Isabelle
“Illegal? No no no, just the opposite. Exactly the opposite!” Matty floofs up her fur and runs a hand through her hair as she’s speaking, doing her best to look up at you so that she can try to understand if you understand. “We need their help so that we can help you without doing anything illegal. You have your um, your stock prayers, each of you, and we need at least 51 of them. You don’t have enough, but Mirror believes that if even one of your siblings chooses to help then it will be enough. So we just need to talk to them. I’ll explain, we’re not asking you to put yourself in any danger, just to invite them to meet with me.”
She looks up at you with her big wide saucer eyes. “We’ll take care of things, we just need you to um…” she says something in Hybrasilian, “ah, what’s the translation, to um kick a single pebble to collapse a mountain.”
***
Solarel
<Okay…okay> she signs it a few times. Probably a Terenian speech tick that she’s using directly in foesign, since typically that would be confirmation but she hasn’t actually said what she’s doing yet so it’s unclear what’s being confirmed.
<I’ll go ahead with the writing. It will be extra work for me, but they’re…providing me food and lodging for all the time I spend> she looks chagrined at this, though you have no way of knowing that she struggled with coming up with a word for “paying” in foesign.
<And…you are cute…I didn’t mean to imply that you I wasn’t…> she starts blushing, stops signing, shakes her head. <wait just a moment.>
“Okay, Anna, Pietro, get me an auto-tablet with a neural mesh. If you have to buy it, it’s part of my expenses, but she needs us to write her answers instead of speaking, so I need something to do the transcribing.”
“Oh, I have one!” Anna shouts and instantly leaps out of the room, coming back with a small screen and a sleeve for Pia to wear on one wrist. She slips it on, blushes yet again and discreetly closes the romantic fiction about the two cape-wearing space explorers furiously making out while trying to get the treaty of Murzon signed, then gives her attention back to you.
<okay, we’re all going to sit in front of those machines where the lights are pointing, and then Anna’s going to ask some questions out loud. I’m going to sign them to you and then you’ll sign the answers back.>
She moves you all to the chairs. There’s extra ambient heat from the lights, but they insist that all of them are turned on because apparently it’s important for the machine that Pietro is pointing your way, which has started making a low clicking sound to indicate that it’s running.
“You set it to retro again, Anna?”
“I like knowing it’s running, makes it easy to time the takes, it’s comforting!”
“Sure, okay okay”
Anna turns to you and says “okay let’s get started. Formalities first, who are you, where are you from, what brings you to Horizon? Then, what kind of ship do you pilot or are you part of a crew? What’s it like for a Zaldarian visiting TC space? Do you like it? What’s the most fun thing here? The weirdest? Can you tell us about where you grew up? How do Zaldarians usually live? Do you get date? Get married?”
Pia furiously begins signing questions to you, doing the best she can. So…how do you respond?
***
Mirror
Some time later, you are both breathless, pressed together, Slate resting her head half on a pillow and half against your neck.
She signs, her eyes closed. “Why do you think Hybrasil wants all this” she whispers, unable to muster an energy to raise a hand in a gesture that would encompass the whole of the galaxy with a finger. “I know why a person would. Why [every kitten wants to pounce a thousand things a thousand times.] But Hybrasil? [Hunger never sleeps through the night], yes, but [one who tries to swallow a waterfall in one drink is only drenched] you know?
She breathes out. It warms your neck before the breath in chills the tips of the fur, so close is she to you. “Feels like [Mu Ysha using six arms all to hone blades and polish spears] but then she always ends up using all of them in every story. [A claw cannot pierce the storm, but that does not mean a storm cannot be hunted.] Is that what we are?”
Her breath is on you with every word, but her words are the words of parsecs. The words of everything, the breath of nothing, and the world never stays still for long.
***
Dolly
“You did not watch my fight against Smith then? Not surprising, you had already beaten her by then, it would only have mattered if I didn’t win. But she too said ‘family family family’ and I shouted at her that I had done things alone. Valor is not my family, and the Antonius family does not truly love me, I think.”
She sighs, giving you a shift to make you squeak, Dolly, and then grins. “But family is not the only thing one loves. Is that not so? I can have a people, can I not? I can stand for a place, for its conditions, for its pride, even if there are not so many people who I share my time with from there anymore. It matters to me. Valor is full of wide land. Farms for the great silks of much of the Terenius Consortium. They grow best on a planet and it is one stop from Shiki where they use many of them. Easier for them to build up for population, us to build for fields. And then for that, there is manufacturing, work mechas. The drives we do not make, those come from the capital, but we make the shells, the pistons, the hydraulics. Machines to work the planet, machines to haul the things, great space elevators to reach the floating transports that are too large and ungainly to ever land in atmosphere. Like giant hippos. You know what a hippo is? It is a great fat water beast with a huge backside and a large mouth that swims in great rivers and eats the plants and the unwary both.
I do not make it sound hospitable, ia, no I do not. But it is beautiful in its way. A planet full of growing things and the machines to work them. Covering flatlands and rolling hills, while those who wish rest go to the mountains and look upon it all. It is a stark beauty, the beauty of something that feels large, that your eyes can take in but that yet exceeds you vastly in a way that gazing upon the stars does not feel vast no matter how much greater the expanse it represents.
What then of your home little cat? You hail from the greatest of your planets, why should I think it a match for Terenius Prime?”
