The Odyssey was flying through AHR-Alpha, the mighty Avali dreadnaught had dropped out of warp at the edge of the system in accordance with local law. It was now on priority VIP approach to the second planet in the system, Marvellous, the home of the Ikori species.
Space above the emerald green jewel of a planet was nearly as cluttered as Avalon with stations, ships, converted asteroids and micro-satellites. The Ikori were famous for their spatial and quantum tech and a lot of races wanted to trade with them so their system was a major trade route. The primary trade stations were actually in orbit around the outer gas giants but the annual trade conference was to take place aboard Mirabar station in polar orbit about one of Marvellous’ moons, a raging ball of eternal storms that gave the moon a brilliant cobalt colour.
The Odyssey was enroute to join the small fleet of alien ships in orbit around the chrome and blue station inside a three tiered security cordon. With sixteen different species sending diplomats to the negotiations the Ikori weren't taking any chances with keeping undesirable elements away from the orbit of the storm-wracked moon and the station. Not that Seinu was currently enjoying the view, Selenu was overseeing their arrival up on the bridge with Taran, the silver Avali was in his office with Chantelle, the two of them curled up together in a pile of cushions in the conversation pit surrounded by an endlessly moving slew of screens and eight overlapping audio channels.
Seinu was busy reviewing the Illuminates priorities, desires and needs whilst also updating his knowledge on current commodity and raw material prices. Both the prices trending on the nexus material exchange and the galactic coalition stock exchange. He was also busy listening to several messages and updates from expert packs in a whole array of subjects that would be relevant over the next week or so of the conference. He was here to reinforce existing deals, set and agree prices for commodity goods and essentially renew ties with their allies and associates. Chantelle meanwhile was hip deep in arranging his schedule, she was in full planning mode, organising the when, where and how long for the next week.
The usual format for these intense diplomatic trade talks saw the days split into three, informal breakfast and brunch meetings between trading partners that carried on for most of the morning. These would then break apart for informal lunch meetings between individuals before formal negotiations and meetings all afternoon. Then each evening one of the visiting dignitaries would host a cultural event that was usually a mixture of dinner, cultural soiree and schmooze fest where everyone mingled socially and got more business done then the rest of the day as everyone jostled for position, gossip and interesting tidbits of information to advance their agendas. Of course with sixteen ambassadors and only seven days everyone wanted a chance to entertain; the contest to host the most impressive party was fierce.
Thankfully Marvellous had a 39 hour day so with everyone switched to local time they were spared the need to pick which event to turn up to. Everyone had a chance to throw a culturally specific event, in the name of peace and cooperation. But it did mean often travelling between different venues as one event ended and the next began as there were usually two events a night. Though several allied species would arrange things so one of them hosted dinner before everyone made their way across to the other for a show or cultural event. It was going to be a tiring, hectic week of deal making and diplomacy, Seinu was looking forward to it.
Flicking one ear away from a report the Ouakkia pack had sent on kri stocks and potential new veins coming into production over the next year he listened as Chantelle chirped that she had a question for him.
“Our evening to entertain has been confirmed as night three, we're the first event that evening, everyone has replied yes to attending.”
“That's a good sign,” Seinu said, “I looked over your initial plan for the party. I'm OK with it but nix the alcohol.”
“Really?” Chantelle said in surprise.
“Yes, we all gave it up for Ki,” Seinu said firmly, “So we aren't bringing it back aboard just because we're having a party. Our visitors can spend the night sober for once, break out the fruit juices, fizzy pops and raid our Cinnati fruit and find us a bar on Iko that can do us a full evening of fancy mocktails.”
Chantelle smiled brightly, “You got it, leave it with me.”
Seinu chirped back in approval and turned back to his work, spending the next twenty or so minutes reviewing, making notes and adjusting what he intended to offer as he assimilated the data and words filling the air around him. He stopped however as he became aware of the twins, they'd slipped into his study and were now crouched on either side of his cushion waiting for him to notice them. Grey and copper fur smooth and silky now they had discovered shampoo; of course both bunnies had loved discovering showers too. Getting wet and waterlogged doubled their weight by nearly 60kg, meaning it took a lot of time and effort to get dry after they took a bath or shower. They still did it though, Cri said it was worth it to not go back to rough, unkempt fur and with clean silky fur they could wear nicer outfits. Like currently the pair of them were wearing red and orange hats that Firi had made them to celebrate graduating their course. Seinu closed down the audio feeds and scattered the holograms and reached out to scritch them both behind the ears.
