- Ava -

“WRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!”

The Acerex warrior's powerful roar made the whole space station tremble.

Ava almost dropped the crown in surprise.

“Acerex war cry,” the translator said helpfully into her ear.

The Solp stopped as if they'd met a glass wall. Their noises turned into a disappointed screech, and they were stretching their filthy heads towards Ava and up towards the golden crown she was holding. Their eye stalks were stiffly raised as they stared past Xark'ion and up at the prize.

“This is for the king,” Ava said. “But only if he tells me where the Kunuru are.”

The king frantically ground something.

“Bosh,” the translator said into Xark'ion's ear. “They are at Bosh. Kunuru at Bosh.”

Bulpot stretched his arms out to receive the crown.

Ava laid a hand on his shoulder from behind. “Did you hear that?” she said into his ear.

“Yes.”

“Could the Kunuru be there, do you think?”

He kept his eyes on the Solp. If they all rushed forwards, he had to be ready. “It's as likely a place as any other.”

“Okay. Let me talk to them.”

Ava moved to stand beside him, and he let her pass.

She lowered the small gold crown, and the king of the Solp jumped into the air and snatched it out of her hands.

“Mine!” he ground with a relish that came through even without the translator.

Ava drew closer to Xark'ion. “Yours,” she confirmed. “And thank you for your help. You have the undying and staunch friendship of the people of Earth. Okay, Xark'ion, I think we're about done here?”

The Solp had lost all interest in them. King Bulpot held the crown awkwardly in both hands, upside down, admiring its intense sheen that had taken the techs on the Friendship five minutes to polish in with their nanotech, giving it millions of perfect little facets per square centimeter and making it look like a sparkler forever burning.

Ava backed out the door, and Xark'ion followed.

“Bosh,” she said as they walked back the way they had come. “You'd prefer not to go there, I'm sure.”

“I will go where the mission takes us.”

“I don't like that they're there. It seems weird. And it's pretty close to Earth. I hope they're not planning to invade.”

“Then your planet has a problem.”

“Especially if they attack the way they did on Krok, killing and preserving the Ysal. If that was the Kunuru. Shit, was this hatch closed before?”

They had reached the end of the corridor, and they had to be close to the shuttle. But now there was no way to get there. Beside the hatch there was an empty hole in the wall where the alien opening mechanism was probably supposed to go.

“No,” Xark'ion said and pushed the closed hatch with all his weight. The wall around it creaked dangerously, but the hatch held.

“Hm,” the warrior said and tried again. The entire wall bent slightly inwards, but the hatch was just as closed as before. “It's resilient.”

“It's supposed to hold if a part of the station is depressurized,” Ava said. “It's going to be insanely strong.”

Xark'ion took his sword out again and tried it on the wall. “No, this will only blunt the edge. I think I could hack through it. It would ruin the sword, but if it's the only way ...”

Ava put her hand on his arm. “Don't. We know there's another way around. There were two corridors where we docked.”

They turned around and went back the way they'd come. Ava tiptoed fast past the opening to the king's room. It was mostly quiet in there now, and she just caught a glimpse of the king letting some other Solp touch his new crown, while he held onto it with both clawed hands and three of his legs.

“I wouldn't be surprised if there's a coup in the Solp royal house pretty soon,” she whispered to Xark'ion. “That crown really got them going.”

Xark'ion preceded her through another hatch, looked around for dangers, then reached out a hand to help her through. “Scavengers. I wonder now if this station was never finished, or if the Solp broke it up after they finished with the planet below.”

“Maybe the people that lived down there didn't ruin their own world. Maybe it was the Kunuru. Or Enemy 55.”

“Maybe. It isn't known. But the Solp certainly couldn't build a station like this one.”

Ava looked around the bare walls. It didn't look too impressive to her, compared to the Friendship or just about any other Earth-made spaceship or station. “Uh-huh. Must have been that ruined civilization down there. I guess it's not too bad for a first attempt- oh my! Look at that!”

Part of the wall was transparent, and on the other side there was a bright space that was much larger than anything else they had seen. The ceiling seemed to be open to space, but there had to be a physical barrier there, because the room was full of plants that looked very healthy. There was a whole lot of foliage in green, red and brown, as well as clusters of flowers and fruits in all the colors of the rainbow. It was as if an entire botanical garden had been brought into space.

Ava was stunned as she took it in. “That is ... spectacular.”

“Hm,” Xark'ion said. “A forest in the sky. Typical pointless pastime for a species that isn't always busy fighting for its survival.”

“Hey, if it's any consolation, Earth doesn't have anything like that, either. Small biodomes where we grow food, sure. But this is much more grand.”

“It is a fine thing,” Xark'ion agreed.

It was such a spectacular sight, Ava almost pressed her nose against the window. “It could be a biodome of some kind. It lets the sunlight in so the plants will like it. I suppose those plants are all edible. Or useful in some other way.”

She could barely spot the opposite wall in the distance, across the mist and the small trees that filled the middle of the forest. “You think we could walk through that thing and find a door on that wall?”

“And approach our shuttle from the other side. It is possible.”

This hatch was much larger, and it still worked when Ava touched an alien symbol on a pulsating panel.

The hatch slid open, revealing a room that was stripped just as bare as the rest of the station. In the middle of the floor there was a module that seemed to grow out of the floor. On the opposite wall there was a giant window showing the forest beyond, and a door with no obvious way to open it. The distant hum of a still working ventilation system was much stronger in here.

“This has to be some kind of antechamber,” Ava said. “Where the crew could prepare for going into that biodome area. Change their clothes, probably. If they had clothes. Looks like the Solp took everything.”

“That is in the nature of our new friends,” Xark'ion grunted. “I'm astounded they haven't eaten everything in that forest.”

