Chapter Twenty-Eight
I should have known better than to ask a human if something like that could be handled. I really… really should have. But to my credit, I knew a mischievous look when I saw it at least.
“You’re thinking of something, aren’t you?” I asked, and Lisa nodded, she was wiggling in her chair with the kind of excitement I didn’t often see even out of humans, but that I’ve at least seen in fiction and recognized that it meant she was anticipating something. Lisa didn’t speak right away, she had her datapad out and was typing something, a moment later there was a ‘ding’ noise back, then more typing.
Then more dings.
I pulled ‘the face’. The cocked, curious look that made humans seem to melt and made them talkative.
“A bunch of your guys’s sailors are heading here, right? Space marines? Space doggos? Merchant space doggo marines… whatever, yeah?” She asked, clearly trying not to keep her smile from getting larger.
“Yessss…” I drew out my answer, I kind of had a feeling I knew where this was going.
“So, like, you’re on the football team now, and you work for the little Army office here, what say we get everybody together for a good time? A little ‘good will’ exchange. They’re going to get some shore leave, right? Not just hang out at the space dock?” She asked, but she already knew the answer. Louisville had always been a transportation hub, and it wasn’t uncommon for shuttles or ships to land on the outskirts of the city.
“Maybe we could introduce them to some human sports, arts, and how we kind of cut loose, and they could show us what they do when they need to unwind. It’d be fun, and after that nasty business recently, you know, a little good will couldn’t hurt?” It was a more tentative tone out of her than I expected, but I could see she was hooked on the idea.
It was at this point that the seed of an idea that had taken root before, began to break through the soil of my mind and blossom.
“I’ll talk to the ambassador, we’ve been here for a bit and I have to go to work but, thanks for listening, have a good day!” I know I spoke more rapidly than I normally did, that it probably looked like I was blowing her off, but the truth was far different.
Academic vigor was taking hold in me like fire through dry grass. Looking back even hours later, I might have hurt her feelings a little, but I am dlamisan, my work, my task… I was honed in on it. I began typing out a proposal with pros and cons, intending to send a concept draft to Professor Sxlith before I even reached my place of business.
In the first edition of this publicly released journal I did not include the concept document, however due to popular request for the sake of the historical record, as I have the only remaining copy, I will enclose it below.
Professor Sxlith,
Proposal: A study in interspecies team dynamics between dlamisan space marines, Earth Military units, and Earth sports teams.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Hypothesis: Different species may bond effectively through cooperative competition.
Plan of action: Introduce a sport with which the teams have no prior experience but which athletic figures are capable of engaging in, for our purposes I will introduce each of the three groups to ‘Ballyball’ and then pit them against each other.
Variables will include team shifts, rewards, and the introduction of alcoholic beverages, as we change dynamics and levels of social inhibition, I predict the teams will gell into one unified whole across each variable.
Justification: It is paramount to the peace of the galaxy that species learn to work cooperatively not only in spite of their differences, but because of them, understanding our respective strengths and weaknesses will allow us all to come together in a common peace.
Species justification: Humans and dlamisans are available in sufficient numbers for observation, are both evolved from apex predatory races, but also clash in the wide gulf of cultures from which we come. If humans and dlamisa can come together, then any species can.
It was crude, but it was also a matter of urgency, I knew I could clean it up later, as I zipped along the path on my scooter, racing toward my workplace, I drafted a spoken message to be delivered over the global net.
“Professor, at your earliest hasty convenience, I urge you to check the proposal I’ve just dispatched. I apologize for the crudity involved, but variables have changed and approval will be needed soon, before the arrival of the freighter. I will get approval from the local military, I’ll go through Byron if I have to. Please get back to me as soon as you’ve granted approval and I’ll let you know my budget by tonight.”
I hung up the call, he hadn’t answered. That wasn’t shocking to me, the Professor had a lot of students to mind here on Earth, and at least one of us caused all manner of havoc.
My arrival at my workplace came minutes later and I walked in fifteen minutes before my day was to begin.
I have to admit, the human military had quite an appeal to me, they were quiet and businesslike.
I sat at my desk and began sorting through files and linking data and went uninterrupted for two straight hours. It was only when I heard the telltale ding on my datapad that I stopped my work and pulled it out of my pocket to check. Clothing may not have been necessary on my world, but it was hard to deny the practicality of wearing things with built in carriers.
My finger trembled when I went to my datapad screen and unlocked it with my telltale squiggle pattern. All three of my hearts were pounding in my chest like I was in the crosshairs of a Zenti pirate vessel all over again. ‘If he doesn’t approve this…?’
I felt my airsacs seize up, I pictured myself trudging, walking down the long corridor of the entry station, the Walkers going with me, Fauve would hug me, I was sure, I think they all would have. Michael, given time, would forget me, painlessly, easily, until I was just this faint vague memory of a figure he used to play with.
Fauve? She would grow up, grow older, I’d be able to correspond with her, and in time she would be alright, human children are adaptable, and we could write to one another at least. And we probably would, for a few years at least, until her adulthood and her own life took her away from keeping in touch, then we too would drift apart. William and Rebecca… they would age and pass away before I could even hope to return, and that is if I didn’t have to take a human colony posting.
I had very little chance of ever seeing my humans again if this did not go well. Even if he approved it, even if he was on my side, this was what humans call ‘a long shot’.
But it was the only shot I had.