“Hello you two, what brings you to my office? It's all a bit boring right now.”
“Not for me,” Cri said, “As your scheduling attaché it'll be my job to know your schedule alongside Chantelle to share the load,” he glanced across at Cal then up at Seinu with big wide bunny eyes, “That is if we're on your staff? Firi and Selenu say we are ready but apparently you have to make the final decision.”
Seinu smiled and patted the cushion next to him and the twin bunnies clambered over to sit on either side of him, “Of course I want you on my team, Chantelle do you think they're ready?”
“Oh yes,” the Avali's sister said with a smile, “They’re both ready.”
“Well then I'd say you're on my team starting with this conference, it's an intense one to start with, a full on schedule are you sure you're up for it, it might seem very boring.”
“We’re ready,” Cal chirped, “Does this mean we get to come with you to a Night Aboard the Fuseli?”
Seinu shot his sister a look who glanced at one of her screens, “Fourth night, the Earthian ambassador is throwing an Earth style evening cabaret drinks reception with Earth music. We have an invite from the Ambassador for the whole pack which will include Cri and Cal if they're officially joining your staff.”
“There you go then,” Seinu smiled at the bunnies, “You get to come with us, why that one though?
Both bunnies' muzzles lit up in huge smiles and Cal went “Yessssssss,” rolling backwards, thrusting all four paws into the air while Cri hugged Seinu tightly.
“It's MMF! They're the Earthian ambassadors music band that night! Selenu found out somehow through her contacts, it's a big secret apparently so the Ambassador can surprise you all with this big famous band so everyone will want to go to his party.”
Seinu blinked and laughed, resting a hand on Cri's head, “And you thought I'd leave you behind if you hadn't started your new jobs yet?”
Cal sat up, “A little bit... but also if you only found out at the last minute it might be too late to take us along if we hadn't started.”
Seinu smiled, “No fear of that, Chantelle tell the Human ambassador we'll be at his event and let him know we know it'll be MMF playing and how many of us they'll be and the usual promise to keep it quiet in return for them coming to that meeting on third day about tungsten shipping licences and what we'd like.”
Chantelle was already typing, “Already on it, good work boys this is very good.”
Cri was smiling, eyes narrowed as he watched Chantelle type, “That was politics wasn't it? Are you promising to keep quiet about MMF in return for political favours?”
“You bet we are,” Chantelle smiled, “Good work both of you, that was important information, the Earth ambassador won't want his big surprise ruined, we can use that.”
“Yes, helping!” Cal sat up beaming with a bright smile, fur all poofed up excitedly, “Can we really start then?”
“Oh yes,” Seinu said, “Let's start with a proper briefing and get you two ready for work! Come over to my desk and we'll get started.”
Standing in the packs’ dressing room Seinu was holding his arms out to either side and letting Selenu adjust the white straps that wove across the shoulders of his mantle. The deep metallic purple fabric covered his shoulders and had a longer frame that hung down his chest, attached to the underside of the mantle so it reached almost all the way to his knees before coming to a point. At the back was another panel of the same metallic purple fabric that hung down his back in one piece before splitting to make room for his tail.
The whole thing was edged by a wide border or actual gold cloth and the mantle was a criss-cross of overlapping white straps across his shoulders and upper arms. The thick purple collar completed the design and had three white and gold feathers attached to the front.
“Are you sure I have to wear this?” he asked for the third time, “Like we are avali we could all turn up naked and it'd be fine.”
“No,” Chantelle declared as she smoothed down his Mohawk and pulled a rather fuzzy looking tri-corn shaped hat onto his head, “We have this argument before every formal event, you are the face of the Illuminate you're going in there dressed up nicely.”
“Fine,” Seinu grumbled, “This is the only bit of the job I am never sure of, letting you two pick my outfits, I had a perfectly respectable wardrobe before I got ill, you seem to have replaced the entire thing whilst I was out of combat.”
