Daium was panicking.
A first contact! Her meeting with these strange fur-less creatures was a first contact, and she was fucking it up!
Oh, by the First Tree, this was bad. Yes, her situationwas bad, that of her people, her culture... but, a first contact! Ruining a new species! How would she ever face her ancestors, let alone herself! Everything she had been taught, everything she'd ever read, everything she BELIEVED, went against what she had done!
But, what could she have done?
Her father was dead. Killed, by the very ones who should have been helping him. Killed because he would not help them on a hopeless path. Killed, because it was already over...
She looked out at them, sitting at the table. Waiting. Waiting for her, the black furry stranger, to tell them about a universe they were in no way ready for. Could she just... lie? Just make something up, then hope to get them home quickly, before they found out? No... no, mostly because she had no hope of returning them. They could be from anywhere in the universe.
Daium's eyes flicked over to Nona. It was her fault. She spoke the sacred language. Why, in the name of the ancestors, would Daium even consider that someone speaking that language was from some unknown primitive world? What were the odds of the same language developing twice, and the two coming into contact? She mentally sighed. It was probably caused by something quantum. Professor Arliza always blamed this kind of thing on quantum anomalies.
Well... what was done, was done. She had to tell them. Tell them what they were in for. Tell them about the place they'd be spending the rest of their lives.
May her father forgive her.
"This is the planet Tanah."
Writing the name next to her neatly drawn circle on the wall, she heard Nona repeat it in their strange language. Taking a deep breath, she went on.
"We are here, in the northern wastelands. My people, the Orang... We are from here. Were created by the Gods and put here, so the stories go. Put here in paradise. Not HERE, in the land of endless snow, but the rest of Tanah, the forests, the lakes, home..." She paused. Not so much to let the translation catch up, but to get a hold of herself. Just the thought of home, family... maybe if she kept her back to these creatures, she could think.
"There... there are many, many worlds." That's it, she thought. Treat this like they were children. "Many species and many cultures on many worlds. Some have banded together, work together. Some have spread out and conquered. Others keep to themselves, or hide. As you see among the animals and creatures of any forest, so the galaxy is no different. We who travel among the stars find our own niche, our place in the evolutionary ecosystem... or we die." Daium could hear Nona have problems with a couple of those words, but she pressed on. "My people, as of this week... have died."
"WHAT?!?"
Nona's cry of surprise was ignored. Still facing the white writing board, Daium hung her head.
"We... we went, we did, what we shouldn't have. We went against what nature said we should, what our role was in the universe of life. And... we are paying."
She could feel it coming. The sorrow. Last night, she had cried herself to sleep, her father dead in the other room. She thought she could get away with just that. An hour's grief, then get on with life. With what had to be done. But, no. She wanted Dad. And Mom. And her sister. Where was Sumi? Was she even still in this world?
"We... They attacked. Showed us our place, how little we mattered. And, I can't blame them. We would have done it too. Would have, were GOING to if what Father said was true. But, they came first... oh, forgive us..."
Daium fell to her knees. The tears came. It was gone. All gone. The Forest of the Ancestors. The City of Light. The Orang...
The universe had spoken. The Orang were not needed.
She felt hands on her shoulders. Felt her body being turned, her head brought to rest against soft fabric covering a beating heart. Brown arms wrapped around her. A voice... she didn't understand a syllable of that voice, but it spoke to her soul.
It's name was Justin.
****
Alicia watched as Justin held the crying fur ball on the floor.
None of this made sense. None of it. And, she didn't want it to make sense. She wanted it to be a dream. A fantasy. As Jesus was her savior, all she wanted was to wake up and be home with her parents. And Daren. Beautiful, hunky Daren... if this was a dream, why couldn't he be here with her? Even more so if this was real! He'd know what to do. He'd know how to save them...
But, instead, she had... well, Chuck was OK. As a friend, although not more. He made her laugh, and was easy to talk to, but that was it. And Anthony was funny. As for everyone else... they didn't like her. She knew that. They thought, because she was blond, that she was dumb. That because of her scar, she was ugly. They hadn't seen her with all her makeup on: you could barely see it then, and she looked smoking hot when she put her mind to it. And, damn it, she wasn't dumb! She could think! Just because she didn't CARE much of the time, didn't mean she couldn't do all they could do (if not more) when she wanted to.
Take now, for example. She wanted to go home. Nothing was more important. If, as this thing had said, they were on some planet far from Earth, how would they get home? With a ship. This creature had come here, with her father, fleeing war. How do you flee a planet at war?
