Seinu, Selenu and Cri met Ambassador Ka’er and his sisters Je’er and Te’er as they left their shuttle. The ambassador and his sisters had yellow and blue feathers with a dark magenta stripe separating the two colours.
“Welcome aboard Ambassador,” Seinu greeted him with a smile, “I hope the shuttle flight over was ok.”
Ka’er smiled and took one of Seinu’s hands in both of his, “It was like most shuttle voyages across this solar system, an exercise in being scanned and probed by every Earthian ship and sensor buoy we passed.”
The Avali Ambassador was old, nearly ninety years and the way he carried himself made Seinu feel like a downy hatchling. Ka’er’s back was straight, his eyes bright and not hidden behind a visor but a pair of stylish Earthian style glasses packed with Avali tech. He was wearing a suit that had been patterned with an Earth pin-stripe design but given an Avali flare to account for his feathers and wings.
His sisters were similarly styled in Avali clothing tailored to make them fit in and set the Earthian’s at ease by mimicking their style. It was an impressive way to dress, Seinu was just hoping it didn’t give Chantelle ideas. She’d been insufferable for the past two weeks trying to convince them all to adopt the latest fashion from Avalon.
“Heh tell me about it,” Selenu said as she shook the Ambassador’s hand in turn, “They have us flying along a pre-approved flight path that takes us over their largest Neutrino telescope at a speed that will let them scan us for the longest time.”
“Sounds like them,” Ka’er said with a soft sigh, “Anyway enough about humans for now, you must be Selenu, the Trail Pack’s leader, I’ve heard good things about you and this must be Cri, one of our new allies from Babupekkakerok.”
“You’re remarkably well informed,” Cri said as he shook paws with the Ambassador, “We only heard about news from home a short while ago ourselves.”
“When you’ve been doing this job as long as we have you tend to build up an information network.” Ka’er said with a smile, “Now then this is my sister Te’er and my sister Je’er they both act as my principal secretaries.”
Seinu greeted the other two Avali and smiled, “I am glad you could find time to come visit, our trip here is a daunting prospect.”
Ka’er laughed, “Typical of Ck’akk though keeping you on your toes and testing you,” he appraised Seinu, giving him a long look up and down, “She wouldn’t have sent you to Earth unless she thought you were ready for it, I’ve been hearing good things about you young one.”
“Very good things,” Te’er said, “Ck’akk wouldn’t have made you the poster bird for the new Odyssey class ships unless you were good. Why don’t you two run off to Seinu’s office and Selenu here can show us around the ship?”
Which is how Seinu wound up in his office with Ka’er whilst Selenu showed his sisters around. Cri stuck with him, acting out the part of assistant as he made sure the Ambassador was comfortable and brought him a glass of chilled beetle juice; as he settled into one of the cosy, comfortable beanbags arrayed near the window.
“So how much did Ck’akk tell you about why you are here?” Ka’er asked with a soft smile as he tasted the steam from his mug of tea with his forked tongue.
“Enough to know she didn’t tell me everything,” Seinu said as he accepted his own mug from Cri, “I’m here to officially broker a new ship contract with Hastalan Waste Removal,” he glanced at the older Avali, “Something you could have done easily without me, so I can only assume the real reason is related to the Odyssey?”
Ka’er smiled softly but didn’t answer, “Oh how does the Odyssey help with your contract negotiations?”
“Hastalan want ships in a size the Odyssey’s onboard factory can build once we are provided with the raw materials,” Seinu replied, “The specs I have seen are mostly completed and ready for printing, it will take less than half a day to sign off and start printing them for immediate delivery, not to mention I’ve been saddled with a whole host of open tour dates.”
“Very good,” Ka’er chuckled, “We need you to showcase the Odyssey to the best of your ability, I trust you’ve seen the tour instructions?”
“Yes,” Seinu chirped, “Selenu is already expecting practically every visitor to be a spy from one of their nationalist governments.”
