by Elle Harper
All she’d find out there were other soldiers. Many of whom had already remarked less than chastely about their curiosity about the group of Earthen females they now found in their midst. Heaving a sigh, he lumbered after her. She glanced back with what was clearly a frown.
“What are you doing?”
“Escorting you.”
“Why?”
“Because you don’t know where anything is and Aavi and I are the only ones you’ve spoken to.”
“I’m sure I can figure it out.”
He rolled his eyes skyward. “What are you interested in seeing?”
She threw her hands up in the air. “I don’t know. Something. Anything. Mostly I’m just trying to to freak the fuck out, so you can take your big grumpy tail back the way you came.”
“How can a tail be grumpy?”
She spun around, her putrid eyes fairly sparking in irritation. “You’ve helped. I can handle it from here. I don’t need your help and I don’t want to be a burden.”
Something in the way she said that last word, a twist to her lips, the sense that it was almost wrenched from her, had every protective instinct in him rising in spite of himself.
“You are not a burden,” he said. “None of our society are ever considered a burden. We all have a part to play, and all are important.”
“I’m an outsider,” she reminded him, and there it was again, that sense of something. Longing, loneliness.
He looked down at her, slowly shaking his head. “You are different. But you are not outsiders. We took you in. The moment we did so, you ceased being outsiders.”
“Just that simple, huh?” she muttered, glancing away. He wanted to make her look back at him. Stupid response to such a small action, really. What did he care where she looked?
“Should it be complicated?” he asked. She lifted her shoulders in a careless gesture and didn’t answer him.
“Are you not wondering where the rest of your crew is?” he asked, for a lack of anything better. He’d never had trouble conversing with females before, though the females of his own people were much less strange and moody and complicated than this one.
“My guess is that they’re either driving your people crazy with questions or keeping to themselves in their quarters,” she said, and he nodded.
“You are not wrong.” He glanced around. “Your crew member, the one flying the craft, said that you are a botanist.”
“Student. I am… was… a student of botany.”
“Were?” he asked.
“Yes, were. Or have you noticed I’m not on Earth anymore and your people I’m sure know all about the plants that grow here? There’s no point,” she added, definitely not on the verge of panic. Not at all.
He huffed. “Are you not still you? Are you not still curious about the things you were curious about before you ended up here? Or was your head injured along with your body?”
She glared up at him. “And now I’m stupid too. Just leave me alone,” she said, and it was easy to pick up the disgusted tone in her voice. She stormed away, and this time he let her, turning and walking back into the building, silently seething at himself for his choice of words.
He hadn’t meant it that way. Damn it. He glanced back at her, watching her stalk toward the small market area of the settlement, her tailless behind swaying in a way he should have found disquieting at the very least. He furrowed his brow and shook his head, making himself turn around and go back inside. He had soldiers to check up on, gear to check. He didn’t have time for weak confusing Earthen females.
Chapter Two
Harper strolled through what looked to be a marketplace. Stalls stacked high with what looked to be fruits or vegetables lined wide rows in which the aliens— Izothians?— she hadn’t thought to ask what they were called— strolled either carrying baskets or large bags for their wares or, in the case of those doing a lot of shopping, followed closely by what looked to be shopping carts that hovered nearby as they shopped. Her fingers itched for her portscreen, a notebook at the very least, but she resolved to commit as much as she could to memory so she could record it all when she got a chance.
Why? She asked herself, slightly rolling her eyes. It wasn’t like her skills, admittedly useless as far as some Earthens were concerned, were of any use at all here. These people knew themselves and their world, had their own version of what she once dreamed of doing.
Maybe it would have been better to drift off in the vastness of space. She was unconscious at the time, after all. She wouldn’t have felt the pain of dying. She was no less adrift here than she’d been in that great void, surrounded by silence and nothingness.
She shook her head, walking more.
