Katherine didn’t want to admit it, but she was actually starting to enjoy interacting with aliens. She still blamed the ones who created the AI that had stolen her life from her, which included eiraxins, just not the ones she had grown to know.
It was easy to forget they were aliens since they so closely resembled humans. She was sure there was some explanation for that, but she wasn’t about to go digging into the strange taxonomy of how that could be possible. The less she knew, the better. If some ancient humans got freaky with an alien, that was their business.
A family passed by her, and the parents nodded. The young kid simply tucked himself behind his mother’s legs and eyed her warily.
Katherine ignored the kid’s antics as she surveyed the growing crowd in the market.
After Jacob had thrust the responsibility of dealing with the eiraxins to her, she had decided to take over all alien relations. Jacob hadn’t even protested. In fact, he was so thrilled by her request that he created a new position for her. It was a subset of station security, but she hadn’t demanded the role because she wanted more access, unlike a certain someone, who still labored in his virtual prison.
Speaking of him, if it had been her choice, she would have erased Franky and been done with it. It wasn’t callousness that made her decision; it was cold logic. Franky was dead; the thing that remained wasn’t him, it was barely even cognizant. She would have told Jacob her feelings on the matter, but the man had some weird hangup about letting things go.
“He’ll give up eventually,” she muttered as she moved through the crowd.
The market had been Xing’che’s idea. The beautiful eiraxin woman had said it would be a good test to see how well the other aliens integrated with her people. So far, they had been kept separate due to their history. So far, things were going well.
The market was also meant as bait to hopefully draw out whoever Barry was targeting. It all seemed like nonsense to her, but Barry had put forth a convincing argument. Despite her misgivings about their plan, she had worked with General Roberts and his people to ensure the first market day went smoothly.
There weren’t too many other species on the station, but there were four docked merchant ships at the moment, and they brought with them a collection of species as crew. Most she hadn’t encountered yet. She was familiar with some thanks to the adverts that Jacob had running on the television in his apartment, but seeing them in person was far stranger.
Most just looked odd to her eyes. She had seen weirder cosplays, so it didn’t really faze her at all. She did have to stop herself from going over and picking up a very huggable bruth man.
Katherine doubted he would appreciate a hug, especially from a drone.
A commotion drew her attention, and she hurried to the far side of the market where shouting could be heard.
“Out of the way!” she ordered as she pushed aside the angry eiraxins who had formed a circle around a shalis individual, who looked ready to throw down with anyone who got close. “What’s going on here?” she demanded as she stepped inside the circle, earning what she assumed was a glare from the bug-eyed alien.
The Shalis was one of the few aliens who creeped her out. Their carapace was the color of cockroaches, but they had segmented eyes like flies, and clicky little mandible mouths. When they spoke, they didn’t form words like most aliens; they rubbed those mandibles together to make sounds. It gave all of their words a harsh rasp to them that set her teeth on edge.
“These degenerates tried to attack me,” the shalis man claimed.
“That’s a lie,” someone from the crowd shouted. “He assaulted Irix.”
“You lie. You filthy eiraxins would say anything to dodge accountability.” The man lunged toward the accuser, but Katherine’s hand snapped out and wrapped around the carapace of his arm.
There was a snap, and the individual let out a pained chitter as part of his arm separated from his torso. He was very still after that.
Well shit!
She hadn’t meant to hurt the guy, just hold him still while she got to the bottom of what was going on. She could apologize for the injury later.
“The story will be easy enough to verify; I can just check the cameras.” Going by the terrified expression that just crossed the alien’s face, she likely knew what she would find.
Sure enough, she watched as the individual sauntered into the market, then he headed straight for the first eiraxin who looked weak enough to bully, which happened to be Irix. Without warning, he struck her across the face, right in front of her kid, while going on about how the eiraxins should know their place, yadda yadda. She had seen and heard enough, so she turned toward the shalis man. “So you like to hit defenseless women? Let’s see how you like it.”
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“You can’t do this, there are laws—”
That’s all he managed to say before her other hand smashed his mandibles. She was going to smack him a second time, but something grabbed her free arm.
It was one of the combat drones that had been modified for public safety use. The soldier controlling it just shook his head at her.
She dropped the crying shalis man, and the drone released her. “I want that piece of shit locked up for assault.”
The soldier didn’t say anything, but the combat drone lifted the shalis man by the torso and moved toward the medical center.
Katherine wanted to tell them not to treat the prick, but she knew that request would be ignored, so she stormed off instead.
***
“Well, that wasn’t what I expected,” Barry said. “Will Irix be okay?”
“She was rushed to the medical center with a small laceration on her face. Nothing overly serious,” Xing’che replied.
“I must admit, I’m surprised you got them all to agree to this reckless plan.”
“They know what’s at stake. Besides, your original idea hasn’t yielded any results,” the eiraxin woman added.
There was no accusation in Xing’che’s tone, just fact, so he just nodded in acknowledgement.
