The Odyssey was holding position five thousand kilometres away from Warfaisser station where the Ultimate Music Festival was due to take place. They’d been held up for about six hours waiting for permission to approach and dock. Drumming his fingers on the smooth aerogel counter in front of him Taran sighed and ruffled his feathers grumpily. He then jumped up and started for the hatch but Chantelle caught his arm.
“Where are you going bro?”
“This is taking forever, I’m going to go see what is taking Seinu so long.”
“No you’re not,” Chantelle chirped, “Our hosts are telepathic, all you’d do is distract him whilst he’s negotiating with them.”
“But I’m booored,” Taran grumbled, “There is a whole station of aliens to meet over there! Naha and his pack were allowed to dock straight away!”
“Probably because their rented ship is unarmed, if you’d wanted to go with them you should have gone on their ship like Firi,” Chantelle said, “If you’re bored you can let me fix your crest. It’s a scruffy mess.”
“I like it this way,” he ran a hand over his head, intentionally fluffing up the short down, “I’ll just carry on reviewing flight data and file my reports on the shake-down cruise.”
The orange and teal avali slumped into a beanbag and called up the report he’d been working on. Closing his eyes he let his cybernetic eyes and augmented neural link filter the flight data directly from the ship’s computer into his brain. It was fascinating to read, the Odyssey had performed beyond their wildest expectations. All systems were in the green and Taran was quite proud at how the integration of Ifelse had gone. He’d spent time grow-programming the AI from scratch basing their base personality off a mixture of several avali he knew plus the native behaviour of the Jakub. He was no store-bought basic system manager; he had been grown to fit the Odyssey’s systems and his adaptation had been progressing along very encouraging lines.
He was reading through the very boring results of the waste reclamation system when he found an error log in the system from Ifelse, the orange avali read through the AIs concerns then sat up and called out to them, “Ifelse are you there?”
“Online Taran,” the AI said, their teal feathered avatar flickering into view atop a nearby shelving unit. They clambered up and turned their head around to glance down at him.
“I was just reading your error log on waste reclamation,” Taran said, “Your readings are correct, there is no fault, Seinu isn’t flesh and blood like the rest of us so doesn’t ah… use the system like we do.”
“Oh,” Ifelse paused and their plumage flickered with orange coding symbols, “This is not in the personnel record I have on Seinu, may I have access to the un-redacted files?”
“Ah sure,” Taran said and brought up a screen, “Sorry I didn’t think about the fact that Seinu is classified…” he frowned at the info on his screen and turned to nudge Selenu with one foot.
She stirred on her beanbag and opened one eye to stare at Taran, “You hear that? I can’t grant Ifelse access myself.”
“I heard,” Selenu said as she sat up and input her authorization codes, “This information is not for sharing with anyone not on the crew,” she sighed, “We don’t talk about it much but Seinu had an accident when he was little… climbed into the path of an industrial nano-lathe whilst exploring places he shouldn’t have been.”
“Oh dear,” Ifelse chirped, “That sounds bad… but they saved him?”
“Yes,” Chantelle spoke up, “They did, they had to use some cutting edge nanite med-tech to stabilise him and purge the nanite and graphene that had bonded into his system.”
“And it was a success,” Seinu said as he walked through the door, the silver Avali walking over to Selenu’s bean bag and flumping directly atop of her, “My twin sister here still blames himself, but it was my fault… but yes my flesh has been replaced with a mixture of organic slime and nanites. It grants me some unique abilities but it is also why my feathers no longer match Selenu’s.”
“Gerroff,” the lime avali grumbled and Seinu laughed and rolled off her, “We looked adorable as kits, perfectly identical except for the stripes on my fore-head,” she tapped her face, “But now he has sadly had to downgrade to silver and charcoal.”
“Hey,” Seinu chirped and snapped his jaws playfully at his sister, “I look fine!”
“Fascinating,” Ifelse murmured as they reviewed the data that had been unlocked, their plumage flickering with orange lights, “Well that explains why you don’t show up in the waste reclamation system. I have not run a biological scan of you before, now I have. I am indeed seeing on my returns that you are indeed not a normal flesh and blood Avali.”
