Chapter Thirteen

Hoverbus routes were everywhere, they had to be. Unlike some of the races of the galaxy, humans were a very ad hoc, which is to say, a very in the moment improvisational species. They often built cities essentially completely by accident. On dlamisa and many other worlds, even in primitive times these disconnected peoples all came to the same conclusion. Whenever a new area was to be settled, multiple villages or towns would gather their landless and unemployed, equip them with supplies, and settle an area all at once with materials and a long term plan.

Humans however, often settled areas very slowly, the exception being when large kingdoms or their armies expressly wanted an area settled. Most areas, devoid of long term planning or a specific settlement type in mind, grew wildly and unrestricted for generations, even centuries until some force of government imposed order on the chaos with legal zoning mandates.

Louisville was a marvelous example of the human propensity for chaos and rapid growth, it was obvious after minutes of driving through it that the city was never expected to be the size that it was. As such to accommodate hovertech they stationed bus routes nearly everywhere. Strangely enough, this innovative species managed to make this into an efficient model by carefully scheduling arrivals and departures so that nobody waited in one place for more than a few minutes.

I found my stop easily enough, it was conveniently placed a few minutes walk from the Walker household, directly by one of their major food stores, this was a deliberate choice on the part of the city government, ensuring that mass purchase, employment, and education centers were also doubling as drop off and pickup points for the bus system. The bus stop was a wonder of pragmatism, a pair of benches side by side carved out of stone, and for shade there were fruit bearing trees whose slender trunks stretched up a meter over the tallest person’s standing height.

The branches spread out overhead, and when I arrived, there was a maintenance worker who was trimming the fruit free from the upper branches. Conveniently enough, to protect people from falling fruit a clear plastic barrier rose up from the back of the bench to protect the heads of people down below.

The fruit on and around the trimmed branches went into baskets carried by the blue uniformed worker, while the lower branches went untouched. He whistled a little while he worked, though I didn’t recognize the tune, it had a delightful bounce to it with every clip of his hand shears.

The fruit in question was a variety of apple, one of the more popular Earth fruits, evidenced by the fact that several people on benches were already munching on ones they’d taken from the tree. This trend of publicly available fruit trees was found at every common stop and public park, though I can’t help but wonder what they did with the excess. Given their love of liquor, I ‘guessed’ that they used the unharvested extra in some of their cheaper and more popular liquor manufacturing.

I snatched a bright red apple from the tree and brought it to my mouth, I got a few funny looks from people, though nobody shrank in terror. The reason being, I think, that every time a new species was encountered, the Earth government would broadcast what they looked like all over the planet, providing what knowledge they’d gained so that if one of a race visited their world, they would not be shocked or alarmed.

It helped a lot for me I think, that I looked so very doglike. I waved and bit into the apple, my jaws let me take a quarter of it in one bite and I sat down beside an old woman in a skirt and dress, and a young woman in a very short black skirt and what they refer to as a ‘tube top’. Boatswain however, remained standing, where I used body language for openness, relaxed and leaning back, he crossed his arms and kept a severe, steady stare straight ahead. I just pretended I wasn’t there and looked over the human who looked at us both.

Because of humans shorter lifespans and year round sexuality, I observed that it was very common for those who were younger and of mating age in their prime, to bare more flesh than those who were much older, but interestingly enough, unlike most species, the very display that enticed the same or opposite sex, was also not necessarily indicative of a desire for a mating partner.

Instead it was sometimes simply an expression of comfort and confidence on the part of the one baring skin. You may recall my earlier observations regarding the wildly varying mating strategies and their differing levels of success? There seemed to be one golden rule in this peculiar species, ‘Assume nothing.’

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“So, you’re an alien?” The younger woman said to me while we munched on our apples and stretched out, waiting for the bus. I had to conclude that given Boatswain’s steady outward stare and pointed ignoring of the humans near us, that she was ‘returning the favor’ and focusing in on me, as I appeared the far more open and less threatening of the two of us.

