---Overview---
---Khr’kowan’s perspective---
I gasp as I awake!
My hand flies to the soft patch at the top of my throat.
There is no wound…
That can’t be right!
I was stabbed! I was stabbed with Haorken’s foot! I had blood in my lungs! I should have died from…
Maybe I did die?
I look around myself and find my surroundings utterly incomprehensible…
The floor and walls are all… made of… metal!
My eyes are beholding several times more than all the metal I’ve seen in my entire life right now!
All of it is smooth, shiny and flawlessly perfect.
I raise my upper body from the soft surface I was lying on.
“Mrah!” comes a shocked shriek, drawing my attention to a biped standing nearby.
I look down at the creature.
They have a tail flicking rapidly back and forth behind them, though they are no Vermin!
Neither do they particularly resemble the Foreigners I met just before my death…
Taller than Vermin but shorter than most of the Foreigners, every part of their body that I can see is covered in light brown fur.
Their face has a short snout and there’s a pair of triangular ears on top of their skull, a little ahead of where their nonexistent earhorns would be.
Their large eyes have slit pupils and their hands have twice as many fingers as mine.
Their bodylanguage is clearly alarmed before they wheel around, drop to all fours and dart away screaming “Twila-nyah! Mwaonyon prrrnya mwao! Wawniat aaw naa!”
My earhorns are assaulted by a high-pitched wailing sound blasting from everywhere at once as all the lights turn blue.
“Atten shon! Atten shon! Ol kru ah advaizd tu rimein in pleiss and sial doahs bitwiin themselvsand comunerias! Eh lahj, translay tahlus dethwarldah ovuh veri deinjerus spisiiz haz awoh kan anekspek tidli arli in thuh medbei! Sekyuriti ah askt tu ripoht foh dyuti!” blares a loud, clear, soprano voice.
If I am dead, the Weaver seems to have deemed me… unworthy to join Her in the Warm Lands… though this place isn’t freezing… so I suppose I’m not being punished either?
I get up.
“WOAH!” I cry out as the force, only necessary to lift my body to standing, ends up flinging me what feels like a body height into the air!
I land and have instant, strong nausea from the combination of my disorientating lightness and sickening way the points of my feet screech against the metal as they punch holes into the floor!
I lay the flats of my left feet against the floor and clamber over and off of the surface I slept on with my right.
Once I have the flats of all eight planted firmly on the ground, I flex my body experimentally.
Something’s definitely weird here… my body is… light… and not in a good way!
This isn’t the feeling of lightness I get when I put down a heavy load I’ve been carrying a while!
This feels… like my body has been robbed of it’s substance!
Unsteadily, I walk in the same direction as the furry one fled.
I come to a dead end…
There’s a hole, beyond which I can see a corridor.
I go to look through it but…
*Donk*
I bang my head into something…
I bring the unarmoured flesh of my palm to the hole and find it presses against a hard, invisible surface!
“What sorcery is this?!” I hiss to myself!
The invisible thing I’m touching is as hard and smooth as a riverstone but… Impossibly flat!
It entirely fills the gap with no edge I can feel.
I suppose, if they have the means to make an entire building of all metal, then clear stone isn’t too surprising…
I slam my hand into the wall in frustration.
It… buckles?
I cock my head and punch the surface again, harder…
It dents and, this time, when I pull my fist away, there’s an imprint of it left in the wall!
Hmmm.
I back up two body lengths until my spinneret is against the opposite wall… then charge forward!
An entire square panel crumples and, as I back off, rubbing my shoulder, I’m able to see the corridor through the gaps I’ve created at its edge.
I charge again, this time bringing the flats of my four front feet to meet the crumpled portion.
I rip it free and it crashes against the floor of the hall.
I clamber over it and begin sprinting down the passageway on the flats of my feet.
Even walking this way, my feet still slip and skate across the hard, smooth metal of the ground, making me wince each time.
I see a wide open space ahead with more metallic construction across it from me.
I head that way, just needing to get out of this labyrinth to gain some idea of where I am and what’s going on!
I see a fence, about half my height, just past the hallway’s exit and am preparing to leap it when I register that the floor on the other side has not made itself visible yet!
I skid to a halt, my front crashing into the barrier and denting it outward.
Lightning shoots through my blood at the sight below me!
The precipice stretching down on the other side of the flimsy fence is the furthest sheer drop I’ve ever seen! I’m easily twice the height of the top of the Palace Tent here!
I scramble backwards, my breaths short, sharp and panicked!
Even with how light I seem to be in this place, leaping over that barrier definitely would have killed me!
