Personal notes number 352zx8 - Interview notes of Lillith

Our journey was set to be 2 weeks transit between the various refueling stops to our destination of Nythios Station, where I could change cargo vessels and work my way closer to the human homeworld.

As it turned out, Lillith was fairly talkative after a few shifts onboard. I wasn’t the most helpful, but I wasn’t in the way either and being a ready go-for while asking my questions didn’t hurt. Attached is a rough transcript of the accumulated recordings of our conversations.

Lillith’s Story:

I’m 25, which is uh… I think about 41 or 42 by imperial standards. I’m still getting used to the different measurement systems and with every station having two measurements based on the nearest world, it’s hard to know what to go by.

Either way, I’m a full adult for being a human. That probably sounds weird to you, but humans are a bit weird about how we qualify ourselves as being children… uh… younglings? If that makes sense? Anyway, there’s infants, children, adolescents, young adults, and adults as our general categories. There’s age groupings associated with each that tie back to our development. I don’t claim to know it, but it’s a historical kind of thing.

Anyway, I got off planet once I was 22 [note: age in human years] and had finished my standard schooling. Couldn’t stand being stuck on just one planet my whole life.

And since I left, I honestly wonder why anyone would ever go back.

It’s so different to go out and see the stars. Every station is different. Different foods, different peoples [human linguistic carry-over referring to different species]. And strangely, everyone being peaceful.

Where I grew up, a lot of folks used to believe that the empire was constantly at war with itself, suppressing some folks and just hiding the truth. Of course they also used to believe that we should have kept fighting the empire and that we needed to be ready for the day of the revolution.

Bunch of them couldn’t have stood up to the first Centurion [Centurion being the designator for imperial police forces] who might have walked into the room, regardless of how much firepower they allegedly had.

Some of the fools even claimed to be planning something, just waiting to the right time. I heard some of them did end up arrested trying stuff, so I guess they actually were, but I didn’t ever say anything. Centurions can take care of themselves and frankly, even if they [the alleged human rebels] did die, they’d be doing the rest of us a favor.

My parents didn’t want me going off-world. Didn’t even want me applying for the travel visa. They wanted me to stay on world and work towards being an imperial-grade species specialist. I obviously didn’t. Who would ever want to spend their whole life answering constant questions about one species?

The easiest way off planet and out of the system was cargo vessels, so I signed on with the Cargo Crew Union. They promised training, fair pay throughout the empire, and only reputable ships and captains sign CCU members.

I definitely have been promised more money on other ships, but they usually disappear the instant I say I’m a CCU member. I guess they figure a new species like mine is maybe more desperate or more willing to do stuff on the fringe.

Well, they aren’t wrong. The recruiters lately have even been humans in bars. Standard lowlifes. I bypassed plenty of them when I was back on planet, let alone out here in the void.

[Inquiry about growing up]

Hmmm… growing up. Well, it was very different from my parents and my grandparents. My grandparents supported the fight against the empire and my parents carried a lot of that over.

I still have some feelings about the empire, but having been out here and seeing the reality of things, I have a hard time believing some of it.

Anyway, my parents were very young when the empire found Terra [human designation for their homeworld]. So they grew up a bit during the war. They didn’t really understand other than what my grandparents told them. And while the empire has done a decent job at getting everyone settled down, there’s still a lot of bad blood there.

I bring that up because that’s what I grew up in. A lot of folks who don’t like the empire, but who still use all the benefits that the empire brings and would grumble if the empire said ‘screw it’ and left with all the tech and science and medicine and exotic goods.

And there’s a bunch of folk who still think that way. There’s even an official movement that way. ‘Terrans for Terra’ is the name I think. The way I get it, they want to go back to the pre-war nation-states, religion, technology level, everything. They think we should have to do for ourselves and not rely on outside ‘influences’ who will ‘corrupt us’.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

I think they’re idiots. The idea of nation-states is ridiculous. I mean, seriously? Same planet carved up into over 100 different regions and no universal pass to get around? Can you imagine if the empire had anything equivalent? Nobody would be able to go anywhere and get anything done.

I know the empire has over 400 populated worlds, but last I checked, my pass will take me just about anywhere in those world, excepting the military or high science zones. But I don’t fancy being blown up or irradiated, so I don’t really want to go there anyway.

Back to growing up, I went to the local public school. All the standards including a mix of human languages and imperial standard. Hard to believe we had so many languages just on one planet. I mean, I’ve gotten used to hearing lots of different conversations that I can’t understand on various stations, but I can’t imagine just traveling around the same planet and having the same experience.

And religion… I guess it’s part of my heritage, but a lot of the folks who are still believers back on planet, they just seem…. Weird. Like really weird. You ask them questions about real things, like how the species of the empire fits into it all and they freeze up. You ask them about human centric stuff and they’re just fine though. It’s weird.

Anyway, I went to imperial prep school, as I said, my parents thinking they’d get me to stay on planet and be some kind of advocate. It was still almost all human, but it was also my first time in orbit.

It was amazing being in orbit and being that far away from home. It’s when I knew I wouldn’t be staying. Oh I figure I might go back or at least be a bit closer at some point, but I’m enjoying life for now.

