I struggled to pull my mind away from the memory, pushing it down deep where it wouldn’t hurt so.
“Well? Are you even listening?” Molly’s voice, impatient and acerbic, pulled me out of the past. I blinked, the images of the burning Silver Band fleet vanishing, replaced by a very real, very irritated human. She stood, hands on hips, glowering at me.
I responded with a smile. Letting her see me as weak would only make matters worse, and besides, I didn’t think I’d be able to explain. Hard enough with a Prytheen, but with a human? No.
“I apologize, I was admiring the work that’s gone into this transmitter.” Not entirely a lie, but it didn’t seem to satisfy Molly. Her face darkened and she narrowed her eyes.
“Are you making fun of me?” she asked. “Just because you’re used to something less primitive…”
“I was not mocking,” I protested, a little too loudly. My heart thumped, and I forced my hand away from the butt of my blaster. “I would ever mock you, my kh—”
“I am not your anything,” Molly said, talking over me with a snarl in her voice. A challenge. From anyone else, I’d have welcomed it. A chance to settle a dispute with honor? To fight and have victory decide the answer?
But not my mate. My mind shied away from the thought of fighting her, of risking her life, and I would not do it. I locked eyes with her and held up empty hands, signaling for peace.
“This structure is an impressive achievement under the circumstances, and I assure you I was mocking neither it, nor you,” I told her. “What can I do to convince you that it is so?”
“For a start, you can listen to me when I tell you something.” Was that the hint of a smile? Yes, I thought, yes it was. A small mercy.
And she was right. I should have paid attention.
“Tell me again, and this time I will listen,” I promised her. She snorted and shook her head.
“Nope. You had your chance at that, mister. Now you’ll have to struggle through on your own and learn things the hard way.”
“Fair,” I acknowledged, watching that hint of a smile become a suggestion. Perhaps, if I was lucky, skilled, and amusing, I’d persuade her to upgrade it further.
Seeing that smile blossom would be the greatest thing on this world or any other. I decided on the spot that no other goal would do but to make Molly happy enough, safe enough, that she’d grace me with the full power of it. Just the thought of it banished the dark memories of planetfall, and I followed my khara toward the human base.
Built piecemeal from disassembled colony pods and parts of the Wandering Star, the buildings had the blocky lack of elegance I associated with human construction. I refused to judge it on looks alone — even using the fliers, getting building materials up here hadn’t been easy. The Joint Colony had so many other priorities, it amazed me that we’d gotten all this up here, let alone build something functional.
The doors to the station were well-marked, I noted with approval. Bright arrows of green paint pointed the way, lights mounted above them to give guidance at night. Even in a snowstorm, they’d give some hint of where to go.
And this looked like a place that got more than its share of snowstorms. One of the many downsides of living on a planet rather than a spaceship as fate intended.
A welcoming committee waited for us at the doors, eight humans with a banner. A hand-painted banner, worse luck — someone had tried to write in Prytheen, but the letters were hardly legible, let alone the words. I tried to puzzle out the meaning.
Health will arrive, faller-into-the-sky? Quickly approaching orgasm lost in space? Lord Orgasm speeds skyward? Nothing made sense. I presumed, despite the poor choice of words, they intended it to honor my arrival.
Why hadn’t they written it in Galtrade? The whole point of the trade tongue was that everyone shared it, so surely they’d have gotten their point across better than this!
I turned my attention to the humans beneath the banner. The first thing I saw was the pink outfit. The second was the smile, like a predator pretending to be a friend. Then the rest of her features, hidden behind that smile like an ambush party behind a rock. She had a face to lead many a young, unmated warrior into the abyss.
With my khara beside me, I had no need to worry about that temptation. Her artful illusion of beauty couldn’t compete with Molly’s natural perfection.
Behind her stood more humans, half a dozen of them. Four males, two females, all watching me with trepidation. Their caution showed wisdom; none of them looked like fighters, though humans had surprised us more than once since the Crash.
Pink boots crunching in the snow, the leader stepped forward. Her bright smile widened, an eyebrow raised — she could hardly have been more obvious in her interest. Uncomfortable, I nodded and waited for her to speak.
“So you’re our new technician? I’m Allison Greene, head of station, welcome. We could use some fresh ideas in our tech department, what with all the failures we’ve been having.”
She extended her hand in the human greeting and I clasped it with some misgivings. I found it difficult to tell with humans, but her ‘greeting’ sounded like an insult to my khara.
“It will be a pleasure to lend my more experienced colleague what expertise I have,” I said, trying for a diplomatic response. “I only really know Prytheen systems, though — the success will be hers more than mine.”
Molly snorted, stomping toward the base. Something flickered in Allison’s eyes, a moment of annoyance soon drowned in the syrupy sweetness of her expression. Was there anything honest about this woman?
Her hand gripped mine, squeezing gently but firmly. At least it wasn’t one of the male dominance displays — I’d broken one human’s hand before I understood how fragile they could be.
“How generous of you,” Allison said, giving Molly a sidelong look. “I’m sure once you settle in you’ll be solving everything. Prytheen technology is so far ahead of our own. In fact, that’s an idea — you must present a show for us, showing how to deal with Prytheen equipment that people might stumble on.”
I winced. That sounded like the depths of the Starless Void to me, and the best advice I could give was ‘stay away from it, let a Prytheen know what you’ve found, hope it doesn’t explode.’
“We shall see,” I answered, pulling my hand from hers. Behind her, the other humans were exchanging looks, all except the largest male. He glowered at me, face dark, eyes narrowed, fists clenched. Under his bulky jacket and rolls of fat, he had muscle too. If he hated me on sight, he might be trouble later, and he looked strong enough to be a challenge.
I bared my teeth at him in a snarl that made his dark skin pale. But he didn’t look away, didn’t back down. Perhaps he would make for an interesting opponent.
“Ah, yes, please excuse my rudeness,” Allison said, noticing my attention had moved to the others. “These are the station staff. Harmon Baltimore, Michiko Takamura, Zeng Ru, they’re our ‘on screen’ talent. Alphonse Delong—”
“Call me Alf,” the slight human said, waving hello. Allison glared at him before continuing.
“Alphonse is our visual editor. Amy Felice handles sound, and Rod Hastings ties it all together.”
Each of them waved hello as Allison spoke their names, letting me identify them all. That was the idea, anyway. They all wore similar outdoor gear, which made things a lot harder in practice. I could tell the two females from the males, but telling the humans apart aside from that?