The dropship had rumbled into its descent and touched down a few minutes ago. She could only hear it behind the frosted, reinforced glass doors of the landing bay. The ship would be lining up its doors and the cabin crew would be getting the passengers on their feet. It always gave her a thrill to imagine the little ship had been in space less than an hour ago, and would be going back there as soon as it had unloaded.
It was tense, waiting like this, but Lois had done it before. Technically, the Teissian immigrants didn’t touch Earth soil until they came through those doors, and the instant they did, they were in Lois’ custody and her responsibility.
Not many people knew that the loading bay was a no-man’s-land between borders. This was because the Rhacahr pilots wouldn’t accept responsibility for people unless they were on their ships, nor would the UNE until they had been scanned for weapons and disease. So for a few minutes, the new arrivals were temporarily invisible to interplanetary governments.
God knows what would happen if anything ever prevented DETI from opening the doors, if an infectious disease was detected or something else that banned the group from entry to Earth. Lois hadn’t been told what the protocol was in that situation and she wasn’t sure there was one. If there was it was above her pay-grade.
The glass doors hissed open and Lois straightened, her smile bright. A crowd of Teissians stepped uncertainly out of the landing bay. Lois gave them a quick once over. It looked like about forty people, the majority of them were Volin, but she also spotted Balin, Volon, and one or two shakey Balor. As the group filtered into the Arrivals lobby, Lois caught a glimpse of the head and shoulders of the tall humanoid Rhacahr turning back to his drop ship behind them.
Earth had allied itself with the Rhacahr to help them in their war against the insectoid Ypex, but Lois knew almost nothing about them. They staffed almost half of the rescue ships, but they never stayed on Earth. Lois put them out of her mind. Her business was with the refugees in front of her.
“Welcome,” she said in Volin. She scanned the crowd again, looking for injuries, sickness, signs of abuse or hostility against Earth. She noted that only the Balor couple looked like they had ever been wealthy, and wondered what had driven them emigrate. She also noted several of the Volin had fully deployed their colourful wings, suggesting that they were carrying babies. There were older children too, and a couple of the Balin and Volon had children with them. Some of the group had been issued jumpsuits on the journey, but a lot of them retained the traditional clothes of their respective tribes, which were looking ragged but clean.
Everyone was listening intently and Lois hadn’t spotted anything that looked like a risk to the health of any of the passengers or DETI staff, so she continued.
“I’m happy to welcome you to Earth. My name is Lois Kennedy, and you have arrived in the state of California, in the United States of America, a member of the United Nations of Earth. You are currently standing in the Department of Extra-Terrestrial Immigration, and I will be conducting your orientation today, and processing your immigration requests.”
She switched into Balin, her understanding of which was limited, but she had learned this phrase carefully. “If you require a Balin interpreter, please ask and I can provide one for you.”
The next bit she said in English. “I can answer any questions you might have in English, Volin, Balin, or other Earth languages. Immigration and orientation documents can be provided in over 400 languages, so please ask if you require them. I will be conducting the rest of the tour in Volin and English. I am still learning Volin however so please be patient with me.” She smiled to let them know it was a joke, and she thought some of the group looked a bit more relaxed.
“I shall start by answering the three most popular questions we get asked here by people who have just arrived.
“Number one: yes, you will be fed and provided with clothes and somewhere to live. There will be a meal waiting for you at the end of the tour, and after you fill out your immigration paper work you will be shown to the dorms. There are other people from Teiss living there already, and the Community Leaders will be happy to help you settle in. All the rooms are fully-furnished, and you are free to come and go as you please once you receive Earth citizenship, which should be by the end of the week. You do not need to have brought anything with you, and we do our best to keep families and friends together.
“Number two: No, you will not be forced to work for humans. You should have received some occupational training on the journey from Teiss, but you are not obligated to use it. There is a range of jobs available for you if you wish to work with humans, including here in this building, but it is your choice what you do. There is also work available in the dorms if you prefer to stay with your own people.
“Any work you do, you will be paid for in local currency, and the pay and hours will be set in advance with a maximum of forty Earth hours a week regardless of the role. Any money you make from working, you can spend however you like. You will be given access to long-distance shopping to make sure you have everything you need. If you find yourself being paid too little or made to work too many hours, please speak to a Community Leader.
“And three: We keep records of every Teissian to arrive on Earth. If you are looking for someone, you will have the opportunity to fill out a form along with your immigration papers, and we will do everything in our power to find them for you. Any questions?”
Lois paused to smile again at the group and wait for any questions if they were coming. She made sure no one looked too confused. A large male Volin tipped his head at her to attract her attention.
“Can you repeat your name, please?” he said carefully with a heavy accent. Lois guessed this could be his first time speaking English outside of class.
“It’s Lois Kennedy; you may call me Lois or Miss Kennedy,” she replied. The male nodded and fell silent so she moved on. “If you’ll follow me this way, please.”
