Vanguard Word Update

2k words

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Samiha smiled, and he saw both sadness and gratitude in that smile, his heart melting the more he looked at it. Cadell leaned closer, but Samiha did not reciprocate the movement, but she allowed him to draw her in by her beak, her expression shifting to one of confusion as his lips brushed the end of her beak.

He brought his moth to the tip of her beak, planting a small peck on her upper beak, the cool, scaley texture of her mouth prickling his skin. Samiha was like a statue, completely paralysed as she watched him down the length of her beak, her golden eyes blooming.

“What… What are you doing?” Samiha asked, her features breaking out in a curious smile.

“Kissing you,” he replied, meeting her two shining coins for eyes. “Don’t Balokarids do that?”

“Not exactly,” she said. “Is that what humans do? Place their mouths together?”

“Not a fan?”

“I never said that. Show me again.”

This time, Samiha reached out to him, bundling his face in her giant hands, encouraging him to draw closer. He twisted his head one way as they drew closer, Samiha slowly closing her eyes as she mirrored the gesture.

“Yo, Sir!” Hunter exclaimed, slaming his hand on the table. The suddenness of the act startled Cadell, and he turned to face his team. The noise had awaked the dozing Kurtis, who turned to scowl in the way anyone did when their nap was interrupted. “This place is too quiet. Why don’t we go down to that Solargate place you told us about? Maybe his the cas’?”

“That is, if you’re not too preoccupied at the moment,” Kazlu added, flashing them a cheeky wink. Of the three of them, she was the only one to notice Cadell and Samiha’s closeness. He didn’t know if he’d seen them kiss, but her smile suggested it was certainly possible.

“Yeah… good idea,” Cadell answered, coughing awkwardly as he let Samiha go, the alien following suit. “Let’s sort out the bill first.”

He waved one of the waiters over, the woman sliding them their tab. The five of them had accumulated quite the tab, but none of the huamns complained as they took out their phones and wallets. It wasn’t like they’d be spending much money on their deployment.

Jim saw to their departure, the man once again thanking them for his booming business, and wishing them luck on their mission. Cadell felt a little disappointed as they walked down the steps into the adjacent food court, his thoughts turning to Samiha and his little private moment. He wanted to express his feelings to her, but there wasn’t much privacy to be had with their friends, or the numerous crowds for that matter.

His doubts were swayed when Samiha pulled him aside, signalling for their friends to wait.

“I think I left my flute back in the booth. Help me look for it, Cadell?”

Cadell, who had seen her pick up her flute, smoke it, and then place it in her pocket right before leaving, went to ask her what she was on about, when he saw a mischievous look in her big eyes. Instead he said: “Sure thing.”

“We’ll catch up with you all at the strip,” Samiha added, addressing the others.

“You sure?” Hunter replied. “We can wait up for you.”

Kazlu stepped in, looping her arms across Hunter’s and Kurtis’ shoulders. She seemed to have overindulged in botht he herbs and the drinks, but nevertheless, she seemed privy to what Samiha was getting at.

“Come on, friends, there’s no time to dawdle! I must have more of this human culture while the night is young.”

Kurtis shared a look with Hunter, who shrugged back. “It’s fine, fellers,” Cadell added. “Go save us a seat at the roulette table.”

That seemed to satisfy them, Kazlu leading the two humans away and into the crowds, her feathery headdress visible over the throngs of pedestrians. With that, Cadell turned to Samiha, the alien clutching his hands into hers as she grinned down at him.

“That’s one way to get some privacy,” Cadell said, chuckling awkwardly as he didn’t know what else to say.

“I wouldn’t call this private,” Samiha said, glancing at their surroundings. They were in the middle of the food court, some of the people at the closer tables staring at them. “but I know a place we can be alone,” she added, guiding him to follow her as she moved towards one of the exits.

Cadell felt like a whole swarm of butterflies had settled in his stomach. Was she referring to a place they could kiss more, or perhaps something else? The thought elated him but made him equally nervous. Here was a creature nearly twice his size and about as far removed from human as was possible. She didn’t even know what he was doing when he kissed her, could something like that even work?

“W-Where are we going?” he asked as she led him along. “Back to the quadrant?”

“No, but it is back that way,” she answered. “come, you’ll see for yourself in a moment.”

Chapter 6: Sharing Water

Samiha brought him downspin, wending through the streets until the perimeter wall of the quadrant curved into view. They turned off a short distance away from the gate, following a path that led down a small alleyway that was guarded at the far end by a human and a Balokarid.

Both the posted guards were armed with coilguns, wearing light ballistic vests with pockets to keep spare ammo, but their stances were far from threatening. In fact, they were leaned up against one wall in the middle of a chat, the larger female telling the human something about deserts of her homeworld. They paused to give Cadell and Samiha a greeting as they passed, then went right back to their conversation.

“Why’re there guards here?” Cadell inquired. “What is this place?”

“The Kith’sla secured a small district for our civilians to live on the station,” Samiha explained, leading him through where the alley opened up into a small courtyard. “It is not much, but this is the starting point towards coexistence between our species.”