“Excuse me?” she heard someone call in that lilting accent the Izothians seemed to share, but she ignored it, one of many calls back and forth between the vendors and shoppers in the market. Her stomach grumbled and she was annoyed with herself for choosing outside over the cafeteria. She didn't have any money or whatever they used for money to buy anything here, not that she even knew what would taste good. Could she even eat the food here? She’d had all kinds of food allergies on Earth. She was probably going to starve to death here and—
Calm your tits, she silently told herself. It was something she’d been doing for years, whenever she felt panic creeping up on her. Sometimes it worked, if no other reason than that she couldn’t say it without getting a mental image of her admittedly voluminous tatas in a frenzy that needed to be calmed. Usually the moment of humor was enough to diffuse the creeping panic.
She felt a soft hand on her shoulder and jumped, a squawk of surprise escaping her.
“I am sorry. Apologies,” an Izothian female said, holding her hands out in a gesture of peace. Her skin was a lighter blue than Aavi’s had been, and her hair was a perfect snow white. Similar to the grumpy soldier from before, she thought.
“It’s okay. I’m a bit jumpy,” she said, feeling a deep blush form on her face.
“You’ve no reason to be sorry. It is completely understandable,” the Izothian woman said with a kind smile. “You looked a bit lost. I am Laalia.”
“Harper,” Harper said, pointing clumsily at herself, realizing that she was acting like one of those buffoons in old earth movies who speaks like a simpleton when meeting someone from another culture. “My name is Harper,” she said, irritated with herself. “It’s nice to meet you, Laalia.”
Laalia smiled. “Come. Have something to drink and eat. How are you feeling?”
“Oh! I.. I don’t have any money. Or credits or whatever you all use.”
Laalia shook her head, waving the concern away. “This time, I’ll treat. I have many good things to eat at my stall. Come.” She started walking, and Harper followed, not wanting to seem rude. And, okay, yes she was starving and had no idea what any of the food was.
“You must have just woken recently. Word when the market opened was that the final Earthen was still unconscious,” Laalia said over her shoulder. Like Aavi, her eyes glowed a light, tranquil blue. Most of the Izothians had eyes in glowing shades of blue, green, or purple, she’d noticed as she’d walked through the market. So far the only one she’d met with golden eyes had been Grumpy.
“I’ve only been awake for a little while. I met Aavi and a soldier, and then felt like exploring,” she explained, and Laalia smiled and nodded, gesturing her to a low cushion near a round table in the small tent behind one of the market stalls. She sat and glanced around. Laalia’s market table was piled high with what looked like fruits and breads and maybe pastries, as well as several clear vessels with dried leaves in them— herbs?— and a few long, silky bits of fabric. She’d seen a few of the Izothian women wearing wraps like them, arranged artistically around their necks and heads. The colors were rich and vibrant, and all Harper could do was stare.
Everything here was so colorful.
The world she’d left behind had long gone gray, both literally and figuratively. Lifeless, wart
orn. She’d never lived in a world full of life like this. The closest she’d gotten was the photographs and art she’d viewed on her portscreen, and it all seemed like a fantasy, like some story people made up about how great things used to be. It was, she admitted, part of why she’d wanted to be an anthropologist. She wanted to learn about the colorful era of Earth’s past. And who to blame for its present condition.
“Ah, Aavi is wonderful,” Laalia said, setting a delicate cup and saucer in front of Harper and pouring a fragrant, soothing smelling liquid from a teapot. So like old-fashioned Earth teapots, but the designs on it were unlike anything Harper had ever seen.
“Aata tea,” Laalia explained as she poured a cup for herself, then set the pot down and bustled away, gathering a small tray of items from her market table and bringing it back, setting it in the middle of the table and sitting down across from harper. “Good for the health, calming. Energizing as well,” she said, taking a sip.
Harper gave her a small bow of her head. “Thank you,” she murmured, lifting the cup to her lips and taking a small sip.
