Futuristic Galvanised

[kevintheradioguy]

[placeholder opening text]​

 

[kevintheradioguy]

Serving on TSUT-14 - or as the locals called it, Soot - was a real honour for any terran of a sound mind. It has been millennia since the human race lost their home, and while thus far smaller colonies and stations were a decent fir for the population, people accommodating fast and easy, for the last few dozen generations, scientific minds brought up the same concern as other species' did: without a large enough place to inhabit, the numbers started going down. Human race slowly began disappearing. Not to the point of immediate concerns or something as horrific as forceful impregnations so common among the conservative garuspa, but a search for a suiting Terra-like planet has been more active and more dire lately. What didn't help, were the laws of non-intervention the Board and the Hive forced upon anyone travelling beyond their system that roughly translated to "if there is any animal on a planet, leave it alone". Problem was, however many Earth-like planets there were ready for terraforming into suiting conditions, their environments were perfect to create life, and as such, almost every planet like that was out of the question. Until around twenty generations ago It was discovered.

The "it" was being a planet with a long name consisting of numbers and letters no one on Soot cared to remember, but called Monarch for its bright orange and salmon colour, and huge greenish spots, like ones of now extinct but still used in symbolic butterflies. Seeing how it was this station's prerogative to name it after the job was done, it looked like it would stay this way, and their species would eventually be renamed from terran to monarchian. It was large - larger than Terra was - warm greenhouse (or in this case, redhouse) with roughly the same atmosphere, all covered in jungles of thick, succulent plants, large tentacle mushrooms and clusters of brightly-glowing red crystals, albeit with slightly more toxic atmosphere and large sulphur pools. Theoretically, forgetting about the latter problem, one could generically modify every colonist to breathe this air and withstand high temperatures, however, it wasn't a hard (albeit, time-consuming) task to terraform it into something more suiting. And this was what Soot did for the last twenty terrran years: studying and cultivating hybrid plant life, sucking out sulphur pools to make it safer. More home-like.

Many people here knew exactly how important their work was. With every news delivery to their station they had a chance to read excitement and expectations from their mission. Lately some of the maintenance started collecting and delivering small sealed plants outside the systems, and create small carved souvenirs from crystals brought back from the surface, only adding to the excitement outside. It has been a small tradition on the station to have at least one tiny spherical greenhouse with their own micro-garden from Monarch - no bigger than a football - and most people carried some of the jewellery made from the red crystals that were slowly becoming precious in the outside terran world. Pigeon had one of the earliest carvings from their handyman - a boring grey man by the name of Herman who spoke little, showing his affection through actions rather than words. His first carving was a pendant shaped like a slightly abstract, angular blooming rose he gave to Pigeon for her love of plants. And that is how this carving and micro-gardening fashion started.

And it was good they had something to add colour to their routine. The station was grey and gloomy - from the inside and the outside - albeit residing people tried their best to make it more fun and colourful. Travels to the surface were few, maybe once every local month (which was at least twice as long as a Terra month), and just for a few researchers, and for the last almost half a year it stalled as well when head terraforming scientists basically rage quit.

It was a ridiculous story, and if heard by an outsider would probably be considered comedy. Eccentric like a caricature on a mad scientist, professor Woodrow was unhappy here, it was obvious. Years of constant study took toll on him, he was becoming gloomy, and irritable, and was looking for a reason to get off the station, probably fearing that if he leaves without a good reason, he'd be seen as a traitor by his entire species. This reason came from an unexpected source, however. As many human stations here, many secretaries and low-tier assistants were not humans, but canites, following terran species like loyal dogs - hence their name - and so were most of his assistants. Having strong family ties, they only travelled in families, which consisted of one female canite and her harem, and sometimes their mothers. Usually it took one family to keep a large ship in check, or two to maintain a station like this; Woodrow had three families working with him as his lab hands, on top of his higher tier assistants. And it just so happened that at some point, they fell pregnant. All of the females. Probably due to a botched batch of contraceptives, though maybe through canites' unique physiology that allowed them to easily accommodate to almost any non-hazardous environment, which, as some theorized, made their bodies find a way around the medicine. And even if Soot could afford to hold at least one child - which it didn't - canies usually gave birth to at least four cubs. With their main priority always being family, they refused to abort the babies, and were sent out of the station, and with that, claiming that these people have been with him for too long to boot them like that, Woodrow quit the next day. That was not the worst part. His human assistants were all his own students, having much respect for the man, and could not but follow him out as well, leaving a terraforming station without terraforming scientists. It took months for them to communicate the problem, and get substitute, during which almost no one had access to Monarch, and the research stood still. People grew bored, life became stale, every person with a pet was becoming extremely popular, and the rest developed extreme interest in gardening, making station's vegetable garden bloom with care.

And then, the news came about the new terraforming team coming up. The team consisting of just one person, however, and not human at all. It was a mau - also called anteahn the same way humans were also called terran - one of the friendlier space-faring species out there, and it got the station excited, though for all the wrong reason. While some people were excited about the change in diet - the mau were carnivorous sea shore creatures, and their diet consisted of some animal meat, but mostly fish and crustaceans, which mean that asides for lab-grown meat and fresh vegetables, the station now had a large supply of basically alien lobsters, and those terrans could eat themselves. It took for the food production a month after receiving DNA samples to grow their first batch, and today was the day everyone could try the delicacy.

"I don't know how it would influence our food supplies.", the chef was saying a while back, just as they received samples needed to grow new food. "On one hand, feeding one person is easier than feeding a dozen. On the other hand, they're huge.", he spoke about the mau.

"They're predators.", one of many maintenance worker said. She was working on a broken stove at the time - it looked like someone broke it, and she was happy to interfere with what little knowledge she had about the species. Someone in a fit of rage seemed to punch the stove, and break a part of it, so Pigeon was present for the conversation - there was little if any crime on the station, and overseeing something like this was at least something. "We will have all the vegetable and fruit supply for ourselves anyway, and I'm sure the boys at the lab would be happy to grow however much fish and crab he needs. Or she. Is it a he or a she?", she asked, looking at Pigeon who was one of the few people here getting the file on the new scientist. Hell, her team might've been the only one to get it at all. Though it had no mention of a gender - pure deeds records. It was a mau who have learned terraforming, adaptation, genetic modification, botany and zoology - quite like the team that quit did - on generally terran-controlled space, so the mau was at least familiar with their customs; and had absolutely clean criminal record. Almost too good to be true. Even the best terrans were caught in a drunk brawl, domestic disturbance, going over the speed limit, or something else equally small. This was as clean as first snow.

