---Miyazaki---
Victor and I sit in the waiting room. His foot taps nervously and I nestle into the seat next to his.
A while ago, he commented that the Thruljec woman who showed us in here looked like a ‘draenei’… which is apparently a race from a centuries old Terran media franchise, but he hasn’t said anything since then. She just looked like a relatively normal Thruljec female, to me.
Thruljex are somewhat dissimilar to Terrans.
It is curious that the variety of life on Earth means that Terrans have an apt animal to compare half the sapients that they encounter with… and the variety of their imaginings covers the other half(!)
Most gardenworlds have no more than a few hundred unique animal species… compared to the millions of animals that call Earth their home! To Terrans, R’qali are ‘secretarybirds’, Rethijj are ‘giant squid’, Sho’uso are ‘pink elephants’!
The notion of creating an imaginary race, purely for entertainment, would be concerning to a gardenworlder without familiarity with Terrans!
Just then, another testament to the rich tapestry of Terra enters the room.
She’s a Neanderthal woman who stands noticeably shorter than even Jennie! Though… what she lacks in height… she more than makes up for in bulk! I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a more solidly built Human!
Her face is expressionless and her voice monotone as she strides up to Victor and says “Stand up, I need to frisk you.”
Victor’s face breaks with recognition “I know you! You’re Thran ‘Gimli’ Hunter! The galaxy’s strongest unaugmented woman!”
She gives no reaction to the recognition, positive or negative, as she says “Please stand up so I can frisk you.”
Still clearly starstruck Victor stands and spreads his limbs.
She roughly passes her hands over his lower portion and then… hesitates.
The [0.5m] height differential is such that, if she wants to reach his shoulders, she needs to get close enough for full body contact.
Her face shows no discomfort but Victor, wordlessly, kneels for her to complete her frisk.
That done, she turns her mossy green eyes to me and, terrified about what a frisk from potentially ‘the galaxy’s strongest unaugmented woman’ might mean for my fragile bones, I stand, spread my wings out and complete a full circle, to reveal that I am concealing no weaponry… I truly hope that satisfies her…!
It seems to… she jerks her head to indicate that we are to follow.
Victor lowers his hand to a level where I can step onto it, then raises it, allowing me to step to resume my perch on his shoulder.
We walk down the high ceilinged corridor behind the powerfully built woman.
It’s somewhat ludicrous that we needed to be searched for weaponry, despite the fact that we passed through a detector on the way in and were, at that point, informed that the whole building is monitored by an AI who will sound an alarm if any unauthorised weaponry is detected inside!
‘Belt and braces’ is the expression I believe Victor would use; It can’t hurt to be sure.
The stocky woman indicates a door before saying “I will be waiting out here. If I hear sounds of distress or the activation of the privacy field, I will enter with intent to neutralise.” in a flat monotone that leaves little doubt as to the meaning of the word ‘neutralise’.
Victor and I smile and nod… though my smile, unlike his, is definitely coloured by fear.
We walk through the door and are met by the sight of an uncannily familiar Terran… that I’m certain I’ve never met before!
She wears a sort of… robe?... dress?... She wears an outfit which is an assortment of greens that glisten with an iridescent lustre and very peculiar [shoes] that seem to have the style of [sandals] but with the base carved from what looks like wood and raised on downward protrusions toward the front and back.
She has pale skin and jet black hair… though with either dyed or modified grey streaks emanating from the top of her hairline to the back of her tightly tied [coiffure].
Her eyes are a vivid purple though she’s certainly not a Tshwane. Those must be modifications!... Surely?
With regen tech now ubiquitous across Terran space, I can’t be certain as to whether she’s [25] or [125] but she certainly has the bearing of an older woman!
She stands and Victor bends to allow me off his shoulder.
“So… these are the pilots of the ODR’s Terran Security Officer programme…? I’ve heard excellent things about both of you from my sister.” speaks the woman, radiating self-confidence.
What is she talking about? Who’s sister might she be to have heard good things about us?
I quickly run through all of the Human Triple Ms and rule them out as likely candidates for one reason or another. Given that this is Msia’s planet he would be the most likely candidate... but he’s male and… from what I know of Human ethnicity… none of them look like they share a close biological relationship with this woman!
My mind is spared the effort of graunching under the strain of attempting to resolve the enigma by Victor saying “You’re Emiko! Miyazaki’s little sister!”
The mystery woman smiles and nods, making her no longer a mystery. She is now ‘Emiko’… though I’m not quite sure of the implications of that. My mind is still wheeling somewhat.
