CHAPTER 4 - GOODBYE, NEW ARIZONA!
Kayden couldn’t remember much of his dreams, except for a disturbing sequence in which he and Nheka were attacked by those shady people in the tunnels. He checked the clock on his datapad. 8:00 AM. Plenty of time left, but the three needed to move fast.
He sat up to see Lai still in the same position, muzzle buried in screen, apparently having pulled a psychoactive-assisted all-nighter. The mat he left for Nheka was missing. Kayden rolled his eyes and went to the kitchen, seeing Nheka sleeping there soundly.
"Am I really gonna have to reconcile them? Ugh…", he thought.
After his morning routine, he very carefully, as to not wake her up, made a sandwich and tea with milk as breakfast, checking the news in the meantime. Nope. No further news about the criminal incident. Only random sports results, local celebrities being silly, and assorted ‘dead donkey’ stories.
Then, he began packing up. From nice canned food to break up the upcoming monotony of fish and algae, to spare clothes, to repellent sprays for common irritating alien animals from several biospheres, to powerbanks and data chips… all went into a large blue rolling suitcase.
He gently woke up Nheka. "Good morning! You left your suitcase at the station, right?"
"Morning… Yess. I did not expect to sstay here for more than a day.…"
She slowly lifted up her eight-legged body and chomped down on two more dried insects. Kayden was already not there to witness this feast, however.
"Get up, Lai! We’re about to go!"
"Fine, fine, the feel good already almost wore off anyways…" the relmai replied, finally turning off his datapad. "I got a high score!"
"Right."
The three walked outside quietly, then traveled to the elevator lobby, with its carbon nanotube cord reaching into the cloudless sky like the trunk of an enormous, shiny black tree.
As before, Nheka whimpered and covered during the steady ride upwards, while Kayden and Lai stood together, facing the curved viewscreen that formed the wall, watching the cities, dunes, and mountains disappear into the blue haze...
Suddenly, when the elevator was about one-fourth of the way up and the ground was very noticeably curved, in the distant haze of the deforming horizon, a white streak suddenly and swiftly fell from the sky, followed by a dusty mushroom cloud that, from this distance, looked smaller than a human fingernail.
"...what in the godss' name iss that?!" Nheka hissed, having gotten a peek of the explosion, and covered her eyes again. "Iss the planet being attacked?"
Kayden laughed. "It's a comet! The government is dropping them into lowland deserts to make seas. Terraforming. Nothing to worry about, nobody lives there. This happens like, every week."
Nheka just grunted something.
***
With both the planet’s citizens going about their daily business and workers dressed in orange jumpsuits pushing around crates in the microgravity of the central pillar, the spaceport was much more crowded than it was yesterday.
Still floating in the lobby, Kayden called up his mother. "We went up, are you at station or still down there?"
"Me and Morgan are waiting for you in the first lobby!"
"Right, see you in a bit."
As soon as the doors of the internal elevator opened, Kayden ran forwards from his group and pulled Mariam into a tight hug, holding back tears. His father, a thin man in his late forties, with similarly-colored skin and black hair, who wore a gray hoodie and faux-leather pants, stood there until they finished their hug.
"Stay safe out there, son," he said in a low voice. "These Corelings are a nasty lot, I tell you. All lazy and occupied with their ‘high life’ while we frontiersmen work for them. The closer to Earth you get, the worse they will be. In their nature they remind me of…" he then made a vague gesture towards Lai and a second relmai who was walking past. "No morals. All fun and games. I have never met any alien, actually, who wasn't--"
"Oh, come on, that’s just… disgusting," Kayden replied and cringed, interrupting his father. "I… ugh whatever."
His father shook his head.
Meanwhile, Kayden's mother, who was quiet up until now, turned to look at him. "I will miss you, Kay… please write us mail."
"I will. I will miss you too," Kayden hugged her.
They talked like this for a while as Nheka stood in the distance, holding Lai back from interrupting them. Then, Kayden finally said his goodbye, and the three continued onwards, going back up after Nheka took back her suitcase from the station’s motel room. The spacedock proper, right at the end of the central pillar, was a wide, cylindrical chamber with many cylindrical doors on four sides, each leading to a docked starship. A small customs checkpoint was staffed by an android with gray, segmented plating and a smiley-face screen for a head that somehow managed to look bored half to death, despite being a non-sapient machine. The three scanned their IDs across a reader and had photos of themselves taken by the camera that replaced the robot’s left hand, then scanned with a metal detector. "This is less of a hassle than last time", Nheka thought.
