All sentient life is connected. The appendages may be different, we may eat different things, and live in different solar systems, but at the end of the day, we’re all one big family.
It’s time to explore the branches of the universal family tree, and today, we present:
The Women of Rhadswiis
– Issue 1 – Riswin’s New Life
Riswin had never lived in a city when she arrived in the capital, Faswad. She had never even visited one. She stared like a fish out of water as the crowds passed around her. She had never seen so many people.
She found her new home easily. The streets of Faswad are neatly organized and clearly labeled, so it took her no time to find the building after she stepped off of the large hoverbus she had taken into the city from her mountain home. She had never been in an elevator and even though the building was only four stories high, and her place was on the third floor, the ride up made her nauseous.
It was smaller than the home she had left, but it was the most space she had ever had alone to herself. The place was furnished, and the flat screen tv on the wall was already on when she walked in. A video greeting started as she stood in front of it. As the voiceover played, pictures of women in military uniforms wielding weapons or operating complex machinery faded in and out.
“Welcome, new recruit! We hope that these quarters suit you well. After reviewing your new living quarters, if you find that you require different accommodations, please speak with your direct supervisor at orientation, which will begin at the start of the next daylight cycle.”
The message continued as Riswin walked around the rooms. She wouldn’t complain about these living quarters.
Riswin stood in front of the flat screen again as it continued its speech and swiped a hand in front of it. This halted the voiceover and the slideshow that paused on a picture of a proud Rhasdwiis woman in uniform with her family in the background; pregnant husband and two twin girls standing with admiring smiles.
“Show Faswad news transmissions, highlights from past seven daylight cycles.” Riswin had never owned a brand new flat screen viewer, but she had repaired plenty of them and she knew how to operate them.
The screen showed clips relevant to the news voiceover that was a male voice. Voiceovers of news transmissions in Faswad are traditionally male because male voices are not generally associated with military broadcasts that are considered much more important and required viewing.
“The Earthling man, Osmium, continues to capture the attention of the public. As a representative from the Interstellar Panel, he has been spotted mostly with high ranking military officials, but he has been seen around town and given interviews. He describes Hafjeran as similar to his home planet Earth, but with a reversal of gender roles…”
Riswin smiled and continued to get comfortable in her new place. She had been recruited for military service because she was a member of the Hojar family that is well known for their technical acumen; even the men know how to repair hovercraft, though it is wise to have a female Hojar supervising them to ensure that the work is completed much faster than a man could manage unattended. Fuhswin Hojar, Riswin’s mother, was a renowned junker who was often called upon for her expertise in outdated technologies and she taught Riswin while the young girl followed her around eagerly like a shadow. The family made the majority of their money from the repair and restoration business that Fuhswin operated on the family lands in the Broman mountain ranges, and as Riswin got older, she was tasked with teaching her younger sisters the trade of their mother. Life in Broman was not so technologically advanced, though Riswin and others her age from her poor neighborhood would find junk technology and refashion it into souvenirs for the tourist Rhasdwiis of fancier cities who used the mountains as their vacations and gave small amounts of money to the mountain children for their robots that combed hair or trimmed toenails. When she first arrived in the capital of Rhasdwiis civilization, Faswad, Riswin was wide-eyed at the busy city center that she had never witnessed first-hand. The roadways of Wiis look like cobblestones, but they are a type of naturally occurring magnetic rock that the Rhasdwiis use to lift hovercraft for transportation. Riswin stared in awe at the beauty of the magnetic roads and the wonder of the crafts that the people piloted over them.
She stared out the window of her comfortable new quarters and she was surprised that it would be her new life. She was not the first Hojar woman to be courted by the Wiis Defense Ministry, and her mother derided her everyday until she left the mountains for giving up her inheritance for military service.
“My heart,” Fuhswin said more than once, “if you are afraid or nervous to follow in your mother’s footsteps, I do understand. I can assemble a defense ray without hands. I can reverse engineer alien technology faster than any person on this planet, and that includes Druinte technology. If I were you, I would go to the military too. Trying to live up to that, to make a reputation for yourself and bring honor to our storied family history, it’s a lot to shoulder. I wanted you to be stronger, but I see that I have made things difficult for you because I am so extraordinary.”
She didn’t say any of it ironically either, and Riswin knew that her mother viewed military service like the young woman was giving up on life. But Riswin viewed the military as an opportunity to see the universe. Her foremothers may have been experts at what they did, but most of them rarely ever left the mountains. She would repurpose things all across this great universe and everyone would know her name. She would make her mother eat her words. She loved her mother very much and they talked often, but Riswin would show her that there was more to life than the mountains.
After the news transmission ended and started to replay, Riswin took her hoverboard to explore more of the city. She zipped above pedestrians in the hoverboard lanes that were clearly demarcated from the lanes for larger hovercrafts. The city was busy and the pedestrian walkways were all packed with people going in and out of the tall buildings that lined the hoverways. Riswin landed in a park with a huge fountain in the center and the water glimmered like a precious stone in the light. The park was not nearly as busy as the areas near the hoverways, but there were still many people out enjoying the well-kept fields of grass, and the wooded areas for hiking.
Riswin noticed a crowd gathered near one side of the impressive fountain and she wandered over to see what all the commotion was about. She had to stand on her tiptoes to see over the gathered crowd, and when she strained her neck as long as it would reach, she caught a glimpse of the alien, the Earthling, that she had seen on the news transmissions. Riswin nudged her way closer and she managed a better view of the man with his military escorts who kept the crowd at bay. He smiled at the crowd and answered questions.
“Do Earthlings use boys with pretty faces for all of their diplomatic missions?”
“Do you have rulthers and haleqs on your planet, and are their roles reversed as well? Do rulthers fly in the sky and haleqs swim in water?”
“Isn’t your wife worried about her husband travelling the universe alone?”
“And if you are here, then who is caring for your children?”
The Earthing laughed a lot at the questions but he answered as many as he could.
“Earthling customs do allow for scenarios similar to the way of life on this planet, but for the most part, the roles of Earthling societies are the reverse. My wife worried that I accepted a mission that means I will not know my children in their youth, but my goal here, the Earthling objective for joining the Interstellar Panel, is to expand humanity, Earthling, understanding of the universe. We have a perspective to offer, and we are humbled to learn about the civilizations of the universe and to share in the knowledge that you all have gathered over the course of your civilization. Thank you all for your time and attention, but I am needed at a meeting.”
The military escorts led the man from the fountain, through the crowd and toward the impressive vehicle that would take him to the compound of the Wiis Defense Ministry. He made eye contact with Riswin as he passed and smiled at her.
I would put some babies in him, Riswin thought, and it was possible. She could own this city if she worked hard and applied her skills with technology that were as much a part of her as her personality. And she could have an Earthling husband, the only one of his kind on the planet.
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