Ka’er laughed heartily, “Oh they will be, these humans are such… baffling contradictions. But yes we want to spook those spies a bit with just how good the Odyssey is.”
“I assume there is a reason?” Seinu asked, “I’ve been trying to work out what benefit that gets you as our Ambassador but I am not quite seeing the full picture.”
“Ah that is simple really,” Ka’er said, “We recently secured mineral extraction rights to Europa, one of the ice moons around Jupiter, it is quite a lucrative deal between us and the Human United Nations and Forest Exports.”
“That’s good,” Seinu thought for a moment, his eyes running back and forth as information about Europa scrolled across the inside of his visor. Humans might have had a fit about him checking his visor for information whilst talking to someone but Ka’er didn't react, parsing data through visual aides was just part and parcel of Avali society. Seinu finished reviewing the high level summary and his ears went up as he saw something straight away which explained certain things, “Ah, Europa is an ice moon, I assume you want to move the embassy?”
“Yup,” Ka’er grinned, “Smart and quick, very good young Seinu, but yes I want to move the Embassy, a suite of rooms on a human station is no longer acceptable, especially after I keep having to extract bugs and listening devices.”
“But the humans are being difficult about it?”
“Oh yes,” Ka’er grimaced, “Every excuse they can think of, so whilst you’re here I am going to drop this bombshell,” he gestured at the room, “As I can’t have a bespoke Avali embassy on Europa I have no choice but to request an Odyssey class embassy ship.”
“Oh,” Seinu laughed, “They are going to hate that, it’s like agreeing to park an Avali dreadnought in the system permanently.”
“Exactly,” Ka’er grinned, “I mean I’ve already told them I cannot accept remaining on Luna station four due to the constant attempts to bug my office and eavesdrop on us. The Illuminate has registered our desire to build a custom Embassy on Europa but since they won’t agree to that I will say I am going to request an Odyssey ship.”
Seinu closed his eyes thinking, “Oh!” he opened his eyes and smiled, “The United Nations guarantee any Ambassador can either pick a residence or designate a ship, so they have no real way to stop you from bringing in an Odyssey class ship do they?”
“Nope,” Ka’er laughed, “At which point I suspect that building a bespoke embassy on the ice-shelves of Europa will be permitted.”
“That is so much faff,” Seinu sighed, “Why are they like this?”
“It’s their nature,” Ka’er sighed, “They are a very odd, contrary race, as you saw from your training material.
“I’d gathered that much,” Seinu sighed, “This is going to be a very odd visit, do you have any other insights you can share with me? To help us adapt or prepare for spending time with humans?”
Ka’er leant back and looked out the window for a moment, “Let’s see, there are so many contradictions in their culture,” he sat up and turned back to Seinu, “Ok this is one, the Earth environment has developed a whole host of plants that are poisonous to the humans, they are called chilli peppers, they produce a variety of different spices called chilli powder when dried and ground up. This stuff literally hurts them to eat, it makes their bodies have an “I am being poisoned” reaction but they literally challenge each other to eat hotter and hotter variants and it's a badge of honour to be able to ingest the hottest spices.”
“That’s madness,” Seinu said in surprise, “I mean I can understand using spices and herbs, but actually working poisonous items into their food?”
“Well that’s not the only weird thing,” the older Avali said with a sigh, “Let’s see, seventy percent of their planet is ocean, but they can barely swim and don’t even have fur or feathers to use as an excuse, their bodies can easily move through the water but most of them never learn.”
“Well that is strange for sure,” Seinu shook his head and sighed, “I assume there are some positives? I should try and focus on sensible things to talk about rather than them poisoning themselves,” he gestured at a screen, “My files mentioned tobacco and how it's popular to inhale the smoke into their lungs and both poison themselves and get addicted to the nicotine."
“It’s a disgusting habit,” Ka’er sighed, “And the smoke smells awful and coats your tongue in a film, it’s horrible; thankfully most places have outlawed public smoking and have outlined the huge health problems it causes but they still do it.”
