Alex sucked a breath in through his teeth.
Not really the time to mince words, he laid it out as succinctly as possible. “It’s the term for a baby dog.”
Carbon stared up at him with those bright blue eyes that seemed to match her jacket today and hummed an affirmative note in reply.
“As far as offense...” He really had to think about that. Jason clearly hadn’t meant anything negative - he had been unreasonably excited about it. Most Arcology dwellers didn’t own pets, not large pets anyway, but everybody knew what a dog was. People love dogs. There was a dog cafe on Deck 3, you had to get reservations to go there. “Okay, so like... An adult wouldn’t do that, right? They’d see you sitting there, antennas, wearing a sharp jacket, and go, ‘that’s not a dog, that’s... Uh...”
When was the first time he had heard of the Tsla’o? Alex’s gaze drifted towards the ceiling, getting to be the one rifling through his memories for once. They hadn’t really been mentioned until third grade, so he would have been eight. There had been a picture of a very severe looking captain, a couple of paragraphs about them and first contact stuffed in between a couple of wars... then that was the last of it until high school. Even then it wasn’t enough to cover an entire chapter of any textbook he had used.
They had almost never come up. It’s not like you were going to run into a Tsla’o at the grocery store or something, so a quick mention was all that was needed. Had he even heard any negative talk about them until he’d joined the CPP, where they were often viewed as competition? No, not really.
His mind raced back to the primer, the list of names of the envoys that had been to Shoen. A dozen, maybe fourteen. Aside from the crew of the Hōkūleʻa, that’s the number of people who had actually met Tsla’o before the disaster. He sat down on the back of the couch. The number had to have increased during the relief operation, of course, and during the runup to the Kshlav’o expedition.
How many times had they actually sat down and talked? From his early experiences with Carbon, it couldn’t have been many.
He’d met some Trailblazer crews. The work they did was instrumental in keeping the edges of Human space functioning, so they had that long-haul skillset that would have been needed to ship cargo to the Empire. They were a very insular group, even giving a cold shoulder to their fellow Human pilots who hadn’t joined up. The Tsla’o would probably view Human military personnel with suspicion-
“Are you all right?” Carbon asked, setting a hand on his knee.
“Yeah, I’m just... I don’t know.” He shrugged and waved a hand, partway through a little existential crisis as his understanding of how few Humans had ever interacted on a personal level with the Tsla’o, and how large a diplomatic role he was now playing for both races crystalized in his mind. “I can’t tell you. Most people have probably forgotten what you all look like. An adult would know that puppies, despite also being cute, are not bipedal and certainly don’t talk. They’d have to be doing it to be offensive or because they think they’re funny.”
“So it would be situational?” She asked, gesturing with the novelty ‘I broke the ice on Europa!’ mug he had brought back from a trip for his parents.
“Afraid so. Always a dick move, but the latter group will shape up if you tell them to cool it.” Probably. If they didn’t they were part of the former group and could go to hell.
“The differences between our kind grow fewer every day.” She sighed, the sound shifting into a soft laugh as she shook her head. Carbon looked up at him as a sly smile crossed her short muzzle, lifting the mug to her lips to hide it. “You think we are cute?”
He gave her a sidelong glance. “I think you’re cute.” He actually thought Neya was kind of adorable too, but he was not about to say something like that about his now-wife’s secretary aloud, or to any other living soul for that matter.
Carbon had been taking another sip of tea and sputtered into the cup, her features darkening with a blush.
“Too soon in our relationship for that?” He teased gently, a grin forming despite his best efforts to keep a straight face.
She set the mug down and wiped errant tea off her face. “You-” Carbon started, only to be interrupted by Peter returning to the living room, clearing his throat as he did.
“I’m really sorry about that. He didn’t mean anything by it.” Peter looked like he was afraid Jason had caused some kind of incident. Which was fair, considering his son had unintentionally insulted the crown princess of a foreign government.
