Tommy (continued)

"So, um… do you eat here often?" Large feline eyes blinked at him from across the table, and Tommy groaned internally.

Not anymore we don't that's for sure, he thought with a quick glance around them to the other tables. Most of the attention had waned since the waiter left, but the odd sour look was still being flung their way.

"Not so much," he said instead, wishing their meals to arrive as quickly as possible. Given that the waiter was currently taking his time seeing to every other table before reporting to the kitchen though, he doubted that would be the case.

On the other end of the table, Robert was trying his best to hold down a conversation with the more senior crew members.

"…which is why I love the landscaping and gardening side of things so much," he was saying. "It's just so gratifying to look at a job well done." The three women were nodding politely and smiling at him, and Tommy tuned them out just in time for the irritatingly awkward one to finish a question and look at him expectantly.

"I'm sorry, what?" he asked.

"Oh, I was just wondering what it is you do, Mister Tommy," she asked again, hugging her arms to her side.

"Just Tommy," he said firmly. "Please just call me Tommy."

"Oh. Okay!" she brightened, a wide grin splitting her face. "Tommy, then."

"Actually, you know what?" He held up a hand. "Ground rules. Any time I say or do anything that you think means anything but exactly what I've said, you tell me. Like just then. You got all happy when I told you to call me Tommy. Why?"

"Erm," she hesitated, glancing over to the greying security officer, who nodded back encouragingly before returning her attention to Robert. "Okay. Um, I guess it's just a little bit more casual. It felt like it might be easier to talk to you on a first-name basis..."

"So it doesn't mean anything else? There's no weird implication to it?"

"What? No." she blinked in confusion. "Actually," she perked up. "That's a good idea. Can you do that for me too? Explain, I mean." The earnestness in her face was clear. "Like I said, I'm not great with social cues, and that's before factoring in you being a new species."

"Sure, whatever," I guess anything would be better than sitting here eating in silence while being watched like a zoo exhibit.

"Great, progress!" she clapped her hands together lightly, and the not-twins rolled their eyes along with Tommy. "So, what is it you do? Do you work? I hear humans are monog—" the captain whipped her head around to stare, "—amous, and that the men usually hold jobs and stuff, so I'm kinda curious." She shot her leader a sheepish look, but the woman had already turned away.

"I help Robert with his gardening business." Tommy kept it brief.

"Like planting things? That sounds like pretty hard work," she said, and Tommy didn't miss the way her eyes traced his form, even despite the baggy long-sleeved work shirt he'd chosen specifically to avoid just that. The not-twins were looking as well, though they hadn't spoken a word between them yet. His skin crawled, and he grit his teeth.

"It's not really. I'm just not used to the heat here yet." Fuck. The words came out before he could stop them, and he swore to himself as the alien's head tilted in curiosity.

"You're not used to it? But you live here."

Robert was too wrapped up in his conversation to notice the change in atmosphere on the other end of the table. Tommy wavered, caught between the urge to scream and the impulse to run out the door. He round his teeth together, feeling like he was about to explode. Fortunately, one of the not-twins bumped Valiir with an elbow. "Hey, take a hint," she said pointedly.

"What? I… huh?" the ensign spluttered, cowering slightly when she noticed Tommy's dark expression. "I-I'm sorry, I don't know what I…"

"No," Tommy said, and the word came out harsher than he'd wanted it to, drawing some attention from the older beings at the table as they carried on their conversation. "I said I'd explain if something came up, and I'm working on following through with things more now, so you asked for it." He felt his control slipping with each word that came out of his mouth. "I'm not from here, and that's why I'd rather be doing literally anything other than talking to you right now."

"Tommy," Robert began, but Tommy held up a hand.

"No," he said again. "You asked me to act more mature since I'm an adult now. This is me being mature. I'm not going to tiptoe around a bunch of subjects in case it makes our alien overlords feel bad." Several ears at the table folded back at that, and Captain Mirai set down her fork to listen. "I wish that I were anywhere else but here. I'm only sitting at this table because I don't want someone I care about to be alone with a bunch of aliens, and because I'm done running from things. I've done enough of that this last year."