Flavors exploded on her tongue. Sweet, fruity, rich and earthy all at the same time. She closed her eyes, savoring it, her senses almost becoming overloaded from actual flavor. As her tastebuds were overwhelmed, her plant nerd mind had to wonder about the kinds of plants that could produce such amazing flavor.
She heard a soft chuckle, and opened her eyes to look at Laalia, who was smiling at her. “I guess you have nothing like that on Earth?”
Harper grinned. “Definitely not. We have tea, but it tends to be bitter. There are herbal teas, but many of the more flavorful ones aren’t grown anymore other than for the very wealthy because the soil is so poor and it can’t sustain them. We used to have a wealth of different teas though, from what we know of the past.”
Laalia listened, tilting her head in acknowledgment. “We have gathered that your planet is going through a rough time, from what your comrades have said.”
Harper gave a small laugh. “That is putting it mildly. Humanity has utterly destroyed the planet with our greed and wars. And now we’re moving on to Mars… our neighboring planet. I don’t know how much you know of our solar system.”
“A bit. Most Izothians study a bit of galactic history in school.”
“Ah. of course you do,” Harper said with a small chuckle, sipping more tea. “And my planet tries to pretend we’re the only ones worth speaking of. We’ve only met one other race of beings…”
“And your people annihilated them. I know,” Laalia said softly.
Harper nodded. “So we won’t be leaving here, because your people don’t deserve the risk of having Earth bother you after you saved us and healed us.”
“You are very practical about it, Harper.”
“Just realistic. And grateful. And I have nothing to go back to. Each of us was mostly expecting not to make it back alive, anyway.”
Laalia tilted her head. “Then why? Why take such a risk?”
Harper looked around, at the colors, the life, the trees and flowers that grew in the distance, at the dual-mooned sky above. “Because we all wanted to see more. Experience beauty. And we did, even before we ended up in the middle of that battle. The stars, the planets, the beauty of our own mess of a homeworld when seen at a distance,” she said, shaking her head. “It was a risk we were all more than willing to take.”
Laalia studied her. “So you have no kin? No mate or mates? No one there who will miss you?”
For half a second, Harper’s mind flashed to her former boyfriend. Dark eyes, rough hands. A man who can and did break her both mentally and physically, who taught her what it was to crave death.
“No one I’d miss in return,” she said softly.
Laalia nodded, reaching across the table and resting a light blue hand on Harper’s pale one. Harper looked up at her in surprise, and Laalia smiled. “It will be confusing here for a while, I’ve no doubt. I will answer any questions you have, large or small, to the best of my ability.”
Tears came to Harper’s eyes, and she ducked her head in embarrassment.
“Oh dear. Are you alright? Did I say something wrong? Are you ill?” Laalia asked in alarm, and Harper shook her head.
“It’s fine… I just…. I have about a million questions and I think I annoyed the soldier asking him things but I’m just so…” she shook her head. “Everything is new. I don’t even know if this food will kill me or not!”
Laalia smiled, then chuckled softly. “I can put your mind at ease on one count: this food will not kill you. Your comrades have all been eating it since they woke, and they all report that they are feeling healthier than they have in a long time.”
“Well, that’s a relief,” Harper said wryly, and Laalia laughed.
“Here. This,” she said, pointing at what looked to be a small, round pastry, ”is Izal. Kind of a common, well-loved food here. It is dough filled with fresh lizi fruit and then baked. And this,” she said, pointing to a small roll, “this is bread. This one is a more delicate flavored bread, but this one,” she said, pointing to a darker roll, “is more robust in flavor. Heartier,” she said, and Harper nodded. Laalia labelled a few fruits, including the lizi fruit that she’d said were in the pastries. It was a small, soft pink, oval-shaped fruit with a blush of purple on the skin.
“Please, try something. You must be famished,” Laalia said, and Harper nodded and picked up the Izal. “Excellent choice. I just baked these before arriving at the market this morning,” Laalia said, taking one for herself.
