Once they were settled in, supplies claimed, temporary shelters set up, a fire started, the three youths sat together swapping stories. Auberje and Riley shared a blanket, sitting on a two-person folding chair. Riley started their stories, “Tell us of your home, Helos.”
The boy stayed quite for a moment, laying on the ground, blanket under him, blanket over him, near enough to the fire to be playing with it. He poked it and moved logs, doing more harm than good. “It’s a quiet planet, where I grew up. Gunther 9.”
He sat up a bit as he talked of home. His eyes took on a forlorn and far away aspect. His brows darkening. Helos continued, “I would have said, before coming to a planet like this,” he gestured without looking around, his eyes intent on the fire, reflecting the twists, turns and columns of heat, “that Gunther 9 is a wild place. I know that to be untrue now. My planet is a game reserve. My father, Brandon Bulger is the head of Star Games. I am sure you’ve heard of it.”
Auberje whistled, “damn! I didn’t realize you are one of those Bulgers.”
Helos nodded glumly, “Come one, come all to the Star Games!” He deepened his voice in a parody of his father’s anoyuncing voice, “My other father is Randyll Scanlon the Green Senator. Politics is a big deal for my family, and appearances. It is always about being the perfectly dressed, perfectly presented. You probably know something about htat Auberje.”
“I do, I know all about appearances,” Auberje emphatically nodded. Riley tightened her grip on Auberje’s arm.
“Were you happy on Gunther 9?” She asked.
“I was, I am. I… well, I really liked it there. It was lovely. I had never cried, at least not since being a baby, until they put me on the ship over here. Can you imagine?” Helos sounded disgusted in admitting it.
“I can, I heard one of the 3-4s say they had never sweat until coming to Star Academy. Isn’t that something?” Auberje said, taking the boy seriously and not mocking him in the slightest.
“It really is. When we read about old Earth and the way that people were raised for millenias it’s hard to understand how we ended up here,” Helos gestured to the world again. This time taking a moment to take in the view. They were in a large clearing near one of the coastal plains. Forest to one side, plains then ocean to the other, it was a lovely vista. The sun was low in the sky, darkness cloaking them like a warm blanket. They could see little more than the outline of the Triumvirate. Helos sighed, “What about you, Riley? What is home for you?”
Riley grimaced, “I grew up in the orphanages of Freedom City on Tere Horizeon. Some of them are quite lovely. Others are run by evil people. Someday, Auberje and I will go back and burn some of them to the ground. They won’t find a few of the bodies.” Her voice was clear, strong, and cold.
“And you Auberje?” Helos asked, not pressing Riley for more details.
“I plan to be there with her,” Auberje raised his hands as Helos went to clarify, “I understand the question. Like you, I was born into privelege. Like you, it was not everything it should be. My family is torn between a mother who likes her pleasure from younger men not named my father,” Auberje shook his head in sadness, “a father who is at best an absent head of household. I used to have great teachers and kind staff. They were the ones who taught me right from wrong. I think our system on UDS 37 is antiquated and corrupt, but after talking to a lot of the other boys and girls at Star Academy, I think that might be pretty normal. Which scares me, you two. It really cares me. Are we so unlightened? We have prevented sweat, tears, sadness and work, but we can’t seem to not steal from one anotehr or treat our homeless, parentless children well?”
“I don’t know, Auberje, I don’t know.” Riley said softly into his shoulder, hugging him tightly.
“I will tell you this. Most days, I am glad we don’t have aliens in this world. If they were anything like us, we should be terrified of them. If they are nothing like us, they should be terrified of us. We are the real monsters,” Helos spoke with conviction that belied his inexperience. Auberje and Riley both nodded agreement. No words were exchanged for a long time, and when they came again, they were goodnights and see you tomorrows.
The next morning, Riley’s alarm blared at 5:25am Star Academy time. Helos woke on the second blaring. Riley and Auberje were already up. Auberje was sucking down a cup of instant tea, a large cube of ice floating in the middle of it. He handed a second cup to Helos as he rose.
“I hate mornings,” Auberje grunted, face contorted in disgust.
“Really? I find them to be the times I think the best,” Riley smiled, knowing full well how much Auberje hated the early hours of the day.
“I agree with you, Auberje,” Helos said chugging the cold stimulant, “I can’t stand waking up. I would much rather be up late into the night.”
“Yet, another point of similarity, boys,” Riley spoke with the confidence and amusement that is inherent in an observant and clever girl. She was born with more humor than the boys would ever be able to display. She supposed it came with her expansive ability to empathize as well.
