Personal notes number 341a87
Well, I’m on my way.
I finally got an assignment from the Imperial Statistics Bureau. A bit odd that they picked a freelance journalist, me, to do it, but from what I understand about the assignment, they need somebody who can talk to other species well and go on long term assignment.
I guess that piece I did about the Wugtari Rebellion (over the course of three Imperial years) got someone’s attention.
It’s a paid job and I get paid as long as I keep these notes and send them in on a regular basis.
The assignment itself is strangely species centric. They want me to try and see how the species ‘Humans’ are getting on within the empire. They figure that members of the species might talk with a journalist on assignment more readily than an imperial official.
Plus, apparently, these humans tend to find my kind, Biri by imperial designation, cute.
So I’ve had to do some research and so I’ll spell this out just for my own rememberance.
The humans were found by the empire about 100 imperial years ago, 60 of their solar revolutions. Even though the empire was initially peaceful in meeting the humans, who had some stellar capability but were effectively planetbound, the humans reacted violently to our presence. The why is most likely going to be something I try and learn over the course of this assignment.
For reference, my own species, when the empire found us, was grateful for the assistance in technology as we’d managed to spread through our solar system, but hadn’t managed faster-than-light travel yet.
Anyway, there was about 3 imperial years worth of war between the empire and the humans, although from the history logs, it wasn’t a war so much as the humans throwing massive amounts of weaponry at imperial corvettes, doing no damage to the ship, but massive damage to their ecosphere, the empire trying to help undo said damage and the humans continuing to be strangely violent.
The empire likely was in negotiations with the humans during this time, but very little in the way of results are recorded as part of the official records, other than the consistent human demands that the empire leave and never come back.
After a certain point in the ‘war’, if we realistically think we can call it that, the empire declared an occupation, officially to try and get the humans to get their heads wrapped around the fact that the empire wasn’t going to just go away. I think, based on what I’ve read so far, it’s because a splinter faction of the humans were sick of their own leaders and decided that the empire was less likely to screw the situation up more than it already was (the humans having detonated over 20 nuclear fission type weapons against the empire at that point in time).
The records on the occupation are, by comparison, immaculate. I was genuinely impressed when I went digging. There’s names, dates, locations, organizations, number of personnel, even complete lists of casualties (albeit almost exclusively human).
During this time, imperial martial law was the norm vice the disparate laws of humans relative to their various nation states. There was still a lot of resistance by the humans during this time, but with time and effort, that resistance mostly died away over time and as imperial technology and standard of living made its way into human society.
As far as the records maintain, martial law was held for some 10 imperial years (6 human or Terran years) and transitioned to a kind of imperial government hybrid. A ‘blended’ solution is what I think it’s called. In short, the empire maintained a local military and civilian authority to oversee the humans, but other than general guidance and specific tasking, the day-to-day management of the humans was left to the humans.
There still seems to be some closely watched parts of the humans’ singular world, but as they are approximately 1.5 generations into being a part of the empire, it is not unreasonable to suppose that they are coming around to the idea of being a part of the empire.
The gathered statistics certainly seem to reflect this as approximately 10% of humans have applied for and received travel authorizations as crew members, drifters, and traveling vendors throughout the empire (a rather staggering figure for any species, especially one that still only has one planet to their species).
Part of this assignment is to ascertain why this is and how these humans are adapting to the empire.
Given the initial violent responses to the empire, I have to hope that I won’t be in any danger from humans as a result of this assignment.
Anyway, given this large percentage of humans being travelers and drifters through the empire, they’ve had a bit of time to get to know the empire and the empire has gotten to see them all over. This isn’t really a problem, at least not in what the empire considers a problem, but it has rubbed some species the wrong way at times.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Interspecies strife is very common and the empire seems to do a decent job at getting different species to interact acceptably towards one another.
All in all, I’d like to say that I know a fair bit about the humans, but I’d also call myself out on that untruth. The humans are still something of an unknown to me. I don’t think I’ve ever met one or even seen one in my travels, but then I’ve been doing local only assignments lately. The only jobs I could get.
I suppose for the record I should include more official notes so that I can get paid by the ISB.
Name: Rexith Wrenic
Species: Biri
Age: 38 Imperial Years (31 Species Native Solar Revolutions)
Designator: 1837-187zq-btze-54876-241569z
Profession: Freelance Journalist – On Assignment to the ISB – Contract Code: 2546416ATGE6235548
Travel Authorization: Civilian-Unlimited
Citizenship Status: Citizen- Imperial Grade 2, Biri Native Citizen
Birthplace: Hirthic Orbital Station, Myctil, Biri System
There. That should be enough for the official record’s notes.
From what I’ve read, the humans who’ve gotten travel authorizations have also gotten travel authorizations similar to mine. This isn’t unusual unless a particular being has been convicted of something in particular. And the only truly unlimited travel passes belong to either high imperial officials or spys and I don’t even know what those show up like in the related systems, since I’ve never been fond of imperial customs offices at the best of times.
Being on an active contract code from the ISB should smooth a few feathers though. Customs offices tend to be more lax if you’re on imperial business or something obvious. If you’re just traveling around, they get more suspicious. Naturally this means that when I’m doing my freelancing, I tend to get stopped more often.
That said, it’s usually pretty benign. Or at least I’ve come to get used to that.