The travelers then floated forward until they reached the door they wanted to enter. Above it was a glowing black screen with white text and a green light.
TFPV Celestial Harmony II
Kayden had booked a cabin on this ship yesterday night, and he checked his datapad again to remind himself of what it looked like…
Though to anyone from two centuries ago, it would likely have looked like any other 23rd-century spaceship– with spindly scaffolding enveloping huge fuel tanks and engines, which were in turn fletched by four webbed fins of radiators, with a crew and passenger compartment tucked somewhere safe, all covered in reflective shielding– to Kayden, its specific purpose was obvious from its larger-than-usual habitat module and lack of visible cargo bays: a budget starliner, which was showing its age of three decades by now. Its Whipple shield looked like it had been patched up countless times by now, and the warp drive, located right in the middle, had a smaller ring than most modern ships. Nevertheless, it was affordable, and offered acceptable life support for all non-isolationist Alliance species. Life support in general was much less of a nightmare than in the early days of spaceflight: genetically modified super-algae allowed highly efficient filters and food production vats.
The airlock slid open as soon as the three scanned their IDs, and they floated along the long hallway leading to the habitat module, occasionally glancing at the viewscreens. These pseudo-windows showed what those in the station’s ring didn’t: the vessels docked to the spaceport. Most were cargo barges, but there was an Orbit Guard frigate with several patrol spaceplanes docked to it, as well as an oddly-proportioned and brightly-colored alien ship of some minor civilization.
The crew module was in the front-center of the ship, and was comprised of a few decks surrounded by a small spinning ring. Kayden, Nheka, and Lai arrived in the reception room of the civilian deck. Its furniture was a lot more spartan than the station’s, every gram counted, after all. It had little more than some interactive maps of the ship, as well as a desk with another android where they had to verify their tickets. While they were doing so, two security guards on patrol passed through the room. Both were anthropomorphic wolves with dark gray fur, wearing black uniforms and visored helmets, with blasters in their holsters. Genemods were not particularly common in the frontier, at least compared to the core, so they were something of an unusual sight for Kayden.
"Do you think those guys are here? The artifact thieves, I mean. The news said they disappeared from the ruins", the taller wolf said to his companion.
"Dunno man, probably not, why would they pick a crowded liner when they could pocket some pissant barge’s owner for their getaway?"
The taller guard shrugged. "Please let this be a quiet shift… I do–"
The door closing behind the pair cut off his comment. Nheka, Kayden, and Lai exchanged glances and followed down the corridor, passing by various recreation and service rooms until they reached the elevator leading to the ring, which mostly contained the cabins as well as places like the medbay and kitchen that always needed gravity. It was currently spinning, but would stop as soon as the ship started its burn. All furniture and appliances present in the ring could be rearranged to accommodate the change in direction of gravity.
The cabin was smallish, with two bunk beds for a total capacity of four individuals. Likely, they would have had to share their room with a stranger. The walls were off-white, and there was a large dresser with a fake hollow potted plant on top, a currently-off TV, and a soft green carpet.
"Well, this is where we’ll spend the next few days. Looks comfy doesn’t it?"
"Sstill cold…"
Kayden nodded and turned up a knob on the wall that adjusted the temperature– to a compromise of 27C and moderate humidity. "Yeah right, you two like warmer temps. I can tolerate this." Nheka then turned down the heating elements in her suit.
Lai flopped onto one of the topmost bunks, causing the springs under the light blue mattress to audibly crumple. He looked more than a little tired. "Been a while since I traveled via ship. Is there a dance bhloor here?"
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Kayden checked the ship’s map. "Yeah it’s actually on the decks and not in the ring– what’s your opinion about either zero-gee dancing or those magnetic booties?"
"Great, and lame! Gonna take a nap now, though…"
He then curled up and closed his eyes, leaving his luggage on the floor without even bothering to sort it out. Kayden and Nheka, meanwhile, unpacked their supplies, taking care to keep food et al separate to prevent accidental poisoning. They didn’t try to keep quiet, knowing that the relmai were very heavy sleepers.
Suddenly, Nheka blinked twice. "Tyaolarh… I feel dissoriented… I fully remember you. Kayden. From Takhghari’ss memoriess…", she hissed in a different, somewhat faster and higher-pitched voice. Her body was even more still than usual now, with only minute movements.
