Chapter Four
Relek led me down a few more hallways, and it looked like he was taking me out the backdoor. I was pretty much okay with that, because I didn’t really want to deal with the crowd. I was burnt out on crowds, and very happy not to deal with them.
I followed him out the backdoor, and tried not to gawk as I saw the outside. But then I looked up in the sky. The very purple sky.
Holy crap I was on an alien planet.
I mean, the sky alone would have gotten that point across to me. There was only one sun — and that thought made me chuckle. I never in a million years thought I would think “only” in terms of the number of suns the planet I was on revolved around.
That thought made me stop. Did Retere revolve around their sun? It had to work that way, right? I knew science wasn’t my strongest subject in school, and obviously I knew how our — well, Earth’s — solar system worked. I was still pissed about Pluto, but I think most people my age were. But was how Earth and its sun worked the same as how Retere and its sun worked? Heck, was it even called a sun, or did it have another word?
Suddenly I was interested in science again. My inner nerd wanted to know how it worked. I was across the universe, and I actually wanted to know all about it.
Like, why was the sky purple? It was a beautiful purple, don’t get me wrong. But, think of the most colorful sunset on Earth, and bring the intensity of the purple in it up by like a million percent, and that was the purple on Retere. White fluffy clouds still, but freaking purple sky. With a giant orange sun — orange orange, not yellow orange like Earth’s sun.
Relek stopped and looked back at me, seeing me taking in his home planet with amazement. I glanced at him, and he smiled, bemused. He was patient, though, and let me look around. Because, yes, I had taken my first steps on an alien planet, but it was inside. That didn’t really count, did it? But this… no, this was outside. This was on a planet across the freaking universe. And it sure looked alien.
It also definitely looked like we came out of the back entrance. There wasn’t a bustling street out there. It was still recognizable as a street, but more like a wide alleyway.
Looking around, I also saw several flying vehicles. I figured I would call them flying cars until Relek gave me the local name for them, but they were legitimate flying cars. We didn’t have those on Earth. The Jetsons said I would have had a flying car by now, and I didn’t. But here, now, on this new planet, I was going to have my own (well, hopefully) flying car.
This… could work. Talk about a step up from my Honda.
I looked back at Relek, who was still smiling as he looked at me, and noticed that he was really cute when he smiled. The picture I had seen of him did have a slight grin on it, but it hadn’t reached his eyes. This was a fond grin, of ‘wow, I’m seeing someone enjoy something I like for the first time.’ The look on a parents’ face when they see their kids have cotton candy for the first time.
So with one last glance around the street, I fell in step with my new husband to go wherever he was going to lead me. We’d only gotten a couple steps when I saw a person down the street, leaning against the corner of the building. There was something about him — I wasn’t exactly sure what it was, but… well, apparently the whole concept of a sketchy individual is universal. They existed over on this planet as well as Earth.
Instinctively, I slid my hand into Relek’s much larger one. He seemed pleased to have a slight woman’s hand holding his, and I let his warm hand comfort me as we walked towards an official looking vehicle parked on the street. Who would have thought that the trappings of government and police were universal? The paint job, or however they applied colors to their flying cars, had words in a language I couldn’t read. I vaguely remembered the guy injecting the translator into my skull saying something about it being for spoken word only. I had to learned how to read my new planet’s language quickly, I realized.
We sat down into the car, and I quickly realized this was not your standard vehicle. Combined with his uniform, yeah, there were some things that he just hadn’t told me yet. With slight trepidation, I broached the subject.
“So, ah, your uniform,” I said. “And this car. You’re like a cop? Military?”
He looked over at me before flipping some switches and taking off vertically. “Yes,” he answered. “I’m the head of the Security Force.”
I looked over at him in surprise. “Oh, you’re like the chief of police?”
He nodded. “If I have my words correct, I’m like your Chief of Police, or Sheriff. I believe that is how it is termed in your language?”
Okay. I realized I could do that. It wasn’t like he was, I don’t want to say lowly policeman, but… I could handle being the wife of the head of the Security Force. Granted, I already was the wife of the Security Force chief, according to the piece of paper I’d already signed, but I could do what would be expected of me. The public relations part of my double major would be helpful. My gut said I’d need to put on a pleasant public face as the bride of the head of security, and I bet that even the disaster of dealing with the mayor would help. It definitely gave me experiences to build on.
“You seem young to be the head person,” I commented. He did — obviously I didn’t know how Reten aged, but he looked to be mid-thirties, based on Earth experiences.
“I am capable of my job regardless of my age,” Relek said with a bit of censure in his voice.
“No, I’m not—” I sighed, then tried again. “I was meaning it as a compliment. You must have been an amazing officer to rise through the ranks so quickly. That’s something to be proud of.” He had seemed so defensive — was it like Earth, where sometimes people were looked down upon for getting large achievements at a young age, in the thought that they didn’t earn it? It would be a shame if the Reten culture did the same.
Relek ran a hand over his head. “I apologize,” he said with a slight nod my direction. “I am more familiar with criticism on my age.”
“Well, they’re wrong,” I said very matter-of-factly. “You wouldn’t have been hired, or elected, or however the role works here, if you weren’t the most capable candidate.” I thought of how to better spin it, and added, “In fact, if anything it more than proves your capability — if people thought age should be a disqualifier, then whomever promoted you or voted for you thought you were worth breaking convention for.”
