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marlynnofmany · 8 months

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Star-Crossed

It’s not that I make a habit of being the nosy one on the spaceship, but some things you just can’t walk past. And an argument over whether to tell the captain was one of them.

I paused in the hallway, one foot in the air and my arms full of boxes from the storage hold, then I spun on my heel and went back to the doorway that Trrili was so fond of leaping out of. She wasn’t startling crewmates today. She was trying to convince Coals that something wasn’t worth bothering the captain about.

“There are no settlementssss nearby,” she said, hissing in irritation. “It is moving slowly. Old information.” She loomed over him, all black and red and mandibles and pincher arms.

Coals was just as unimpressed as usual. “Could still be useful information to someone,” he said, arms crossed and scaly face impassive.

“It issss marked,” Trrili said slowly, “For courtship.”

“That’s been known to be important,” Coals replied.

“Old information!” Trrili said again.

“What is?” I piped up from the hallway.

Trrili turned her faceted eyes on me. “A small message beacon that is clearly a waste of our precious time.”

“Might not be,” Coals said, not moving.

“Is it much of a detour?” I asked.

“Nope,” Coals said.

“Then it couldn’t hurt to look, right? I don’t think we’re behind schedule.”

Trrili made a hissing groan, waving pincher arms and forelegs both. “It is a courtship note! Those are beyond tiresome! And it is bound to be outdated!”

Coals tactfully stepped aside. “Could have been dropped by a passing ship.”

“At that speed?” Trrili demanded, jabbing a wrist-finger at one of the screens on the console behind her. “A wrench dropped in hull maintenance moves faster than that.”

I leaned to get a look without stepping into accidental whacking range. There did seem to be a radar-style image of a blinking dot off to the side of our projected route. I couldn’t make out all the words from across the room, but I did see one that looked like “courtship.” At least it wasn’t a distress beacon.

“So what does that classification mean?” I asked. “Is it a love note drifting through space? Did someone not have a way to send a proper transmission?”

Coals tipped his lizardy head in a shrug. “I’d say it was meant to be a secret, but then, it’s broadcasting for anyone nearby to pick up. My bet is that the sender didn’t know exactly where to find the recipient, so they launched this in their general direction.”

“A long time ago,” Trrili reminded him. “This area is empty.”

“Could have been aimed from one ship to another,” Coals said.

I looked at the screen, my head full of stories about forbidden romances and near-misses told by generations of Earthlings. “We should check. It could be very important. And it’s not far, right?”

Coals stepped toward the intercom. “Not at all. Let’s see what the captain says.”

Trrili threw her pinchers into the air like she was releasing prey that was too much trouble to bother with, but said nothing while he called the cockpit. I stood in the doorway and waited.

Captain Sunlight, as it turned out, saw no problem in a minor detour to pick up the message beacon. In moments, the ship was aimed in a new direction and instructions were being sent to the crew nearest the airlock to be ready.

Trrili grumbled mightily. Coals looked smug.

Excited, I dashed off to leave the boxes of supplies in the kitchen (I’d unpack them properly later), then join up with Coals and Trrili at the cargo bay.

“How are we going to grab it?” I asked when I arrived, noticing that they weren’t putting on exo suits. “Send somebody out to scoop it up, maybe use an extendo tool?”

“No need,” Coals said. He held a bucket and a pair of gloves. “Kavlae is going to just park us in its pathway and open the door. It’s not fast enough to dent anything.”

I laughed at that while Trrili brandished a scanner of some sort. “I will check it for contamination just in cassssse,” she hissed. “Not taking chances on something this ssssstupid.”

Coals looked up at me. “The ship scanners are fine. She just likes to be sure.”

Trrili hissed again.

From the far end of the cargo bay, where Blip and Blop stood on either side of the airlock like muscle-fish sentinels, the familiar opening chime sounded. Blip and Blop were also wearing gloves, I noticed. I was starting to wonder what kind of message beacons the crew had encountered before I’d joined up.

The little porthole on the inner door went dark as the outer door opened onto the blackness of space. Everyone was silent for long enough that I started to wonder if Kavlae had missed. But then there was a bang on the door, and the porthole turned silver again.