So now comes to the question of how to find and politely question some humans without being too… obvious about it. Naturally I should know how to do this, but cultural differences might make it a challenge.
Since so many humans are currently drifting, I thought I’d start with some of them. To that effect, I’ve booked passage to the nearby cargo station. Humans apparently make decent crew members on long distance freighters and supporting cargo moving operations, although I’m not entirely certain why.
The transport vessel that I’m on is little more than an intersystem jumper that will get me to Imperial Cargo Station Pluxen 527. I’m not alone. Far from it in fact.
Besides the crew, there’s several Trix, asteroid miners by the look of them, a Binthoth, probably expecting a litter soon (check notes on Binthoth reproduction), a wingspread of Minips, service workers at a guess, two Crysim, almost certainly shipping or vendor executives by the cut of their jewels, and a few others throughout the cabin.
I managed to get one of the few seats, so most are standing as I record this.
It’s a fairly short journey, all of 3 imperial hours from off-dock to docking.
Back to humans – biologically, they’re pretty compatible with most of the empire. There’s a few species that they’d have bad reactions to/with, but those are rare and with biogen filters being a standard part of imperial health and wellness, most species are safe from each other.
As far as the records show, humans actually have to have secondary biogen filters because of their symbiotic microorganism colonies they host internally. Apparently without these colonies, they can actually get exceptionally ill. And while symbiotic organisms aren’t unknown to me, I can’t readily identify another species that requires them without sharing some degree of conscious control of each other.
The Quirl are have symbiotes, but that is more along the lines of mutual respect and control, being joined shortly after reaching maturity and living together until the end of their natural lifespan. The exact nature of this has always fascinated me, but this assignment isn’t about them. Maybe if I can get an assignment with a xenosociology group to review the nature of the Quirl. I doubt it though. I usually lack the credentials to run with such a group and they have a bad habit of assuming you already know what everyone else has published.
I’m not undercredentialed. Just not in that specific area.
I keep getting sidetracked.
The humans… their homeworld is rife with microorganisms and symbiotic relationships. Otherwise, it’s fairly standard planet. Sadly, this means that most traffic to their world is heavily restricted (and apparently requires additional medical protocols for anyone needing to visit). So while I can go, I don’t really look forward to the prospect of sitting in an orbital station, receiving additional medical implants just to go down to the planet.
Their gravity is about 1.1 imperial standard, so slightly heavier than ideal, but not enough to really notice.
Chemically, they’re slightly more tolerant than most, at least as far as is recorded. So that means I’m not likely to accidentally poison one if I make dinner some night for one. And most species are a bit more talkative if you can feed them and not poison them at the same time.
It looks like we’ll be docking in a few minutes, so I’m going to cap this here and get back to this when I’ve had a chance to scout the station and try and find a cargo vessel with at least one human and berthing for a only kind extra pair of talons.
I’ve never worked a cargo vessel, but from what I understand, most cargo vessels can use an extra crew member to cover various shifts and even just being an extra set of eyes, listeners, or carrying. And since I can pay for it through the ISB (instead of them paying me), I doubt I’ll find a captain who says no.
--
Ok, that took a bit longer than I expected, but I found a ship and managed to get the captain to let me agree to be on-board.
There’s only one human on-board, so that’ll have to be a start. It’s a small crew, only 5 beings, but they have berthing for 14 because they’re required to have enough extra space in case there’s an emergency and they have to take on a second crew.
This could mean that I’ll have a hard time actually getting time with the human, but I’m going to try my best.
According to a quick search of human greeting traditions, a gift is usually welcome and food even more so. I’ll have to see if I can find a shop near where the ship is docked and get something.
They’re departing shortly so I’ll need to be quick.
--
I’ve got something and I can see some kind of being waiting for me outside the airlock. I don’t recognize them.
They’re about my height, but its hard to tell how they are constructed under the layers of clothing. The jumpsuit they are wearing shows four limbs and their head. They’re not dissimilarly constructed than I am, but I couldn’t begin to wear that many garments and belts without my feathers getting kinked.
“Are you Rexith?” the being half mumbled looking me up and down.
“I am. Who and what are you?” I bow as appropriate, shifting my bag to compensate.
“Lillith. Terran or human depending on what you know us as. Get on, we’re about to shove off,” the now-defined human waved an appendage through the airlock.
I followed the human into the airlock and felt it cycle.
“Human Lillith, I am pleased to make your acquaintance and would like you to have this,” I flexed my crest to give me a little height and handed over the package of food that I’d grabbed without paying too much attention to what it was.
The human looked at it, not taking it for a long moment. I wasn’t certain if I’d managed to hit a cultural faux pas already, but I was bound to hit one sooner or later.
The human took the small wrapped package from me and turned it over and over, seemingly confused to what I could guess.
“It’s food. My oculus told me it was human safe,” I decided to try elaborating.
“I guessed that,” human-Lillith said.
A moment of near silence continued as the airlock finished cycling and we could board the ship.
Uncertain of what else to do, I turned and went to enter the ship and see about getting stowed to meet the captain.
“Rexith,” human-Lillith said and I looked back at them. “Thank you for the gift.”
I flexed my crest again and went on into the ship.
“Now how do I manage to eat habaneros without macing the rest of the crew?” was the last thing I heard from human-Lillith before turning the corner.