The four walls of the courtyard were the sides of tall apartment blocks, ranging from five to seven storeys high, but something about the size came off as… wrong, distorted, as though Cadell was experiencing vertigo the further he looked up, even though that fear had been squeezed out of him after dozens of walks on the hull of the station. Unlike most of the buildings on the torus, there was a distinct lack of wallpaper or paint, the buildings coloured in the drab greyish shade of steel, hinting that this place was relatively new and was yet to be furbished.

Tress and bushels were littered about the ground level, arranged around the courtyard to give the planters a symmetrical look when viewed from the entryway. There were small palm fronds and bromeliads full of vibrant pink and yellow petals, but he did not recognise all the plants. Some were knee-high stalks with crimson leaves sprouting from the top, while others looked like pomegranates the size of a car engine. Cadell was no botanist, but even the strange plants native to Manildra didn’t look this alien.

“Flora from the colony,” Samiha explained, noting his confusion. “Brought down from our hydroponic bays on the carriers.”

“Any of these the smokeable kind?” Cadell asked.

“None that I can see, though perhaps one day.”

They moved deeper into the courtyard, but they were not the only ones up and about. Several other Balokarids were exploring the garden, admiring the plantlife or sitting down in groups on the many benches scattered around. Their feather colours were as broad as the plants, a veritable rainbow of headdresses, one of them was even a light pink that bordered on white.

Cadell’s eyes did a double-take on this colourful show, and the more he looked at the Balokarid in question, the more strange it seemed to become. It wasn’t quite like the other aliens, its build was slimmer, the breadth of its torso about the same size as a regular human’s, with a pronounced chest that bulged outwards, though not in the shape of a pair of breasts.

They wore tunic that resembled dark leather, the clothing secured to their thin frame by belts and straps, their bird-like legs clad in a pair of tight-fitting, knee-length shorts. As his eyes travelled upwards, he noted several things about its face were different from Samiha or Kazlu. While their beaks were a dark colour, this one had a beak that was bright yellow, and it was shorter, only two or three inches long and tapering downward rather than out, giving it the appearance of an owl. The feathers over its eyes were the same shade, making it look like it was wearing eyeliner or possessed eyebrows, the frame making their amber eyes even more striking than they already were.

Instead of the usual headdress, this Balokarid possessed two giant crests above where its ears should be, and they were a red so bright it almost agitated his eyes just by looking at them. Upon loser inspection, the two crests were actually made up of dozens of smaller feathers, but their shape as a whole almost resembled the gossamer wings of an exotic insect, the red clashing against the alien’s pink complexion wonderfully.

“You wanted to see a male of our species,” Samiha murmured above and behind him. “Here is your chance.”

Cadell noted the lack of wings on the arms, remembering Samiha tell him something about how their males couldn’t fly, but the stark dimorphism between the sexes still surprised him. The male was bent slightly over one of the small palm trees off to one side of the courtyard, touching one of the leaves with its avian nails. A pair of nearby females were ogling at him, just as Cadell was, though the looks they gave him were more intense than curious.

“I didn’t realise how different they looked from you,” Cadell muttered. “The shape, the colours, everythin’.”

“That one takes good care of his feathers,” Samiha noted. “See how waxed they look? I am surprised nobody has taken him yet, he is quite the looker.”

“Pink feathers your kind of thing, huh?” Cadell asked, looking up at her.

“It is a nice complexion,” she admitted. “He’d make a nice male, but I have someone else in mind for that. This way.”

She gripped his hand possessively, bringing him across the courtyard. Some of the nearby aliens turned to watch, even the male, who looked between him and Samiha with a bashful expression. He offered Cadell a small smile that came off as sympathetic, and then the male turned away.

They approached one corner of the apartment blocks, Samiha pausing before one of the many doors lining the side. Curiously, the door was taller than Samiha, which would make it comfortable for any of the aliens to use. Now Cadell knew what he’d found so strange the moment he’d seen this place – the apartments were supersized for Balokarid use, each floor spaced out much higher than what he was used to, windows and doorways included. This place must have been built very recently.

The door was locked by a keypad, Samiha tapping in three numeric with her nail, and the latches clicked. She swung the door open, holding its weight back as she gestured for Cadell to enter first.

He emerged into a giant apartment, the place bigger than his family barn back on Manildra - though to Samiha it must have been normal-sized. The main lobby was divided equally between a kitchen with an accompanying island, and a living room with a flatscreen mounted on a table. The latter was circled by two sofas that were as big as mattresses, raised off the ground to about waist-height to Cadell. It was like being in a crazy trick-room, his perception distorted that he almost felt a few inches shorter, even though it was the room that had grown out of proportion.

“This your place?” Cadell asked, hands on his ships as he appraised the room. “Never told me you had yourself an apartment.”

“The Kith’sla reserved this one for me and Kazlu,” Samiha replied, closing the door behind her. The apartment plunged into darkness, but Samiha flicked on the light switch a second later. “She encouraged us to stay within the quadrant barracks, but if we ever needed a respite, this place was always available.”

“Time’s flyin’ by,” Cadell murmured. “While we’ve been busy trainin’, the Hub’s been buildin’ alien houses.”