"Nona... ask her if she has a space ship."
It came out of her quiet, cold. Chuck shot her a glance, proof that the whining slut Melinda couldn't hold his attention when Alicia wanted it. Not that Alicia cared. The rest of the room was still focused on the crying monkey, so, pushing back her chair and standing, she tried again.
"Nona, ask Daium if she and her father came up here because they have a spaceship."
Anthony cast a disapproving glance at her.
"Later, please."
"No, Anthony, now. We don't have much time."
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"Is no one here thinking but me?" She closed her eyes. God, they could be so stupid, distracted by some crying pet. "Look, evil people came last night and killed her dad, right? They were looking for something. And didn't find it." Her eyes opened, catching Anthony's. "Don't you think they'll be back? Don't you think they'll come, tear that house apart, look around the area... and see our little store here? Don't you think we should probably try and HIDE, or FLEE? Wouldn't that be GOOD? God!" She pound on the table, now the center of everyone's attention. Even the chimp was staring at her, all four eyes wide in surprise. "If the two of them came here to flee, or fight back, or whatever, then what she's hiding is probably something we need! Let's find out!"
In the silence that followed, she saw Nona drop to one knee and begin to whisper to Daium. Good. Tell her. Alicia watched the alien's reaction. Her four eyes widened... then closed. Her head dropped... and she nodded, slowly, as if it took all her will. Justin, still holding her, put a hand on the back of her head and began to pet Daium. Alicia turned to Anthony.
"Looks like I was right."
****
"Mother fucker..."
Anthony just stared. They had landed on top of it. Literally. Well, maybe a bit to the side, but, damn it, no wonder Daium couldn't believe her eyes when she saw the store. Her secret spaceship was right under it! She probably had given them power in the hope they could then fly off and leave her in peace!
The hidden elevator shaft had popped up from under the snow not five feet from the power outlet now connected to the store. All nine of them had fit in it easily, the car having probably been designed for cargo. It had no walls or railing, either, which made the short trip down very memorable. Alicia had clung to him, a feeling he had enjoyed even as Hannah rolled her eyes. Hey, if they were going to start a human colony a billion light years from Earth, the DNA from the three males would have to be spread around a bit.
Yeah, right. Keep dreaming.
After maybe twenty feet of dirt and rock, the view in front of them opened up, and there she was. A space ship. Not even thirty feet away. Fucking cool.
Now, naturally, all of them had seen space ships. Humans had been making them for over half a century. But, Anthony had to admit, this was something else. For one thing, it was big. Easily longer than a football stadium, and he doubted all of it was engines like the largest Earth ones. As the elevator came to a stop at the walkway running level with the middle of the ship, he tried to take it all in.
The front was a sphere. Recalling the house, (and had it only been this morning when they had seen that?), these aliens obviously liked their spheres and domes. Maybe forty feet in diameter, it was as smooth as glass, the color reminding him of nothing so much as wood from a cherry tree. Stretching out behind this was... well, it almost looked like half an egg on its side. The flat oval upper surface stretched out easily three hundred feet. Behind that, another sphere, smaller than the one at this end, with a number of smaller spheres attached to it. It was as he was trying to make out more detail on this apparent engine that he realized the middle section actually WAS egg shaped: the upper half was a clear dome.
Daium walked forward a few paces, then turned to face the intruders. She gestured, as if to say, "Well, there it is. Now what?" She didn't look happy.
Anthony sighed. Looking over her at the ship, he wondered the same thing. Now what? Leave? Abandon the store? It had food, if nothing else. The effort to unload all of it would be immense. And, despite Alicia's rather good points... his gaze dropped back to Daium. It wasn't theirs. They couldn't just take it, or even demand a ride. He had morals, damn it, at least outside the bedroom. The people who had killed her father had been, not the aliens now nuking the rest of the planet or whatever was going on, but her own people. Soldiers, or something, who wanted the ship. He, they, humans, were better than that.
"Nona, tell her... tell Daium that the ship is hers. She can do what she wants. We won't take it."
"Like hell!" Alicia practically spat it at him, scar a dark red on her smooth white face.
"Shut up and listen! Daium, we are your friends. Or, most of us want to be." His harsh gaze silenced the angry blonde. "We also want to go home, to our families... or, at least, where we can be safe. If you can fly your ship, and you were planning on leaving anyway... please, let us accompany you."
She had been planning on leaving. Anthony was sure about that. She had packed, after all. Filled a backpack with the intention of never going back to that house. The culture was different enough that he wasn't going to fault her for leaving her father there. Hell, on a practical side, moving him would tell the world there had been a survivor.
