CHAPTER 9 - LITTLEGULF
The air on the spaceport… felt different in an indescribable way, albeit the lobby’s design was exactly the same, except with darker furniture. Kayden mumbled something about ‘the same contractors’ as he took a detour to sit down onto a bench for a bit after passing the customs check.
In contrast to the almost-entirely-human population at the previous station, here the full diversity of the Terran Federation began to show. Alongside aliens of half a dozen different species, genemodded humans that were no longer recognizable as human mingled in with the crowd. They ranged from humans with extra limbs to anthropomorphic animals to even weirder folk, and nobody paid any attention to them. "Imagine what it’s gonna be like in the core," Kayden said, leaning on Nheka, who was still a bit groggy.
Lai responded instead. "I’m excited for that."
"Mhm. Where’s Tiik?"
"He said he’s gonna buy some ‘people food’ right here and have a fur brushing. Why overpay and not wait until we get to our motel planetside and do everything there, no clue."
"I guess he has a lot of money," Kayden chuckled. "Station stuff is so overpriced."
"Preying on tourists passing through, I suppose. Anyways, Tiik will join us on the ground."
***
The space elevator ride downwards was rather quick, and as usual Nheka averted her eyes from the screens covering the walls. Soon, Littlegulf became visible.
Extremely tall, sleek towers of metal and glass covered a large clearing in the lush alien jungle, neatly gridded and with parks spaced evenly between each. The curves of those buildings made them resemble the sails of ancient seaships. City lights shone brightly below, illuminating the cars and buses on the roads between these graceful giants. Sky bridges criss-crossed the air between the sides of the ‘sails’. Most noticeably to Kayden, there were no domes, as the atmosphere was breathable, even if the local wildlife and plantlife were inedible to humans. In the distance was the eponymous Little Gulf, poking out of the calm sea like a bubble about to break the surface of water. Narrow seaships, mostly tour yachts, though a large cargo barge was present, leisurely cut the waters, which were illuminated by floodlights mounted at the shore.
The elevator came to a stop in the lobby below. It was much better-furnished than the one at home, with white walls and pastel furniture that had the same smooth and shiny style as the buildings. Large infoscreens covered parts of the walls, displaying local news and information about starship schedules, their darkened interfaces contrasting with the surroundings.
"This isn’t even that close to the core," Kayden said. "I’m dazed, honestly."
"It iss the biossphere… It iss eassier to build and work if you do not need life ssupport to go outsside… Native plant life can be reprocessed into compatible protein... and sso on," Nheka hissed.
Ray sat down onto one of the benches and started quietly affixing dark waterproofing panels to the gaps in their body. Those panels were flexible and corrugated, like an accordion’s middle, but still restricted movement somewhat.
"I unwant to die if it rains," they explained.
"Makes sense, take your time."
Kayden looked away to see that Nheka was gone. She did not respond to text messages and calls, and he had no idea where she was. Figuring that he shouldn’t worry about his lizard friend, Kayden sat down beside Ray and Lai and sighed. "I’ma book a motel room. I didn’t do it before or it’d probably be taken by the time the request arrived," he then pulled out his datapad and started tapping away.
"...I want a separate one for me and Tiik," Lai said
"You sure...? Okay alright I think I understand what you want, heh. But… I’m sorry but you’ll have to pay for it yourself."
"That’s bhine by me."
Kayden thought for a moment and said "Ray, where do you want to go? And you, Lai."
The cyborg waited for a second before answering. "If there were any large mountains in Littlegulf’s vicinity, I would have wanted to visit them. I enjoy mountains. Given the local landmarks, described by Littlegulf’s official site, I prefer us visiting the Radiant Grove, ten kilometers away from Littlegulf."
"That sounds like it’d look great at night, but I want to sleep. I meant tomorrow. During the day. We can visit that grove tomorrow night. Also I want to explore this city first," Kayden said.
Lai chipped in. "Raaaay, my datapad is broken, so is there anything interesting within the city?"
"There is a synthzoo with very faithful robotic copies of Alacrity’s animals. Federation regulations unallow captivity of real alien animal species which fall under the Xenobiosphere Protection Act, which includes most of Alacrity’s large animals."
"Interesting. What about…" Kayden stood up and jumped, taking a noticeably longer time to land than under normal gravity. "Something to do in relation to low-gee?"
"Skydiving."
"...that is a little too extreme for me, you know? And Nheka wouldn’t be able to go because she weighs like two hundred kilo. And is afraid of heights apparently."
As if having heard herself being discussed, and perhaps that may have been the case, Nheka came back. Just like at her and Kayden’s first meeting, she only wore a stretched pair of khaki shorts, her coat nowhere in sight.
"I wass jusst changing… ssorry for any disstress I caussed…"
Kayden smiled in relief, then said "So uh, I never asked. Your species doesn't wear much of anything on your homeworld. Where'd you get those shorts?"
"I bought from sse human enclave near my khometown… Then I jusst cut a hole in the back sso my tail could fit."
"Makes sense."
He then explained the two likely destinations to her, and she agreed to go to both.
