{"sf1_id":980591,"sf2_id":null,"title":"Chapter Two","author":"Jaffea","words":2905,"posted_at":"2016-03-28T23:47:00.000Z","tags":["Plot Development","Sci-Fi","Story Series"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/980591-chapter-two","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/view/980591","image_url":"https://www.sofurryfiles.com/std/thumb?page=980591\u0026ext=.jpg","description":"","content":"Chapter\nTwo\n3/17/2160-\nIn orbit of planet Fitzgerald\nSpace is big.\n\nThose\nwere Joel's thoughts upon awaking in his annoyingly cramped seat. The fabric of\nspacetime began to dissolve into a spherical distortion as he could see from\nthe cramped, circular window. A distant pattern of stars and what appeared to\nbe a cerulean gas giant emerged from the rupture in space. Joel, along with the\ntwo hundred or so passengers in the spacecraft alongside him, was thrown back\nin his seat upon entering real-space and accelerating using conventional\nNewtonian reaction engines. Cheap and inferior to modern gravitophoton-based\nengines, but they got the job of short-range transportation done relatively\nsmoothly. \nThe\nengines which allowed faster-than-light travel, of course, operated via a\ncompletely different manner. They used a field of dark energy to massively reduce\na vehicle's inertial mass by several orders of magnitude consequently shunting\nit into an alternate spacetime where the speed of light was increased,\ncolloquially termed 'Subspace'. The superconducting coils required to produce such\na field, however, could also be used at a lower power setting to easily create\npowerful gravitational fields at the press of a button. They were prohibitively\nexpensive to manufacture and utilise, which thus led many cheap transportation\ncompanies, like the one transporting Joel, to use them exclusively for\nfaster-than-light travel only. Miniaturised coils could also be placed in the\nfloors of spacecraft to create artificial gravity, though Interstellar\nExpeditions had a propensity to spend the least sum of money on its liners as\npossible. Joel was strapped in to his seat without any gravity. \nThe\ntransport liner had passed through the Subspace rupture fully, creating a brief\nflash of Cherenkov radiation which momentarily fizzled out as the rupture collapsed\ninto itself and ceased to exist. The bubbly sensations of the mass-reducing\nquintessence field had passed from his stomach and the cerulean gas giant was\nnow fully in view, rapidly approaching the shaking spacecraft. The target\ndestination was now easily visible: A slowly rotating torus interlaced with\neight major support struts, glowing metallically with the reflection of the\nyellow star Amscom. A scarlet light on the end of each of the support struts\nblinked brightly against the relative blackness of space. The thing was quite\nlarge for a station, perhaps eight kilometres in diameter. \nThe\ntransport closed the distance to the station within ten minutes. The reaction\ncontrol system activated with an audible whoosh\nand decelerated the spacecraft, now throwing Joel into the seat ahead of him. He cursed quietly,\nreturning a brief, \"I'm sorry,\" to the elderly man ahead of him who had turned\nabout face and given him an accusatory glare. Apparently his curse was louder\nthan he initially thought. \nThe\nspacecraft docked with the station with a sudden jolt of deceleration. After\nthirty seconds the atmosphere pressure of the craft was equalised\nbarometrically with the pressure of the station's atmosphere and the airlock\nslowly became ajar. The stale atmosphere of the spacecraft leaked out and was\nsupplanted by blissfully fresh air. The captain's voice came over the speakers\nand gave the passengers permission to exit the craft. Joel unbuckled his\nseatbelt and hurriedly waddled through the curved surface and into the hallway\nof the station. \n\"Gravity,\"\nhe sighed in a thankful tone. \"What a lovely sensation.\" \nHe\nstood proudly, letting his muscles and 185 centimetre frame become accustomed\nto the lost sensations of the gravitational interaction. He had been in that\ndamned cigar tube for over three days- evidently Interstellar Expeditions\ncouldn't afford fast Subspace drives either. Joel's black suit blended nicely\nwith his ebony skin. He had a professional cut of straight black hair- a trait\ninherited from his combined African American and Swedish heritage- which he\nkept neatly combed. A black suitcase lay at his side while he stretched his\narms. \n\"Lishenshe\npleashe.