The Colony

[Firegirl210]

1X1 Roleplay with @Firegirl210 and @Sovereign


Larik pressed her face against the window of the shuttle, wings humming lowly with nervous anticipation. The Colony reflected the light of Sruna in a halo; a small space station, built for less than one hundred occupants.


"You are fogging the glass," Nathril said pointedly, nudging her tiny friend with one narrow foot. Larik flashed the bioluminescent patches in her brow at her friend in retaliation.


"I am excited! As you should be."


She sighed thoughtfully. "I hope there are many interesting humans to converse with. They have over eight hundred languages, you know."


"You have told me this."


The shadow of the station enveloped their vessel, and as soon as the captain announced over the loudspeaker that they had successfully docked Larik sprang to her feet.


The first wave of sterile compressed air washed over her, and she breathed deeply; a Nitrogen-Oxygen compound, already bearing traces of Carbon Dioxide that would later be recycled through filters and pumped into the Biodome to grow vegetative life for consumption by the Colonists.


"Welcome to The Colony," a Krilak woman with vibrantly red markings greeted the disembarking group, and Larik craned over her to see if she could spot any humans. Nathril nudged her again, suggesting 'behave!' in her most stern expression.


"I'm sure you're all very tired from your flight, so if you will follow me, I will show you to your quarters."


They departed as a group; some were flickering at each other with agitation, others (including Larik) hovered anxiously. The corridors were tall and sleek, and the artificial gravity felt heavy on Larik's air-pocked bones.


"You all have your room assignments. I hope you enjoy your time here in The Colony! You are paving the way for a historic occurrence. Don't forget to be up bright and early tomorrow for your first orientation!" The guide chirped, and the group began dispersing down the hall of numbered identical doors to their bunks. Larik stopped in front of number 239.


"Sleep well everyone. Long Reign the Holy Mother."


"Long Reign the Holy Mother," they responded with varying degrees of enthusiasm, and Larik touched the small keypad beside the door.


"Identity confirmed: Larik Nak'ra Li."


Inside the room was small, utilitarian, but comfortable in size and facility. A bed pulled out of one wall, and a small desk pulled out of another. A round chair hovered beside the foot of the bed, and she lay down on the bunk with a flop.


She knew she would be far too excited to get much sleep that night.


~

 

[Sovereign]

Alexander Stoli stood at briefing with fourteen other soldiers assigned to peacekeeping operations on The Colony, combined with the fifteen peacekeepers from the Krilak, they formed a thirty-soldier garrison of peacekeepers to the nearly seventy non-combatant personnel living on the colony. If all went well, in a few months the modular annex would be applied to the station and fifty to seventy more people would join the project. In truth, the Russian-born man felt a flutter of excitement in his belly --he'd never managed to see a Kirlak up close, it would be a great change of pace from having to fight any of the frontier insurgency wars.


Some of the other peacekeepers didn't seem to share his view, not everyone volunteered as he did. While the number of discontents were few, they made up a percentage --given that only one hundred individuals lived on the station. The Kirlak peacekeepers held their own briefing in the next room over, and Stoli wondered what they were being told. Did they need to be ordered not to be jerks to the humans, like his comrades did? Were they naturally violent and so vastly different from one another as humans were? The possibilities fascinated him.


When the briefing ended, Alexandir received his first assignment; he was to be posted at the orientation session in the morning --both to be oriented and to be one of the two human peacekeepers present. Again he found himself wondering what the Kirlak peacekeepers would be like. The cabin provided to him had little more than the basic cabins, save for weapons racks and an armor cleaning station to maintain his gear. When finally he wore himself out getting his equipment in order, he passed out on the bunk.


Military life started early though, and he rose to the alarm and got himself ready for the orientation session. As per his orders, he arrived first, fascinated with the structure of the halls and rooms. A unite human-Kirlak work of engineering, and the alien architectural influence certainly caught his eye.

 

[Firegirl210]

Morning is a relative term; time based on the rotation of tiny planets around average stars has no meaning in space. But it was with a spring in her step and a flutter of excitement in her abdomen that Larik woke that morning at the wakeup call, a set of chimes that rang softly but insistently throughout the habitation quarters. She rose and slipped into her bodysuit, zipping it closed at the base of her wings. She passed Hydrogen Dioxide over her face to refresh her senses, and with a brief arrangement of her frills she blinked at herself in satisfaction.


