were there?
“Sleep well?” Lewis tried to make the question sound nonchalant and failed dismally.
“I had fucking amazing sex, thank you for asking.” she snarled, nettled. Lewis grimaced and focused on his food, ears going pink. “What’s that you’re eating?” she asked.
Xiù’s voice lofted out of the kitchen. “Zhēngyú!”
“Huh?”
“Fish!” Xiù poked her head out of the kitchen wearing the biggest smile Allison had yet seen on her. “This is amazing!” she enthused. “You have actual Earth food in here! I just had to make something.”
“You love to cook, huh?”
Xiù ducked her head sheepishly, apparently failing to notice that the gesture was a Gaoian one. “Always have.” she admitted. “Besides, you’ve got to do something to help the ration balls go down, right?”
“Too true.” Allison selected a shred of white fish-flesh from the plate and sampled it.
A second later, half the fish was on her plate, prompting a chuckle from Amir. “That was my reaction.” he said.
“Damn girl! Mff!”
Xiù giggled. “You like?”
Allison nodded, masticating enthusiastically, “Thiff iff amaffing.” she swallowed. “Best thing I’ve had in my mouth since, uh…”
Okay, now the awkwardness happened, especially when Lewis grinned like he was the Coyote and he’d just caught the Road Runner. “Half an hour ago? Yagh!”
His scream was in response to Allison rolling her eyes and dumping his glass of water in his lap. When Amir laughed, Lewis did the same to him, and a good-natured three-way scuffle broke out that only ended when Xiù exclaimed “Hey, watch the fish!”
The boys sheepishly helped straighten the table and then sloped off in search of dry clothes. Xiù snorted a little laugh. “Males,” she said. She apparently didn’t notice the mistake until Allison arched an eyebrow at her. “Uh…men! Boys! Ugh, damn it!”
”…You okay?”
“I’m… adjusting.” Xiù replied. “It’s so weird being around other humans again.”
“Spent too long with the raccoon people, huh?” Allison asked.
“I keep thinking in Gaoian.” Xiù said. “And thinking like a Gaoian.” She scowled. “I just said that in Gaoian!”
“You did? I didn’t… oh, right, the ship’s translator.”
“Yeah.” Xiù sat down and sampled some of the fish for herself, breaking into a broad smile. “Oooh, this is nice.” she purred. “No more pureed bug guts.”
“Uh, ew?!”
“Nava paste. It’s an ingredient.” Xiù explained. “It’s actually kinda nice but… yeah, ew.”
They shared a grin, which turned into Xiù apparently thinking of something and abruptly going pink.
“What?”
“Uh, nothing.”
“No, what?” Allison pressed.
“Just… wow. Sex. I’ve never…” The pink turned to a brilliant scarlet.
“Got taken before you had the chance, huh?”
Xiù nodded, and ate some of her fish. “It’s… Mama and Papa were always warning me off boys.” she said. “‘Wait for marriage, find a nice doctor or engineer. Chinese, of course.’ You know: Asian parents.” She laughed, and toyed with her food. “As if it’s the most special thing ever…”
“And the Gaoians?”
Xiù shrugged. “They were always very… matter-of-fact about it.” she said. “You always knew who had just arranged a mating contract and they were… very open about talking about it.”
“A contract?”
“Yeah.” Xiù wobbled her head. “Sounds cold doesn’t it?”
“Just a little.” Allison agreed.
“It’s not!” Xiù hastened to defend them. “Well… no, maybe it can be, a little. But with some of them you could see it was more like…”
She giggled at a memory. “There’s this one male, Regaari? He’s, like, Gaoian James Bond. Really cool, very handsome. So I’m told.”
“Hard to tell under all that fur.”
“I think the fur is what they look at.” Xiù shrugged. “I don’t really know. But even the mother-supreme was like ‘if I was younger…’”
Allison laughed. “Okay, so they’re not so cold after all.”
“No.” Xiù’s smile faded. “I just… wow. That’s an option now. I could… if I wanted, if I found… Wow.”
Allison put her fork down. “Honey, listen to me.” she said. “Julian and I took forever to sort our shit out, and we needed it. I’m telling you as a friend, you’re going to need time as well, or you’ll just wind up getting hurt.”
Xiù sighed. “You sound like Yulna…”
“I hope that’s a compliment?”
“Yeah, it is.” Xiù nodded. “You could always count on Momma Yulna to tell you what you needed to be told, even if you didn’t want to hear it.”
“Well damn, there goes my party-girl image.”
Their conversation ended with the return of the freshly-changed boys. Lewis immediately noticed the lingering traces of blush on Xiù’s face, but glanced at Allison, saw her expression, and clearly decided that discretion was the better part of dry pants.
“Sandstorm’s clearing.” he said instead. “We should be landing soon. There’s another storm about two days out though.”
“We’ll need to actually land this time, rather than hovering.” Amir said. “She’ll need to be properly battened down and anchored. Should take an hour or so.”
“I’ll … go wake Julian.” Allison stood. “You guys okay to clean up?”
“They can.” Xiù said firmly, folding her arms when Lewis and Amir protest “Hey, I cleaned up as I went, so there’s not much.”
“What are you going to do?” Allison asked, as the boys grumbled their way into the kitchen.
“I’ve got mail.”
There were, as Julian had said, some messages waiting for her. Four, to be exact – one each from Ayma, Regaari and the Mother-Supreme, and a letter from her family.
She opened the message from Giymuy first. The Mother-Supreme was seated at her desk, and gave a warm expression to the camera.
“Where to begin?” she asked, rhetorically.
“I think as a leader and politician, I am better placed to understand you than many others. The life of the Mother-Supreme shares with the life of a human Sister the factor that we will both always be outsiders, however much we are embraced. I have to think for all the females, and all the males too. That is not an instinct that comes naturally.”
“For you, however, I suspect the instinct is as natural as breath, and it is one that I think our species will need to learn to emulate if we are to thrive in interstellar society but… ah, forgive me. I’m rambling.”
“You are missed. I understand why you left our planet, and why you abandoned Ayma and Regaari, and I only refrained from asking you to stay because I knew it would be fruitless. Your protective instinct is as powerful as any Mother’s, and you have the insight to know when you yourself are the worst threat. I truly would have valued your counsel, but I would have valued it for the same reason that I could never have it.”
She paused, and changed tack a bit.
“There is a monument to Triymin, and all the other taken Gaoians now. I thought you would like to know that. The revelation of what her Mother did to “save” the other cubs has prompted much introspection, and something of a schism. We are all still Sisters of course, but… things have been difficult. There is something of a swell of opinion that welcoming you into the Clan was a mistake. Some Mothers who never met you are accusing you of having poisoned us with alien ideas. These are trying times for an old female.”
“Then again, they are trying times for a young female too, are they not? But you are strong enough to get through them, Sister Shoo. And you will always have a home on Gao. Remember that.”
Xiù was still mulling over the Mother-Supreme’s meaning when Sanctuary shook and a dull note rang throughout its decks, followed by Amir’s voice. “We’re landed. All hands outside to batten down.”
She stood up and let herself out, glad to have something to do. She really didn’t feel ready for the other messages yet.