“Doesn’t surprise me,” Cri chirped as he refilled their cups, “I’ve been studying them alongside Seinu and they seem beholden to their Capital creating classes and selling smoking products earns lots of money.”
“You’re right there,” Ka’er shook his head and sipped his tea, “Money makes all things right down there, but lets see some good things to talk about, ah,” he smiled, “Now this is important, humans have a huge musical culture, music is found in every aspect of their lives, there aren’t many other cultures out there with a bigger focus on the musical arts.”
He raised one hand, wing feathers rustling as he waved his hand back and forth, “Music is involved in everything they do, speeches, entertainment, shows, plays, bands, heck you can even see humans singing to themselves as they are working on tasks, it’s adorable,” Ka’er shook his head, “Believe it or not they have more music than us, sound is our primary sense and yet these Earthians have more styles and variety than we do, in part I think as silence scares them or makes them uncomfortable.”
“I’ve heard their music,” Seinu said, “It is nice, but a lot of aliens I meet find it strange or abrasive.”
“That’s because for quite a few cultures singing is just how their language works,” Ka’er replied, “Take Cri here, bunny song is literally their language, they talk by singing so Earth music can be very jarring as it isn’t a form of speech or language it is being used as entertainment.”
“I don’t mind it,” Cri said with a grin, “But yeah it was a bit weird the first time I heard humans talking and it wasn’t being sung. We had to watch some videos about humans before we arrived and it was really strange.”
“It is odd to see them talking normally then just quietly singing to themselves,” Ka’er smiled, “But the last few years has seen a bit of a change in opinion regarding their music. In part due to new alien bands like the Vangrans and Blooming Nebular or Felson and the Felonites, not to forget MMF sharing Earthian-styled music with other cultures.”
The Avali waved his hand toward the window, encompassing the system with a gesture, “About two years ago we saw a large influx of tourists coming through the system now who want to experience human music first hand or in its natural setting,” he chuckled, “Some national governments have leapt on this new source of tourists and are catering to these alien visitors whilst others seem to not know what to do with them, it is very typical human behaviour.”
“They are a very odd species,” Seinu mused, “I mean my training had me focus on the fact that aliens and their cultures are just that, alien and strange to our Avali ways, but they seem to strive at being unusual.”
“Oh my yes,” Ka’er laughed, “Now let me see, other things humans do,” he stared at the ceiling for a moment then grimaced, “Ok this one is important, they love to be sarcastic as a defence mechanism and they get super passionate about what they think is right or wrong,” he shook his head and sighed, ears canting back, “I’ve seen them have the most massive rows over things when they encounter something that goes against their perceived view of morality.”
The older Avali emptied his cup and set it back down with a sigh, “A good example is if they come across something they personally disagree with, they won’t just go “that’s the alien’s culture”, no, they will get upset and start protesting against it or demanding the other people stop doing it because they don’t agree with it.”
“Oh boy,” Seinu frowned, “I can think of like ten different species I’ve met who do things very differently from human culture.”
“It’s one of the things that make them so difficult to work with,” Ka’er said, “Now, we Avali don’t do many things they really object to, the one they grumble the most about is our live prey, the small rodents and such we tend to snack on as a predator species but as long as we avoid doing it in front of them they can ignore it.”
He perked up, “That’s a big thing, privacy, it’s when something they object to happens in front of them in public that they get all upset, a lot of stuff happens in private and as long as they don’t have to see it or think about it they don’t care,” he chuckled, “Some of the stuff our intelligence agents pick up about what their leaders get up to in private would cause a massive outrage media led witch hunt, but as long as it stays behind closed doors they don’t care.”
“That’s…” Seinu sighed, “That’s such a hypocritical attitude, something is either wrong or it isn’t, it shouldn’t matter if it is being done in public or not.”
