Everything seemed to be going as well as could be expected.
Upstairs the various leaders involved in this town were discussing... Who knows what. The thought process that landed them here? Who provided them the ride? What has been going on since they arrived? Probably everything and then some.
The doctor was taking care of people who had identifiable problems, while the nurses worked through health checkups on the kids and elderly. Alex suspected Human doctors could do any of the more basic aspects of this, if not advanced care as well. Tsla’o docs worked on him without issue. Except for the heart thing, but there were extenuating circumstances surrounding that. He’d bring it up when he saw the mayor again.
Alex’s presence on Arvaikheer clearly wasn’t necessary, but here he was anyway, sitting in a little community kitchen drinking a hot beverage and wondering what exactly he was going to be doing to keep himself busy for the next few hours. This cup of tea was looking pretty empty already, and a stool at a serving table was about the most boring place he could imagine to waste the afternoon.
The heavy door that separated the kitchen from the dining area swung open slowly, the hinges squeaking the entire way as a youthful voice chided someone in Tsla. “We will not get in trouble. You heard grandma the same as I did. She said we could get something to drink, and you said you were thirsty.” It sounded younger than Haraya, maybe by a few years. Early teens, perhaps.
“If we do, it is your fault.” The amount of sass in the tiny little voice that replied was off the charts. Alex didn’t have line of sight on the door, so it caught him off guard. He almost snorted tea out of his nose. “I said to go to the school. The good cups are there.”
A long suffering sigh tracked across the kitchen before the pair came into view. “The school is closed today because of the checkups, and I am not walking up the stairs while carrying Tado. He has grown so much this season.”
The older of the two was still pretty short, shoulders and head visible over the prep counter, fluffy red fur disappearing into a grey and blue windbreaker. She... maybe she, Alex couldn’t actually tell younger Tsla’o apart yet, was toting the aforementioned Tado on her back in a carrier, the smallest Tsla’o he had seen yet. He looked like he might be a year old, going by what he recalled about his nephew’s size during that time frame, but Alex didn’t know how big they were at birth.
Today was the day Alex learned that Tsla’o antenna started very short, as Tado’s ended between his ears. Speaking of ears, the youngest fuzzball in this procession did not not keep his folded down like an adult. They sat upright, twisting about freely to listen to whatever he desired. They did look more like terrestrial animals like that. Foxes, probably.
Tado noticed Alex immediately. Great big fluffy ears swiveling his way and locking on before a wobbly head twisted to look over his shoulder, massive gray eyes staring him down.
Alex raised his mug to the kid and let them go about their beverage mission unbothered. He was still the interloper here, a thing he was not getting used to despite realizing it several times a day now. Of course, if they turned around or came over to where the big tea urn was they would spot him immediately.
The eldest retrieved a glass from the drying rack and filled it in the sink, handing it over to her young charge. “Here you go.” Alex could only see a pair of black ears sticking up over the counter.
All the noise drew Tado’s attention away from Alex, which was fine. He wasn’t exactly feeling depressed, but he was bored and a little bummed out about just being along for the ride. This was not the leaping into action that he had envisioned when he found out they were stopping to check in on some refugees. Clearly, they were already being taken care of. That was good. Just... Not what he had expected.
He stopped himself from reaching for his phone to play games, again. This was serious, even if he wasn’t involved. There would be room for mindless distraction another time.
So he’d sit here and watch a kid chug water like they hadn’t ever had a drink before, tilting the clear plastic cup back into the air and killing it in one go, no breaks to breathe.
The realization that his nephew did that exact same thing, even down to the gasp of air at the end of the cup, put a smirk on his face. Kids. He stifled a chuckle, compressed it down into a little snort of amusement.
The oldest of the group did the same thing that Tado had. Her ears popped up and locked on to Alex before she turned to look at him. Much more startled than her younger charge.
“What was that?” The middle child hollered, annoyed that they couldn’t see anything. The top of their head appeared briefly, shifting to their toes not really doing much. Next, they tried jumping in place to look over the rows of food prep counters, blue eyes briefly visible each time. A gasp, followed by the sounds of little feet hustling.
