Cath

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Light undulated inside his suit, colours of amusement sliding down his body.

“Perhaps this old drifter has grown jaded and senile in his old a–ah, I see.” He was regarding the Tindrel with colours of mild displeasure.

“Wait for it…” Ruk, both wings slightly raised towards Pclendafuun in anticipation.
His diminutive exoskeleton rocked with a series of powerful coughs. Small trails of slime dribbled from four vents on his undercarriage and his maw opened back up. A long and dextrous tongue-trunk. It was purple-pink with the texture of volcanic rock, sporting three prehensile folds at the end. From one of the two holes at the end, a thick red sludge poured back into the baggie.

“Well…what do you think?” Ruk asked.

“T-t-the media is of a high quality.” Pclendafuun wittered.

“Excellent! I like this one already!” The Tekeri cawed.

“I have just added some of my own minerals t-t-to the mix. It s-s-should improve waterborne performance.”

“Attention contestants!” A voice called over an crackly tannoy system.

“The first round will begin shortly. Please find your match and head to the associated patch. Thank you.”

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

“I can’t say I share your enthusiasm for seeing a ball that's too bright.”Light shivered. “But now we’re out of contract with FGC…We might be able to pick up work ferrying materials to the new starshell they’re building around Trieste VI. Then we can get paid to see one rather than be ripped off by the tour operator!” He steepled a few tentacles together, pleased with his great idea.

“Not won, n-n-nnno. They d-d-don’t like the idea of t-t-t-t-This One being a ggggardener.” Pclendafuun suggested. They wore a harness with four delicate machine arms to provide fine motor ability. Draped over their thorax was a kind of pannier with many pockets.

“Hhhhello, everyone. I would n-n-n-ot be able to say for s-s-ure without a close inspection.” The Tindrel eyed up Ruk’s bag of soil curiously.

“If I give this bag to you, are you going to do the eating thing?” the Tekeri asked.

“Probably.”

“Perfect…fine. Here you go, master gardener.” Ruk chucked the bag over and Pclendafuun carefully decanted the entire thing into his mouth before chewing vigorously.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

“I decline your typical Human wager, because I know you will. Waste of money.” Ruk chocked her beak and activated the auto-straw again, draining the shell.

The Tekeri then fixed Senjen with a heavy stare which would only be possible with totally black eyes. Subtle, fast movements of her head were the only sign that she was listening closely to everything he said. Not just verbally, but via his body language and accounting for all the other disclosures he’d made. Tekeri were generally fantastic at remembering little details.

“Ahh, yes. I can see why you feel that way, but please don’t rule out the gloom. Dusk for example, is very underrated. The stars hide all but the most exquisite detailing. It unlocks the mind to paint in the blanks between shadows.

The Tindrel came and crouched down very close to Senjen. “Hello?” Light said, speculatively.

“Hhhhello. Hhhahve you competed before?”

“No, have you?”

“Yyes! Thirty four times.”

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

“Hey! I like plants, just not how much they cost. When you’re a company director you can have a forest, ok?” Light wailed.

"We’ll need a support structure, but you’ll have to be quick on your feet. This stuff won’t hang around. Or will it?” Ruk flicked some red soil from her baggie at Jess’s face. Her beak made the most magnificent *CLICK* by way of laughter.

“There’ll be some basic click-and-go, but any scrap you have down your pants will come in useful.” The Tekeri medic was sounding unusually rambunctious right now. Perhaps it was the fact that she was back in her element after so long. She looked at Senjen when he asked her about the light.

“I have lenses in. Also I take drugs. Does it feel nice to you?”

The Tindrel jerked back when they were addressed.

“N-n-nnnnno, I mean yes. Ttttthaatt is my name. Hello.” They took a few clacks forward. Their forward leg plates were mottled yellow, stained brown at the bottom with fresh earth. Their face plate was more grey, and scored dozens of times in ritual punishment.

“I hhhheard you needed This One for your team. Hhhhere i am.”

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

“Ok…” Ruk plonked herself down on the ground nearby. She somehow had a halved shell full of liquid and a cane straw sticking out in one hand.

“The aim of the game is to grow the biggest, most impressive plant. Extra points are given for our ‘form’ while doing it - basically how controlled, or not, we look. Finally, the longer the plant is judged to be able to survive on its own following the competition, the bigger our multiplier."

The Tekeri took a giant slurp from the shell.

“The catch is that you have to do it using a companion structure. Four complimentary plants that benefit each other when grown together in certain ways. And they’re asking for each of these four plants to be native to the different sentient species here in Setia…Sorry he missed you off.” She ended sheepishly, patting Senjen.

“I don’t know many Vosher plants that grow outside of water…” Light complained, staring around at the shrub canopy all around.

“Hence my special homebrew.” Ruk shook the bag of red soil. “It will hopefully help us make a small pool of water on our patch to grow some of your kelp.”

A small Tindrel was watching Ruknar curiously from a few paces away as she spoke.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

“Terrific. I will pencil you in as a five, though that will of course impact your scoring…” The official did not elaborate further.

“I’ll need a quarter million Veruhn from each of you to enter the competition.” This equated to about half a day’s wages for a dockhand, so not cheap. “Current first prize is twenty five million Veruhn.”

“Eesh, steep.” Light muttered, before sending his share to Senjen. He also wasn’t feeling optimistic about winning.

“Is outside custom growing media allowed?” Ruknar asked, pulling a small bag of red soil from her red knapsack and dangling it in the other Tekeri’s face. He examined it closely, before making a small rip in the side and tasting some from the material that came out onto his talon.