Over the next three hours, Lois lead them through Security and Quarantine. The new arrivals went through scan after scan, though Lois also went through it first to show them what to expect. None of them flagged anything on the sensors, so they didn’t lose any time. After two years on the transport ships, it was incredibly rare that anyone arrived with a dangerous disease or any contraband, or not having had their vaccines.
Lois talked them through every step, taking names and basic details from everyone as they went, with accompanying palm prints. She filled them in on local culture and what other immigrants had accomplished here. She chattered pleasantly almost non-stop, moving through the crowd to talk to people individually, ask if anyone had any questions. She said hello to the kids and asked them how old they were. She never asked about what they had left behind.
By the time they arrived in the reception room where the buffet was laid out, they were all ready for it. Lois went first, organising the group into lines on either side of the long table, and began helping herself to break the ice. It was all Teissian cuisine which was largely unpalatable to humans, but she didn’t want to offend them, so she picked up a piece of something like cornbread and a skewer of meat she told herself was rabbit, and a bit of fruit, then made a beeline for the coffee urn.
The coffee was on its own, separate from the rest in the corner. It wasn’t that the aliens couldn’t drink coffee, some of them even liked it, it was just that there was a phalanx of urns of a drink called choba that was basically their orange juice. Choba was a boiled, living green algae that the Teissian people drank as much as humans drank caffeine.
Apparently it was incredibly good for them. The algae acted like pro-biotic bacteria while it was alive, and when it died and was digested, it kept their scales healthy. The jury was still out on whether or not humans could safely drink it, but Lois had never met anyone who had ever had more than a mouthful because it was so disgusting. Lee had told her he had drunk a cup once on a dare, and had had to call in sick the next day, but that was it.
Lois w
as quite happy with her coffee. She was always glad for it at this point. She nibbled on the food, already knowing from experience that this was the most palatable of the buffet selection. She kept an eye and an ear out for any tensions in the group, as she knew that on Teiss the Volin could be territorial and were used to fighting for resources. There was also a serious class divide between the Balor and Balin that might have carried over.
She always pushed the caterers to lay on more food than they would need for this reason, arguing that any left overs would be welcome in the dorms, but they did their best to ignore her. Today, however, it looked like the lessons on the transport ship had worked and the new arrivals accepted that things were different here.
A female Volin took her plate and guided her son to a sofa against the wall which she sank onto gratefully, letting her head fall back briefly before taking tidbits from the plate and offering them under her wing. Lois surmised she was right about her having a baby under there as the food did not come back out and the woman began talking under her arm, her son chewing morosely.
Lois felt a pang at the sight. Did the woman have a mate? Had she left him back on Teiss or had she come to find him on Earth, or was he dead? Had the baby been born on the transport ship? It wasn’t any of Lois’ business but still. It was rare that the females raised offspring among the Volin, normally babies were passed to the males to raise after they were weaned, so the females could mate again with someone else.
Lois forced her eyes away as the rest of the group found sofas and chairs. She would give them an hour to eat and drink and rest as much as they could, because they had to fill out the immigration forms next and that could be real brain ache even for her, and she wasn’t doing it in her second language.
Quiet conversations started up all over the room, and Lois sipped the dregs of her coffee to make it last. As soon as it was finished, she would go around the room checking up on everyone, answering questions and making sure they had enough to eat and drink, discreetly letting them know where the bathrooms were. DETI had installed special toilets for the Teissian people because apparently they were used to something different than what humans used. Lois had never been in one, and had never asked, but the rumours said it was something to do with sand.
The door opened and Zir strode in, making her jump. He headed straight for her as if he wasn’t walking through a crowd of his own people, newly arrived from the home planet he hadn’t seen in five years. Every eye in the room was instantly on him, Lois’ party clearly surprised by the sight of an ‘assimilated’ Volin.
He reached her and thrust his black tablet out. “Sign here,” he said.
Lois put her mug down and took the screen, but her anger was starting to overcome her shock. “Zir, what are you doing here?”
This time Zir wouldn’t look at her at all, keeping his head down. Lois thought his crest of feathers was twitching slightly, and the ridge of his hidden wings was more pronounced than usual. His toes clawed the carpet. Maybe he was uncomfortable after all.
“We are installing a software patch on the Rhacahr interface in the Intake department. I need you to sign there to give me permission to work on your computer. You weren’t in your office so I came here.”
Lois glanced down at the screen. It appeared to be exactly as he said. She scowled, suddenly furious. They both knew it was a breach of protocol for anyone but the Intake Officer and the approved security teams to be in contact with any pending immigration applicants. Lois had training, Zir didn’t.
Okay, he was Volin, and she didn’t think he was a risk, but the point was he knew it could screw up her chain of custody and he didn’t care, prioritising his stupid signature over the potential ass chewing she could get if there was an incident.