“Yeah it shows up on scans, don’t you track our biology?” Taran asked.
“Negative; I have been relying on the signals relayed by your visors and implants,” Ifelse hummed, “I should stop doing that and rely on my systems instead to track the crew.”
“Good idea,” Taran said, “People think I have the most augments out of the pack but Seinu is one great big living augment.”
Chantelle wandered over and sat with her siblings, ruffling Seinu’s mohawk, eliciting a happy chirp from the silver Avali, “It is also very useful having a pack-mate who can shift form. Give Seinu time to scan some species' DNA and upload a neurological map and he can shift into a customised version of that species.”
“It is very useful when being a diplomat,” Seinu smiled, “Spending time as the people I am talking to helps me understand them better,” the silver Avali wiggled his ears, happily leaning into Chantelle’s pets, hooking out one arm to hug Selenu and stretching out with his feet to tangle toes with Taran. Satisfied now he was in contact with all his family present he turned to current matters.
“We can discuss this later Ifelse, but as you may have guessed I’ve finished talking to station security, or more thinking at them, and now the paperwork is in order we can dock.”
“Awesome,” Selenu smiled, resting her chin on Seinu’s shoulder, “What was the hold up?”
“Well,” Seinu shook his head, “Naming no sisters that have skipped off on Sawi’s ship to dock early. SOMEONE armed the cartographic drone suite.”
“What…” Selenu’s eyes snapped open and she sat up, “She did what!? Why!?”
“I have no idea!” Seinu chirped, “I think the answer is “Firi!” and then we roll our eyes!” he sighed and fluffed up his wing feathers, “We are registered as an Avali exploration ship, we are certified to carry a certain amount of weaponry, the nine weapon pods for defence. But our energy profile didn’t match, which is why we got stopped.”
Seinu brought up a series of holograms, “It took me a while to get my head around what the station security scans were showing me… but both the drones and exploration vehicles are armed to the teeth! We look like an invasion force ready to crack small moons or space stations open.”
Selenu groaned and rested her head in her hands, “Firi….. I should have checked… she told me she was building a new hammer and I believed that was the only thing.”
“How did she manufacture all that without us noticing?” Chantelle grumbled, “None of this showed up last time I ran tests on the cartography system.”
“Well she isn’t locked out from the manufacturing systems,” Taran said, “I mean why would she be? And I don’t make a habit of checking the logs to see what you are all making.”
“You shouldn’t have to,” Selenu groaned, “How big is the fine?”
“Thankfully no fine,” Seinu chirped, “Our hosts are telepathic so they could feel the genuine shock and surprise in my thoughts when I saw what they were showing me,” Seinu sighed and rubbed his temples, “We are classed as an Avali government vessel so we haven’t been fined but I have had to give them shut down authority of our weapon systems. I was also told that if this happened again they would complain directly to the Illuminate”.
He waved a hand at the holograms, “All our weapons are sealed and offline until we leave the solar system and power-down orders have been loaded into all the cartography drones and the exo-vehicles. Also if we so much as blip on the power scale and look like we are trying to arm them they will telepathically rip the entire system apart with the station’s defences.” Seinu sighed and rubbed his temples, “They aren’t willing to risk it, and I get it. This is a tourist attraction and cultural exchange holding a huge music festival” he chirped grumpily. “Thankfully they seemed more amused by “Avali being Avali” than angry. But like I said, they aren’t taking any chances in case we go rogue or the Illuminate have gone crazy so they are going to keep their weapons trained on us ready to rip us apart if we try anything.”
“Well, at least they spoke to you first before just opening fire,” Selenu sighed, “I am going to kill her… but ok, let’s head on in and cooperate with them,” She stood up and drew the others around her, headed out of the common room and started up to the bridge with the rest of the pack trailing after her.
Selenu settled down in the pilot’s chair, the controls re-arranged themselves into the lime avali’s preset configuration and once she was happy she started the ship moving, flying on manual as she began talking to space traffic control over the com. It didn’t take long to slot the Odyssey into the clear path Warfaisser station had made in the incoming traffic for the big ship. They had just passed the one thousand kilometre mark when there was a small chime and Ifelse’s hologram appeared, seeming to perch on the back of one of Selenu’s holographic screens.