...Anthony had flipped him over.
Fuck.
The black furred girl's eyes bore into him, as she digested the translation. Her eyes flicked to Alicia... then Anthony saw them slide over to Justin. She... God damn it, if Anthony wasn't seeing her blush looking at the kid. Well. This could be good or bad. He hated dealing with hormonal teens.
Which, yes, meant he'd made a horrible career choice.
Daium's eyes came back to meet his. Slowly, she nodded, turning slightly to Nona.
"Nona, bagaimana anda berkata, 'ya'?"
"Yes."
Daium took a step forward, holding her right hand out, palm facing him. Her other hand took his left, putting it up against hers. Her skin was unexpectedly smooth.
"Yes, Anthony. Yes."
****
There was a tree in the ship.
A tree.
In the ship.
On the bridge, no less. Right there, going from the bottom of the sphere up to the ceiling, a tree. Trunk, branches, leaves, the works.
Captain Picard would never have stood for that.
Melinda just shook her head, eyes unable to focus anywhere else. They'd entered the bridge sphere through a hatch right in the middle, and found themselves on a six foot wide walkway running all the way around the circumference. Various control panels with seats were set against the wall, ringing that damned tree. Over on her left, two sets of short stairways, one up and one down, led to two doors. It took a moment for her to figure out that one must lead into the hull of the middle section, while the other led to that large flat enclosed upper section.
There was so much wasted space. That was her main problem with it. The ship had this huge open sphere, and the only thing used was this ring? It made no sense!
"Um," Chuck said, next to her, "why are there control panels on the ceiling?"
"What?" She looked up. Well, God damn it... there WERE control stations of some sort up there. All around! Walking over to the edge of the circular walkway, which thank the heavens DID have a railing, real wood too, she looked down. The lower sphere had various computer or whatever stations as well! What the hell!
"Ha!" It was Tammy this time with the insight, grinning. "It's gravity! Or, no gravity! Once this ship is in space, there's no gravity, so you can float anywhere!"
"What kind of sci fi ship doesn't have gravity? I want my money back." Chuck shook his head disgusted. He paused, then looked over at Nona.
"Can she fly this by herself? There's an awful lot of places for a crew to man."
Daium listened to the question, pondered for a moment, then slowly nodded at Chuck.
"Yes." She paused, considered again, adjusted her glasses, then nodded a bit more confidently. "Ya. Yes. Yes."
"She knows one word," Alicia muttered. "Wonderful."
Daium pulled Nona's head close to hers, the two whispering. After a moment their heads separated, Daium straightening her shoulders as her eyes met Alicia's.
"Bitch."
That did it. Seven humans collapsed in laughter, while the remaining one raised her eyebrows and regarded her rival. Daium returned the gaze. Looking at the two through tears, Melinda could only shake her head.
This was going to be interesting.
****
"No, seriously, what do we do now?"
Hannah stood close to Anthony, bodies touching in a way she still couldn't rationalize in her mind. She loved her husband, damn it, had loved him through two years of marriage and at least a year before that. So, why had she suddenly jumped a coworker at the first opportunity? Why did she feel... so at ease with this guy? And why, more importantly, was it only the thought of little Mary, and not Mark, that made her want to go home?
The tall, lanky, mustached twenty something put his arm around her. She knew he was with someone, too, although she thought that bond was only a week or so old. Hannah pressed closer to him, enjoying the feel of his body heat. She thought too much.
They were standing next to a bridge console, watching as Daium sat in a chair and put floor plans of the ship up on a screen. There were no computer monitors, per say, but instead the entire curved inner hull of the bridge was one big touchscreen. You could put your images anywhere. The ghost of Jobs would be proud, although he might not like the varnished wood used for seemingly everything. The ship, Daium had told them, had been a hobby of her father's. When done, he had planned to take the extended family to the stars, living on their own for years at a time as they saw the universe. Thus, it was built to be beautiful and artful as well as functional. The house where they had found her was the same, a retreat where they could stay while playing with the ship. As for why her father was building the ship way up here, away from everyone... well, Daium had not really wanted to question him about that. She was sure he had his reasons.
"What I can't understand", Chuck was saying, leaning in close to the image, "is the point of that upper dome. What were you going to put there?"
"Bapa mahu taman."
"Her father was going to put a garden up there."
"Man," Alicia muttered, "they like trees."
"I'm just curious as to how they'd grow in zero gravity," Nona replied.
