Ki was pulled from the soft, warm, cosy embrace of sleep by his alarm. It was a function built into the implants attached to his brainstem. The chip produced a series of pulsating yellow lights that flickered down his optic nerve in gentle pulses. They were accompanied by a quadraphonic tone, a quiet ringing in his auditory centre that slowly lifted him out of sleep. Opening his eyes the black and white Avali stirred slowly as he cancelled the alarm and let his brain slowly wake up as he lay in the quiet darkness and interpreted the images around him.
Sticking his tongue out he sampled the air, tasting the scent of Avali, the warm, rich, heady scent of several raptors in close proximity. For a moment in the dark he could pretend it was his family, his birth pack. There were three Avali around him, three distincts scents blended together to form a thick tasting Avali melange. It was in a way no different to how waking up for most of his life had been. Curled up in a fluffy pack pile with Stren his Pack-Leader and Jorin their pilot, his brothers and his sisters Gee the engineer and Koiki their computer expert. It wasn’t of course, they were gone forever, he could taste Selenu, Taran and Chantelle, it still hurt, in these quiet moments when he was waking up but at least he wasn't alone now, he had a new family and he loved them all fiercely.
He took another moment to just enjoy the close, quiet warmth of his family then carefully extracted himself from the pile. Selenu stirred gently, opening one eye to look directly at him in the dark. She smiled and rolled over to fill the warm gap he'd just vacated, curling in close against Taran and Chantelle. Smiling to himself Ki slipped out of their sleeping quarters, parting the tent fabric to enter the lounge. He briefly wondered where Seinu and Firi were, so he paused to check a monitor in the lounge. It was always on and showed the packs bio-data and location. His absent siblings were asleep in Seinu's office and the twins Cri and Cal were safe in their private bedrooms. The bunnies still preferred the privacy and quiet of their bedrooms as opposed to sleeping together with everyone else.
Satisfied that everyone was safe and well Ki left the communal tent and made his way into the bathroom. As the lights slowly came on and the computer loaded his pre-programmed settings for the shower the Avali paused to look at himself in the mirror. His feathers were a mess, ruffled and crushed on one side, fluffy and tangled on the other. His long crest feathers were tangled together and his eyes were drawn as always to the way his right arm ended just below his elbow. Where his fore-arm should have been was a rounded smooth white and orange bionic arm, with built in attachment points, keyboard and display. It ended in a bionic hand, the smooth white and orange fingers twitching and clicking as it ran through its morning servo tests and re-boot routine; it was the neatest and tidiest part of him, somehow his feathers were always an unruly mess after he got up in the morning.
He fingered it for a moment, considering how his new family had offered to replace his hand, it would require about a month at a medical facility, they'd grow him a new one and integrate it with his nervous system, it’d be as good as new. He’d thanked them and said no, his bionic hand was a choice not the result of an accident. Like a lot of Avali he found body modifications and upgrades fascinating, it was the same with his integrated bio-neural array and backpack computer, he loved the options they opened up to him. Of course the whole pack had upgrades of one type or another; his hand was just the most visible. They had been upgrading themselves since they were old enough to be classed as adults, just like Ki and his pack had done, except the Trail packs original members had access to the very best of Illuminate tech whereas Ki’s pack had to make do with what they could afford.
Taran had literally replaced his eyes and his entire brain was wrapped in bio-organic circuitry, the latest nexus interface and neural processors. Firi had replaced her blood and had various implants that increased and improved her reaction times and muscle strength. Seinu was one big walking blob of nanite-infused slime disguised as an Avali and Chantelle had a nexus interface system that allowed her to live in the physical world and the virtual at the same time, her goggles were literally designed to overlay her physical reality with the virtual and let her exist in both simultaneously. Selenu was the only one with almost no upgrades, she had her glasses and an accelerate implant that allowed her to react faster when piloting a ship but otherwise that was about it.