\" That drawled, slobbery request interrupted his train of thought. He\nturned to face the voice. It was a heavy Paxir man dressed in a blue attendant\nuniform, at least half a metre taller than he was. \"Pardon me?\" Joel asked the\nman.\n\"Lishen-\nLish-,\" the alien groaned in combined embarrassment and frustration with the\ncomplexities of the human lingua franca. He was massively tall, at least 230\ncentimetres, with grey reptilian skin and four muscular mandibles that\nsupplanted where a pair of lips would normally be expected on a humanoid. A\nthick otter-like tail, lacking in fur of course and resembling that of a lizard,\nextended from the back of his flight uniform. Thick, dreadlock-like tentacles\nof cartilage extended from the alien's scalp, the Paxir equivalent of hair. The\nmandibles were essentially the equivalent of the reptilian species' lips and\ncould communicate English sounds, if crudely; sibilant sounds in particular\nwere difficult to pronounce due to the lack of a tongue. \nThe\nalien stumbled a few more times before it finally clicked to Joel as to what\nthe man wanted. He produced a plastic card from his pocket- his traveller's\nlicense, which gave him clearance to be aboard the station. He handed it to the\nman, who accepted it with his massive tetradactyl hands. \"Joel Olofsson?\" he\nasked upon placing it in the laser scanner. \n\"That's\nme,\" he replied with a slight Swedish accent. \n\"Here\nyou are, Mr. Olofsson. Welcome to Fitzgerald Station.\" He handed Joel his\nlicense, curving his mandibles upwards in an attempt to imitate a human smile.\nHe smiled in return and left the spaceport, travelling via the station-wide\nconveyor belt. \nThe\nstation was crowded with people hustling this way and that. He recognised that\nthe station was an entertainment facility based on the various exhibits and\ntourist destinations visible along his conveyor travel. Posters of government\nendorsements were plastered along the walls crookedly. Most of them were copies\nof a popular military recruitment advertisement featuring an armoured Jaffean\nwoman holding a rifle heroically with alien letters scrawled atop her. Joel\nmentally translated the letters as best he could. \"We can beat the Colonial\nRevolution,\" he read to himself. \"The UAS is staying right here.\" \nHe\npondered that thought for a time and let out a sarcastic snicker. The United\nAscendancy of Stars was the coalition of three interstellar governments which\nformed the overarching legislative body of the Orion Arm of the Milky Way:\nJaffean, Paxir, and human. The first, a feline species of humanoids; the\nsecond, a massive reptilian species of humanoids; the latter, a simian species\nriddled by war since its inception tens thousands of years ago. Humanity, after\nbriefly warring with the former two species over a territorial dispute (and\nlosing miserably), begrudgingly accepted a peace treaty on the condition that\nthey become a member species of the Ascendancy. Not desiring to be driven to\nextinction at the hands of a significantly more advanced alien empire, the\nUnited Nations had little choice but to accept. \nThe\nreal joke, however, wasn't in how the Ascendancy handled other species, but\ninstead how it handled its own colonies. The empire was legislatively divided\ninto two regions: The Core and the Periphery. The Core consisted of a sixty\nlight year region (roughly a day's travel using Subspace propulsion) radiating\nfrom Jaffea and encompassing Pax'ilstal- the Jaffean and Paxir homeworlds,\nrespectively- and exhibited economic decadence and an egotistical bourgeoisie\npopulace. The Periphery was everywhere else- mining colonies, agricultural\nworlds- places where people busted their proverbial asses just to sustain a\ndecent living. The population in the Periphery, as of the 2160 interstellar\ncensus, constituted seventy nine percent of the \"United\" Ascendancy of Stars. In\nspite of this, their political power and socioeconomic representation was\ncomparable to the power of a worker bee relative to that of the hive queen. \nThus\nthe Colonial Revolution. The UAS-UN war was the first war the UAS had fought in\nnearly a century, and it wasn't cheap. For the past twenty years after the war\nhad ended, the colonies were furious of the rampant increase of quotas and\ndemands due to the costs of the war. A small number of the colonies violently\nprotested, resulting in their deaths. That had the exact opposite effect of\nquelling the rebellion, however, instead sparking a number of colonial\nrebellions and violent uprisings. The cancer of rebellion quickly spread across\nthe Periphery, creating a general feeling of angst in