“Ugh! What is that disgusting creature?” I heard some blob-like alien ask. It looked like some sort of sapient prokaryote the size of a rat, which made no sense. Scientifically speaking, sapient single-celled lifeforms weren’t possible. They were simply too small to have a useful brain. Granted, the species was probably more a colony of organisms that acted as one, such as coral reefs or Portuguese man o’ wars. Perhaps they have some version of a hive mind that is localized to their colonies. Hive minds themselves are merely a hypothetical concept on Earth, applied to bees and ants normally.
“I don’t know, but we should stay away,” another blob-like alien of the same species said. They had no mouth, and nothing moved to make the statement, which made me assume that my SAD was able to translate nonverbal languages. I watched as they slithered away from me, which made me want to chuckle. I guess I’m some sort of abomination to those creatures. It makes sense that I’m as alien to them as they are to me.
I shook my head. I have more important things to do than ponder the science behind alien organisms. I need to get to the person who knows about gateways and how to use them. I looked at my map and saw we still had aways to go. I looked at Harry and asked, “Any ideas on how to get money? We were barely able to refuel on Daraxes and a small colony on the way here. We need a steady source of income so we won’t get stranded somewhere.”
“Like I said, bounty hunting. It would be a side gig where we’ll capture a wanted fugitive and then send them to who’s paying,” the cyborg replied with nonchalance.
“But fugitives could be fleeing the Qarri. Like it or not, I adamantly refuse to sell people into slavery. If you don’t remember, one of our allies was a slave of theirs,” I replied as I marched forward, not facing him.
“A slave that you purchased. I must say, for someone who adamantly opposes slavery, you enabled them to enslave more people,” Harry said. I swore a smirk grew on his face as he mocked, “Does it hurt that you did it to have a girlfriend?”
“She’s not my girlfriend, Harry!” I shouted as I continued marching forward. “She’s our friend. Besides, if I wanted a girlfriend, I would’ve just flirted with Gruma. I was just noble enough to leave her alone.”
“Noble, scared, or deviant,” the cyborg said with a laugh. I growled at the last word he said. I wasn’t born yesterday! I know exactly what you are accusing me of! He laughed at my reaction and said, “Please stay away from any animal shelters. Those dogs shouldn’t have to be exposed to you.”
“Harry, I am not into that kind of stuff! I had several pet dogs and have never felt that way towards them!” I growled as I looked at my map again. Only a few more blocks to go. Hopefully I can find a way to shut him up. I smirked as a thought crossed my head. “Besides, I think you’re just jealous of Scarlett because she’s more human than you are,” I said with a smirk.
He asked in a confused voice, “What? You do realize I still have exposed skin and she has more chest hair than my colleagues at home.”
“Think of it this way. Let’s suppose that she’s a perfect hybrid of a human and a fox. A genetic impossibility that would result in severe complications that would’ve killed her, but it’s the most forgiving towards you. In such a case, she would be fifty percent human, genetically speaking. As I said, I doubt that’s the case, which means her human DNA percentage is much higher. Now there’s you. While you are genetically human, and one hundred percent at that, most of you isn’t biological. So far, all I can see as biological is half of your face and potentially your brain. Which one of you is more human is up for debate, but in my opinion, the fox-woman wins due to still being a biological being,” I explained. In truth, both Scarlett and Harry are more human than all the aliens we met.
“Quentin, I have to side with Harry on this one. By galactic law, a cyborg is considered part of their origin species until every single part of them is replaced by cybernetics. Meanwhile, genetic alterations always created new subvariants or species. As an example, the Qarri Braindead are considered a separate subvariant of the Qarri. I admit, they were the ones who forced everyone to accept that rule. It allowed them to create species that weren’t considered people,” Zalex replied, resulting in Harry laughing at me.
“You’re a freak!” he mocked as he pointed at me. Don’t let it get to you. He’ll believe that the two of us are an item if I give in. Better to just let the facts prove him wrong. But if I could, I would punch him in the face.
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“Takes one to know one,” I replied as I looked at my map. “And we’re there!” I turned to my right and saw the building where I presumed the person was in. To be honest, it was pathetic that the scientist was interested in this place. I heard Zalex chuckling.
“From what I understand, I believe this to be some sort of brothel. It serves insectoid aliens, which means that it’s probably not going to be interesting for any of us,” the Sorlok explained as he entered the building. Harry followed quickly afterwards, seemingly disappointed. Forgive me, mom and dad, but I have to do this to reach home. I hesitantly entered the building.