“Kaseya no!” The guardian reached out to grab her, the child already well outside her reach.
Kaseya didn’t pay a bit of attention to that. She ran all the way around the kitchen to the other side of the table that Alex was sitting at and clambered up the stool across from him, kneeling on top of it as she set her hands on the tabletop and leaned towards him. “What are you doing here?” It was very accusatory for someone who was dressed like a Christmas decoration. Wearing that same style of overalls that Adana had worn in dark green, under a puffy down jacket that was a shade of red visible from space.
“Akai.” Alex made that casual greeting just as dry as he could before he switched into English. “I am drinking tea.” He punctuated that with a loud slurp of said tea, and then refilled his mug from the urn they were now both sitting next to.
“That- What?” Kaseya’s brows knit together, one eye squinted a little more than the other as she scrutinized him. Hadn’t expected the language shift, apparently. Or that someone might not speak Tsla, but such was the impetuous nature of youth.
The eldest arrived and immediately began to triage the situation. “Kaseya, sit down. Do not bother visitors. It is rude, and the elders have said we are to behave as though we are on their planet as guests.” She picked Kaseya up by the armpits and shifted her around until the kid gave up and let herself be seated properly on the stool.
She cleared her throat and gave Alex a very rehearsed but still lightly mangled statement in English. “I am sorry, she is very young.”
“Say no more.” Alex waved a hand, more amused by this exchange than offended by it. He fished the lone translator he was carrying out of his pocket and slid it across the table to the probably-teen. Out of the three, she was the one he’d trust with electronics, at least. He handed out a mangled little statement of his own in Tsla: “There are earphones in the base.”
The military was supposed to have brought down a crate of translators and datapads for them. Not enough for everybody to have one but they should be well equipped for the time being.
The eldest gave it a curious look, ears lifting in surprise - this time at the fact she had been handed obviously Tsla’o technology by a Human. The white box was roughly the size of a Human phone but the edges were rounded smooth, the top faintly translucent, and a matte finished all the way around. A few buttons on top marked in Tsla: one to turn it on and off, one to pair with another wireless device, and volume controls. She picked it up and turned it over, a pair of wireless earbuds with wide conical tips under a lid that folded away neatly.
While she plucked one out and inspected it, wary of technology handed to her by a stranger, Kaseya snatched the other one out of the charging cradle and crammed it in her ear without delay. “Does this work?”
“You have to turn it on first.” Alex replied in English, not wanting to be too much of a help for the little troublemaker.
“Nata! It does not work!” Kaseya groaned, defeated without even trying to find out what could be wrong with it.
Nata sighed again, so very done with this child sitting beside her. “I have not turned it on yet.” She wedged the earpiece in and closed the lid, flipping the translator over so Kaseya could watch her press the button. A big blue circle lit up under the surface, glowing and obvious. “Try asking again.”
“Does it work now?” Her eyes widened, inquisitive, as she leaned into the cheeky tone on that last word.
Alex, for a moment, thought about rattling something off in Tsla just to mess with the kid. “You gotta tell me, you’re the one using it.”
Nata was impressed, nodding as she glanced down at the translator. Carbon said it sounded much better than their old ones, accurately shaping the voice to match how the words were originally spoken. “It does work. Very well, t-”
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“What are you doing here?” Kaseya interrupted her, reiterating her original interrogation of Alex with a little less intensity this time.
Alex held up a finger at the sassy child, looking to Nata first. “Good, I’m glad to hear that it does. I am Alex Sorenson, by the way.” While it wasn’t his chip design or anything, the basis for their new translation hardware had come out of him. Literally. He turned his attention to Kaseya. “As I said earlier, I’m drinking tea.”
Nata smirked at that. “Nata Haksha, my sister Kaseya, and... cousin Astada.” She gestured to each of them as she listed their names.
“That is not what I mean!” The indignity of having her inquisition turned into a joke did not sit well with young Kaseya, blue eyes squinting at him as she grumbled. “Why... What are you here for?”