Blip looked through the porthole. “Got it!” she said. “Looks intact.”

The intercom pinged, and Kavlae said the ship scanners had cleared it of both contagion and heat. “So get it already; we want to know what it says.”

Blip opened the airlock while the rest of us crowded close. She picked up the mechanical whatsit the size of a shoe, then handed it to Coals with more ceremony than necessary. He’d already put down the bucket and gloves.

I was glad he knew how the thing worked, because I was still trying to figure out if it had buttons or touchpads when he pressed play. The message was spoken aloud and written in the air as well; how thorough.

It was a language that I didn’t speak. How annoying.

Judging by the body language of the various fins and antennae in attendance, Blip and Blop also had no idea what the message said, but Trrili and Coals were thinking hard.

“Meeting location,” Trrili murmured. She pointed a wrist finger at one squiggle in the air. “Is this the word for asteroid or planetary rock?”

“I’m more interested in this bit,” Coals told her, jiggling the display while he adjusted his grip to point out something near the end. “Don’t let the what catch you?”

They bickered about it while the message played on a loop, sounding less like proper language and more like an agitated waterfowl as far as I was concerned. Not that I was about to judge a sentient species for that, of course. I’d met stranger.

“This part has to be flowery symbolism,” Coals said. “Something about using rock-cutters to carve out a new life together.”

“Aw,” I said without meaning to.

Trrili flicked an antenna in my direction, but otherwise ignored me. “I do not see any reference to the time period, other than that part about the authority figures arriving.”

“Is this line talking about using those rock-cutters on the authorities instead of the rocks?” Coals asked.

Blip and Blop chorused, “Ooh.” They were hanging on every word, reminding me of bodybuilders entranced by a kitten. I smiled quietly and listened. I was curious too; this was getting good.

Trrili studied the line in question. “Obscure phrasing, but yes. I approve of this courtship.”

“So are these two people planning to meet up and fight off the oppressors keeping them apart?” I asked. “We have to see if we can get the message back to them! What if one is waiting to hear from the other?”

“I still say it is old,” Trrili said, but she didn’t sound as adamant this time.

“Can’t hurt to check,” Coals declared.

Blip and Blop cheered, then dashed for the intercom and elbowed each other over who got to tell the captain. (Blop won, but I think Blip let him because she’d been the one to open the door earlier.)

As soon as the intercom was on, Blop announced, “It’s a message between a courting pair who are going to fight their enemies together! Arranging a meeting! Can we go deliver it?”

Captain Sunlight sounded amused when she said, “Kavlae has already calculated its most likely origin. The region isn’t known to be dangerous to outsiders, so I’d say that’s worth a further detour.”

Blip and Blop cheered again.

The captain continued, asking Coals to bring her the best translation they could manage in the next few minutes. This really was a small detour. By the sound of it, we’d be there pretty darn soon. Hooray for top-of-the-line starship engines (or near top, according to Mimi in the engine room).

This was just enough time for our two translators to take it back to their office and wrangle the details, while Blip and Blop finished whatever they were doing and I put away those supplies.

I hurried. The jars of spices and extra napkins didn’t have to all be stored the right way up.

Coals and Trrili must have found a translation file for that exact language, because they were done almost before I was. I returned the empty boxes to the storage hold while I listened to Captain Sunlight read the translation over the whole-ship line of the intercom, so the crew was on the same page about our detour. She was always thoughtful that way.

And what a message it was. Star-crossed lovers on rival asteroid mining installations, one pledging undying love to the other! Suggesting plans to meet, and do a great many things with those mining tools. And yes, more than a hint of glorious rebellion against cruel overlords.

If the captain hadn’t already agreed to go, I would have been campaigning outside the cockpit. With some concern for the danger, if course. Rebellions are rarely safe for anyone, including random courier ships with no business being there. But the region really was marked as safe.

Hmm.

Was that rating a lie? Propaganda? Had the rebellion already been squashed? Or did we have the wrong asteroid belt entirely?

