2-13
I blew out a ring of cinnamon smoke and watched it float away into the air of the atrium. It was the second one I blew out as I watched the first get sucked into a vent higher up. I was laying down on my usual bench staring through the transparent steel coating of the space station. I had been laying back watching the stars fly by as we moved through space when I noticed the stars start slowing down as we passed them.
It was like staring out across a massive field and seeing a post almost to the horizon and watching it slowly crawl across your field of view. The stars out there slowed to a crawl then a stop as the station slowed down. I took a pull from my kiseru and noticed Lahrya walk over towards me from the corner of my eye.
She had a little black thing Owl whipped up on her jaw. It followed the contour of her jaw and covered the little nodes she had sticking out of her head that were the equivalent of her ears. She saw how Guardian Wannaniki's belt did the translation and pulled the thing out just a few hours ago, now we didn't have to worry about not understanding each other if he wasn't around. She was still learning the language but that was going to be a time consuming thing, the translator was a crutch until she learned to read and speak our language.
She plopped down on the bench on the walkway across from me and looked up at the stars, “I wonder why we are stopping?”
I gave a shrug and chewed on the mouthpiece of my pipe, “No clue. Ask one of the bots, they would probably tell you.”
She gave a shrug then dropped her eyes to me, “I guess it doesn't matter.” She leaned forward and rested her elbows on her knees and her chin in the palm of her hands, "What's your planet like?”
“Owl can probably explain it a whole lot better than me. You should ask her.” I replied.
“I did. She gave me a whole tablet full of stuff to read. I would like a second opinion on your home planet.” She continued.
I blew smoke out of my nose and thought about how to answer. I barely knew enough about our home planet to have an opinion. I was not the person to give any kind of opinion on things but I could tell her what I know. “Well.. there are places where its so cold if you don't keep up with maintenance, ice will freeze over your door. A few feet of ice makes opening them quite the struggle.”
Lahrya leaned back and looked kind of worried, “Is that like a normal climate thing or does it happen everywhere?”
I shrugged, “the place where I live is still summer. Owl has taken me to some pretty crazy places across the globe.”
“Tell me about the place you live then.” She returned to her relaxed position.
I took a pull from my kiseru and watched a space craft shoot across the top of the space station. It was small compared to what I had seen so far, about the size of a regular semi truck. It slipped past from right to left followed by a wake as the shields of the space station flickered. “I work at a dojo, do you know what that is?”
“A fighting studio?” she asked, pointing to the translator she was wearing.
“Close enough. I enjoy it. I teach people to better themselves, it's hard work but it's fulfilling to me.” I replied.
“So you're a martial people then? You enjoy combat and things like that?”
“No. I believe we are a compassionate people. I have a friend that can speak to animals. She probably could have told us what that kaiju wanted yesterday or convinced it to go away.” I replied.
Lahrya leaned back across her bench, “Do all of your people have abilities like that?”
“Owl would know more about that than me. I rarely pay attention to that stuff.” not that I haven't tried. The Suneya part of me saw it as boring and I mostly shrugged it off. “Owl probably has all the answers to the questions you are asking me in the homework she passed to you.”
She let out a sigh and looked up through the transparent steel. Another ship flew by, this time with Guardian Wannaniki on its tail. It flipped and twisted through space trying to lose him but he caught up with it quickly. A light flashed from his belt and he ripped the space craft in half before grabbing the pilot then shooting off to the side out of view. I took a pull from my pipe and Lahrya commented, “Corsairs.”
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“Pirates?” I asked, giving her a glance.
She nodded, “Pirates with bad luck.”
I reached up and grabbed my kiseru then leaned over and rapped it on an empty planet knocking the ash from it. Owl had killed every plant in this place. Her bots had walked around and sprayed something then came back around and collected all the dead plants that were around the atrium. “Running into Guardian Wannaniki was probably a surprise for them when they attacked the station.”
We watched a group of OwlBots run through one side of the atrium carrying long rectangle blocks with holes in the end. I stood up with a sigh and started walking towards one of the lifts. I heard Lahrya's feet behind me as she followed. She caught up to me as I entered the lift, “do you have pirates on your planet?”
I shrugged, “Probably not. We have warlords though. Don't see many wars happening though.”
“Warlords?” She asked with a worried tone.
“We have a very strong us versus them mechanic.” I answered as the lift opened up to the bridge, “It is from when we were hunters and gatherers. This is my herd of animals that feed my tribe.”