Ava walked over to the door. “I don't think they could gain access. Look at this.”

The door and the wall around it was full of little dents and claw marks and scratches, especially the lower half.

“Ah,” Xark'ion said. “They couldn't get in.”

Ava studied the door, disappointed. “And neither can we, probably.”

Xark'ion smirked. “Indeed this door is Solp-proof. But I don't think it's Acerex-proof.”

He walked back to the hatch they had entered through and pressed the panel. The door in front of Ava slid slowly open, and her hair was blown from her face by the sudden draft of warm, fragrant air.

“The opening button is on the opposite side of the room. Why?”

Xark'ion let go of the button, and immediately the door into the biodome slammed shut. “No one person can get in there alone. You must be at least two. I've seen similar things before. There should be another button on the outside.”

He opened the door again, and Ava took a step out. “There is,” she reported when she immediately located the corresponding panel and pressed the button. This time the door stayed open when Xark'ion let go of his, and he ducked out to join her in the forest.

“Solp-proof,” Ava repeated. “They aren't the best at cooperating. Helping someone else come in here would never cross their minds.”

The door flew shut behind them, and for a moment they just took it all in. The vegetation was low, and consisted of bushes and grasses and trees and strange balls of foliage that appeared to hover, held down only by vines as thin as dental floss. The variation in species and color was astounding. It looked like out of the thousands of plants, not two of them were identical, except in clusters of small trees that might be one and the same plant with several stems.

The vegetation was so thick it would have to be quite a challenge to make your way through it. But narrow white paths cut the whole giant room into a strange, curved grid with irregular pieces a hundred feet across.

Straight up there was only the blackness of space and the star system's sun, sending heat and light into the huge hall. There was no movement anywhere, no threats that Ava could see.

The air was humid and heavy with fragrance of alien plants, flowers and trees. After the sterile air on the Friendship and the stench of the Solp, it made Ava's head spin with both old memories and new sensations.

She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths of the air, luxuriating in its natural scent. The air felt thicker than on Earth, so her lungs had to work just a little harder to draw it in. It felt healthy and wholesome.

“This place ... is pretty nice.”

“For a room in a space station,” Xark'ion agreed. “As for the forest, a real planet would be better.”

The air was pleasantly warm, and Ava loosened the upper part of her utility suit. “Maybe. But no forest I've ever seen has been as diverse as this. This has to be all that's left of nature from the planet down there.”

They started walking slowly towards the opposite wall, a mile away.

Xark'ion still had his sword in his hand. “Very probably. If your Kunuru is behind the destruction of that civilization, it's just further proof of how cruel they are. Imagine a whole planet just like this, turned into what we saw. Turned over to the Solp.”

“All the more reason to talk some sense into them,” Ava stated slowly. This forest seemed too wonderful to bring bad aliens into it. “I wonder if this place was more than just a biodome producing food for the crew. It might have been a park, too. Somewhere to relax and feel grounded.”

The path was tiled with some smooth, alien material, but the plants grew from soil and gravel.

Xark'ion peered suspiciously under the bushes, but there was no sign of any predators or other animals. “Grounded on a space station. Yes, I imagine it would be necessary to not go crazy in the long run.”

“We don't have room for this kind of thing on the Friendship, so we use the virtual reality consoles for it. But the real experience is ... there's just no comparison. Shit, that civilization down on the planet would have been really great to meet.”

There was a slight breeze in the air, probably convection from air that would be heated close to the transparent ceiling.

Ava felt her shoulders relax. “You know, we're a good team. We got exactly what we wanted from the Solp, after just a couple of missions. And all it cost us was a bunch of worthless gold and part of a watch collection.”

Xark'ion shielded his eyes and looked up at space far above them. “It was interesting. If that is diplomacy, then I suppose I can grow to like it.”

The air and the warmth from the alien sun made Ava a little giddy, along with the success with the Solp and seeing Xark'ion protecting her against the mass of aliens without killing even one of them. He wasn't the brainless murder machine she had feared he might be. That had been a very impressive war cry.

She grinned up at him. “As long as you can bring your sword, right? Yeah, I'm starting to realize that separating an Acerex warrior from his sword doesn't make much sense. It's as much a part of you as your hand is.”

“It does feel strange to be without it,” Xark'ion said thoughtfully. “But if your peace mission works, maybe we should get used to it.”

She grabbed his thick wrist and gave it a little squeeze. “Our peace mission. You're as big a part of it as I am. Actually, bigger. About three times and two hundred pounds bigger.”

He chuckled. “A warrior should be large. And a diplomat can be smaller.”

“Uh-huh. Can the large warrior please reach up and pick that thing from the tree?” She pointed to a fruit she had spotted.

Xark'ion squinted. “He can. If the small diplomat bends over and picks those things from the bush.”

He nodded towards a plant bearing many orange little berries in tight bunches.

Ava took one careful step onto the fine gravel that the bush was growing from and picked a cluster of berries off a branch. She put her butt out in an exaggerated movement as she bent over, then straightened and held the berries out to Xark'ion.

But as he reached out to take them, she pulled them back. “Uh-uh. Your turn first.”

He easily reached up and got the pink fruit from the branch, then offered it to Ava.

Then, as she wanted to take it, he snatched it back. “We must do this diplomatically. Berries first.”

“Ah, negotiation,” Ava said. “You're a quick learner. Too quick, if you ask me. Okay. So my response is fruit first. Then berries.”

Xark'ion frowned as if deep in thought. “I feel that I can't agree. Tempting though the berries are, I feel that my fruit is more valuable.”

Ava laughed. “No chance, dude. Can you see these berries? Ever seen anything look as ripe and sweet?”

The warrior's gaze wandered up and down her body. “Yes,” he said, very sincerely. “I have.”