CHAPTER 10 - SYNTHZOO

Kayden had set an alarm to 7:00 AM equivalent time, to have more time to explore the city at day. When the high-pitched beep woke him and his companions up, the sky outside was already bright, though with hazy high-altitude clouds covering it in wide stripes. He stood up and looked out of the window. The sun was visible between two skyscrapers on the other side of the alley, shaped like bird wings, that towered over the old building that was the motel. Most of the lights were off and the signs dimmed, yet the cityscape still had its same splendor as at night, thanks to the shiny metal coatings on every building.

There were more people on the streets now, crowding the sidewalks under the steel giants– and between them, due to the network of skybridges that connected the sides of most skyscrapers like a spiderweb. These skybridges were partially translucent but tinted dark gray, and had several rows of tall guardrails going across their length, for safety reasons.

"Right. Good morning, Nheka! Wake up."

He gently prodded the eight-legged lizard awake. She ever-so-slowly lifted her body up from the bed and quietly walked to the dwindled supply pile in the corner to drink some water.

"Did you sleep well?"

"No… ssomething about my dreamss greatly unssettled me, the darkness and a pounding ssound … I exspect the worsst…" She shook her head.

Kayden raised an eyebrow. "Well I’m not into that superstitious stuff. It’s just dreams. Especially your species’ very abstract dreams. Dunno how you’d get any meaning from that. Lighten up."

Nheka just turned her head to look at him disapprovingly.

"I’m sorry."

After checking in on Ray, who was already awake and just staring off blankly, likely browsing the internet or calculating something, Kayden knocked on Lai’s door. The pink relmai stumbled out after a few seconds. He did not look like he just woke up, and neither did Tiik. Both looked very drugged.

"Yeaaaa? I kinda lost track of timeeeee… what time is it?"

"Early morning. I hope you two had a good rest because today will be a long day."

Lai nodded and, after remembering what Kayden said yesterday, mumbled something to Tiik and began packing up. Nobody felt hungry enough to want to go to the restaurant, so they chose the zoo first.

***

The synthzoo was close enough to the motel that the group decided to walk there. The crowded environment did not bother them, but still they felt apart, as outsiders to this world. To pass the time, ten minutes to reach the gates of the zoo, they talked to each other about various things.

"Lai, I actually never asked you," Kayden said, "What led you to basically invite yourself to my and Nheka’s trip? Not that I mind of course, you’re fun to have around, but why? Weren’t you happy with your family at home? I’m just curious."

"I got boreeed, ya know? Bored. Bored bored bored," he gestured wildly. "Just boring sand dunes outside, with some boring bhake oases… And I wanted to see some new bhaces. Meet new people."

"You didn’t seem to be doing much of that on the ship."

"Ya know why I was gone so obhten? Yeah guess," Lai then subtly motioned something to the cyborg and abruptly fell silent, but Kayden did not pay much attention to that.

"...fair. What about you, Ray?"

"I think it is now safe to tell you," Ray said, lowering the volume of their monotonous voice, though not whispering per se, "I was recruited by the ship security team as an informant due to my tenacity, unmotivation for betrayal, and unflinching dedication. I was allowed access to lower decks of the vessel to look through the maintenance halls there."

"And then?" Kayden was more than a little surprised. Lai smirked with a knowing expression on his muzzle, while Tiik and Nheka were just confused.

"I had seen one of them in the act of putting a wrapped-up artifact into a crate, they wore a hardsuit. The identification number was obscured by what appeared to be duct tape. They pointed a gun at me and, in interest of self-preservation, I ducked into the hall and fled, then called security. The security arrived unfast, and it seemed like the criminal had spaced the crate, given what I and Lai observed. I have unobserved anything so major after that incident," the cyborg said.

"Why… why didn’t you tell us?!"

Ray just nodded to the relmai, as if signaling him to explain.

Lai rolled his eyes, all four pupils. "Lemme turn that question around. Why would we tell ya? They told me what happened precisely because I did not express intent to try and get myself shot in dhe face and or spaced. Unlike someone eeeelse."

