by Marcus Sloss
“I never mentioned a name. There is not one for your… our language. I picked Pandarin, but you can change the name if you want,” Everly mentioned.
“So do we want to buy direct, make a bid, find a middle man, or…?” I asked, letting the sentence hang.
Perci smiled at Everly, seeking her opinion.
“Um… I have been here, before. Even to this place. Father would go over to the interface for the servant species he wanted and shop for deals for hours. He never focused on much else. The tribes further into the jungle would trade lots of materials and goods for decent servants,” Everly said sadly.
I rubbed her back. This was common in Crixxi society. She was not grieving the same way that a human would mourn. She had never been close to her father, merely a surrogate for his dead son. Everly had confided to us that she missed his lessons, but felt confident in her ability to become the matriarch of a larger, more powerful tribe than her father had ever controlled. Moments like this, however, pulled her out of the victory Lilith and I created for her and reminded her of her past.
“You okay?” I asked.
“I’m good,” she smiled. “I am proud to be at your side. I am proud to see our tribe grow today. My father was unwise to challenge a male as powerful as you. He suffered defeat without proper humility. You acted with honor as his victor. I still feel shame for my parents' transgressions,” Everly said, and her back stiffened. “The Pandarin will be a great addition to our community. Come, follow me, sister wife, tribe master.”
She led us down a row. The tiny creatures continued for a long time. I groaned when those we walked past had barely reached a height of two feet, and we had been walking for more than ten minutes. The distant tall tree being I thought was three hundred feet tall must have been even larger, because as we progressed down the line, I realized his head was higher than the trading gates beyond him. A few times, as we continued down it, the line would lengthen or shorten, whenever new species were added or removed from the available catalogue.
We came across many animals common on Earth, merely variations that were intelligent enough to be considered sapient. There were a lot of cats, that stood on anywhere from two up to ten legs. Some were upright, some horizontal, some had three tails, others two heads, a few with eight eyes, even heads without necks, and these were only the sapient variations.
We held hands trooping down the line, inspecting animals as they grew in size.
An alert pinged my wrist with a slight vibration. Perci bent down with a twist to read the text, not wanting to release her grip.
“Jevon said half the trucks are loaded. Torrez is flooding the teams outside the Xgate with work. Where do you want to sort the new equipment, as far as their likely storage location on the base?” Perci said, returning to a normal walk.
I scooped Perci up in one fell swoop and tossed her over my shoulder. She giggled in delight. This freed up my wrist, which I brought up to my face, and within a few taps I was on a video-call with Jevon.
“Hey, boss, 63s are being pushed out. How do you want to divide them?” Jevon asked.
“I was thinking half and half for now. You need to get your team leaders to immediately begin testing them out. I know we have a good twenty hours before the gates swap to blue portals, but every moment we have that we can get more familiar with the new equipment counts. Mitchell and Bonnet should be more than prepared when the portals switch over,” I said into my wrist device.
“Wait, these tanks are for light infantry and recon? They're the size of a truck,” Jevon said, patting a 63 beside him.
“I don’t know exactly what Torrez has bought yet. I just know we're shoveling money—er … zinc, at our military problems. But yes, those ATPG63s, or were they APTG63s… well, shit … Call them 63s for now until we come up with simpler names. And hell yes, they are mobile.”
“There is also an eight-legged exosuit, like a heavy infantry mecha,” I continued, “Those should arrive soon. Stick Crixxi in them. There also should be some jet packs in the mix that I never got to see.” I paused with a sigh, knowing there were a ton of moving parts at the moment.
“Nancy should be buying more personnel shields and my replacement weapons. I want you creating flying drop troops to man the jetpacks. Daphne is on the hunt for nitrogen generators to swap out for our carbon ones, and she is getting a mix of Crixxi weapons for potential raiding parties. Mclain is hunting for superior shielding or something we can double up with, so a smaller exoskeleton would be nice. Our purchases are going to hit the storage room hard and fast. I will come down after we secure personnel additions to help un-cluster this mess.” I shook my head.