She ventured out of her room into the hall; some of the other more eager subjects were lingering outside their doors. She fluttered a few inches off the floor and zipped to the room which Nathril occupied, tapping her fingers on the door. Her friend slid it open, frills sticking up oddly on one side from heavy sleep.


"Nathril! You are not ready yet!"


"I was in the process when you called me," she pointed out, and Larik's color spots flickered in embarrassment.


"My apologies. Will you be ready soon?"


"The Holy Mother forgives," Nathril responded automatically but somewhat sarcastically, and pushed Larik out the door. "Yes, I will. Now leave me in peace you pest!"


She did eventually finish her preening, and they milled together to the central Hub, speaking in nervously lowered tones. Larik noticed as she passed through a doorway that there were two rather intimidating looking Krilak posted on either side of the door to the habitation zone, and her wings hummed curiously.


"Why do you think they're standing around while we receive orientation?" she asked, and Nathril glanced nervously at them.


"They're guards, Larik."


"But what are they guarding? We didn't bring anything of value. Currency has no meaning here."


They took their seats in the Hub, a large space which could house The Colony's entire population comfortably. It was to serve as an auditorium for community meetings, an emergency meeting place, and the canteen.


"They're guarding us. The humans have them too, see?"


The doors on the opposite side had opened, and a crowd of strange beings shuffled in with heavy sounding steps. Larik's breath caught in excitement, and her color spots glowed fluorescent aquamarine.


Humans are strange looking creatures. They come in varying skin pigmentations ranging from white to black and every neutral shade in between. They are mammals, and evolved from a branch of primates. Although they have lost much of the fur that defines a mammal, some sport a thick patch of hair on their heads in various colors. Their eyes are small and colored based on melanin production. They walk--or clomp, really--upright, have two hands and two similar appendages at the base of their legs, all ideally sporting ten digits.


"Welcome," a Krilak, the same magenta guide as the previous day, spoke to the gathered group, and a human male joined her on the raised platform before the assemblage and repeated the greeting in the language the humans used. It sounded sharp and hard, but Nathril's color spots shimmered with pleasure at the sound.


"To The Colony! You have all been accepted for this momentous social experiment, and we hope that you take this honor seriously. There is a strict schedule here, which you will be able to access at any time using the comm you were all given upon entry." Larik looked down at the sleek band on her wrist that had activated her door the night before. "That schedule is to be adhered to as closely as possible. There is absolutely no unauthorized access to The Colony, and all visitors must apply through proper channels. We have a zero tolerance policy for unauthorized substances within the walls, a complete list of which is accessible within your comm. There is also a zero tolerance policy for violence between any members of the community. All conflicts are to be reported to one of the Conflict Resolution team, whom you see standing beside me."


A group of three Krilak and three humans made affirmative gestures at the recognition. Larik let her eyes wander to the seated humans. Many of them were doing the same, running their small, dull colored eyes over the multicolored, shimmering Krilak. Larik's chest glowed with excitement; she couldn't wait to get started!

 

[Sovereign]

Alexandir stood his guard at the entryway from the habitation corridors, clad in intimidating Warstrider Mk IX combat armor. If humans knew one thing better than most, it was how to make weapons and wage war. For as heavily armored as the peacekeepers were, however, they were not very heavily armed. A bulky, angular RF-87 "Double-up" pistol sat in a drop-leg holster on their thighs, and a stunstick adorned their hips. Other than that, combat equipment appeared to be minimal.


When the doors closed and orientation began, Stoli moved to the inside door threshold to watch over the crowd. Pretty much all the information covered in the orientation already came to the soldiers in their briefing yesterday --which was good, given Alexandir's complete lack of attention to the speakers in favor of studying the Kirlak sitting just a few feet away. Apparently, withing a few days of orientation, the species would be mingling most of their days. All peacekeeper shifts would be stations of one human and one Kirlak guard, and most occupations would be mixed company as well. Eventually, if all went well, the plan was inter-species roommate assignments too. The science team really wanted to see how close the different species could exist.


