Date Point 10y4m1w1d AV
Starship ’Negotiable Curiosity’, Planet Perfection, The Cradle Worlds
Bedu
“At last! Civilization! Food!”
Mwrmwrwk made an irritated cooing sound. “Hzzkvk, if you could please tear yourself away from the window for a moment and go run a diagnostic on engine three? It would be a shame to have come all this way only to explode on final approach thanks to an uncontrolled fluctuation.”
Bedu frowned and checked his console as their obese Vzk’tk technician croaked in alarm and galloped astern.
“That,” he accused her “was a lie.”
“What was?” Mwrmwrwk asked. She gave no indication of aborting their approach.
“There is no fluctuation.” Bedu observed.
“I never said that there was.” She replied, not turning in her seat. “But it would be a shame.”
Bedu mentally chastised himself. Like Hzzkvk, he had become over-excited at the prospect of finally getting out of the ship for the first time in far too long. Unlike Hzzkvk, he was not ignorant of the subtle game that he and Mwrmwrwk played at Hzzkvk’s expense, using carefully ambiguous phrasing to slip veiled insults and farcically unnecessary errands past him via his near-terminal case of stupidity.
To have one such joke slip past his own critical faculties was vexsome. Mwrmwrwk was troublingly intelligent, and that was never a fact calculated to leave a Corti shipmaster feeling well at-ease.
She was, however, an exceptional pilot, and thoroughly worth the irritation. Hzzkvk was… less worth the irritation, though he performed his tasks with a commendable diligence.
“How soon until we land?” he asked.
“Half a Ri’ ago.”
“Say again?”
“We have been on solid concrete for half a Ri’. Not a bad landing if I say so myself.”
“I must agree.” Bedu forced himself to concede. “I hardly felt it.”
Mwrmwrwk purred some quiet Kwmbwrw laughter, which he took as his cue to stand, wriggle slightly to settle his travel-stiffened joints, and pad around to the top of the ship’s exit ramp, which was directly behind the flight deck.
Perfection had been named by Corti, and by Corti standards it absolutely was perfect. The finest Locayl architects had been tasked with planning the system’s capital city according to scrupulous and elegant mathematical principles laid out by the Directorate, and its balmy class three climate and lucrative co-ordinates as a cross-roads for the four largest, wealthiest and most influential members of the Dominion Council – the Directorate, the Domain, the Guvnurag Confederacy and the Kwmbwrw Grand Houses – had made it prosperous beyond compare.
Their landing site, alas, was not among the gleaming spires and delicate ultratensile steel edifices of the upper city, but was one of dozens that dotted the sides of the great megastructure of the mid-level city. Ground level was still a good two hundred meters below them and some of the very highest penthouses were as much as two kilometers above.
He took a moment to admire the sheer architectural grandeur of it, then sent a message to the address he’d been given by their employer. The message was a terse one, explaining only while that the primary objective was not met, there was mitigating data to explain why.
There was a thump as Mwrmwrwk came down the ramp, then reared onto her hindfeet and, reaching up to hold on to the Negotiable Curiosity’s nose for balance, stretched out to reach her full and impressive height.
Kwmbwrw were deceptively large. When they were on all fours (which was most of the time) they were only as high at the shoulder as a tall Gaoian, and that meant that sometimes their real size could be overlooked. They were long-limbed, covered in curly chocolate fur with a long tail that was usually held coiled between their legs and almost nothing in the way of a neck.
Mwrmwrwk was, apparently, rather plain and masculine by her species’ standards, though Bedu would have been hard-pressed to know his pilot from a stunning exemplar of Kwmbwrw femininity. She had a single large, brown eye riding high above a wide and flat mouth, with two more eyes further round the sides of her head for peripheral vision. This arrangement provided her with two zones of narrow binocular vision and as a result, when working on something that required her fine attention she had to turn her head away from it and squint.
As she reared up, Mwrmwrwk’s tail unfolded to its full length, held rigid behind her for counterbalance. Standing upright like that, she was taller than even a Qinis or Rrrtktktkp’ch, but that height was all limbs. Next to their extraordinary length, her body was almost comically short and keg-shaped.
