Unipsi, lovely entity
chapter 55c: aftermath
Once the chaotic meeting ended, Csuicha returned to her office before heading home. In the loneliness of her space Csuicha opened the gift that apparently was meant for her. Inside the small box she found a metallic contraption. It was a glass lens with a net of wires inside. The lens was enclosed in a thin layer of grey metal. On it, Csuicha saw a charging port compatibly with Lean technology and a switch. From the metallic base 3 mechanical arms supported a ring kept about 7 cm from the base. Stuck inside the ring there was a transparent crystal filled with microchannels.
A Narvarno tear. Interesting. Scilla received the same thing from Idra. She is alive so it won’t kill me.
As Csuicha pressed the switch the system turned on and floating above the crystal it appeared. Learnir. The first settlement of the Lean civilization now biggest settlement on Leanira and capital of the Lean Federation. It was home and a damn good representation of it. The image showed the city centre viewed from a nearby hill. By the colour it was clearly a view during dawn. Csuicha smirked. It was a thoughtful gift that she liked as it was her city.
I’ll bring it home. It would be wasted here. Now to the letters. Let’s see if the data storage has something for me.
Plugged the device in and Cscuicha was welcomed with a highly organised hard drive. Several folders, one for each Lean that was in the ETU and one on top named “for Liin Csuicha knowledge”.
Inside a series of text files. They were all ordered and basically went from granting her authorization to read the digitalized versions of the letters, to watch the videos contained in the drive. It also included the content of each gift and a definition for each.
Clever. They knew I would have to look at each one so they made this. They assumed I trust them enough to believe what they wrote down. Too bad I don’t. I’ll inspect all they gave us tomorrow.
To her disappointment she was not going to find any difference between what was written and what was given by the Esterians.
Once her reading was over she started watching the video that the “ETU” Leans made for their families. They were all akin to long mono directional conversation explaining what happened. In all of them the Leans looked happy. Not in any danger nor hurt. They had all indeed left the federation for love. A Love so strong that made them leave everything they had behind. Csuicha saw happy families, smiling children, caring partners. Looking at them she saw more than one apology from the Esterians partners. They were sorry to have taken away their wife or husbands from their homes. But they couldn’t let them leave or communicate to at least say that they were alive. They were touching recordings filled with emotions that didn’t belong to Csuicha. Those were not for her as she was never once mentioned. All of them had moved on long ago.
Well that was quite the ride. Kinda depressing if you consider that Idra has been mentioned a lot and I was not. Not even once. Do I suck as a Liin? Don’t think so. Maybe they have some strange connection to their political sphere. After all their government is a lot different from ours.
A lot of time had passed and the city was now illuminated by street lamps. She had stayed late, as always.
Mmh 00:24. I guess I should go home. My bed is more relaxing than the office one. Being my guards must be a pain in the ass. Well at least they have turns.
In the following days Csuicha sent a messenger to Icar-3 to recall to her Scilla upon her future return. In the meanwhile she personally delivered some of the gifts from the ETU Leans. She wanted to ask questions to their families and to her surprise she found out that most of them were poor. Their daughters became soldiers out of necessity to survive. They were all cheered up by the news that their offsprings were alive. Most were also rejoiced at the idea that they escaped poverty and military service. Reality slammed Csuicha in the face when some of those poor families asked if they could sell their gifts to the government for money to use on their others children. The effects of the war were far from gone. If you wandered off the big cities than civilization started to decline. Farmers and base workers were missing or injured. A lot lost their old jobs and were gradually replaced by machines. Not all poor people were anti government activist. Most just had no place to return. No new start as industries had collapsed and reconstruction never reached them. They were left alone at the edge of civilization unable to travel to the city nor to find employment were they lived.
In contrast to families stuffed inside one single room, Liin Csuicha lived in a gargantuan mansion. Her house was built as a symbol of power, but it was totally useless. It was built with 300 rooms, an immese garden and a second building only to store the automatic house keepers and few technicians. She felt even worst as the mansion was mostly empty. She had lost her entire family before the war. For few years she lived there alone in the absolute emptiness of a desolate villa. Some years later she invited all her guards with their families to move in with her, yet it was still mostly empty. Entire sections had never once been inhabited. She couldn’t invite friends to live with her, both for safety protocols and because she had none. Her closest friend was Scilla that would have never left Wiola on Icar-3 alone. Her second best friend was Dhalia who for obvious reasons couldn’t leave Icar neither. To make her realization even more depressing, some families even in poverty looked happier than her. They had each other while she was alone with a pile of digitalized cash and automatons.