The genetics really interested Stoli; according to the research, Kirlak and Human DNA deviation was almost as different --if not less-- as human to ape DNA on earth, albeit in a different direction of course. (Lemme know if my BS'ing interferes!) The Russian could not help but chuckle to himself. All the science fiction movies in the past prediction that any 'first contact' scenario would lead to war. In fact, the two races blundering into one another could not have been more peaceful. Then again,t he contact occurred between two civilian parties, rather than military.


They were so... colorful, vibrant even; the bioluminescence made for quite the eye-catching effect. Sleek and nimble, they had a sort of graceful appearance to them just... naturally. The soldier pondered what they thought of humans, he thought the Kirlak looked interesting --not in a bad way, actually. Nothing seemed aesthetically off-putting about them.


And so it went, he studied faces and expressions, eyes and frames, even their language had an interesting ring to it --could the human tongue replicate that? He wasn't sure --as far as human languages went, Russian fared even harder and more aggressive than most. English at least had some soft rounding to it.

 

[Firegirl210]

"Thank you all for your patience and obedience. You should all check your schedule assignments and report to occupation orientation. Long Reign the Holy Mother," the Krilak representative concluded, and the listeners murmured the echo. There was some uncertain shuffling and glancing between subjects as everyone decided what exactly to do next.


Larik had no such reservations. She pushed through the milling Krilak, dragging Nathril along. In her haste she nearly tripped, but righted herself in front of the humans who had begun to rise.


"Tell them I say hello," she said to Nathril, who gave a long suffering sigh. She gave a friendly blink to the humans and spoke, somewhat haltingly, in their language. One of the females bared her teeth and offered a hand to Nathril, who looked at it curiously. The human spoke again, and Nathril took her hand, and the human made a pleasant sound and pumped Nathril's hand up and down.


"What's she doing?" Larik asked.


"It is their greeting."


The biologist stuck her hand out, and soon the humans and Krilak were crowding together, blinking and shaking hands and fumblingly trying to communicate. Larik glowed with joy, but the scene was short lived. In synch all 100 comms gave an insistent beep, calling them to occupation orientation. Larik bid Nathril goodbye and followed several of her colleagues to the lab where she would be employed.

 

[Sovereign]

Alexandir went to his next post when the orientation group filed out and made for their respective locations. His assignment for the afternoon could be summed up simply as a basic patrol. All he had to do was walk around the station, stop at every individual office or lab, and make sure the peace was kept. In the case of any emergency, the help button on the comms would call for a Peacekeeper. What was it the commander said the other day about the help calls? Something about priority...


Oh, right!


Krilak help calls were prioritized to human Peacekeepers, while human help calls were prioritized to Krilak Peacekeepers. The scientists believed that this help-crossover would breed a sort of trust and interdependence between species. Krilak civilians would see human peacekeepers as safe, and human civilians would feel the same about Krilak Peacekeepers. Stoli felt giddy at the prospect of it. He felt himself to be a fairly good example of a human being --not perfect, but not the spiteful, hateful type either.


He started his rounds and wandered the corridors, offering a polite nod and wave whenever he passed anyone --including other peacekeepers. They may not understand human mannerisms now, but it did not mean he shouldn't use them. Eventually they'd learn, and when they did, maybe they'd recognize he was friendly from the very beginning! His armor didn't help though, bulky and intimidating, faceless and cold; Stoli needed to work extra hard not to seem too threatening, especially given his stature.


One of his stops took him into a research laboratory, the scientists being oriented as he entered. The speakers paused as he entered the door, head swiveling to take in his surroundings. As a Peacekeeper it would do him well to know every room and hallway. Stoli frowned, humans were too familiar with war and law enforcement --even they were nervous in his presence. He offered a polite wave to try and take some of his imagined-hardness away, and the speakers got back to their presentation.


A sense of unease puddled in the pit of his stomach, he hoped they eventually got over their anxiety around him and the others like him. The Russian came here to learn about the Krilak and build a future with them --the last thing he wanted was to make anyone anxious or afraid.

 

[Firegirl210]

"...personal projects will be granted on a case-by-case basis. The process for this is detailed further in your comms."


Larik looked around with quick, birdlike movements, taking in the well-stocked laboratory. She already had several projects in mind, and her digits were itching to get on with it. The door slid open and the Chiefs of Laboratory Staff turned to see who had arrived so late. It was a human peacekeeper, dressed (as a precaution for the early stages, she supposed) in full armor. Their face was obscured by a reflective black helmet, and there was some uncomfortable shifting. He raised a hand, then began ambling around the room. The chiefs decided he was a minor disturbance at most and continued their lecture.