She took a huge breath and produced a different kind of purring noise, signifying delight and relief. “Fresh air…”
“Don’t you have post-flight checks to run?” Bedu chided her.
“Bedu, your conviction that you are the only competent being in the galaxy is showing again.” she retorted, dropping back down onto the three strong and stubby fingers that bore her weight on her forefeet and tucking the each hand’s two delicate opposable digits safely out of the way. “I did them already.”
“So quickly?”
“The ship can run multiple diagnostics at once, you know. Now if you’ll excuse me, I believe I’m due some shore leave. I assume I’ve been paid…?”
“What kind of a negligent employer do you take me for?” Bedu asked, instructing his implants to transfer the funds.
“Bedu, nobody could ever accuse you of accidental negligence.” Mwrmwrwk shook herself in an entirely too smug way and headed for the elevator. “Oh, thank Hzzkvk for me, would you? He can stop checking the engine for fluctuations now.”
Bedu permitted himself a moment of amusement, then settled back into the more orthodox Corti frame of mind of irritation. “Hzzkvk!” he called. “We are down safely. You can relax now.”
“But I have not found the fluctuation, Bedu!” the technician objected.
“It can wait.” Bedu promised. Hzzkvk’s memory was shoddy anyway from all the Cqcq he smoked. In a few hours, he’d have completely forgotten the imaginary emergency.
He wired the Vzk’tk his payment. Unlike Mwrmwrwk, it was no fun to play games with him. “Come along.”
“Where are we going, Bedu?” Hzzkvk asked him. Behind them, the ship sensed the departure of its master and locked itself up.
“We are going,” Bedu said “To see a Cont act.”
Date Point 10y4m1w1d AV
North Clearwater County, Minnesota, USA, Earth
Kevin Jenkins
“So. The deal on the table as it stands is this: The Byron Group is offering the three of you employment as crew aboard our next extrasolar exploration vessel. You’d be looking at a two year contract – six months of training and then eighteen months of mission time, with a possibility of renewal or transfer to a different post inside the group after the ship’s mission is complete. Naturally, this all comes with sponsoring any work visas, citizenship applications, whatever. In addition to payment and employee benefits, the Group is offering to pay all expenses and provide legal expertise to help you through the dispute over this house and land, and, if that dispute is resolved in your favor, to install a caretaker who will tend to the property in your absence.”
Kevin pushed the two copies he’d prepared of the agreement across the table, along with his own copy for Xiù. He’d memorized it in any case.
“What happens if you don’t win?” Julian asked.
“Whatever happens, you won’t be paying a cent. If we can, we’ll see what we can do about bringing all the people who wind up sharing the property around the table to sell it back to you. Though, it’ll be up to you to negotiate a price and sort out your finances. If you look at the salaries you’ll be receiving, however…” all three of them flipped through and found it. Xiù’s jaw dropped, Allison arched an eyebrow, and both of Julian’s eyebrows migrated north and hid under his fringe. “I think you’ll agree you shouldn’t have trouble there.”
“This is…very generous.” Allison mused. “What’s the catch?”
“There are a couple.” Kevin admitted. “First catch is, it’s dangerous work. Half the crews we sent out never came back. Now, the three of you have already been out there and come back. You know how it works out there, you’ve got the skills and experience, and the ships we’re making now are are way better than the first generation.” He paused and shrugged slightly. “But there ain’t no such thing as safe.”
The three of them exchanged a medley of expressions. Allison pursed her lips thoughtfully, Xiù looked tense and pale, and Julian just nodded, as if that was self-evident.
“Second catch is we’d like to examine Julian’s foot and see if we can’t put it to good use for folks down here on Earth. Even if it does break now an’ then, it’s a long way ahead of where we’re at right now.”
Julian nodded. “Doesn’t sound like much of a catch to me.” he said.
“Third catch is that you’d all be under nondisclosure agreements, and would have access to some… sensitive information. I can’t go into detail right now, but you would absolutely need to keep secrets. For the rest of your lives, most likely.”