"Does that mean I cannot season food any more?", the chef winced. Ione knew for a fact he was much less passionate about his job than he led people believe, but he probably just liked to keep up the image of an eccentric cook. Terrans weren't considered the most creative species for no reason, after all.

"Why don't you ask him when he arrives?" and that was the end of it.

A few people even without learning this weirdly clean record, were paranoid, always trying to catch Pigeon in a hallway to explain their caution. This wasn't a terran, it was not one of them, so why come here and help create a suiting environment for their species? They spoke of a possible sabotage, and asked to keep her eye on the new scientist. Something she already had to do anyway. Some were even instinctually scared of the mau they never met - as any person would when faced with a larger predator. Problem with other species was that while they might live in similar enough environments and go through similar enough evolution, their culture, morals, and psychology was often very different. It led to conflict, and who knows what a mau would consider an insult a terran would see as a common thing? Who knows what reason they might have to unapologetically attack someone? Predator species usually obeyed strict hierarchy established by force, ad this wasn't how things worked among humans. Who could guarantee that thins individual wouldn't try to fight and/or kill someone to establish their dominance?

And most were excited about another prospect entirely, much more... personal, to say the least. The mau had a reputation (depending on who one was: good or bad one) because of their well-known promiscuity. Terrans were considered overly sexually active, canites as well, but only mau had a nickname of - if used without any slurs - space prostitutes. They were said to be incredibly intelligent, but never really using this intelligence and generally working in the field of carnal pleasures. With their libido being famously high, and openness in such questions well-known, most groups of friends on the station were chirping away, building big plans on this individual. After all, they all got bored of each other after a while, and now they'd have a 'professional' on board. This might have been stereotypical of them, but Pigeon couldn't really say herself: asides for canites that were often seen on ships and stations, she only met another alien species once: it was a kieth mechanic during her trip here that took a look at the ship they docked - another fur-covered hunched humanoid creature as tall as a terran, though much wider and heavier, looking like a weird mix of a fat cat and short-snouted rat. And the only reason they even talked was because later that day said mechanic asked her out on a date.

Luckily, however, there was a woman in her team going by the name of Gem - usually a quiet, sombre person - who lived on another station prior here with a few mau there. She shrugged, and confirmed that the stereotype is true: there was a reason almost nine out of ten mau worked as prostitutes. For a few weeks, Gem became the most popular person on Soot, people asking all sorts of questions about the newcomer. She was short in her descriptions: they were big, really big, though quite narrow, and the newcomer was going to have to hunch down to fit doors; they were bright and colourful, and actually couldn't keep their pants on when they even wore them at all. She predicted this one would, seeing as clothes were a custom among terrans, though culturally they didn't wear them. "Which is a bit cruel.", Gem remarked after a pause. "They like it much colder than we do, so she's already going to be hot here. And then we clad her into fabric." Gem explained that while by default people used 'he' to refer to a member of human race, when it came to mau, it was correct to use 'she'.

"Are they like cats of sorts?", asked Landar, another of the security team that day. He lived on a colony close to the sun, and as such had much darker, almost black skin, contrasting with his long-ish hair he dyed dimmed green. "I mean, 'mau', like a cat."

"I don't think other species pick the name for themselves regarding our ancient languages." Gem almost snapped. She didn't appreciate lack of intelligence or stupid questions, which was probably the reason why she was so quiet and often left alone - that was not the most popular trait. And being the centre of attention clearly made her uncomfortable. "Their planet is completely covered in water.", she sighed after a pause. "They're like... sharks or something. Or maybe newts."

She said it was a usual for them - to have short names for everything as she could conclude from previous conversations. She named a few domestic animals they had, which rarely consisted of more than two syllables. Asides for their given names which were unnecessarily complicated. Pigeon has already noticed that in the file: the mau went by the name of Zirzalanthechitilin - barely even pronounceable.

"It is going to be Zira or Ziri if it's a male.", Gem came to the rescue, explaining how they tended to shorten those. "Lin or Tili if it's a female." Their names were all unisex, though male mau used the first syllables to shorten theirs, and females used the last ones.

"What about you, corporal?", seeing that Gem was getting more and more pressured under constant questioning, asked Ren, their more diplomatic team member. She wore her hair short and bright-red, and her features were narrow and sharp, making her look like a bird she kept as a pet: a brown-and-red little thing that sang quiet songs in her room and occasionally escaped it, making the entire maintenance team retrying to catch and safely return it. She looked at Pigeon expectedly, leaning on a canteen table so much she basically hang from it with her legs in the air. "You're basically the boss here, what do you think about this guy... girl... whatever?"

 

[Kittenpom20]

Iona’s hair was tied up in a neat ponytail and she leaned against the back wall, watching Gem, Landar, and Ren discuss the soon-arriving mau. One of her hands wrapped around her waist and the other idly turned over her rose necklace in her fingers, contemplating what they were discussing. Pigeon was happy for the company of her team, and though she knew Gem could get annoyed at the rest of them sometimes, she knew it wasn’t something that wouldn’t be forgiven.

When Ren turned to her to ask her opinion on the new arrival, Pigeon just shrugged. She hadn’t been as actively involved in the gossip mill as everyone else since it felt to her that there was no point theorizing about someone without having met them. The mau could moonlight as a prostitute on Soot or they could be entirely chaste and the others wouldn’t have an idea either way yet. It annoyed her, almost, the number of people that had stopped her in the hallway to ask about the mau's lack of a criminal record. Pigeon knew humans were pessimists at heart, but was it so hard to believe that just one being out of the entire base hadn't made any stupid decisions when they were younger?

Even so, Iona was excited at the thought of having somebody new on the base. Though this was basically her dream job, even working with the same people after a time got boring. She was excited to have somebody different around and to learn more about mau culture, if the newcomer was willing to talk to them. If the mau were anything like terran, their culture probably had plenty of idiosyncrasies that led to funny stories.

“I think it’ll be nice to talk to someone new. Professor Woodrow was a little… much sometimes. He didn’t seem to like my questions about his plant science stuff.” Pigeon winced internally, thinking about how moody he could get when all she had were perfectly logical questions about his work to terraform Soot. She wasn’t sure if he just couldn’t answer them, or if he thought she was just another non-scientist who thought his job was easy, but he’d gotten snippy a few times. And she had really liked having a bunch of canites around, too. Pigeon didn’t have a pet of her own, but that was a situation she was looking to change as soon as she could. Though she loved having all of her plants around, and she was an active participant in the community garden, you couldn’t really talk to plants without looking crazy. At least she would be considered more sane if she was talking to another animal.