“Oh yes, we have quite a few of those,” Auberje rolled his eyes.
Helos laughed, “She’s right you know, we really do. Both born of noble political families, both at Star Academy, both like iced tea and loath mornings. Practically brothers.”
“I wish I had a brother like you Helos,” Auberje said, suddenly serious, his brown eyes focused on Helos’.
Helos swallowed hard, no tea was in the that gesture, “I… would like that too.”
“It’s settled then,” Riley said with a smile, “you two will be brothers. And I will find Helos a sister for myself and a woman for him!” Her expression brooked no argument and implied that sometimes it’s good to be children still.
Now, the boys rolled their eyes as one, saying together, “Girls!” and “You can’t just say we are brothers.”
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Indignant, their female companion put her hands on her skinny prepubescent hips, looking for all the world like a powerful matron, “And why not! What do you two have to lose from trying to be brothers? You have a lot to gain, if you ask me. And your minds complement one another’s quite well. Hmph.” She stormed off.
“I think that might have been for show,” Auberje spoke as softly as he could, not daring to be heard by the retreating figure.
“It had to be right?” Helos watched her go as well. The two of them standing close, shoulder to shoulder.
Helos shivered slightly in the morning chill, “What do you think? Brothers?” there was a hopeful lilt to his query.
“Alright, I’m in,” Auberje said, turning to his companion and eyeing him for a second. Then he took him in a big hug, arm over shoulder, arm around side. He patted the other boys back. Helos, not used to physical touch, flinched, then melted. He hugged Auberje back. They stayed together, brothers in fact embracing tightly for only a myriad. Only one, tiny moment, but it was enough. Riley watched surreptitiously from the ramp, and then cleared her throat, hiding her smile as she walked into the tight ship quarters. “Let’s get going, boyos, school starts in half an hour.”
“Not much time to fly around the universe,” Helos stepped back from his once rival become friend, now his brother.
Auberje stepped back as well smiling broadly, “A brother. I have always wanted one. Let’s go to class.”
The three of them packed quickly, leaving less of a trace than the 1-1s. They took off in the Triumvirate, flying low and fast then straight up and out of the planet’s gravity well. They switched to the fold engine, and in two gut wrenching breaths were back to Star Academy. They docked, and with 15 minutes to spare, they made their way to class. Auberje had a dozen messages from other 3-4s making sure he was okay. He thanked everyone for their concerns. Then sent them a reply saying he was fine and explaining they had taken their ship out for testing.
Marcus was the first to reply, “oh, long range on your craft too, huh? Here I was thinking I was being clever…”
“We may not even need it,” Auberje replied via text. He showed it to Riley who smiled wolfishly, supremely proud that the three of them were thinking the same way as Marcus and his group.
Classes that day were particularly hard, and they had two additional periods scheduled on their calendars. Both taught by the Headmistress
Auberje, Riley, and Helos sat down in the Headmistress’ classroom not one minute before the bell rang. All around them, expectant faces watched the empty stage. Once again, the blonde woman took to the stage. She stood behind the podium, her pencil skirt, coifed hair, and fine figure all a mockery of what Auberje had thought she looked like.
“Now, class,” she began.
The voice was the same at least, Auberje thought.
“Now, class,” she began again, “Let’s get something straight, straight away,” she smiled at her verbal faux pas, “This is Fanciful Xenobiology. The study of What if Aliens were Real.”
She began to spin out to their PDAs holograms and detailed sets of biological information on four different species still in existence and of seven dead species, “in this class, you will be expected to memorize the information for all four of these living races. You will need to be familiar though not experts on the dead races as well. You will be tested on all of this. You will be required to do a better and better job understanding the nuances between races, cultures, and technologies employed by these beings. You will consider the implications for humanity to contact them. You will consider what it means that they live under the thumb of an umbrella of immensely powerful AI who believe they are the shepherds of life throughout the galaxy. We will act as though everything I tell you is gospel truth. You will treat it as what it is, another class at Star Academy, a new discipline you must learn and understand. Any questions?”
“Is this really worth our time and effort? If it is all fake, is there anything that we will really be using from this in later life?” Auberje was surprised by Riley’s voice and questions. He agreed with her point though. Was this worthwhile?