Every member of Nheka’s species had a naturally split mind, with multiple personalities sharing memories, yet otherwise acting independently, switching every day or so and more importantly blending into each other. In human terms, they were naturally median-plural.
"Right. Remind me about yourself."
"I am the voice of reasson for thiss body… the others, including Takhghari, are too emotional…"
Kayden shrugged. "I see," he was a little confused and didn’t know what to say. Changing the subject, he continued. "...anything you want to talk about?"
"Do you know who iss going to be in sse lasst bed?", she gestured to the last unclaimed bunk, at the top.
"Dunno. The spot was still not booked last I checked but that was a while ago. Hope they’re chill."
"Sshould we explore the sship now?"
Kayden shook his head. "I’d wait for Lai to wake up first. I’m quite close to him and he’s fun, don’t wanna go without him."
With one complicated but quick gesture of his hand, Kayden turned on the large TV on the far wall of the cabin, looking for something interesting to watch… little of interest was on the channels right now, from some random sports broadcasts, to loud ads, to a few boring shows he had no interest in.
Nheka turned her head away. "Flickering sscreen. Unpleassant…"
"Right, you see things in a slight slow motion. Uhhh… just look the other way?"
Nheka grumbled something incoherent, covered her long body with a blanket, and went to look at something that looked like some kind of website in an alien language on her datapad. It was mostly grayscale.
Kayden made a few more gestures and connected his datapad to the television in a few taps, then turned on a saved episode of his favorite show, called ‘Beyond Progress’. It was what people in the 23rd century called science fiction, but to anyone from the 21st it would have been nearly incomprehensible, showing civilization tens of millennia in the future with godlike technology and issues that were mostly philosophical rather than physical.
About two and a half hours, and three episodes, passed. Kayden sat up from his bunk, turning his eyes away from the TV to see that Lai had just woken up, while Nheka was still browsing that website.
Lai loudly yawned as he rubbed his eyes. "Don’t feel like sleeping much…"
Kayden raised an eyebrow. "You, uh, didn’t get any yesterday, are you sure about that?"
"I slept half the day beforehand! And I wanna go looking at things."
"Right. Nheka, do you want to go?"
Nheka turned off her datapad and put it in the pocket of her cyan jacket. "Yess," she then stood up from the bed, nearly dragging with her the blanket and pillow. The three then went back ‘up’ towards the decks. The ship had filled up more by then, and the square-shaped corridors were a little difficult to navigate without bumping into some human, genemod, alien, or robot going about their business.
They stopped at an intersection as Kayden pulled up the map again, looking for anyplace interesting to visit.
"Right…" he swiped across the screen after every comment, "Yeah, not looking forward to eating the stuff in the kitchen… There's a holotheatre play scheduled in the entertainment hall that also has the dance party going on right now, but that’s in two hours… Huh, they’re offering a tour of the bridge but it’s extra cash and also not looking forward to being constantly flanked by guards, just makes me uncomfy…" He then put down the datapad. "So what about that dance floor?"
Lai made an exaggerated gesture with both of his hands that sent him floating away slowly, given the lack of gravity. "Of course!"
***
The room itself was fairly large by starship room standards, and dimly lit, with all six of its walls quite brightly colored, its tiles flashing in patterns matching the thumping beat of the music that blasted through the speakers in the corners. As this was a room that could be repurposed for any kind of public entertainment, there were several holoemitters and assorted furniture folded and tucked away into the corner. The music was audible as soon as the airlock even began to open: some rather generic bass-boosted techno-electronic dance track without lyrics. Nheka handled the sudden noise surprisingly well thanks to its lack of many high-pitched notes, and in fact was the first one to start floating inside… only to be overtaken and accidentally kicked in the side by Lai rushing into the room, having pushed himself forwards.
Kayden then slowly and carefully entered alongside his friend, looking around first. What seemed to them like a good quarter of the passengers and crew was here: wildly spinning around, bouncing off walls and other people, yet some were dancing normally on the walls, attached to the walls with their magnetic boots. Everyone was wearing thick padded sleeves on their forelimbs and foam helmets on their heads, to prevent injuries, and both Kayden and Nheka made sure to don these garments.
It took a small while for Nheka to get used to the chaos, but soon she fully joined in on the twirling and bouncing. Her home culture had slower and more deliberate social entertainment, so mindless fun was something new and exotic for the lizardlike alien, and she enjoyed it. Kayden and Lai, meanwhile, spun around for a few minutes, facing each other. Suddenly, the human broke away, and not just because he was starting to get motion sickness.