“Fourth catch is no implants.” Allison guessed, correctly. Kevin frowned at her.
“Well…yeah.” he said, adding an unspoken question just with his tone of voice.
She sat back and folded her arms. “Let’s just say Julian and I know that not having implants really isn’t a catch.”
Inwardly, Kevin made a note to pass that observation along to Darcy first chance he got. “Miss Chang?” he asked.
She looked up from reading through the agreement, as if surprised to be spoken to. “Oh. Um… well, having things in my brain never seemed like a great idea anyway so… sure. No problem.” she ventured.
“Okay. We can go into the details later.” Kevin declared. “That’s it for catches. On to the perks.”
“First perk? Training. Honing your existing skills and givin’ you a solid grounding in any other skills that the mission might need. Right now we’re envisionin’ it’d just be the three of you aboard this thing, though that might change. Creature of Habit was eight people, Reclamation was just four. Among other things, correct me if I’m wrong but none of you know how to actually fly a spaceship, do you?”
They all shook their heads.
“Well, one of you’s gonna learn. I’d suggest Miss Chang.”
“Hey, I’ve not agreed to this…” Xiù objected, holding up both hands in a warding gesture.
“If you agree to it.” Kevin corrected himself. “Sorry. But you get the idea. Second perk is full medical and dental, plus a bereavement fund for your loved ones or charity of choice. Third perk? You get to name any and all stars, planets, moons, continents, oceans, species and so on that you discover. If it’s not already in the database, you get to name it. Though we’d, uh, take it as a kindness if you didn’t name them directly after yourselves…”
“Like… what, the continent of Allisonia?” Julian asked. “Planet Chang? Etsicitty Island?”
“That kinda thing, yeah.” Kevin agreed. “Word got back to us a while back about a mining colony run by a human who called the place ‘Carltopia’. Guess what his name was?”
“That’s just sad.” Xiù opined. “Even though, um, Planet Chang has a nice ring to it…”
“Way I hear it every other name ever given to the place was along the same lines.” Kevin shrugged. “Like I said, you get to name ‘em. All we ask is if you do decide to immortalize your names, you do it subtle-like.”
“And what exactly would our duties and responsibilities be?” Allison asked.
“Explore strange worlds, seek out new life and civilizations, boldly go where no-one has gone before?” Kevin suggested.
“Be serious.” she chided.
“I am.” Kevin told her. “You’ll be an exploration vessel. Now, admittedly your mission is a private one, surveyin’ for resources and opportunities that the Byron group can one day turn a profit on, so there’s none of that space hippy ‘bettering ourselves’ bullshit here but… yeah, that’s the shape of it. We’re most interested in useful biological samples from other deathworlds, especially antibiotics, but… anythin’, really. Spices, oil, useful cultivars we could experiment with on Cimbrean…”
“Precious metals?” Julian suggested.
“Nah, the Hephaestus LLC have the metals market to themselves for now.” Kevin said. “Asteroid mining’s just way better than diggin’ shit up on a planet, and the Sol belt is gonna last ‘em forever. Still, the survey data can’t hurt. Might be one day they get split up by competition laws and we’ll be able to sell them charts for other systems, who knows? Be nice if we could set up a diamond mine on a nice Class Ten somewhere, though. Kill off the slave trade… hmm…”
“That’s a big dream.” Xiù said. “The Gaoians have only got two colonies, and they’ve had warp drive for nearly a hundred years.”
“No disrespect to your friends miss, but it could be we’ve got motivation and drive that they lack.” Kevin suggested.
“Hah!” She beamed. “You’ve obviously never met a Gaoian.”
Kevin bowed his head and spread his hands. “I defer to your superior knowledge on that subject.” he said. “So. I mean, there’s a lot more to discuss, but that should give you a good idea of what kind of a fine mess you’d be gettin’ into. You in?”
Julian and Allison both opened their mouths to reply, but Xiù got there first. “Not yet.” she said. “There’s… things we need to talk over first. Us three.” she circled a finger to indicate Allison, Julian and herself.
