Shalia's Diary Omnibus

by Tracy St. John

  Afterwards, I returned to my room for a cocktail ... on the balcony again, of course. Then off to bed with the window open, sea breezes wafting in, the drone of the ocean lulling me to sleep. There was no excitement, no tourist escapades, no educational value to the weekend whatsoever since I visited none of the nearby museums. Just me, my thoughts, and the beach. It was in the top ten of the best spells of my life, and I was just about devastated when I had to re-join the real world.

  I remembered that glorious weekend as I stood gazing over the Alneusian sea. I’d been younger and more innocent, believing life might hand me many more escapes such as that one. For an instant I wished I could revisit that period, that I could be free and unfettered Shalia, with no knowledge of Armageddon or trophy-gathering Ofetuchans or body-stealing biological weapons or stalking Dramoks. Had I been acquainted with fear then? Of course I had, in the form of an overbearing government and men who took advantage of a woman’s helpless second-class status. Yet through the warped lens of memory, it seemed a far more innocent interval. For a little while I mourned the Shalia who no longer existed. I felt grief that some sweet part of me had died when I wasn’t paying attention. It was akin to looking up a childhood friend only to discover she had been killed years ago ... and I’d never realized until that instant.

  Then I mused over what I had in the present and what lay ahead of me. Anrel, blood of my blood, the child I had made ... she was now. Wonderful friends in Candy and Katrina ... they were now. Betra and Oses standing on either side of me, also gazing out over the ocean and thinking their own thoughts ... they were now. Alneusia with its singular beauty beckoning to leave behind the past and embrace the moment ... that was now.

  Clans Aslada and Seot ... they were in my future. Kalquor ... the future. A new life, of promise and who knew what joys? It waited for me in the future. All I had to do was step away from regrets and the past pain of things not realized. All I had to do was embrace what I hadn’t planned on and perhaps find a better life than what I’d hoped for.

  I felt it again, that calm quiet joy that I’d possessed for a stolen weekend, the anticipation of all the good that life could offer. I wouldn’t find happiness in sudden fame, in unlimited fortune. It was only to be found in the company of great friends, stalwart lovers, in my daughter’s health and growth.

  I contemplated the men on either side of me, the Imdiko and Nobek who were mine to cherish for this short while. More than ever, I appreciated them in that instant. Much as that long-ago weekend, they were a fleeting moment ... but then, all of life is. Betra had gotten it right weeks ago when he’d stated, “I’ll take the happiness granted to me now.”

  I clasped the men’s hands in mine, feeling their strength and grateful to be the recipient of their care. I smiled up at them, my lovers for today and friends for as long as I drew breath. “Show me what this place has to offer.”

  Betra grinned. Oses did the Nobek version of happy by twitching his lips upward. We headed toward an open-sided shelter, set near an outcropping on the shore.

  Under its roof we got some shade from the twin suns’ glare. There were small booths within which a second species native to Alneusia, the Chamelko, were busy directing us visitors.

  The Chamelko are an amphibious race. Similar to us and the planet’s main species which carries its name, they are sentient. However, they are not as intelligent or as abundant as the people we call Alneusians. Alneusians view their co-inhabitants as a race to be helped along and taken into all considerations when it comes to the planet they share. The Chamelko are delighted to do work for the Alneusians, treating the superior race as they might older siblings or parents. They do not travel space as such is beyond their intelligence capacity. Left to themselves, they hunt and gather their food and play games when they have time for it. They have speech that the Alneusians taught them, as well as their own dialects. They use the tools the Alneusians supply them with in exchange for simple services.

  When Oses, Betra, and I approached a member of these Chamelko, it took us in with its independently moving pair of eyes. It was weird to have a yellow eye pointed at me and another at Oses. Then the one gazing at me diverted to Betra.

  “In ... zi ... di,” it intoned, its suction cup tongue reaching out of its mouth to lick its sloped forehead between words. It nodded its gray, triangular head. “Di.”

  I kept quiet, not understanding a word. I guess Oses had a clue though, because he nodded to our new acquaintance. “Jid. Di. Di getu.”

  “Vo klid?”

  “Jid. Vo klid. Ga un Kakur.” Oses spoke slow and careful, as if he worked with a young child.

  The Chamelko moved the eye gazing at Betra to stare beneath the table surface between us. It considered a moment before reaching three of its seven arms down. It brought up three trays which appeared as if they were woven of dried seaweed. It set them on the table between us. Each held a stoppered vial. The container in the middle, in front of me, contained brown liquid. Those in front of Oses and Betra were greenish-brown. Each tray also held a metallic box the size of my palm. There was a button on each.

  “Any thumb or finger on the button, pet,” Oses told me. “It’s your acknowledgement that the Alneusians have permission to watch and record our activities in their habitat for study.”

  He and Betra did so without hesitation. I noted the Imdiko’s grin was bigger than ever and twice as naughty. I couldn’t help but laugh at him as I gave my own okay by squashing my index finger on the button.