“Next time, I’m going shopping and you're playing quarterback,” Jevon chuckled. “It is good to see all the new items arriving. Concerns of personal issues like pay will be resolved a bit when people see new tangible items they get to call their own. Like a freaking tank,” Jevon said with a grin. “The supply room keeps expanding. I am working with Mr. T on trying to get an auto-offloader, but we have items that keep showing up in the way. Otherwise, it will take forever to shift all this stuff out of here with only ten personnel. Torrez is on a bender.” His eyes got really large. “Holy shit! A hundred-foot tall mecha suit just showed up.”
“Did Eddy, Braxton, and Clive get all the new equipment they needed for construction?” I asked. “I bet Razzar is going to be happy with the new mining gear,” I said, nudging Everly forward when she paused. This earned me a tail swat on my ass. I glanced down at her and she was pointing to a creature that looked like a panda, only instead of white and black, it was brown and black. The eyes held a deep intelligence, and the face a gentle smile. “I’ve arrived at what we came to look for, so need to wrap this up.”
“Yeah, the first wave of items is being hauled home. Priority of transport is being given the tunnel transportation machine to connect the strongholds.” He frowned, “I got to admit, I feel a little skeptical about converting half our vehicle fleet into zinc, though,” Jevon said.
“I get it, but we found thousands of electrics in Denver. So many, that we had to leave a lot of them for next time. We hardly even started our looting there. Boulder, too, is a ghost town ripe for looting,” I said in a gruff voice. “We will be okay if we focus, improve, and grow. For the community.”
“For the community, Deluxe Duke out,” Jevon replied in a cheerful tone.
The connection closed, and I set Perci back on the ground. She sniffed, as if she hadn’t loved that, but her blushing cheeks gave her away.
“I like him. Nancy says he is your best friend. He is never around, though. You can tell by your voices you miss each other,” Everly said with sad eyes and pouty lips. She could always wheedle an extra kiss or three out of me, acting so sweet.
“We… our bond is indeed special. Not long ago, I pushed a lot of people away; not again. So, my lovely ladies… Teach me about the Pandarin, please,” I said, checking out the image of the shorter creature.
Perci tapped on the screen, typing rapidly. Everly reached over her shoulder and hit a single button. The screen grew wider than Perci’s arms, which let me see where she was on the interface.
Species: Pandarin - Rating: 2
“You mind if I read the description out loud?” Perci asked.
I shrugged, not really caring.
“Pandarin,” she began, “originated from a high-oxygen planet with an abundance of short-stalked plant life that they blend into. They are peaceful by nature but were deemed an aggressive species because of territorial dance competitions that often resulted in injuries. Wait,” she looked up incredulously, “they were stuck in quarantine for fighting without any deaths…”
Everly patted Perci’s shoulder. “A commonality among many of the subspecies you see here, is that they never really belonged in this mess ... hence why they failed so terribly.” She sighed. “Keep going, please.”
“Their original and only planet was conquered by a goliath species known as
the Parvinus. The Pandarin submitted to their new overlords quickly. The subspecies were bred beyond their original number to be traded since they were so good at their tasks. Pandarin are now on more planets than the majority of aggressive species,” Perci said, letting the last sentence fade. “So, they won by losing. By becoming helpless servants, they were cherished, and have thrived in captivity. Neat to see how something like this played out.”
Everly chuckled, switching the interface over to a biological overview of the pandarin. “Bonded pairs mate for life. They accept a few forms of co-species into their body, like the virum. They are quick breeders and excellent workers. The males have no aggression, the females are perfect nurturers, and they both make fantastic teachers. They can adapt to a society's structures quickly and fulfill the needs of their protectors with ease,” Everly said with a smile.
