Alicia had almost lost the capacity for awe.
She was walking, up metal stairs, on the outside of a rather ordinary steel building on an all water planet, surrounded by crab aliens, holding hands with her monkey lover.
God, what would her parents think?
Probably, sad to say, the whole lesbian thing would freak them out the most. Her mother, in particular, seemed to have a real thing against that. Any time one of THOSE women showed up on TV, there'd be this disgusted rant that had nothing to do with sexual preferences, but, you know, had EVERYTHING to do with it. Dad would say nothing, just nod, a disapproving look in his eyes. A gay guy appearing on screen would signal his turn.
Hmm. Alicia hadn't thought of her family in awhile.
Turning her head, her eyes caught Justin's. He nodded. Justin was another thing her mother would have ranted about. Again, she never would have pointed out his skin color as an issue. She would just, well, point out possible problems with associating with one of his kind. The fact Alicia wasn't, technically, in a relationship with him wouldn't have mattered.
Nor, really, would that have been believed.
Alicia and Justin weren't in love. They weren't married. They were, both, married to Daium. They both wore her ring, and she wore two rings. It was a distinction that was almost the definition of splitting hairs, given they shared one "bed" (or at least floating space), and their bodies, freely among themselves. But it was one she had insisted on. She DIDN'T love him. There was no spark. If Alicia wasn't warmed up by Daium, she probably wouldn't even be wet enough to take his cock. Before this, she had been all heterosexual, so it wasn't that. The geek was just... well, you know.
She had come to like him, at least. The more time they spent together, the more a reasonable understanding had developed between them. That he would father her children was perfectly fine with her, and... well, who knew. Maybe love would blossom by then. Alicia was awaiting her next period to see if there in fact was one: if not, they'd discover if nine months was enough time for another pair of rings to be exchanged.
Alicia wasn't gay, either. Fifteen minutes alone with Tammy had confirmed that, which both luckily, afterwards, had been able to laugh about. Justin had started calling her "Daiumsexual", a reference to some game called Dragon Age 2. In that game, apparently, rather than give the characters consistent personalities, as in the first installment, the creators made them all attracted to whatever gender the player's character was. She could buy that. The theory about herself, that is, not the game. She didn't care for fantasy games that much.
Which made it all the more ironic that her life was now a fantasy.
At the top of the third flight of stairs, Alicia stopped. Her legs were hurting.
"Can we pause a moment, guys?" She squeezed Daium's warm hand, getting one in return. Justin nodded.
"Sounds good." Letting go of Daium's other hand, he moved over to the railing on the small balcony. Stairs continued up for another two floors. Looking out over the endless ocean, he chuckled. "I'm wondering why the hell there ARE stairs, to be honest. Not very multi-species friendly." He turned to look at Daium. "What are we going up to, anyway?"
With a sigh, and a pause to lean down and rub her calf muscles, Daium leaned back against the tan brick wall.
"There is a former... Orang office, on the top floor. They made only stairs to keep most from reaching it."
"Sort of an embassy?" Her expression showed she clearly didn't know that word, so Justin tried again. "A place for diplomates, to help with trade and other things?" Daium shrugged and nodded.
"Close enough. It closed, when..."
She went silent.
Alicia and Justin exchanged another glance.
"OK," Alicia told her lover, moving to sit on the metal landing, "dish." They were on the shaded side of the building, luckily, so the metal was cool. The last thing she wanted was a burned ass.
Daium looked down at her, confused.
"Dish?"
"Tell us," Justin translated, sitting down himself, leaning back against one of the railing supports. "What the heck are you and Rinda keeping to yourself?"
Daium looked between the two. Alicia smiled, patting the floor next to her. With a sigh, Daium let herself slide down the wall, onto her butt. Bringing her knees up to her chest, green skirt rising to reveal green panties, she hugged her legs.
"It..." she started, then paused. Looking over at Justin, she asked, "On Earth. How many races are there?"
Alicia wondered why she'd want to know about that, or why she'd even think there were different races of humans. It's not like the difference in fur color between Daium and Rinda seemed to indicate different races. She saw Justin furrow his brow for a moment, before widening his eyes in understanding.
"Now? None. There's just humans. Long ago, there were more. Every year we learn more about them, where they were and how long they lasted. The last were what we call Neanderthals, who lived in Europe when Humans came out of Africa a hundred thousand or so years ago. I can't remember the exact dates. They had fire, art, possibly religion, but so far as we can tell they died out after a few thousand more years of living beside us. Some think we bred with them, but I'm not sure if that's proven." Alicia was impressed. She hadn't even considered that meaning to her words. Justin then laughed. "Oh, almost forgot, a few years ago they found remains of some very short human-like creatures that lived only a few thousand years ago. They're not sure if they're mutated humans, or a different race that survived alongside man." He looked at Daium. "Why?"
She hugged her knees tighter.
"There were three races on Tanah, when the first cities were built. The Orang, the Khn, and Nhan Dan. We were similar, but different, as the species of similar animals are different. We... sometimes we fought, sometimes we had peace. As the world filled, we fought more."