"You will all have access to time in the specialized labs, which have digital signups accessible through the comms. This concludes your orientation for today; please feel free to explore the laboratory facilities and approach us with any additional questions you may have. Long Reign the Holy Mother."


The restless scientists dispersed to explore or clumped to speak to each other, and Larik zipped around curiously. There was a mixture of familiar and alien technology, and she picked up an oddly shaped beaker curiously. It was wide at the base and narrow at the stem, and she turned it over in her delicate fingers dexterously. A large, dark shape moved suddenly in her peripheral vision and she jumped, whirling in surprise. The vial slipped from her fingers.

 

[Sovereign]

The scientists broke from their initial orientation cluster into various tasks and individual assessment of the laboratory equipment. Most of them gave him a wide berth, and stuck to keeping from looking at him --though given that they were scientists, that could have been completely related to getting their hands on some tools and equipment. Familiarization of oneself with the tools of their trade was paramount, regardless of profession.


Stoli walked cautiously through the lab, observing the scientists scurry and scuttle around from place to place and equipment to equipment. The Peacekeeper had been about to pass closely by one of the Krilak scientists when she jumped and dropped a beaker. With trained reflexes the large Russian soldier dropped into a crouch and scooped the beaker up by the bottom before it could hit the ground and shatter. Alexandir let out a sigh of relief --he didn't want to be the cause of an incident report on his first day.


Rising back to full height, his armor didn't so much as creak --apparently he kept it well maintained. Stoli held out the beaker in a gentle manner, he didn't want to seem too forceful or insistent on it's return. The wide base sat in his open palm, waiting for the scientist to take it back from him. If she did in fact take it back form him, he'd nod his head once and carefully step by her, not wanting to bump into anyone. On the chance that she didn't take the beaker back, he'd simply place it on the counter beside her and keep going.


If she paid any kind of attention to the detailing of his armor, she may have noticed the human characters stenciled across the right half of his breastplate: "LT. STOLI".

 

[Firegirl210]

The peacekeeper--for that is what it was that had startled her--plucked the instrument from the air with impressive reflexes, and held it out to Larik. She stared at his blank face covering in surprise, but he didn't make another move. He simply offered it to her the way someone might offer food to a timid animal. Her color patches brightened in embarrassment and she took the beaker from him with both hands shyly.


"Thank you," she said, although she knew he probably wouldn't understand her. Up close he was even more intimidating in his body armor; black and sleek with purple accents, and a neat line of symbols she did not understand the meaning of. But she realized they were most likely of a similar meaning to those on her nametag, which identified her as LARIK NAK'RA LI: BIOLOGIST. She pointed to this, then to the symbols on his chest.


"Larik," she said clearly, gesturing back to her nametag. She pointed to his expectantly.

 

[Sovereign]

Stoil prepared to move past the scientist when she started say something to him. He didn't understand, but if he needed to wager a guess based upon their similar etiquette structures, it probably meant something akin to 'thank you.' She pointed to a tag on her clothing --a string of symbols he didn't recognize-- and spoke a single word: Larik. The soldier looked down at his own stenciled-on tag, and recognized that she was offering him a name, a belief reinforced by her pointing to his own tag.


"Stoli," he said, pointing to his own. The voice came out distorted by the helmet speakers, it lacked any real inflection through the monotone speakers. They were designed for combat, when soldiers needed to sound unshakable and indomitable. At that very moment he cursed the idiot who glossed over the necessity for inflection on a peacekeeping assignment. Then again, the other race probably had no idea how to gauge human inflection anyway, so maybe it didn't matter.


"Larik," he repeated the best he could --he had a fairly thick Russian accent, and it made it hard to say it in the manner other English-speakers might. The soldier pointed at her to reinforce that he knew what he spoke was her name.

 

[Firegirl210]

Larik's eyes widened and glowed with pleasure as the human caught her meaning and uttered two guttural syllables, which she took to memory; Stoli. He gestured to her and said something that sounded roughly like her name, and she fluttered her wings excitedly.


"Yes, yes!" she said joyfully and, forgetting her shyness, ran her fingers lightly across the lettering on his broad chest. "Sto-li," she said carefully, mulling the sounds on her tongue. Good, strong sounds. She touched the base of the peacekeeper's shiny black helmet curiously, wondering what he looked like beneath it.