“I know,” Ka’er laughed, “But that’s human culture for you, full of weird contradictions like this. Like say they love cute fluffy animals, they’ll pour millions into animal welfare charities but get angry that their governments are paying for human children in poverty to get meals at school, it’s bonkers.”
“Well you’ve given me a lot to think about,” Seinu perked as his visor displayed something, “Now we are about to arrive in our designated parking orbit near Hastalan Waste Removal’s station, shall we go to the bridge? I can ask Selenu to do a formal arrival parade.”
“Oh?” Ka’er asked curious, “What’s an arrival parade?”
Seinu hopped up out of his beanbag and smirked, “The Odyssey is an Embassy ship, we can do a whole song and dance, with a light show when we arrive. It’s harmless but it’ll give all those watching military spy cameras a heart attack when they pick up the energy readings the ship gives off.”
Ka’er laughed and stood up as well, “I like that idea. Ok, let’s go talk to your sister and we’ll see if I think this is appropriate.”
Roderick elbowed his way to the front of the crowd in the staff canteen and stared in awe at the images the news channel was broadcasting. The inner system news feed that was usually left on as acceptably bland background noise when having lunch was now the focus of everyone's attention.
The feed was showing a satellite camera in high Lunar orbit, the softly illuminated surface of Lunar was occluded by the sprawling, ugly girder and module array that was Hastalan Waste Removal’s station. The omni-system corporation had made the Sol system their local hub and spaceport though most of their work was done in surrounding systems since very few Earth Industries would permit their local governments to enact the sort of ecological recovery programs Hastalan excelled at.
It was all bullshit, Hastalan was mostly contracted by Earth corporations to boost their waste into orbit and dump it into the sun or run it through their processing centre. But it didn’t address the underlying issue of creating the pollution in the first place. Implementing the sort of ecologically sound practices Hastalan also offered might affect their bottom line meaning they’d have a few million less in profit because they’d have to spend some money to upgrade their factories.
The aliens who made up the regional Hastalan board had just shrugged their shoulders, created the hub station in the system with the Fold-Way Gate and got on with doing business in the surrounding local cluster systems. If the host for the hub-gate didn’t want to actually do the things they had invited them here for they weren't going to waste time and effort courting Earth over it.
Roderick thought it was stupid, everyone who worked off planet in the Sol system knew the score. Watching Earth failing to benefit from all the traffic coming through the system was heart-breaking as well. Billions flowed through the gateway transport hub but very little of it reached the people of Earth. It was all siphoned off to billionaire interests and governments. Working alongside aliens all day had helped Roderick to see how backwards the homeworld really was.
The various government propaganda departments loved to trot out the “success story” of attracting a Multi-Galactic corporation like Hastalan to set up in Sol. But everyone knew they were only here because of the Fold-Way gate. Now however the local Hastalan board were showing they knew how to play PR along with the Avali Illuminate. The Odyssey was arriving in high Lunar orbit and the entire system was watching, they had clearly picked today so Hastalan station was in orbit above the lightside of the Moon in full view of the Earth below. So by modulating the speed of their approach and following the vector given to them by traffic control the great Avali embassy ship was about to transition from the Moon’s shadow into daylight and according to the hushed tones of the news anchor rumours were abounding that the Odyssey was about to put on a show.
“We’re live,” the news anchor’s voice echoed out of the TV and the crowd around Roderick went quiet, “Our feed with traffic control informs us the Odyssey is about to pass across the Lunar terminator in the next five minutes.”
Roderick had already seen the Odyssey when it arrived but that had been from the control room. Wrapped in energy nets and guidance satellites, now it was travelling under its own power and rumour had it the Avali Ambassador had let slip that to honour HWR they would be making a formal entrance into synchronised parking orbit next to the station. The Ambassador had let slip to certain sources that people should expect a real spectacle. Roderick knew the various UN agencies and their controlling governments that managed Sol system space traffic had probably only agreed to this as it’d be an excuse for them to try and glean technological secrets from the Odyssey’s arrival. But all the young human really cared about was getting the chance to see it arrive.