***
The four walked out of the elevator lobby. Kayden breathed in the fresh air, which had a higher oxygen content than what it was on New Arizona, and looked around the streets from below. The buildings towered over them, with many neon signs and screens sticking out of the walls, displaying colorful ads that were bilingual: English and Spanish-Portuguese. This was because Alacrity had many colonists from South America, and though they could speak English very well like all Terrans, this blend of the two languages, merged over centuries of internationalization, was official in Alacrity.
"I booked it," Kayden said. "Repair shop first, though?"
"Yea. How’s dhe public transportation here?"
"Buses, mostly. There are trams in the city center but that’s a fair distance away," he replied looking at a city map app on his datapad.
The four walked along the well-lit street to a bus stop. There were not many people around at this time of the day, and nobody really paid attention to this motley group aside from a few glances. The sky above was dark thanks to the light pollution blotting out the stars, but Aristaeus was clearly visible in the sky, one-and-a-half times larger than the full Moon on Earth and much larger than New Arizona’s moon, its red circle hovering ominously over the colony. Brown splotches were visible on its surface, rendered slightly hazy by the moon’s atmosphere.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Kayden then tripped on a gap in the humidity-damaged concrete pavement and fell, narrowly avoiding faceplanting.
"Look down while ya walk, not up, ya dork!" Lai said. "Ya okay?"
"Yeah I’m fine," the human said, dusting himself off. "Not used to actually seeing a moon in the sky."
Once they arrived, they waited under the quarter-spherical roof of the bus stop, on a warm wooden bench. After a minute or two, a bus silently pulled in. It was shaped similar to a bullet train, painted red, but with the window going all the way around the body of the vehicle, barring a few structural pillars. There was no driver. Upon entering, everyone swept their datapads across a reader– even Lai, as the internal monetary information transmitter did not rely on the device being turned on.
To avoid occupying two entire seats, Nheka ended up slumping onto the back of one uncomfortably. Kayden sat beside her, next to the window, while Lai and Ray sat together across the aisle. They watched the buildings zip by as the bus started moving. The city felt oddly cozy in spite of being on a planet he didn’t really remember. A soft feeling of nostalgia finally began to wash over him. He wasn’t even sure if this was the city he and his family visited then, but said feeling was still very warm and strong. The tall, smooth buildings and copious numbers of bright signs were what provoked his nostalgia, as the architecture on New Arizona was much blander. Kayden looked away from the window, which by then mostly showed a blur of lights and lamp posts, and glanced towards the aisle and seats. The other passengers, who were a quite equal mix of humans and genemods unrecognizable as humans, looked highly tired and bored, to the point Kayden felt a little uncomfortable. They looked more miserable than people at home, and he wondered why.
After two stops, the bus arrived at the group’s destination. This stop, located somewhere in upper downtown, was a lot more crowded than the previous one, and also very well-lit. Kayden squinted as his eyes adjusted to the light. The repair shop was on the first floor of a residential building, marked by a slowly-flashing blue neon sign, displaying a quite generic name that he couldn’t remember after entering.
The room was furnished quite simply, with clean white floors and walls with wide blue stripes. Behind the counter, to Lai’s slight surprise, was a fellow relmai, with dark purple fur, however wearing human-style clothing. Lai brightened up from his previously-somewhat-sullen attitude and started explaining something rapidly in Liamuju while sliding his broken datapad across the counter. After a scan of the insides of the device, the clerk nodded and said a few terse words, punctuated by what certainly sounded like prices.
Lai’s mood visibly deflated. His bushy tail, previously held high up, drooped down and his ears twitched as he sighed deeply. Very slowly, he made the transaction, gave the datapad to the clerk, then turned back to look at his friends, then glanced behind him, and dragged Kayden outside. The other two followed in silence and perhaps a tinge of curiosity.
Once outside and thus out of earshot, Lai said "Seventy umecs bhor the screen. One hundo and bhibhty bhor the keypoard. Sixty bhor the camera, which I didn’t even know broke! In total, that’s, um…" he froze up.
"Two hundred and eighty." Ray intoned.
"Thank ya."
Kayden scratched his head before replying "Right. And when will they give it back?"
"Sixteen hours. So, tomorrow abhternoon."
"Right. We’re leaving in three so you’ll have time. In the meantime, um… Make sure your motel room has like, a computer if you really can’t wait? If you want to use the internet until then, you can take my datapad. Just don’t install anything, okay?"
"Okay! Ya’re a libhesaver."
Nheka was seemingly zoned out all this time. Just taking in all the sights. She felt much freer than she did during the time spent shipboard, in a vessel not meant for her species. And the humidity of the fresh jungle air felt pleasant on her scales, compared to the dry air of the starliner. It was almost like she was at home. Almost. It felt different enough to be interesting, yet familiar enough not to be unpleasant.
The four then waited for another bus, this time to go to a cheap motel Kayden booked.
***
It was visibly an older building, somewhat more utilitarian, resembling those on Kayden’s homeworld, minus the dome. Its square walls were gridded with similarly-square windows. A few twisted alien trees were planted in front of it, which had a soft blue glow emanating from their leaves thanks to genetic modifications. Above it was mounted a green neon sign that faded in and out.