Smiling fondly at the memories Ki stepped into the shower and let the programme run its course. The ammonia and water mix was just the right temperature, a delightful -12c and was automatically mixed with a solution of soap, conditioner which rinsed through his feathers from all directions. Once he had been sudsed up it switched to a rinse then ended with a spore cloud that literally seemed to suck the moisture out of his down leaving it clean and fluffy. A blast of cold air then blew the remaining spores out of his feathers and he stepped back out of the shower after ten minutes, clean, cosy, fluffy and ready to face the day. Ki paused to marvel at the shower cubicle, sure you could override the automatic system and spend as long as you wanted luxuriating in the shower. Or there was a bath, a sunken circular tub that the ship could fill with oils and scented soaps or activate the directed jets to massage tired muscles.
It was ridiculous, the amount of plumbing and extra tech required to have working, water based showers on a spaceship was crazy and expensive to run. Not to mention the ship could adjust the chemical composition of the water depending which bathroom you were using. Cri and Cal had their own bathrooms, the water content adjusted to match the pond in their village. The guest suites all had attached bathrooms which could provide any kind of water mix required. It was a ridiculous luxury, Ki had never seen the like before moving to the Odyssey and the more he had learnt about modern Avali vessels the crazier it seemed! The most basic civilian ship had integrated water systems these days, his pack had a cubicle that dispensed a sand/spore mix you had to comb through your feathers with the help of your pack. Now he didn’t have to do anything, just stand in the shower cubicle and the computer did it all.
Shaking his head at the crazy tech his family took for granted, Ki left the bathroom behind and made his way to his private room. Not that the door locked any more, his family could and did wander in as they wanted. He took a moment to pull on an orange vest and a pair of sleeveless grey overalls, he zipped them up and then shrugged his backpack computer into place. He twisted his organic hand back to plug in the cable between the backpack and his tail processor. Once upon a time connecting the thick cable had been an awkward chore he needed help with, these days it was something he could do without really thinking about. Once the cable was plugged in the whole system connected automatically, backpack and processor unit built into and around the base of his tail talking to one another. He’d had enough upgrades these days that his neural processor was entirely based inside his head and his tail processor. But the backpack still served a purpose, he was used to it and hadn’t wanted to abandon it completely even if it was old tech, not that the insides were old these days, Firi and Taran had upgraded it to the point his old pack would have been blown away by what it could do.
These days it supplemented his storage and processing capacity, increasing his neural speed beyond even what Taran could do on his own. It also came with a whole host of subsidiary modules for working with machinery, schematics and technical manuals, Ki could recall and remember details about so many machines without having a live nexus connection, and if he didn’t, he had several million manuals of all kinds of electronics and mechanic solutions (both avali and alien) stored in his computer that he could browse and read at any point. Not to mention also the handy storage for various attachments for his bionic hand, it saved him having to go back to his desk or dig specific tools out of storage if he kept the majority of them stored in the backpack he always had with him. Processing speeds were on par with Ifelse’s central core, the Odysseys main computer could outthink Ki but only just. He could track so much stuff in real time. It was wonderful; with the backpack connected to his tail processor it was all wired directly into his spine and therefore his brain.
It was the real start of his day, putting his pack on, establishing a connection and then his visor went on next. It was plugged into the top of his backpack and he looped it around his ear and slipped it into place over his left eye. It then ran through a reboot routine, synced with his neural processor and organised the HUD into the familiar pattern he liked. It ran an integrated boot check with his tail-sensor module and Ki shifted the environmental data it was feeding his internal HUD to the visor to clear up his vision somewhat, there was a lot of data to keep track of and the visor really helped him organise it all. He never took his tail sensor off, living in space it was nice and reassuring to have live atmospheric data, he could spot a leak or environment issue in nano-seconds and do something about it, it was also comforting. With his neural computer up to speed, his daily system integration check complete he ran his morning backup routine, updating and syncing memories between his brain, tail processor and backpack computer before pulling up his work schedule and checking it and the maintenance logs for the odyssey for anything new.