I was unabashed in my nosiness this time, peeking into the cockpit for a glimpse of our destination as it came on screen. Coals was there behind the captain’s chair, holding the message thingy with his usual dignity while Kavlae worked the controls, blue frills folded in concentration. Trrili was in the hallway with me because she was really too big for the remaining space in the room. She was probably grumpy about that, but honestly it was hard to tell. She watched the screen too.

When I’d heard “asteroid mining colony,” I’d pictured gray rocks and space suits, pickaxes and long work hours. This was … not that.

The asteroids were painted bright colors. They had houses on them. Also gravity generators, by the looks of it. And they were far closer together than any natural asteroid belt had any right to be, yet they weren’t crashing into each other any more than the zippy little cruisers going back and forth were. It looked like a suburb in space.

This was definitely the right species, though. The face that popped onscreen at the captain’s hail was birdlike, with white-flecked black feathers, a wide beak, and a voice best described as quackity. Recognizable words, though.

“Sky River Information Center,” she said. “How can I help you?”

“Hello,” said Captain Sunlight. “We intercepted a message meant for someone in this region. Is there a mining colony anywhere about?”

Quackity laughter. “There was! Oh grasses, did you find something that one of the miners threw at each other and missed?”

Beside me, Trrili folded her pinchers smugly. She whispered, “Old information. Ssssshhould have listened to me.”

Captain Sunlight maintained her calm. “That does appear to be the case,” she said. “It’s a message between — What are the names, Coals?”

Coals stepped forward with the message capsule. “Sharpeye of the Tall Reeds and Mud-dancer of the Deep Shadows.”

The duck lady’s amusement vanished. “WHAT? You found a message between them?”

“Yes,” the captain said. She ushered Coals further forward to make sure the camera saw the message capsule. “Were they important?”

“I’ll say!” The duck lady made frantic gestures to someone offscreen. “They spearheaded the Miner’s Revolution that made everything possible! I can’t believe this. Please, come land on the central pad, the blue one. A great many people would like to get a look at that message.”

Coals cast a smug grin over his shoulder at Trrili while the captain directed the landing. Trrili threw her pinchers in the air again, but didn’t leave. The official was still talking history.

“The battles were fierce from the start,” she said. “Mud-dancer and Sharpeye led more than one attack from opposite directions, coordinated in a way that was most unexpected.”

“Did they survive?” I asked quietly. When the captain raised a browridge at me, I elaborated. “Did they live to see that happy future together that they wanted?”

“Oh yes,” the duck lady said brightly. “They had an exceptionally productive mating season. I think they even met up again on a different year, though that’s hearsay. Certainly possible, given how many people around here claim to be direct descendants!”

“Oh,” I said. In all my thoughts about the undying romance of the whole thing, it had never occurred to me that the species in question might not mate for life. “Good for them.”

Trrili was hissing again, but this time it was laughter at my expense.

Duck lady didn’t even notice. “If I recall, there’s a nesting lake named after them back on the homeworld. One of the new ones, not an ancestral thing, but still a pretty big honor. They deserve all of that and more!”

“I’m sure they do,” Captain Sunlight said. “We’re coming in to land now. I don’t suppose there would be any sort of finder’s reward for an item with such historic value?”

“I have already called the Points to join us immediately,” she said. “They will certainly want to be generous.”

With my thoughts on trying to figure out that honorific (picturing a flock of ducks flying in a V after the leader), I could almost ignore Trrili’s hissing. Almost.

“Did you think they would spend their entire future together?” Trrili laughed. “I forgot your species does that.”

“Hey now, that’s a good thing,” I objected. I was interrupted in trying to justify it further by Coals heading for the airlock. Slowly. With all the smugness in the world.

“Told you it was worth it,” he said to Trrili.

“And I told you it was old information,” she retorted. “If that pair hadn’t accomplished historical violence as well as historical mating, we would have wasted all our time.”

“Totally,” Coals enunciated, head held high, “Worth it.”

I shook my head and followed him. “Yeah it was.” Star-crossed ducks were better than nothing.

~~~

The ongoing backstory adventures of the main character from this book. More to come!

#my writing #The Token Human #writeblr #writblr #humans are space orcs #haso #hfy #science fiction #message in a bottle #in space

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