GOODREST MOTEL
The room Kayden, Nheka, and Ray booked had its walls colored a pleasant beige, turned orange by the warm lighting from the candelabrum-shaped lamp. The furniture was made of authentic, reddish local wood with a pronounced wavy grain to it, exuding a very faint and indescribable smell. There was a soft, fuzzy gray carpet that felt good between Nheka’s and Lai’s toes. There were three narrow beds side by side next to the wall facing the window, and on the other side was a combined dresser-desk-table with a large curved television on it, currently turned off, that could double as a monitor for the cheap, weak desktop computer unit under the desk. There also was a single large red potted flower on the windowsill, shaped like an oversized daisy with spiky petals and leaves, as well as a mucus-covered yellow center. Occasionally, one of the tiny insects let in by the ajar window would land on the flower, attracted by a scent humans could not perceive, only for the petals to snap shut and slowly reopen to reveal that the bug was gone.
"Right," Kayden said as he placed down his suitcase. "Dragging this thing around was so tiring. Lai, feel free to stay here until Tiik joins us."
Nheka and Kayden began unloading their luggage, which was a faster process than it was on the ship thanks to the lack of food. Ray, meanwhile, just slumped their backpack against the bed frame. As they finished, there was a knock on the door. Lai rushed over to greet Tiik, who immediately pulled him into a hug. They then silently walked out of the room.
"Yeah, so," Kayden said, pushing the empty suitcase into the corner. "So, the plan for tomorrow: I think you said that you wanted to try imitation human food once, Nheka, so we will go to a restaurant, I wanna try the local cuisine too. Next we’ll go to that zoo. After that, whatever you two want. At night, that glowing grove. Sounds good?"
His two companions nodded.
Kayden yawned. "I’m going to sleep."
"Me too…"
Even after Kayden turned off the lights, he spent a while looking at local websites, his face lit up by the screen of his datapad; social media pages, local attractions, government institutions… Many of the same sites as on his homeworld were available, albeit with different save dates, thanks to FTL travel lag. Still, they were still further forward in time than the ones from New Arizona, so Kayden took his time to check the forums he frequented. Though real-time interplanetary chatrooms were infeasible, forum-style message boards thrived thanks to them being resilient to such lag, and had experienced a revival more than a hundred years ago after decades of relative obscurity, allowing people to keep in touch with friends and get information from lightyears away. Flamewars, however, were very awkward; you had to spend days between writing your swearing-filled rants and your poor target seeing them. You or your opponent could even be banned or the thread locked in the meantime. Fortunately, Kayden did not engage in that kind of debate much, and mostly just caught up to various threads, mainly on his many hobbies such as programming or watching esports. Then, he opened a mail app and began writing a letter to his family. Mail was the main form of direct communication between star systems. Two hundred years ago, it would have been called email, but with the extinction of snail mail, the distinction became pointless and the ‘e’ was dropped.
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From: Kayden Reynolds (BreadLover07)
To: Mariam Reynolds (Sweet_flowers_was_taken)
Sent: 24/01/2230
Hi mom,
We landed at the city of Littlegulf. It’s warm even at night, the weather is moist, and the nature is very vibrant, that I can see even without leaving the town. The journey on the ship was ok, we had fun as best as the cheap spaceline could provide. The food was trash though, that’s why I packed my suitcase full of crackers. Yes you told me there wasn’t much variation and I’d get bored, but I packed so many types: salty, sweet, sour, spicy, chocolate, beef taste, pork taste, apple taste, butter taste crackers. That’s enough variation if you’d ask me!!!
Anyways, sharing our cabin was this biped cat(???)-shaped full cyborg named Ray. They were very aloof so we didn’t really befriend them per se, but they stuck around with us. Why not? They’re kinda cute ngl. Cute in a non-romantic way, I mean. They want to see great natural sights, but we (me, Nheka, and Lai) want to see things that are more, idk, sapient-made.
Also tagging along was Lai’s "friend" named Tiik whatever, he’s a white relmai. I put friend in quotes because it’s obvious they are in love. lmao. He seems calmer than Lai but we again didn’t talk much. They mostly talk to each other. And scream at each other. idk how relmai keep their friends with those emotions.
We will go to a synthzoo and some other stuff tomorrow. Hope it’ll be fun. Then the other planets, see the attached map. btw also attached are vids of the transit away from NA and transit to Alacrity, a video of chohjozra CELSS food (ewww), some photos of the ship and around the ship, some Simulacrum screens, and a group photo with us and Tiik and Ray.
Writing this to you and not dad because he’s a specist dipshit who hates my friends. EDIT THIS OUT BEFORE SHOWING IT TO HIM!
With love,
Kayden
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He pointedly avoided mentioning anything about the artifact thieves, in order to not distress his mother without purpose.
Kayden then looked at Nheka and saw her completely silent on her bed, staring at the same idol she used for prayers on the ship daily, but now decorated with small red glowing lamps. She was completely motionless and blinked very rarely. Not wanting to disturb her trance, he closed his eyes, turned on his side, and went to sleep.