I stab my feet into the metal of the ground in front of me to anchor myself until my breathing slows and my heart stops pounding like a log drum, ignoring the nauseating feeling of piercing the metal (which suddenly doesn’t seem to matter at all)!
When I’ve calmed down a little, I disengage my feet from the holes I stabbed and, keeping my body low to the ground, creep to the fence and look over again.
As I look at the space below, it seems to stretch away from me as if, rather than solid, physical space, what I’m seeing were all made of elastic webbing, being pulled away from me from the other end!
I retch!
Looking upward, I see that the top of this impossibly large indoor space is open to a night sky that’s clearer and more colourful than I’ve ever seen before… or… maybe the ceiling is made of more of that smooth, invisible stone?
I look to either side of myself, along the causeway, and see what looks like a route down.
Staying away from the edge, I approach it and find that, indeed, it’s a very shallow flight of stairs.
I descend.
It takes a little while for me to gain back my confidence to move while so close to such a precipice but, as my altitude decreases, I’m comfortable enough to move faster.
Hopefully, there’ll be an exit on the bottom level and I can find my way out of this place…
Where in the Weaver’s name am I!?
I no longer think I’m dead but… I can’t be anywhere near the Khawekhan [Crownlands]!
To be honest, if a construction like this existed anywhere in the world, I would expect to have heard tell of it at least!
Searching my memory for every rumour and folktale I’ve ever heard, I find nothing even close to this!
When I reach what looks like the second level above the bottom, I see it.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Around 15 body lengths away from where I am on the stairway, a creature rounds the corner at some speed.
Both of us freeze where we stand.
This creature… has no head!
It seems to have about the right number of limbs but not the right kind!
Rather than having the bones on the inside, like the Vermin, or the outside, like normal, its legs appear to have no bones at all!
Its skin looks slimy and tough and doesn’t look to be bound to a single colour, shimmering instead through dozens!
It turns its bulky body slowly toward me, revealing a single golden yellow eye, larger than my entire head, flanked by two pulsing sphincters and stuck behind some kind of panel of what looks like more of the invisible stone, holding back water.
I let out a bloodcurdling scream of terror in a way I haven’t since I was in the nursery!
The monstrous being (that looks like a gigantic version of something I’d be served in a seafood dish from our Eastern vassals) cowers away from me in shock but remains entirely silent.
Its skin, however, cycles through every colour I’ve ever seen and many I haven’t!
Without conscious decision, I barrel left, through the fence that separates the stairway from the causeway!
Going down the stairs would mean getting closer to it!
My left hand catches the edge of the section of railing next to that that I just destroyed, allowing me to turn my body fully around in the air.
With how light I am, it feels like I’m falling the relatively short distance for absolutely ages… time that thing could be using to clear the interstitial distance to attack me from behind!
The moment my feet have touched down, I’m sprinting away from the monster at top speed!
I may well be the strongest woman alive… but that thing looked like it would rip me apart with those muscular tentacles!
I don’t hear it chasing me… but I don’t want to look to see if it is!
I glance out over the edge of the fence… then, impulsively, plough through it.
I fall around three body heights, past the first causeway, to land on what I’m taking to be ground level.
My legs hurt in absorbing the impact but nowhere near as much as they would if I weren’t so light in this place!
Noticing that I’ve landed next to two more figures, I whip toward them!
Both of them are vaguely reminiscent of giant [dragonbirds] but wrong!
The larger one is taller than me but not as large as the monster I just fled from.
Their dark, purplish-black skin is set with many glowing stars.
In a pouch around their front is cradled a massive (very [dragonbird]like) egg.
Their two (distinctly un[dragonbird]like) arms heft an enormous hammer.
The smaller one is around the same size as the Foreigners I met in the pass.
They’re stocky and their skin is a sandy orangey-yellow colour.
They have no wings.
“Svakh vorss!” rumbles the wingless one in a deep voice, splaying a scaley, too many fingered palm to me “Ishakth, she’em hersoss!”
“Sshlovzianseta… tsessiliniss vssheinatiloass!” sings the larger one, their tone placatory and their voice surprisingly high and pleasant sounding.
I turn from the scaley ones and sprint away. I don’t want to risk having to fight them!
Up ahead, I see the great tall space ends in what seems at first to be a dead end… then, I see a panel that looks similar to the one I broke to get out of the place in which I woke up!
I aim for it and manage to smash it down on the first try.
I find myself in another gigantic hall, this one filled with large boxes.
At the far end of it is an enormous open entrance, outside of which is… just more of the clear night sky…
That… doesn’t make sense!
Where’s the ground!?
I should be able to see something… even if this place were on a very tall mountain, there’s no way it could be so tilted as to not let the horizon be visible!