Hannah felt Anthony release her, stepping forward. His face... he obviously had thought of something. Dropping down to one knee next to Daium's chair, he got her attention.
"Daium. Is there a way, maybe, that you could just move the entire store into that part of the ship?"
"You have GOT to be fucking kidding," Nona told him, face incredulous. His eyes wandered up to hers, as Daium just looked at the two in confusion.
"Just translate it, Nona. Can we put the store here?" He pointed to the upper dome.
Hannah watched Daium's face as the request was relayed. Her white fur lined eyes widened, then darted down to the alien keyboard. A second later the image of the store was projected onto the wall, obviously from some external security camera. Alien measurements popped up all over the picture. Daium's long black fingers danced over the keys, calculations scrolling up before them. Her brows furrowed, glasses sliding a bit down her nose.
As suddenly as she had started, her fingers stopped their task. One raised to push her glasses back up, after which her whole body seemed to shake. Her head fell forward, the string of colored wood beads by her right ear swinging down like a plumb line.
"Bodoh." It came out soft. "Bodoh. Bodoh, bodoh, BODOH!" Daium's head came up, falling backwards, mouth and eyes full of hysterical laughter.
Amused, Anthony raised an eyebrow at her.
"So, assuming 'bodoh' means something like 'stupid', is that a yes?"
"Yes!"
****
"No."
"Come on, Chuck, why?"
"Because Justin and I have this down, and Alicia needs your help up front. Just go, Melinda!"
Justin kept his mouth shut. He had never been one for getting involved in the fights of others, mostly out of fear they'd turn on him. He had been small enough most of his life that even the weakest girl had a good chance of thrashing him, and a few had. Just one more thing that had added bricks to the wall (Oh, the disbelief on his Dad's face when he caught Justin listening to "white boy" music like Pink Floyd. You'd have thought he had just spit in the face of Chuck D).
The two males had been tasked with, for want of a better word, wrapping up the store. There was no way, no matter how gentle Orang tech was, the various bottles and cans were going to stay on store shelves through the move. Hell, beyond that, they weren't designed for zero g either. So... the two teens were using large rolls of clear plastic (or its alien equivalent) to wrap up the shelves. The Daium supplied wrap wasn't much different than what was used to wrap the various pallets of product delivered to the store, although thicker and more like a garbage bag. The girls were supposed to be doing other parts of the store. But, naturally, that meant Chuck would be out of his stalker's sight...
Melinda... looked like she had just been kicked. Without another word, she vanished. Chuck just sighed.
"No, before you ask, I don't know what the fuck is going on." Using the knife Daium had given them, he cut the end of the roll and held the new edge of the wrap as Justin quickly taped it up. "Mind you, that's the case with more things than just Melinda."
"Hey, I'm not gonna press."
"Thanks."
They moved the upright roll over to the shelves on the other side of the aisle.
"So... last night, did you and her...?"
"Go boing boing?"
"Well, I wasn't going to put it in such romantic terms..." He paused as one of the small robots, a squat wood trimmed R2 unit for want of a better description, rolled up to the base of the shelf and began attaching brackets and fasteners to secure the unit to the floor. "You know, if these things don't hold, we're going to have these huge fucking shelves floating around in here. I'm not gonna like that."
"Too bad. I'm gonna make sure Anthony sends you in first."
"Thanks..."
****
Anthony pointed to the two cars parked on the side of the store.
"Take those first, make sure they're fastened down somewhere out of the way." Daium made a note in her hand held computer, as much like a Maple encased iPad as anything else. "Take that trailer, too. It's not actually attached to the store. I'll lower the metal shutter."
Nona relayed it, then put a hand to her forehead.
"Anthony, I'm getting damned tired of translating. I'm sorry. Thinking in Malay makes my brain hurt."
He chuckled.
"Well, once we get settled I'm sure she'll start picking up more English. We outnumber her, so even without our famous English language bias it just makes sense for her to learn our language. I'm sure we'll start picking up some words too."
"I'll make sure I drop some for you."
****
It was an incredible sight.
The large doors over the spaceship hanger had opened, tons of snow falling down on the ship as a result. Staying safely on the bridge, they had heard it banging against the hull, worse than the loudest Buffalo hail storm. Once the blizzard had stopped, the humans walked out of the ship to watch the rest of the proceedings with their own eyes. The clear dome over the middle section had opened up, retracting into the lower hull itself. Large robotic cranes traveled up tracks onto the surface, gently grabbed the store... and began moving it.