About 3 weeks later Scilla returned to Icar-3 and as soon as she was back she departed again to meet with the Liin. She used the few days between the planets to catch up with the news and see how the meeting went. Once she saw that the Esterians revealed themselves she couldn’t believe it. Upon her arrival at Cscuicha’s house she was greeted warmly. This put her immediately on high alert. Csuicha was never the emotional type. They were walking toward the main dining room when Scilla asked.
“so, let me guess. I’m here to talk about our green frenemy (friend and enemy)?”
“of course. But also, how are the expeditions going?”
“strange of you to ask. They are going really well. I mean the one I just returned was a bit of a mess but it was good.”
“tell me more”
Scilla frowned. It was so unusual for Csuicha to ask. She never really cared about how the expeditions were, she just wanted the outcome. Scilla took a couple of long steps to catch up and placed her hand on Csuicha’s forehead. She immediately flinched back.
“are you ill? Doesn’t look like a fever”
“what the fuck!?”
“the fuck what?”
“the fuck you doing?”
“I just touched you. The hell are you on? Did you took too many pills of some shit?”
Understanding her overreaction Csuicha recollected herself.
“my bad. You saw the recordings so you must understand that I’m quite stressed”
“I get it. But I would say that you put on quite the fight. I mean in the end she respected you…”
“you think so?”
“yes. After all it’s not like we have that much power against the Esterians. Nobody has. Unlike Idra she respected your space even if she could have invaded it. So I would say that it was a win. So you are not on drugs right?”
“Scilla!”
Laugh echoed in the empty corridors. It has been quite a while since Csuicha could laugh freely. She had the duty to guide her entire civilization during a crucial period. It was not an easy task, some could say it was even harder than the war itself. They had kept walking and by the time they stopped laughing they were at the beginning on what was defined as Csuicha’s sector. It was about half the mansion and it was dedicated entirely to Csuicha. This translated in it being completely empty except for few rooms. Nobody ventured further into their Liin territory without permission other than machines. They went inside Csuicha’s favourite and most used dining room and sat at the built in living zone at one edge while waiting for their food.
“So what is going on?” asked Scilla.
“I… I kind off felt lonely. So I wanted to invite a friend over. This and the fact that I think it would be useful to know more about how the expeditions are going for the future meetings”
“you can invite me whenever you want. So to my expeditions. Well the one I just came back was a good and bad one.”
“cause?”
“cause we found some shit. Like crates of computers or so I think. But it was also a bit fucked up. Now depict this. You are lowering your ship to the rally point. Just few rare clouds around. Then a column of black smoke right were you are going. You fly closers…”
“and there is a village burning right?”
“exactly. The planet was inhabited and unfortunate for those primitive they built their sheds over the entrance. As you know now Idra usually precede us so she was already destroying everything that moved. She was slaughtering them all, worst than a meat grinder. But what could I have done? We had to kill them. Can’t leave primitives with knowledge of aliens. I didn’t felt to give orders to assist Idra and I kinda regret it.”
“let me guess. Instead of a fast death she served them a painful torture?”
“sort of. From what I know she likes fire and explosions. So guess how those people were disposed off?”
“burned alive and inflated till explosion like balloons?”
Scilla smiled.
“you’re getting good at this game Serafia”
“well she is sort of predictable. Love to inflict pain so I just did 2+2”
“and this was the bad part because it only damaged how the crew view Idra even more. They started scared of her, then they liked her and now I can bet my collection of spaceships models that I assisted at some crapping their pants upon seeing her materializing in front of them”
Csuicha laughed again. She liked the story and missed Scilla’s company.
“how is it going with her? Did the breaking had severe repercussions?”
Scilla was hesitant for a moment. Things hadn’t really changed for the worst. They were going in the opposite direction and from time to time she could even kiss Idra.
“things didn’t really change much. I’m more often on cooking duty and pillow duty but it’s easily manageable...”
Csuicha tilted head was a clear sign of the need of a more precise explanation.
“is it because you don’t use the ship canteen to avoid frightening the troops?”
“what? no. I already used to visit her ship…”
“WHAT! And you didn’t told me!?!?!”
“let me finish. So Idra can’t really cook complex things. She is really strange and before meeting she mostly each only a mush of all the nutrient that she needed to survive. Like a robot. Then upon discovering the taste of food things escalated. But it’s an easy task to accomplish. You see she has this strange automated robot that basically does all the work. I just have to press buttons and that’s it.”
“but, but how did you get inside her ship? What does it look like?…”
“stop. I’m not going to tell you. You know I can’t. For what I know Idra could be here beside me waiting to cut my throat. Or she could be watching and go after Wiola...”