“Hello everyone,” the Jakub said, “We are being scanned… visual scanners only but there are quite a lot of them,” a wider screen opened showing the docking port with tags surrounding several viewing lounges, “I thought you should know.”
“Ship spotters,” Seinu said as he read the meta-data tags, “We are after all a new and unique Avali ship. I’m sure they are just harmless nerds who like watching alien ships or, you know, government spies posing as ship nerds, but none of these scanners can get through the hull”. He tilted his ears back, and said “You know…? Now that I think about it, I doubt there are any spies on Warfaisser with their security team scanning people’s minds.”
“Sounds like a fun bunch,” Selenu touched a control and the Odyssey began to roll, “I’ll give them a good show. We might as well let them all get a good look as we come into dock,” their pack leader then slowly brought the ship around, spinning along the central axis so everyone watching could get a good view before settling back onto an even approach, docking thrusters firing as with a soft thump and clank of latches several umbilicals caught the ship and brought it into the side of the station.
“Well,” Selenu clapped her hands, “We are here, good first flight everyone, go get whatever you want and let’s head down to customs. I am sure that is going to be lots of fun… and then… I am going to hunt down our wayward sister and sit on her!
Customs was every bit as long and annoying as Seinu feared, there were forms, there were curious telepathic aliens and the pack’s avali card! Their Illuminate issued avali-card stored all the information anyone needed about a pack but it was still a faff. Everyone had a copy they could use but it didn’t just list individual Avali, it named the entire pack which could sometimes cause annoyance or issues with border agents who were expecting individual passports. Selenu slipped her card into the reader and waited as it printed up the biographical data of the entire Trail pack one after another.
Thankfully Warfaisser station was well used to visiting Avali packs and the border agents waved them through to the customs desk where a security guard was waiting for them. She was one of the local aliens who ran the station, a race of fluffy, four-armed, six-eared antenna sporting telepathic beings who had restored Warfaisser station and turned it into the intergalactic tourist hub and show-case of cultures it had become.
They were a generally kind, open and friendly race but even they had their limits and Avali ships rocking up sporting enough arms to start an invasion was certainly on the “no” list.
“So, which one of you do we need to talk to about the discrepancies in your ship’s load out and what it says on the paperwork?”
“I sent you her name,” Seinu cut in before Selenu could reply, “You want Firi Trail-Blazer-Master-of-Arms, our security chief.”
“Ah yes,” the security officer looked at her pad, “Sorry, I shall send a drone to ask her up here. I was expecting her to be with you; I missed that she came on board with the Ouakkia Pack, very well. Please wait”.
The four of them sat around chirping quietly at one another whilst they waited. Thankfully it didn’t take long, the door eventually swished open after about fifteen minutes and Firi skated in. She was wearing low-friction boots that let her skate along and the ribbons woven into her crest left a trail of gently dissolving glitter in her wake.
“Hi guys, what is up? Why drag me all the way back up to the docks I was shopping!”
“Ah Miss Firi Trail-Blazer-Master-of-Arms?” the security guard asked and as Firi nodded pointed to a chair, “Please sit, we have a lot to talk about,” she then turned to the others, “You are all cleared to enter, please have a good time and enjoy your stay at the Warfaisser Space Station.”
“See you later Firi, have fun,” Seinu scooted for the door with the others as Firi stood there, jaw open.
Selenu stopped at the door and smiled, “You are going to have to explain to these nice security officers why our cartography drones appear to also be capable of doubling up as an invasion force.”
“Oh… you found out about them… wait, wait! You can’t just leave me here!” Firi protested but Selenu ruffled her snoot feathers then scampered off after the others, “Have fun Firi! Your mess, you can clean it up. If you had told me in advance it wouldn’t have been a problem. This is why you should tell the pack-leader about your special projects. Poor Seinu has done enough, come find us in the hotel when you are done.”