“This year's fashions,” Chantelle said, “You aren’t going in there wearing stuff from last season, none of us are.”
“Last I checked it’s not a bad thing to wear older clothes,” Seinu flicked his ears and turned to look at his hat in the mirror, he then pulled it off and tossed it aside, “I am not wearing that hat,” he picked another hat off the table, a shapeless black beanie that had a band of purple, white and orange stripes on it, “This is what I am wearing.”
“That…” Chantelle spluttered, “You can’t just wear an MMF merch hat to this thing!”
“Yes I can,” Seinu replied calmly, “I am wearing the mantle, I am even replacing my usual beaded bracelets and necklace with,” he tugged at the gold band around his throat, the heat regulating spike buried deep in his slime, “Why can’t I wear my usual? These seem so flashy, how did you even get a set of my heat regulating accessories in rhodium and Topaz crystals??”
“Ki was fixing the one you broke,” Selenu said, “So I had him move the tech to these new bands I got you, they are much more suitable for public appearances and match your outfit.”
“Oh,” Seinu paused, his prepared grump at Ki and Chantelle derailed, he couldn’t really rail against something Sel had got him, “Well ok, I’d have liked some warning at least, I feel like a fraud wearing rhodium and topaz.”
“It’s fine,” Selenu said. She raised a hand as Chantelle opened her mouth to fore-stall an argument, “If you wear the gold bangles we can compromise on the hat,” the lime coloured bird picked a length of MMF themed ribbon off the counter and wove it into the mantle, “It looks intentional and the Avali ambassador subtly sporting our biggest and most famous music bands colours is a nice little reminder to the human Ambassador that we know his big secret.”
“See,” Seinu chirped, “Thank you sis,” he hugged his twin, “I do know what I am doing Chantelle, and I am NEVER wearing that hat,” he pointed at the original, “Now shouldn’t you two be getting dressed? The entire pack is making an entrance for this and I do mean everyone including Firi.”
“We’ll be getting changed next,” Selenu finished smoothing out the fabric of his mantle, “Go check on Firi and the twins, I want to go and see if Taran and Ki are dressed, I can’t trust any of you to not try and weasel out of this.”
Seinu sighed and nodded, “Ok, Ok I’ll go see the twins, you’d think now it was three brothers versus three sisters we’d win more arguments about clothes.”
“Never going to happen,” Chantelle said, “Now scoot, if I know Taran he’s trying to get out of wearing something formal and I think Ki still isn’t sure what formal clothing means.”
Leaving his sisters to go track down his wayward scruff feathered brothers, Seinu made his way across the dressing room, they really did own so many clothes it was silly. He was quite sure other packs didn’t worry so much about appearances. He eventually found Firi wearing a long black and pink robe with new tassles in her braided crest inspecting the twins.
“Seinu look at us,” Cal spread his arms, his long red robe with the orange trim lifting, “We look so fancy! We never owned clothes before!”
The silver avali paused to look at the robes, they were made from the same temperature regulating material as most clothes worn on space stations. But Firi had ordered them printed in red with orange patterns around the hem and matching hats with big orange bobbles on the top.
“I was worried they’d be too hot,” Cri said, “And restrict our movements but they are really light and flow easily.”
“Of course,” Firi smiled, “I admit I just adjusted the design and fabric used in my own,” she held up one arm, the fabric flowing and swaying across her feathered wing-arm, “I am Seinu’s bodyguard and whilst I think it is stupid I can’t wear armour to these events, so I insist on being able to move freely if needed.”
“They are so cool,” Cal chirped enthusiastically, “I really like the orange around the collar,” he tugged on his robe, “We look all like civilised bunnies!”
Seinu smiled, “You are civilised bunnies, but I have gifts for you both first,” Seinu grabbed a box off a table and opened it, “These are tech-specs like Selenu’s” he handed a set of square lensed avali specs to Cri, “and for you Cal a visor that is identical to Sher’s just like you wanted, I had to ask Sawi for the specs to get it printed.”
Both bunnies chirped excitedly, pulling on their new avali accessories and starting to work through the start up guide, “You can play with them on the trip over, we should get down to the shuttle? The others should meet us there shortly and I want to make sure we make a proper entrance, if I’ve timed this right with the Ikorian ambassador we should arrive last and make quite the entrance, it is important we be seen arriving.”
