Off World
The various residents of the station bustled around her, species of almost every size and shape shoved past her. Though most bounced off her diminutive and surprisingly dense body, all were too busy to even notice they just bumped into the galactic unions newest deathworld species. Alwen didn’t mind it though, she still marveled at the idea that her small frail frame was one that supposedly outclassed most of the behemoths around her. The gravity of galactic ‘standard’ felt more like a light shawl rather than the solid press of her home world Torwen’s native gravity and she had to be very careful not to overstep and send herself flying. It was so low that if she wanted to she could perform a standing front flip, something she could never do back home.
She stood in the middle of Femeri station’s great crossroads gawking at the sprawling mass of all the galaxies sapient species swarming across the delicately suspended bridges that spanned the yawning gap between the Femeri space stations massive arms. Elevators shuttled hundreds of ‘people’ up and down across the vast length of vertical space in cavernous chambers. Magnetically propelled trains rushed by silently in suspended glass tubes, stopping at packed stations to let their occupants off and allow new ones to board. Hundreds of stores, restaurants, offices, and Galactic union banks lined the sides of the crossroads super structure, dwarfing her own planets largest mall by a few orders of magnitude. Above and below her glass domes capped either end of the tube-shaped crossroads, beyond she saw as hundreds of starships moved in and out of their berths.
Massive ships in their own right, most nearly triple the size of her world’s oil tankers, seemed almost miniscule compared to this vast space they maneuvered through. She saw large dingy galactic standard shipping containers offloaded from the varied star freighters and loaded onto train cars the size of dump trucks. Ready to be stored in the Femeri’s warehouses or directly moved to other freighters.
A great and intricate dance of commerce and pleasure passed through this linchpin in the galactic economy, entire planetary economies depending on this one enormous megacity sized station. A thousand ‘standard’ light years away from her home world, and the only station close enough to make runs from Torwens profitable. All none the wiser of the deathworlder in their midst.
Alwen wasn’t really comfortable with that title, and felt that it poorly represented her and her people. Arbitrarily applied to her home world by an uncaring equation that compared gravity, climate, background radiation, and the native fauna and spit out a rating of eleven point nine for a bountiful cradle like Torwen. But where she and her people saw beauty in the raw power of nature the rest of the known galaxy saw a world that held only death. Most inhabited worlds had gravity about forty to twenty percent of Torwen’s, with some having half her native gravity. Meaning that although most Union species were two to three times her height they had evolved to need much less muscle to move their great bulk around, and were a lot weaker than her physically, and she wasn’t all that tough to begin with.
To her eyes many around her seemed gangly and uncoordinated, lumbering, or waddling around, just moving with the flow of foot traffic. Not stupid, but seemingly inattentive, like they weren’t fully aware of their surroundings like she was. Some had recognized her and had shied away from fixed binocular gaze. For the first time since she left Torwen, Alwen was happy that she would be joining the crew of a deathworld cargo vessel as junior medical personnel. Though she was still fraught with concern over the particular nature of her new crewmates, one didn’t hear stories about the ferocious Terrans without being worried for their own safety. Rumor had it that their world was chronically plagued by gang war and terrorists, and that when they were in a berserker state they could rip the arms off of normal people.
But safety was a secondary concern for Alwen; if she wanted to be safe she would have remained at home. For her and many other Torweni all the great galaxy was a frightful place, filled to the brim with the strange and unknown. There had been riots surrounding the building of her world’s first faster than light broadcasting dish, the wake comms array. Many had feared what might answer the call. But all fears seemed needless as envoys of the Great Galactic union answered her worlds calls just ten Torweni years ago.
Amicably the representatives explained that while there were a great many species in the galaxy, that compared to the size and scale of the distances in-between cradle worlds their was little to gain from conflict. Instead they explained their great interconnected trade lanes and the cooperation of all people to prosper as a galaxy. They explained the dangers that did however lie in the infinite void to prey upon trade and travel and how the union patrols hyperspace lanes to promote free commerce between worlds. They promised technological wonders and hoped that the Torweni would one day join and contribute to the union.