the Ascendancy. The\nmilitary became much more powerful, quickly annihilating any colony daring to\nrebel. Any mention of political dissent was essentially a free ticket to either\nprison or execution. \nThat\nwas why Joel popped a snicker. More than three quarters of the empire, of which\nhe was a citizen, was living day-to-day busting their proverbial asses to make\na living, while the corpulent bourgeoisie of the Core was gorging themselves on\noverflows of money and exquisite Jaffean alcohol. Fitzgerald Station was what\nthe UAS termed a \"recreation resort,\" which was a method for the government to\nentertain its Periphery citizens and quell feelings of dissent. Families who\ncould save up enough duzzels- the standard Ascendancy currency- could usually\nafford to stay at such a facility for three days of the Earth-standard year.\nThen it was back to mining and farming for the remaining year. That cold fact\nreduced his spirits somewhat. Seeing all of the families scuttle about the\nstation, eager to have fun, eager to live, made him slightly depressed\nknowing that their fun would be dashed by decadence and indifference soon\nenough to make it all fade from memory. \nHe\nhad forgotten his turn. The thought snapped back to him that he had a destination in mind and he hurriedly\nheld up his arm, tapping his smart watch and projecting a small holographic\ndisplay of the government pamphlet he received three days prior on Earth.\n\"Gravito-Metrik Office, suite 24E,\" he read aloud. He looked up hurriedly. The\nred sign post reading 24E whizzed by\nas he rode by on the conveyor belt. \"Ah, shit,\" he soliloquised, hurriedly\ngrabbing his suitcase and exiting the belt at an adjacent divergence in the rubber\nbelt. It took him a few minutes to arrive back at 24E, but soon enough he\nstepped within a metre of the white doors and they parted with a sibilant hiss.\n\nThe\nhuman saw an office lobby with white walls, indicative of the laboratory\nsetting he was expecting. There was a puzzling lack of people in the open\nlobby- there was a skylight above the door he had just entered displaying the\nblackness of space; a coffee machine with no attendees; no people walking the\nhallways. But there was a calico Jaffean sitting behind the desk in the centre\nof the room. \n\"Pardon,\nmonsieur?\" the alien asked in a definitively male voice. \"Are you lost?\" \n\"No,\"\nJoel returned, walking up to the receptionist. \"I accepted a research position.\nI wasn't told anything other than that, I'm afraid.\" \n\"Ah!\"\nthe alien said with a flash of remembrance. \"You must be monsieur Olofsson, non?\" \nHe\nnodded. \n\"Good!\"\nhe almost shouted. Joel was taken aback by his twitchy mannerisms. The man's\njaw twitched at regular intervals and his feline ears made subtle vibratory\nstirs every once in a while. Joel recognised these as nervous ticks, but simply\ndismissed the man as being stressed in an office job. The calico leapt out of\nhis seat and slammed open the desk side door and then stared into the skylight\nfor a moment, as if awaiting approval. \nJoel\nbacked up; this guy was odd, to say\nthe least. \"Is everything alright?\" he probed nervously. He briefly rotated around to observe the skylight, seeing if\nanything unusual or interesting was there in space. \nNothing.\nJust a fourteen billion light year wide splatter of white dots of light against\na black background. \nStars\nand utter silence. \n\"Terrific!\" was the alien's reply. \"Let's\ngo to-\" he stared into outer space\nagain, awaiting a go-ahead from the heavens above- \"Your office!\" \nThe\nhuman simply shot him a cautious, mildly threatened gaze. A slight blue glow\nseemed to emanate from the feline's whiskers, emitting some sort of sparkling\nephemeral ectoplasm during his last shout. He had seen the effect before in\nsome of the more poverty-stricken regions of the Periphery: Stardust. The\nartificial blue powder was a metamaterial capable of entrapping gravitophotons\nwithin its crystal lattice, giving its users not only a terrific high (brought\non by the actual dust) but also a limited ability to project small gusts of gravitomagnetism\nfrom their appendages as though they exhibited telekinesis. \nThe\nJaffean sniffed heavily and coughed, his breath expelling a crackle of blue\nelectricity. His straight cerulean hair stood on end. \"Come on!\" he almost\nshouted, pointing in the direction of a white-painted corridor on the right\nside of the large room. \"Right this way!