“I mean, it’ll be weird to have a different species here, but maybe she’ll be nice. I can’t imagine you’d be an asshole and want to work on a station of mostly humans. She’s already dealing with all of our weird customs, and us on top of it.” Pigeon smiled. They were certainly an eccentric bunch, much different than the friends she had at home, and it might take an outsider some getting used to. “Plus, we get weird lobster now. That’s definitely a perk. I think.”

 

[kevintheradioguy]

"That's a very diplomatic answer!" Ren chuckled, then looked around. Canteen was both full of people, and empty at the same time. Not the entire station was here, however, enough people formed groups on respectful distance from each other, talking, gossiping, playing some board games, and even building a house of cards. Finally, she pointed to some further away group. "Those guys have already been complaining about how the station isn't suiting to anyone taller than seven feet, and how in time it will have to be redone. Someone has already been busy remaking a room to fir her size. I've heard some of the maintenance being all patriotic and vocal about it, like... 'We build a place for humans, and only humans need to be present'." She tried to mock the hoarse bassy tones of stereotypical maintenance workers.

"I didn't hear them complaining when a canite family helped them." Landar murmured quietly.

"Guess they just don't like having someone smarter around." The redhead woman shrugged. "But you're right, cooks seem to be excited enough to get a new menu. But what I mean, everyone has these crazy theories and ideas, and you're trying to stay neutral?" A crooked smile appeared on her face. "I mean, what other entertainment we have here now?"

They did have a lot, actually. Steady deliveries of news, letters and calls, as well as movies and music for a few years ahead. Although, of course, everything like that became boring after a little while. How many blockbusters and horror flicks one might need to watch before they crave for something else? And for one, something was happening to them, and not to make belief people from the silver screen. They didn't have this much excitement of the personal sort since one of the researchers managed to fall into a sulphur pool on Monarch, burning off most of their skin and barely surviving. And while those news were covered in respectful gloom and compassion, these were on the most fun side.

As if the mention of weird lobster, the door to the kitchen opened, one of the cooks looking around the canteen to see how many people were in, and speaking in a loud enough voice to be heard by everyone, called out for anyone who wants to try the new food to let her know. She looked nervous, and chances were, the rest of the cooks were as well. It was a new dish they tried to make, and from an animal they never saw before. Though, how hard could it be? Mau's native planet was much Earth-like, and they could co-exist with relative ease, so chances were, their animals were quite similar as well. At least, the higher-ups thought so when sending materials to grow them.

"You can expect for her not to be an asshole." Gem decided not to take part in gossiping, and instead reassure Pigeon. "As far as I can tell, being anything but courteous and polite is considered a no-no in their culture."

"Well, that sounds incredibly... boring." Landar arched his brow to that statement, to which Gem shrugged, remarking:

"Who knows, she lived with us humans for a long time, maybe she caught up onto some of the assholishness we seem to produce on a regular basis."

 

[Kittenpom20]

Pigeon rolled her eyes at Ren’s imitation of the maintenance workers. She had heard similar things come from other maintenance workers in passing conversations, though she wasn’t sure whether it was those two in particular. Those sorts of things irritated her, mostly because it just seemed unnecessary after everything that humanity had gone through in the past millennia. Iona just hoped that they left the mau well alone when she got here. It was going to be hard enough for her to be one of the only non-humans on the base; dealing with discrimination would just make things worse. And if they lost another scientist, things would grind to a halt again, or the higher-ups might consider shifting around even more of the staff. That could get ugly.

“Well, if she hangs out with us long enough, they’re not gonna let her go home,” Pigeon grinned, “and by the time she gets here we’ll have plenty to talk about. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I heard some weird lobster calling my name. I have been thinking about this for ages.”

Pigeon stood up and headed over to the door at a pace that was faster than politely acceptable, calling, “Count me in!”

She had been a big fan of Earthen lobster, since her parents seemed to enjoy the delicacy on the few occasions they could afford to get it delivered. Pigeon hadn’t been able to find any on Soot, not that she was surprised. The colony had bigger things to worry about than supply its workers with expensive food, but now that it was necessary for the mau, hopefully the standards of cuisine would be elevated a little. Still, there was always the possibility that the weird lobster was disgusting. That would be devastating.

 

[kevintheradioguy]

A few people were daring enough to approach as well, and they all seemed to be from different teams on the station. Someone from the gardens, someone from food labs (who actually grew animal meat there, so were the first ones to lay eyes upon the creature), a person from the engineering, local musician, a therapist... it soon became clear that before actually trying the new dish every close-knitted group has sent out a single person to taste it and tell what they thought of it. See if they survive the tasting. And how much time they would spend in lavatory after that.

"It's actually pretty scary." a young man from food production was speaking to someone as he stood there. Nervous-looking fellow, tall and narrow, with dark hair sticking into different directions, looking whether like a sparrow just out of a rain, or some sort of a weasel. His eyes glistened unnaturally in this light, reflecting it too much. Probably, a prosthetic. "And beautiful at the same time. Like a giant bight-blue woodlice with fins and a really scary face. God, was I happy to know we grow them braindead." He continued speaking, wondering if it would be appropriate for them to grow just the meaty parts, like they did with lab-grown beef, for example. It was much faster than to grow an entire animal and then cut it into parts, but when it came to something small like rabbit or indeed, lobsters, they usually grew it in full. Pigeon remembered this young man: the only thing she really knew about him was that he used to work for some world-renowned chef somewhere in a more inhabited part of the galaxy, who was very peculiar about grown animals. Demanded them being grown in full - according to him, they tasted better that way, even though it was all the same. This was what might've made the young man so twitchy: his overly demanding boss. But at least this made him a specialist good enough to be placed on this station - people really wanted the best here, even when it came to simple folk that need to watch how an artificial muscle grows in a tube.

When one of the cooks - this time a larger man, came out back first to safely open the door while balancing steaming plates in his hands and on his forearms - a sharp smell of herbs became obvious. Some of the canites worked in the kitchen, and they used a lot of herbs in their dishes, usually making flavour weirdly multi-layered, as if changing the more one chewed on it. It was a shame they were gone, but at least their herbs stayed for the use. They were growing in the gardens for everyone to see, and looked exactly as one would expect from herbs on Terra with nothing alien to them, not even a colour. Canites really lived in very human-like environments.