Kayden stopped, crossed his arms, and just stared the cyborg in the eyes. The cold, empty camera-eyes, set in that completely static feline mask.

"It was for your own safety," they said, and Lai gave a thumbs up.

"Ugh. Fine, I understand. Looks like they became sneakier after that huh? I do like to believe Amani was right about them not wanting to disembark here."

"Agreeing. However, probably should be careful and unwander into dark alleys at night," Ray said.

"Right."

Nobody else seemed to have anything to comment on until they arrived at their destination.

It was built under the open air and surrounded by a tall, shiny metal fence, with the bars ending in sharp spikes. There was a large arch-shaped gate, with the top of the portcullis decorated with red letters on a pale yellow background that proclaimed that it was, indeed, the Littlegulf Synthzoo.

After paying the fairly modest entry fee, the group was confronted with a wide alley, flanked by glass-walled enclosures, each many meters wide. Each contained an imitation of a different environment within its area, complete with real or genemodded plants and very convincing robotic animals. The enclosure depicting the Yellow Forest, a northern taiga region known for its trees having bright yellow bark, immediately captured Tiik’s attention, and he led the group towards it.

Between the very tall trees that poked far above the walls, whose stems closer resembled that of mushrooms and whose leaves were shaped like elongated triangles, lurked a few creatures. The enclosure would have been far too small for them if they were organic– but robots did not need to eat, and their personality matrices could be programmed not to feel distress at the cramped space. These creatures included, as the plaque attested: the northern snail-deer, which was a greenish quadruped on thin telescopic legs with a trunk and eyestalks on its face, alongside a large shell on its back; a few treecrawlers, brownish creatures that resembled four-tentacled octopi that swung from branch to branch; and a ferocious animal called an eastern banshee, which was a large, gray-furred, thick-limbed, muscular quadruped with sharp claws on all of its limbs and huge, interlocking teeth occupying most of its face, alongside large pitch-black eyes. It walked like a gorilla. There were a multitude of other, less flashy creatures walking around, providing set dressing.

All of those creatures moved surprisingly organically, only given away as imitations by the faint hum of servos, and the snail-deer seemed to exhibit almost genuine fear as it was being stalked by the banshee. Its path led it to nearly bumping up against the glass, causing younger onlooking bystanders in the crowd to point at it excitedly.

This all ended when Lai, still stumbling thanks to the dose he took back in the motel room, had the bright idea of tapping loudly on the glass while sticking his lengthy tongue out at the robotic creature. The snail-deer’s eyestalks retracted as it turned back and ran deeper into the enclosure in a simulated panic… right into the path of the banshee.

With a piercing wail that explained the origin of its name, the carnivore tore its claws into its prey's neck, knocking it down onto the dirt floor. Fake blood spurted out of its ruptured throat as its eyestalks flopped loose. It was "dead". Children, both human and alien, cried as parents tried to calm them down.

"Umm…" Kayden said. "Is that… intended? I guess it is?"

One of the onlookers, a colorful big-eared anthro-genemod of an unrecognizable species, waved his hand at the scene. "Yeah, their meat is self-mending gel. All that needs to be replaced is the blood. Look what’ll happen next."

The banshee took the carcass with its clawed arms and dragged it across the forest floor– to a previously-hidden door that opened in the screen on the wall, which showed a dynamic picture of the yellow forest. The door closed as quickly as it opened.

Nheka just stared at the whole event wide-beaked. "...How? I do not undersstand… I can feel actual fear emanating from them, yet they are jusst ssoulless machiness…"

Kayden shrugged. "You know what a neural network is? It can emulate a brain, while not actually having thought per se. So it was trained to act like it fears loud noises and nearby predators."

"Yess… But without thought, there can be no ssoul… And no ssoul, no emotionss…"

Lai, meanwhile, was giggling and following the fallen prey with his gaze. "I killet it… I got it killet… Kayten, loooook! Ehehehehe… Stuupid robot…"

Kayden shrugged again. "Well I don’t really believe in souls so I don’t know what to tell you," he sighed. "Or rather, I don’t know if I believe in them or not. It’s complicated. I don’t wanna talk about it in public anyways."

