-Conrad-
Their accommodations left much to be desired.
The allowed area for the passengers of the Cargo ship was little more than a short hallway with ten rooms, a cafeteria and a communal Hygiene pod. Each of the rooms was smaller than a Human standard jail cell, with little more than a bed and a recessed wall terminal. He knew that space on a ship was at a premium, but this was pushing the envelope.
They were paying for the convenience of travel, as opposed to the comfort of it, and the Captain of the ship knew it.
The silver lining to their living situation was that there were only two other passengers upon starting their trip from Nueva Rios. One was a Verach, seeing them reminded Conrad of Jjatha, and made him wonder what had happened to his friend.
The other was an entirely new species to him, and with Ruufarrl was resting to re-acclimate to normal gravities, he was unable to provide any insight at the time.
The unknown alien had some features that directly reminded Conrad of a fox or coyote, with a long, cunning looking face, wide eyes, triangular ears and a slim body. Their bulging throat and different teeth were the only things that really broke the illusion. They even talked like how he would expect a smooth talking con-man to speak.
He was in the cafeteria, really more of a small dining room with a micro kitchen, when Conrad first saw the other two passengers. He continued to observe them quietly as he ate, and noticed the unknown alien stick out its tongue to eat a cluster of fruits.
Its tongue just kept coming out.
Not only did it keep coming out, but it wrapped around the fruit cluster on its own and stripped it from the stalk that it was attached to.
He managed to keep from embarrassing himself by openly staring. After he finished eating, he returned to his room to scan through one of the books he had found on their trips to see Master Silva; 'Major Races and Cultures of the Galactics'.
The alien was called a Flokian. Flokians, it seemed, were a prideful and highly social species that naturally competed with one another and others to be the best at whatever they set their minds to and took to politics like a duck to water. This automatically made them both more relatable in Conrad's mind and made him more wary of them. They ate only fruit and naturally communicated in a series of grunts, barks and growls, using a wide array of different tones facilitated by the fine control of their long, prehensile tongue. However, because this tongue made "normal" speech difficult, each Flokian made it a point of pride to be able to speak GalStan perfectly and with greater command of the language and its foibles than others had. Coupled with their natural political inclinations, this made them extremely smooth talkers.
It was the last pieces of information that made Conrad groan: "In spite of their normally gentile social structure, Flokians are known to be comfortable enough with violence to fight if needed. In addition to being gifted politicians, they are also adept mechanics and engineers. In fact, it was the Flokians that discovered a method of energy containment that led to the current standard issue weapons in the Galactic Community, their Emitter Beam weaponry, after a malfunction with a now outdated plasma-based starship engine. Flokians are also one of the original seven founding members of the Galactic Community and have served it as politicians, engineers and interim defenders since its inception."
"A Founding Race... wonderful. I will have to let Ruufarrl know when he wakes up. So much for staying incognito this trip. No, that isn't fair. Maybe not all of them are in on it... maybe. They didn't seem to notice or care that I wore a Mantle. But then again, maybe they were just playing it out like I was. Or maybe they aren't actually a part of the new Founders... Have the members changed? Is it a species wide thing? Or is it more of an exclusive club of Ruling Elite type of thing? So many questions... I should have asked before we left, I don't think Ruufarrl will be as open now that we are back in their shadow. Wait! Maybe we can type on my PT!"
Conrad's thoughts continued to spiral until he finally shook his head and pushed himself to not worry about it. There wasn't anything that could really be done about it right now anyway. "For now, it is best just to avoid them. If that is even possible in this tiny cage of ours."
He pulled his PT out and set it up as best he could in the cramped confines. "Damn, we most definitely aren't going to be able to fit both of us in one of our rooms. Looks like anything we do is going to need to be in the Dining Hall. Which means we will be exposed, vulnerable and obviously trying to be discreet to anyone else in there."
Conrad sighed and relaxed a moment before starting to type his questions. He figured if he had them ready to go, then Ruufarrl would be able to simply answer them without passing the PT back and forth. Looking less suspicious seemed to be a good idea for now. At least until he knew what the risk was. But now... Now he could at least get ahead in some respect. Once done with his questions he returned to the book, and dove through it to track down and learn about the other six of the Founding races.
It was going to be a very long month if he had to keep playing these spy games.
_____________________________________________________
It turns out, he didn't have anything to worry about. On the surface at least.
Ruufarrl had found his concerns and attempts at subtlety amusing. Despite his amusement, he seemed to be appreciative of the effort and acknowledged it by using the PT to quietly answer Conrad's questions when it came to anything Founder related.