"Hold on, I…"
"I CAN’T HEAR YA!!"
"Right, HOLD ON I THINK SOMEONE’S CALLING ME!"
Kayden managed to navigate back to the entrance and picked up the call… only to see that rather than a call, it was a series of text messages, sent from outside the system. It was mail from his friend, Saera, who lived in the outer reaches of the core, on the warm tropical archipelago planet of Kāmohoaliʻi. The messages must have taken at least a few days to arrive– but Kayden made his plans to go on his trip known to his friend group months ago. He hastily viewed the messages.
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From: Saera Algedi (thelightofhope_2)
To: Kayden Reynolds (BreadLover07)
Sent: 14/01/2230
Hello, Kayden!
By the time this mail reaches you, I hope you’re already on the ship. You said you wanted to visit me in our last few letters. Please make good on that promise! We will soon
From: Saera Algedi (thelightofhope_2)
To: Kayden Reynolds (BreadLover07)
Sent: 14/01/2230
Sorry my finger slipped and I sent it early. We will soon begin celebrating our planet’s hundredth anniversary of settlement. There will b huge festivities all over New Taichung, the capital, with lots of flashy laser and drone displays and fireworks and concerts, and festivals dedicated to our culture. If your route goes through Kumulipo, mak sure to go down, yo wont regret it! I don’t hjave much time right now, will sned more mail later today.
With love,
Saera
From: Saera Algedi (thelightofhope_2)
To: Kayden Reynolds (BreadLover07)
Sent: 14/01/2230
*be *make *you won’t *have *send
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Kayden decided to wait until the promised messages, which seemed to have been split between different courier drones given the delay, arrived to respond, and went back to the dancing hall. There, the fun continued without incident for about 20 minutes more, until the three got tired, except for Lai, who seemed completely unfazed.
***
"So where do you two want to go next?" Kayden said in the hallway… and before either of his friends could respond, they heard a clanging noise coming from the wall. That wall, as the ship’s map stated, contained a mere maintenance tunnel. "...did you hear that?"
"Yess… Probably ssome machinery or ssomething."
The clanging noise repeated twice in quick succession. "Let’s, like, move faster. I’m getting a nasty feeling here."
Nheka shook her head and pressed it against the wall. "Sshussh…"
A few seconds paused. "I hear voicess… One of tge voicess iss like that man in sse ruinss… By the sspiritss, they. Are here…"
"Well," Kayden sighed deeply while facepalming. "I was wrong. Fuck."
Nheka continued to listen. "Ssomething about splitting up between sshipss…" she whispered as to avoid being heard.
Lai just made a whining sound.
Kayden responded. "Great. They are here. Fan-fucking-tastic. Do we… I think we should tell the guards."
"The voicess sstopped right ass you ssaid that… Footsstepss."
Kayden just looked at her with irritation in his expression, which was aimed mostly at himself. He took Nheka by the hand and the three went back towards the cabin. Once inside, Kayden had to restrain himself from reporting them to security.
"Sec would do jack shit," he said. "They could blend in very easily. They could be any of the passengers. And it would just alert them and risk losing the big ones."
"Kinta put a tamper on my mood," Lai sighed. "I don’t want to get kidnapped or whatever."
"I don’t think they’re out to kidnap people, they seem to just want to make off with some precursor artifacts," Kayden responded. "...from my homeland and my family’s legacy, which I love. I don’t know about you guys but I am itching to do some amateur sleuthing. I wanna make sure they all rot in jail. I know Amani should give us info, but I wanna try and take this into my hands."
Nheka turned away from the small, abstract idol to which she was whispering some weird prayers. "Jusst don’t get yoursself. killed…"
"I’ll be fine, and besides I have a moral obligation to at least try," Kayden reassured. "My main concern is myself not looking suspicious while snooping around recording things. Nheka, you have better senses than me, want to go?"
Nheka froze for a few seconds. "You know what…? Ssure…"
Lai chimed in. "As we say on Tama, ‘He who lives long is not he who sticks head into deathworm netd!’ I’m not going. Wait bhor more details. Don’t act like I didn’t tell ya." He then went digging in his luggage, took out a small bottle of pills, swallowed two, and flopped onto the bed with a blank expression on his face.
"Right."