The reason for being up so early was so he could start an alpha level maintenance check on the environmental and mechanical systems that operated the diplomatic suite. They were on their way to a big conference, Seinu was hip deep in customs and background details about the dispute he was being asked to mediate. So Ki’s job was to ensure the Odyssey’s diplomatic guest suite was in top notch working order. They were however two weeks behind schedule, and going to be at least four days late to the neutral location where they were going to be meeting everyone. It had taken them two weeks to get the colony on Rayzon-Alpha’s machinery stable and to ensure they would be self-sufficient until the relief fleet from Avalon arrived.
Things had been a bit complicated by the fact half the colony thought Ki was a traitor for joining an Illuminate pack. After the first incident with the would-be-pirate captain Rocla no one had said anything but there had been an awkward atmosphere. It made working with them all a bit tricky, some of them understood, or at least accepted Ki hadn’t had much choice. The pack who’d rescued him from spiralling into catatonic pack-loss neurosis were an Illuminate pack, so he was with the Illuminate now, he wasn’t about to leave his new family. A few snide comments about how accepting pack-loss would have been preferable to joining the Illuminate had seen Ki walk off and refuse to work with people which had slowed things down.
Selenu had been tactful, and sent Firi in to help finish the job with the pack Ki was refusing to work with. The armored yellow and white avali made quite clear what she thought about people upsetting her brother and that the planet could still be “cleared out” to make way for a proper Avali colony, not pirate scum.
After a few hours of barbs and disdain from Firi, Selenu would rock up with Taran or Chantelle and take over much to the local Avali’s relief. Which meant it only happened twice before everyone else got the message not to upset Ki, he was the most skilled mechanical tech and most of the colony's issues needed mechanical work.
Then about a week into their visit, when things were going well Seinu had decided to ignore Selenu and Firi’s blanket ban on him leaving the ship and visit. Ki may have been responsible, he accidentally let his brother know that a lot of the Independent packs thought he was too snobbish and important to mingle with them. Selenu was pack-leader for sure, but Seinu was a direct representative of the Illuminate. He’d hopped onto a shuttle with a consignment of new parts for their manufacturing nano-factory and made a surprise visit. He’d had the twins with him in full power-armour and Ki made sure the shield in his visor was backed up by several extra shield drones so he was perfectly safe if anyone tried anything.
Instead of the disaster Selenu had been fearing Seinu had turned it into a perfect PR coup. He’d been friendly, warm, caring, he’d asked after their kits, their pack, what else they might need or want other than tech and machinery help. Selenu and Firi had been furious, but it had been too late by the time he was partaking in an impromptu tour with Administrator Farlin. He’d then made a speech to the crowd, praising the Indomitable will and fortitude of the colony for surviving such trials. How he respected their hard won desire to be free and build the life and society they wanted. Whilst he was a member of the Illuminate he respected them for their stance and they were all Avali here. The Illuminate would never take away their independence but would always stand by them, they just had to ask and out of friendship and camaraderie they’d be there.
It had been a thumping speech, his voice rising and falling, pitched just right and they’d cheered him. Ki had never quite appreciated just how good Seinu was at this whole diplomacy thing before. He had then spent the rest of the day touring the various projects the Odyssey was helping with and then settled in to help get the new nursery facility up and running, working alongside Chantelle to help the pack who would be running the facility get it finished. The kits would have a proper, warm, safe and secure home in the heart of the colony, since the old Nursery facility had been destroyed during the pirate raid. Selenu and Firi had still been furious but Seinu had chirped at them contritely, given them both a hug and not quite told them not to fuss but that he’d taken extra precautions before coming down there AND he had bunnies, in power-armour so was perfectly safe. He didn’t quite have them mollified but their anger lessened in the face of lots of calm logic.
Now though they were under-way, flying toward the Cultarvian system of UR-87g-Alpha and the trade station Homestead, situated in space between five of their largest agricultural worlds and their home-world. They were ostensibly the hosts for these border negotiations, the Avali had been invited to partake as a third party mediator as they had trading agreements with both parties involved in the dispute. Not that Ki knew much about the Farndos or the S’grael, Seinu was the alien expert, Ki’s job was to make their diplomatic guest suites compatible with the three alien species biology.