“And here it comes, the A.E.V. Odyssey, mobile embassy for Diplomat Seinu Trail, fresh from stopping a war between the S’Grael, Farndos and Cultarvian. The holder of the Kasvane title of Peace-Bringer. With him piloting the ship is his sister Captain Selenu, holder of the Trans-Galactic speed record and winner of the last Black Hole Derby. Additionally the ship is also carrying Firi Trail of the legendary Avali Defenders. Quite a group of famous Avali who are here to conduct formal negotiations between Hastalan Waste Removal and the Illuminate Government.”
Roderick gasped in awe as the shining white hull of the Odyssey hove into view. It slid silently across the terminator, moving from shadow into light. The sunlight seemed to catch in its shields, allowing the orange detailing on the hull to gather the light and reflect it back, allowing it to shimmer like a raindrop caught on the edge of a leaf as it glided into view.
The ship was large enough that the radiance from the engines couldn’t detract from its arrival and it was epic. As the last of the massive dreadnought left the moon’s umbra and its engines did come into view and even what should have been something as simple as the engines was otherworldly. The Odyssey had no rockets, no glare of burning fuel, no eye dazzling roar of plasma, just a halo of orange light around the engine cowlings that added to the ship’s profile emerging from the darkness.
As the mighty vessel emerged fully into the daylight the shields pulsed, their geometry re-adjusted itself. The shield bubble actually transformed from a perfect oval to a fractal geometric shape. This new configuration caught the glow of the Odyssey’s engines and bounced the light they gave off around the sheer planes and angles of the new shields to wrap the entire vessel in a rainbow.
“Just look at that, it’s like a space born rainbow!”
The camera zoomed in, framing the approaching ship, tracking it as it approached the station. The engines cut out, the rainbow started to die down, collapsing into a pearlescent fog and as it died away and the shield geometry adjusted itself again, the fractal geometric pattern of shield panels seemed to explode as the Odyssey reformatted the shields back into a standard oval! Except each one of those fractal panels continued to exist for just a moment, a double shield layer; each panel absorbed the light from the ships thrusters and ion engines to send forth a pulse of light as the fractal shield panels collapsed in on themselves as their energy matrix destabilised. They shattered into exploding vortexes of sparkling colours, wreathing the Odyssey in a majestic lightshow of epic proportions.
The lights spread out away from the Odyssey as its forward momentum faded and it slipped into its designated parking orbit. But as those lights merged and spread and crossed one another they continued to linger, fading down through the spectrum until the remaining lights were orange, forming four images of the Illuminate flag against the backdrop of the Odyssey’s white hill before fading away.
The TV image changed back to the studio, revealing the various talking heads brought on for the news anchors to interview. Roderick stopped listening as they started to review what it meant for the Illuminate to have sent their diplomatic flag-ship to Earth. He had closed his eyes and was imagining the ship in his mind, he just had to get a ticket to one of the tours!
Firi hated parties like the one Director Talcor was putting on, Hastalan Waste Removal had clearly pulled out all the stops to welcome the representative of the Illuminate and their “accidental” guest list of important Earth government figures. Standing near the buffet table the yellow and white Avali watched as Seinu and Ambassador Ka’er stood with the Director near the fountain in the centre of this arboretum holding court.
Her visor was constantly tagging people, analysing their threat level and discreetly scanning them. She was also drawing looks as she was in her service armour. The plain back ceramo-metal with small yellow stripes. It was sleek and serviceable without any fancy detailing and her hammer, the legendary Armageddon was floating behind her back, the handle magnetically coupled to the points embedded on her back. Of course to most people it looked like it was just attached in her harness, few people would realise she could deploy it and hurl it at someone without even touching the handle. Armageddon was built into her armour’s control system, the whole ensemble was designed to act as one.