“Do not worry, I have taken no offense.” She smiled and shook her head. “The young are often very excitable and not aware of how their actions could be taken by others. I do not think our children are particularly different, in that regard.”
“Good, I’m glad.” Peter laughed nervously, though the tension disappeared from his face immediately. He looked up at Alex, still standing behind the couch, and then back at Carbon, eager to put that little incident in the rear view mirror. “So, any thoughts on dinner?”
Carbon declined quickly. “I will let Alex speak for me, I do not know this area- or this family, well enough yet to make a properly informed decision.”
Alex mulled over what he had successfully fed Carbon with what was nearby. He was secure in the knowledge that family would eat just about everything. “Thai?”
Peter shook his head a little, mouth pulled to the side as he held up a finger. “Dad doesn’t like Thai after the water bug incident.”
Alex had forgotten about that, but he had been off planet at the time. Tsla’o cuisine would be a hard sell. “Oh yeah. Chinese?”
He nodded in agreement. “Probable. Golden Dragon?”
“Sounds good to me.”
“I’ll call and see if one of the private rooms is available.” Peter departed, heading over to the house comm by the front door.
Carbon watched Peter go, turning back to Alex and speaking in a quiet voice to ensure she wasn’t interrupting the call. “Chinese? Have I had that yet?”
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“No. They’re pretty distinct.” He had made the mistake of saying that the two were similar once, in front of people who were Thai and Chinese. He would not be making that mistake again, even though it had landed him several excellent recipes. “You’ll see some ingredients that are familiar: rice, scallion, garlic, chicken. The two countries aren’t that far apart geographically. The application, the recipes, will be very different. I’m sure you’ll like it.”
She nodded once, “I have become fond of your Alliums.”
“You really did take to them, yeah.” He laughed as he came around to the front of the couch. “Do you think you’ll have any problems with family style dining? We’d get several dishes and everyone would take servings from them.”
“I think I will be fine with that.” Carbon considered that a moment longer, eyebrows coming up as she asked, “there will be utensils for serving?”
“Yes, of course.”
“That is agreeable.”
Pete popped his head back into the living room. “No go on Golden Dragon, but Mandarin Palace is expecting us in 30 minutes.”
“They’re better anyway.” Sure, they’d have to go up to Deck 6, but it wasn’t a long ride. He held a hand out to Carbon, helping her up off the couch. She pulled him close and slid her arms around his waist, giving him a squeeze and a gentle kiss, a sublime smile on her lips.
They all gathered in the foyer and quickly spilled out into the wide hallway, Alex’s father double checking the door like he always does. Everyone except for Alex and Carbon were startled by the sudden appearance of their escorts, their adaptive camouflage switched off as they trailed the family at a respectable but easy to close distance.
Jason approached Carbon carefully, eyes wide and gripping his mother’s hand tightly. Milly seemed particularly anxious, the young boy nearly dragging her along with a quiet determination. When he spoke, it was just above a whisper. “I’m sorry about what I said.”
Carbon stopped and crouched, getting down to his level. “I know you did not mean any harm, your apology is accepted.”
He brightened up significantly as she stood and they began walking again, a question following immediately: “Are you an alien?”
Carbon nodded as they turned towards the funicular, a grin forming as she thought about her reply. “As it is, I am an alien.”
“Really?” His voice went up an octave, somehow incredulous.
Carbon beamed at that, his reaction delighting her to no end. “Really.”
“From space?”
She considered that for a moment. “I was not born in space. But I did travel through it to get here.”
Alex noticed Peter trying to get his attention and he jerked his head once Alex noticed him. It only took a moment for Alex to catch up to him at the front of their little group. “What’s up?”
Peter kept his voice low. “Just as a warning, Golden Dragon does not want Tsla’o around. When I asked if there were any problems with Carbon, he sounded like I told him I wanted to take a shit in their kitchen.”
He shrugged. “I wasn’t expecting a warm welcome everywhere. Palace is fine with her, though?”