“Well, to drink tea!” Hah. That was almost all he was here to do right now, so close enough to the truth.
It got a quiet chuckle out of Nata.
Kaseya was not so enthused. She swiveled around on the stool so she was facing away from Alex and crossed her arms over her chest with a huff.
Astada just stared at him over Nata’s shoulder.
“To be serious for a moment, I am just a visitor. I am traveling with Lan Tshalen, and she needed to stop here for obvious reasons. I’ve never been to Arvaikheer, so I asked to come along.” It was roughly the truth. In the neighborhood, at least. Sorta.
“With- With Lan Tshalen? Lan Carbon Tshalen? She is here?” Nata had been patting Kaseya’s shoulder to console her until he said Carbon’s name. She knew exactly who that was, eyes weary from dealing with an irritating sibling suddenly carrying a lot more life. Eleya had said she was well liked by the general populace. “How did you meet her?”
It was nice that the question didn’t have even a faint whiff of incredulity. Nata really wanted to know. “We were on the Kshlav’o expedition together. She was my Engineer, I was her Pilot.”
Nata shook her head, confused as to why a Human would be piloting a ship with a Tsla’o name and Lan. “I am not familiar with that.”
Right, fleeing the place they were heading to, and not exactly in the demographic that he expects to follow the news anyway. “It was an expedition using a Human made ship equipped with Tsla’o drives to locate new planets for the Empire.”
“Ah.” She was no less confused by this information. Alex hadn’t even considered mixing Human and Tsla’o technology until he was already slated to fly an example of it, so it was no big surprise a kid hadn’t thought of that as a thing you could do. “And now you... travel together?”
“After we came back, I was offered the opportunity to visit Na’o to see who and what I had been trying to help.” That sounded so much better than being on a ‘look how perfectly normal and trustworthy the Humans are’ tour. That wasn’t officially what this trip was, it hadn’t ever been said out loud in his presence, but Alex was sure that’s exactly what it is. “Lan Tshalen and I have become very good friends, so I jumped at the chance.”
Kaseya rejoined the discussion. She turned, eyes wide, staring at Alex. Didn’t say anything, just eyeballed him.
“Is she... Is she all right?” Kids were weird, sure, but this was a bit much.
“Do not worry, she is just like this.” The way Nata said that left a lot to be desired. There had been a very long hesitation, nerves creeping in around the edge of her words.
Kaseya turned to Nata with the largest, smuggest smile her face could contain. “I know what that means.”
It was Alex’s turn to start asking questions. “Know what what means?”
She didn’t look away from Nata. “Remember when Saya said she was very good friends with Disata, and-”
The sentence ended abruptly as Nata reached out and clamped her hand around Kaseya’s muzzle, glaring at her with what would have been a withering gaze if directed at someone else. The younger girl punctuated her unfinished statement with an angry raspberry blown at her sister.
Well, that was a sore spot. Alex cleared his throat.
“Yeah anyway, not like that.” Alex actually thought it was exactly like that, but he had a cover to maintain. He switched the topic of conversation a little bit, moving away from him and Carbon to how things were going with the refugees. Kids would have a very unvarnished view of things. “Has everyone been treated well since you got here? Any trouble with the Humans? Dietary needs met and all of that?”
Nata looked to him, then back to Kaseya as she released her sister’s face, yanking her hand away from the snap of teeth that followed. “We have been treated well. Everyone was worried on the trip here, but they welcomed us like family, put us in a hotel while they built this little village. Even on the freighter, it was cramped and not very comfortable, but the crew were nice and we were well fed.”
“Can you get me some cheese?” Kaseya enunciated the word carefully, eyes wide as she looked up at Alex, obviously trying to appear as cute as possible. It was working.
“No!” Nata responded for him, nearly yelling the answer at her sister. “You got so sick last time you had some.”
“Lactose intolerance? We make a pill for that.” He’d help the kid out once.
“She is young enough to digest it, but she ate an entire package on her own. No one else was eating it.” Nata sighed, regarding her sibling with weary eyes once more.