Seinu held out his arm to Firi and with the twins to either side of them they made their way to the Odyssey’s shuttle bay, ready to make a splash.
Ki was enjoying the party, they had made a real splash when they arrived, everyone had stopped to look at the Avali pack just like Seinu wanted. Considering how they were all decked up in the fanciest of Avali fashions it was hard to miss them, especially as a group of eight with the two bunnies positioned on either side of Seinu. It had been quite the entrance, and even Ki who thought the whole thing had sounded stupid had to admit the theatrics behind their entrance had been really well done.
Now they were mingling, there were some interesting non-alcoholic drinks to try but right now Ki was enjoying the buffet table, there was a whole section of tiny canapes using exotic alien meat he had never heard of.
Munching through a cube of peppery meat Ki was just enjoying alien watching. Seinu, Selenu and the twins were talking to the Ikori ambassador and a few other big-wigs in the trade partnership, they were clearly the centre of the party, everyone was revolving around them, groups of aliens approaching to have words before moving on and being replaced by others. It was all politics but Ki didn’t really know or understand the intricacies of the dance, he was however enjoying the food.
He smiled as Taran sauntered over, “Cheer up brother,” he smiled and held out the plate, “Have one of these, they are good.”
“Don’t you feel stupid in all this?” he held up his arms, wing feathers glittering, both of them wearing identical outfits. Metallic blue and green threads had been woven back and forth between their wing-arm feathers, looping around their chest twice before attaching to snug avali style collars. There were also strips that wrapped around their stomachs to attach to belts about their waist that then gave way to kilts of glittery green fabric that didn’t quite reach their knees.
“No way I love it,” Ki grinned, “Did you see everyone looking at us?”
“What!” Taran stared at him, “You hate these fancy clothes as much as me!”
“No way,” Ki laughed, “That’s just what I let the girls think, I understand the need to dress up nice when doing a job. Back with my old pack I had one set of fancy clothes, tired, worn, a bit threadbare but I knew if we wanted to get the job we had to look like an efficient, proficient Avali pack,” he laughed happily before munching down another meat cube, “Did you see them all looking at us when we arrive?”
“Yeah,” Taran grumbled and ran a hand over his clipped short crest, “I felt like a doll on display.”
“Nah don’t feel like that,” Ki chirped and looped an arm around his brother’s shoulders, “You know what they saw when we arrived? The Trail pack, with Seinu and Selenu at the head, powerful, skilled and backed up by a whole platoon of Avali and two alien bunnies, it was great! No one was staring down their nose at me for being some independent colony bum with one nice mantle trying to look good for some job that was barely going to pay us enough to cover our costs, It… it felt great.”
“But…” Taran shook his head, “You always make such a show of hating these fancy clothes, the girls never bother you about it.”
“Is because I know how to play the game,” Ki smiled, “Follow my lead next time and they’ll stop bothering you, I know when it's time to wear fancy clothes or when it is time to go around naked or wearing grungy overalls when repairing an oil line.”
“But… what am I doing differently?” Taran asked curiously, “I mean I know Firi only goes along with the others to keep Chantelle happy.”
“We like to make Chantelle happy,” Ki said, “So that’s good, but the key is to not kick up a fuss when it actually matters. Like today, I asked “Is it necessary for Seinu’s job? Chantelle said yes, I gave in, you, you spent an hour complaining about everything before Selenu had to order you to get dressed.”
“Yeah I did, it is so stupid,” Taran complained, “I feel stupid.”
“So?” Ki smiled, “Feel stupid for a few hours, make the girls happy and Seinu look good. Then next time they try to drag you shopping, be firm and say no you aren’t doing that and walk off, if they know you’ll play along when it matters they’ll leave you alone when it doesn’t, they all think you will refuse all the time so they won’t leave you alone.”
“Oh,” Taran frowned, “Does Selenu know this?”
“Hell no,” Ki laughed, “She thinks I hate dressing nice, but it works doesn’t it, you never see them dragging me shopping when we hit a mall station and it helps to have Firi on board she helps too.”