While it wasn't a big deal to actually teach an AI to cook, or maybe even synthesize something that would look and taste the same way as hand-made dishes, it was a rare thing to see on stations. Real food, the one that had to go through all the neat processes of temperature changes and different flavouring for some reason if not tasted, then felt better. So for the most part instead of fantastic usage of modern technologies, stations had cooks dealing with food. Albeit, this man looked like he was doubting his job at that very moment, and contemplating actually giving it away to an AI.

"Don't mind the colour. The more it is cooked, the brighter it becomes." Usually, such creatures back from Terra turned red when cooked. These ones were of a bright, saturated blue or even turquoise colour, peppered with darker spots the size of a fingernail. They indeed looked like large woodlice, with layers of shells on the back and numerous spiked thick legs. Filled toxic-green fins grew between shell layers near its head, obviously not to help it in swimming. Mating dances, maybe? Scaring off predators? And the head was... well, as the young man said a few moments ago, pretty scary-looking. There was something human-like in it - perhaps its shape, or where the mouth and multiple eyes were - and it made it disturbing. Though it was clearly a ribbed and spiked, plated almost insect-like face, something about it was not attractive at all. On the contrary - it looked like it was comprehending everything, judging others.

"Boy, I surely hope I can come up with a way of growing these without heads!", the young man squeezed through clenched teeth. Though, however ugly it was, it did smell very nice. Like real lobster and hot caramel.

His comment was ignored as the cook placed the plated on a bare cafeteria table, making them slide from his arms without breaking or making too much noise. A skill, indeed.

"So, the way we read...", he started, rubbing his neck, unsure in this as much as the rest of the crew were about eating these things. "...the locals just break them in two along the body." As if there was someone who didn't know what 'along the body' meant, he gestured to where the invisible centre of the creature was. "But, um, we tried, and..." He looked around apologetically, his eyes stopping at Pigeon for a little longer than others - she was, the head of the security team, after all, and was, in his opinion, if not the strongest one, the most physically capable of the crew. "...well, we might not be strong enough for this." He fired away, as if this might've been too offensive to someone. No one really reacted to that negatively. "However! You can easily cut between the plates and get to the meaty parts, or go through a softer underbelly."

"Aw-w-w, it's like a big deformed baby!", one of the women awaiting for the dish picked a plate up, looking at the creature with a big, goofy smile, and then switching her attention to the rest, expecting them to share her morbid outlook. If they did share, they didn't find it adorable.

"Don't... tell me you want to eat babies.", the food scientist remarked.

"Well, if I did...", she pouted, clutching the plate as if it was a treasure someone wanted to forcefully take away from her. "...I guess I'd just prick my finger to draw blood, and bring it to you so you can grow me one in a bottle!"

"That is sort of morbid. You'd be eating your own clone! You'd be eating yourself!" He yelled as she was hurrying away to her table with few friends waiting. "Not to mention, terran meat tastes bad.", he added quieter.

 

[Kittenpom20]

Pigeon was so excited for these lobsters that she was practically hopping from one foot to the other, and though the words of the food production specialist worried her a little, it couldn’t be that bad, right? Sure, there were plenty of weird-looking aliens out there, but if the mau ate them for food, they couldn’t be that bad.

Pigeon looked around for the rest of her team, but they had hung back - she realized quickly that they were letting her go first to try the lobster. Oh, so they’d let their boss take the fall, huh? Pigeon shot a look at Ren, jerking her head and trying to get her to join, but to no avail. She’d have to make them all try it later once there was enough for sharing.

Being one of the first people at the door, Pig was at the front of the crowd when one of the cooks came out with the weird space lobsters. The excited look on her face immediately fell when she witnessed the face of one of the specimens: it did, in fact, look alarmingly like a human baby. And it was bright blue with green spots.

Damn it. Of course the space lobster would nestle right in the spot of the uncanny valley where eating it might cause a crisis of conscience.

“It’s like a big, scary baby,” Pigeon muttered as she stared at the space-lobster-baby. She really expected it to wriggle back to life at any second, with the expression its face was making (if its face was making an expression and not just stuck in perpetual judgement of others). They were sure they had actually cooked this thing and not preserved it in some sort of sick taxidermy experiment?

Holding the plate with the lobster aloft, Pigeon headed back to the table where the rest of her crew were, and set it down gently. She thought that the longer she looked at it, and her brain connected the smell with the sight of the thing that she would get over its appearance, but she was still unnerved by the whole situation. If it truly was born braindead, Pigeon didn’t want to know what it looked like when it was moving around. Certainly it made noises, too - some sort of clicking or screeching, she was sure. She had no desire to meet one of these things in the wild.

Realizing that her crew was waiting for her to try cracking the first one open, Pigeon leaned forward to inspect the woodlice at a better angle, studying its face. The only redeeming quality of this thing was that it actually smelled like a sweeter version of lobster.

“I really hope you’re delicious, because I’m gonna have nightmares about this,” she murmured to the woodlice, and then sat back up, saying a little louder, “Here goes nothing, right?”

Pig had only eaten lobster three, maybe four times in her lifetime, but the principles were the same: hard shell, soft inside, crack one to extract the other. Her parents had never used tools, so she couldn’t imagine why she would need them now. Noting with surprise how dense the thing was, she flipped it over to expose its belly, and hooking a finger under one of the softer plates, found that it dislodged with relative ease. Once one of them was gone, it made it much easier to get rid of the rest, and soon she had exposed a decent swathe of muscle that came out from the exoskeleton without much effort.

“Ah-ha!” Pigeon held up the excavated portion of meat with delight and, not giving herself any more time to contemplate the morality of her choices, took a bite.

Hm. It wasn’t disgusting. In fact, it did taste a lot like lobster, though it was a lot harder to chew, and a lot sweeter. It wasn’t too sweet, though, that she would consider it a dessert meat (if there was such a thing).

Still chewing, but wanting to talk, Pigeon tapped her fingers on the table, until finally the bite was down her throat. “Not bad,” she proclaimed. “Anybody else want some?”