The door swung shut as Firi screeched a series of angry swear words in Avali to Selenu. When they were out Selenu giggled, leaning against her twin brother, “Ok, was that too mean? Should one of us go back and help?”
“Certainly not,” Chantelle chirped, “She brought this on herself. Let’s go to the hotel first then we can look around?”
“I agree,” Taran said, “Her mess, she can fix it, let’s go!”
Seinu chirped and linked arms with his twin and dragged her away from the security room, the four of them heading deeper into the station to enjoy their vacation.
Warfaisser Station, the home of the Ultimate Music Festival, was a melting pot of aliens and cultures. Hundreds of species from many different worlds spread across many galaxies were there. There were scheduled performances from bands showcasing all sorts of music styles, from relaxed Avali harp music to Farilicinti Percussion, Queryin Choirs to Draconian marching bands. There were some bands from the “Milky Way” galaxy, (specifically planet Earth) who were going to perform for the first time. From these a couple were human bands, and the rock band “Moumantai Motherfuckers” who Rowi (one of Sawi’s brothers) was a part of.
While Rowi’s life seemed to consist of scouting around the universe in search of raw material for the Avali species to harvest, he had started bringing Earth-based rock music to everyone along with his two alien friends (who later Seinu would learn had apparently been officially adopted by his pack), a short bunny-like creature and a bipedal one that had antlers and hair on their head. Seinu was fascinated by the idea of the Ouakkia pack roving around in essentially two groups, which was very rare even for a pack as large as Sawi’s.
The UMF was going to be a huge event promoting peace, friendship and the sharing of cultures. Bringing everyone together through their different music styles, everything was welcome. While for the Trail pack it was an enjoyable stopping point after running the Odyssey through its shake-down cruise, for Sawi’s pack it was going to be their first real holiday in years, a break from working on processing minerals for the Avali people to see their brother perform live. After the festival they would go their separate ways, with the Trail pack heading off on the first stop of their exploration schedule.
But first… they had a festival to enjoy, aliens to meet and mingle with and a very ruffled and grumpy Firi to make peace with! The station was also huge and had a very neutral climate system. It had brighter lights than the ones Avali were used to, an oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere and a crisp, cool temperature that was a little outside the comfort zone of most visiting alien groupings. For Seinu, once he had checked into their hotel, he slipped away from his pack and went exploring to see the station. As much as he loved spending time with his family he was an odd avali in that he sometimes enjoyed wandering around by himself for a bit and seeing who he might meet.
He liked to meet other aliens and transform, learning what made them tick by becoming one of them. It also was one of the things that made him a good diplomat; he wasn’t afraid to get to know other species, to approach them, to learn about them and to do it with a minimal amount of unintentional, instinctual Avali style personal space invasion.
That was a skill that had helped his pack land their current job for the Avali Illuminate. The idea of doing stuff alone or wanting to be alone was alien to most Avali; from the day a pack hatched they were together, learning to work and do and live as one. Losing a pack member was crippling, even with therapy and assistance it could take decades for the surviving members to return to normal. So the casual idea that some aliens were very happy to lock their doors and have personal space and spend time alone and not live in each other’s space constantly was a hard one for most Avali to grasp.
Seinu loved his pack, wanted to be with his pack but he could also understand these differences in alien culture and fed that back into his diplomatic discussions, talks and understanding. It wasn’t easy though, even with all his training; The one edge that helped was physically transforming into the species he was learning about. Even then, such a transformation had to be handled with dignity, care, understanding and respect which was hard to do if the species in question was new, so it was a fine balancing act of educating himself and slowly building up a rapport with representatives of the species in question.
For now there was no particular species Seinu was seeking to imitate. He was just wandering the halls of the station and enjoying the sights and sounds of so many different aliens. He was mostly window shopping and just vibing, experiencing the different types of species, shops, restaurants and advertisements about the bands going to be playing at the UMF. He didn’t really have much in the way of a plan but after a good hour of wandering he made his way over to the central transport tube that ran the length of the station’s spine. There was an observation dome at the bottom of the station, aligned toward a local nebular and so he had decided to go see what it looked like. His augmented slime body replicated avali eyesight perfectly, which meant it was awful so he’d probably need his visor to see any of it, but it would be an experience.