Taran sighed and grumbled, “I’ll have to try it then, you think it’ll help with my crest? They are always trying to make me restyle it, which is why I clip it short all the time.”
“No chance, there you are stuck,” Ki chuckled, “Like Firi and Chantelle you have soft wavy feathers that can be styled, Selenu has those quill pinions and I have three single red feathers which is all that grows up top and Seinu cheats and programs his hair to look however he wants it to look, the girls are never going to leave you alone when it comes to your crest.”
“Figures,” Taran sighed and helped himself to a meat cube, “I can live and dream and keep clipping it short so they can’t do anything with it, that at least is a victory they can’t take away from me.”
Ki chuckled and hugged Taran, “Too right, now let's go rescue Firi from those telepathic aliens she is glaring at, she’s going to wind up in a fight if we leave her alone with them.”
Selenu watched the human ambassador leaving with his wife and aide, the lime and white avali hiding her smile behind her mug of frothy ice and juice. She glanced sideways at Seinu and the Ikori ambassador and watched as the two talked together as their eyes followed the human group.
“His Excellency seemed nervous for some reason,” the lavender furred Ikori said with a grin, “And that aide of his looked ready to run when he saw you.”
“Just politics,” Seinu replied as he took a sip of his own drink, “He owes me a colossal favour and his aide was trying to play silly buggers and rearrange the schedule. I wasn't having it so I had to be firm with the ambassador directly.”
“Oooh, I wonder what secret you're hiding, you didn't say anything other than good day to him,” the Ikori's eyed skipped over to Selenu then back to Seinu, “So something one of you two is wearing or signalled to him?”
“Something like that, just a little reminder I can still reveal his big secret early. I'm glad he noticed, should keep him well behaved. Humans are nothing if not predictable, greedy and weirdly attached to their ego and sense of self importance and success.”
“Humans… such a complex species, well since you're clearly not going to tell me about his big surprise,” the ambassador's ears flicked back and he looked serious, “Do your security people or military have any updates on the RBO-49382199 situation?”
“Bluey? Nothing good I'm afraid, Rafelon,” Seinu sighed, “It's not looking good, our scouts confirmed for the Coalition the SA-B3S’ have taken complete control and murdered everyone living there.”
“Damn it,” Rafelon cursed, “There was a whole Ikori village on that planet, nine hundred of us.”
“I’m so sorry,” Seinu placed a hand on his arm, “As far as we can tell, they nuked every population centre and then murdered anyone who survived the initial attack.”
“How did they take over the planet in the first place?” the Ikori growled, “None of our people reported anything odd.”
“We’re still piecing that together, the sole survivor is very traumatised, after reaching safety at a local station the administrator there contacted us as he was in an Avali ship. He's in a medical facility on Avalon now. Once he's fit to talk we hope to learn more.”
Rafelon emptied his drink then grabbed another off a passing tray, “How did he get out?”
“Pure chance,” Seinu sighed, “A group of Avali stopped at Bluey to clean their ship and refuel after evading a pirate ship. The survivor, the space port administrator, asked them to send word to their home planet about them needing help. When that became impossible the group arranged for an Avali pod to pick them up.”
“And the SBs just let them leave?”
“Yes,” Seinu shook his head and sighed, “Best we can tell those crazy robots probably don't quite understand Avali society, so in their minds the Illuminate had sent a ship to collect this person so if they killed him along with everyone else they'd be declaring war on the Avali so they put them in the ship and let them leave before murdering everyone else.”
“Damn it,” Rafelon cursed, “What are they doing now?”
“They’ve declared the planet closed and are strip mining it and building factories,” Seinu finished his drink, “We think they're trying to build a huge amount of weapons.”
“Fuck it all, who are they supplying?”
“Who do you think, the Horkers of course. We have some unverified info pointing to the SBs and the Horkers having worked together but for now no proof, so all we and the coalition can do is keep an eye on it.”
“Ugh,” Rafelon growled, “If you can prove it was the Horker King let me know, but damn stupid awful robots!”
“It’s not great,” Seinu agreed, “But beyond us for now, we should focus on this week's trade talks.”