“If the Pandarin are so well suited to most kinds of work, do we need the mouse people at all?” Perci asked with a tilt of her head. She spun the image of the Pandarin to look at it from different angles. It was three feet tall, equipped for climbing, and the display said that it disliked clothing.
“They are somewhat limited in what they can do. See, if you click here…” Everly demonstrated, changing the interface, “a downside and negative aspects page populates.”
“Oh, I see,” Perci said, studying the page. “They are not good at managing unruly teenagers. They cannot reach high, are not good with dexterous skills, and are limited in their chores by their long sleep cycles. They sleep twelve hours a day, even with the virum. Oh, they eat a lot of leaves too. Hmm…”
“See, the Pandarin are nice, but they come with their own set of problems. Pinecones and pine needles will not sustain these beautiful creatures. We will need to procure a manufacturing processor for a lettuce-type leaf that they never get tired of. I have grown them in treetops with ease before. It is a simple machine that will not cost much and we have the resources, as well as space, to set a few up. Enough funds have been allocated to build the necessary automated systems to support these creatures. I was thinking we could store them in the open until additional cavern space opens up from our mining initiative. Think of the Pandarin as newborn to five-year-old caregivers.”
“What do the Crixxi rely on for childcare past age five?” I asked.
“Ourselves, normally. Young Crixxi mind their manners and can work by age five. So, they integrate while getting lessons from the generations before them. We had a working school of sorts. We definitely do not pamper our young,” Everly said delicately. “This new community is different, Eric. We are different. We have no need for a dozen years of studying books. The universe is at your fingertips in this market. You can reverse engineer anything to learn from it.”
“I am starting to see our path to the future will require a lot of adjustments. Our data team has been busy with little more than studying this market. I think we will find great value in secondary education, but only once we find the right material to teach. Take me through the purchasing process, please,” I said with a smile.
“Speaking of data analyzing, I did a little. Best time to buy is at the end. But how about we learn about all the options together, husband?” Perci said with dancing brows. “I don’t think Everly knows all the options herself.” Her Gpad chimed. “Alright,” she said with a grin, “Torrez set aside a lot of resources for us and the number keeps going up. I think Jevon has the teams hauling in old vehicles to reach our cap limit. Oh, a big chunk went out of the yttrium and was converted into neilspar ore … wait, now the neilspar is gone.” She frowned, trying to keep track of the rapidly changing inventories.
My Gpad pinged an alert.
“New generators purchased; vast majority nitrogen, then a small chunk of helium, hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon. A thousand of them should be arriving below.” - Daphne
“I thought we had a separate fund for that,” I said, a tad frustrated.
“We did— We do, correction. Daphne used the wrong fund. Our fund got pushed back into the main fund. We're sitting on oodles of raw materials, though, so I’m not concerned.” She looked so cute, chewing on her lip like that.
“With that said, I will fix this,” Perci said, typing away. Her cheeks flared a mild crimson at the error; I knew she was a perfectionist. “You two shop. This is my problem to clear up … it’s what I get banged by the big cock for.”
Everly crooked her head in confusion.
“An … interesting metaphor.” I shrugged. “How about you show me what you want, Everly?” She smiled. “And Everly,” I held her gaze, “assume that we are buying more Crixxi of both sexes.” Though serious, I said this last with a smile. “If we pass our race of humans—and I bet we find some of those as well—we may get those as well, so plan for the future with your purchases.”
Everly snuggled into my side while tapping away at the keypad. Her long Crixxi fingers ended in short pointy nails that clicked on the translucent screen.
“I have waited for this power for a long time. I always thought that I would be tremendously nervous with this much control, but you soothe my soul, Eric. I languish for your ear rubs … Perfect,” Everly purred, when I stroked her furry ears. “There were 916 Crixxi in Stronghold Mansion and Aspen combined, before today. If we buy five thousand more residents to add to the 1,482 humans in Mansion and 3,471 in Aspen, and then, rounding up, that gives us eleven thousand, slightly more than half of which are female. Then, take half of that half, let’s say … three thousand females, who will have four children every six months, and—”
“For humans, it’s nine months,” I interrupted.