She was just a med student on her home worlds capital when an agreement was reached and a limited number of visas for inter-stellar travel was announced. She was first to apply, and one of the lucky few to receive permission for exploring other worlds. And the ability to learn medicine among the stars.
Youngest of twelve, Alwen had something to prove. She wanted to be more than any of her siblings. Back home she would have been just the fourth doctor of her family, just another one of her great fathers brilliant children. Most of her father’s friends didn’t remember her name, and she had few real friends of her one. So when Alwen’s eldest brothers returned from negotiations with her father, full of amazing stories of all the things the union promised, she knew that she found her chance to be more than just another of her father’s children. Being the first medical practitioner to travel the stars and learn advanced space age medicine was everything she could have wanted.
She spent years studying the ways of the union and learning the galactic common language to prepare her for a career in space. She spent long nights bent over freshly printed GGU textbooks and studying for tests taken on embassy grounds to earn all the necessary certifications. Two Torweni years spent under rigorous medical exanimation to determine weather her body would acclimate to non-native environment’s, and getting pumped full of alien drugs meant to both defend her immune system and defend others from her native bacteria that could supposedly cause mass devastation if it was ever released into non-deathworld populations. But as it would turn out, finding anyone to hire her was the greater challenge.
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She sent out hundreds of applications via wake coms only to receive rejection after rejection. Some were nicely worded, some were not, and others never responded. She graduated from med school without any interest and was half a year through her training time at a real hospital before she got an explanation for why.
When she had met the giant yet timid Orcatch, a tripedal marsupial physician from a species called Icutoo. He was visiting as means of cultural exchange, but his three off center eyes that made it difficult to look him straight in the eye never stopped darting around. And his whole attitude, as best as she could tell from his alien body language, suggested he drew the small fish from the barrel. She only later learned that he was terrified to be on a ‘deathworld’ hospital full of comparatively super charged bacteria and viruses. His attitude went a long ways towards explaining why everyone of her applications were rejected.
Undeterred by this she began looking for any postings on deathworlder hospitals, but none were near enough to receive her message, and the cost for it to be transported via ship was outrageous. So she also checked Femeri’s port logs to see if any deathworlder ship came in. When one finally docked in Femeri she wasted no time, and neither did they. Within hours she received the best possible response she could hope for. A vessel of Terrans had to make port for repairs and maintenance. It gave her enough time to have a back-and-forth exchange with the ship’s executive officer and chief medical officer and secured an apprenticeship of half a standard year, or one and a half by her worlds reckoning.
Now only three standard cycles from the ships departure she had spent the last of her savings for a small privately owned transport helmed by two Icutoo pilots to bring her to Femeri station. She had trouble finding her way from the isolated bay to the main thoroughfare of the station ,and she had trouble asking for directions since most residents on the station eyed her with either caution from her infamous title of deathworlder, or ambivalence brought on by simple ignorance. Decoding the maps weren’t hard per say, but making her way there through the swelling tides of the stations inhabitants was impossible. She had been tempted to jump above all of them but hadn’t wanted to make a scene.
She got caught in the tide of people until a venerable female began using her comparatively sturdy shoulder as a rest for her aching back. weren’t quite as large or imposing other species, and they were weak and slow by non-deathworlder standards. But what they lacked in physical strength they made up for in their inteligance and their recorded breaking life spans. Alwen nervously chatted with the elderly female and eventually the Zxx’thi, Zedaxth, offered to guide her through the station treacherous walkways to the grand crossroads. All the while telling her how great her great-great- grandsons were doing, and how awfully disrespectful their wives were until she had brought Alwen to the great crossroads where they parted ways.
Now in the center of the station she just had to find one single shop amongst thousands, something the Terran executive officer called a cahfay. In the end she didn’t find him via the shop, but instead by the ominous ring of empty space that flowed around him, and the armed station security not too far off.