Selenu smiled and stepped forward to join the conversation, helping to steer it away from war and disaster and focus on lighter topics. It was clear the Ikori ambassador Rafelon was very upset by what had happened on Bluey but dwelling on it wouldn't help. Selenu was impressed as always by how Seinu had shared information but not given away everything he knew.
Firi tapped a claw against the table, feeling the weird brown grainy texture of the material it was made from curling against her claw. There was a layer of varnish or lacquer that her sharp, pink painted claws cut right through into the organic matter beneath.
“What is this table made from?” she asked Seinu, “It’s organic and are they burning wax in the lamp in the middle?”
“It’s wood I believe,” her brother responded, “Mahogany, an expensive Earth tree they make furniture out of it then lacquer it to protect it.”
Firi brushed the curls of sliced varnish off the table, “Not very well, my claws went straight through it.”
“Please don’t damage their tables Firi,” Seinu hissed, “I caused the Earthian ambassador enough grief already, let's just enjoy the show.”
Firi snuggled back into her chair, flicking her tail and grabbed one of the cocktail menus for something to do with her hands, “At least we have Avali chairs, how did you wrangle this table at the front?”
“Politics,” Seinu said as he helped Cal up onto the table, “Despite how you all tease me I am quite good at my job.”
Firi shot Seinu a cheeky grin then lifted Cri up onto the table, neither bunny could sit properly in an Avali chair so were opting to just sit on the table itself. Once the bunnies were settled the yellow and white Avali took a moment to look around the room; it was apparently a traditional Earth set up for something called a cabaret. Round wooden tables with candles inside small orange shades had been set up before a cosy looking stage. The room itself was carpeted in thick red fabric and the tables were set on tiers that rose towards the entrance and the bar at the back of the room.
Each tier was slightly bigger and held more tables but was further from the stage. Their table was one of only three set up directly before the stage and Firi had a sense someone had taken out two tables to fit in a table large enough for the whole pack. It was cosy, intimate and to Firi's mind a wholly unsuitable venue for MMF to play in. But then everything about the Earth ship Fuseli seemed impractical; it was a luxury diplomatic vessel designed to shuttle Ambassador Vanderhorf around in style; entirely impractical for any other kind of mission.
A waitress in a starched white shirt, black skirt and apron stopped to take their orders. Ki and Taran ordered juice, Chantelle a tea and Selenu and Seinu an Earth drink made from oranges that fizzed. The twins had apple juice and Firi joined Chantelle in having a flowering jasmine tea; they'd promised no alcohol when out with Ki, so a girls night out was going to be required soon so she could try more alien booze. But tonight would be dry but at least they had MMF to look forward to.
“Excited?” she asked Cal who was wiggling in excitement directly in front of her. The grey and copper bunny pulled off his hat and squeezed the pom-pom, eyes bright with excitement.
“Yes, do you have any idea how much Sher means to us? And we're going to see him for real, in person!”
Firi chuckled and ruffled his head-fluff, “I might have some idea how important he is, I was there the day we showed you his music! Oooh hey lady,” Firi grabbed the waitress's arm, “Do you have popcorn?”
The young human nodded and Firi broke into a great big toothy Avali smile, “A big bucket of every type then for our table along with the drinks!”
The young lady walked up the bronze framed steps to the bar and Firi eavesdropped on her conversation with the bar-human. She seemed impressed Firi knew what popcorn was but puzzled none of the Avali wanted alcohol. She also thought the twins were cute, like “living plushies”, and wished she could hug one to find out how soft they were. Firi smirked and suggested to Cal he offer to hug the human when she came back with their drinks. She seemed nice just stuck working a shitty space job for that awful fop Ambassador Vanderhoff. Firi was about to turn to Chantelle and ask her something when she saw another human descending the steps. She looked familiar but it took a moment for the yellow Avali to place her.
Her hair was piled up high in a sort of cone of layers atop her head and she was wearing a yellow and black dress that left her shoulders covered in a layer of black lace. Firi had just placed where she knew her from when the bang of Ki’s chair slamming into the ground as he surged to his feet made them all jump.
“Diane!” He was across the carpet and had his arms around the human in record time, hugging her tightly, squeezing her as well as he could with his fancy outfit restricting his wings, “What are you doing here?”