She never even glanced at me as she continued to punch numbers into a calculator. “You are smarter than that, Eric. Six months, if not five, with another pregnancy a month later, if not sooner. Repeating the process semiannually … ” Everly said, finally stealing a glance at me with her purple judgmental eyes. “Have you figured it out yet?”
“Ah, no. To be fair, I have not any spent time around pregnant women my entire life,” I replied, hands waving defensively in the air.
“In a twelve-month cycle, we normally birth a single baby or cub. The term depends on who you ask,” Everly said with an indifferent tone. She tapped away on the screen, trying to find the right purchase.
I pulled her in tight when I figured it out, causing a giggle. “I got it! Because of the multiple babies, they are born prematurely, and the virum keeps them alive,” I proclaimed proudly.
Perci patted my back, still working hard on the balancing act that was our market day finances.
“To be safe, we should get three thousand Pandarin, and before you gasp in dismay, hear me out. For now, they will live in tight quarters in the longhouses, which we have a lot of, since people are eagerly abandoning them for hotels in Aspen. Then, when you add in the fact that we can build shelving homes in the longhouses, and they really do fit in well. Eventually, we will build enough towers for them too,” Everly said with a charming smile, before nuzzling her ear into my hand. “We are not some tiny population. The underway will sync in a few hours and our tribe will soon flow freely between Aspen and Mansion. If necessary, you can emergency house the Pandarin in hotels, also. But, you and I both know we have the space for them. I recommend we purchase the same number of Mounamine.”
I frowned at this number, my mind balking at the idea of so many servants. That would put them at almost a one to one ratio with our current residents. I didn’t mind making coffee. Cooking food was done by humans for volunteered for the occupation, a job I didn’t get any complaints about. We still had a lot of stinky, rundown hotel rooms in need of cleaning. There was a lot of work, even with seven days of an easy life.
“Everly, what will they do while we wait six months for the new children to be born? Seems like a tax on—”
“Ah, so most protectors restrict the breeding of their new population. It is inherently a bad idea to have Pandarin having litters every six weeks while still try
ing to rear Crixxi young. In this case, we let them build up their population for a while before implementing those restrictions. Let them settle in, and they will be a far more integral component in our society with their own young involved. And then, if you factor in the trading power the new young will bring or having them on hand, provides. Many opportunities open up.” She beamed, “You can trade with Perci’s mom or those people in Colorado Springs. I am advising you to—”
I placed a hand on her shoulder to get her to slow down. “Okay, you had me sold on the fact they could become one with the community this way. I trust you, Everly. Show me the purchase options.”
I heard the shuffle of feet behind me. “Done. Finished just in time,” Perci said, returning her attention to the screen.
Everly’s fingers danced across the interface. She rapidly tapped, blitzing through the available options. For a species living in the jungle with few electronics, she was whizzing along. Then again, Everly was fun, smart, adventurous, and gifted in most things. She reminded me of several humans, who had the same ability to excel at most anything they tried.
“Go back,” Perci said, catching something we had both missed. I smiled at the two of them. “A few more… There. Interesting.”
A group of seventy-two pandarin were being offered at a cheap, buy-it-now price. It had a two to one female to male ratio, with a large number of infants; and, they were low on virum. The seller was struggling to provide the zinc needed for these poor creatures. Everly purchased the entire lot.
“Oh, nice find. I overlooked it, even though it met my base criteria of groups with a majority of females. That group was mostly females, but also mostly young. Good price, but it will cost us zinc in the long run, so in the end, the prices are only decent, not amazing,” Everly said with a huff. “This might take some time. Especially if we only want to purchase outside of auctions. Buy now pricing is really a reverse auction for the desperate; not what you usually fine.” She tabbed through several screens. “See, this group is great, but it's an auction.”