“Did you have to wear that?” Taran asked as he walked over to join her, “You stand out.”
“I am on bodyguard duty,” she replied simply, “Besides having an Avali Defender in the room protecting the new diplomat is making people nervous and enhances Seinu’s profile,” she nodded toward the room, “Still, this whole party is such a farce,” Firi grumbled as Taran picked up a plate and started to pile it high with canapes, “Why do they do this?”
All the humans were circling the Director and his special guests Seinu and Ka’er; various marketing managers, media celebrities, industrialists, politicians, royal family members from Earthian nation states, dictators and their ministers. So many of these people were technically the guests of less important functionaries who just happened to have brought along Prince so and so; or Director big wig; or 1st Secretary Importance because they “happened” to be in the neighbourhood.
“It’s the same; the universe over,” Taran replied, holding out his plate to Firi, she shook her head, the gauntlets on her armour wouldn’t let her pick up such delicate foods, “They don’t want to seem too eager, jostling for status and power amongst the rest of the local ruler class.” He set his plate down and and picked up a glass of some fizzy drink and used his tongue to sample its scent, “Though I agree the Earthians are more baffling, they are all trying so hard to not be here officially.”
“I mean our whole cover story for being here is a farce,” Chantelle said as she walked over, “I mean we are here to negotiate and print some new ships for HWR,” the blue and white Avali draped herself against Taran and helped herself to some of the orange Avali’s snacks, “As if the Illuminate sending Seinu instead of a factory ship isn’t the flimsiest of excuses.”
Firi sighed formed a beaker in her gauntlet, the black material formulising out of the armour’s inbuilt nanites. She then held it out to a passing waiver and watched him fill it with juice, “We gave them a show though, I was talking to the Ambassador’s sisters, their military intelligence network is already having a meltdown about just how powerful the Odyssey is.”
“Oh?” Taran asked with a grin, waiting for the waiter to walk away before continuing, “Our little light show spooked them?”
“It seems to be working as predicted,” Chantelle said softly, “There were just enough gaps in the shield rotation to let them scan certain things. Various nation states' spy satellites will have scanned little slices of the truth and hurriedly shared with their allies to put together the full picture.”
“That was a stroke of genius,” Firi laughed softly, letting her eyes roam around the room, “Letting them all get little glimpses of our tech specs so none of them had the full picture until they put it all together.”
“It’s an obvious ploy if you know what to look for,” Taran shook his head, “It really shouldn’t work but they are all suspicious of each other but being able to pool their resources with their allies allows them to all think they’ve been super sneaky in peeking through our shields.”
“Well from the way those various important guests are reacting I think the Ambassador is playing up his intention to ask for an Odyssey class ship since he can’t move his embassy to Europa.”
“I suspect the various nation states will start telling their UN puppets to drop the objections to Europa,” Chantelle looked around the room, “Anyway we really shouldn’t be talking about this stuff out here, I suspect we are being spied on.”
“We’re fine,” Taran said, “I doubt anyone here is trained in how to lip read an Avali, let alone understand our own pack dialect, and my bionic eyes have been scanning for surveillance tech. Also, from what I heard, Director Talcor is very strict about his station not being used for espionage.”
“Well that’s something,” Firi said, “All my armour has found so far is a lot of very boring items worn under all those formal… wait what’s that?”
She held up one hand and Armageddon swung around on its magnetic points and slid into her hand. Her armour was detecting some very exotic energy readings approaching the room. The doors to the elevator lobby opened and the source of those energy readings drifted in, bobbing and sparkling above the heads of the guests as everyone turned to look at it. It was a crystal octahedron, orange in colour and glowing with an internal radiance all its own. It zipped over the murmuring crowd, stopped before Seinu and the Ambassador before with a strange purple flash of light a truly alien creature materialised in the room. They had rich red skin, long fingers and toes and a mantle of living leaves that clung to their shoulders and hung down their back. But it was no piece of clothing, it was a part of their body, living leaves as real and alive as the set of six vines that sprouted from their back.
