2-14
I was sitting on the lift of the luxury craft using it as a step. I looked across the clearing and at the alien fauna around us while taking a pull from my pipe. The trees looked like crosses between pine trees and palm trees with their massive leaves. They stretched up around us and the shade almost reached the ship in the center of the clearing.
I blew out a cloud of dragonfruit smoke and watched the forest. There was a scorpion looking bug that had wings being chased by some furry animal with a tail. some kind of beetle looking bug crawled up one of the trees and burrowed into the bark with its horn, it was quick and disappeared from view fast. The environment around us was truly alien in a way the other planets I had been on were not.
Owl was sitting next to me on my right, fiddling with something on her forearm. She was waving her fingers in front of her, typing on something only she could see. Lahrya was on my left working on the tablet Owl had given her. Every few minutes she would speak something out, trying to learn our language, and Owl would correct her or praise her.
We had dropped the pirates off and Guardian Wannaniki asked if we could stop somewhere quick. Owl agreed and here we were, sitting on some planet while Guardian Wannaniki went off to do Solar Guardian work. “Why are we sitting here, couldn't Guardian Wannaniki just flown himself down and taken care of whatever he wanted to do?”
Owl gave me a shrug, “I wanted to see the biodiversity of the planet but after a quick look I changed my mind.”
I took a pull from my pipe and slumped forwards. The forest around us got quiet suddenly. Something was walking silently through the forest around us. It shot out from the left past Lahrya. It was about as tall as an elephant and surprisingly quiet. Its scaled feet still stomped as it charged towards us at an angle.
The OwlBot standing behind us turned and lifted its rectangle to its shoulder. A bright blue bolt shot from the front and slapped the charging thing in the nose. It let out a high pitch yelp and turned sharply, digging its feet into the ground to get away from us. It was the seventh of its kind to try the same thing, Owl didn't even lift her head. Lahrya was alarmed at the first one but after a few she shrugged it off.
I blew out my smoke then snapped my hand out to the left, closing around a bug. It looked like a flying orb with wings and a needle like mouth. I chucked it ahead of me, it flipped around then flew back into the forest, “This place sucks.”
“I like the humidity," Lahrya said.
“We landed in the tropical part of the planet. It is quite humid.” Owl added.
“What made you change your mind about checking the place out.” I asked her.
She pointed to the grass below our feet, “That is one giant plant. It's all connected. I thought I was going to see some diversity but the grass tells me differently.”
Lahrya looked up from her tablet, the translator still on her jaw, “Are the trees a part of the grass?”
Owl gave a slow nod, “Large shoots like celery.” She held out her forearm and a wireframe of celery appeared so Lahrya would know what she was talking about.
Guardian Wannaniki came flying down from the sky, “I am done here. We can leave.”
We all started to stand up and Guardian Wannaniki landed on the lift close to us. “What did you do here anyways?”
The lift jerked and pulled into the space craft. I slapped my kiseru against my palm to get the ash out. Guardian Wannaniki crossed his arms and answered, “Another Solar Guardian needed help settling people on the planet. The plants here tend to be very clingy.”
The lift closed behind us and we walked into the ship, “I will have some bots scour the ship then. Make sure there is no cross contamination of species. I don't want anything from that planet to follow us home.”
Guardian Wannaniki and Lahrya followed Owl to the front of the ship. I went over to one of the lounger seats and flopped down. I threaded my fingers together and laid back, I was starting to get bored of space. There was a whole lot of nothing to do between planets.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
I was starting to miss being pestered by Amanda's raccoon for chips or teaching Jane, Victor and Jacob about chi. I missed the sounds of Swivel City and the morning walk to the dojo. I missed watching the bunnies run from the back of the dojo when I walked back there to open the door.
A few hours later I was in the atrium surrounded by all the dead plants. I was moving through martial arts katas standing on the bare dirt where I had last trained Rowand. I was going slow, taking my time with each one. I was using the movement as a way to burn time and meditate.
Bringing my hands down from where I had them stretched above me, I rotated my hips and pushed one forward while bringing the other back. I pulled my arm back to my chest then lifted one of my legs until my knee touched my chest. Twisting my hip I pushed my leg forward and slowly brought my leg out, miming a snap kick. I leaned back and planted my hands on the ground turning the extended kick into a cartwheel.
I was about to go through all my forms again when I spotted Lahrya and Guardian Wannaniki approaching me. I wiped sweat off my forehead and turned to them, “What are you guys doing down here?”