”…Yeah. Don’t just put us on the spot like that.” Allison agreed. Julian nodded with her.
“I’ve already spent about four days longer on this than I’d planned for.” Kevin complained. “This trip’s gettin’ expensive, and my boss is antsy for an answer, whatever that answer is. I appreciate this is a big decision, but every day it’s not made is a day that a billion dollars of infrastructure ain’t doin’ shit ‘cause it’s waitin’ for you.”
“You’ll have your answer tomorrow.” Xiù asserted.
Kevin knew better than to argue with her by now. Exhaling, he stood up and gathered his things. “Tomorrow, then. Please.“
Xiù stood up and offered her hand, which he shook. “I promise.” She said.
Julian Etsicitty
There were starlings dancing in front of the sunset. They boiled and surged, gossiping among themselves as they played away the time until the light died and they could, as one, vanish into the branches and rest.
For now, they shied away from Jenkins’ car and the cone of dust it left behind as it vanished down the dirt path, and Julian listened until even the distant whisper of its motor and wheels were inaudible and all there was to hear was crows scheming in the woods, a mourning dove, and crickets settling in for the evening.
It was a peaceful moment, that he punctuated with a deep cleansing breath before turning toward the woodpile. The wood wasn’t quite ready yet, but it would burn if he built the fire properly. Building a fire with green wood was a skill that had kept him from freezing to death on Nightmare, especially after his first run-in with Go-to-hell tree firewood.
The fire was about ready to light when he heard the screen door squeal – for the umpteenth time he reminded himself to oil that spring – and Allison smiled at him as she padded barefoot down the concrete steps in short denim and one of his plaid shirts.
They greeted each other with a kiss. “How’re we doing?” Julian asked.
“Pretty good.” Allison smiled, and sat down on the log next to the firepit. “Though he’s right, I’d rather have said yes or no today, you know?”
“Mm.” Julian agreed. He fished his firestriker out of a pocket and stooped. “I guess whatever Xiù wants to talk about, it must be kinda important.”
Long years of practice meant that he had the tinder going first time, and he carefully caged it in thin kindling, then thick kindling, and finally a tent of split firewood. One well-aimed breath into the glowing heart later, and he had a lit fire.
Allison smiled at him. “You’re good at that.”
“I have my uses.” He stood up. “What’s she up to now?”
“I pointed her to the spare room, but if she’s got any sense she’s using up all the hot water right now.” Allison chuckled. “‘Cause if she doesn’t, I will. This place has a GOOD showerhead.”
“Please, you think I’d settle for a bad one? I know the value of a good shower.” Julian beamed.
Allison laughed again, and gestured to the fire. “How long before we can cook on it?”
“When the first logs are mostly ash.” Julian said. “About twenty minutes. You don’t rush a good fire.”
“You learned that from your Grampa?”
“And a whole lot more.”
“He teach you how to get a lady a beer?”
Julian chuckled. “Yes ma’am.”
She wrinkled her nose at him again. “Good boy.”
Grinning to himself, Julian hit the fridge in the garage. Grampa had been partial to Leinenkugel’s, and there were still a dozen bottles in the garage fridge, about the only things that hadn’t spoiled in the three years it had been unpowered. He grabbed two, used the bottle opener magnet to de-cap them, ducked under the canoe hanging from the ceiling, and returned to Allison, who had drawn her knees and arms towards her core and was fidgeting.
He handed over one of the beers and sat next to her. “You cold?”
“Kinda.”
“That, I can fix.” He scooted closer and slipped his left arm around her waist. She made a happy noise and snuggled into his side. “Better?”
“Better.”
“Good….good.”
She sipped her beer and turned to look up at him. “Are you okay?”
“Just…hey, uhm…Al, I’ve got kind of a confession. Something I need you to hear me out on and…well.”
“Hey.” she kissed him. “You’re telling me. That already means a lot. So…what’s up?”
“It’s about, um, Xiù. And, not what happened today. Something else.”
There was no way he imagined the way Allison went a little stiff under his arm. “Wwwhat about her?” she managed, completely failing at false nonchalance.