“Yes, it is worth your time and effort. Not only because I say it is,” a dangerous smile from Headmistress, “But also because this class will make you think about humanity from a non-human perspective. I am offering you something vastly more valuable than just fake cultures. I am offering you a pastiche of humanity. An image of what makes a human, human, from an alien perspective. This class is the culmination of hundreds of years of experience by many of your professors and classmates. We have tried to examine everything about our assumptions and world from an alien point of view. I hope you find it as valuable as we believe it to be. Any other questions?” She waited three heartbeats before continuing, “Excellent, let’s get started…”
Two hours later, the trio left the room mesmerized. Everyone around them felt the same way. She had wasted no time in throwing them in to the deep end. They started with a race called the Harx. The Harx were bipedal. They resembled nothing so much as long furred, upright pigs. Which made everyone laugh until some of the facts of the Harx were explained to them.
“Do not be fooled by their silly appearance, the Harx are dangerous and clever beings. They despise humanity, seeing them as outsiders and dangerous newcomers. The Harx use short axes and spears tipped with arcing lightning. Their ships are called stormchasers. Their brand of exploration and diplomacy involves fighting everyone they meet and eating their dead bodies.
They hold nearly every race as livestock, preferring to eat the smartest prey they can find, believing it to enhance their own intelligence. The Harx are a scourge on the entire galaxy.” On and on the Headmistress went, talking for 2 straight hours, about the Harx. She switched for the last half hour to a conversation about the biology of another race, the Tembre, a race of four legged creatures resembling Devon Rex cats. The class had smiled at their image but had sobered up when they were taught about the Tembre’s deep skepticism of humans and their hard-fought wars with the Harx.
Tembre were as fascinating as the Harx were scary. Auberje and his classmates ate up the material. All were surprised at how interesting it was to them, even though they knew it was all theoretical fantasy.
Later, over lunch, Auberje and Riley discussed the new class. “Wow! That was so cool. I can’t believe how amazing the Tembre culture is,” Riley gushed.
Auberje nodded, swallowing the rest of his sandwich, “I agree, though I want to meet these Harx and fight them!” He mimed shooting at imaginary Harx, “I can’t stand the idea of some furry pigs running around ending interesting alien races because they think they are good tasting.”
“Agreed,” Helos said as he sat down at their table. The three of them smiled. This was the first time they had ever shared a meal.
“It really doesn’t seem very likely humans are the only sentient race out there, you know?” Auberje said as he bit into a juicy, crisp apple.
“True, but so far, we have travelled thousands of light years and never seen anything bigger or more sentient than plants and eukaryotes. Nothing like the Harx,” Helos replied.
“I wonder what percentage of known space we have explored, it would potentially be important,” Riley spoke softly between bites. She was the only one of the three polite enough to do so. The boys wolfed down their food like it had been days since they had last eaten. And spoke with their mouths open as boys of 7 were wont to do.
“Let me check,” Auberje queried his interlink, “looks like 5% of the Milky Way is colonized, 7% explored. It does seem pretty low, doesn’t it?” Auberje looked up from the translucent display floating in front of his eyes, invisible to the others.
“Not much at all then,” Riley said, “so I bet aliens are out there. I hope they are nothing like the Harx. I don’t mind the Tembre though. How cool would it be to meet a cat-analogue sentient?”
“Think they always land on their feet?” Helos asked with a smile.
Auberje chuckled, “Ha ha ha. I find it unlikely they act anything like the pets on earth. I wonder if real aliens aren’t too different for us to comprehend. Like the floating monsters people used to think might be on Jupiter.”
“Well, that theory was proven wrong long ago, Auberje,” Helos stated.
“True enough, but my point is valid,” Auberje contended, he shoveled gouda mac n’ cheese into his mouth, pointing his fork at Riley, “right?”
She rolled her eyes and glared at the barbarian of a boy, “Close your mouth when you talk, but yes, you are right. It’s possible there are entire civilzations of aliens that we cannot comprehend the motives and cultures of. After all, they may not fall in love, have families, even travel through space in the same ways we do. I can’t wait to meet some of them.” With a serious expression she intensified her look on Auberje, “Auberje, I want to meet an alien. Will you promise me we will look together until we find one?”
Auberje swallowed hard, seeing her face and understanding the formality and solemnity of the request, “Riley Belle, I promise I will explore the universe with you until we find an alien race.”
She held his gaze for a moment, then nodded, accepting his word, “or until we admit that we are alone.”
“Or until we admit we are alone,” Auberje replied putting his fork down and taking her small hand in his and squeezing it gently.
Helos watched the interchange with a twinge of mild jealousy but also of purpose. He was going to help them look. If they would have him, and he was fairly certain they would. As if to underscore the point, Riley turned to Helos, “you will help us, won’t you Helos?”
The boy nodded at them both, meeting their eyes with his, “I promise I will.”
“Good, then it’s settled,” Auberje said with a smile. He picked back up his fork and they finished eating.