 

[Sovereign]

Alexandir watched her excitement grow after he said her name --or at least, that is what it seemed like. Surprisingly she touched him, gliding her fingers over the writing of his name. She parroted his name as he had done hers, it lacked the hard Russian impact that it carried when spoken by a Russian, but phonetically she'd spoken it correctly. The Peacekeeper nodded his head in the affirmative.


"Yes, Stoli," he affirmed. Despite her lack of understanding about personal space, Alexandir smiled in spite of himself. Things could have gone much, much worse on his first day; instead, his first interaction with the cohabiting species was a good one! The female called Larik seemed interested in his armor, touching the helmet and studying his faceplate.


If he were her, he'd want to know what was under the helmet. Unfortunately, regulation forbid him to remove his helmet while on duty unless eating lunch. If the station were to suddenly depressurize, the Peacekeepers needed to be able to survivie and function to handle the situation. Maybe he'd run into her later, then he could show her his face.

 

[Firegirl210]

Larik's comm blipped suddenly, and she looked down in disappointment. She needed to go; how could she tell him? She gestured to the device, then to the door. "I must leave," she said, unnecessarily, but her message was obvious enough. She flickered a goodbye to him and hurried after the others, heading together to the mess hall for a communal meal. She glanced back once, but the human was already gone.


~ (<--a tilde will indicate a small time skip in any of my posts from now on)


"Will you teach me to speak to the humans?"


Nathril sighed and looked up as Larik slid into the seat beside her at a round clean table. The room was alive with chatter from all sides, and some of the linguists were already interacting with members of the opposite species.


"You tried to learn their most common tongue once before and you grew bored of it. Why the sudden interest?"


Larik ruffled her frills casually, but there was a flutter in her belly. "Because I wish to communicate with them! Now that I have a motivation I will learn more quickly. I promise, Nathril." Her friend massaged the hollow below her ear-openings in frustration. Larik waited patiently, then less patiently, then finally gripped Nathril's hands in hers. "Please, please Nathril? I will never ask you for a favor again!"


"Don't make promises you have no intent to keep, you menace!" Nathril scolded, shaking Larik off, but her eyes softened. "Fine."


Larik punched the air triumphantly, eyes aglow. Next time she came face to face with a human, she would not grunt inarticulately. She would speak to them, and learn their ways, and become their friend.


Starting, she should think, with Stoli.

 

[Sovereign]

Later in the day, after his shift concluded and Stoli found himself free to explore at his leisure, he hunted down a peacekeeper named Charlie Donner. Alexandir liked the man, full of life and humor in equal measure. Though he never missed an opportunity to make a joke, he had a kind heart beating beneath that sarcastic exterior.


Stoli found him in the mess hall having just concluded his own shift. Hitting the food line, he got himself a tray of... something, he didn't bother asking what. In the military, you ate what they gave you. Given the civilian nature of the assignment, Alexander knew that regardless of what he ordered, it couldn't ever be worse than the military rations.


Falling heavily into a seat across from Charlie, he offered the man a big Russian greeting.


"Charlie! Comrade! Good to see you, I hope your day went well," he said in a thick Russian accent and a wide grin.


"Stoli, you ruskie bastard! How the hell are ya?" Charlie responded in a distinctly American accent. "What pray-tell can I do for you my fine Russian friend?"


"You are good with the Kirlak language, no? I want to learn," he admitted bluntly, digging into his food when he finished speaking. Salisbury steak, potatoes, cooked carrots. Damn near fine dining for a career soldier.


Donner grinned mischievously, leaning forward onto his elbows.


"What? You find yourself a cute extra-species lady for yourself already?" Donner asked, clearly poking fun.


"Oh calm yourself Charlie, I know not every man can be as masculine and desirable as I, but that is no need to feel bad about yourself!" Stoli knew how to handle Charlie by now; just go along with the jokes and eventually he'll get to the point.


"Oh funny guy Al, funny guy." Charlie shook his head. "Anyway, why do you wanna learn the language?"


"This is a social experiment is it not? I want to learn so I can interact with them!" Stoli always talked animatedly when off-duty, that much the military couldn't drill out of him. While in his uniform, he remained in perfect control, but off shift? He talked with his hands, and often fairly boisterously.