He turned back to Valiir, who looked ready to duck and find the closest cover. "I didn't grow up here. My home is… was... Ontario, Canada. I grew up in Toronto, which is a city just north of the American border. Yeah," he scowled as most of the table slumped. "That America, the one you gave a second helping of death to, just in case the first serve of killer nanobots didn't do the trick."

When the aliens' eyes didn't rise and no one spoke, he continued, keeping his voice to a low growl because if he didn't he'd be shouting. "I was on a student exchange trip when the bots fell. All my friends and at least half my family are dead. My cousin Archie was still pretty young, so it's possible he wasn't caught up in it, but I don't know for sure because your army cut the undersea cables and won't let us migrate anywhere until things are 'stable' again, whatever that means." He looked up, letting some venom seep into his words. "I'm a gardener because there is nothing else left for me to be. I wanted to be a soldier, just like my rea—" he stopped, and his eyes fell on the table. "Like my birth dad. Was. Like he was. So yeah, I'm not from here." He scowled as Valiir opened her mouth. "Don't say you're sorry."

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"I'm…" she started, but stopped herself, looking for all the world like she was about to burst into tears. She floundered, trying to find something to say. The silence stretched for a few seconds, and the captain had just leaned over to say something when the ensign drew breath to speak again. "I brought games…" she muttered dejectedly, her fingers wringing until they turned white, and her ears drooped to the sides of her head as she shrunk in on herself.

"What?" Tommy blinked.

"I was looking forward to this trip for so long, and I really wanted to meet a new species, and I wanted them to like me, but I'm really bad with people so I put some games on my communicator so I could show them, and so maybe we could be friends." Ah shit, she's crying. I made a girl cry. "But instead, they all hate me anyway and it's not even something I did this time, it's way bigger than that, and I can't fix it, and all I have is my stupid communicator filled with stupid games, and I spend all my time carrying a gun instead of meeting anyone, and I hate it." By the time she was done, the ensign cut a pathetic figure, her feet tucking up beneath her as she curled her body in on itself, resting her chin on her knees while she wiped at her eyes with a sleeve.

There was another long stretch of silence, broken only by intermittent sniffles from the young ensign.

"Wow," the not-twin who hadn't yet spoken remarked. "I picked a great time to look up from my food."

They were saved by the arrival of Tommy and Robert's steaks, which thankfully seemed to have been cooked to their requested specifications. The waiter didn't say a word, plonking the plates down in front of them without fanfare, though he did spare a curious glance at the distraught alien woman before returning to the kitchen.

Tommy stared at the steak. Jus glistened on top of a perfectly seared crust, but the appetite he'd walked in with had vanished. He looked over at Robert, and the man gave him a pointed look, flicking his eyes over to the dejected ensign who was now poking at her own half-finished steak dispassionately, and avoiding eye contact.

He's got to be joking, Tommy thought, but the older man just raised an eyebrow. Oh for fuck's sake. I guess I am kind of curious though. He sighed.

"Show me."

"What?" alien eyes opened in disbelief, and she sat up slightly, sniffling.

"The games you brought. Show me."

---

"Why are they all women?"

"Well, there are games out that target male players, but I don't really play those and I thought I was going to be playing with mostly other women, no offense. Some of mine will let you play as a guy, but…"

"What?"

"Well, they're a little… gratuitous?"

---

"What the hell is he wearing?"

"Um…"

"It's ridiculous!"

"Hey, that's Rogorr the barbarian you're talking about! He's really popular!"

"Gee, I wonder why? Also, how is he a barbarian when he has literally zero muscles and all he does is traipse around in a tiny kilt getting kidnapped all the time? Also, what's with the camera angle? Half the time all I can see is his ass!"

"Like I said, he's popular."