 

[kevintheradioguy]

"Oh, you better not show that thing to the janitors at our sector.", Landar was stuck between a slightly disgusted wince, and an entertained chuckle. "They already think that a big bad mau predator would eventually try to hunt them down, and if they learn their food looks like human children, they'll loose it." He paused, taking a better look, and then smiled. "You know, my daughter would've loved these. She's in that phase of her life. The 'ugly toys and chainsaw hack-and-slash games'." The man didn't look like a fatherly type, and he rarely even mentioned having a child, letting everyone rediscover that fact every now and then. "She's seven.", he explained as if needing an excuse.

"You go, corporal!", Ren was the cheeriest of the group, anticipating the tasting.

Their local mau specialist just eyed the thing with suspicion, expecting it to move just like Pigeon some time back. It was hot, smelling of herbs, and still steamy from the kitchen, but the unusual colour was tricking the brain into thinking it was still alive. She might have known a few of the species personally, but clearly had no idea how their cuisine looked like.

"I suppose...", Dragged out Gem. "...it would be a good idea to ask the cooks to actually cut these things? Maybe in a stew? That's a pretty spooky giant shrimp."

"Oh, I really can't wait when we domesticate those tentacle-like moving mushrooms." Grinned Ren. "Just to see them trying to catch those as they wiggle on the cutting board."

However nice the taste was - stronger and more saturated than lobster, as it it was cooked in some sort of caramel - others weren't quite as brave as Pigeon yet.

"Yeah, I'll wait to see how you'll feel tomorrow.", remarked Ren with a chuckle. "If you even this, of course."

"Does it even taste like a shellfish?", Landar cocked his head. "It looks like one... though I'd prefer it not looking back."

 

[Kittenpom20]

Pigeon stared at the woodlice once more with intensity. Yeah, she really hoped they didn’t serve these things whole. Not only were they huge and definitely more of a meal-for-two situation, it would be tough to eat one when it was judging you from the plate.

“It tastes… a little more concentrated than a regular shellfish, I think? Sweeter. It’s good, though. Sure you don’t want some, Landar?” Pigeon grinned. “Nothing like tearing out your own meal from a neon shellfish baby that looks like it has opinions on your outfit.” She held out her strip of the lobster, still steaming hot. “Here, you don’t even have to touch it.”

Hands covered in space woodlice, Pigeon located the nearest napkin - but had a feeling she’d need to really wash her hands to get this stuff off. As much as she wanted a few more bites, she wasn’t sure if even the one bite would stay down, so she resolved to come back later for more. The cooks would definitely have more of them around if they turned out to be edible.

Pig thought she felt fine for now, but now she was overanalyzing everything. Was the room hot, or did she just have her hands stuck in a steaming hot space lobster? And she was a little tired, too, but that was probably normal. It was probably nothing.

 

[kevintheradioguy]

The man gasped, faking offence.

"It judges my outfit? Give me that fork, I'll deal with this asshole." It brought a chuckle from Ran, who, looking at the two, had to remark:

"Are you sure it's edible? You look a bit under the weather. Is everything okay?" Her voice was playful, though a few notes of concern were present nonetheless. They all knew these creatures had to be edible - they lived in almost the same environment as humanity's own animals, and weren't toxic towards a species that was surprisingly human-like. Though, the latter was rarely not so: it seemed that life bloomed faster and with more variety on planets filled with carbon and oxygen, which made so many creatures able to coexist well enough in similar environments. Even if a prevalent majority stayed among their own.

"Should be edible." Gem frowned. It seemed like the rest of the canteen agreed with her on that: those who didn't taste the creature already were curiously poking at it, as if trying to understand which way to cut it. It was indeed a group meal, this aquatic woodlice easily five pounds in weight - not something one person would manage to dine with. "Though if you feel bad, you might wanna get to the doctor's as soon as possible. We're getting our new guy in, what, less than a week? Someone has to meet her, and we can't really leave it to human resources."

"Oh, is it because she's not a human?" Winced Ren.

"No, it's because they're all pussies."

 

[Kittenpom20]

“I - I’ll be okay. It’s fine.” Pigeon shook her head, trying to convince herself of the fact. Her stomach gurgled for a second and she made a face, but it settled down just as quickly. Had to be her brain tricking her body into feeling sick. If she really started puking, then she would know something was up. Plus, the woodlice didn’t taste too bad. Most poisonous things tasted terrible, right?

Pigeon looked back down at the woodlice, and realized that she wasn’t hungry anymore. If this baby thing made her sick, she was never going to eat shellfish again.

“Well, it does make sense that security would give the newbie a tour of the place. We know where all the good hangout spots are, anyway. HR is just a bad first impression, anyhow,” Pigeon winced, remembering her welcome to the station. Nothing had exploded or anything, but she had never had more awkward small talk in her life.

“But if some of you don’t want to come, that’s fine. I wouldn’t force you.” Though Pigeon knew that none of them would necessarily be afraid of the mau just because of its species, Pigeon knew that small talk wasn’t everyone’s forte.

 

[kevintheradioguy]

"Ha! Not only no one would want to bore themselves in their rooms instead of meeting a new person, I also think we have to be there, all thirty of us, to shoo people off!" Ren snorted. "They all would want to take a peek at the newcomer. I think from all two hundred and forty people on board, Gem's the only one who actually lived in a multi-national place and would not be curious."

"I don't know about the bad impression." The only male in the group remarked as he chewed on the odd creature. "It's their jobs. To be all... light-hearted, and jolly, while holding the power to fire anyone at any moment."

"I think it's intimidating." Shrugged Gem. "Getting off a ship, and barely standing after the lack of gravity, all tired of months-long trip, weak and wobbly, and then have some human sunshine jump into your face, screaming. However positive tehy are." At this point Gem might've been the better choice for meeting instead of the resources department, keeping her experience in mind, but she was gloomy enough to scrap that idea. The woman looked tired, melancholic almost at all times, and spoke in a low, sombre voice. She didn't like or didn't care about looking unique, and kept her hair naturally black, long, and slightly unkept, as if she just stood up from the fall; and avoided any make-up or mods to make her look more unique, overall looking as if she just got out of a funeral. It took a while to understand this was just how she was. A little dark, rough around the edges, particularly bureaucratic, but not a bad person. Just maybe expressing her affections in other ways. It was doubtful if she was the best person for making a first impression.

