Chapter Nine

I sat sideways on the chair to face my professor, my hands out in front of me, my fingers twitched and my fur bristled, “But… the trial? The failed human is still filing motions, I have to be here in case I need to testify. Besides, I haven’t even been here for a year yet. Plus the Ambassador said he has a job for me! He’s promising me a work visa, a student visa, there’s so much left to learn!”

“I don’t want to go back!” I exclaimed, I didn’t realize how fast I’d been speaking until I found myself breathing hard, my fellow students and my professor were eyeing me while saying nothing.

My professor was an unusual male of his race in that he tended to be louder than others, it was part of why he preferred his position as a teacher at a large university, it gave him a chance to be loud. But despite that, Professor Sxlith was quiet, looking from me to the Walkers.

“I knew this would happen.” He said, and sounded somewhat regretful as he said it, his long slender tongue darted out to taste the air, his green scaled palm rested flat on the table, his tail at his back was stiff and unmoving.

“Knew what would happen?” William asked, I couldn’t see it, but when his and Rebecca’s arms moved a little I knew they entwined their hands together beneath the table. It was a gesture of unity among humans, a quiet, private gesture meant only for one another. For all of human openness, most of that was simply practical. As a highly social species they had few occasions for total privacy, so by sheer necessity ‘most’ gestures of affection were public.

But that didn’t mean they had no need for privacy at all, or that they would deliberately display a bond for all to see, some gestures were meant only for one another. The fact that I could detect some of these private gestures was a point of professional pride. I was learning more and more. In my more ambitious moments I couldn’t help but dream of the day I would present my work and reach the top of my profession, the foremost expert on humans… what a title that would be!

But Professor Sxlith’s words threatened all that.

“I chose my students for more than their grades.” My professor said, addressing William’s question. “Each of them come from a predatory species, this makes them rare, you may not know it, Will, but intelligent predators are not even one in fifty, no not even one in one hundred, of the civilizations of the galaxy. Just by existing, the five species at this table are uncommon as can be. More than that, each of my students is an aberration for being extroverted enough to want to study another species. Most don’t want to do that, and even more rare, those selected for this special assignment are the only ones to show any interest in their fellow students, even as rivals.”

It was Rebecca who made the connection first, “You chose them for their individual ability to bond.” She guessed, and Sxlith’s tongue wiggled around as he nodded.

“Exactly, a maximalist aberation, if you will. And I seem to have chosen well, too well perhaps.” He said and finally rotated his eyeball in my direction. “The government of your homeworld may give you a visa, but you came here through the Anthropology department, and there are grave concerns among my colleagues that you have gotten far too involved in your study, that you are going to give a black mark to the University if you’re allowed to continue. I don’t need to tell you what that means.”

I hung my head.

He was right.

I didn’t need to be told.

William though, did. “Would you mind cluing me in, grandfather?” He asked, a drop of sweat appeared on his brow, but he did an admirable job of keeping his voice steady.

Ka’wik chimed in, “Same reason we’re here, really. Our worlds put a lot of money into the University, if they think it’s corrupting us or making us into disruptive elements, they’ll cut the funding or pull out.”

“And that would be disastrous. True unity isn’t present in the galaxy… just a tenuous peace built on fear of war and the knowledge that governing multiple worlds is impossible. Nobody can really win. The University is a symbol of our commitment to peace. My student, ‘Bailey’ broke that peace and attacked a human. His reasons are justified, but it has raised concerns for a lot of things. Not the least of which is among the evolved prey races about hosting the predators. My colleagues want to remove him, and while the University is not a government, other governments may start applying pressure to Dlamisa to remove the offender, or…”

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He licked his eyeballs several times like he didn’t want to say what he was about to, “or they may recall you to speak directly to a special council.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad.” Rebecca said and I could feel them relax, but Blorip’s body bubbled out before he got control of himself.

“It isn’t, if you don’t mind him not coming back for another fifty years. The dlamisa visa is good for a very long time, if this is a problem, they will simply send you back to explain yourself, and delay your return to Earth for decades.”

“That does sound like something my people would do if they want to avoid a problem… and when word spreads about last night?” I shook my head and then snapped my jaw shut.

“What about last night?” Professor Sxlith demanded, and I felt very much like a young pup again getting caught by my mother doing something foolish. I slumped in my chair and explained myself, everything I remembered, and everything Byron and Boatswain explained to me afterward, down to how the embassy chose me to handle a small matter of trade.

Far from being angry or appalled, all three looked impressed. Ka’wik immediately said, “I want to watch a game like that!” Blorip’s burbling redoubled its speed so that he could barely maintain his humanoid shape when he added…

“Me too!”

And as to my professor, Sxlith said matter of factly, “It sounds like a bizarre mashup of Earth sports… and like they would need to clone livers to keep the athletes alive. But it might be fun to watch.”

William was less enthusiastic about sports than the others, and remained focused, “Is there anything that can be done?”

Professor Sxlith licked his eyeballs one and then the other back and forth several times while he thought and then answered, “Yes. The University’s contention is that you are a danger to their reputation rather than an asset, a reputation grounded on the advancement of knowledge and peaceful cooperation. If you can present something of research value, then they will have grounds to more or less ignore these ‘incidents’. It will not be easy, our research projects span years, but you do not have years. The dlamisa freighter and the favor of the ambassador will buy you time, but not very much.”

“How much is ‘not very much’?” Rebecca asked, she shifted uncomfortably on her seat, as a woman of science, I knew why she was anxious, time constraints on a study tended to make them sloppy at best.

Sxlith’s answer was delivered with his own unique form of ‘deadpan energy’ the sort used when he gave assignments we had very little chance of completing either on time or to his satisfaction. “Months at most. I can justify a short extension for the freighter and the embassy work, but you will have to write, create, and conduct a complete study that demonstrates real value to not only the University staff, but to the financially contributing government's overarching mission of maintaining peace and cooperation.”

Professor Sxlith was not the most expressive in the visual sense. A few cues were obvious to me, the pace he used to lick his eyebrows, the stiff tail, even the fact that he brought colleagues to observe our reactions to this, it wasn’t that he didn’t care, but rather that he was always thinking of improving his understanding of humans and the effects they had on other species. Even devastating news and a near impossible task were aspects of his studies.

Even with a family he cared about.

But despite that, I was grateful he’d come in person, and I steadied my mind, took a deep breath that filled all three air sacks in my chest. “Fine. I’ll do my best, Professor.”

I could see William and Rebecca were making ready to protest, make an offer, something, but I quickly headed them off, shutting down anything they might say by suggesting, “For now, what say we have a nice meal, it looks like Fauve will be late getting back after all.”

It didn’t take a genius of interspecies relations for them to see what I meant. I’d want to talk to Fauve myself, and I wanted a different subject for now while I processed all this.

“Of course. I was just about to make stew, dear, why don’t you go grab a bottle from the basement?” Rebecca suggested, “We can play some cards while we wait, we have enough people to play Spite and Malice.”

“Sure thing.” William rose and tugged lightly on his jeans, “Who wants bourbon?” He asked.

All of us, myself included, immediately answered, “I’ll have some!” And for the moment at least, we would have a relaxing evening before my ordeal began.