“As long as we stay in the private room. They were pretty cool but weren’t sure how the other patrons would react.” He held up his phone and waggled it, “called down to expand the reservations to include your guys. Mom hasn’t said anything yet but I know she’s not going to let them just stand around.”
“Fair enough.” He looked over his shoulder at Carbon, still talking to a much more animated Jason. The Berkley arcology was pretty progressive, but most people there just hadn’t seen an alien in person before. He was sure that most adults could keep a lid on any reaction well enough. And Peter was right, their mom wouldn’t just let someone stand there while everyone else was eating, even if that was their job. He’d give Carbon a heads-up about that before they got there, make sure it wasn’t going to be an issue.
It didn’t take long for him to notice that Pete looked unreasonably smarmy. “What?”
“Just thinking about something.”
“And that would be?” Alex was finding his patience for secrets was becoming increasingly thin.
Peter rapidly developed a solid ‘I know something about you’ smugness about him, the grin that came with it practically ear-to-ear. “How unsurprising this development is.”
“Do you care to qualify that statement?” His words may have come out quieter and much more threatening than he had intended.
He held his hands up, that smug grin gone instantly. “Whoa, hey, back it up. Just an interesting observation here.”
Alex was momentarily surprised to find that he had been getting ready to get into an actual, physical fight with his brother. They were about the same height and build, but the training Alex had gone through in the CPP would make a significant difference. He took a breath and calmed himself down. “Sorry. It’s been crazy for the last... a long time. I was kind of cued up on the way down here, too. Wasn’t hoping for a fight, but I was kind of expecting one.”
“From what you’ve said so far, that’s understandable. Didn’t mean to set you off there.” Peter sounded recalcitrant, his posture relaxing again.
“So, what’s your observation?”
Peter chuckled. “You’ve never dated anyone from Earth. As a matter of fact, the older you get, the further from Sol they get.”
“What?” That couldn’t possibly be true. Could it?
“Not a one from your home planet. At least, none of the girls you’ve told any of us about.” Peter had gotten his smug grin back.
“No.” He checked over his shoulder again, not particularly inclined to talk about his ex’s in front of his wife, who was talking with both Milly and Jason now. “Really? What about... Oh, she was born in Venus dome, then moved here.”
“Uh-huh. Jeni from Mars, Claire from the mining colony, whatshername from Proxima and then, ah...”
“Lynne from Lyuten.” They stopped in front of the funicular, a bank of doors displaying the up arrow and countdown timer. Just seven seconds to go. He stared out through the windows flanking the waiting area, stunned at this revelation. “I did not know that about myself.”
“Did not know what?” Carbon appeared at his side, Jason’s hand gripping her fingers tightly as he waved at his father.
Alex managed a reasonable poker face and his brain stalled as he tried to figure out what to say. “Oh, just weird... coincidences in my past.”
“I always like hearing about your past, it is often fascinating.” She smiled like she knew he was avoiding something and her eyes narrowed slightly. A chime sounded, announcing the arrival of the funicular car. The doors open and Jason started to tow her along behind him. “Perhaps you can tell me about it later.”
“Oh, maybe. We’ll see.” Definitely going to be putting that conversation off for as long as possible.
“You know.” Pete started before she was hardly a few steps away.
Alex turned his head and gave him a wide-eyed glare. “Shut. It.”
“What?” He feigned being hurt with that dumb smirk.
As they filed onto the funicular Alex pantomimed ears with his hands, then jerked his head towards Carbon. Her ears were perked up a little more than normal, and very much still aimed in their direction. It might be too subtle for someone that had never met a Tsla'o before, but Alex was getting better at noticing the finer movements. The soldier on the transport had been eavesdropping on them from about eight meters away, at a whisper, so he presumed that she would have little trouble monitoring a less furtive conversation if she wasn’t busy talking to Jason.
Peter caught on quickly, eyes darting over to Carbon before he leaned in to Alex and continued in a very low voice. “They were always kind of short, too.”