I overreacted. Nothing in here was arousing. If anything, it was disgusting since some of the aliens were unpleasant to look at even with a scientific focus. None of them were humanoid in the slightest. To be honest, it looked like watching two bugs stare at each other in a garden. Most of them were tiny, being in a size range comparable to most insects and arthropods. I looked at my map and saw that the specialist was seated in a normal booth. The specialist was a six-legged insectoid with a chitin shell on their back and two antennas on their small head. I knelt down at the side of the booth since it was much too small to fit in. Even when kneeling, I towered over them. I felt like a giant. Even though I towered over Sorloks, I didn’t feel freakishly tall compared to them. With this alien, I felt unnatural.
“You’re not the girl I asked for! Now go back to whatever mudball you came from!” the insectoid shouted as they drank whatever beverage they had.
“That’s the problem. I can’t go back home without your help, sir,” I replied as I pulled up the galactic map on my SAD.
“Bah! Uneducated mammal! If you were truly sapient, you would’ve learned that my species is hermaphroditic. I’m currently male, but that could change at any moment. So I’m trying to enjoy my time as a male as long as I can before I change! That’s why you need to leave me alone!” the insectoid chittered at me.
“Why are you concerned? Biological cases in my species are exceptionally rare, so that’s not something we fear. But even then, such a fate doesn’t sound that bad. Egg laying isn’t that intensive,” Zalex replied as he walked into view.
“You don’t get it, Sorlok! You reptilians are so arrogant! Your mating rituals degraded to the point where females can court males. For my species, that’s impossible! Biologically impossible! Females of my species need to wait for a male to mate with them to reproduce. Most females don’t get that opportunity. If I don’t act now, I won’t have any offspring. So excuse me if I’m concerned!” the insectoid screamed as he finished his drink.
“But you can help us learn how to reactivate gateways! It’ll be quick and you can go back to whatever it was that you were doing!” I shouted back as I opened up the writing application on my SAD. I know he has personal concerns, but it’ll only take a few minutes to explain something to us and we’ll be gone.
“Fine! Tell me your communicator’s number so I can send all my information to it,” the insectoid conceded. At least we have some agreement. I opened up my SAD and told him my number. He nodded and sent the packet over. “Now, GET OUT!” he screamed at the top of his lungs. Seeing no need to anger him further, the three of us left the brothel and walked a few blocks away.
We stopped by a food court and sat down at a table for human-sized aliens. I opened the packet and wanted to cry. I was fortunate that my SAD translated it. Unfortunately, it wasn’t much help. It was filled with scientific terms that were far more advanced than what I saw in my courses. I would’ve understood them if I wasn’t from a galactic backwater. It was one of the constant reminders that Earth and humanity had no chance.
I showed Harry and Zalex the document, sending a copy to the latter’s SAD. The Sorlok opened up his SAD and proceeded to mess around with something. My SAD soon beeped when he finished. I checked and smiled as it was translated into layman’s terms.
Harry looked at the simplified packet and said, “I think I get it. Gateways were used by ancient civilizations to travel across the galaxy. While they are still used occasionally, the energy cost to reactivate them is enormous. And the reactivation typically only lasts long enough to allow one ship to pass through. In order to reactivate one, we need to fill a massive cannister with unstable plasma and shoot it into the right slot. In other words, we need to be very careful.”
That solved one problem. But there was another problem. “We need to find some sort of odd job to do to earn enough money to pay for fuel,” I said as I looked at my SAD. “I wonder if it can find anyone who is offering work.”
“It depends on which kind of work. I assume you aren’t looking for full-time employment,” my SAD answered.
“Correct. I’m looking for a job that I can do in the short time we’re here. And then perhaps a bounty hunt we can do on our way back to Earth,” I said to the machine.
“Very well. According to the data I can collect, it seems that there’s an opening. A baker is willing to pay ten credits if you can carry some buckets from her house to the market. That should provide enough credits to get off this planet. There’s also an available bounty hunt. However, since it’ll require you to go back to Daraxes, I’m marking it off your list,” my SAD explained. Yeah, I’m not intending to go back to the planet where a man-eating snake is rampaging. I really messed that one up.
“Contact the baker. It’ll be a quick job and we’ll go back to the ship.”