He paused. "But the AIs that you hate so much have emotions. Even more real than those this silly deer-bot. Why do you think they have no soul?"

Nheka lowered her torso, receding onto all-eights, and also lowered her head. Though Kayden’s question didn’t shatter her bigotry, it at the very least cracked it, like an ice cube fracturing and slowly melting in a cup of hot tea.

"Haven’t you met AIs on that forum? They talked exactly like all other users."

"I did not pay attention to profiless like that…"

"Well, just know that then. If you and I have souls, then so does an AI. A real AI, I mean. Not like the stuff in Simulacrum. Or the one in my datapad. Or, really, anything else that relies on that quantum stuff to work and can hold a conversation and have a long-term memory. Aren’t their boxes basically brains?"

Nheka just hissed softly. She just didn’t know what to say.

"What about the Thinking Rocks of Greater Hades? We still can’t find a way to talk to them, but they are undeniably sapient. They have a language and most likely culture and civilization as complex as human or chohjozra. Also silicon. Also quantum thoughts. Also likely artificial, precursor stuff presumably. Wouldn’t they be AI to you?"

"No… Or yess…"

If her facial emotion cues weren’t too subtle to be picked up by humans or relmai, it would have been obvious that Nheka was in great distress. She would have cried if she was capable of doing so.

"Just promise me to think about this some more."

"I promisse, by the name of Kczchaatltyam, grandsson of the night ssky… thank you, Kayden…"

He looked away from Nheka and noticed that the other onlookers were giving them both weird looks, most likely due to this impromptu philosophizing. He sighed and continued looking at other exhibits with his group, but this conversation lingered in the back of his mind the whole time. Ray, oddly enough, stayed completely silent during the whole exchange.

***

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After about an hour spent walking around the synthzoo, Kayden finally felt hungry, despite his reduced appetite induced by the different environment and gravity. It was a short distance away from the zoo– the city was rather walkable– and was the eighth floor of a tall commercial skyscraper.

Kayden looked up at the wide spire-like tower of metal and glass, whose tip had several rings around it, and whose windows were very large and took up most of its walls. It was very slightly curved, the curve suggesting movement, presumably into an ever-brighter future. There were several signs mounted to its exterior, at least one but often several per floor, each blinking or cycling colors, and advertising different establishments, from stores to cafes to even an interactive holo-theater.

They quickly ascended the elevator after passing through a fairly nondescript lobby and entered the restaurant itself. It was somewhat utilitarian, being a relatively cheap place, but was overall pleasant to be in. The tables, chairs, and counter were an off-white, beige-ish color, and the lighting was cold and blue-tinted. The walls had a very wide reddish-brown stripe close to the floor, but overall were a similar color. As Kayden was looking at the menu, which was an interactive screen on the wall, Nheka asked "Iss there chohjozra food available?"

"Nope sorry. There’s only human and relmai-compatible stuff. After this we’ll go to the store and stock up. In my experience even outside of enclaves they have some non-perishable food for minor species."

Nheka hissed in disappointment and stood back as Kayden ordered a large synthsteak alongside a heavy helping of fruit salad, made from imitations of local fruits genetically modified to be safe for human consumption while preserving the original texture. He didn’t quite see what Lai and Tiik ordered, and sat down at an empty table, tapping his fingers against its cold surface as he waited.

Nheka quietly walked up to him, pointedly avoiding sitting down at the stool by pushing it to the side with her tail hand, in the interest of not destroying it, and leaned over the table. It looked like she was waiting for him to say something.

"I’m… sorry if I was too blunt then. It’s just that– I don’t know if you know– but our society is built around unconditional tolerance of all sapient life. It’s why we have so many alien enclaves. It’s why Tiik and Lai are able to order food as authentic and tasty as they could get on Tama. It’s why we’re better than we were during the Age of Protests, two centuries ago. It kinda pisses me off when you go and straight up say that some sapience is just lesser. Just so you know why I was so blunt."