“sorry, I just jumped to conclusion…”
“Well I’m fairly sure I can tell you about few things because for sure they are no classified.”
“like?”
“like the fact that it’s a small crew ships. That it’s fairly old but more advanced than ours. I mean when you go inside it looks like a brutal mass of components that had at been there for at least 50 years.”
“holy shit. 50? you think that’s like an old model?”
“I wouldn’t say old. I would say that the first project must have been extremely old, maybe built by their Founder himself. Then Idras upgraded it over time.”
“fuck. What are the odds in a war? Not against us of course”
“Certain victory. For the Esterians of course. I don’t know their strength nor numbers. But if they are all equipped like Idra than they won’t even put up a fight. It would look like a dragon beating a baby that is only half way out of the womb”
Csuicha smiled at the unique metaphor. Then with a smirk she asked
“what about the pillow duty? What’s that”
“emh!, well… I may have being sharing a bed with her. But it’s all platonic. I’m more like… don’t know some big ass domestic animal that is let on the bed. Could have been worst. I mean in the end I just have too sleep”
“she doesn’t seem to be… tyrannical with you…”
“cause she ain’t that. We are more like friends but with her on top. As long as I don’t displease her too much things are good. To be totally clear she is similar to you. She was lonely and liked me for some reason. So she decide to have me but with force. She doesn’t want to hurt me but she will if she has to”
“each day I regret meeting her even more”
“it’s ok. I mean things are changing. The Esterians came here to speak. They showed themselves. Maybe one day I’ll be free. Maybe things will have changed so much that we would look at today and ask ourselves how could we be so foolish”
Scilla was keeping up all her lies about Idra. Unfortunately she had to.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
“always optimistic aren’t you?”
“I’m making my friend smile. You look really down Sera. What’s going on?”
Csuicha sigh. It was to no use to conceal the truth from her only friend.
“I delivered some of the gifts. I saw misery. A misery that I was suppose to fight. We are free now. We should be thriving. Expanding. Exploring. But no. We are slow. Rebuilt is slow. People steal money meant to aid those in need, things aren’t completed. We are far from recovery and I’m lacking. I’m lacking as a guide, as a Liin. What the fuck did I do in 7 years? Nothing!”
Scilla put her hand on Csuicha’s head and petted her like a child.
“you did a lot. The war took a massive toll on us. Recovery won’t happen in days, months nor in years when all you have are your own hands tired from the same war. Piece by piece we are rebuilding what we lost. This is not a time to fall down in your misery and insecurity. It’s a time to stand proudly because more than ever our people needs a Liin. A capable one. Like you. Whatever you saw should fuel you with the will to do more. To make sure that things take the right route. Because if you don’t help them, who will?”
“how can it be that you never fall?”
“cause I do. You never saw me. In contrast to you, I have a family and I have Idra. When I’m down doubting myself Wiola is the first to notice and to encourage me. It sound strange but Idra is also a lot more supportive that I could ever think. She doesn’t know much and I’m sure that most of the time she doesn’t understand what I’m feeling. But she tried to help, she makes me laugh with her lack of common knowledge. Some times that’s all we need. When you need help, remember that I’ll came to aid you. You just give me a call.”
Csuicha was silent. Scilla’s words were bouncing inside her head.
“also just to make you feel better. Nixie and the ETU viewed you as capable. The same goes also for Idra. Don’t know the extent of it, but she surely find you interesting. So you are on her good side...”
Their discussion was interrupted by a bot carrying their first course to the table. They sit at the table close to each other. The mood had improved but it was time for more questions.
“did you know?” asked Cscuicha.
“what?”
“that they were green”
Scilla looked away and faked a couch.
“maybe. Well not that they were so green.”
“what did you knew? My friend” replied smiling Cscuicha.
“I couldn’t tell. She would have killed both of us”
“I know. But what else do you know? I need to at least be equal to Nixie at our next meeting.”
“not much more than what she explained. I only recently discovered about the Spike war. I understood that it’s a really sensitive topic. So unless you want to enrage her and with her all the ETU don’t talk about it.”
“something less… obvious?”
“if you let met me speak I was getting to it. So they don’t came all from the same alien. And by the way the species they hybridized with is the Morfian. We know… well basically nothing about them. Anyway apparently they had green skin so the Esterians are a mix of Human colours and Morfian colours. To my understanding some are basically Human coloured and had been used so far to communicate. This to improve our view of them as Humans.”
“why didn’t they came out as alien from the beginning?”
“probably because they believed we wouldn’t trust them.”
“fair enough”
“from what I know they are still mostly human but more advanced. They can detect irregularities in people scents and as consequence detect some diseases...”