\"\nSo\nJoel followed him, albeit reluctantly. There were a few other scientists\nmeandering through the hall, reminiscing about their flow charts and Feynman\ndiagrams and gravitophoton momentum yields. Most of them were either human or\nJaffean, he noticed, but there were a few Paxir lumbering about who, at nearly\ntwo point five metres tall, had a difficult time squeezing into the short\nhallway. \nThe\nJaffean druggie and Joel arrived at a white door with a black stripe of paint\nrunning along the midsection. The name tag on the right side of the door read: J. Olofsson- PhD Theoretical and Applied\nPhysics. He was proud to have a sign displaying his achievements. At twenty\nseven solar years of age, possessing a PhD was a sign of either kissing the\nprofessor's ass to get ahead or busting one's own to yield the same effect.\nJoel performed the latter extensively, and it propelled him farther and faster\nthan anything he imagined. \n\"Hey,\"\nJoel asked, turning about to look towards the Jaffean on his left, \"So, is\nthis-\" he interrupted himself. \nThe\nman was gone. \nHe\nlooked about the long and narrow hallway, seeing where he could have\ndisappeared to. There was no door behind him where he could have run off. And\nthe hallway was fairly lengthy, so the alien man being able to run that\ndistance in such a short time, even being intoxicated with Stardust, was\nunlikely. The aliens were digitigrade, however, meaning that they could be\nfast, stealthy and sneaky. Their tetradactyl paws made nearly zero noise even\nwhen sprinting.\n\"Ah,\nfuck it,\" he cursed under his breath, quickly losing interest in the druggie's\nactivities. \"I've had a long enough day.\" He angrily punched the red button\nunder his name tag and the door split apart along the black division with a\npneumatic whish. The human did a\nquick look around and stepped through the threshold of the metal doorway. \nThe\nroom was mostly white, with a singular black stripe running through the cubic\nwalls horizontally. There was a desk opposite the door on the upper left of the\nroom, equipped with a surprisingly fancy-looking computer and office tools, as\nwell as a printer and fax machine resting just under the slick black computer\nmonitor. On the right of the room was a wooden bookshelf laden with tomes of\nall sorts. An orange holographic clock was placed on the wall a metre above and\nto the right of the desk; it read 7:12\np.m. in civilian time. Overall, the office looked exquisitely crafted, and\nmust have been the size of a large master bedroom. He noticed a rectangular\ndoorway a few metres away from the desk with a hinged door on the side; it led\nto an equally well-equipped restroom. \nJoel\nwas interrupted in his aweing with a rustling sound coming from around the\nbookshelf, which had a right angle and consequently partially obstructed the\nview. The first things that came to his mind were schol'ieores. The damn\nanimals were from the Paxir homeworld, Pax'ilstal, and had run amok across the\ngalaxy ever since the species' debut into the galactic arena nearly a\nmillennium ago. They resembled hairless, reptilian gerbils with blood red scaly\nskin. They very often didn't carry disease, but regardless, the little bastards\nloved to hide in starships and buildings- and seemed to have a certain affinity\nfor eating electrical wires and paper, making them quite a nuisance. \nJoel\nswore and readied his suitcase, prepared to smash the alien rodent's skull in.\nThe rustling ceased almost on cue, as if the little bastard knew he was coming.\nHe rounded the right angle of the bookshelf and looked down. \nBut\nthere wasn't a rodent. \nA\nJaffean stood up, a book still in her hands and a confused look prominent on\nher muzzle. The alien feline was quite short, standing at a full height of\nmaybe a metre and a half, and resembled a melange between a tabby and leopard\ncat. Her fur had a base of fawn striated with spotty rosettes of obsidian and\nsmears of light fawn striating her fur. The light fawn of her base coat\nsparkled beautifully between the rosettes of black striating her fur in\ndiscontinued spotty stripes. Her eyes were light green with a vertical slit\nforming her pupil, and a metre-something long furry tail, splotched with black stripy\nrosettes and a fawn base, extended from her sacrum. Her hair was an indubitably\ndistinctive component to her appearance, resembling a mid-20th\ncentury, shoulder-length pixie cut of wavy zebra-coloured hair, most of it\nblack but striated with vertical white stripes. \nThe\nrealisation and ecstatic surprise registered simultaneously with both of them,\nbut only one of them had the courage to speak. \n\"Floriil?\"\nweakly escaped Joel's lips. "}