“Illegal? No no no, just the opposite. Exactly the opposite!” Matty floofs up her fur and runs a hand through her hair as she’s speaking, doing her best to look up at you so that she can try to understand if you understand. “We need their help so that we can help you without doing anything illegal. You have your um, your stock prayers, each of you, and we need at least 51 of them. You don’t have enough, but Mirror believes that if even one of your siblings chooses to help then it will be enough. So we just need to talk to them. I’ll explain, we’re not asking you to put yourself in any danger, just to invite them to meet with me.”
She looks up at you with her big wide saucer eyes. “We’ll take care of things, we just need you to um…” she says something in Hybrasilian, “ah, what’s the translation, to um kick a single pebble to collapse a mountain.”
***
Solarel
<Okay…okay> she signs it a few times. Probably a Terenian speech tick that she’s using directly in foesign, since typically that would be confirmation but she hasn’t actually said what she’s doing yet so it’s unclear what’s being confirmed.
<I’ll go ahead with the writing. It will be extra work for me, but they’re…providing me food and lodging for all the time I spend> she looks chagrined at this, though you have no way of knowing that she struggled with coming up with a word for “paying” in foesign.
<And…you are cute…I didn’t mean to imply that you I wasn’t…> she starts blushing, stops signing, shakes her head. <wait just a moment.>
“Okay, Anna, Pietro, get me an auto-tablet with a neural mesh. If you have to buy it, it’s part of my expenses, but she needs us to write her answers instead of speaking, so I need something to do the transcribing.”
“Oh, I have one!” Anna shouts and instantly leaps out of the room, coming back with a small screen and a sleeve for Pia to wear on one wrist. She slips it on, blushes yet again and discreetly closes the romantic fiction about the two cape-wearing space explorers furiously making out while trying to get the treaty of Murzon signed, then gives her attention back to you.
<okay, we’re all going to sit in front of those machines where the lights are pointing, and then Anna’s going to ask some questions out loud. I’m going to sign them to you and then you’ll sign the answers back.>
She moves you all to the chairs. There’s extra ambient heat from the lights, but they insist that all of them are turned on because apparently it’s important for the machine that Pietro is pointing your way, which has started making a low clicking sound to indicate that it’s running.
“You set it to retro again, Anna?”
“I like knowing it’s running, makes it easy to time the takes, it’s comforting!”
“Sure, okay okay”
Anna turns to you and says “okay let’s get started. Formalities first, who are you, where are you from, what brings you to Horizon? Then, what kind of ship do you pilot or are you part of a crew? What’s it like for a Zaldarian visiting TC space? Do you like it? What’s the most fun thing here? The weirdest? Can you tell us about where you grew up? How do Zaldarians usually live? Do you get date? Get married?”
Pia furiously begins signing questions to you, doing the best she can. So…how do you respond?
***
Mirror
Some time later, you are both breathless, pressed together, Slate resting her head half on a pillow and half against your neck.
She signs, her eyes closed. “Why do you think Hybrasil wants all this” she whispers, unable to muster an energy to raise a hand in a gesture that would encompass the whole of the galaxy with a finger. “I know why a person would. Why [every kitten wants to pounce a thousand things a thousand times.] But Hybrasil? [Hunger never sleeps through the night], yes, but [one who tries to swallow a waterfall in one drink is only drenched] you know?
She breathes out. It warms your neck before the breath in chills the tips of the fur, so close is she to you. “Feels like [Mu Ysha using six arms all to hone blades and polish spears] but then she always ends up using all of them in every story. [A claw cannot pierce the storm, but that does not mean a storm cannot be hunted.] Is that what we are?”
Her breath is on you with every word, but her words are the words of parsecs. The words of everything, the breath of nothing, and the world never stays still for long.
***
Dolly
“You did not watch my fight against Smith then? Not surprising, you had already beaten her by then, it would only have mattered if I didn’t win. But she too said ‘family family family’ and I shouted at her that I had done things alone. Valor is not my family, and the Antonius family does not truly love me, I think.”
She sighs, giving you a shift to make you squeak, Dolly, and then grins. “But family is not the only thing one loves. Is that not so? I can have a people, can I not? I can stand for a place, for its conditions, for its pride, even if there are not so many people who I share my time with from there anymore. It matters to me. Valor is full of wide land. Farms for the great silks of much of the Terenius Consortium. They grow best on a planet and it is one stop from Shiki where they use many of them. Easier for them to build up for population, us to build for fields. And then for that, there is manufacturing, work mechas. The drives we do not make, those come from the capital, but we make the shells, the pistons, the hydraulics. Machines to work the planet, machines to haul the things, great space elevators to reach the floating transports that are too large and ungainly to ever land in atmosphere. Like giant hippos. You know what a hippo is? It is a great fat water beast with a huge backside and a large mouth that swims in great rivers and eats the plants and the unwary both.
I do not make it sound hospitable, ia, no I do not. But it is beautiful in its way. A planet full of growing things and the machines to work them. Covering flatlands and rolling hills, while those who wish rest go to the mountains and look upon it all. It is a stark beauty, the beauty of something that feels large, that your eyes can take in but that yet exceeds you vastly in a way that gazing upon the stars does not feel vast no matter how much greater the expanse it represents.
What then of your home little cat? You hail from the greatest of your planets, why should I think it a match for Terenius Prime?”