The elevator was not too full and as it started to descend Seinu got a few odd looks. Avali wandering around on their own was unusual, they usually roamed in no less than groups of two or three. Still he smiled politely at the aliens in the elevator car and moved out of the way of a pair of slug-like aliens who got off at the next stop.
As the elevator moved he checked an in-coming message from Firi and winced at the words she had used. They were totally going to have to make it up to her later, but she had dug the hole she’d wound up in with station security herself. Still, Firi’s nightmare alterations to the Odyssey notwithstanding it looked like it was going to be a good trip. The transport tube slowed as it approached the final public level before the observation deck. Nearly everyone else trooped out leaving Seinu alone with a short, orange and white furred bunny creature wearing an Avali visor.
Seinu didn’t recognize him or his species but the Avali nodded politely as the elevator started moving again. Since he didn’t have anything to do he tagged the creature with his own visor and asked the local public feed to the nexus to look up what species they were. It was a pain having to use his public account but his visor was connected to the Warfaisser wi-fi so it was best to be safe and not use his diplomatic credentials over a public connection.
“Hey, aren’t you Seinu? From the Trail pack?” the orange bunny asked suddenly, catching Seinu off guard, the silver Avali switched his attention to the bunny and nodded affirmative, “My sister Sawi mentioned that you and your family where coming to the station for the festival, you’ve been working together building your new ship right?”
Seinu smiled and nodded, “Yes that’s me, nice to meet you,” he blinked as his visor threw up the name of the creature’s identity, “Vampire Bunny’’ and he took a guess at who this bunny might be, “Sher right? The ah what’s it called… guitarist in Rowi’s band?”
“Yeah that’s me,” he held out one paw, “It is nice to meet one of my big sister’s friends’ family.”
Seinu laughed softly at the clunky title but shook their paw, resisting the instinctual Avali urge to turn it into a hug and be overly friendly. His visor was busy displaying supplementary information from the nexus on Sher’s species. There was very little, beyond the species name and vague text suggesting where his home planet was located. The rest of the nexus entry was redacted and marked with nexus codes indicating the Oracle itself had removed the rest of the information from public view. Without a secure connection Seinu couldn’t use his security clearance to read more.
“Is something wrong?” Sher asked, sniffing the air, “You smell annoyed.”
“No,” Seinu shook his head, “Just read something on this that annoyed me,” he tapped his visor, “You know what the nexus can be like sometimes when you are searching it, you can get weird results.”
“Oh yeah,” Sher laughed, his deep rich voice had a musical timbre to it that was quite pleasant to the Avali’s ears, “Once I asked it to tell me more about Avali mating rituals, I wanted to surprise my boyfriend with a traditional Avali date night but I wound up on this virtual pornograpy video site.”
Seinu glanced at the list scrolling up his vision, it was a list of nexus library entries and every one had been marked as “Not for public consumption” and redacted by the Oracle. He let out a frustrated chirp and he cancelled his search, “Yeah I think we’ve all been there, the search filters sometimes go off on a tangent if you aren’t careful.”
Sher opened his mouth to reply but suddenly the elevator suddenly went ting and the illuminated marker showing that they were in transit went blank. The elevator juddered slightly and Seinu had to rest one hand on the bulkhead to steady himself and catch Sher with the other wing-arm as the deceleration threw them both off balance. It went on for about ten seconds, the lift rapidly slowing before with a clunk they both swayed the other way as it jerked to a halt. Frowning Seinu lifted his visor and looked around, he was about to push the alarm button when words unfolded into his mind.
“Hello dear guests,” the soft telepathic voice whispered in Seinu’s mind and most likely the vampire bunnies, “Please do not be alarmed, the transport tube you are in has developed a fault with its primary power distribution node. Our maintenance crews are heading EVA to fix the issue but I am afraid for your safety the elevator has been switched to emergency mode and the brake clamps engaged.”
“Oh motherfucking no…” the bunny let out a soft whimper, stepping to one side and staring up at the ceiling with a frustrated expression.
