She hopped down from her fighter and picked up the data bundle. She uploaded it to her cloud datastore on Alliance-Net. It warned her about data limits she just swept it away and clicked accept to increase her data storage limit by a thousand times. The bill came out of her trust fund and she wouldn’t even notice the cost from her monthly interest. She climbed back up onto Bit’s wing and made the large white wall behind her worktable her AR whiteboard.

Allison started flipping different data points onto it. After a couple of hours of advanced searches in the FTL data she realized it was useless she rubbed her hand over the virtual representations of the data points, bundled them up into a ball and threw it at the trash can in the top right corner of the virtual whiteboard.

The FTL data was useless because it couldn’t track the Sal’nash. The hyperspace manatee data was a different beast. She might be able to figure out their migration patterns. If organic hyperspace travel worked the same way for all species, pretty much how flight worked the same for all birds they’d encountered, maybe just maybe she could find sensor anomalies when the hyperspace manatees were transiting into and out of hyperspace from the Alliance early warning and science gathering sensor arrays. If she could do that she could see if any of the blips they might cause were present in areas the Sal’nash had appeared. Space was big, the sensor arrays pulled in a lot of data. More than any computer in existence could process. If she could find the hyperspace manatee’s migration path, she could focus on those points in space.

Allison ate up all the data she had and needed more, a lot more, especially more modern data. To get that she would need to consult library resources in the League. She could do so via the hyperwave in Bit even from the ground. The problem was the League didn’t really have an Alliance-Net type thing. They had a proto-Alliance-Net but it was archaic and basically the first internet on Earth during the twentieth century. Governments, Schools, libraries, hospitals and other medical establishments communicated using it but everything else was more go here and buy that. It was not like the System’s Alliance, where you could go on the net, order a pair of shoes at nine in the morning and have them delivered to your door by early evening. Not that you would, you’d just fabricate them, but if you wanted to, you totally could.

That left Allison with a new research project. She would have to access their data libraries, find journals and published works on the hyperspace manatees, use those to track down the academics she needed to get data from.

There were unsurprisingly very few books on hyperspace manatees. There were myths surrounding them, but actual hard recent research was few and far between. They were innocuous, never got in anyone’s way and frankly, pretty boring. Not like the Blortkars of R’ga’n three. The size of brontosaurus and carnivorous, on those there were numerous works because, they were exciting sentient-eating monstrosities, though they were tiny compared to the megafauna that still roamed the twilight rift on Sauroid Prime. They were the only Godzilla type monsters on record with the System’s Alliance or League. Those were in the four to five hundred meters tall or long range.

Even if she found such a researcher, how would she convince them to just give her the data she wanted. She knew little of the LSR academic world beyond that it was highly competitive and that the academics could be quite paranoid about being beaten to a discovery. Kind of like the corps with proprietary research. However, academics who worked for schools were more collaborative in the System’s Alliance. The thought of the megafauna gave her an idea. It’s not like they were a topic of conversation. She only thought of them because she’d seen a couple off in the distance from the temple when she’d been there.

She had a list of three names. The one she really wanted was a Grylta man who had actually tagged the little beasties she wanted information on. She decided to contact him first, as he also had a real passion for large critters, based on his other books.

Grylta were, in a word, odd. Like if a pug dog, a human, fat toad and a catfish had an ugly child somehow, and it was put together in the ugliest possible way, with the worst eyesight imaginable. As a race they were far-sighted. Also, they tended to be… excentric. They sputtered a lot with their big lips. Allison had been stuck in a long conversation with three of their representatives to the council on her first trip there. She had felt like she was talking to three sputtering high class British gentleman who were argumentative, at best. They were also very expressive with their body language and either by diet, or biology were very flatulent. She was glad she was trying to call him from almost a thousand light years away.

Allison almost cheered when the ugly pug face with stinging spines appeared on her AR HUD. He squinted at the screen then pulled on a pair of wide rimmed glasses. He sputtered with his lips and rubbed his sizable belly. He squinted behind his reading glasses.