“like some Humans”
“yes but better. Well not everybody is good at it but most apparently are”
“that’s a useful trait”
“I agree. As a consequence they are more scent oriented. If things smells good they appreciated them more. What is good and what is bad I can’t tell. Idra loves to eat a moss that tastes like rust so…”
“You avoided the big question so far?”
“I told you everything I know”
“not if she looks good”
Scilla was taken aback. But it was improving her friend mood and it was probably a way to move to less complex topics.
“it’s hard to say.”
“you never saw her?”
“well I saw her a couple of times outside the armour. But she wears a lot of things. She could have 4 legs and I wouldn’t be able to tell”
“really?”
“yeah, their clothes are super large, things floating everywhere. Strange patterns. But they are cool”
“did you saw her face, well full head?”
“why are you pressing me so much?”
“I don’t know, I just wanted to know. She is so secretive about it”
“just because you are my friend ok”
“S...Sure it’s just a face. You can just tell me if she looks good or not”
“she is gorgeous. Never seen anybody like that.”
“I figured. Nixie looked good too. Same for those she carried around. I can understand why some people fell in love with them. But I guess looks can’t be all”
“Well Idra is also really smart. I think it’s mostly due to their personalities. As long as you understand their morality and way of thinking, Esterians looks good both outside and inside.”
“did Idra’s charms got to you?”
“What?!”
“you were speaking so good of her.”
“shut up. How I feel is none of your concerns”
“you are right. It’s none of my business. But I… I wanted to ask you something… important”
Scilla stopped eating the fancy stake she had in front of her.
“what is going on?”
“what do you think of Nixie?” asked Csuicha looking in the other way and blushing. Scilla was surprised. Her Liin and friend had a crush. Her first crush in almost 50 years of life.
“No! No, no. you can’t be telling me that. Sera what the fuck?”
“how could it be my fault?”
“that’s not what I’m saying. But what you saw wasn’t her. Of course that was her face and all. But personality wise she was not. All they did was calculated or almost perfectly predicted. You don’t know how she really is.”
“and how could I know? All I saw was her at the first and only meeting she appeared. From the video Idra showed us she seemed fine”
“I get it. You are lonely. For as much as I have known you this is also your first crush. But we have to think it rationally. This is a mess...”
“I can’t rule over my heart”
“you can at least…”
Scilla stopped. She didn’t was to became a hypocrite, not on such matters. She had fallen head over heels for Idra so she was in no place to judge.
“you are right. You can’t control who you fall for. But what you can control is how you proceed.”
“ideas? Cause I have none”
“first did you notice moments were her ears were more free to move?”
“Yes?? why?”
“cause they move on their own unless forced to stay still. It’s safe to assume that her real personality was the one when her ears moved around.”
“well it doesn’t help much. When she did she didn’t speak. All she did was laughing at Lorcas for mistaking their ships for battleships and hit her friends”
“bingo! She is probably more physical than others Esterians. Would you like it?”
“I won’t mind. I can get used to it”
“to her laugh?”
“like it”
“fair enough. Well I don’t know much more so let me call Idra”
Scilla took out her phone but Csuicha snatched it from her hands.
“what were you thinking?!”
“calling my friend what else?”
“and tell her everything? What the fuck! where is the rationality?”
“in the fact that I was going to speak about something else. Like a gift to return the one they made. Use it as an excuse to ask about Nixie and see where it goes.”
“oh. It makes sense. You are more socially adapted than I am.”
“hells if I am. I had crushes before. And Idra is a dense as tungsten.”
“do I have to speak?”
“I don’t even know if she would pick up. I have no clue where she is. But in case no. You won’t speak unless necessary. You are anxious enough for the both of us”
Scilla hoping that Idra was on Leanira-2 tried to call her and immediately after she piked up.
“pronto? (ready?)” was Idra’s first word.
“what?”
“hi Scilla. What’s up?”
“nothing much…”
“where’s your Liin?”
“beside me. Why?”
“put me on speaker.”
Scilla obliged.
“hi Serafia”
“hi Idra…”
“so why the call?”
“I just wanted to ask you a couple of things, are you busy?”
“not really. Hey! Stop that!”
Some noises could be heard in the background. They didn’t sound like Leans.
“what’s going on? Where are you Idra?” asked Scilla.
“it’s easier if I show you”
The phone switched to a video call. Idra was seeing from their cameras and they were seeing from her external suit camera. Idra was sitting in a small pond of water. It was clearly hot spring water as vapour could be seen rising from it. She was on some kind of mountain as her view was amazing. All around her there were little creatures about 30 to 40 cm tall and also round. Those creatures were basically balls of long fur and 4 identical arms. Those creatures were really cute and fluffy.