The plan was to host these talks on Homestead, but Seinu would need to throw parties, have meetings, discuss things and it was important they all had secure, environmentally friendly spaces to retreat to. Occasionally they’d want to “consult with their government” or have lunch or just not rush back onto a shuttle at the end of the day and stay the night, especially if Seinu was throwing a party or something. Which meant tuning the biosphere in three of the diplomatic suites to the appropriate atmospheric conditions and then populating them with cultural requirements and such. Since he was behind schedule Ki had organised to shut down the entire deck so he could speed up the process.
Leaving the elevator the black, pink and white Avali made his way down the large corridor and into what they called the Great Hall. It was a large circular chamber spread across three tiers with a huge dome of brilliant transparent metal covering the roof, a dome that could either show the stars or ponderous snow filled clouds. The tiers were furnished with tables, chairs, Avalonian shrubs in planters and snow, thick crunchy, crisp fresh snow! It was a show-case room, a bit of Avalon brought to the stars, with tall white ceramo-metal pillars inscribed with Avali scratch in glowing orange. The lowest floor was covered by one huge Avali tent, open-sided and show-casing various Avali cultural artefacts in display cases surrounding a circular table.
It could even be made to actually snow! The atmosphere condensed moisture to make it snow light fluffy flakes! It was a marvel of engineering and to Ki a ridiculous waste of resources but they had to look impressive when hosting guests. Seinu’s office complex and secure compartments including an isolated, secure computer system was just off the dome by the elevator. The diplomatic suites were hosted in four separate complexes off the Great Hall, each one able to be isolated from the others with independent atmospheric conditions. It was a pretty good marvel of engineering but cutting them off from the rest of the ship and setting them up was a chore and so much easier if Ki shut down the whole deck.
Across the dome, feet crunching in the snow, Ki ignored all the entrances to the suites and headed for a panel in the wall. He was planning to ask Ifelse to open it so he could access the deck’s environmental centre but it was already open. Frowning Ki ducked through the opening and clambered down the ladder into the environmental control bay. A circular pit ringed by controls and access ports, interface units and currently closed hatches that gave access to the conduits beneath each suite.
Sitting on a cushion in the space, wearing a pair of sleeveless grey overalls was Seinu. There were large comfy pads built into the knees and the jacket part that covered his torso was partially unzipped to show he had a bright blue vest underneath it. It was identical to the overalls and vest Ki was in; hard-wearing, sensible clothing designed for crawling around inside the guts of the Odyssey, not the sort of fancy clothes he was used to seeing his brother in.
“Hello you,” Ki said pleasantly surprised, “What are you doing in here?”
Seinu smiled and waved a hand, his arm feathers rustling and swaying as he showed off a tablet, “I have lots of reading to do, I thought I could read down here with you just as easily as anywhere else, as long as you don’t mind the company.”
Ki settled down on the floor, legs spread out before him and leant against Seinu, enjoying the closeness, the way his brother wrapped his arms about his shoulders and held him close, “I don’t mind at all brother,” he chirped happily, “I am really glad for the company, but I’ll be crawling through conduits and adjusting machines and stuff not just sat in here.”
“That’s why I am dressed for conduit work like you,” Seinu chuckled, “I can move from hub to hub with you and keep reading,” he tapped his visor, “It can scroll on this and I can work and keep you company, it sounded lonely and unfun, being locked in here whilst the deck above is devoid of atmosphere.”
“It’s not the most fun of jobs,” Ki said as he ordered the computer to close the access hatch above them, checking the seals were registering as intact and working, “You sure you want to spend your day locked in here with me?”
“I got my work, and I have one of my pack,” Seinu smiled, “It sounds like a perfect day to me, I can even help a bit if you tell me what to do.”
Ki smiled and squeezed Seinu in a large hug, draping all his wing feathers over and around his brother, “There are a few bits that will go quicker with the two of us, but I’ll try not to disturb your reading too much.”
“Well then,” Seinu chirped, “Shall we get started, Ki?”
Ki smiled and ordered Ifelse to drain the atmosphere from the whole deck, watching the gauges start to move as the fans and impellers, pumps and valves started to do their job. It was going to take about an hour to shut down, pump out the atmosphere, melt the snow and store the water, then he could properly get to work fine-tuning each suite to the requirements for their guests. Plus now as an added bonus he had an extra pair of helping hands and company whilst he worked!