Besides that, Pigeon was the head of security, and everyone on the station knew this was as close to the highest authority as it got. They weren't big enough to have a governor, and weren't a ship to have a captain. If anything went wrong, everyone would come to the security first, which made her an unofficial leader of the station, even if such position should've been diplomatically shared between other team leaders. Which lead to the question, if mau was to take over the entire terraforming team (they were smart, but smarter than twelve people?), would she be a part of this board of leaders? Does it even count if there is no team to represent?

 

[Kittenpom20]

Pigeon contemplated Landar’s comment about the Human Resources department. It was true that she had hated meeting them when she arrived on Soot, but part of that was because their job was to be nice to her: she hadn’t been sure if it was genuine or not. At least people who (unjustly) hated her avoided her or told it to her face. The people that had the power to fire her would probably do it while they were smiling.

Pigeon had also been a strange combination of exhausted but jumpy with anticipation when she arrived on Soot, and it was entirely likely that she had bungled some conversations without even realizing it. She didn’t remember much of her first few days, just being exhausted and constantly enthralled by everything on the station. Hm. Maybe HR had a reason to hate her, too.

“Ugh, you’re probably right, we’re going to need some tight security for when the mau arrives,” Pigeon said, and sighed. “I just don’t want her to immediately hate living here, you know? Obviously we can’t pretend that nothing’s going on, but it would be nice if we didn’t treat her like some sort of zoo exhibit.” While Pigeon was excited for somebody new to come to the station, she was also nervous: the time after Professor Woodrow left with all his canites had been a particularly boring period for them, aimless and with no purpose. While there was no shortage of researchers to work on Soot, Pig hoped that this one would at least stick around for a while, because waiting for the next one would be just as boring. Maybe the cooks would let them keep the weird space woodlice, though.

“How do you think a single mau is going to do the work of an entire research team? Does she sleep?” Pigeon wondered if anybody would be pulled in to help with the terraforming research, although most of them were so busy that they didn’t have a ton of extra time to dedicate to science.

 

[kevintheradioguy]

"I just hope we won't look like a bunch of ne'er do wells, having a need to protect the newly arrived at all costs." Landar remarked. It was easier for him to find common ground with HR. He was a kind man, straightforward and fair, who as much as resources team liked to make people smile. It was a little odd why someone this nice decided to police people - something often brutally physical and dangerous, dealing with the lowest of society. This place, on the other hand, was a perfect fit for him, allowing to just keep everybody safe.

Though, come to think of it, keeping someone safe from their small group of generally good people was a little bit... insane. It didn't speak well about the station, while it was a nice enough place, filled with high-end professionals who were interested in anything but committing crime.

Pigeon's next question made everybody think for a while.

"Maybe they multitask?" Suggested Ren.

"Or maybe they will pull people from the gardens." Gem's idea was more down-to-earth. "We don't have to grow crops for a dozen humans and a few dozen canites, and most of our work over the planet is modifying flora anyway." Getting a promotion did sound at least partially plausible.

"She doesn't have any assistants?", Landar's forehead was lined with wrinkles as he frowned, thinking about it. "Does she even come alone? Did anyone tell you anything about that?"

 

[Kittenpom20]

Landar was right on that front, that they didn’t want to appear too aggressive in their security for a base as calm as this. Instead, maybe they could have more of a welcome party, since everyone would be curious to see the mau in the first place. Having a new scientist was an excuse to celebrate, since Soot would soon feel like it had a purpose again, and then it would be less intimidating for the mau. They still had some time before the mau arrived, but Pigeon would poke around and see what people thought. There was no good party without food, and if the space woodlice didn’t cause serious indigestion, it would be a chance for the cooks to experiment with some different dishes too. There was the question, though, of the few people on the base who weren’t so happy for a mau to arrive - maybe they wouldn’t appreciate such a celebration. Hmm. It was definitely something to think over.

In any case, Pigeon would make sure she kept a close eye on the mau, just so some people weren’t overly enthusiastic in their welcomes. Landar was right that most people on the base had good intentions, but hundreds of good intentions directed at one individual all at once could be quite overwhelming.

“I’m pretty sure she’s alone, unless I missed an entire stack of records, or they didn’t think it was necessary to run some by me for whatever reason. Though it would make a lot of sense if she pulled some people from the gardens to help with her work.” Pigeon shrugged. It would definitely be more efficient in the long run to repurpose the people that already worked here towards other jobs instead of bringing in an entirely new team, but she hoped they had at least been briefed on what was going on if that was the case.

 

[kevintheradioguy]

"We should go through records. That is half of our job here." Remarked Landar. "If there is someone else, surely we'd get the news."

"Or alternatively, we'll get them right after the ship enters the system and communications would work!" Ren's suggestion was a sound one too. "In case this was a last-minute decision."

"I don't think our project is the one to make last minute decisions about." Pitched in the third woman, finishing her drink in one last, large swig, and standing up. Her char rattled over the floor as she straightened her legs and arched her back like an elderly woman. "I better go. Going to look through the files, and look for trouble to put a stop to." She waved her hand nonchalantly, turning slowly to the exit. There was no rush these days to do anything at all, and as such, no need to be fast.

As she did that, a tired, but satisfied worker entered the room: one of the maintenance ones, among the group of people that did boring day-to-day tasks like checking the lights, fixing the doors, or changing floor panels. He quietly announced two things. One: he had finished working on the room for the new arrival. Two: it now looked like a kennel.

 

[Kittenpom20]

“Good idea. We should make sure we aren’t surprised by a bunch of extra visitors last minute,” Pigeon said. She supposed it was entirely possible for there to be some sort of error with the communications, and they could be surprised by more scientists than they were initially expecting. More mau, perhaps? It would probably be better if the mau had at least one non-human friend to interact with.

“I’ll check in on you guys a second, don’t start any fires while I’m gone,” Pigeon called to Gem as the woman left. With Gem’s demeanor, Pig was worried sometimes that she was turning into an old woman, but it was good to have all kinds on the security team, since they dealt with every person on Soot. In the unlikely case of some big crime happening on the base, Pigeon was more inclined to have a bunch of different thinkers around - it wouldn’t be helpful if they all came to the same conclusion every time. She wasn’t under the illusion that she could do everything alone.

Standing up, Pigeon turned to the maintenance worker, curious about what he had to say. She recognized his face but she hadn’t talked to him much. Nudging Ren with her elbow, Pigeon muttered, “You think that’s one of the guys that was complaining about the mau earlier?” Thinking about it more, Pigeon realized that she was probably the person in the best position to make sure that the anti-mau sentiments already brewing on Soot didn't go any further. She’d give the guy a piece of her mind if he thought it was appropriate to talk shit about the mau before she even arrived.