“Bublughi!” exclaimed Cscuicha.
“What the fuck is happening?” asked Scilla.
“no idea. I was snooping around. Seen one of those cuties and repaired it. The repaired one started rolling away and brought me to more furry balls to repair. Some had deep cuts, some broken limbs. I guess a predator attacked them. Now they are all repaired. They are cute aren’t they?”
Bublughi were a herbivorous elusive spices native to Leanira-2. They lived only on mountains and usually around thermal sources like hot springs. They were never domesticated as they always run away. Legends says that only angels can befriend them.
The creatures were swarming around Idra. There was an incredible number of them all united at the small hot pond. They were happy and fighting peacefully for Idra’s attention and pets.
“how the fucking fuck are you even petting me?” asked Cscuicha.
“is it suppose to be hard? They came to me to be petted. Right shorty, aren’t you cute?”
The small creature laughed joyfully. It was something never seen, only hypothesized as they were so hard to befriend.
“Scilla Scilla do you see them?”
The creatures were all jumping around and rolling like they used to. Some of those rolls ended into the pond with a splash. Scilla smiled.
“yeah I see them.”
“I wish I could take them home. But I bet that they would feel lonely on Weeping sky. Plus I’m sure that the second they are left alone something would eat them. They are too good to be left unguarded”
“I agree. Are they soft?”
“soft and squishy” replied Idra toying with the one that was constantly trying to climb on her.
“little fella loves you”
“he is a bit to attached. He was the first that I found.”
“he probably likes you cause you saved his life”
“I didn’t. I repaired it.”
“well he likes you cause you repaired him, probably the others likes you for the same reason”
“you think so? Then It’s so easy to win over those things”
“well I wouldn’t say that fixing broken limbs in minutes is an easy task”
“if you say so. Anyway what did you want to ask?”
“Oh! Yeah, I was forgetting. If we want to give a gift back to your species what could it be?”
“mmh! Something not expensive nor cheap. It must be something with a middle value but that your people appreciate and view as something special. It also have to carry a meaning that should be obvious but not too much. In our case I bet we sent a Narvarno Tear didn’t we?”
“yes” replied Cscuicha.
“you didn’t told me” said Scilla looking at her Liin
“it was not that important”
“so if I have to guess they probably printed a picture of your capital city. The beginning of your spices. A point to start and grow. A symbol of beginning hoping to move on toward a peaceful future”
“what the fuck? That’s exactly what she gave me. How can you…”
“practice and knowledge. So well reply with something similar. Something that represent the ETU from your eyes and your people eyes. Easy isn’t it?”
“well. We’ll find something” intrude Scilla.
“and on a second note. Do you know what Nixie likes?” continued Scilla.
“why? Giving her things will make no difference in our negotiations”
Serafia wanted to reply, but Scilla blocked her with her arm and pulled her away from the camera view.
“it’s a gift of appreciation. She personally worked to connect the Leans in the ETU with their families. It’s something that nobody would have done for us. She brought joy to those families who thought that lost their children. Giving back something is the minimum we can do”
“oh. Than I know a few things. Nixie is really focused on her role. She would not show any weakness nor she would accept any gift. Unless you take her aside. I think you could lure her into Serafia’s house but she will bring her guards and troops.”
“how would that help us?” said Serafia.
“you ask her to dine with you and you alone. No guards on your side and no guards on her. She will probably accept…”
“ok, but how do we bring her at Csuicha’s house?”
“do I have to explain it all? You say that you want to forge a better relationship and want to create a channel of communication to reconnect the families in our respective territories. Then you go on and thank her work personally and give her the gift.”
“sounds like a good plan. What should we gift her?” replied Scilla
“sounds good cause it’s good. For a gift I would go for a double gift. One kept secret and one obvious.”
“how is it suppose to work? The hell is a secret gift?” said Scilla.
“you give her things she likes but that are not given to her directly. She likes sweets, especially the one that are completely absurd. So make a peculiar dessert of your people. Something maybe with a story that she could enjoy. Then as a direct gift I would say a plushy. She is fucking addicted to them. A cute one of some bizarre animal would work fine. Not a massive one. Something like a Bublughi size is more than enough”
“thanks you Idra” said Scilla while touching Serafia underneath the table. She wanted her to compose herself as she was sparkling with joy and thanks Idra.
“you have my gratitude Idra”
“no biggie. It’s about time someone recognise the passion that Nixie puts in her work. Bye”
Idra hung up the call.
“I can see why people call her Angel. She is both death and life at the same time” said Cscuicha.
“the story is way bigger, but you resumed it really well.”