She notices my befuddlement and says “I’m sorry, dear. I can see I’ve perplexed you. Why don’t the two of you take a seat and we can begin? Our indirect relationship to eachother has little bearing but I’ll go through it so it’s not bothering anyone.”
Victor sits in the Human adapted chair, I climb atop the R’qali adapted perch and Emiko resumes her seat behind the desk, with a Zanzibari vista visible through the window behind her.
Emiko… Ms. Miyazaki starts “Mr. Taylor is right, I’m Emiko Miyazaki. Jeanne and I share a father, though we were born on different planets, about 14 years apart and never had a real time conversation until after the Peace made FTL coms available across Terran space. While she was overseeing Mr. Taylor’s piloting of the SO position, she and I talked about him, his R’qali sponsor and the programme rather a lot… I feel like I already know the two of you quite well, though entirely parasocially(!)… Do either of you have any further questions about any of that?”
Having recovered from the blindsiding, I answer “You’ve covered it quite well…” I look to Victor “I think both of us are more interested in the contract your employer is offering. Right, Victor?”
He nods.
“Very well.” smiles Miyazaki, tapping her holopad to darken the window behind her before flicking a video to display on the wall to her left, my and Victor’s right.
“This is footage that was captured by a long distance, semitrue AI piloted probe, surveying an unnamed deathworld in the outer rim, and relayed to the ODR’s central office on Citadel, around 7 months ago. Please watch...”
The footage shows a snowy forest of pinelike trees, it must have either been captured in the hemisphere’s [Winter] or the whole planet simply has a frigid climate.
The trees clear, revealing the brow of a hill.
“What makes us think this could be a sapience bearing planet is just coming up…” informs Miyazaki.
The footage crests the hill and unveils a broad valley, also heavily forested, but… in the middle of this valley is a hill… with a cleared patch of land topping it… and at the centre of that patch is… what looks like… a village.
A village that appears to be made of white woven cloth. It’s somewhat difficult to pick it out from the snow until the camera magnifies the image to reveal dwellings with large, indistinct, dark shapes moving between them.
“I mean… that ain’t conclusive… building shelter is far from sufficient to determine sapience! Tonnes of animals build shelters!” opines Victor, the side of his face showing a contemplative frown.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“Wait for it…” smirks Miyazaki.
A few more moments pass before a loud *crack* sounds from the footage and the video is suddenly showing only overcast sky.
Victor sits bolt upright, his body is tense as if he is readying for action.
I’m rather at a loss!
A moment more and the footage cuts out.
“Bloody hell!” swears Victor.
Miyazaki nods knowingly.
Looking between these two who clearly know something I don’t, I say “Would one of you care to enlighten me?”
Victor turns to me, his face blanched “Those probes’re built like tanks, Cap! The shells on ’em're like 1.5cm of durasteel, same stuff Terran armour’s built out of! Most deathworld animals are wary of ’em ’cause they're unfamiliar and don’t look particularly appetising… it actually makes studyin’ zoology usin’ ’em quite difficult. Somethin’ managed to sneak up on that probe and take it out… without bein’ seen! I mean it ain’t impossible that it was just an uncharacteristically brazen and stealthy animal… it ain’t impossible that it was a one in a billion fluke, like, it got hit by a meteorite or whatever but… it sorta seems like… when you put it together with the settlement it captured footage of… somethin’ was trackin’ that probe, identified it as a threat and met it with sufficient force to destroy it! That’s much more convincin’ than the village!”
Miyazaki nods appreciatively at Victor “Someone’s done their homework… or is an avid fanboy of the search for deathworld sapience!”
Victor’s face flushes.
I ask “So where is this planet?” wishing to distract from the embarrassment that Victor is, for whatever reason, feeling about his unusual level of knowledge on the ODR’s probes.
In answer Miyazaki pulls up a 3D projection of the entire galaxy from her holopad. That’s… not a good sign…
“Here…” says Miyazaki, indicating a red dot on the outer end of the [Orion-Cygnus] Arm “…is where we are now, Zanzibar Mpya. This…” she changes the display to highlight a mostly contiguous area, largely in that arm of the galaxy but spilling over into the arm we just came from and the next one along as well as having a few exclaves from more intrepid settlements, further out, and a few enclaves, from gardenworlds that happened to be located within it “…is Terran space. This…” she highlights a dot in yellow… almost precisely on the opposite side of the galaxy “… is survey planet AG10790263b… that’s the planet we’re after. We’ve left it unnamed as, with the possibility of it being sapience bearing, we want to give the natives the chance to name it themselves… if there are any.”