He told Conrad that the Founders as a group didn't necessarily have the full support of their respective races in their efforts to suborn newcomers and maintain their advantages within the Community. They were a small group of leaders from each of the founding races that would groom their replacements when the time came to step down. Most laypeople didn't even know they existed, but as you got to the top of the social ladders, the knowledge became more available. So, it was entirely likely that this particular Flokian had absolutely no connection to them since he was a young engineering student.
But that didn't mean that Conrad was going to take unnecessary risks either. As far as he was concerned, the only thing that the other aliens needed to know about his being there was that he was looking for work with his Ruulothi sponsor.
It was still difficult, even with his preparations and mindset. They were just so damned friendly.
When it came to the more sociable races within the Community, like the Verach, Taladians and now Flokians, it was so hard to not get pulled into a conversation with them. Their base setting was social butterfly, so once that ice was broken, there was no going back.
The Verach, was wary of both Ruufarrl and Conrad at first, and tried to quietly keep as much distance and physical barriers between them as possible. But the Flokian simply didn't care. An odd reaction when compared to that which Conrad had come to expect as standard, but reasonable given what he had read of them. In the end, they all wound up spending most of their time in the dining area talking about whatever random topic had happened to come up. He learned that the Verach, Thaloth, was heading to a new job on the same planet that Conrad and Ruufarrl were heading to, and the Flokian, Rujein, was returning home to a nearby system from studies abroad to meet a potential wife. Apparently Flokian customs encouraged close relatives to try and help another to "settle down". It wasn't quite an arranged marriage, the other party had to agree to the meeting and they could both walk away, but it was a rare occurrence as the methods they used ensured that the two parties were compatible in some way and likely to find each other agreeable. From what Rujein was saying, he was quite excited to come home and meet her in person.
Conrad paid close attention to what was said about current events when they were close enough to a planet or comms buoy to get updates. He wasn't sure what he hoped to learn, but whatever it was, he never found it. They griped about the news just as much as a human did. Mostly they were concerned about how specific developments and issues would affect their employment opportunities in the near future.
Thaloth was initially worried that he might lose the job he had just been accepted to as a development planner, but the company he had signed on with had avoided getting involved in bad local politics and was free from suspicion. Rujein listened to the news to hear about any interesting engineering opportunities, since he hoped that he was going to be remaining at home for some time. He read between the lines of the broadcasts and suspected a couple of large companies would soon be hiring, but they weren't based where he was going, so he mentally filed them away for future reference.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The crew stayed out of their area except to bring in fresh provisions, and they weren't allowed out to interact with the crew, but they were able to keep track of time passing by listening to the inter-ship broadcasts, which were piped into their area as well. By their reckoning, they had only made one pit stop along the way and didn't take any extra passengers on at the time. Which left it just the four of them together for the entire month. Unfortunately, this made their list of topics run out quickly and meant that Conrad had to start planning the next day's topics beforehand in order to avoid answering some topics. During one of his planning sessions, he thought to give something new a try and brought his Portable Terminal with him again.
Once he took to showing them things from Earth and Nueva Rios on his Portable Terminal, his options for conversation opened right up. His Terminal held nearly ten terrabytes of informational files on it, with plenty of room left over. At least five of those were standard on every Portable Terminal, and they included information Earth history, both human and natural, biology and zoology, geological and travel information. In total it was several full doctorate's courses worth of information.
When Conrad's family left Earth he had taken the information on the terminal and the opportunity it represented to heart out of longing, and given Nueva Rios the same treatment. Though Nueva Rios wasn't nearly as well documented, there was still had a surprising amount of information available and more came in every year.
It wasn't quite the same as being connected to the Net, but it was a lot of valuable information, especially for those born on distant worlds who had never even seen the Earth. It was now pulling double duty with those who had never dealt with humanity in general.
Running with the memory of Jjatha and Ruufarrl's reactions to seeing their counterparts, Conrad decided to start there. Both Thaloth and Rujein were elated and enamored of their terrestrial mirrors. The Flokian in particular seemed genuinely happy to discuss the similarities and differences, and when Conrad showed him a giraffe and it's tongue the alien simply couldn't stop laughing. Mostly it was at how goofy giraffes looked, but he did express a wish that he had a longer neck to handle his tongue, or a shorter tongue. Rujein admitted that he found dealing with the finer points of controlling it to simply communicate to be tedious and occasionally painful.
It would be like a human trying to learn how, and constantly needing, to talk while keeping their tongue rolled up on itself. Except their tongue now goes down their throat and coils up on itself next to their vocal cords.
On a whim, Conrad asked if they practiced mimicry and ventriloquism. The Flokian gave him a mischievous grin and spoke to him in a child's voice, all while holding the grin. The combination of an alien with toothy grin and a young child's voice gave Conrad the shivers. Thankfully the shocking display hadn't been in Conrad's own natural language, so he was able to keep a small suspension of belief and keep control of his reaction.