“Bipedal, pale-skin, white eyes, possibly oxygen breathing, red blood vessels in eyes, yes, yes, golden irises interesting, interesting. Mammary glands, vestigial? Is it female? Do mammary glands still have a purpose, or are they for show as in the Yorleer? Approximately one point seven yaryuks (meters) tall. Possibly adolescent, no facial hair, has opposable thumbs. Four fingers…”

He tapped his belly.

“I say, strange creature, do you have five toes on your feet? Are they webbed? Is your head covering a hat, or keratin based?”

He sputtered when Allison didn’t answer right away.

“Perhaps infant, or too unintelligent to understand spoken word.”

Allison blinked at him in disbelief, she silently wondered if this guy was for real.

“No nictitating membrane on eyes. Hair on eye lid. Does it shed and get into eyes. Strange evolution.”

He lifted up his foot and pulled his ornate buckled shoe off and showed his webbed three towed foot. Then he pointed at it, while speaking very slowly and counting to five. Allison almost hung up but then realized, this was just Grylta… being a Grylta so she finally answered him by turning around and showing her foot, which was currently in a flipflop. Her toenails were a neon pink with neon green lines on them because Robin demanded they do their nails together. She answered in in LSR basic.

“Five. And to answer the rest of your questions, I’m not an adult, yes, my blood is red. My intelligence is up for debate and yes, I breathe oxygen. Yes, I have breasts, yes, they still serve a function, and finally yes, I am female. Any more questions, Doc Yslagath?”

He sputtered.

“I believe it is using sarcasm, shows advanced reasoning. Interesting. A new sentient species. Perhaps it built the hyperwave. Could it have learned the language by monitoring our communications? Should investigate further. An interview would be in order, yes, yes.”

He sputtered a few more times before addressing her directly.

“Are you able to understand me?”

Allison made a face. He pulled his fingers along two of his face spines.

“Is it in pain? Very expressive face and eyes. Interesting, interesting.”

Allison gave an exasperated sigh.

“Yes, I can understand you. I am not a new species, I’m a human, I’ve given a speech to the high council. I’m the Battlelord? I met three Grylta representatives there. I have an apartment on Silwra?”

He sputtered and looked disappointed.

“Well, one cannot be expected to keep up on such pointless events, can they? Why are you bothering me then?”

Allison thought Finally!

“I am sorry to bother you, I know you are very busy with research and teaching classes. I am working on a science fair project it is about the hyperspace manatees. I found your book and journal articles. I was hoping I could convince you to give me your tracking data from the tags.”

He sputtered and adjusted his reading glasses.

“What? What? Science fair project, I’ve never heard of such a thing. What nonsense is this?”

Allison took a deep breath; She could really use the data, so she had to play nice. This was a prime example of why she did not belong anywhere near diplomacy.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“I am in high school, that is part of my basic education. I am doing a science fair project for extra credit. My friend told me about the hyperspace manatees, and I was fascinated. I had so many questions about them, some of which have no answers. We do not have any records on them besides what my friend was able to get from the League archives from thousands of years ago. Your journals and book were very informative but I really would love the data so I could compare them with the data from thousands of years ago. I think it would look amazing on a plot on my display. And my dad has access to our tracking data for things so I can see if they show up on any of our sensors that you didn’t have. It’s going to be so great. Maybe one day I can actually see one in person. Full credit to you, otherwise it would be academic fraud. I would never take credit for someone else’s work. Our schools take that sort of thing very seriously.”

He pushed his glasses up his wide nose and looked down it at her image. Then he tapped his belly as he pondered for a few moments.

“Well, it is admirable that you are seeking the primary source. Tell me, are you a good student?”

Allison blushed.

“Yes. I pride myself in being top in my class. That is why I want this science fair project to blow everyone’s minds. I am going to get first place and I’m not going to settle for anything less. Which is why I am in desperate need of your data.”