“We apologise for the delay but repairs may take up to thirty minutes. We are just a thought away if you need us.”
As the telepathic voice faded away Seinu turned with concern to face the bunny. His anxiety was spiralling higher, Seinu could see them starting to twitch and look very annoyed, thumping one of their big fluffy paws against the wall of the elevator in frustration.
“Fucking fuck it,” Sher swore and glared at the floor indicator, “We are going to miss the sunset, it is meant to be spectacular as it passes behind the local nebula.”
“Well I probably am not missing much,” Seinu offered with a chuckle, “My vision is awful, I was mostly going because I heard it was pretty but I was expecting my visor to have to do all the heavy lifting.”
“Aw man,” Sher sighed, “You Avali are missing out,” he tapped his visor, “I am blessed with fancy vision, my species sees a whole breadth of amazing colours, I love seeing the sun come up and down on every new world we visit.”
“That must be nice,” Seinu said, “My visor can do quite a bit but it is limited by what my brain can process,” the Avali tapped his visor, turning off the screen, “I was trying to read about vampire bunnies on the nexus before you said hello, I’m afraid most of the entries I could find on your people are redacted for some reason, notes about your vision aren’t included.”
“Yeah,” Sher growled, “Most of the documented evidence on my people was written by the shit bags who enslaved us, nasty pieces of work,” he shook his head, the smooth fur on his ears growing raggedy and unkempt as he fluffed up, “I’m kind of glad most of it is redacted.”
“Ah,” Seinu shook his head, “I won’t go looking for it when I get back to my ship. I was trying to be polite and not get all up in your face with personal questions.”
“That’s unusual for an Avali, no offence but you guys really struggle with personal space and privacy,” Sher sighed, “But I appreciate it thanks… I am not good with strangers, I only worked up the courage to say hi to you as I recognized you from a picture Sawi showed me of your pack. Are you OK? Being stuck or separated isn’t driving you crazy? I can’t smell much anxiety coming off you.”
“I’m an unusual Avali,” Seinu chirped, “I’ve been trained as a diplomat and to understand other cultures. I like to wander around on my own sometimes, it helps me understand aliens and build better bridges between us. If it goes on too long though I may go stir crazy… I like alone time but I want my pack too.”
The bunny chuckled, “Reminds me of Rowi, he dislikes being alone too. It doesn’t take him long to hunt one of us down for company when we are travelling between star systems, he really doesn’t enjoy alone time.”
“We can’t help it, to us together is normal,” Seinu chirped, “Rowi sounds nice though, I’ve never met him but I hear you and your band are playing at the UMF? When I heard about this big music festival I managed to convince my sister and my boss it’d be a good mini vacation before we start our first mission.”
“Oh nice,” Sher clapped his paws together, “You guys are in for a treat I promise you that, we have a three hour set and there are tons of other bands playing too, it is going to be a blast.”
“I wouldn’t miss it for anything,” Seinu assured them, then knocked a paw on the wall of the elevator, “Barring being stuck in an elevator, I might have to think every swear word I know really hard if they leave us stuck in here and you missed your gig.”
“Stop… you’re going to make me blush!” Sher chirped, his grasp of avali-core really was flawless, “Don’t worry, our sound test is in like… two days or so, if they haven’t fixed this by then I’ll teach you some really good swear words I learnt on Earth and we can think them really loudly,” the vampire bunny shifted a bit closer to the avali, “But thank you Seinu, it is nice to meet you.”
“It is nice to meet you too, so can you tell me more about your vision?” Seinu asked curiously, “You probably know how we’re practically blind outside Avalon without augments or visors.”
“Well Rowi calls it tetrachromatic vision, it means I can see millions of colour combinations, way more than most species” Sher said, “But speaking of Rowi I should send a message to him and Sawi and tell them I’m stuck in an elevator.“
"Of course,” Seinu slowly sat down, “I’ll do the same with one of my sisters, let them know where I am.””
It didn’t take long for the pair to message their respective families. Soon enough the pair were sitting side by side and Seinu disconnected his visor from Warfaisser’s wi-fi and lifted it, squinting in the dim light so he could chat to Sher without any distractions.
