The ship’s new lawyer, a Haitian women who had filled the role of Death in the ship’s four horsemen inspired roster of lawyers, was not happy to see Gato and Alwen in an SS lockup.

“You two weren’t even apart of the chaos crew.” She admonished, as she stood before them.

Gato shrugged. “Guess they didn’t really need a good reason to tase and arrest innocent bystanders.”

The two of them had woken up cuffed to a table, both in two separate brick rooms, with an interrogator before them. They only knew this because Alwen and Gato later confirmed the details with each other when the interrogators realized that they weren’t going to get anywhere with them and threw them into their current cell.

As cavalier and callous as the Union seemed there were a set of well established rights granted to all individuals. The right to refuse questioning and request legal council being just a few. The only words out of Gato and Alwen’s mouth besides “Where the hell am I?” “And fuck you!” was the name of the ship they worked on and how to get in contact with the ship’s lawyer. Several hours of interrogation had simply boiled down to Gato and Alwen saying the word “Lawyer” over and over again.

“So they finally called the ship to request a lawyer. Took them a whole day.” Alwen muttered bitterly.

The new Mrs. Death tilted her head, her beaded earrings jingling as she did so. “They did not. Your subordinates reported you missing and we tracked your personal devices to this building. Have you really been requesting a lawyer all day?”

“It was the only thing we would say.”

“Gate San!” Mrs. Death growled.

Alwen glanced to Gato for a translation, but he just shrugged helplessly. She looked back to the dark skinned woman “Are we free to go?”

“Not yet, these bastards seem to think you’re behind a string of kidnappings that have been going on for months. They don’t seem to think the fact that we only arrived a week ago is a good alibi.”

“It was probably that gang of Chimps.” Gato muttered.

“Gang of Chimps?”

Alwen nodded “We found a girl who got separated from her mother so we decided to help find her mother. Got ambushed by the Chimps who had tried to take the girl. Scared the Chimps off, and then got tazed by ten officers.”

She tilted her head to the side “Where?”

“Uh, Chion park.”

She put a braceleted hand up to her chin “Hm, plenty of cameras there.”

“Think that’ll help corroborate our story?” Alwen asked hopefully.

She shook her head “Oh no, ‘Dese SS bastards wont listen to even the most airtight alibi. Been like beaten my head into a wall. Dey arrested Limey for sweet talking some Bone’woman bar tender. Said it was a gross display of indecency since they were two different species. They wont listen to a single thing I say, but de news is a different story.”

“You want to take our story to some news agency?” Alwen asked in disbelief.

“Depends on the optics” she muttered “If the cameras got your good sides then it’ll spread like wildfire. Two Hellworlders on a date spy a helpless young girl and bring her back to her mother after fending off a gang of Chimps, if the SS try to hold you after that then they’ll have to fend off a mob. Maybe we can even get an interview out of the girl and her mother.”

“Are you sure this is all necessary?” Gato asked. “I thought we were trying to keep a low profile.”

She scowled “Fuck dat, keeping quiet only helps the assholes who put you here. I’ve spent the last two days dealing with the swine of this station’s police force and I’m tired of all the bullshit. They arrested a Crewmen for J-walking. J-walking! On a station with flying cars and highway sized pedestrian walkways! ‘Sides dey got two spooks in robes out there looking into your case. I heard horror stories about them that make the average officer look reasonable and trustworthy by comparison. If they take you we might never find your bodies.”

Alwen looked to Gato “Ready for our two minutes of fame?” she asked.

“I don’t see a better option” he grumbled in defeat.

Mrs. Death gave them a feral grin, “Good, give me three hours and I’ll have you out of dis hellhole.”

She left right after that and Gato stared at the place where she had been standing “I feel sorry for those poor bastards out there, I can tell she’s at the end of her rope.”

Alwen nodded “Yeah, I think plan chaos relied a little too heavily on the SS not being complete assholes.”

Gato sighed “I’ve been to at least a hundred Union Stations and they’ve never been this bad. Somethings up here. It’s like they don’t need a good excuse or anything.” He stepped away from the bars and sat back down on the too short bench that was bolted onto the floor.

“Yeah, well, at least we were doing something good right.”

“And ruining our date in the process.” He mumbled.

Alwen frowned “What do you mean ruined. You and I had a fun day at the museum, rescued a little girl, and now have some good quality time with each other without our responsibilities getting in the way. I’d call that a win.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, it wasn’t perfect, but it was certainly memorable. Did you see how cute Nila was? It took every ounce of willpower I had not to squeeze her too tight.”

He looked at her and tilted his head “you really like kids don’t you?”

Alwen smiled “hard not to, did you see how fluffy Nila looked?”

“She…” he paused “looked fragile. Like a stiff wind could break her.”