“Neither has Judicator Ghrroaqq,” Barry admitted. “Wherever Naal has fled to, it’s well hidden. Although he thinks he might have a new lead. Naal reached out to a few contacts to find out what was going on with you. You were right, his obsession with you was enough to get him to establish contact.”
“That’s not a badge I wear willingly.” Disgust dripped from her words.
“Hmm, no, I suppose not,” Barry mused.
“Do you think the attacker was related to him in some way?”
Xing’che shook her head. “No, he’s just angry and looking for someone to vent on. The Shalis were low on the totem pole back during the Concord Imperium days, and their place in society hasn’t changed much since then. We’re no strangers to having people vent their ire on us, but some lack even a modicum of self-control.”
Barry nodded. That seemed like a trait shared by most intelligent species, humanity included.
***
Bob had missed all the drama, and he was more than glad for that. Just the thought of people fighting made him anxious, and he was forced to sit down and calm himself. The US government had really done a number on him.
Rationally, he knew his anxiety was ridiculous, but his mind refused to go along with that reality. Dr. Tanaka said that it should go away with time, but Bob suspected he would never be truly normal ever again. He would need to learn to deal with the occasional spikes like he was now.
Once he calmed down, he got back up and continued his search for Jacob. He could have called his friend, but he wanted to get out of his room. He stopped at the market, just to see what all the hubbub was about and to catch up with a few of the eiraxins he had gotten to know over the last month.
The last few weeks had been rough. He found out that he wasn’t compatible with that whole mind/machine interface thingy. That was a bummer, but he could manage. The worst part was knowing he’d never be able to visit Jacob or Katherine in their digital forms.
He knew there was no real difference between their digital avatars and what inhabited their drones, but it felt different.
They would figure something out eventually. In the meantime, Bob had actually decided what he wanted to do going forward, which is why he wanted to talk with Jacob. After walking around for another hour, he grew frustrated and gave up trying to find Jacob himself.
“AI?”
“Yes, Bob?”
“Um, where’s Jacob?”
“The captain is on his ship. Would you like me to contact him for you?”
The AI was talking about the big ship, not the one he came to Earth in. That was less than ideal. Jacob had gone into detail on how bad off that massive vessel was. “Is it still open to vacuum?”
“The section the captain is currently in is. Would you like me to direct you to a space suit?”
“A tempting offer, but I’ll have to pass,” Bob said as his heart rate spiked in panic. “Can you just tell him to meet me here at his earliest convenience?”
“Your message has been relayed.”
“What’s up?” Jacob asked a few moments later, making Bob jump a bit in surprise.
“Fuck. I keep forgetting you can just hop between drones.”
“Sorry for startling you.”
“It’s fine,” Bob said, waving away his friend’s concern. He didn’t want to burden Jacob with any more worries. The man had enough on his plate already.
An awkward silence followed his words.
Jacob eventually broke that. “So… was there something you needed?”
“Right. I know what I want to do.”
“Awesome. What’s that?”
Bob took a moment to gather his courage. “I want to become a captain or at least a pilot.”
“A pilot? Are you sure? I mean, I can make it happen if that’s truly what you want.”
“It is,” Bob admitted. “Technically, it’s the only thing I think I would be good at. It’s not like streaming is a thing out here, and if I’m honest, I don’t want to go back to playing video games for a living. The thought of having to perform in front of people makes my anxiety spike more than seeing the strange aliens walking about. I also find myself uninterested in playing games anymore, and I can’t quite put my finger on why.”
“Because a game will never be as good as reality,” Jacob added.
“Yeah, that’s it. I guess you felt the same way?”
“Yeah,” his friend chuckled. “Hmm, my virtual simulator isn’t going to cut it, but building out a pilot’s couch that matches standard bipedal operation shouldn’t be much of an issue. The station has the designs and parts. Now we just need to find you a spot to call your own.”
The unmarked drone led him back toward the market.
“Can’t you just make it in my room?” Bob asked.
“I would, but I have a feeling more people are going to want to use them. Part of the deal Barry made with Xing’che is that her people would receive technical training to bring them up to Astryx standards. I’ve been dragging my feet on the request, but I might as well kill two birds with one stone here. Most of the younger ones never even touched a piece of technology until they stepped aboard that barge that brought them here.”
“Okay, but can’t you just make a separate one for me?”
The drone turned its expressionless head toward him. “I thought you were getting along well with the eiraxins.”
“I am.”
“Didn’t Dr. Tanaka also say you should expand on those connections?”
“Yes,” Bob sighed.
“Then what’s the problem?” Jacob asked in concern.
“I guess nothing,” Bob admitted. The only thing holding him back was anxiety-induced fear, but once again, it wasn’t his anxiety; it was the shit driven into his brain by those mad scientists.
“Excellent. How’s this spot?” Jacob asked.
It was a small space, at the far end of the commercial corridor. Quiet, out of the way, unassuming. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.