“Here we go,” Ki said, crawling through a hatch-way and into a small control junction, “Environment Control Junction D-3, above us is Suite D-3 where we will house the Cultarvian delegation if they have to stay over.”
He shuffled out of the hatch and crawled over to the side to make space for Seinu. His brother clambered through after him, wiggling around into the small space, his tablet was tucked into his satchel and once he was tucked in a corner out of the way of the controls he pulled it out, “I wasn’t expecting us to crawl around so much,” he grumbled and rubbed the back of his head where he’d banged it on a low hanging pipe, “I thought we’d stay in the central junction.”
“No chance,” Ki laughed and shot his brother a look, “I did warn you we'd be moving around, bet you’re glad you dressed in overalls like me,” he plucked at his sleeveless top, “Those grid floors on your knees are not fun.”
“Yeah,” Seinu brushed a hand over the reinforced padded knee-pads on his overalls, “I am glad I dressed like this, ok so we are here now, I swear you took the long way around.”
“Had to,” Ki smiled, “The direct route involves popping back out into the great hall and there is no atmosphere up there right now.”
Ki tapped a couple of controls and a panel on the wall slid open, a screen and holographic control system deploying, the orange glowing tactile interface system booting up slowly as the computer verified his identity, “Why don’t you tell me about the Cultarvian whilst I work on setting up their suite?”
Seinu smiled and brought up the relevant files, images and text scrolling across his tablet and visor, “Well the Cultarvian are a mammalian species, predominantly herbivores, they prefer to eat vegetables and a variety of grasses but have been known to eat meat on occasion,” Seinu glanced up at Ki who was watching him and the Silver Avali chirped and scrolled through the data, “Their environment is what we’d call sweltering, their mean comfortable temperature is 22c, they breathe an atmospheric mixture of 24% Oxygen, 6% Carbon Dioxide the rest is Argon, humidity should be at 12% and their light spectrum is… here.”
Ki read the notation on the screen and inputted the luminent frequency into the suite's environment controller, “Anything else I should know?”
Seinu chirped to himself and scanned his notes, “The lounge floor should be grass, I’ll upload the exact composition of their native grasses to Ifelse, also they have sent an advisory that their largest agricultural world Solanta is currently under quarantine due to an outbreak of some new flu variant. Quarantine seems to be holding but they have sent us bio-filter files so we can scan their delegation and staff when they come aboard to avoid spreading it if it does breach quarantine.”
“Ooof not fun, how many people are trapped on their colony world?” Ki asked as he verified the ships filters and medical scanners were updated with the info on the new disease.
“Solanta has a population of seven billion, plus another 400,000 or so in orbit,” Serinu read out, “The entire system is quarantined and so far it is holding so it should hopefully not be an issue but it is having an effect on food prices.”
“Not fun, so what else can you tell me about them,” Ki reached out a paw and plucked the tablet off his brother, “Without reading it, basic biography and cultural info.”
Seinu huffed and his ears canted back, “Aren’t you meant to be working?”
“Done,” Ki smiled and nodded at the screen, “We gotta wait for the atmosphere to build, so come on tell me about the Cultarvian.”
Seinu closed his eyes and took a moment then started to speak, “The Cultarvian, a mammalian species, they have hooves and instead of fur or hair their bodies are covered in a thick layer of fleece. Colours vary between white, brown and black whilst blonde is very rare, the fleece grows and needs to be trimmed at least once or twice a year.”
“Mmhmm basics, come on tell me about their culture,” Ki promted with a grin.
“Mrrfff they are an agrarian species, they are amazing farmers, it is said their understanding of genetics is second to none but their technology is geared around and focused on agrarian projects both in space and planetside,” Seinu opened one eye, ears flicking toward Ki as his melodious voice continued, “Their actual space fairing tech has mostly been sold to them, they got warp drives and most space ship tech off the Farndos but they have since first contact spread to several colony worlds and their hydroponic equipment is some of the best.”