Harper bit into it, and nearly thought she’d pass out from the intense, perfect mix of sweet and fruity. “Oh gods above,” she murmured, barely hearing Laalia’s delighted chuckle.
“This one likes her Izothian delicacies,” Laalia said, and Harper opened her eyes to see that Laalia was talking to another Izothian.
Oh. Great.
Grumpy stood just outside Laalia’s market stall, watching Harper.
“So she’s eating then,” he said gruffly.
“Oh! Have you met?”
Harper rolled her eyes and looked at the pastry in her hand, cramming another mouthful into her mouth rather than talk to big and assholish.
“We have,” he said.
Laalia laughed, putting two and two together. “Ah. You are the soldier who didn't want to answer any of her questions, then,” she said, erupting into gales of soft, musical laughter. The soldier furrowed his brow.
“Are you serious? The questions were never-ending. And then she got angry with me for some reason and stalked off like a furious azalc.”
“What’s an azalc,” Harper asked Laalia, refusing to ask him any damn thing.
“An azalc is a pet some keep in their homes. They tend to be short tempered and easily offended, but quite cute despite their personalities. Isn’t that right, Rassan?” she said.
Rassan, that was Grumpy, apparently, just harumphed and crossed his arms over his chest. “If you hadn't stormed off, I would have brought you to Laalia. She’ll mother you to death now.”
“I found her on my own, thank you very much,” Laalia said, smiling at Harper. “What did he say to make you angry at hm, just out of curiosity?”
“He called me stupid,” Harper said before stuffing the last bite of Izal into her mouth.
“Rassan!”
“I did not call her stupid,” he growled. “She mistook my words.”
“He asked if I’d injured my head in the crash as well. How else is one supposed to take that?” she asked Laalia, who tried to hide a smile.
“I didn’t mean it that… “ he shook his head, heaving a sigh of irritation. Harper rolled her eyes, exchanging a glance with Laalia. “You took it the wrong way.”
“So you weren’t insulting my intelligence?” Harper asked him.
“Only your sanity,” he said, crossing his arms over his massive chest.
“Yes, that’s much better,” she answered, taking a sip of her tea.
> Laalia chuckled. “So were you coming to make sure she was all right? How very sweet of you, Rassan.”
Harper watched big and grumpy glare at Laalia. “I was not. I was out here getting something to eat and heard her. It’s hard to miss that accent.”
“I’ll have you know I have almost no accent as far as Earthers are concerned. I’m from the American midwest. We’re accent-less.”
“I have no idea what that means. You definitely have an accent.”
“Maybe you’re the one with the accent,” Harper shot back.
Rassan opened his mouth to respond, and Laalia interrupted them with a laugh that had both of them turning to look at her. “What?” he snarled.
“You two are quite amusing,” Laalia said, still chuckling softly. “It’s very entertaining, really.”
“Have you been drinking?” Rassan asked Laalia, and Harper shook her head.
That only made Laalia laugh harder, and after a moment, Rassan shook his head and stalked away. After he did, Laalia looked at Harper, taking a deep breath. “I am sorry. That was just too perfect. He’s usually so stoic.”
“I would still call that stoic,” Harper pointed out.
Laalia grinned, showing a pair of small, pointed teeth. “You don’t know him as I do. I have known Rassan since we were toddlers. He is like a brother to me, my best friend. He showed more emotion in that little conversation than I have seen him show in years!”
Harper shook her head. If that was emotion for the burly Izothian, she assumed he was more like a corpse normally.
“If you say so,” she said, sipping the rest of her tea.
“So are you living in the barracks, then?” Laalia asked her.
Harper nodded. “I am not sure for how long or what’s expected of us or… anything,” she said with a small shrug, worry twisting her gut. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do now.”
Laalia tilted her head, quiet, as if she was thinking. “You know… I have been thinking of taking on an assistant to help with my market stall.”
Harper laughed. “Your business would tank if you had an Earthen serving people.”