This interplay eventually led to them discussing ancient human mythologies. Of particular interest to them were the Pantheons that included anthropomorphic entities, those of the Hindu, Egyptian and Mesoamerican cultures.
In researching these religions and cultures, Conrad’s travelling companions came to the unanimous decision that Humanity simply must have had some sort of alien contact in the past.
In the process of scanning through the various mythologies, they came across dragons. At their curiosity Conrad explained that essentially every ancient human culture had a legend of these large, sometimes supernatural, flying lizards.
The others, Ruufarrl included, looked at the myriad of images in earnest and whispered among themselves.
“This… is a very interesting piece of information.” Ruufarrl said. He looked like he was trying very carefully to choose his words but hesitated. In the void that he left, Rujein spoke.
“You say that every Human culture has a legend of these beings?” He paused and looked at the others before continuing, “I would dare to say that every Galactic Culture does as well. This is… quite interesting, especially from a people that has thus far been so far removed as to have had no contact with us. If integration happens, this will become an intensely hot topic amongst scholars.”
“Wait, you all have stories of them too? What are your legends about?”
“For us Flokians, they are creators, forefathers to the Gorvum, a particularly nasty creature that still haunts our world in the depths of the oceans. They clashed with our Gods of creation and were driven out.”
Thaloth nodded, “For my people they are different in origin. They were vicious and greedy and fell to infighting, leaving them too few to survive. The last of them retreated to the clouds and sky in search of others of their own kind and were never seen again.”
“And for mine, they were the perfect hunters,” Ruufarrl added last, “We still tell children’s tales that warn against going out at night or being a lazy hunter, as they will be stalked and carried away by the Fiilkaar, our dragons.”
“Wait, so everyone has legends of some sort about them? Does that mean…?”
Rujein jumped in when Conrad paused, “We had thought it strange, even among ourselves, but attributed it to a long-lost connection of some sort or intercultural contamination. But if your species also has these myths, from across the Barrier Expanse... Perhaps they themselves were wandering interstellar travelers of some sort? Who knows… we’ve certainly never found physical evidence, have you?”
Conrad shook his head, “No, none at all. We thought it may have come from mistaken perceptions of adventurers. They saw a crocodile of some sort, or maybe even the fossilized bones of a dinosaur. Something they couldn’t explain.” As he spoke, he showed them images of the creatures he mentioned, “But none of them explained the wide variations we came up with. Benevolent and evil, winged and wingless, powerful and weak, or how they would crop up in places that they had no business being, like in the middle of the ocean.”
He looked around at the others as they processed this, and suddenly realized how tired he was. They had been talking for most of the evening and lost track of time.
Conrad shook his head and yawned, the action caught on and spread through the others. “Oof, looks like we forgot to sleep. Good night, I will see you all tomorrow.”
With rumbled agreements, the others also headed off to sleep.
_____________________________________________________
The end of their trip came quicker than expected thanks to the company, but they were still glad to be off the ship and able to stretch their legs.
Customs procedures in GalCom were much more streamlined than those in Human space. They weren’t concerned about why you were there; they simply scanned your luggage for banned items, scanned travelers for diseases and contraband, and sent you on your way.
They parted ways with Thaloth at the shuttle port terminal and headed out to find a ride into the city.
Conrad had seen large cities before. He grew up on the British Isles after all and had seen London in all its sprawling and shining glory, and dingy alleys. But this city was simply massive. At first glance it looked to be at least four times the size of London, both outward and upward.
His mind marveled at the necessary engineering feats required to make the place run smoothly. He wandered off briefly after they arrived in the city as Ruufarrl handled the business part of their exchange.
He allowed himself to get too distracted, though. As he stood in the outdoor entry space for the “taxi” platform in the city he didn’t see the two aliens approaching until they were too close for comfort.
He brought himself back to his senses and realized that two younger looking Ruulothi stood to confront him. He blinked in surprise as he took in his immediate surroundings. Ruufarrl was still inside the service terminal handling the paperwork, and there was no one else nearby.
The two glared at him. Not at him, rather, but at his mantle. Noticing this he gave them a once over, neither of them wore one themselves.
“Where exactly did you get that,” the first one said, his tone demanding and aggressive. He was slightly larger than the second and had dark brown and red fur, while the second was mostly red. “Brownie and Red then. Shit… I shouldn’t have wandered off.”
He knew that hesitating would only encourage them, so he went on the attack himself to try and show authority with indifference, “I earned it in combat, like many do… Where’s yours?”