 

[kevintheradioguy]

"Will do my best!" Gem waved her hand at the exit in a poor attempt of a joke. She wasn't too communicative - not like many on the station - but had her skill of idle chit-chat too underdeveloped for an old lady who could speak without shutting up for hours. But she was a bit of a grump.

The other two turned to look at the maintenance worker, Ren frowning as he thought, and Landar narrowing his slanted eyes as if that would make him see better. "He wears the same uniform, that's all I can tell..." Murmured the woman, cocking her head. She kept her voice low, so only they could hear each other. "Which isn't saying much. They usually lean to one another, you know? You can hardly see the face. But he definitely knows who complains."

"Isn't maintenance, like, half of the crew?"

"Yeah, but! But! Most maintain the generator, pipes, electricity in Soot's core. Ones that walk around and check living space are few. And he doesn't look wobbly enough to be one of the people that spend all his time in zero-G."

 

[Kittenpom20]

Pigeon sighed. She didn't want to jump to conclusions just yet, but she at least had to figure out what was going on. Standing up, she said to the two who were left at the table, "Let's hope this doesn't go too badly, then," and she walked up to the maintenance guy, trying to level her best neutral stare at him. Though her gut instinct said this was a person who didn't take too kindly to other mau, just from the fact that he had announced what her room looked like, Pig didn't want to take any chances. It wasn't necessarily a powder keg on Soot or anything, but things could escalate, and they were certainly bound to once the mau arrived.

Pigeon smiled slightly as she came to a stop a few feet from the man at her best attempt to appear friendly. Friendly, right. She was just being friendly. "So, you worked on the mau's room, then? Why's it look like a kennel? Do they need them to look like kennels for some reason?"

 

[kevintheradioguy]

"Go get 'im, chief." Landar waved his hand, speaking in a quiet, low tone. It might've been a bit hypocritical for him to support Pigeon's investigation like that, seeing how he himself was the one openly considering advances on the newcomer. Like so many other people on the station.

The worker in question was older than Pigeon, looking to be in his mid-forties, maybe even fifties. His face was a cobweb of rare, but deep wrinkles, as if he was stuck to a couple of emotions only, which reflected on his face. All angles and sharp features, with eyes sunken and dark hazel in colour, he supported a fairly light hair colour that looked odd on him: darker skin and brownish-ginger mane. He rubbed his wrist with wiry fingers, as he looked at her from above, being not ridiculously tall, but probably one of the tallest people on station. "Hell if I know." He shrugged. "Never met them folk." This was a known information. Only Gem out of entire twenty dozen people here had some interactions with the species, and she was already irritated by unnecessary and often weird questions.

"Well, you can go on and look for yourself." Shrugged the man, pointing his thumb over his shoulder, where the exit was, clearly misunderstanding the question. "My pa used to have a dog when I was little and could walk under the table. Sometimes crawled into its little house, and that room looks exactly like it now. Minus the window."

 

[Kittenpom20]

Pigeon, realizing this conversation was likely going nowhere unless she figured out what was happening for herself, just nodded at the information the maintenance worker gave her. "Thanks, I'll go do that." All in all, he seemed harmless enough, and like he was just doing his job. Probably not actively scheming against the mau from what she could tell.

Well, at least she hadn't yelled at the man for no reason now. His height was somewhat intimidating, too, if she was being honest; it was gratifying knowing she was the head of the security team, but there were some people she wouldn't want to take in a fight, and those people were both taller than her and did physical labor for most of their workdays.

Pig walked back to Landar and Ren, shaking her head. "Could've gone worse, all things considering. Sounds like he wasn't constructing an evil torture device just for shits and giggles, though. He said we could go take a look." She raised an eyebrow. "Either of you curious?"

 

[kevintheradioguy]

"Yeah, it's the one just besides Woodrow room." The man nodded, as if that would make his point more comprehensive. "Felt wrong to remake the guy's room so soon after he left." It was sentimental, though a bit odd. People were allowed to bring personal items in: posters, technology, plants, even pets. Some brought souvenirs, others did crafts. Ren, of course, had her bird and, to keep it happy, kept a few hanging plants in her room, blooming with some fluorescent viscous blobs. Pigeon saw someone painting in their room, barely fitting all they needed for it inside. The rooms weren't large, fitting a bed, a table with a chair, and a wardrobe inside, leaving just a little space for everything else. So however personalised they might've been, they still were same boringly white clones of each other. The station tried to save space, figuring probably, that people would much rather spend their time in canteens or gardens, rather than inside such small spaces.

Back at the table, the two others were curiously poking the alien lobster, looking curiously at its numerous legs with small opposed pincers on the end of each one. They seem to be discussing quietly what they were for, and how the animal lived in its natural habitat hen Pigeon arrived.

"Sure!" Was the answer from the both of them, almost said simultaneously. There wasn't much else to do, and any activity was appreciated.

"Are you taking your ugly alien baby with you?" Lander asked, looking at the creature. Still hot, though not steaming as much as it used to. "Looks like your breakfast, supper, and dinner." He looked at Ren, shrugging in explanation: "Kind of nourishing. Heavy."

The redhead woman stood up, rubbing her hands along her thighs to straighten the uniform pants. While they all had their standard clothes for the station: usually jumpsuits and dresses in darker shades of grey with coloured patters for different departments (of course security had red ones - it was, after all, an ancient terran tradition!), after a while, everyone started adding something personal to them. Someone wore hem with a favourite shirt underneath, others put on jackets or coats from back home, so all the uniforms, if even worn, were very surface-level. Like just an additional few pairs of clothes. Ren liked her uniform: it suiter her hair colour. Landar did not, and preferred to wear something on top. One might think why even have those on such a remote station... though the answer probably had something to do with bureaucracy.

 

[Kittenpom20]

Pigeon smiled at Landar and Ren’s eagerness to join her on what was a relatively mundane task. But considering they never really had anything interesting going on, looking at the mau’s room was probably the second most exciting thing she would do all day behind eating the alien lobster. If that stayed down. It was for now, at least.