He sputtered a few times.

“It is rare to see youth with a passion for science or academia. Perhaps… perhaps.”

He adjusted his glasses and looked at Allison again.

“I would be willing to provide the data to you, young lady. You can use any results you infer from the data in your project, but I must be credited for the data. I would also need to be provided with a copy of your project. I am interested to see what you can glean from my data young human. Who knows maybe you could be my assistant on my next published journal.”

Allison was happy, but disappointed, she’d had this whole long speech prepared to convince the good doctor.

“Well, umm, thank you very much, Doctor Yslagath. I will send you a copy of my final project… uh, would you be willing to do an interview uh, with me for it? Just why you chose xeno-biology and specifically the hyperspace manatees as an area of expertise. I would be setting up with a holo-projector as part of my project. We don’t have many xeno-biologists with your experience in the System’s Alliance it is a new field and only twenty years old. Part of the project is to inspire us kids to consider science as a career.”

He sputtered and straightened his suit jacket.

“I wish all species were so forward thinking. I would be pleased to inspire a new generation of young scientists.”

Allison bit her lower lip.

“Really?”

He looked confused.

“Yes, yes, of course, youth should feel excited about science. Far too few of my students are excited. They come here to check off boxes.”

He sputtered again. Allison smiled.

“Sorry, my luck has been almost all bad recently. I will send you my questions so you can prepare. I’m so excited you’re taking part.”

He stroked his cheek spines then sputtered a few times.

“Now, now, there is no such thing as luck. The universe isn’t so flippant, young lady. I will send the data to you through this hyperwave once I have it sorted. I look forward to your questions. We shall set a time and inspire those youth!”

They disconnected the comm link. Her next call did not go as well. She was looking for a Yorleer but found out she had passed. Her last call was to the co-author of the Yorleer’s papers. She had been looking forward to the conversation with Doctor Everi, she sounded like a larger-than-life version of Indiana Jones. The co-author was named Doctor Harlt. She had no idea what species they might be, though she knew it was a man. She navigated the maze of administrators at the school he was a professor for until finally she had an audience with the man herself, at least via hyperwave.

What she saw on the other side of the communications link was different than any alien she’d ever seen before. It was a shark… or looked shark adjacent. It was wearing a strange headset around its head. When it ‘spoke’ it sounded male. The alien’s lips did not move. His voice sounded synthesized. The System’s Alliance had far outpaced the League in some technologies, such as virtual intelligences and authentic sounding simulated voices.

“What can I do for you, Ms. Wanjala, did that come out correctly?”

Allison nodded. She tried not to seem too shocked by the doctor’s appearance. His teeth were rather vicious looking. The voice was soft and gentle sounding.

“Yes, Doctor Harlt. Uh, well, you see, umm, I’m working on a science fair project for school and I’m doing it on hyperspace manatees and I was hoping I could, well I want to use some historic data I acquired along with Doctor Yslagath’s tag data, and well yours and Doctor Evari’s data, and compare it all with System’s Alliance sensor readings. I honestly still don’t even have a thesis yet but I want to put it all together and see what I see? I’m sorry, I was hoping to speak to Doctor Evari first, I am so sorry for your loss, I understand you two were close friends.”

The shark swam in a circle.

“Doctor Evari was a great woman, brilliant scientist. She will be missed. So, do you have a data processing model or were you just going to do what Evari would do, stick all of it on a big wall and draw strings between it?”

Allison blushed.

“Probably, the last one. Sort of. We have uh… virtual whiteboards that we can overlay on walls in augmented reality… uh… it sounds complicated but it’s really not. Less paper, more processing power?”

He chuckled or well his synthesizer chuckled.

“What grade are you in, Ms. Wanjala, or well if you were in the League?”

Allison had to think about that.

“I believe you’d call it uh, urm, the eleventh cycle? After next year I can attend what you’d call advanced education. We call it University or College depending on if its more academic or more practical.”