Alwen tilted her head in contemplation. “That too. But that just makes me want to shelter her from that wind.” She looked up to Gato “I take your not a fan of kids.”

He shook his head. “Sorry no. You?”

“Of course. I’ve always wanted to be a mother; you know after my career was on a good track and I found the right person.” She smiled to herself at the mental image, and was surprised to see that the big house she had always imagined now looked like one of the Temples on Pandemonium.

“Is menopause not a concern for your people?” he said breaking her out of her fantasy.

“Not in the same way, technically Terran women experience it a lot later in life due to life extending medicines. But when compared to our lifecycle Torweni woman don’t experience it until we start to go white.” Alwen explained.

“Your hair is already white.” He pointed out.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Not our hair, our skin loses its hue as we get older. It gets whiter.”

He stared at her agape “So you’ll turn white when you get old?”

“Not in the way your thinking, I’ll still be a shade of purple, just a very light shade.”

He still looked shocked by the thought of her skin changing in color. She just shrugged to herself. Kids were born with a slight shade of their parents skin, but it wasn't a very deep shade until they grew older, and their bodies started to produce certain proteins. The Torweni body just stopped producing that protein as they entered their final years.

A thought occurred to her. “You said you didn’t like kids, does that include your own?”

He gave her a raised eyebrow “I don’t have any kids, I’ve been smart about that.”

She rolled her eyes “I mean, in the future. Do you never want to have kids?”

He shook his head “No.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. An old sergeant of mine retired a few years ago and found herself a nice man. She invited some of us to see her new kid after it was safe for visitors. Seeing that small, frail little thing made me scared it would break in my hands. That’s when I realized I never wanted kids.” He had been staring at his hands before he jerked his head up and gave her a suspicious look “Why are you so fixated on this whole kid thing? Its not like you and I could ever conceive.”

Alwen leaned back, a little crestfallen. “Well, maybe. My current research is about why our biologies seem to have some sort of base compatibility. It might one day lead to cross compatibility between our species.”

He snorted “I don’t think that’ll happen. There’s just way too many hoops to jump through for that to happen.”

“You’d be surprised.”

He gave her a piercing glare. “Are you saying that your actually confident in crossing the species divide.”

She shrugged and gestured to him “Its been done before.”

“With species that shared the same evolutionary heritage.”

She titled her head, “you know, for a man who only learned to read and write well into his adulthood you have a startling broad knowledge of a lot of subjects.”

He turned his head. “Just things I picked up.”

She watched his uncharacteristic display of bashfulness and scooted closer “You also seem to retain those things very well.” She said with a slight croon to her voice.

He shuffled away. “What are you getting at Vi?”

She laughed and leaned back. “It just occurred to me that despite the gruff meat head exterior your actually a very cunning man.”

“What do you mean by actually?” he growled turning back to look at her.

Despite the glare sent her way she could tell that there was no anger behind it. “What I mean is that your always downplaying your intelligence. Actually that seems to be a common trait amongst you Terran Males. Do you think that’s evolutionary or cultural?”

His glare softened. “Cultural.” He said after a while.

Alwen made a contemplative noise. This revelation certainly explained a few inconsistencies in Terran behavior.

They sat in silence, Gato glaring at the door, while she was thinking hard about her research. She wasn’t sure when, but at some point as the viability of cross compatibility between Terran and Torweni seemed a more likely outcome she had begun to imagine a future with her and Gato beyond the here and now. She had never really thought that far ahead in their relationship, but at some point she began to imagine her and Gato settling down. But his reticence about kids sort of threw a wrench into that idea.

She was wondering if that changed anything about the ‘here and now’. Did this future complication change how she currently felt, or could she put the issue off until later.

Her contemplation was interrupted by the door sliding open to admit two black cloaked officers. Gato’s glare intensified.

The two boogiemen of the ADCU stepped forward, and Gato gave them a warning growl. “I’ll only give you warning.” He said in a voice hardly more than a whisper. “If you’re here to torture us we wont go down easy. So think long and hard before you step through those bars.”

They stopped and the tallest one spoke “The Union doesn’t not torture prisoners.” The voice as heavily modified and Alwen could just barely stop herself from shuddering.

“Wouldn’t surprise us if you did.” Alwen said icily. “You people attacked us out of nowhere and then kidnaped us.”

The shorter turned their head towards Alwen, the staticky field obscuring her vision. “We had reason to suspect you of illegal activity.”

“Oh I see, well that justifies everything. Glad you cleared that up, now I can tell my bruised ribs and concussion that you guys had a good reason to tase us out of nowhere.

The shorter officer made a hiss that was distorted by the voice modulator. “Not even a proper member of the Union and your species is already affiliating with the most criminally deviant species in the galaxy.”