Sher smiled up at the silver avali, “My turn for a question, tell me more about your family, what do they all do?”
“Well we are a diplomatic pack, we are the crew of a new class of ambassadorial ships, ours is the first called the Odyssey, my pack works for the Illuminate Director, it is the head packs special project,” he shrugged, “It sounds fancier then it is, it’s all meeting alien governments, talking trade agreements and such,” Seinu chirped, “When I am between meetings we do exploration and survey missions, usually the sort of events I need to attend take months of prep work so whilst I am busy learning a new language or writing speeches or learning about a species we explore new star systems looking for useful stuff.”
“That sounds neat,” Sher said, “Me and my family roam around playing music for… pretty much almost anyone who is willing to listen.”
“Neat,” Seinu chirped, “Also I have to say your command of avali core is superb, whoever taught you our language did a great job.”
“That was Rowi,” Sher said, “And well me I guess, turns out my people have an ear for languages, but tell me more, what do your other pack members do?”
“Well,” Seinu closed his eyes and flicked his ears, “Selenu my twin sister is our pack leader, she’s an explorer at heart and she’s the one who came up with the idea of us exploring new places whilst I am between Diplomatic jobs. Then there is Taran, my brother, he has so many augments I lost track of them. He’s a wizard at technology, programming, AI, you name it he knows how it works.”
“Sounds like Naha,” Sher giggled, “Except Naha doesn’t have any augments but he loves computers.
“Naha is fun, we’ve worked with him” Seinu said, “Now then, let’s see… Firi, she is a bodyguard, she’s also a very well trained security expert but lord she loves big loud guns and weapons, probably a bit too much, she got us in trouble when we arrived as she’d turned some of our survey equipment into weapons.”
Sher laughed, “Oh dear, hope it wasn’t too much of an issue?”
“Thankfully not,” Seinu smiled, “And last we have Chantelle, she is my Diplomatic Attache, sort of my secretary in charge of my calendar, booking meeting rooms, managing appointments but she is also cross-trained as a planetologist, she’s very good at it too.”
“That’s an odd combo,” Sher commented, “I mean being explorers and diplomats, that’s not a combo I’d expect.”
“It wasn’t what we had in mind either,” Seinu acknowledged, “But Selenu sold us on the idea and well, our trial run in our old ship worked well so the Director moved to get us a new ship made and we’re trying it out properly now.”
“I wanna hear more about how it goes,” Sher said enthusiastically, “It sounds neat.”
“Sure,” Seinu said, “I’ll be happy to let you know, but for now tell me about you, how did you end up forming an Earth style rock band with an Avali? And… your other member that alien with what are they called, you know,” Seinu waved his hands up and down above his head, “The branches sticking out of his head.”
“You mean their antlers?” Sher asked.
“Yeah them, Antlers.””
“Of course,” Sher warmed up to the topic as the pair sat together on the floor of the elevator, “It started about thirteen years ago in the country of Chile on Earth and…”
It was a pleasant way to pass the time, sharing stories and personal history with each other. Eventually after thirty seven minutes the elevator car juddered as it unlocked and returned to the upper concourse level. The doors swished open and a couple of the resident, fluffy telepathic aliens were there along with Rowi and Firi. Seinu hurried over to his big sister and just held on tightly, hugging her madly as Sher fell into Rowi’s arms.
“It wasn’t too bad,” Sher said as Rowi asked how he was, “Seinu and I had a good talk, though we missed the sun-set. I will have to try again tomorrow, if we have time.”
Seinu flicked his ears and lifted his head out of Firi’s fluff, just glad to have his sister be present, “It was nice meeting you Sher, maybe we can go see the observatory together another day and I will keep my promise to stay in touch.”
Sher nodded, “I’d like that! But for now… honey,” he turned to Rowi, “Can we go back to the hotel?”
“Of course my melon-ball,” Rowi chirped and escorted Sher toward the waiting VIP elevator. Seinu waved goodbye and let Firi dragged him back toward their hotel. After being stuck like that Seinu was in desperate need of surrounding himself with his pack for a bit, but he’d made a new friend which was a blessing.