Nheka did not respond immediately, but leaned further in, causing her necklace to clink against her rigid scales. "I…" she paused. "...forgive you."

Kayden smiled. "I understand where you’re coming from though. Sort of. What justification does your religion have for this?"

Nheka, without even pausing, rattled off "When Ptaychzahr, Tyicdkhpadlz, and Rrkhtakhdra rebelled againsst the other nine hundred million ninety nine thoussand nine hundred ninety seven godss, sseven thoussand tpiakss ago, they created thinking machiness of bronze and ssilver whosse beams of light sseared all that wass created..."

She paused to take a breath. "Their rebellion failed, and they were tortured by the other deitiess until they apologized. The machiness were desstroyed, and ssince then, a divine mandate wass created, prohibiting chohjozra from creating or ssupporting independently-thinking machiness…"

Kayden rubbed his forehead. "Well I kinda understood that. I have a few thoughts on that story but I don’t wanna offend you again. I–"

They were interrupted by the waiter-bot, a white-plated humanoid robot with a perpetually-smiling blue-on-black screen for a head and wheels instead of legs. It placed down a tray with Kayden’s dish, and he started eating. The soft juice of the variously-shaped fruit slices felt refreshing in his mouth, a welcome respite from the absolutely vile spaceship food. The taste of the orange, donut-shaped ones resembled that of apple, but lightly salty and with a slight stinging sensation. Meanwhile, the blue fruits that vaguely resembled rounded carrots were almost sickeningly sweet, but at the same time had a very noticeable earthy flavor. And lastly, the red, spiky growths had a very strange taste: spicy, then transitioning to vaguely mint-like, with popping sounds echoing from the flesh of the fruit. The steak was, contrary to Kayden’s expectations, nothing to write home about. However it was delicious, and since he grew up on a barren-world colony, he had no way to compare it to free-range meat (which was very expensive, even here on this lush planet). The vast majority of meat in the 23rd century was grown in vats in the form of massive cubes that were then cut into slices, since factory farming was phased out in the mid-21st. These meatblocks, which were derived from cow, pig, or chicken DNA, had no organs, much less a nervous system, and thus were fully suffering-free. Thus, unlike obligate carnivores like chohjozra, vegetarian humans almost always kept to their diet only due to health issues. Rumor was that synthmeat tasted "off" compared to genuine meat, but not very noticeably. Kayden wasn’t going to spend a silly amount of umecs on that anyways.

His thinking and eating was again interrupted by Lai and Tiik finally sitting down and starting to wait for their order.

"What took so long?" Kayden said.

"He wanted to get human foot, well, whatever looks like it. I didn’t. We argued about it."

Kayden chuckled at the mispronunciation and accompanying mental image, then looked away to see that Nheka was gone from the room, along with Ray. He figured it was personal reasons, like that time in the elevator lobby, and continued eating. Between bites, he said to his two other companions, who were still waiting. "Um… Does relmai food have drugs in it? What kind?"

Lai laughed while Tiik put his hand on his muzzle and tried to hold back his own. It wasn’t really like human laughter, or like his chuckling which was fairly humanlike. It was more like a choppy, high-pitched yet guttural, whining-squealing sound, interrupted by wheezes. "Whaddya think, human? Ya know enough about us to know the answer."

"Silly question I know, heh."

"Whyddya ask then?"

"Just curious. And making small talk."

Lai looked at him and adjusted his sunglasses. "Ya wanna try it? There’s human compatible variants around."

Kayden shook his head. "Thanks but nope. I stay clear of all that stuff. Never tried it and not gonna."

"Why not? It’s sabhe. And all the humans I convinced to try it came out happier."

"I don’t like having my brain messed with."

"Why exactly?"

Kayden sighed. "Bit of a long story. Back when I was eight, my parents got a write-capable e-BCI helm for personal use. An i-BCI wasn’t an option because full-pen mesh brain surgery is too expensive for us. Normally these things have a childproof auth thing, but mom accidentally left it off and went to eat."

Lai tilted his head.