She paused. Alicia reached over, running her hand through the soft black and grey fur on her arm. This didn't seem to help, but Daium went on.
"The Orang were the first into space. The first to reach orbit, the first to reach the next planet. There... we discovered aliens."
The two humans leaned forward, eyes wide. Daium looked between them, sadly.
"When I discovered you and your friends were from a new world, were innocents in the ways of the universe, I was afraid I'd be repeating the errors of that first contact. They... the Pobl told us about the universe. About what was out there. They offered to trade, needing fuel mined for their ship to make it home. We did. We traded for knowledge, for... for weapons." She swallowed. "Five years later, the Khn and Nhan Dan were no more."
Alicia's veins filled with ice. Genocide. She saw Justin's expression harden. Daium just nodded, eyes downcast.
"That was a century ago. The Orang used the knowledge. Went out into the universe. We explored those systems around us. Found three of them populated, by unrelated bird-like creatures. They occupied the first worlds we had seen nearby that could hold Orangs. And, the birds on two of the worlds were primitive. We..."
"You attacked." Justin's words were cold.
"We destroyed them. Wiped out two whole races, on two worlds. My... Father was appalled. He, as a youngster, had supported the first attack, thinking maybe the creatures would surrender, be made subservient." She shook her head. "He was young, and a fool. He realized his mistake too late. He tried to stop the second, joining the government, trying to gain influence and allies. But... he was one Orang. Even my sister, my Uncles and Aunts, were for the wars. I was the only one on his side.
"Word spread about the Orang. Our traders, to the wider universe, began to be looked on with suspicion... hate. We were young, upstarts, bursting out of our system like a plague. Father heard rumors that forces were gathering to contain us. He... he decided to stop the madness before we were destroyed."
"But it didn't work," Alicia said, quietly. Shifting over, she pressed the side of her body against Daium, arm going around her.
"No... he... didn't tell me his plan. I didn't know he told the Ludzie they were our next target. I thought he was just telling the military that the plans had been leaked, to try and get them to call it off. I... I didn't think!" Turning, Daium buried her head in Alicia's chest, crying.
Holding her sobbing wife, Alicia looked at Justin. He was staring out onto the spaceport spread out below them. Their ship, the Bells, was just barely in view. She saw him take a deep breath... and let it out.
"Does Rinda know what your father did?"
"No," she sniffled, head coming up. Her glasses were askew, the four lenses a bit fogged up. Alicia gently removed them, pulling a tissue out of her pocket to wipe the round lenses, returning it to Daium's face without comment. "Well... Rinda doesn't even know we're related. My Uncle introduced me as just a Captain, not her cousin. She probably knows the name of the traitor, and hates him."
"And you don't want to tell her, obviously." Groaning, Justin pushed himself to his feet. Daium looked up at him in fear.
"I can't tell her. Please, Justin... let the knowledge die with my people. Once we are far enough away... it will not matter."
"What's up there?" Justin looked up the side of the building, the door not quite visible through the two metal landings above.
"Receivers. Collecting, decoding, all transmissions. I... it can tell us what the people here know, if we've outrun knowledge of what happened. Or if events have overtaken us."
"It's still there?" Alicia asked. Daium nodded, standing, helping Alicia to her feet.
"One of the messages you detected but couldn't decode was from here. It will let us in."
****
Justin followed Daium into the "embassy".
The three found themselves in a reception room. A desk, probably for a secretary, sat near the door. Seats lined the walls of the small rectangular room. Coming in behind him, Alicia closed the door and looked around.
"Why is it deserted?"
"There were... local problems. The government pulled most of our people out of places like this." Sliding her hand along the edge of the wooden desk, Daium walked around it to a carved wooden door. Pausing for a second to remember, she began touching various wooden symbols.
Justin felt Alicia's breath on his right ear.
"What do you think?" she whispered. Eyes sliding to her face, he saw the return of the calculating bitch. His gaze flicked back to Daium.
"Trust her, not them."
She nodded into his shoulder, stepping away. The door on the far side opened, revealing a larger room with computer monitors. Daium turned to them.
"In here."
****
Daium slid into one of the padded chairs, hands quickly manipulating the keyboard. She didn't want to take too long here. Yes, every race probably had a place like this on every world they could, but it still, technically, was against local laws. Having the system reply back had been a risk: a spy station that only listens is undetectable.
She started with the month old news, that which had the most time to be decoded and confirmed.
Nothing.
No mention of the Orang, of Tanah. Every ship that arrived at a port broadcast the news from its last port of call (a feature she had disabled on the Bells), as that was the fastest way to send information. The home worlds of some empires sent out unmanned, incredibly fast courier probes to their colonies, but they were outside such a system. The names of a few Ludzie ships triggered alerts, but the news from them was the usual nothing.
She let out a sigh.
Grabbing a memory stick from a pile next to her, she shoved it into a slot and began downloading the data. Some of it might be useful later. On the screen, that morning's ship arrivals scrolled up...