"I suppose I can do that. We'll start tonight, but you're buyin' the drinks, got it?" Charlie didn't need too long to mull it over, Alexandir was a friend and they'd been on several assignments together --they were probably the closest peacekeepers on the station.


"Yes, yes, you get your booze," Stoli waved him off. "Silly Americans and their beer, can't handle Vodka like Russians --it's why we grow big and strong!" The Russian flexed his bicep impressively; he himself was not above cracking jokes.

 

[Firegirl210]

"Halloo, mah nayme its--"


"No, no, your pronunciation is completely wrong. Repeat, slowly, after me. Hello," Nathril said impatiently, and Larik repeated, equally impatiently, "Hello?"


"My name." "My nayme."


"Is Larik." "Iss Larik."


Nathril nodded. "Acceptable. Now, what is your name?" Larik squinted in confusion. "My name is Lari--"


"No! That's the next phrase--argh!" Larik dropped her head on the desk of Nathril's room, wings drooping dismally.


"I am very bad at this."


"Yes, you are. Now focus."


~


Larik flicked the microscope to a higher magnification. The cells beneath her lens were brilliantly red, healthy circles. She took notes on their structure and makeup as she murmured under her breath, "My name is Larik! What is your name? My name is Larik...my name..." she added a drop of radium to the petri dish, then leaned back, rubbing her eyes. She had been at this for hours, and as interesting as the human blood cell was, she wanted to do real experiments, with real humans! But they had been told to wait until week three for collaboration, and she was absolutely certain she would die of boredom before that time came.


"Chief, may I check out early?" she asked, leaning backwards over her chair and letting her vertebrae get a nice crack. The chief on duty gave her a judgmental frill wave.


"If you are certain you will complete your experiments in the allotted time frame, then you may check out whenever you feel you need to," she said pointedly, and Larik sprang from her chair. She cleaned her station quickly, pushing her protective goggles onto her forehead as she practically pranced out of the lab. She started heading for her room, then changed her mind and headed for her favorite part of The Colony.


The Biodome was a structure wit many purposes. It first and foremost grew vegetative food for the colonists; but instead of a simple farm system, the botanists had built a botanical garden of food producing plants. There were different climate rings containing examples of every sustainable plant from tropical to temperate. It was also a very pleasant place for a stroll, even if she didn't strictly have clearance to be there.


She swung around a corner and nearly ran into someone coming from the opposite direction.


"Oh, pardon me!" she yelped apologetically.

 

[Sovereign]

Stoli walked his patrol as he was expected to do every day --well, at least almost every day. One day a week he only had a half day of patrol, the rest of his shift, he was expected to inspect the armory and maintain the Peacekeeper gear. Regardless, the corridors of the Biodome were nice --mostly made of thick observation glass that offered nice views of all the plants, both foreign and familiar. As a man who knew four human languages, picking up another hadn't been as hard as he might have expected.


Language, when spoken, always seemed to share a specific set of rules; rules and pattern make language, and thus Alexandir caught on relatively quick. The difficult part came in the form of controlling his accent. Charlie joked with him about his progress, telling him he had less of an accent speaking an alien language than he did speaking English.


Thinking about his lesson, a Kirlak female nearly crashed into him when coming around the corner. He stopped and kept from bumping into her. Wait, hold on, this one looked familiar. Is this the same one that he met in the lab? Stoli studied the name tag and tried to remember if the symbols looked familiar. Eh, screw it, he could at least attempt asking.


"Larik?" he asked, giving a fairly inquisitive inflection to make certain it was received as a question and not a statement.

 

[Firegirl210]

Larik's apology went unanswered right away, and she looked up to find she had run into a peacekeeper. She looked up, trying to remember if Nathril had taught her how to apologize.


"Larik?"


Her frills perked up in surprise at the unexpected sound of her name. Then she glowed warmly with pleasure.


"Stoli!"

 

[Sovereign]

Alexandir grinned behind his helmet, the Kirlak recognized him; he was right, she was Larik! Now he wished he knew more so he could talk with her instead of just standing around awkwardly.


Charlie did teach him something useful to say in her language though, a way to at least show he knew of her speech and was learning it himself.