It was a Kasvane, one of the rare and enigmatic aliens who built and controlled the trans-jump gate. From their head sprouted a majestic yellow flower. A tall multi-layered blossom whose core was a set of orange stamen, each one greater than the last. Their eyes were a brilliant shade of orange, like glowing gemstones and their muzzle was a gentle curve, their mouth had no teeth and the only clothing they wore was a pair of bracelets, some sort of exotic technology.
The Ambassador and Seinu bowed, Director Talcor took a surprised step backwards to give them space and the entire room fell silent. The Kasvane said something, their voice a gentle lilting song, a four toned harmony and Seinu replied, mimicking their speech perfectly as the two spoke.
“Wait, why can’t I understand them?” Taran asked with a frown, “My translator is just returning errors.”
“That’s what they do,” Firi whispered, “Something about the tech they have, they jam translators, so only if they want you to understand can you translate it,” her armour suit’s visor was reporting a line of hash, the entire translation matrix had collapsed but just the translation matrix, “No one knows how they do it.”
“I didn’t realise Seinu spoke Kasvane,” Taran said in awe, “Listen, he is singing in time with the plant man.”
“Oh yes,” Chantelle smiled, “Remember our first mission, back before the Odyssey? When he earnt that title they gave him and we drew Ck’akk’s attention.”
“Of course I remember,” Taran watched as Seinu held out one hand and the Kasvane presented one of their vines, wrapping it around her brother’s wrist, “But they all spoke Avali then.”
“I guess they did,” Firi mused watching the spectacle as Seinu and the plant alien continued to converse, “Maybe Seinu studied their language? Anyways, I suspect this is more theatre, the humans are always trying to wheedle advantage or knowledge out of the Kasvane, and here they are showering the Avali diplomat with a public greeting.”
“Oh,” Taran frowned, “This is going to make them even more insufferable isn’t it?”
“Insufferable but also extra polite,” Chantelle mused, her goggles shining as she put them back on, covering her eyes and reviewing her data feeds, “All the society gossip shows covering this event are going ballistic and there it is… it just popped up on the main news feeds as well.”
Seinu laughed, the Kasvane spread their vines wide and then their voice started to translate, suddenly with no discernable reason or change in the energy emissions Firi’s translation matrix was back online; “It is a great pleasure to be here, thank you for the warm welcome Diplomat Senu, it is nice to see our Russet once again.”
“It is so nice to see you again Rubrum,” Seinu called out, “Do you know Ambassador Ka’er and Director Talcor?”
Seinu smoothly introduced the other two and the Kasvane, Rubrum turned to include them in the conversations. The humans all drew back, Firi could see them all champing at the bit for an excuse to get close, to say hello to be introduced, to be seen on the cameras as talking with the Kasvane. But they had to wait and here was a perfect example of the Director playing favourites. He and the Ambassador knew the locals and who was in favour and who wasn’t, so Seinu allowed them to guide him around the room as they advanced through the crowd and stopped for a few words only with the representatives who were in favour.
Soon enough the little entourage reached the three Avali and Firi straightened up and bowed to the Kasvane representative, “Greetings,” she chirped, “I am Firi, these are Taran and Chantelle, we are Seinu’s family.”
“I remember,” Rubrum said with a soft grin on his face, “It’d be hard to forget you all, your colours are as vibrant as my own family but you, I remember well; Defender Firi, and the explosive entrance you made during our last meeting.”
“Well I didn’t have much choice,” Firi smiled at the memory, “When the Hanfrel terrorists attacked we sort of had to reach you and Seinu and the other delegates,” she shrugged nonchalantly, “That fuel tanker was just in the right place at the right time.”
Rubrum chuckled, “I don’t think anyone was expecting you to explode through their blockade like that. But then everyone always underestimates the Avali Defenders,” his eyes turned to the hammer which was once again riding on Firi’s back, “I see you brought Armageddon with you, how lovely to see it again.”