****
Chuck pushed the handcart down the street, one eye on the women in front of them, the other on a roll of fabric not quite settled on the pile. Deciding not to chance it, he reached out and moved it over a touch, securing his load without breaking stride. Next to him, Anthony pushed a similar cart piled with boxes and bags of unknown food. The mustached manager looked over at the stock boy.
"Brings back memories, doesn't it?"
"It's good to know our lives haven't changed."
They stopped, noticing the girls looking over yet another stand. This one had various alien fish, displayed both on ice and live in tanks. Tammy, consulting with Rinda, had already bought crates of perishable food items, including some seafood, ordering them delivered to the ship. The Orang had given her a small device which could sample items, check to see if they were not too poisonous and had some nutritional value. The Humans had already given it a good workout as they cut a path through the markets. They were on their third city block sized platform, the ship a good mile or more away.
Chuck stretched.
"You know," he told Anthony, voice at a reasonable but still easily heard level, "I heard you and Hannah talking about gender stereotypes the other day. I have to agree with her: the whole thing about women and shopping is just silly. You never see that in real life."
"Oh, I know," Anthony agreed, leaning on the cart. "Now that I've had time to think about her argument, I'm in full agreement. Women aren't genetically geared towards shopping any more than men are. The whole cliche of men following their wives around carrying packages is just something you find in comic strips."
"You know we can hear you," Melinda commented without turning. The others were ignoring them.
"That's the only reason to speak," Chuck replied cheerfully. Eyes shifting around, he lowered his voice, leaning a bit towards Anthony. "Rinda is still drawing stares."
Anthony nodded.
"We're a bit too far from home. Time to head back." He raised his voice. "Hannah. It's getting late. Unless you've picked something out, let's start back."
The five women turned as one, alerted by the change in tone. Rinda's eyes met Chuck's, following his gaze as it shifted to a three foot tall orange frog. Its large yellow eyes never left the Orang, although it showed no indication of doing anything more. Eyes going back to Chuck, Rinda nodded.
"Let's head back," she told the others. "I'll remember how to get here. We can come back tomorrow."
"You sure?" Nona gestured at a tank of live blue shrimp. "Surely, we have time..."
A loud squawk from up the street silenced her.
Chuck's hand dropped to the pistol holstered on his belt. Anthony and Rinda did the same, all eyes going to a commotion fifty feet ahead. Creatures were quickly moving aside, clearing a path. A path for...
They were Raptors. Green feathered Raptors. That's the only way Chuck could describe the three aliens now stopped in the middle of the street. Easily eight feet tall, they had both small feathered arms, and large wings, now extended upward as if to make themselves more fearsome. Yellow beaks, and red tuffs of feathers on their head completed the picture.
Their yellow eyes on Rinda, the center one spoke.
****
"Orang!"
Rinda shuddered at the squawk of the Ludzie. She had never seen one in person. Had never fought one. The battle of Traitor's Ambush had been ship to ship, she just a helpless passenger, her fate out of her hands. Here, before them, speaking Common like some freak, were the creatures who had destroyed her people. Her world. Her family...
She stepped out from the shop stall. She had to distract them. Keep them focused on her, not the Humans. This wasn't their fight. These seemed to not be soldiers, at least. Probably just the crew of some ship, looking for a fight.
She'd give it to them.
"What do you Egg Layers want?"
Insults do not translate well, cross species. Rinda tried to overcome this, putting all the distain she had into her words. Stopping in the middle of the street, forty feet from the abominations, she crouched slightly, fingers twitching next to her two holstered pistols.
A smiling beak is a frightening thing. Three formed on three feathered faces before her.
"I want to tell you of your world, Furred One. We want to tell you of what we did to your home. Your trees. Your babies..."
These creatures had done no such thing. They were soft. Had been nowhere near the fighting. Rinda's eyes flicked to the spectators. She felt the mood. They were against her. If she did anything...
The leftmost Ludzie's hands suddenly dropped to something hidden in its feathers, where a waist on a civilized creature would be. Rinda's hands grabbed her pistols. Before they were even half way out, she saw two metal rods come up out of those feathers. Too slow. She was too slow...
A series of bangs rang out from behind her.
All three of the feathered monstrosities let go squawks of pain and surprise, rearing back as chunks of red flesh and feathers exploded from their chests. The one tried to bring its two guns to bear on the new threat, but two more shots tore into it, spinning the creature around.
All three fell to the ground.
Rinda spun. It was Anthony and Chuck. Behind the cover of the two carts, they had drawn, covering her, firing at the first sign of danger. They... it had not been her protecting them, but...
Chuck darted forward to her, weapon still out.
"Melinda! Take my cart! To the ship! We'll decoy!" She saw Anthony already spinning his cargo laden cart around.
"Wha..!"
"YOU'RE the target!" Chuck grabbed her arm, pulling her off between two stalls. Her weapons, half drawn, fell back into their holsters.
Behind her, she could hear the crowd crying out for medics, for security... for justice.