Both Victor’s and my faces fall.
“That’s a year’s journey from here!” comments Victor, dejectedly.
Miyazaki gives a mirthless smile “Did you think it would be a brief jaunt over to the next galactic arm? That you’d be laughing along with your new deathworlder friends in a matter of weeks?”
I interrupt here “Ms. Miyazaki, that was uncalled for! We have come here in good faith to listen to the ODR’s proposal and not to be insulted.”
Her face momentarily shows surprise before she rights herself “My apologies, Captain. I can see I crossed a line. I meant no offense… My sister did tell me that you can be rather fierce, when the occasion strikes… I must admit to not fully believing it until now!”
I give a satisfied Terran nod “I think my CSS’s reaction has a little more to do with the fact that this is almost as inconvenient a place as we could wish to start from. Much as I don’t wish to pass on this contract, are there not more conveniently placed deathworld research ships? Ones located closer to this planet?”
She smiles and nods “There are but… well after what happened the first time the GU made contact with a deathworld… the ODR is determined not to make any mistakes this time… We want the best. You are the best!”
I cock a brow tuft “‘The best’?”
In answer Miyazaki flicks a spreadsheet to display on the wall “This is your ship’s incident report log filed with the ODR… there are precisely 394 incidents reported since the start of Victor’s tenure aboard. Roughly one every 8 Terran days on average. Everything from mild stomach ache resultant from consumption of unidentified deathworld berries to mauling from deathworld fauna…”
I frown “That’s a strange way of defining ‘best’, Ms. Miyazaki…”
She smiles and shakes her head, flicking another, nearly empty, log to the display “Not when we compare it to the list of fatalities from the same period…”
There is only one name on this list, ‘Researcher Halb’ who died in his bed, of heart failure, around three years ago.
I still remember Victor in his people’s bright white mourning colours as we cremated Halb. It hit him quite hard.
“One death in nearly a decade… and not even mission related! That’s so good that we’ve audited you several times, thinking you had to be covering up fatalities! If you are, we’ve not found any indication of it! Also, your last report indicated that you’d hired not only additional SOs but nonsecurity Terran staff as well! Your ship is a shining example of what is possible when deathworlders and gardenworlders collaborate… I also can’t pretend that there isn’t a political aspect to this as well. The original pilots of the ODR’s SO qualification being the ones to convey ODR representation on a deathworld First Contact… it would be a moderate propaganda coup! There's also the fact that you just arrested a crew of pirates to consider...”
My face and Victor’s screw up in mild disgust.
“I know, I know…!” says Miyazaki with a placatory wave of her hand “…I don’t like being a woman who has to consider the public perception of things like this! I didn’t do a degree and doctorate after the War was concluded to be worried about politics. However… there is still a persistent issue with people rejecting the ODR’s prescriptions as governmental overreach. The better we’re perceived… the less likely it is that gardenworld Captains decide that deathworld research is lucrative enough to get into and damnit if they’re going to be told they need a Terran with their excursion parties! Our good image saves lives.”
Seeing the sense in what this woman is saying but still not liking being used as a poster girl, I ask “So… would it be you we are to convey to this planet… Dr Miyazaki?”
She raises a finger and says “If it’s alright with you, please just call me Emiko… ‘Doctor Miyazaki’ was my father(!)… and yes…” she winks “…only the best!”
Victor gives an excited jerk, causing me to start, and exclaims “Is that why you're under guard by Thran Hunter!?!?!?! Is she gonna come too!?”
Dr. Miyazaki… Emiko laughs through her nose and says “Just so, Mr. Taylor! I can see you’re familiar with her exploits as a body builder… though, if you’re looking to seduce her, I don’t believe you’ll have much luck…!”
Victor shakes his head with a frown and says “Is a guy not capable of admirin’ a woman without it bein’ construed romantically!? I’m merely a fan, is all. I’m quite happily paired already, thank you very much!”
I’m unsure whether I should interject but decide to back him up “His partner is about as far from Ms. Hunter as it’s possible to get while remaining humanoid! I know that Humans are capable of… eclectic taste… but my intuition, for whatever it’s worth, is that he’s telling the truth about not having that sort of interest in Ms. Hunter.”
Miyazaki laughs, heartily “Alright then! With that vouching, I have no further worry about things becoming awkward, Mr. Taylor!”