“I’ll allow it, but I’ll have to charge you for repurifying the patches afterwards.”

“With any luck, I can do that out of our winnings.” The official merely chuckled and tapped his holopad.

“Best of luck. I'll send Pclendafuun your way if i can find him, then I’ll call you up when its your turn - feel free to mingle until then. Do you have a team name?”

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Light’s hide flashed by way of agreement. Now they were in a more confined space, he was feeling a lot more comfortable. He hadn’t always been like that; just since waking up from his medically induced coma.

“We have a group competition track, or you can compete separately. Quadrumvir rules are in effect - so four rounds, first round is growing a companion structure based on flora introduced by one of the four…err…organic species.”

They evidently hadn’t banked on any Utaysi showing up to this event.

“Points are given for growth rate, style, form and sustainability.”

There was raucous laughter from somewhere behind the official, and they turned to check everything was alright before continuing.

“You are quite well composed for the group track, having one of every species in your group, save the Tindrel. I believe there is a single Tindrel here who was looking for a team, if you wished?”

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

The atmosphere inside the cavernous space was jovial, with the air of a reunion of old friends rather than a serious tournament. Light guessed the competitors were the ones wearing grey hessian robes covered in pockets that overflowed with gardening tools. Loose crowds of people gathered around them, some eating colourful vegetable produce and drinking thick broth from cut-out Namib shells. A ramshackle old hut with an open front appeared to be selling these refreshments and more.

A portly, scruffy Tekeri with some bald patches approached them holding an antiquated holopad.

“Well met. Are you looking to compete or spectate? We still have some spots available; the first round is in twenty minutes.”

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Ruknar pointed with one hand, the other clasping the strap of a red knapsack slung on her back.

“In there.” Across a wide expanse of exotic meadow, nestled in the middle of a copse of trees lay a huge shrub some two hundred metres wide and thirty high. Its leaves shone a dark purple that verged on black, contrasting with delicate white flowers.

“The ground underneath is artificially fertilised to allow hyper growth.” She continued, eyes rolled back slightly to access her neural lace.

“I don’t know… It looks prickly, kinda dangerous. Perhaps we should eat?” Light was still wearing his conical party hat and coil blower.

“Come on…I’ll protect you from the big bad plant.” Ruk teased, squeezing what equated to the QV’s cheek in a playful gesture. The squeal of megaphones and increased pulse of music wafting from across the park drew her gaze.

“If not, I’ll have to drag you into the mosh pit instead.”

Light flinched at the sound, and his watery eye darted around in its casing.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Light stopped demolishing the poor cake for a moment to ponder Senjen’s statement. His mouthparts pursed mid-gulp, giving the QV a goofy, dumbfounded look in ensemble with his bulging eyes.

“I suppose It's been so long I’ve just…adapted. But yes, it has been hard to manage on FGC alms. Sorry Ruk.” Light shot a look at the Tekeri, who sat calmly and ramrod straight. She shrugged nonchalantly.

Light returned to his cake as Jess & Senjen sparred, smartly moving it out of the way of the Utaysi’s body as he slammed into the table. When he finally finished breaking apart the last layer and gobbling it down he met eyes with Ruknar again. She raised both ‘hand’ and contorted the three claws on each into a particular shape that Light recognised.

She’d first made it almost two years ago. Light was not long out of emergency surgery to rebuild his broken body after a vicious gun battle and car chase had taken their toll. He’d spent four fraught days immersed in a specialised intensive care vat. The gel inside could work wonders over time, but his internal bleeding was so serious that he had to be be operated on immediately. A journeyman QV surgeon was tracked down and brought in to do the job, assisted by a synthetic intelligence.

When his life was no longer hanging in the balance and a long road of recovery wended ahead, Light was transferred to a specialist QV ward managed by the For Good Cause Foundation. They were a Tekeri non-profit medical aid and technology organisation that worked in some of the most impoverished and dangerous places in the galaxy. Apparently, Korit qualified as both of those things.

Ruknar was one of the junior doctors assigned to Light’s ward. On her first day there, she surveyed him in his vat from the corridor. He was struggling weakly against the robotic arms that were trying to feed him fronds of a sea kelp. It was a well-known delicacy for QV and had been widely cultivated. His skin shades were all over the place, flashing the colours of the very sick and confused.

“Stop! He wants crustaceans, not kelp. Get him some shellfish.” Ruknar ordered.

“How can you tell?” The synth monitoring his room asked her.

“You see how the cilia structure on his anterior appendage doubles back on itself…in an ‘S’ shape? Thats how they hold shellfish to crack them against rocks. He can’t communicate normally, so he’s mimicking how he’d hold one. Like a child would.”

Rukner watched Light greedily eat the crustacean flesh gently scooped into his flaccid mouthparts, talons crossed in front of her. When Light was done, she noticed his head move and eyes strain to look at her. Ripples of calming blue crossed his scarred hide. The Tekeri held her hands up and recreated the S-grip as best she could, pressing it against the gel. Light did the same.

“It doesn’t cost much to enter, and there is a prize for the winner.” Ruknar paraphrased from the invitation.

“There is no chance. People win contests for a living on Korit.” Light huffed dismissively.

“Then we can watch them at work instead? Or…” Ruk was querying her AI assistant for other events in the area.

“There’s a solidarity benefit festival in Kwe-Lungo park to…protest the Vermilion Consortium’s depreciation of cross-species support within the Ecumene project.” She paraphrased, before looking seriously at people’s reactions. Light looked blankly back at her.