"I, being the dumbass kid I was, walked up to the computer, put on the helm, and um. Started exploring the features and uploading random mem-files. I don’t remember what I did but uh," he rubbed his forehead. "I opened one of them, and there was some weird ouroboros emblem as the splash screen, and then... I ended up seeing things that were by all means geometrically impossible and feeling like something was punching me right in the brain all that time. Was on the floor drooling for hours hallucinating some non-Euclidean shit. Then that repetitive song about kittens was stuck in my head for a week, playing on repeat. Somehow I ended up with no permanent brain damage but it was enough to make me NOT want to hallucinate anything, ever."

"Wow," then there was a pause. "I’m sorry bhor that… Do ya still have the BCI?"

"Yeah it’s in my room, still works, I’m using it for code work. Still lightning fast after those years. By the way, dad never found out."

"Good bhor him then," Lai chuckled.

"Yeah," Kayden said, "He’d probably throw it away, despite it being perfectly fine. Asshole."

"He also, ya know, doesn’t like me very much, just for having bhun."

"It’s not that. If you were a human doing what you do he wouldn’t bat an eye," Kayden sighed. "He often rants about how you guys are ‘manipulating’ the Federation in order to make us like you or wipe us out. He rants about how Terra should leave the Alliance and ‘stand proud and alone’. To be fair, he’s often drunk then. I don't think he has THO sympathies."

Lai laughed again. "Ibh anything, ya’re the ones inbhluencing us. Yesterday night I got mail bhrom one obh my daughters back on Tama, she started watching that human VidJoyer. Like, binge watching his videos on random shit like human games, human movies, and so on. I bhind that stuff booooring and gray, but she likes it," he shrugged.

"You have a daughter? You never seemed to be one to raise a family."

"I never met her," Lai smiled. "She’s proooobably my daughter. I think. I think I have many more children I don’t even know."

"Oh. I know what you mean."

"Yea. Ya humans have those oddly close knit bhamilies, it’s weird to me. Doesn’t it get boriiiing?"

Kayden rolled his eyes. "Our way of life in general doesn’t get boring to us as much as your planet being basically a non-stop, let me use a light word, party, doesn’t get overwhelming to you. Remember our conversation early on the ship? Something about black kettles and similarly colored pots."

Lai recoiled and went quiet while Tiik looked away from his datapad and grinned. Soon after, their food arrived. It certainly looked nothing like human dishes: sticking out of some bright pink paste that looked like slimy mashed potato, with olive-sized blue inclusions that seemed to glow slightly, were some red… things. Kayden wasn’t sure if they were meat or vegetables, looking like chitin-less lobster claws on long shafts, but with strange yellow leaf-like growths. The whole dish had a sickleningly sweet smell, strong even across the table. At least, that’s how it smelled to Kayden. To the two relmai, it had an insanely complex odor.

"What… is that called?" Kayden said, looking at the strange dish.

"Mioulwatai," Tiik said, struggling a bit to pronounce the word. "Common Liamuju dish."

"Isn’t that a language? I forgot, didn’t do much research about relmai culture."

"Language and ethnicity. Most magenta relmai, like Lai, are Liamuju. I am obh Quouuchi Buu, not Liamuju, so this is foreign to me too, but we settled on a compromise… We like our worm soup instead of this."

"I’ve seen worse to be honest. And worse than that second thing. So I won’t judge. Have you seen the stuff Nheka eats?"

Tiik shrugged. "I don’t judge people bhor what they eat either. I actually like trying new stubh, that to me is the greatest pleasure. I’d try those bugs, or perhaps a mragez, but it’s all so lightly cooked– or raw– that I’d get sick even if it was adapted for us."

"I just don’t like eating things with exoskeletons in general. And I don’t like eating meat that comes from cute things. Would you genuinely eat this?"

He showed a picture on his datapad after vigorously typing for two seconds. A picture appeared of a small creature, perhaps the size of Kayden’s palm, that looked like a mix of a white pomeranian, a bunny, and a dwarf hamster, with tiny stubby legs, long ears, and large, shiny black eyes.

Tiik nonchalantly said "Sure why not? Just tweak its mind so it can only bheel joy and not pain from its bhate. Drugs, or genemodding, dunno."