I would feel that tilt!
I’m about to approach it to try and work out what’s going on when I catch sight of something.
Between me and the starry sky is a pair of Vermin…
One of them is the female who stabbed me in the throat with Haorken’s foot, the other of which is the male I killed between then and passing out.
“You!… Vermin!… What’s going on!? Where are we!? Why aren’t you dead?! Why aren’t I dead!?”
---Viig’s perspective---
Me and Grriv were hanging out in the strange place we’ve been in since we woke up from the injuries we got in the battle, when all the lights turned blue and there was a horrible wailing that sounded like a wounded [stallionhound] coming from everywhere!
A loud voice spoke (I’d guess explaining what was going on) but, since neither of us spoke the tongue it was in, we still had no idea!
No one here speaks Folk Common so trying to work out what this place is, who these people are and why they saved our lives has all been fruitless!
Me and Grriv were just trying to work out if we should do something or go somewhere, when one of the doors to the gigantic storeroom we were in blasts inwards and the Monster I stabbed explodes into the room.
Both of us freeze, looking at the woman.
We’re caught right out in the open!
She doesn’t notice us at first, instead staring over us at the evernight outside the building.
Then she looks down
“Thugh!… Aamveourgh!… Iskh hakhog ess!? Aingh dokh ess!? Thu kham ke’shkhenhor ikhehn?! Ainh kham ke’shkhenhor ikhehn!?” she shouts, thundering towards us while pointing a finger accusingly.
Me and Grriv both bolt in separate directions to try and hide.
Neither of us are armed and, even if we were, without numbers or surprise on our side we’re no match for a Monster of this calibre!
She quickly loses sight of us as we dart and we’ve between the boxes (large even considering the size of some of the different Stranger kinds that use them!)
She gives a frustrated roaring growl, picks up a box and hurls it through the air!
It impacts another and the contents of both spill over the floor as they shatter apart.
Trying to control the terrified shivering, I crouch down where I’m hiding, behind some boxes under the lowest walkway, and listen as the Monster woman rips the place apart looking for us.
I would run but… she’d definitely notice me and, even though Monsters are slow over short distances, they don’t tire like Folk do!
I feel the wind created by the box I’m hiding behind being ripped away.
I startle as the furious Monster woman I was sure I’d killed in the ambush bears down on me!
I’m cornered and certain I’m about to die!
“Kvrekesh, Aamveour!” she screams.
“OY!” comes a voice from above us.
The Monster looks up, just in time to catch the flat underside of a long foot, full in the face!
The Stranger who jumped down from the walkway springs off of her and lands on his feet.
Its that large one with the red hair.
“Wai doncha pikkon samwan clohsuh yuhrohn saiz!” he snarls at her in that Stranger tongue he speaks.
She spends only the briefest moment rubbing where the foot struck her with her fleshy palm before launching at him!
He’s… an incredible fighter!
He moves with almost the acrobatic grace of a Folk, not hampered at all by the strange lightness in this place (which I guess he’s used to), but, when he strikes, it looks like he hits almost as hard as a Monster!
The fight lulls just long enough for the man to turn attention to me, jab a finger away and bark “Ran gherw!”
I don’t understand the words but there’s no mistaking the tone or gesture.
I realise I’ve just been staring at the fight and not taking hold of the opportunity to escape!
I turn and begin fleeing, still hearing the sounds of the battle behind me.
As I go, four of the women I recognise from having been at the ambush run past me in the opposite direction.
The short, red haired one, the taller golden haired one, the really tall black haired one who all look like they’re more or less the same kind as the man and the really tall one with the blue skin and four arms who doesn’t look the same.
They have weapons in hand and I hear the building roar of them igniting, seeing the glow that that magic casts on the walls ahead of me.
---Lhamo’s perspective---
“Ambassadors, I must protest!” objects Miyazaki, somehow managing to match my jogging speed with only a brisk walking speed “My bodyguard, our military liaison and the ship’s preexisting security team will have the situation well in hand! There’s no need for you to throw yourselves into danger right now!”
“This woman masses [571kg], is naturally armoured like a tank, armed like a mirkbeast and has already proven to be violent and unpredictable! It’s a wonder no one’s been hurt yet!” backs up the R’qali captain riding on the AI girl’s shoulder.
“No, she hasn’t.” I correct “What she’s proven is that she’s a person who, when waking up in unfamiliar and incomprehensible surroundings full of unfamiliar beings who are not able to explain anything to her about her situation, panics and tries to escape!… Can any of you say you wouldn’t behave the same if the roles were reversed?”
“Well… I don’t think I would… but, then again, I suppose I’m not a deathworlder?” muses the Captain.