Nodding, I continue “So we would likely need to reinforce several dorms to be deathworlder resistant…? We’ve only got one so far… I mean we have thirty four dorms and command quarters so that’s around three hundred and sixty private rooms, only around two hundred of which are currently filled, but we only have one which is reinforced… ten rooms… half of which are currently occupied. It would be less if not for the fact that Terrans have a proclivity to couple up and, having done so, move in with eachother. I assume you’ll want to bring more than just yourself and Ms. Hunter…? I assume you’ll also want space to accommodate any deathworld delegations we might bring back to the Parliament on Citadel?”
She smiles, seeming pleased “Very perceptive, Captain. The full complement of staff we’ll be bringing has not yet been determined. If you refuse this contract we will likely have to start from the ground up with our second choice, located in an entirely different part of the galaxy, so we haven't actually approached anyone who doesn't already work for us yet… It would likely be around fifteen Terran staff… with a similar number of ODR gardenworlders who would be sharing their dorms… then we would want two dorms for a delegation from this new deathworld… if the stars align for that. We’ll pay all expenses for those upgrades… we can hire crews to have it done in less than three weeks.”
I smile “My Maintenance Team are extremely good, Dr Mi… Emiko… I’m sure it wouldn’t take them much longer than that, themselves, but… if you can find people who are happy to work alongside… and take advice from gardenworlders… I would be happy to take you up on that offer.”
She nods “I’ll see to it… oh and, when the contract is complete, you can keep the upgrades… we won’t send repossessions officers to tear out all the valuable parts we gave you(!) Think of it as a perk… Speaking of… you’ll want to know what your remuneration is going to be like for this job.”
I smile “I fully disclose my ship’s earnings to the ODR as well as the GU’s tax collection. I'm guessing you wouldn’t have invited us here if you couldn’t afford us!”
She smirks “Quite so!” before flicking something from her holopad to mine, which I unclip to check.
The figure nearly knocks me off my perch!
“This is twice what we would make in the same period as you're proposing to engage us for!”
With a look of smug satisfaction, she says “When you're employing the best… you can’t be cheap! 50% of that upfront, the rest on completion, an additional 25% again, on top of that figure, with successful contact with natives of AG10790263b.”
Swallowing slightly, I look to Victor, his eyes alight with hope, I say “Ma’am, I very much want to accept this contract right here and now but… I can’t speak for all of my crew… I shall have to fully disclose the details and put this to a general vote when I get back. I don’t imagine it will be rejected… what with the baseline level of valiance I select for in my hires… plus the quantity of hazard pay I’ll be able to offer alongside it but… I won’t go against my crew if they decide this isn’t worth it. Is that acceptable?”
She frowns and nods “That’s… fine, Captain… but we aren’t ready to disclose the potential fact of a sapience bearing deathworld, besides Earth, yet. I’m afraid that… if you want to put this to a vote… it will need to go along with an NDA. I can send you the wording of the NDA we’ve been using… Is that acceptable?”
Satisfied, I say “If it’s the same one I had to sign to read the offer in the first place, then I already have it. That’s no problem at all!”
She smiles “Well then… If you’ll allow me… I’ll give the two of you the full brief on AG10790263b:…”
She pulls up some complicated looking charts “As you can see, it’s atmosphere is approximately 19% oxygen, similar to Earth’s, however unlike Earth’s…”
---one extremely lengthy brief later---
Victor walks from the building with me perched on his shoulder.
He’s clearly lost in thought.
My own head is still swimming.
I extend my wing to rest my wingclaws on the top of his head “How are you feeling, Victor?”
He frowns “Like it’s too good to be true… like this can’t be that perfect… like someone’s playin’ with me somehow…”
He sits down on a low wall “Like what if it was just social animals that probe was lookin’ at and a freak accident that destroyed it?!”
Terrans truly are emotional… but that’s something to love them for…
I hop down and turn to look him in the face “Victor… I can’t promise that we will be the ones who find another planet of deathworlders. Perhaps you're right. Perhaps those shelters were erected by animals acting on instinct rather than people acting on inspiration. Perhaps we go out there and find nothing. If we do… do you think you can survive it? Will you consider it a waste of time to have taken this contract if we find nothing?”
He fixes me with those emerald eyes and says “You're right, Cap. It ain’t worth workin’ myself into a tizzy over what might happen! I’ll survive if this turns out to be a disappointment and… whatever happens… it won’t’ve been a waste o’ time!”
I smile and [wink] before hopping back atop his shoulder.
“Let’s go, Victor… We have a vote to compose(!)”