  “Drink the liquid. It’s to keep you from any bacterial infections that might result from us having sex underwater.”

  Someone had thought of everything. The fact that my medicine was slightly different from the Kalquorians told me that I was taking a dose concocted specifically for Earthers. It still struck me as kind of gross, similar to sludge. At least it wasn’t the green slime my boyfriends were gulping down.

  Wrinkling my nose in anticipation of drinking the foul mixture, I unstopped the vial, closed my eyes, and tipped it into my mouth.

  It wasn’t awful. It wasn’t great either. It was the broccoli of preventative medicine ... good for me, but boring without cheese sauce. I swallowed it and put the vial on the tray.

  The Chamelko waved a couple of arms to the right. “Im dek.”

  Oses and Betra gave it a slight bow. The Imdiko said, “Vi dak.”

  “This way, Shalia.” Oses led us in the direction the Chamelko had waved. “We’ll find a respirator to fit you and then we can go into the water.”

  He and Betra had already come out here a couple of times, so of course they knew where to go. We left the shelter and its booths of twitchy-eyed Chamelkos and headed toward another shelter.

  Partition walls had been set up inside this shelter. Clear full-face masks hung from hooks. Even an Earther rube (me) could figure out how they worked. The masks were shaped to envelope the front of the skull from behind the ears forward. There were thick elastic bands that would go about the back of a person’s head, holding the mask into place. At the bottom of the mask itself was a round intake valve and a release valve. Between them was a mechanism that spun within a separate containment ... an oxygen mix extractor, which would pull breathable gases for me out of the water’s chemical composition.

  I saw what might be a microphone. The tiny discs where an Earther or Kalquorian’s ears would sit made me think of speakers.

  “We’ll be able to talk and hear each other?” I asked. That would be great since I was a complete stranger to everything about this planet.

  “Yes, so don’t worry about not being able to say sholt,” Betra snickered. “We’ll hear you if you do.”

  I looked at him suspiciously. “Why? What’s going to happen that might make me call a halt?”

  Oses’s smirk wasn’t making me feel any more confident. “You’ll see. Let’s find a mask that will fit you.”

  We did so on our third attempt. The edges of the mask, when fitted properly, provided a vacuum seal a
round my head which would keep the water out. The intake valve allowed regular air in so long as I wasn’t submerged, so my brief moment of claustrophobia came and went in a big hurry.

  Betra and Oses already knew their sizes, so they were outfitted pretty quick. We had protective footwear, rubbery coverings that stretched to accommodate our differing sizes. We took our facemasks and swim shoes off again and headed off for a cove that would allow us to disrobe in relative privacy. My companions would have stripped where we were, but I saw too many familiar faces among those on shore leave.

  “I’m glad public nudity is no big deal to you guys, but I’m not quite ready to show myself to everyone here,” I insisted.

  Betra and Oses exchanged a glance I couldn’t quite read. Betra said, “You’ll be observed by the Alneusians.”

  “Who aren’t human. They don’t resemble any creature similar to human. Plus I won’t be running into them in the corridors of the transport for the next couple of months.”

  The men looked at each other again. Then Oses shrugged. “There is an area on the other side of those rock formations over there that not too many explore. We’ll undress and go into the ocean there.”

  He was right about the cove being deserted. I was able to strip my light skirt, blouse, and underthings and step into the golden water without anyone but Oses and Betra watching me.

  “Will we spot any of the Alneusians?” I asked after my facemask was in place.

  “Probably not.” Betra’s voice in my ear had a weird echo-less quality through the speaker. “They prefer to give research subjects the illusion of privacy so we’re not inhibited.”

  Research subjects. Well, I suppose that’s what we were to our hosts, but I had the uncomfortable image of being pinned down like a frog in readiness for dissection. Eep.

  I waded through the waves anyway, following Oses as Betra kept pace at my side. I got another flash of claustrophobia as the water closed over my head, but a couple of normal breaths steadied me again. I breathed perfectly fine through the Alneusian version of a respirator.

  At first there was little to see. The sea was clear enough, though everything had a golden tinge to it. The harsh crystalline sand continued underfoot, making me grateful for the stretchy foot covers. Some of those crystals appeared sharp.

  Oses and Betra were clear as day beneath the surface. Our natural buoyancy took over, and we began swimming. I don’t know if Alneusian seas are somehow denser than those of Earth, or if I was just that out of shape, but I was huffing after a few minutes. All at once I started laughing.

  Betra and Oses turned to gaze at me questioningly. I told them, “Tep kept talking about me breathing fresh air. Does oxygen extracted from water count? Because it shouldn’t.”

  They both grinned. Then Oses said, “You’re lagging behind. Grab onto my shoulders, and I’ll swim for us both.”

  I was more than ready to take him up on the offer. I rode on the Nobek’s back as he took us deeper into the depths.

  All at once, the ground under us disappeared. I gasped at what was beyond the shelf that dropped into the sea.