Relek contemplated that for a minute as he slid into traffic. He made several turns down other streets, and the feeling of banking in three dimensions was novel, and not altogether pleasant. Sure, I had been in airplanes as they banked, but those weren’t the size of a small car going probably forty miles an hour. That may not sound like much speed, but when you were four stories in the air with other vehicles flying around you, it felt unbelievingly fast. I was sure I’d get used to the speed and banking, but for now I held onto my seat restraints — I was glad to see that concept was also universal — and let Relek think.
Suddenly, the vehicle went into a drive, and my hands scrambled to find something firm to hold on to. There wasn’t an oh-shit bar, which was quite an oversight in a flying car’s design. Relek did the flying equivalent of screeching to a halt, parking next to a sidewalk where a crowd of people gathered, and hopped out.
“Stay here,” he ordered as he slammed his door shut.
Okay, I thought. Being married to a cop was going to take some getting used to.
I watched through the front windscreen as Relek approached the group. He didn’t have to shoulder his way in; the group of five or six men parted easily, allowing me to see from inside the car. Leaning against the side of a building was an elderly man, his hand holding a cloth to his forehead. Blood was evident on the cloth. Another man in casual clothing, about Relek’s age, stood up from where he knelt above the injured gentleman.
Relek talked to the group, bending down to see if the old man needed more assistance. I could hear sirens in the distance, so either the group had called Retere’s version of 9-1-1 on whatever type of phones (or other communicators) they used here, or Relek had called the incident in. Regardless, I wasn’t sure how to feel.
From my third-party perspective, I was thinking the old man was mugged, and the others were standing guard until help — in the form of my new husband — arrived. I mean, it was great that Relek was able to come on scene so quickly. But what were the odds that something would happen on our route from the arrival facility, and we be driving by just then? Does that mean crime was high in the city? I hadn’t gotten that impression from the news feeds about the alien planet, but it wasn’t unsurprising that they would downplay any crime. It didn’t feel like I was in a dangerous city — it was a clean town with no rundown buildings or anything. At least where Relek had flown over, that was. So what was going on?
The local version of a cop car landed, with a larger vehicle pulling in behind it. A couple men got out of the back of the larger one, and headed to the old man. Sure enough, they were this world’s version of paramedics. Relek talked to them for a few minutes, and I shook my leg, restless. I wanted to get out and be a part of this, but Relek kept looking over towards me, a hint of warning in his gaze. Great, just what I wanted. An over-protective husband.
Except, maybe I did want one. It was a change of pace, that was for sure. Having him be concerned for me was cute. Nice. I could handle myself, of course, but maybe it would be nice to be taken care of for a change.
Relek handed over control of the scene to the other cops; at least, that was how it looked from my vantage point in the car. He came back and slid into the driver’s seat, and took off vertically again.
“So, the guy was mugged? Any idea who did it?” I asked when it seemed that Relek wasn’t volunteering any information.
Relek looked surprised — I wasn’t sure if it was that I broached the subject, or that I was interested, or what. “No. Why would you think that?”
Huh? I wasn’t sure how to take that. “An old guy on the sidewalk, head bleeding. People standing over him. Sure has the hallmarks of getting robbed.”
“Oh. That’s… not what I thought the word ‘mugged’ meant.” Relek’s face relaxed, but mine frowned in confusion. What did he think it meant? How did it get translated? “You read the situation wrong. The man had a health issue, and passed out, hitting his head when he fell. Why is your first thought crime?”
I had no good answer for that. Okay, yeah, my mind went straight to the worst-case scenario. It wasn’t just that the scandal made my mind expect the worst of people. It was something that was indicative of our society. The news was all about bad things happening. But… that wasn’t fully accurate, was it? Not anymore. I mean, sure, the news was all about bad things. And it was indicative of society — but it wasn’t my society anymore. It was Earth society. I might be from Earth, but I wasn’t on there anymore. I was now on Retere. I had to get used to Retere society, and how it differed from American life. Apparently crime wasn’t as frequent as it was on Earth. That concept I could get behind.
Relek lowered the car back down to street level, next to several buildings that looked like apartment complexes, and hit a button on the dashboard. Doors opened sideways on the building to our right, and Relek puttered in, flying in slowly to a very cluttered garage. He landed, and I opened my door and got out, waiting for him to show me which door was the one leading to his home. Our home.
“I’m surprised the garage is on the street level,” I commented through my open door as Relek went through a complex process to shut off the vehicle. “Since your cars fly, I’d think they can be on any floor.”
“Belongings can fall, which is dangerous,” Relek answered. Okay, he did have a point there. With all the stuff packed to the rafters in his garage, I could easily see them tumbling from their precarious piles. And if they fell from several stories up, that could be disastrous to anyone walking on the street. The organizer in me itched to clean the garage out — straighten it up, and check out some of the very odd-looking items. There was a long thing that looked like it could be a canoe or kayak, and I hoped some of the other stuff was camping gear. Or the local version thereof. I’d love to explore the new world.
“Let’s go upstairs,” Relek said, “and we can start the baby-making.”