She laughed and hugged the black and white avali back, “Still a feathery mess I see,” she smiled, “Me and the crew of the Ostrich have been running deliveries for the Ambassador for tonight, he’s had us picking up Earth delicacies from nearby trading stations as a premium courier gig after he changed the menu at the last minute.”
“And he gave you tickets to this show? I thought it was only diplomats and the like,” Ki said with a huge smile on his muzzle.
“Oh yeah he said we earnt them, or at least his aide did,” She nodded back up the stairs, “We are all the way at the back though, on probably the worst table next to the door to the kitchen, but I saw you all arrive, it is hard to miss, you guys stand out and heck you look good.”
“Oh yeah right,” Ki took her hand and dragged her over to the table, “You all remember Diane? From the Ostrich, the human ship that rescued me?”
Firi smiled and clasped the human’s hand, “You bet we remember her, hi Diane good to see you.”
Ki was beaming and hurried around to wrap his arms about Chantelle and Firi, “These are my sisters, Firi, Chantelle and you know Selenu already,” he pivoted excitedly and hurried around the table, “And this is Taran and Seinu my brothers and of course these bunnies are our new friends Cri and Cal.”
Everyone chirped a hello and Diane smiled around, “You look really happy Ki, I am so glad to see you, we should catch up properly later, I should get back to my table they’ll be starting soon.”
Ki chirped, his ears wilting and he turned to Seinu, “Can they sit with us?”
“I don’t see why not,” Seinu said, “We have extra space with Cri and Cal sitting on the table, how many are you?”
“Just four of us, me, Helen, Fred and our new electrical engineer Darneti but Dar is large, he’s an alien not human and he’s pretty big.”
“He’ll be fine,” Seinu smiled, “We are all aliens to each other, grab your chairs and hustle down here before they start. Ki go help them move if anyone gives you hassle just chirp at them.”
Ki smiled and started up the steps and Firi stood up, “I’ll go help,” she declared and moved after her brother and the human. She caught up in time to hear Ki ask a question and Diane answer.
“Where is Bob?”
“Oh he retired, he’s seventy nine, he settled down on Earth with a pension, we got paid really well for a job we did last year and he was able to cash out his share in the ship. He’s living in a little house in the same village his daughter and her family live in, it’s a place called Rivaz in the Earth country Switzerland.”
“Oh nice, I know he always wanted to go home and spend more time with his grand-kids,” Ki laughed, “He was always so good to me, willing to sit up with me late into the night and try to help when I was having a bad day.”
“He’s a good guy, also our luck with contracts and people willing to hire us has been suspiciously good over the last year,” she glanced back at Firi, “Should we be thanking you guys for that?”
“I wouldn’t know what your talking about,” Firi said trying to keep a straight face, “You only brought Ki to safety, made sure he joined our family and looked after him until you could find some Avali,” she let her muzzle twitch upward in a smile, “I am sure the Illuminate and the Trail pack wouldn’t have a subtle word with anyone about that amazing thing you did.”
Diane laughed and smiled then stopped by a small table crowded up against the bar, there were two humans and a HUGE green furred pear-drop shaped alien with translucent green hair. It was cut short on top but hung down their back in three intricate plaits of solid green slime.
“Oh heck yeah a Sleriki!” Firi burst out as Ki was mid-hugging everyone, she held out a hand to the green slime boy and smiled, “You must be Darneti, lovely to meet you, come along all of you we are moving you to the Avali table.”
“Oh heck yeah,” the Sleriki stood up and smiled, “I can’t wait to hear this band, sitting that close to the music system will feel great.”
“Well come with us,” Ki said, “All of you, Seinu says we have space.”
“Well as long as you think I’ll fit and not cause an issue,” Darneti said as he stood up, looming so high his ears practically touched the ceiling.
“As long as you sit in the middle with your back to the stairs it’ll be fine,” Firi said, “Come on we can talk more once we are back at the table.”
Firi herded her brother and the four aliens back down the stairs, ignoring the jealous looks being shot at them by the diplomats and other low tier ticket holders sitting at the back. The waiters were bustling out of the kitchen carrying food, the drinks were being served and she could hear the soft hum of guitar strings and the clash of cymbals from behind the curtains. They’d be starting soon and she had no intention of missing the start of the show by being away from her table.