Ki opened his mouth but Seinu raised one paw, “They are also a deeply religious species, their belief system focuses on a variety of nature gods, their primary care being the turning of the seasons and good harvests. They also believe that where they “Create Food” shouldn’t be contaminated by people who do not believe. So their actual worlds are closed which is why Homestead exists, they are happy to sell the Galaxy food and import stuff as long as it happens in space,” Seinu glanced at Ki, looking very serious, “Now this next bit is important, they are technically Cannibals but only in a religious sense. The meat they are known to eat tends to only occur during religious festivals when they make live sacrifices.”
Seinu met Ki’s eyes at that, “Their sacrifices are volunteers, usually Cultarvian who are quite old or terminally ill, willingly submitting to their ancient rituals to bring prosperity and good harvests by being sent to join their gods.”
“Ok I wasn’t expecting that,” Ki said as he scrolled through the summary notes on Seinu’s tablet and handed it back, “Creepy, imagine sacrificing yourself to be eaten for your gods, I really don’t get religion it… makes so little sense.”
“That’s a very Avali perspective,” Seinu smiled, “I’ve learnt to respect the beliefs of the various Aliens I have transformed into, it is often important in pre-space flight societies.”
“If you say so,” Ki smiled, “I tend to just nod when some alien starts talking about their gods,” he checked his screen and folded the controls away, “Ok Suite D-3 is set up, airlocks confirming seal and no leaks detected, let’s go we need to go to D-7 for the Farndos.”
Seinu sighed and followed Ki into the crawl-way, “And how far is that?”
Ki chuckled, “You need to get out more, come on,” the black and white Avali led the way through the narrow crawl spaces, “It’s not that bad crawling through these tunnels, don’t you have to do similar when training with the twins?”
“We don’t train in crawling through ducts,” Seinu grumbled, “We train in how I should act and behave if they have to defend me.”
Ki shook his head, “Clearly I need to talk to Firi about your training, you are skipping important tactics, what if you had to escape from a hostile station and crawl through maintenance tunnels like these?”
Seinu chirped and grumbled, “That is just in the movies! Scrambling through maintenance tunnels to escape is just impractical, there is no room to move, no chance at stealth and you risk running into conduits full of atmosphere you can’t breathe.”
Ki laughed, “It’d be fun though, come on this way,” He led the way out into another control junction and settled down against the wall, ordering the controls to deploy as Seinu joined him.
“D-7, so tell me about their atmosphere?”
“Ok the Farndos are an invertebrate species, technically they are moss, sentient blobs of yellow flesh with small eyes crowning the top of their head and the ability to manipulate their flesh into tendrils, tentacles and tool using limbs as needed.”
“Oooh plant people,” Ki smiled, “Been awhile since I ran into any plants, last time was a Kasvane ship, so atmosphere?”
Seinu scrolled through his controls, “93% Carbon Dioxide, 5% Oxygen with a minor mix of 2% Nitrogen,” he glanced at Ki, “Humidity is 78% and they prefer fog,” he tapped one claw against the screen and dragged the text down, “They need a pool of water covered with a surface mix of algae that I am uploading the computer now,” he chirped as his eyes scanned the pages, “Oh and their computer interface systems need to be adapted for that much humidity and ambient temperature should be ugh 45c.”
“That’s going to put a big strain on the system,” Ki frowned, “This sort of atmospheric mix and humidity is going to generate fog, like real thick fog.”
“That’s something the Odyssey can handle though right?” Seinu asked, “I mean we have snow in several of the domes onboard, surely it can handle fog?”
“Slightly acidic, Carbon Dioxide fog… yeah no that’s tricky.” Ki made some adjustments to his control, “We can do it but I won’t activate this until we know they are staying on board, that’ll help things a bit,” he shook his head, “I am going to have to go repurpose a bunch of cleaning drones to deep clean this suite every time they leave otherwise it’ll leave toxic residue on everything every time I use it,” he glanced at Seinu and smiled, “Now fancy Illuminate Diplomat same as before tell me about them.”