“I’m not a deathworlder and I would definitely be inclined to act the same in her position.” my husband backs me up from where he’s stamping along behind us.
Technically, him ‘not being a deathworlder’ is only mostly true… his procedures won’t have changed his attitudes though… just his physicality.
15 years since his deathworlderfication and he still walks like he’s expecting his body to be a fraction of the mass it is(!)
“I’m sure those five are unrivalled in the assessment and suppression of threats… However, I’m also willing to guess they don’t have much more than a layperson’s understanding of how to handle a First Contactee!… We won’t get a second chance to make a first impression on this woman and we’ve already largely cocked it up!"
As we pass under the place where she destroyed a railing to jump from the second floor to get away from that Rethijj engineer, I see two of the smaller sentients native to this planet running toward us. The ones I’ve been trying really hard to get people to stop referring to as ‘Goblins’ until we can find out what they call themselves!
“Ak!” shouts the tiny woman, waving her hands “Mwit al a! Org dan talz al a! Wors an tner!… Ak! Ak!!! Wors an tner!”
She gets increasingly desperate as she speaks but I just reassure her “It’s alright… Don’t worry about us!”
“Tral ot, Viig… Brod tral … Wors an…” reassures the man.
The two of them run past us and we make it to the rear loading bay.
We’re greeted by the sight of the security trio along with the military liaison and Miyazaki’s bodyguard hemming the poor terrified woman against a wall with their plasmaweapons.
Extremely pissed off, I stride up to the group and shout “Stand down!”
The large security chief spares me a glance before saying “Due respect, Ambassador…”
“With due respect, Taylor, I wasn’t asking! You five back up and put your weapons away right now!”
Shocked, it takes the man a second or two to process the instruction before “Erm… alright, I guess?”
The five of them back several metres away from the cornered woman and extinguish their blades.
They all five stand in postures of clear readiness to resume the fight if provoked.
The… very unnerving looking woman just stares at me suspiciously… not that I can blame her(!)
“Hello there…” I smile gently as I walk toward her “…it’s nice to meet you.”
She looks very uncomfortable at my approaching.
When I’m well inside her attack range, I take a gamble.
Bending at the waist, I bow my upper body low to her.
If she does attack me, I’ll be defenceless… but I don’t think she will…
Just from looking at her, I think her species will very likely understand willingly exposing oneself to attack as a gesture of goodwill… and, consequently, they will understand attacking someone who is submitting themselves to it like this as taboo…
My gamble pays off when I straighten back up and see her looking surprised.
A few moments of hesitation follow before… she matches the gesture, aligning the orthograde front part of her body with the pronograde rear in a clear bow!
I give a genuine, heartfelt smile (without showing my teeth) to the woman, as she comes up, and bring my hand to my chest “My name is Lhamo Yeshe…” gesture to myself and repeat “Lhamo Yeshe.” then I gesture to her with my whole hand “You?”
Uncertainly, she slowly brings a thick, three fingered hand to the blue-black armour of her chest and speaks “Khr’kowan… Mainh korh Khr’kowan ess… Mhiss bhekhel… Lhamoyeshekh.”
“Khr’kowan?” I confirm.
“Hak… Khr’kowan.” she gestures in seeming confirmation.
“Well… Khr’kowan… There’s something I’d very much like to show you.” I smile, turning around and shooing a tall blonde and incredibly stocky Neanderthal out of the way before turning back to beckon her forward.
Tentatively, she follows.
As I pass by Twila, I mutter “Wait until we’re in position… then rotate.”
She nods her comprehension.
I lead the extremely formidable woman from a roughly Iron Age society through the rows of crates (many of which are destroyed from the fight) toward the clear polymer of the boarding ramp.
Any time any of the fighters get too close while we walk, I shoot them a glare until they back off. A technique that’s much less effective on the (moderately autistic seeming) Neanderthal woman, requiring her girlfriend to notice and redirect her on my behalf.
We finally make it to the clear surface and I stop just short, indicating her to do the same (she apparently has some trouble seeing glass, according to Twila(!))
She looks very confused by the view of space that she has, looking to our relative ‘down’ as if to try and see the ground.
Then, it appears.
I point my finger to the place where everything this woman has ever experienced before today has happened.
The place where her entire species’ history is.
The place she is almost certainly the first member of her species to ever leave.
Rotating in, across our field of view from the left, is her world.
She gasps and slams her fleshy palms into the ramp, pressing her face between them, trying to get a better look at the marble of blue ocean, dark green and sandy yellow continents and white clouds.
“The Overview Effect…” I smile to myself “…never fails to get a reaction!”