"What? Okay. Would you also do that to… nevermind."

The two then started picking at their food with curve-pronged forks.

Kayden certainly did not expect that. To him, Tiik was the more reasonable one of the two, but now he remembered how different relmai ethics and morals were to human ones. They might have been one of the most comparatively humanoid species in the Oval, but they were still very inhuman. Kayden finished up the steak and stood up to look for Nheka and Lai.

They were in the short lobby connecting the elevator and the restaurant, sitting at a white plastic bench and talking not to each other, but to two other people: a human woman in her thirties wearing a blue dress; and a member of an alien species not commonly seen in this region in spite of its prominence on the galactic stage, an aadalu.

He was a two-meter-tall humanoid with matte dark gray skin, with a frame even thinner than Lai’s, whose long limbs ended in three fingers and toes. Three huge eyes blinked in sequence on a flat face framed by small vestigial fins. His mouth was covered by an opaque dark red veil, but Kayden could see the tips of lengthy anglerfish-like teeth poking out. He wore a very covering robe of the same reddish color, with thin golden embroidery.

The aadalu was explaining something to Nheka, in a rather croaky yet medium-pitched voice. It was actually rather hard to understand, about as hard as Nheka’s speech, thanks to the strange, almost gurgling, raspy tone. It sounded a bit like wet cardboard getting ripped up.

"--and then we decided to leave Earrrth forr Uuothu, togetherrr. I have never seen my species’ homeland beforrre, rrrememberrr."

The human woman just nodded as he spoke.

Kayden waited a bit before walking up to them and introducing himself. "Hello! Nheka and Ray are my companions… Did they tell you about me?"

"Rrreynolds Kayden, is it? It’s nice to meet you. I am Oeeulk Pyyclmeii Maeea."

"Which of those is your first name? I suppose it’s the last."

"You would be corrrect."

"You don’t seem to be from around here, and you mentioned leaving Earth… I didn’t catch most of your conversation, do you mind telling me more about your trip? I’m interested in fellow travelers’ stories."

Maeea leaned back on the bench and tersely explained "I lived my whole life in Uiiltoueeea, a small floating enclave on Earrth’s Atlantic Ocean. But then I hhd a divine order given to me in a drrream, to make a pilgrimage to the birrrthplacce of my speccies, Uuothu. My best friend went with me."

"But Uuothu is right to the west of Earth. We’re pretty solidly southwest," Kayden of course meant the galactic west, that being in the direction of the galaxy’s rotation, while the east was against it. Meanwhile the south was towards the core, and the north towards the rim. These definitions may have been inaccurate if known space encompassed a significant part of the galaxy, but the Oval, the region in which warp drives functioned, was less than one percent of the Orion Arm. Everything anyone, even the most studied xenoanthropologists and astrohistorians, ever knew about civilization, was contained but a mote of dust in an inaccessible void. And yet it was still almost incomprehensibly immense.

"We took a detourrr to pick up another frrriend herrre," Maeea said.

"Ah I see… Have a nice journey then. Do you intend to do anything else here? The zoo is just…" Kayden gave a thumbs up and nodded.

"The Glowing Grrrove this night… Perhaps I’ll go diving in the gulf. I have seen the zoo already."

Kayden brightened up. "We’re also going there! The grove I mean. I intentionally refrained from looking at pictures of it to not spoil my surprise."

"Good. Alas we must go now," the aadalu motioned his very non-talkative companion to stand up and went into the elevator with her.

"Wait! What’s your–"

But the doors of the elevator already closed, and he could hear the soft hiss of the cabin going down. Kayden looked back at Nheka and Ray.

"Ugh. I wanted to get contact info. I hope we met him there. While we wait for Lai and Tiik, can I ask you something, Ray?" Kayden said.

"Waiting for question."

"Do you, like, have different flavors of nutrient paste?"

"No."

"Well, damn, alright, I was thinking of asking the staff if they have something like that, heh."

"Thank you for your kindness," the cyborg’s monotonous voice put something of a damper on any impact this gratitude may have had.