The pink Attuned entered the room, its mouth open in an approximation of a smile. It was only a bit shorter than Eva, if she were standing, and round as the egg it carried in a harness strapped to its broad chest. “Niss!” it announced, and then disappeared from Eva’s view as she continued to revolve.
At least it wasn’t saying “penis” like earlier, Eva thought. She began to giggle uncontrollably, her chest shaking in a way that made the Attuned repeat the word in a more chiding voice.
Of course, at precisely that moment she got a call from her dear, lovely sister. Eva switched her commlink to accept subvocalizations and answered. “Qué bola, Mari?”
Mari sounded pissed, as usual, but still her prim and proper self. She ran them through the standard codes and countersigns before finally asking, “Eva-Benita, what exactly are you doing at this precise moment?”
Eva rolled her eyes, hoping that wasn’t too much motion for her doctor’s orders. “I’m practicing my lechón impression.”
Mari paused. “I don’t know what that means. Please be serious for a change.”
“I’m being serious. Bueno, doesn’t matter. Qué quieres?”
The Attuned fiddled with the monitors next to Eva, waving its small hands around and causing the machine to hum weirdly.
“Did you tell Mom something about what you’re doing for us?”
Eva froze. Well, more than she already was frozen. And she kept spinning, obviously.
“Why do you ask?” Eva asked.
Mari fell silent. After exactly ten seconds, she took a deep breath and exhaled so loudly that Eva could hear her from across the universe.
“I needed her help with something, but I didn’t tell her what it was for,” Eva said. “I didn’t mention you or anything.”
Mari inhaled and exhaled twice more before saying, with a xana-like calm, “Please check your q-mail. Now.” Without another word, she ended the call.
Eva had turned off notifications while they were off the ship because she hated being constantly pinged by bullshit gray mail and bill collectors. She opened her logs and waited for them to refresh, closing her eyes so the constantly shifting room wouldn’t make her queasy while reading.
Among the exciting offers for lines of credit and unnecessary spaceship upgrades, one item stood out. A message from her mother, which was presumably what had gotten Mari’s bloomers in a bunch. Eva opened it.
“Me cago en la hora que yo nací,” Eva said.
It was an awkwardly angled selfie of Regina Alvarez, grinning, in front of a very familiar building. One whose translucent, colorful glass walls would have been immediately recognizable even if Eva hadn’t passed right in front of them herself only a few hours earlier.
“Niss?” the pink Attuned asked.
“Niss indeed,” Eva replied. What the ever-loving fuck was her mother doing in Spectrum City? On Garilia?
Once Eva was finally discharged by her xana physician, after consultation with Pink and not a few assurances that further care would be provided by her personally, the entire crew was escorted out of the Communal Center by Watcher Rakyra and his associates. The food line had not diminished, but the waiting xana must have been actively suppressing or manipulating their psychic emanations, because the only thing Eva got from them as she walked by was deference to the Watcher’s authority.
After a long, silent transport ride, they reached their destination. The headquarters of the Enhanced Committee Outreach Program were at the tippy-top of the trunk of a skyscraper in Spectrum City, over a thousand meters up according to Eva’s commlink sensors. They rode up in an elevator that was, like virtually every place in the city, surrounded by translucent walls that afforded incredible views of not only the ocean and the neighboring buildings, with their ornament-like hanging structures, but also the city of Rilia in the distance, its organic trees smaller than the constructed ones but no less impressive. But the naturally occurring forest was darker, its leaves and trunks only partially transparent, making Spectrum City seem more glowing and vibrant by comparison.
It was a neat trick, a subtle manipulation of the many species who thrived on light rather than shade. Come bask in our radiance, it said. Shine with us.
We have nothing to hide.
While virtually every culture in every species across the infinite universe had different definitions of work and play, the xana “offices” appeared entirely leisurely to Eva, who had been raised to believe interrupting dinner to answer q-mail messages or fix a quick account issue was entirely reasonable. Wide woven hammocks hung at intervals in different shapes and configurations, with xana partially or totally reclined inside them, or even curled up in pairs or groups, apparently fast asleep with their tails wrapped around them. They might simply be like Min, resting their bodies while their minds were constantly busy, but Eva still felt like she was stomping through someone’s sun-drenched bedroom.
“Is the floor moving?” Sue asked in a tense whisper.
“Probably,” Eva said. “Must be a lot of wind this high up.”
The engineer paled and made a face like she was going to be sick, edging closer to Min, who wasn’t as bothered. Eva wasn’t a fan of heights, either, but she’d flown enough planetside missions while jacked into a ship that she didn’t experience the same vertigo other people did when faced with a long drop to solid ground. Of course, in this case, it didn’t help that the floors were made of the same colorful translucent material as the walls. With nearly every step came an awareness of how many levels were below them, each populated by xana engaged in their own daily activities, all capable of looking up or down to see what any other xana was doing at any given time.
Eva hated it. She’d take privacy in a metal box in space over brilliant ocean views any day.
Eventually they reached a door, the first of its kind since they exited the elevator. It was completely clear, as were the walls surrounding it, but the fact that any separation existed in the first place felt like a disturbance, an incongruity that stuck out more than the pack of humans, a quennian, and a cat standing in front of it with no idea what to expect inside.
“The Supreme Executive awaits your esteemed company,” Watcher Rakyra said, his psychic tone still courteous and respectful. The door opened, and he made a minute gesture with a three-fingered hand to suggest they enter.
The todyk-looking Attuned behind them emitted a sound like a sigh, intense heat emanating from what Eva assumed was its mouth. Not a threat, per se, but perhaps the creature’s version of a suggestion that it was time to move.
At the far end of the room, another xana waited, limned by the warm light of the planet’s star. She stood facing away from the door, her tail curled around a loop that hung from her neck, down to the center of her back. Her clothing was loose, layered and diaphanous, granting full mobility to not only her limbs and tail but also to the gliding membranes on either side of her body. She was pale-furred, nearly white, with stripes only a slightly darker shade of gray; soft, beautiful, and when she turned around, Eva had to remind herself to breathe, because the woman was literally exuding a tidal wave of psychic energy designed to inspire awe.
That is a cheap fucking trick, Eva thought. Sinvergüenza.
This time, at least, Mala had the sense to stay tucked away inside Min’s jacket. Not the best time to get into a psychic pissing contest.