I am not sure whether to credit William or Fauve or even Rebecca for my answer, but I said, “No, I’m just a talking dog in clothes on his way to work.”

She looked at me funny for a moment, the way humans cocked their heads at the unexpected, it was positively adorable, especially with those who were young and clearly a little naive about the universe She scratched her head for a moment, fingers running through her ink black hair, and then she parted her ruby lips and laughed.

“For a moment I thought you were serious.” She said, “What with all the genetic engineering stuff going on lately, who knows?”

She wasn’t wrong, humans modify their environment more than any other known species, to include modifying living organisms.

“Yes, I’m an alien. You can call me, Bailey.” I said and it was then that I noticed that her shirt was emblazoned with the name of the University of Louisville.

“Are you a student?” I asked and pointed out her shirt.

For a moment after she followed my pointed finger’s direction, I sensed indecision in her, before she said, “Right, alien.” She then nodded, “I am, I’m a xenolinguistics major.”

That had my interest, “I’m an anthropology major, not here… sort of, yet. Back home. I’m going to take a few classes here though as part of my studies, and work there too. Why Xenolinguistics, and which species?”

“The Zenti, and because language rests at the heart of culture. The better we can understand them, and they us, the easier it will be for us to make peace.” She explained and tossed out a little factoid, “Did you know the Zenti have no word for ‘share’ or ‘gift’? The closest they have to it is ‘takase’ meaning ‘to take and take’ in its clearest translation. Is it any wonder they launched out into the galaxy and became pirates? They don’t even have a word for equal or fair exchange.”

She was right, I was no expert on the Zenti, but the department specializing in other species was fairly small, and as such we all knew each other and talked shop often. I’d heard that before from a Maxiki student.

“I suppose that’s true, I’m certainly finding that with humans. Knowing how many different words and terms you developed for certain habits, certainly tells me a lot.” I chuckled a little and tossed the apple core up into the air, tilted my head back, and caught the remainder in my mouth, chomping it down whole and swallowing it down to the stem.

She looked at me again, up and down, like she was reappraising me, “Do you not approve?”

I rotated my hand at the wrist in a casual dismissive gesture, “Oh no, it’s fascinating. Although, I will never drink again.” I shook my head firmly, and her brief reappraisal ended with a smile spread over her apple of a face.

“I’m Lisa.” She said and held out her hand to me.

I took it in mine, she had a good grip for someone as slender as she was, “It’s nice to meet you, Bailey. Do you know your way around campus?”

“Not really, but I have a map.” I tapped my pocket where the datapad sat, but she shook her head. Maybe it was because she happened to share a name with my first human friend, but I was immediately favorably disposed toward her. “No, no, that won’t do. Map or no map, the campus is confusing if you don’t know where you’re going. Let me see your map.” She said and I drew out my datapad and held it out to her.

She took out her own and held it close to mine, tapping it once against the corner, my data moved over to her own and for a few seconds she was quiet as she loaded and looked over the data. “Yep, you’ll get lost. I’m going close to there, let me show you the way.”

“Are you sure? I wouldn’t want to trouble you?” I asked her and looked down the street, the bus was coming close, it was a long tube with two floors in it to hold the maximum number possible, with the upper level open to the air. I knew immediately where I was going to sit.

“It’s no trouble, like I said, it’s close by where I’m going anyway, I’m on my way to practice, and the field is right across the way.” She explained, and I immediately asked…

“What practice?”

“Cheerleading. I'm the head of the squad.” She explained, and this now had me intrigued because I had only the vaguest notion of what that meant.

Before I could ask, however, the bus lowered itself to street level and people began to disembark.

I went straight for the stairs that led to the upper level of the bus, and Lisa followed behind me, for the moment I’d almost forgotten her, after all, I was going to have the wind at my face again at high velocity, and I could hardly wait for it to begin.