“Ok let’s see, the Farndos,” Seinu sat back against the bulkhead and closed his eyes, “Technically each Farndos is an amalgamation of thousands if not millions of moss plants, they somehow work together to create one voice, one guiding principle.”
Seinu drummed his fingers on the table, “Once they were enslaved by the S’grael, their world was colonised and dominated by the worms, swamps were drained, resources plundered. Their introduction to the galaxy was through this conquest but when the S’grael realised the world wasn’t empty and communication was established the S’grael withdrew.”
Seinu sighed, “The Farndos still hold a grudge though, several “Elder Islands,” where destroyed before the S’grael realised their mistake. They made amends as best they could, technology, helping to restore habitats that had been destroyed but ever since then the Farndos have had it in for the S’grael.”
Seinu closed his eyes, “Their culture is a hard one to follow, each Farndos is a town, a city, a nation to itself and they interact together, working toward a common goal, currently they are trying to claim that System HJ8-YUR should be theirs according to Coalition rules. But it has a S’grael colony on it that has been there for seven hundred years. That is the jist of their dispute and the Cultarvian have been trying to negotiate on it as they don’t want their direct neighbours to erupt into war.”
“That’s the socio-political reality of current day affairs,” Ki chirped with a mischievous grin, “Not info on their culture.”
Seinu gave Ki a level look and chirped, leaning forwards, ears twitching up, “Their culture is a Farndos, they don’t have cities or villages, they are societies, they live in the swamp and shallow pools of water, they feed on the algae covering the pools and their industry is built in large underground caverns or in the skies or orbit, they don’t like disturbing or disrupting the natural flow of their world of swamps.”
Ki smiled and opened a hatch, “They sound like fun plant guys, ok D-14 now for the S’grael, tell me about them as we go.”
Seinu sighed and ducked under Ki’s tail, crawling along after him as they made their way through the tangle of under-deck maintenance tunnels and accessways, “The S’grael are worms, the average size for an adult is fifty metres long and about three metres wide at first glance they look like a terrifying nightmare of teeth made real.”
Ki chuckled and glanced back, “You are kidding right?”
“Nope, they live on a world of deserts and mountains and their entire society is underground, their cities and towns and homes are built beneath the sand. They are carnivores, and they tend to only eat the small rodent and crustacean creatures that live on their world and… according to my files the bodies of their dead, the natural life-span of a S’grael is about a six hundred years though it is said their elders do reach immense sizes, up to one hundred and fifty metres these elder wyrms never come above sand and when they die they are devoured by their family to impart knowledge.”
“I can’t wait to see one,” Ki chirped as he clambered out into another junction, “What else can you tell me about them?”
“They are actually some of the nicest, politest, friendliest creatures you are ever likely to meet. They are always up for fun and love hanging out with aliens and meeting new species. They also have a tendency to speak in rhyme, their thoughts follow a cyclic process as they have no central brain but their being is distributed throughout their entire body.”
“Oooh useful.”
“Very, it is why they get so big,” Seinu said as he watched Ki opening the controls for the suite above their heads, “As they make more memories and learn new skills they get bigger and larger. Their elders are massive and don’t surface often but the younger ones love to go out and explore and their tails are very dextrous.”
“How do they do anything?” Ki asked, “Like tech or making stuff, are they big worms?”
“They are but have dactyl like whiskers around their heads, these manipulator tendrils allow for very fine motions, gripping and the use of tools, not much is known about their under-sand world however, they set up enclaves on the surface for visitors to make it easier on us.”
“Neat,” Ki tapped his controls, “Now how am I setting this room up? I already filled the whole thing with sand! Like right up to the ceiling and I had to cut out the deck above and install an access port they can use.”
“Atmosphere is… 8% oxygen, 5% carbon dioxide, the rest is Nitrogen, Humidity is 2% and whilst the surface temperature is ughhh 60c,” Seinu shook his head, “The strata and temperature of the sand however should follow this tapering,” he turned his tablet around, “Hotter near the top, cooling down as they go deeper, underground it should be about 10c and we need to aerate the sand following this method on the next page.”
Ki read the notes and whistled, “Fancy, but this is easy really, no furniture or computer terminals?”