The two snarled in response. Red seemed to catch on that there was more going on than expected and took a partial step back in deference. Brownie though, couldn’t take the hint.
“Do. Not. Lie. There are no Human Bloodclaws. Your species is weak and could never be recognized for the Honor. You shouldn’t even be in Galactic Space, petitioner.”
“There wasn’t any Human Bloodclaws, there is now. Clearly, I have proven your biases wrong, there is always a first. If, as you say, I shouldn’t be in Galactic Space, then how exactly did I come across such an award? A Bloodclaw would only ever part with it on death, so what do you think I did? Kill a Bloodclaw and move to impersonate them? Read the markers youngblood, I am heading to Ruuloth Prime with my mentor to be confirmed. Impersonating an applicant would get me nothing.”
Brownie stewed in anger, but Red had listened. He moved to corral his compatriot, but Brownie shrugged him off and stepped into Conrad’s space, grabbing him by the shoulders.
Brownie roared in Conrad’s face, and he felt the Ruulothi’s claws start to dig in. “Shit, shit shit. Damnit, looks like we are doing this the hard way then.”
He saw Ruufarrl and yet another all black Ruulothi, also a Bloodclaw, exit the building and stand by to watch. Other foot traffic had dispersed with Brownie’s roar, not willing to get caught anywhere near an angry Ruulothi.
Ruufarrl looked angry and spoke animatedly with the other, but Conrad knew that he wouldn’t, couldn’t, interfere. A challenged Bloodclaw was to handle his own business. If Conrad looked to him for help, he wouldn’t be worthy of the Title.
Even so, he tried one more time to get the hot-headed fool to see reason. “See that Ruulothi over there, the one with the Greater Mantle, that is my Mentor. Walk away now, and I will let this go out of respect for the confusion and strangeness of the encounter. But if you choose to continue, I will put you in your place… unblooded fool. Last. Chance.”
Brownie looked over his shoulder at the two elders standing to the side. He paused, even if only momentarily, before turning back to Conrad with a malicious grin. “You just saw him as you passed by, a convenient excuse for a weakling, nothing more. I will be taking that Mantle from your worthless… GRAWK!”
Conrad had learned a little about Ruulothi physiology from Ruufarrl and suspected a few other things from his overall knowledge of biology. Ruulothi had to work to keep their claws out. Stunning them would make them retract, and right now, those claws were his biggest worry. Also, if they were anything like other cats…
He reached up to Brownie’s jaw fur, clamped down and yanked his face towards him as he snapped his own head forward. His forehead struck Brownie’s larger, more sensitive nose with a muted and wet ‘Crunch’, sending Ruulothi backwards with his paws on his face.
Not content to simply let him recover, Conrad stepped into his opponent’s space and continued his dropping motion from his headbutt, driving his right fist forward and downward into the reeling alien’s now exposed pelvic girdle. He followed that up with a left-handed cross to the jaw of his suddenly forward leaning opponent, dropping him to the ground.
As he suspected, even though Red had tried to stay out of the conflict, he could not allow his partner to fall without answer. But Conrad had set himself up for it. He continued his left to right momentum from the cross and jumped into a spinning roundhouse kick that took the charging Ruulothi in the side of the head, something no Ruulothi could do, and therefore could not have ever expected or defended against.
Both of his opponents were down and groaning in pain, and no longer posed any sort of threat, so he simply re-arranged himself and looked pointedly at the two elders. Ruufarrl had what could only be described as a Fox-in-the-henhouse grin, while the other stood in slack-jawed amazement. To his credit, he recovered very quickly and walked up with Ruufarrl.
The newcomer’s voice was even deeper and richer than Ruufarrl’s, “I did not believe you when you told me Master Nightmane. My deepest apologies for my skepticism. Also, to you, Youngblood. I fear my charges have yet to learn the etiquette necessary to travel unaccompanied. It is an unacceptable failure on my part.” He looked over at them with a pained expression and sighed, “What punishment do you feel is necessary?”
Conrad glanced at Ruufarrl, who nodded passively for Conrad to decide. “I think this has been more than enough. They have been force fed their misplaced pride and anger. With luck, they will learn from it.”
The Elder breathed a sigh of relief, “Thank you. Oh, do not doubt, there will most definitely be some very hard lessons that will be hammered into their skulls.”
The two grounded aliens sank in on themselves as they heard the anger in their mentor’s voice. “In fact, Master Nightmane, you stated that you were heading home for his confirmation. Please, take our berths in two days’ time. It seems that we will be unable to return home for a much longer time than I had expected.”
Conrad hadn’t realized that they could possibly get anymore crestfallen as Ruufarrl answered, “Thank you. I believe that we will take you up on that offer.”