Alwen rolled her eyes “Yes, and if the way I was treated today is how the Union treats all its citizens then I be informing my world that a Union membership is only a ticket to violent oppression and injustice.”

“That wont be necessary” a new voice said as a towering and stick thin figure emerged through the door.

Alwen had met Zxx’thi before and had been left with the impression of a venerable yet congenial species. But this one had the slimy polished look of a politician.

She focused on the newcomer and noted how quickly the two officers changed their attitude as the tall Xeno shuffled in slowly. Terrans often related Zxx’thi to a tall sloth with the head of a turkey, and while she was only passingly familiar with those two animals the description was spot on. His movements were impossibly slow, and every little jostle caused a loose flap of skin to shake. Some deep predatory instincts within Alwen couldn’t comprehend how a species like this had ever survived, let alone built a civilization capable of reaching the stars. They didn’t even look strong enough to smack rocks together to make fire.

The man shuffled forward with all the speed of a geriatric patient and arrived in front of the cage Alwen and Gato had been thrown into. “You two are being released, and these officers are here to escort you to your ship.” He said, the two side facing eyes trying their best to look Alwen in the eye.

“Why?” she asked cautiously. “Last I checked these people thought we had some connection to a gang of Chimps?”

The Zxx’thi’s features shifted in what Alwen guessed to be mirth. “There has obviously been a mistake, your ship only recently called into port, and has never visited Unity before today.”

“We already told them that a day ago, they didn’t seem to care.” Gato accused.

He gave Gato a glacial glance before laboriously turning back to Alwen. “It took some time to verify that statement. But now that it has you are free to leave. But before you go, I had some questions.”

“We’ve already been interrogated.” Alwen snapped.

“This is not an interrogation, I just had some personal questions I was hoping you could clear up.”

Alwen crossed her arms “Like?”

“Like what is the daughter of a Torweni diplomat doing abroad a Terran cargo vessel?”

Alwen’s eyes widened unconsciously. “Who are you?”

“I am Councilmen Ozzath. I currently serve as the Unity station’s council representative.”

“Stations get councilmen?”

“When they’re as large as Unity it would be unfair for them not to be represented.”

“And why do you care about what I do or where I go?”

“A passing curiosity. You see before I became a councilmen I did a lot of work in the Femeri sector, I initiated Earth, Balter, Kaydo, and even Icaban into the Union as member worlds. The sector was given my family name to honor how much work I put into making it. Your world is the first to be discovered since my time there, and some lingering sympathies have caused me to keep an eye on the negotiations.”

The gravity of who she was speaking with suddenly hit her. This was the being responsible for the subjugation of Earth, the Terraforming of Mars, and likely the creation of the Mammaloids and Earth’s decline.

She cleared her throat “I see,” she said lamely.

The Zxx’thi councilmen tilted his held “And-?”

Alwen frowned “-And?”

The mirth faded a bit from his face. “my earlier question.” He said patiently.

Alwen blinked “Oh, right. Um, a bunch of off world Visas were offered to us, I got one a joined a Terran starship as medical personnel.”

“Yes, we really expected to see more Torweni coming through after those Visas were issued, but so far you’re the only one to make it as far as Unity. In fact a lot of the Torweni who accepted those Visa’s have seemed to have vanished.” He said with a hint of accusation in his voice.

Alwen knew that almost everyone who took one of those Visa’s eventually found their way to Pandemonium. The Hellworlders couldn’t colonize the whole world on their own and had sold off one of its continents to the Torweni military to further build their illicit alliance.

But she couldn’t tell this man any of that. A blasé shrug of her shoulders would likely make him more suspicious, so Alwen blinked as if in surprise and forced a concerned look onto her face “Really, where are they disappearing too?”

Ozzath looked slightly taken aback if Alwen was reading his expressions correctly. “That was what I wanted to know.”

She shook her head “I haven’t seen any other Torweni while I was away. Beside my shipmates.”

“Did you not think it strange?”

“No” she said honestly before meeting Modius and his half Torweni half Terran crew Alwen hadn’t been wondering about the other Torweni. “It’s a big galaxy. I figured it was natural to not see such a rare species very often. There’s only a few of us out here.”

The councilmen looked suspicious but nodded his head “I see, a shame then. They might have met with an unfortunate end. Officers Punisher and Edict will escort you to your ship, please try not to cause anymore trouble during your stay Miss Djani.”

“We didn’t cause any trouble, if your officers had talked to us before shooting then their wouldn’t have been any issues.” Alwen said pointedly.

The councilmen gave her puzzling gaze before turning away. the two officers opened the cage, gripped them both firmly by the arms, and escorted them out of the SS precinct and too a waiting shuttle that flew them over the city and directly back to their ship. The two officers then stood at the gangway until they had seen Alwen and Gato enter the safety of the Astaroth.

Only then did she and Gato relax.