“She’s, uh…I’m pretty sure she’s got a crush on me.” Julian said. “Like, a BIG crush.”
“Oh. Yeah. Yeah, she does.” Allison agreed, relaxing again. “And…oh, you feel the same way, don’t you?”
“Uh… Yeah.” Julian swallowed. “Yeah, I do. Sorry. I figured I’d better get that out there so-”
Allison kissed him, gently. “I ain’t mad.” she promised. “Um…Since we’re being real, I kinda…I kinda have a crush on her too.”
Julian’s brain drew a blank on that one, and his face followed suit – he simply hadn’t considered that possibility.
“Y-” he began. He tried again. “Wh-? But y-?”
Allison giggled and kissed him again. “See? It’s okay. You did good, you were honest with me, I was honest with you. No fight.”
“Okay, okay, but run that bit by me again where you have a crush on Xiù?” He checked.
”…Yeah! I, uh…Yeah.”
“When you say you have a ‘crush’ on Xiù…?”
“I mean…” Allison took a giant slug of beer and set the bottle down. “I mean I guess I’m a little bit in love with her.”
Xiù Chang
Xiù’s breath caught in her throat and her hand stopped an inch from the screen door’s handle.
“Isn’t that what a crush means?” Allison asked. “She’s gorgeous, I like her a lot… Hell, I flirt with her, and she’s flirted back and, and my heart just starts going ba-bam, ba-bam. I’ve got a huge crush on her. Isn’t that what you meant when you said you’ve got a crush on her too?”
“Well… yeah. But I mean…aren’t you straight?” Julian asked. Neither he nor Allison had noticed Xiù moving around in the house.
“Hey, if you’re surprised, imagine how I feel!” Allison laughed, a touch desperately, and ran a hand through her hair before shrugging. “But there it is. I… yeah.”
Very carefully, Xiù stepped back from the screen door and listened, not daring to make a noise.
Allison seemed to gather her thoughts. “I’m kinda the jealous type. you know? Like, I guard what’s mine, and that includes… well, you. But I kinda shared you with her, didn’t I?”
“Only ‘kinda’? You enjoyed it.” Julian observed. “You had a great time! Right?”
“Yeah! And, so did you.”
“Yeah. You know how I get off on it.” He agreed. “But I’m not the jealous type.”
“Right… But you’re right. I enjoyed it. Hell, it was my idea.” she picked up her beer, swirled it thoughtfully, then drained the last of it. Julian was barely halfway through his.
The fire snapped and threw a handful of fire dust skywards. All three of them watched it fade.
“So you’re comfortable with her in a way you’re not comfortable with anyone else.” Julian summarized.
“Not quite. I’m comfortable with her the exact same way I’m comfortable with you. I mean…” She gesticulated helplessly to try and help her think. Julian handed her what was left of his beer, which she accepted with a smile and swigged. “…You think I’m hot. I think you’re hot. That’s what got us started on this, right? But what keeps it going for me is that we’re both… You’re kind of a misfit, babe. You don’t really belong here, just like me.”
“You don’t think we belong here?” Julian asked. He gestured around at the idyllic darkness around them, and Allison sighed.
“Right here?” she asked. “Maybe. A fire, a little place in the woods, a cold beer…Throw in some weed and it’d be perfect. But what about the rest of Earth? All the… the politics and the bullshit and the assholes who don’t see a person, they just see a, a…”
“An asset.” Julian suggested.
Allison nodded, staring into the fire. “Or an ass. Yeah. That’s it. That’s why I signed on with Kirk, ‘cause he was interested in people. S’why I really want to take this Byron offer, ‘cause I guess I get the same thing, that they’re interested in us.”
“Kirk still used us.” Julian pointed out.
“He found uses for ours skills, yeah. That’s not the same thing: with him it was still personal, you know?. That big white freak just… he was using me, not using me. You with me?”
”…You’re right.”
They were silent for a moment, and then Allison looked up and raised the bottle towards the brightest point of light in the sky. “To Kirk. Whichever star that is, here’s hoping it protects you.”