Naturally, the structure wasn't designed to be lifted. Braces had been added to the walls, and as soon as it was a couple feet off the ground an army of small robots came tearing out of the pit to screw and glue supports to the cement foundation and the building itself. Within half an hour it was like the bottom of the store had gained a second skin. Gently, the cranes moved the Bells first over the ship, letting their workplace seemingly float before their eyes, then lowered it down. It took ten minutes to make the eighty foot trip, the whirl of motors echoing in the cavern.
With a thud... it was done.
****
"I have to agree, it does look incredibly stupid."
"Oh, I don't know," Anthony replied, arm around Hannah, looking up at the ship. "Once we get it hooked up to power again, just picture the ship flying through space with that red neon Bells sign lit up! That's style, that's what it is. All the better spaceships will be copying us."
"It's a good thing you're sexy, or nobody would listen to a word you say."
"Oh, don't I know it. Speaking of which... we'd better go check out the office. Make sure it survived the move..."
****
Anthony's finger ran down her bare back, tracing her spine. Hannah shivered. That touch... much more so then the hard cock inside her, it was that gentleness... oh, God, what was she doing?
She rose, raising her body off of him. He was still as hard as when they started, something she was in no way complaining about. Mark had been growing distant, becoming a five minute wonder. Sitting up, she looked down at her lover. His eyes... Anthony's eyes were not on her breasts, or where they were joined. They were on her face, on her own eyes. His hands, now that her back was unavailable, were tracing patterns on her thighs. Hannah raised herself up, slowly, until just the tip was still in her, until just the head of his manhood connected them... with a groan, she lowered herself, beginning to ride him. Up, down... she could feel her breasts bouncing. She wanted him to touch them. Not grab them, like Mark did, but...
Anthony's fingers gently cupped her breasts. He let her own movements rub her nipples against his palms. She leaned forward, letting the pressure increase, her own hands dropping to his chest to support herself. God, she was going to come again. She was going to come, and come, until he finally released into her. Until he...
Until he made her feel wanted.
****
They were lying on the office floor, the part not currently littered with discarded clothing. The rug, Hannah had to admit, was not the softest. There was also the occasional nail sticking up a bit, one reason she had rolled him over and gotten on top this time. He, however, made a nice mattress, feeling warm against her skin. She shifted a bit, dragging more of her left breast onto his chest. An unseen hand slid up her thigh and cupped and rubbed an ass cheek.
"Why are we doing this?" she whispered. She wasn't sure she wanted an answer, but...
"Probably something quantum."
Her body began shaking, giggles more than laughter threatening to burst from her uncontrollably. She pressed her head into Anthony's shoulder, in a losing effort to regain control. After a few moments... tears of laughter became tears of grief. His arms, strong, moved to pull her closer. Hannah sobbed.
"That's why," he whispered. "Shh... I'm here..."
****
The room had probably been shaking for a few seconds before Anthony noticed. The contents of Lenny's desk, under the plastic sheet, had begun to vibrate in the corner of his eye. Hannah must have felt something too, as her red eyes quickly lifted. He could feel her half grabbing on to him tighter, half pushing up to get a better look.
"What is it?!?"
The shaking increased, now accompanied by a slight pressure downwards. Anthony's eyes shot open.
"We're taking off!"
****
"Duduk!!"
"Everyone, sit down!!"
Nona slammed herself into the nearest seat on the bridge. It wasn't the most comfortable thing, her ass and that of Daium's people obviously being slightly different, but that was the least of her worries. Her hand grabbed blindly over her shoulder, looking for the strap she knew was there. Her eyes were up on the wall over in front of Daium. A vehicle. A vehicle, visible from a camera mounted somewhere outside Daium's house, coming towards them.
From their new friend's reaction, this was NOT good.
"Where the hell are Anthony and Hannah?" Chuck's cry came as another image showed Daium already had the ship starting to rise up from its moorings. Bringing the safety strap over her chest and slamming the end into its mate by her thigh, she looked around and counted. Everyone else was here.
"I saw them going into the store!" Tammy yelled, as the unfamiliar whine of engines increased. "They should be fine!"
"Look! More trucks!"
They'd cleared the opening of the secret hanger. The ship, now visible to the world, increased its speed. The first vehicle, a strange affair with tank treads, had just reached the house when Daium cut the feed. Nona swung her head up to her... only to have her eyes distracted by the most beautiful sight in the universe. The entire curved hull of the ship... had vanished. All around them... sky. Sky... moving from reddish blue to black, from planet bound... to space.
"My God," Melinda whispered, "it's full of stars…"