Owl was standing at a console watching some things that flickered across it. She had her arms crossed and joined the conversation, “It's deeper than that. There are cultures that don't get along with others because one of them likes the color blue and to the others the color blue is horrible because a berry that is common in the culture is poisonous."
I stepped over to her and looked out through the transparent steel that surrounded us. There were a few ships that looked like they got into a fight with a rock and lost. “Where is Guardian Wannaniki?”
Owl nodded to the space craft drifting around us, “He pulled some pirates from those and had them secluded on the space station. He is watching them right now, I sent OwlBots to take over the role and when he comes up here we will drop them off.”
I let out a sigh, “so this is all pretty much handled?”
She gave me a nod so I turned and flopped down into a chair near the edge of the room. Lahrya came and took a seat next to me, “Are the two of you important on your planet?”
“Not in the way you are thinking.” Owl answered from where she was fiddling with stuff on the console.
I chewed on the mouthpiece of my pipe while Lahrya looked to Owl in question. Owl finished what she was working on then continued, “Suneya is probably the most learned person in chi on the planet. Life force manipulation would be the technical term.”
Lahrya nodded, “We have people that do that on our planet.”
“What are they like?” I had to ask.
Lahrya leaned back and let out a hum then answered, “they are like a police force. They have thousands of laws they have to memorize before they even start learning.”
I shook my head at that, “No thanks. I will stick to punching people in the face.”
Lahrya tapped her chin, “do you have many life force manipulators on your planet?”
“A few hundred.” Owl answered. That was quite a bit more than I thought existed, “historically they tend to group up then fight other groups and kill each other.”
Lahrya leaned forward and focused on Owl, “I have read studies and papers about the amount of people that use life force manipulation and if they will advance to space capable without destroying themselves. You need a certain level of your population to be able to use life force before your species achieves space flight or you will fall into war and self destruct.”
Owl huffed and crossed her arms, “Obviously biased.”
“Why is that?” I asked.
She waved her hand, “they are judging a species on one aspect of it and not the whole of it.”
“That doesn't mean it's biased.” Lahrya pointed out.
Owl turned and faced Lahrya fully, “I know someone who keeps a pet rock. They love it. That is a level of compassion most people can't comprehend. I went on a trip with them when I was younger and they forgot it at home. They cried for hours. Humans do that for a lot of things, culture, a flag, things like that. Those papers judge us by the fact that no one with power has set all the groups down and told them the rules.”
Owl gave me a look and turned away, back to the console. I let out a huff and leaned back, I guess I could write a few things down and throw it to the masses. I'm not sure it would help much. I think my current students will eventually take students and it will all be under my umbrella. Those random groups would eventually be absorbed into mine, you can't stop progress, only slow it down.
The lift hisses and Guardian Wannaniki stepped into the room. He looked a little scuffed, he had some charring that was flaking off his suit as he moved. He nodded to Lahrya and I as he passed and walked over to Owl, “the corsairs are tucked away. We are ready for travel.”
I looked through the transparent metal around us and didn't see any spacecraft debris. “Did you pull all the chunks of space ships into the station?”
He gave me a nod, “Owl asked me too.”
“Something to take apart when I am bored.” Owl added. “Do you have coordinates for the drop off?”
Guardian Wannaniki waved his hand towards the console and a light shot from his belt. The console flickered and a long string of numbers appeared on it. Owl looked at those numbers and gave Guardian Wannaniki a nod. She hit a few buttons and the ship started to move.
“What do you hope to see when you take apart the scraps of the space ships?” I asked.
Owl gave me a shrug, “you can learn quite a lot by how people build things. The spatial layout of a ship can tell me about how communities are formed. Sahluya’s people built their ships in a cylinder form. They used every piece of available space in a ship. Some of these ones might be different. It will be an interesting study.”
I watched the stars start to shift through the transparent metal and leaned back. Lahrya started fiddling with the tablet Owl had given her and I started chewing on the mouthpiece of my pipe. “Where are we going?”
“To a nearby outpost. The Solar Guardians there will take the pirates in and return them to their species home planet with the appropriate fines.” Guardian Wannaniki answered.
“What happens if the species does not see pirating as a punishable offence?”
“Then the Solar Guardians patrol the area of space quite a lot. Losing space craft of any kind can get kind of expensive. Losing a few fleets worth will change anyone's mind on the prospect of pirating.”
I looked past him out to the stars sliding by not sure what to think about that. Some people can be really stubborn.