“That’s Venus.” Julian pointed out. “And I can’t toast ‘cause you’ve got my drink.”
Allison finished it. “You got more?”
“Yes ma’am.”
Xiù smiled as she watched Allison giggle and kiss him, and mouthed “Good boy” to herself at the exact same time as Allison said it.
He wasn’t gone long. They knocked their bottles together and drank.
“So… misfits.” Julian said, settling in beside her again after taking a second to check on the fire. “You really hate Earth that much?”
“I love Earth. It’s people I struggle with.” Allison corrected him.
“Xiù and I are people.”
“You’re not people, you’re Xiù and Julian. It’s… not the same thing.”
Julian rubbed the back of her neck. “What’s the difference?”
“You both make me feel like… you make me feel like Allison.”
“You are Allison.” Julian observed, plainly not following her.
“I mean you make me feel like a person. Like…” Allison took another giant swig of her beer. “Like you value me as me, and not for what you want from me. This whole shit with this house and the lawyers and the Byron Group, it’s just… it’s just people not giving a fuck about each other, and only thinking about what they can get. Using one another.”
“That’s what people do.” Julian agreed. “That’s… pretty much the whole of human civilization right there.”
“Exactly.”
“The aliens are no different.”
“No. But you are, and Xiù is. And that means a lot to me. It’s what I love about you.”
”…Both of us?”
“I guess so…” Allison finished the last of her second-and-a-halfth beer. “I’m still figuring that out. Whether it’s… I dunno. Whether it’s like a girl-bromance, or more than that.”
“What would it… If it is more than that, what would that mean for us?” Julian asked, carefully. “For you and me?”
Allison turned and kissed him.
It was a hot kiss, too. A bit needy, a bit reassuring, a whole lot of two people who were stupid for one another, expressing it. Allison’s hand snaked round the back of his head and gripped his hair, while his own hand came up to her face, on her cheek, brushing her eyebrow. Ordinarily, watching a kiss like that would have made Xiù feel awkward, or that she was intruding on their privacy. Instead…
Instead she felt warm inside, watching it. Happy. It was the first thing to bring a genuine smile to her face in weeks: it was beautiful.
She reached a decision.
She watched as they cooled down into smiles, pressing their noses and foreheads together, whispering happy reassurances that Xiù couldn’t hear. They both flinched when the screen door squealed open and Xiù stepped down out of the house.
“Uh… hey.” Julian managed. “You found the bed okay?”
“There’s only two, Julian.” Xiù told him, smiling. She could hear her own heartbeat, in her chest, in her ears and in her throat, punctuating the anticipation in her stomach. She took a breath and committed. “And, um… I love you guys too.”
Allison and Julian looked at each other. Then back at her. Then back to each other again.
“How much…” Allison cleared her throat and started over. “How much did you hear?”
“Probably all the important bits. You’re right.” Xiù said. She sat down in the dirt between Julian’s feet. “Since I got back here, you two are the only ones who’ve…”
She trailed off, then shrugged and smiled weakly at Allison before picking up a stick and poking at the fire. “I thought I’m straight too. So, I’m just as weirded out there as you are. But…. straight or not, it doesn’t really matter, because I’m not ready.” she told them. “For anybody.”
“You’re not?”
“I’m…no. I mean, God, I could watch you two all day, but the thought of actually doing anything just freaks me out. Maybe one day, I…but, no. Not soon, anyway.”
She sighed, then threw the stick in the fire. “I don’t want you to hurt each other for me. Okay? Please don’t ever do that. I want you both to be happy. That’s all I want from you.”
Allison scooted off the log to sit next to her, and hugged her hard. Xiù twisted around and buried herself into the hug, glad to be there. She felt Allison kiss and stroke her hair and hold her tight, and Julian….
Julian thumped down off the log, put his arms around them both, and held them. “Whatever we figure out, we figure out together.” he promised. “All of us.”
Xiù shut her eyes and embraced the sense of peace they were giving her. She was, she realised, finally, truly, and at long last…Home.