Kaseya had crossed her arms again, still annoyed at Nata. “It tastes good.”
“Oh, I’ve been there.” Sometimes the call of dairy products is just too strong. “Food has been good, otherwise? I’m aware of Tsla’o cuisine, if there’s anything you’re missing I might know some substitutions.”
Alex assumed he was one of the few people that were remotely well versed on both Human and Tsla’o foods at this point, but everyone here was getting a crash course in it. Nothing wrong with sharing a little information if he had it.
“I have found substitutions for most of what I missed most already, the variety of fruits available at the market is incredible.” Nata paused, giving Kaseya a tap on the shoulder.
“I want more cheese.”
“That is not what he asked.” She grumbled, ticking a claw on the table. “Mother used to cook country sausage with breakfast often, we do not have the materials to make it.”
“Is that... Dark red, about yea long, coarse ground, sort of peppery?” He gestured with his hands, recalling the sausage that Carbon had made with breakfast a few times that he had actually really liked.
“Yes, that is it.” No hiding the amount of surprise on her face here.
He was still surprised that ‘pepper’ had such a direct translation, despite there being so many peppers on both sides of the language divide. “See if you can’t find Portuguese sausage, or linguiça. It’s remarkably similar.”
“Portuguese or linguiça?” Nata turned the alien words over slowly, unfamiliar with yet another language. They came out sounding more like ‘pourtewgeesh’ and ‘lingaweesha’, which might have been close enough for anyone familiar with what she meant. She started patting her jacket down, eventually pulling a stack of folded up papers and a pen from her pockets. “Could you write that down?”
“Yeah, be glad to.” There were a dozen notes already written that he did not attempt to read. He was trying to build trust, even if it was just with some kids. Alex stuck to the program, writing it out in his neatest handwriting, even remembering to put the dangly little diacritic on the c before handing it back.
Nata stared down at the foreign letters, lips pursed in thought. “Thank you, that... that will mean a lot to her.”
“Glad to help.” Alex had questions about how they were getting food. There could be vehicles in the barns, but it didn’t seem like there were jobs here which would make getting dCred to buy food pretty impossible. There wasn’t a single dispenser in the kitchen - not even a bulk unit. It seems like the village was donated by the government of Arvaikheer, to some extent, so they were probably picking that up for now. Not like a teen watching a couple of siblings was likely to be part of the financial oversight for the group anyway. “Everyone is being well fed? No cutting corners on food or anything like that?”
“No. It is different than we are used to. The homes are mostly for sleeping, they do not have kitchens, so meals are made here. I do not think anyone has had to go without since we left.” Nata glanced out the window behind Alex, wistful for a moment. “Even though it rains very much, it is a nice place to be.”
“I’m glad you have found some respite here.” It did set his mind at ease. A group of refugees would be easy to take advantage of, doubly so if they were actual aliens fully isolated from the place and government that they had come from.
His phone rang before he could finish his thoughts. The upbeat chimes of his well-disguised Tsla’o military comm. The screen showing it was from Direct Audio Link with a string of data indicating how it was routed. Alex loved hearing from Direct Audio Link. It was always fun and never more work. He held up a finger to the kids and turned away to answer it. “This is Alex.”
“Ah, sir.” Kanath’s voice came through crisp and clear despite having been passed through the frigate in orbit. They were dropping the honorifics right now. Keeping it nice and generic. “You wanted to be notified if those two outside did anything strange?”
“I mean, if they looked like they were going to leave, yeah.” He hadn’t been very specific about it. That was on him. “But what’s up?”
“They ah, they are dancing. In the rain.”
The first thing that came to mind was the Gene Kelly movie, even though the title was different. There had been dancing as well as singing.
Then he realized they’d been out in the cold, miserable weather for over an hour now, both of them under-dressed for the conditions. He’d expected them to come inside once they had run out of things to look at because the weather was bad, not stay out there trying to get hypothermia. That wasn’t normal behavior, aliens or not. “I’ll be right there.”