He swished the ocean water with his fins.

“Ah, is this science fair part of your normal curriculum.”

Allison shook her head.

“No, sir, it is uh, well voluntary, its extra credit and looks good on university applications.”

He clicked his teeth, not that she heard the sound. As he was speaking, she could hear something akin to whale calls from him but only some of the time. She couldn’t help it she was too curious.

“Umm, sir, I’m not familiar with your species, uh, is the synthesized voice translating your voice?”

He smiled, yes, the shark smiled. She started to ponder Leshy’s words about every sentient species being able to smile and she couldn’t help but smile.

“Ah no, sadly no one has managed to figure out a suitable translation matrix for our language, however, the Synthlin developed this wonderful head set that reads my thoughts. My actual voice, which is what you are hearing, is me telling my children to behave themselves. They are being somewhat troublesome.”

Allison blushed.

“I’m sorry. I’m just really fascinated by how other species communicate.”

He swished his tail.

“No need to apologize for asking questions, how else do we learn? Now then, about your request… You truly got that stuck up, paranoid Yslagath to give you his data? What did you promise him? Top credits on your report?”

Allison shook her head.

“No, he just wanted to help me inspire other kids to study science. He seemed really nice.”

Doctor Harlt laughed.

“Try being in the same academic field as him. He’s insufferable at conferences and I am quite glad I cannot smell anything outside of my life support tank.”

Allison couldn’t help but laugh, one, his laughter even synthesized was infectious, two, she knew exactly what he meant about not smelling anything.

“Well, normally I would decline such a request out of hand, but if Doctor Chintzy suspenders can do it I suppose I could, and Evari would have said yes just on the basis you are as crazy as she was… I suppose I will share our data. Now then, I would enjoy seeing a copy of your product. If that is possible.”

Allison nodded.

“Oh, it would be, and I would definitely be referencing yourself and Doctor Evari on the project. It is very important to well schools of all kinds here that credit is provided where it is due, or it is considered academic plagiarism. I umm, have another request, if you wouldn’t mind. We don’t have many xeno-biologists here at all, so it’s hard to interview them, and part of the project is to inspire youth to consider science careers. I was hoping I could interview you and have it as part of my display.”

He swished in the water.

“Hah, so that is how you got that ball of fat and spines to share his data with you. Very clever using his ego against him. I see no harm in it.”

Allison smiled.

“Thank you, I will send you the questions and we can set up a time?”

“Yes, that sounds like an excellent plan. I will have one of my assistants bundle the data and send it to you at this comm link. I look forward to your questions. I must be going.”

Allison waved and the comm link ended. By the end of the day, she had expanded her cloud storage by another ten times the amount. She’d also ordered a very powerful virtual server to help her process the data, her phone would literally take hours and Bit’s core wasn’t going to work because Bit was still angry with her. This would increase her costs substantially, so, the call from Eyre hadn’t been unexpected and she had prepared her response ahead of time. She smiled when Eyre’s face appeared.

“Allison, I’m just calling to check on you. I just received four billing updates, what is going on? Are you planning on hacking all of Earth?”

Allison shook her head.

“Oh, that, sorry, I’m working on a science fair project, I requested some data from some League scientists, there was a lot, and I needed something to process it. Bit is mad at me so I needed to find an alternate way to process all of it. It is alright, isn’t it? I really want to win the fair.”

“So, this is temporary?”

Allison nodded.

“Yes, only until June.”

Eyre sighed.

“Next time call me first, would you? At the amount you’re paying I could have bought you something more permanent.”

Allison shrugged.

“I don’t really do stuff like this so it would just collect dust after. Was there something else? I really want to get started.”

Eyre shook her head.

“No, see you in a week, please behave yourself, Aunt Maria is not in a good mood.”

“I always behave myself.”

Eyre raised an eyebrow.

“Sure you do.”

Eyre pointed at her eyes then towards Allison before ending the conversation.