  Perhaps fifty feet below us was a lush landscape, an astounding meadow beneath the waves. Plants were abundant, swaying to and fro in the invisible currents, as if possessed by wind. Bright sea flowers bloomed in profusion in shocking shades of pink, purple, and red. The ground they grew from was darker, with only a few glittering motes of the pearly quartz-ish sand that littered the shore.

  There were rocks and tiny caves among the many plants. I saw tiny creatures scuttle and dart into their cover, hiding from us as we neared.

  “Don’t take anything from the environment,” Betra warned me. “It’s not allowed. If you spy an object you want, point it out and I’ll put in a request for an approved specimen to be harvested.”

  “Is any of it as pretty out of the water?” I asked. I remembered how most shells and such on Earth rarely held onto their luster once dried out.

  “Not really, but they can be treated to regain the luster.”

  I showed him the vid recorder that fit so neatly in my hand. “I’d rather capture them in their natural setting.”

  I switched it on, still hanging onto Oses’s massive shoulder with one hand. I shot the sea floor as we glided over it, making sure to record shots of Betra swimming naked. He was amazing, his dark skin tinged gold with the surrounding water. Hopefully he’d tow me later so I could capture similar footage of Oses. If not for the mask sitting like a strange bubble over his face, Betra could have passed for some fabulous merman.

  He pointed at something ahead. “The atabetin and orfica forest.”

  I peered in the direction we were heading in. With an excited gasp, I aimed my recorder.

  This ‘forest’ had the biggest damned blossoms I’d ever seen in my life. Rising from a bed of ferns the length of my body, they were five-petaled wonders, twice my size. They were white at the tips, shading to pink, then red, then mauve at the center. They appeared similar to gigantic Earth flowers. There were even golden stamen protrusions coming from the middle where the petals met.

  Tall plants surrounded the blooms. From a distance those reminded me of the cattails that had grown in profusion in the marshes where I had once lived near. Long, thin leaves waved as if to beckon us as the velvety brown tubers – which is what I was later told they are – nodded in agreement.

  “Shall we go closer?” Oses asked. I was too enraptured by the huge flowers to pay real attention to the undercurrent of humor in his tone.

  “Yes, yes. Can I touch them?”

  “Sure.” Betra’s amused voice was almost a falsetto.

  I really should have taken note of how they sounded. I should have known a trap was being laid for me.

  I decided to let go of Oses, making my own way to the first of what appeared to be acres of blossoms stretching as far as the eye could see. I swam around it, shooting video from first this angle, then another. Backing up a bit to shoot the entirety of my subject. “Move in so I can show the scale of it,” I called to Oses.

  “I have a better idea.” He reached in my direction. “Give me the recorder, and I’ll vid you next to it.”

  I didn’t wonder why Betra laughed. I figured he was enjoying me enjoying myself. I can be so dense sometimes.

  I handed over my vid recorder, delighted with the idea of having footage of me alongside the huge water flower. I swam right to the thing, noting with interest how the white-to-mauve petals waved in my direction. A petal appeared to reach for me as I stretched my hand to it, as if we would shake hands.

  My fingertips brushed the white part of the petal. It shivered, as if delighted by the touch. I grinned, touching downy softness. Hello, flower. I’m Shalia from Earth. Pleased to meet you.

  I stroked the part of the massive petal as far as I could reach. It was so soft! I decided that if I had a mattress made of such material, they would need a crane and a legal warrant to haul my ass out of bed. I could have wallowed on the bloom, it was so cozy. I had the urge to rub my face against it and wondered how weird that would seem to Betra and Oses.

  I had no clue how weird this encounter was about to become.

  Softness brushed against my legs, more of it drifting up my back. It was like being caressed by a dove’s wing. I wondered how I felt to the flower, what it got out of its investigations. The petals wound about my ankles, my wrists, the softness holding me. Tightening on me. Trapping me. I suddenly couldn’t move.

  “Hey!” I yelled.

  Laughter burst through the speakers at my ears. I’d been had. I glanced up to witness Oses and Betra ... well out of grabbing range of the blossoms ... kicking their feet so that they executed slow somersaults in over my head. They were enjoying their little joke.

  Trouble was, the joke wasn’t over. Something poked tentatively at my abdomen. Looking down, I saw three golden stamens stretching to touch me. They slithered about, searching.

  “Is this thing trying to have sex with me?”
I shouted to the Demented Duo still laughing their heads off. “Because if it is, you’d better believe I’m fucking saying sholt!”

  “No sense of adventure,” Oses snickered as he swam close and began to untangle my limbs from the amorous foliage. “The Plasians love the orfica blooms. They say as soon as one unloads its pollen, you can find another ready to take over.”

  “Never-ending sex with a partner who doesn’t make any demands or arguments,” Betra chortled, holding the eager stamens clear of my girl parts while Oses freed me. “Some would appreciate that. You might even give us Kalquorians up. Are you sure you don’t wish us to smuggle a bloom on board the transport for your personal use, Shalia?”