"I do not know very much, but I am learning your language." He must have practiced the phrase a hundred times with Donner, but eventually he got it nearly perfect. For as laid back as Stoli usually acted, he took any and all learning experiences seriously and with no small amount of gusto.


She remembered his name though, which made for a good start. Maybe one day they could communicate together in a manner befitting conversation.

 

[Firegirl210]

The peacekeeper spoke, and it took Larik a moment to realize that she had understood what he said. He had spoken, albiet stiffly and somewhat haltingly, in Kri. He was learning her language! She clapped her hands together gleefully.


"Oh, that is wonderful, wonderful Stoli! Oh! Oh, now it is my turn." She stood up straight and looked up very seriously at Stoli. She had practiced this with Nathril.


"My nayme is Larik. Your nayme its Sto-li. How you are today?"

 

[Sovereign]

Alexandir blinked in surprise, apparently she too decided to learn a new language. The surprise faded quickly and melted instead to a grin, true or not he couldn't help but feel like he had some influence in her decision to learn --after all, she couldn't say anything the day before!


"Very good!" he said, not expecting her to understand, but hoping the inflection of praise would carry through.


The question now was, what did he do? He couldn't do too much when he was on duty, except for converse. Conversation though, just about bottomed out after their initial learning phrases.

 

[Firegirl210]

Her attempt at human speech was met with a positive sounding reply, and she glowed with pride. She had, however, exhausted the extent of her linguistic skill. But she wanted to continue this interaction, and an idea struck her suddenly.


"Come with me!" She said, then in his tongue, "Come, come!" She grabbed his hand, and gestured to the Biodome, her original destination. Surely he could spare a moment to enjoy the open air with her?

 

[Sovereign]

Stoli did not immediately understand when she spoke, but the added human translation gave him a rough estimate of what she'd said. He needed to go into the Biodome habitats anyway, so he didn't see any harm in following the excited Kirlak female into the habitat. The Russian could not help but wonder if their species maintained any awareness of personal space, she continued to touch him like she did the previous day --his nametag, his helmet, and now his hand.


Alexandir didn't mind, he just thought it interesting that most humans would not touch each other for weeks --maybe longer-- into a friendship. This Kirlak seemed content to touch an almost perfect stranger.


Regardless, he followed her into the Biodome and Stoli wished he could smell all the vegetation through his suit's air scrubbers. Seeing it was enough though, the different plants that he'd never seen together paired closely with other more familiar plants.

 

[Firegirl210]

To her delight, Stoli followed her into the biodome. He gave their amblings a direction, probably doing a sweep for anything amiss, and she waved at Botanists and farmers human and Krilak alike. She frolicked among the foliage, here or there plucking a fruit from a tree or a flower from a bush, and by the time they had passed through the level her frills and the joints in his armor were lined with blooms.


She turned to her companion, contemplating his opaque face.


"Are you ever allowed to take it off?" She asked, making a gesture as if she were removing something from her head and tapping his helmet questioningly. "I would like to see your face!"

 

[Sovereign]

Stoli didn't understand what she was saying, but he did understand the gesture she made about taking his helmet off. He frowned slightly and shook his head. Donner taught him the Kirlak word for 'no' and he spoke it to reaffirm his point in case the gesture did not make it clear.


Alexandir could only remove his gear when the shift was over, but how did he tell her that? Looking at the data slate built into the forearm of his armor, he tapped it a few times to bring up the time he got off shift. Showing her the glowing numbers of a time three hours from he current time, he gestured back to his helmet in the same way she had.


Perhaps she'd like to go to the cafeteria? Truthfully he needed to eat after shift, otherwise he'd get an upset stomach from being hungry. Often, he forgot to grab breakfast so going all day without a meal made it tough to wait even a few minutes after shift to eat.

 

[Firegirl210]

"No." It was said somewhat forcefully, and she wilted slightly in her enthusiasm, thinking she had offended him.


He brought up the days timetable and selected a block later in the evening. He gestured to his helmet, then back at the time.


Oh! He couldn't take his helmet off until later!


"Like my goggles!" She said, pointing to the devices still strapped to her head. "For work!" She nodded to affirm understanding, patting his burly arm.


"I understand, Stoli."


She decided then that she would command Nathril to teach her more phrases in the meantime, and opened her own timetable. She highlighted the same hour he had indicated and then mimed eating. Would he come to the canteen with her? She hoped he understood.