The atrium didn't look very welcoming with all the plants dead. I had been the only one regularly coming here. The dirt under my feet was torn up from all the movements I had done on top of it. Guardian Wannaniki stepped on to the dirt with Lahrya following him, “You are doing fighting movements, yes?”
“Some. It's mostly for stretching and body movement. Very few are things I would use in combat.” I answered him.
He took a stance and stuck forward with his fingers extended, “I was taught young to strike like this. Our claws are spears.”
I nodded, “I can see that. We have a few martial arts that strike like that. You use them while aiming for the softer parts of the body.”
“Your movements looked like some of the dances our life force manipulators do when they learn.” Lahrya said.
I shrugged, “We have quite a lot of martial arts.” I sped through the katas of seven different ones I knew, “Every martial art has its own katas. Weapons complicate things but they have their own katas too.”
“Owl said you were the most learned individual on your planet in the area? How hard is it for your people to learn life force manipulation?” Guardian Wannaniki asked.
I shrugged, “Maybe five or six years of learning a martial art. That prepares the body, quite a lot of introspection. You need to be able to be honest with yourself.”
Lahrya crossed her arms, “It takes about fifty solar cycles for my people to learn.”
“Is that common knowledge?”
She shrugged and replied to me, “I looked it up when I was in my fifties. It's something everyone looks up at least once or twice when they are looking for something to specialize in.”
“What did you decide to specialize in? What does that even mean?”
“Specializing in a field of study. Like Owl and her tech.” She answered.
I rolled my eyes at that. I don't think Owl specialized in anything, she just had a general level of knowledge of everything. I reached out and held my hand out towards her, “Take my hand. I want to see what your channels are like.”
Guardian Wannaniki stuck his hand out before Lahrya. I let out a chuckle and closed my hand around his. I brought my chi up from my ocean and pushed it through my hand into his then through his channels. The gamer in me could look in my body and understand my own chi channels like they were the back of my hand and the color of the sky. Guardian Wannaniki’s chi channels were a maze or twisting channels of chaos.
Suneya took one look at the mess and started picking it apart. This one kept his heart beating and this one over here helped when he twisted this muscle. It was just knowledge that came to the forefront of my mind. It was simple for me to understand. I started mapping them out and it helped me understand who Guardian Wannanikis people were.
I pulled my hand away and he dropped his. “I could teach someone of your species how to use chi in about ten years. Most of them would be trying to get one of your people to understand the concepts I would need to convey when teaching.”
He crossed his arms and stepped back, “It takes about seven years of training for one of my people to learn on my home planet.”
That made sense. I could teach them but learning under his own people would accelerate how fast he would learn. It would probably be relaxing to learn from his own people too. Getting beaten up by an alien would be nerve wracking. I held my hand out to Lahrya and she shifted her weight before reaching out and taking my hand.
My chi flowed out into her hand and through her channels. If Guardian Wannaniki's chi channels were tight together in a ball, hers were stretched out across a field. It felt like it took minutes to move my chi from one node to the other. She had some organs that humans did not have and her channels showed it. Guardian Wannaniki did too, hers were just more prominent.
I let go of her hand and looked her in the eyes. Her blue skin had flushed a pinkish purple. I didn't know what that meant so I took a step back, “I could probably teach you how to use chi in thirty years.”
She straightened up and gave a slow nod, “most of the fifty solar cycles are spent studying the rules life force users have to follow. There is a whole list of scenarios they are put through before they are allowed to even access it.”
I shrugged, “That could be it.”
Lahrya gave a nod then turned to the side and took off in a sprint. I watched her run away from me towards a wall. When she got close she slapped it with her hand then turned to the left and took off sprinting in a circle around the atrium. It clicked for me why she flushed like that when Guardian Wannaniki turned to me and asked, “What happened to her?”
“Her people have just as much chi as anything living. Their bodies burn through it really slowly, that's part of the reason her people live so long. I just flooded her channels with refined chi. Do you know what a runner's high is or the feelings you get when you do heavy exercise?”
“My people get hit with things like that when we swim far distances or swim short distances really fast again and again.” He answered.
I pointed at Lahrya's running form, “She is feeling the biggest runner's high she will ever feel in her whole life. I expect the chi users on her planet are very very active. The training they are put through probably helps discipline them and make it so they are not so impulsive.”
Guardian Wannaniki nodded at that and we watched Lahrya run circles around the atrium for a while. She eventually had to stop for sustenance. Lahrya was going to be really sore tomorrow.