“No they are bringing their own,” Seinu smiled, “They don’t see, they sense via vibrations and such, it is why they never erupt out of the sand and eat visiting Avali, they can tell everything simply through the way your footsteps sound.”
“Now that is neat,” Ki chirped with a smile, “Almost as cool as your heat-senses when in Sleriki form,” Ki finished typing, “Ok done, as the entire room is full of sand we don’t need to worry about the surface temperature but damn their actual planets must be hell on the surface!”
“It’s why they mostly meet people in space, or take us to specially built underground cave systems in the mountains, they don’t like to invite us down to their big worm palaces beneath the sand but they also hate the bright light and heat, it is why they mostly surface at night,” Seinu tapped his visor to project a holographic image of a cluster of surface buildings with a large underground complex beneath it, “So they have purpose built facilities on the surface with underground parts that they tend to meet visitors in, they are often built in surface caves so even the above ground parts are sheltered.”
“Well that’s something,” Ki said “60c that is like Avali go explode territory! Ugh ok we are down here let’s head back to the deck control junction, I can monitor all three suites from there.”
Seinu sighed but dutifully crawled after his brother, weaving their way back to the larger control centre. Waiting for them was a surprise, Firi, Cri and Cal and a large basket full of food and drink all spread out on a picnic blanket.
“Hi!” Cri chirped, “We crawled up to bring you both lunch.”
“It took forever,” Cal added, “We had to climb this big ladder for ages and then crawl through all these metal tunnels, it was nearly like being back home except a lot more made of metal.”
Firi chuckled, “We also I am afraid disassembled,” she checked something on her tablet, “Data Junction P-56-JL,” she looked at the twins, “Well I said disassembled, Cal pulled it apart before I could stop him.”
“Sorry,” Cal lowered his head then held up his treasure, “But I got this! It is amazing,” he turned the crystal he was holding back and forth, “It is so shiny!”
Ki stared at the data-prism, “That’s an optical data junction crystal,” he took it off Cal whose eyes remained fixed on it. Cri was also staring at it but to Ki it was a lump of clearish quartz that occasionally flashed with a hint of orange, “Why did you pull it out?”
“We can’t see it,” Firi said, “But apparently it’s like alive with colours, a kaleidoscope of wonders our pitiful Avali eyes can’t appreciate. As soon as he saw it Cal grabbed it without thinking.”
“We have boxes of them,” Ki smiled, “I will go fix it later, would you like one as well Cri?”
“Yes,” Cri chirped, “I saw several others on the way up here but unlike my numbskull brother I resisted the urge to pry one out of the wall.”
“Hey!” Cal said then laughed, “It was worth it though,” he took the crystal back off Ki and held it up to a light panel, “Ahhh so amazing!”
“I just wish I could see what you see,” Firi shook her head, “Seinu tell us what it is like next time you turn into a bunny?”
“Will do sis,” Seinu sat down on the picnic blanket and spread his legs out ahead of him, wing feathers draped across his lap, “So what did you bring us to eat? Ki has had me crawling around the whole deck.”
“Pfft, like a quarter of it at best, but yes lunch!” Ki chirped, “Show us, I could go for lunch!”
Ki settled down next to Seinu, resting his head on his brother’s shoulder and watched as the twins started to unpack the picnic basket with Firi’s help. They had come a long way since Babupekkakerok and he was happy to have his pack here with him, well two of them and in a way Cri and Cal, it wouldn’t be long now. He was sure before he sang about it at the next pack song, suggesting they bring Cri and Cal officially into their family. He cast a sideways glance at Seinu who was happily watching the twins, laughing as they triumphantly showed off the large plastic tub full of big juicy bugs they had brought for them all to try and Firi’s disgusted chirping at the idea. Seinu still needed a nudge or two, the twins were still not being as direct as they should be about asking Seinu out on a date, his silver feathered brother was being dense at picking up on their non-Avali flirting; once they reached Homestead Ki would make a couple of suggestions to the twins. But for now they had lunch to enjoy and then he’d check how the new environments were holding up.