Anyway, prep school was alright. Took classes with a Centux [Closest neighbor sapient species to humans]. Was my first experience in getting to know another species. They were a great laugh.

Not everyone was supportive of them, but when enough of us found out why they were at our school, we did our best to make them feel welcome.

[Inquiry on why the Centux attended]

Oh they got kicked out of their own prep school for being too violent with their classmates. Some kind of lingering territorialism or so we got told. We didn’t mind it much and once they were around us, they seemed to settle down. Praxi was a fun being and I think I learned more about another species than I ever learned in any class I took after meeting them.

But went through prep school. Got the ‘rich kid’ experience. It was funny though. Hmmm? Oh, uh… pre-war Terra, depending on what part of the world you lived in, prep school was strictly privately controlled vs public school and it used to cost money because it was private so it was almost always the wealthy of our planet who attended those schools. Some of them were even extra exclusive because of who the kids were related to.

Anyway, as you might guess, I’m not from a rich family. I got selected to attend the prep school because of some metrics the empire cares about and since it meant that I’d be guaranteed a decent imperial job, which is what my parents cared about, they sent me. They still don’t much care for the empire, but they’re like any human – show them enough money, even if its just speculative money, and they’ll walk barefoot on the surface of a star.

Human base jobs are ok and still pay ok, but nothing like imperial civil service does, especially planet-side on a world that requires extra medical support if you’re not native.

Anyway, graduated from the prep school and went on to college. College was back on-planet and I hated it. Couldn’t wait to finish, but knew I wouldn’t get anywhere without at least the basics for imperial conduct. Like seriously wouldn’t make it out of system without at least a basic college degree.

And the imperial revamp of the college system certainly didn’t hurt. From what I remember from one of the human history classes, some nation-states used to charge exorbitant sums of money on the basis that these students were going to make enough to pay it back, even though a huge percentage either wouldn’t be able to or would have to live in near poverty until it was paid off. Again, hard to imagine, but I’m grateful to the empire either way that I didn’t have to put up with something like that.

Just barely passed and graduated most of my courses. Being back on planet really sucked my will to even pay attention and it was all human and a lot of anti-imperial resentment floating around. After prep school, it was like going backwards in time.

So I got my degree and left. Applied for a travel visa same day as my graduation and headed up to the orbital station as soon as I had it.

I was basically broke when I got up to the orbital station. Didn’t tell me parents or any of my… uh… friends I guess, but I haven’t spoken to any of them since.. any of my friends since leaving.

Had ship’s captain take pity on me and send me over to the CCU. The recruiter there was almost bouncing for joy at having me come through the door. Apparently, getting humans to actually sign on with the CCU was still nearly impossible.

I brought up being broke and having no training. The recruiter laid it all out. Trainee pay while I get started learning how shifting cargo works at the imperial scale and a contract once I was ready to set sail on my first vessel.

It’s funny. I actually outearn those imperial civil servants on planet and I’m just helping move cargo. I’m not even a ship’s captain.

The union has said that if I want to try and work my way up to being a ship’s captain, they’ll help with the training, but that I’d have to change unions or leave the union if I ever actually become a ship’s captain.

I was actually a bit surprised that they’re willing to be that helpful. I guess I never really figured that such a big organization would go out of their way for me. But I guess it makes sense too. You want someone who’s been a part of the cargo union to eventually run a ship. Means they know the rules and are willing to play by them. More work for the cargo union and a better selection of captains.

Anyway, I figure I’ll work this for a few more imperial years, see a bit more, and try and decide then. I’ve got a good amount of savings. If I decide to take a leave of absence for starting a family, I won’t be hurting if I do.

Of course, finding another human out here worth liking is like trying to find the most well-rotted butogi on the whole farm. [Butogi being a Centux delicacy which is by tradition allowed to rot/self-ferment in large territory fields. Locating butogi is considered a challenge and judging the state of rot/self-fermentation is a matter of fine taste and post-tasting review. Nearest Human equivalent – truffles. Research further.]

[Question about thoughts on the empire]

The empire is alright. Do I think they did the right thing as far as taking over and not letting us get there on our own? No, but I can’t argue with the results. I wouldn’t be here if they hadn’t intervened.

Seriously, one scouting vessel and all of a sudden we’re being invaded by xenos and we need to start firing off nuclear weapons? It just seems so ridiculous.

I guess I don’t quite get how the empire really works though. I mean, I got the official history and the stories and all, but it just seems like it shouldn’t work that way. And I know some of that is because of the way my parents and grandparents think about how government should work.

But I guess the empire is as good a solution as any. I have a hard time imagining something better. At least not without a lot of extra headache and problems.

That said, if I ever meet one of the royal family, I won’t hesitate to shake their appendage [human sign of respect, imperial family sign of insult] and punch their face [human sign of disrespect, imperial family sign of deep respect].

[End notes]

By the end of our journey, Lillith and I had gotten to communicate well and I felt I’d learned a lot about humans. A lot more than what my previous research had given me.

She provided me her contact code and asked me to keep in touch in my journeys.

When asked where her next trips would take her, she just shrugged. When I was asked, I mimicked the same gesture.

And thus we parted ways. My next ship had been delayed so I would be staying aboard station for a bit, which was just as well as I would be needing a thorough cleaning after receiving Lillith’s goodbye prank a day ago.