Firi flicked her ears and grinned at the way Director Talcor’s breath caught, his eyes riveted to the hammer head behind her shoulder. He clearly hadn’t clocked just what Firi was carrying, everyone was looking now and she was sure the Earthian news shows would soon be running segments on Avali Defenders. “It certainly took the heart out of the whole movement,” she said, “And allowed you and Seinu to broker peace.”
“It was mostly Seinu,” Rubrum inclined their vines toward her brother, “Lots of races resent our technological superiority, such events sadly do happen despite how open we try to be with what is safe to share.”
“Well I am glad we were able to resolve the issue peacefully,” Seinu said, “Before Firi had to hit any more terrorist attack ships with fuel tankers,” he smiled at the three of them, “See you all later, now we must return to our introductions,” he turned away and led the Kasvane away, Firi could hear his voice trailing off as he approached a group of humans, “Now then have you met the Prince of Wales?”
“Well I’d say that’s a big scoop,” Firi murmured, “A Kasvane as a special guest, the humans will all be falling over themselves to see Seinu and Ka’er now.”
“It’s already starting,” Chantelle sighed and lifted her goggles, “Of course Rubrum knowing you personally as well has helped, Earthian social media is going wild with people asking what an Avali Defender is, the news shows are live reporting about the Kasvane, keep smiling we are on camera right now.”
Firi turned to look at several of the camera drones floating above the crowd and ordered her armour to refactor the shields so she sparkled. Armageddon lazily separating into three pieces to orbit her. The hammer head and two sections of the haft floating around her before coming back together in her hands, “Well I’d put on more of a show but this is Seinu’s party.”
“No shows,” Taran grumbled, “You’ll cause one of those over-dressed ladies to faint. How are the human politicians reacting? I assume Seinu’s calendar is going crazy?”
“My inbox is filling with meeting requests,” Chantelle said as she slipped her goggles back on, “Yeah they are flooding in, I will try to keep the things we already agreed to free but I’ve already had three attempts to book something over Seinu’s meeting with HWR, so it is going to be a fight.”
“Ah,” Firi frowned, “Well did Ki and the twins get the authorization they needed? I agreed to stay on point as Seinu’s bodyguard so the twins can see more of Earth.”
“Yes,” Chantelle looked around the room, watching the crowds, “But Ifelse tells me there has been a lot of sophisticated attempts at his data-structure. He’s kept them all at bay but he has recorded so much data traffic from traffic control to various Government and Corporate servers I suspect Ki and the twins will find their trip to Earth dogged by unofficial encounters.”
“Well they have studied the same data we have,” Taran said, “Ki knows what he is about and Cri will keep them both under control,” he nodded at the room, “Our focus needs to be on supporting Seinu at all these meetings, he’s going to get swamped and old Ambassador Ka’er won’t help that much, this is a test from Ck’akk and our friendly Ambassador and his pack are the examiners.”
“I’m all too aware,” Firi let her eyes roam the room, “I think this little performance has even caught Ka’er off guard though, he certainly wasn’t expecting Kasvane party crashers, they never turn up to events like this.”
Chantelle chuckled, “I know, it’s brilliant, now we just have to make sure Seinu doesn’t waste this opportunity, Taran go join him, take Firi with you and make him look more important, having two of his pack with him will increase his prestige in the eyes of the humans, I have a calendar war to adjudicate.”
Chantelle then pulled her goggles back on and retreated behind the buffet table leaving Firi and Taran to their task. It was going to be a long, incredibly boring evening of small talk, and looming in her armour looking impressive. But you never knew, maybe someone would try to assassinate the Kasvane in an opportunistic attack so it might get interesting! Linking arms with her brother Firi headed forward, weaving her way deftly through the crowd to rejoin Seinu and his entourage, they had a job to do and she was going to make sure they both did it well.
To be continued…