An intake group’s first day on Earth was a high-pressure situation for everyone involved, and all the officers knew that anything could happen. People in those situations could react irrationally, unpredictably. If anything serious happened, it would be an interplanetary incident, and it would be her fault because she was the responsible one. It was her name on the custody forms.
She squiggled her signature for him and thrust the tablet back, trying to look composed and approachable for the Teissians watching the exchange. “Here you go,” she said, hoping he would catch her tone despite her calm expression and get the hell out.
He nodded and turned to leave but one of the male Volin in the room called out to him. “You work here?” he said in Volin.
Zir paused, but didn’t turn back to Lois. “Yes,” he answered in Volin without moving.
The Volin who had called Zir glanced at Lois as if for permission before continuing. “How long? What do you do here?”
“Three years. I fix computers,” Zir responded, appearing to relax and face the speaker.
“Where are you from?” asked someone else.
“Do you like it here?”
“What are the humans like?”
The questions came from all over now, one after the other. Zir kept his answers short, and Lois found herself listening intently. Zir never spoke like this to her, offering up opinions or facts about his life.
It was as if he had forgotten she could understand him, because his answers about his life on Earth and working for DETI were frank, but they weren’t insulting. It was obvious that it was very different from the culture he had grown up in, but he hadn’t been mistreated. The Volin had a very subtle way of speaking, with a lot of meaning having to be inferred by the listener. The phrase “It is not Teiss” could mean almost anything.
“Is the human your mate?”
It felt like the whole room froze, the question sounding out like a gong. Lois searched the back of the room for the speaker, and saw the boy on the sofa with his mother watching intently. His mother looked abashed and shushed him, while the rest of the group either looked on curiously or stared at the floor uncomfortably.
Lois didn’t mind the question. She was glad the boy felt safe enough to join in. But then she realised Zir hadn’t replied. She would have expected him to scoff and deny it, but when she glanced at him, he seemed speechless. His crest flickered and he quickly scratched the tips of his claws through the feathers. Maybe he was so offended and disgusted by the idea that he couldn’t think of a suitable reply.
“I… She…”
“We are not mates,” Lois answered, jumping in. She smiled at the boy, hoping to reassure him that his question was not wrong. She addressed the rest of the group, “But we could be, there is no law against it. All of you are welcome here, you are not expected to keep separate from humans.”
“Really?” said one of the males. His eyes went over her body and his crest unfolded. He took a step towards her, but Zir stepped between them, his own crest deploying as he growled quickly.
Lois’ eyes went wide. She realised she was losing control of the situation and she didn’t know why. This was what happened when the wrong people interfered during orientation. This was exactly what she was afraid of happening when Zir walked in. An incident.
At the same time, her face grew warm and she couldn’t swear she wasn’t blushing. She had never seen Zir act like this, and she had never seen his crest before. He always kept it tucked tightly down. The feathers were a colour like tarnished gold, a brassy ochre with thick black spines and they glinted in the overhead lights. Volin displayed their crests as a show of virility, to convince females to mate or to warn off other males.
A little bit of Lois was flattered that the other Volin considered her attractive enough to make a play for after knowing her for only a few hours, and she supposed she was also flattered that Zir would step in to protect her, even if it was completely unnecessary. She knew how to sensitively decline any come-ons from new arrivals, who were often feeling vulnerable and looking for some security or to prove something.
But maybe this meant Zir saw her as a co-worker at least if not a friend - a team mate. Not just someone to throw out of the life boat so he could stre
tch his legs.
She looked around Zir’s shoulder and saw the other male frown at him, then begin to lower his crest. She needed to jump in.
“Zir,” she said, stepping up behind him and putting a hand on his back. He twisted to look at her sharply. “Why don’t you go back to ITS? You’ve got my signature now. I can take over here,” she said softly, trying to calm both him and the group she was responsible for.
He didn’t seem to hear her, and when she looked at his face, she saw he was staring at her, really staring, and the human-like pupils in his yellow eyes gave her goosebumps for a second. That look was intense.
His crest was still up and she knew the situation wasn’t diffused until it went down again. “Do you need anything else from me?” she asked.
For a minute he tensed under her hand, and unless she was imagining things, his focus trailed down her face, but then he seemed to shake himself out of it, his pupils separating again as he pulled away from her.
He looked down at the tablet in his hand and muttered some Volin Lois didn’t know, which made her suspect they were curse words Ban wouldn’t teach her. Zir’s claw had taken a tiny chip out of the screen. He brushed away the damaged glass and headed for the door. As the door closed behind him, Lois saw him comb his crest down with his claws again, but he didn’t look calm.
She turned back to the group with a big smile. “So! If we’ve all had enough to eat and drink, we can go fill in your immigration forms now,” she said, pressing her thumb into her palm to try to clear the memory of Zir’s back from her skin.
Chapter 5
The E.T. Guy (Office Aliens Book 1) Page 3