At the thought she could take the ugly alien baby home, possibly as a very large snack later, Pigeon smiled. Now that she had stared at it long enough, it was starting to look kind of cute…

“Alright, fine, I’ll take Mr. Space Baby so he can be of further usefulness later,” she said, and slid the plate off the table with one hand, misjudging how heavy the woodlice still was, and just barely catching it in time with her other hand. “Maybe they should start growing these things smaller so we can actually eat them all in one sitting.” She was sure somebody, somewhere, had invented a technology like that. If they could grow individual cuts of meat, they could surely adjust the size of the organisms they grew. Maybe that would be the next thing they tried.

Like the others, Pig also wore their standard red jumpsuit; red happened to be her favorite color, so she was particularly suited to being a security officer. Maybe it was subconsciously how she had been drawn to the position as a kid, or perhaps she’d just liked making sure that everybody else was getting along. Over the shirt she wore favorite gray jacket, with plenty of small pockets for carrying the many things she deemed necessary to have on her person; you never knew when you’d need a breathmint or some super sticky glue. Plus, it could get cold if you were just sitting around, and layers were key.

Hefting the plate aloft, Pigeon set out towards the Woodrow room. “Last one there has to carry this back to my room for me!”

 

[kevintheradioguy]

"I am leaning towards stew." Ren nodded with an overly serious mug. "Not as creepy. Easier to portion. This thing? You can feed the entire station with just a dozen, it seems. Is it even that good?"

"Better than what we used to have up until now, that's for sure." Landar commented. It did get tiresome to eat the same thing over and over again, but was it better? Or just newer? When Terra was destroyed, not every species survived. Mostly, the most domesticated ones. Cows - though there still are some questions about the ethics of creating absolutely dependable animal species - pigs, chicken. Pets, like dogs, and cats, and some birds. A few colonies had goats and rabbits, even fewer did lobsters and tuna, and at least one station somewhere in Milky Way almost exclusively specialized on growing salmon. Other than that, a lot of spliced vegetables and fruit. All and all, it provided for quite a balanced diet, and enough option not to get tired, but this was something new and exciting, tasting weird, and looking even weirder.

"I wonder what else did they bring to grow..." Ren rubbed her chin, heading behind others. "I'll need to poke around our food labs. The mystery! Do they all look like space babies? Are they all this big? Nobody knows!"

Though a race was a fun little activity, no one seemed to take it seriously. Landar did remark that Pigeon's at a disadvantage here, carrying an alien crab. "I wanted to offer to carry it for you, but I have to take all the advantage I can get to win a race!" he jested with half-a-smile, making Ren giggle. Her laugh sounded more like a mouse squeaking than anything else, and it amused him.

Soot was not a large station. Housing took no more than maybe a fifth of it - core not included - while most of it was different labs and gardens. Of course it was! To have a self-sufficient station like this, it took a lot of work: creating water and oxygen for one, keeping it all in working order, processing filth and garbage. And then, the entire sector for growing new types of plant life, not just suited for terran consumption, but also producing gas needed for their survival. In other words, creating plants that would slowly turn Monarch into Terra, and survive this transformation. Which was a shame when it came to native plant life: it was weird, but quite beautiful. It mostly supported dimmed red and pink coloration as opposed to green, and consisted of giant trees forming thick ceiling of succulent leaves along intertwined branches so far above the ground, it almost looked like people were in a cave; huge mushroom-like plants, emitting clouds of orange spores from their slowly moving tentacle-like extremities that pierced the ground from miles beneath the earth where their thick sphere of hyphae resided in a wet, cold dirt. Grass grew in tall, bamboo-like patches on fulvous ground, separated by yards of empty, soft earth. Chances were, these plants and alike had to whether adapt fast, or die out, and who knew what were the plans for the new plantlife? Would it be as huge and majestic? No one really knew asides for Woodrow's team. The one that left so recently, and yet so long ago.

The room in question was easy to find. Everyone knew where to find the professor, after all, and a room besides had its door half-open, revealing this small cabin, now very different from the others. One of the walls had new panels on it: the bed had to be disassembled - probably because it wouldn't fit the size of a newcomer. Instead of making a suiting bed, however, the maintenance tam decided for some reason to remake the floor, and assemble the layer of softer mattresses instead of it, which in turn, made them get rid of the chair that would obviously damage the soft surface. It left the room with a few shelves and a table protruding from one wall, and a wall wardrobe on the other, as well as a window with a view opening into the starry emptiness. none of their windows ever faced the planet: Soot was spinning to create artificial gravity, which would make the planet spin relatively fast through the thick windows, making people feel dizzy. When the stars were moving as slowly as they did, it was more calming than nauseous.

"It's like a bouncy castle." Whispered Ren, coming behind everyone. She had no experience with one, and only knew about those from old terran media, but... it did look like a great place for jumping ones problems away.

"I was just about to tell that it's more like a cell in an asylum than a kennel, but yeah... bouncy castle sounds better."

 

[Kittenpom20]

Ren’s speculation about the food labs intrigued Pigeon; they’d have to make a trip there when they had the chance. Inspecting the food lab was official business, right? Definitely part of the job. The chance of seeing perhaps a tiny, perhaps an even bigger, edible woodlice was exciting.

As Pigeon had been a fan of chatting up the old professor Woodrow, she knew the way to the mau’s chambers pretty well, but balancing her plate of food turned out to be quite the challenge along the way since it was so heavy. She supported it with both hands, holding it close to her as she ran, but had to slow down on the corners so she wouldn’t accidentally throw a bright blue alien space baby at an unsuspecting passerby.

Even with her disadvantage, Ren still came in last, and Pigeon promptly hefted the plate over to her with a wink. “I think Mr. Space Baby is your reward,” she said, and turned back to face the mau’s newly renovated chambers.

Whether it resembled a bouncy castle or insane asylum at first glance, Pig couldn’t deny that it was a weird construction. The room felt smaller than normal, even though there was extra space from the lack of the bed; the padding felt strangely suffocating, and she felt hesitant to explore the tiny room any further, but her curiosity won out.

“Definitely reminds me of an insane asylum now that I think about it,” Pigeon remarked, remembering the fair share of horror movies she’d watched that featured white padded walls and floors. She considered herself somewhat of an aficionado, and truly, the resemblance was uncanny. “Would the mau even fit in here?”

Pigeon stepped into the room and took a further look around, even though there weren’t any personal belongings in here yet. She couldn’t imagine anything preferring to sleep here instead of actual furniture. If the singular mau was the only one showing up, then they would have some extra quarters anyway; they could always move her around if she didn’t want to sleep here. Pigeon glanced out of the window, looking at the familiar stars, swaying gently on the inky black background.