He'd be too embarrassed to admit to it, but once the alien game console had hit the table, time had started to fly right by him. Something about the device had an almost magnetic quality, the graphics leaping out from the console to become his sole focus. Valiir had explained it as having something to do with a biometric scanner that mapped user's face and used it to calculate the diffusal of light waves, but he'd stopped paying attention to that the moment the first game had booted up. It was incredible, even if the content was a little questionable.

They played platformers, an augmented reality 'Where's Waldo' style game where a tiny alien woman had hidden inside his salad and only been revealed when he'd gone to take a bite, and the most engaging handheld shooter he'd ever played. The cityscapes that his character ran through while fighting an evil insectoid alien race were magnificent beyond belief, dominated by spindlelike towers that clawed at pink and yellow clouds like giant outstretched fingers and immense indoor wildlife parks populated with strange, alien beasts. Overhead, boxy flying vehicles skated between the buildings, bright orange, red, and silver streaks that tore through an alien sky.

I need to know. "That city…" he said as the game closed. "Is it a real place?"

"It's based loosely on Hespin 4:2," the ensign answered as she tucked the console back into a soft carry-case. "That's the second moon orbiting the fourth planet in the Hespin system. It's the cradle moon of the Ikthruum people. I've heard it's nice, but you or I would need a respirator to visit."

"But something like it exists? And the characters from all these games, the civilians that escaped that horde of bugs, they were from real species?"

"Well, yeah. The animals from the parks too. Pretty much everything in that game is, although we've yet to come across any giant evil spacefaring insects," she grinned. "Plenty of nasty ones planetside, and you need to be careful they don't hitch a ride on any ships when you move between systems, but the Invertigores aren't a real thing, thankfully."

Tommy took a moment to take in that information. As he did though, he realized that the table had gotten quiet. He looked up.

Robert was leaning back in his seat with a small smile on his face, and the older members of the crew also looked to have finished their meals some time ago. Krik and Krak had joined in for the first couple of games, but now they were absentmindedly scrolling on their personal devices.

"I was just about to interrupt," Robert grinned. "But it looks like you're done anyway. We need to get back to work Tommy, I want us to finish the rest of the street by the end of the week." He turned to the captain. "Thank you again for the meal, and the conversation."

"It was our pleasure," the captain replied with a small smile of her own. "I wish you all the best with your afternoon's gardening," she looked over to her crew, and her tone shifted to stern. "Okay ladies, break time is over. We need to get back to the embassy and start our shift. Thank the gentlemen for their time while I pay for our meals and then we'll be on our way."

"Thank you," the not-twins droned as one, staring at the remains of their steaks wistfully, the bones picked clean of every morsel.

"Um…" the youngest crew member stammered, the wind out of her sails now that the subject had switched back from video games to social niceties. "Th-thank you. For talking with me, I mean. I know you didn't really want to."

"It's fine," Tommy was too exhausted to even feel annoyed anymore. He stood up, about to start for the door, but as he did, Valiir's ears drooped slightly. He shouldn't have cared, but something stopped him from just walking away. "Thanks for sharing those games. I… kind of really want one of those now," he admitted, jerking his chin toward her communicator, and she brightened a little.

"Well, if I see you around, maybe we can play again?" she asked, hopeful.

Absolutely not, he thought.

"Maybe," he said instead.

"Okay girls, time to go," the captain appeared again. "Can we walk you to your vehicle?" she asked Robert, who laughed.

"Ha! It's a strange world we live in now," he chuckled, shaking his head. "Sure, thank you. We're parked just around the corner."

Tommy rolled his eyes again but didn't say anything. At least this whole ordeal is finally over, he thought to himself as he walked towards the door. As the crew closed ranks around the two humans, the skin on the back of Tommy's neck crawled, even though they kept a respectful enough distance. One of them, the security officer, even held the door for him.

In the furthest corner of the room, around the largest table, several sets of eyes narrowed, and a phone camera clicked softly.