Leaning against the bar of a fragrant smelling beverage shop there stood a bipedal male a head or two taller than Alwen, he had rich dark skin that reminded her of Keno, the dark malt beer her people enjoyed. On his head he had long locks of hair or fur that hung past his shoulders neatly capped with ornate golden rings. He wore long straight black robes with a pattern of small white alien birds on the bottom. They seemed both light and firm, something made for movement while also being very stylish. They didn’t match what little of Terran fashion she could find andseemed very old and traditional compared to what she had seen. On his hip hung two long curved sheaths, with what was unmistakably decorated sword handles. He had an easy bright smile as he talked with the shop owner, leaning on the counter Alwen could easily see his great broad shoulders and the contour of well-toned muscles. The golden earrings jingled softly as he turned his head to fix her with two mirthful eyes.
His grin broadened from passively pleased to genuinely delight “Ah, you must be our Torweni doctor.” His voice was rich and masculine, with only a slight hint of an accent on his words. “My name is Karega; we are looking forward to your company aboard” he said flashing her a beautiful smile while extending a hand forward.
The station security all nervously reached for their holstered weapons as his full toothy smile put them on edge, full smiles were a taboo in space. It put everyone involved on edge and in most cultures and species baring your teeth at someone was generally seen as aggressive, but not to Alwen. Humans were remarkably similar in shape and size to Torweni, bipedal, ten digits on both hands and toes, two eyes, two ears that were a little a bigger that her own, and different but similar teeth. Humans came in a few different skin shades than her own people, they tended to range from pale pink to dark black like Belkna fish, were as Torweni were shades of light pink, red, and purple, with boney protrusions on their faces marking racial differences. Alwen’s own cheek bone protrusions and light purple skin marked her as someone from the northern mainland.
Along with so many similar features between them they shared some body language. Being primates as well helped with that connection.
Alwen returned the smile and gripped his hand in firm approval, like Kalwen taught her. “I’m really looking forward to working with everyone. I was so excited from your first email I nearly fell out of my chair. A chance to learn advanced medicine aboard a spaceship is the opportunity of a lifetime.” She said, careful to keep her voice both even and pleasant, desperate not to mess up the well-rehearsed speech she had made
Karega’s eyes twinkled like the stars around her “Excellent, you came highly recommended. Before we head on would you like any coffee” he said with a wave towards the four-armed primates stall.
To which the primate scoffed “This isn’t your deathworlder poison Karega, this is the finest Uq’ot on Fermi station. Best you’ll find in all the Oolden reef” he blustered with pride.
Karega’s grin still jovial turned mischievous “Until you make your way to Mars and have a real cappuccino made from the finest Sumatran beans.”
The primates barked a harsh laugh “Heresy!” he turned and grinned at Alwen, it wasn’t quiet like hers or Karega’s and there was a snarly quality to it. “I’ll make you a cup of Uq’ot on the house, but if you ever make your way to Mars you try their inferior beans and tell Karega mine’s better” he said with another barked laugh as he turned away to fiddle with a strange chrome machine that began to hiss with steam.
She turned towards Karega with a raised brow.
He smiled “Uq’ot is a bean that is roasted then ground up to brew a caffeinated drink with, its impossibly close to Terra’s own coffee bean. Were it not for a slight waxy texture left on the teeth it would be identical. Its one of the few things that makes long haul journeys worth it.” he explained sipping from his Uq’ot.
“Like tea?” she asked.
“Don’t ever let any red blooded Terran hear you say that; tea vs coffee is an age old argument that has lasted centuries.” He passed her the cup of rich dark liquid that nasally stimulated the pleasure center of her brain. An experimental sip proved a shock though, Uq’ot and coffee by extension was an extremely bitter drink. Like over steeped tea but less earthy, she was glad to have brought a large container of tea leaves with her.
He watched her expression with glee “it grows on you, that first bitter sip is the only thing that holds coffee back from dominating tea. Come we can walk and talk” he said as he led her through the throngs of people, people who split before Karega and gave them some well needed space. The security guards followed at a distance