Chapter 6

Craig and Kayla sat together in some outdoor seating of a café, waiting for their food. Kayla’s eyes kept darting between one unbelievable, bizarre sight after another, her brain unable to decide for long exactly what anomaly deserved her attention more. All around them, waving in the warm breeze that smelled lightly of the sea air were tropical trees and other plants with long fronds that would be out of place in Canada, even if they hadn’t originated on other planets. Even more out of place were the denizens.

Her eyes locked onto a passaro hen resembling a lark walking by their table. She stood nearly as tall as Kayla herself, and wore a billowy silver suit that complimented her plumage modestly. The hen was accompanied by a group of children which included a few human kids, some younger-looking passaro chicks, and some kaiseichan youth who resembled little saplings and shrubs with legs. As they passed Craig and Kayla’s table, she noticed many of the little saplings seemed to be covered with ants or some similar type of insect. One sapling started giggling and dancing in place as they walked by.

“Ms. Twirler!” The sapling called out through their giggles, “Gerting keeps tickling me!”

“Gerting!” The older bird, obviously a teacher, called in a stern voice, “Li has offered to carry you, but if you can’t behave, then you’ll have to go back to your vessel. Do you understand?”

“Sorry, Ms. Twirler,” A small chorus of voices came from the insects on the sapling, and all the little bugs then settled down as one. Kayla focused on the insects, and her neural band quickly revealed that these were bejinkind, a sentient race of insectoids which operated as hive minds like ants or bees. As she continued to follow the small group, the neural band provided the proper way to pronounce the names of the various species, and she mouthed along silently in practice. Pass-are-oh, Kye-say-shen, Bay-Jin-Kind.

“OK!” A chipper voice from behind her drew her attention away from the school trip. Their order had arrived. The waiter was kaiseichan, and towered over them; at least one foot taller than Craig’s standing height. He was a springy soft wood, almost like birch. “We’ve got ... a Garnyan Salad?” He twisted back and forth facing both Kayla and Craig expectantly, the blue leaves swishing atop his head. She’d learned that photoreceptors in those leaves, in combination with his walking roots that picked up even the smallest of tremors in the ground, was how he perceived them visually. His neural band looked older and worn down, and was wrapped around his base like a belt. In one gnarled and knotty hand he held a salad with a combination of red and green leaves, some vegetables like cucumbers and radishes, sprouts, a smattering of nuts, and topped with a drizzle of clear dressing.

“That’s me,” Kayla replied, her stomach growling. The waiter carefully handed her the salad, his reach longer than she had expected. The dressing smelled tart, almost like lemon.

“And here’s your steak,” the waiter rounded on Craig, deftly sliding a plate with a blue slab of meat and what looked like mashed potatoes under Craig’s nose. Craig eyed the steak suspiciously as the waiter set down their drinks and darted away to another table. For as large as he was, his movement was nearly silent as the dozens of tendril-like roots pulled him quickly across the stone floor of the restaurant’s patio.

“You sure this is safe to eat?” Craig asked, poking his steak with a fork.

“Yes,” Kayla heard Glyph’s reply in her head. A flash of light jerked her attention to where the waiter had just been moments before. Glyph stood there now, looking directly at her, even though they were responding to Craig. This was merely a projection granted by the neural band, as Glyph was not able to venture far from the ship. Craig looked to a different spot altogether, and Kayla surmised that his neural band was projecting Glyph in a different space than hers.

The idea of Glyph being left behind had left a sour taste in Kayla’s mouth, but Glyph had explained that, for many reasons, this was for the best; not the least of which was that it prevented the separation of the ITSTU and Glyph themselves. She still thought it seemed like overkill. How dangerous would it really be to let them wander a bit when they always had the ability to just teleport back anyway? It just felt cruel to her, like they were under house arrest just for the crime of being alive.

“A scan of your physiology from your time in the med vessel gives me a clear understanding of what would be dangerous for you to consume,” Glyph explained, “Should you be worried about anything, you need only ask and I can analyze it.” Craig sliced off a bite of the steak and popped it into his mouth. His eyes widened as he chewed.

“Oh damn,” he gasped, immediately digging in for another bite. Kayla poked a few leaves onto her fork and took a bite as well; moaning with satisfaction as she processed a flavor that was both savory and sour at the same time, something that seemed catered specifically to her tastebuds. She turned pink at the noise she’d just made, and prayed Craig hadn’t noticed.

“While you enjoy your meals,” Glyph continued, “We can chat about attractions here on the planet, and get a sense of what you want to experience while on your vacation. There are many different options to explore, but to get a sense of the right direction to point you in, I’d like you both to share with me some of your interests, where they may overlap, and also things that you would prefer to avoid.”

Kayla pondered this for a moment, chewing her salad. Already today they had gone sightseeing through the city, and even that limited vantage point made it clear that the world was much different than the one they had left just hours before (relatively speaking). Much of the planet’s surface had been terraformed by the kaiseichan. There were bizarre shrubs, grasses, and even entire forests that seemed to defy the natural world she knew; plants and trees with leaves that hit nearly every color on the spectrum. Glyph had told them these plants engaged in a more complex form of photosynthesis than the native plant life of earth, eating up much of the air pollution and outputting oxygen at a rate capable of maintaining Earth’s current needs. The result was that everywhere they had visited thus far had fresh air to breathe, despite the dense population and vehicle traffic.

“Are there clubs in the future?” Craig asked excitedly, “Music, dancing?” Kayla suppressed a grimace at the thought. She didn’t think she was going to be any more capable of handling the obnoxious and loud club life of this millennium than she was the previous.

“Oh, most definitely,” Glyph replied, “Earth is the premier luxury destination for much of the galaxy. It is home to three of the four most popular clubs in Union Space. There are many casinos which host events and shows from entertainers across many different systems, dance clubs that the most elite members of society will travel across the known galaxy to attend, as well as some of the greatest sports leagues. Most famously, though, there is the galaxy’s largest Neurasseum, right here in Vancouver. I’d highly recommend exploring that.”