Maria’s head is pounding and she sits in the food preparation and dining area of the large room where she and her friends are staying to await the reopen of the IP-area warpways. She’s never been a heavy drinker and hangovers were the stuff of TV shows on Earth, but now, every loud noise she hears that isn’t enough to wake her friends who are still sleeping heavily in the communal resting area, and the bright lights that shine through the window showing the busy city atmosphere of the spaceport outside, are extremely hard for Maria to encounter. She dresses in her IP spacesuit and engages the helmet that is made of a clear, glass-like substance that she tints to match the color of sunglasses and she silences the audio input.
She sits at a table staring out of the large window of the dining room, sipping at the beverage Sevi prepared for everyone the night before when it was clear they would drink too much in their levity. The bottle is as large as the mug she had drank alcohol from the night before; the liquid looks like water, but when she tastes it, Maria spits and exclaims loudly, “Aye puta!”
The noise wakes Kal who is practically naked except for the tight, white underwear that he wears when he sleeps. He stands quickly, and looks around.
“What’s happening, who’s there?”
“Shhhh,” Maria says, dropping her helmet, and she tiptoes to the living room area, maneuvering through the comfortable cots with their substantial cushions, and she grabs Kal’s wrist and pulls him toward the kitchen. Whadgaf and Sevi continue sleeping.
“What happened?” Kal whispers.
“I tasted this stuff,” Maria says, also whispering, and hands Kal a bottle of the liquid.
“Ohhhh, pith!” Kal says and he inverts the bottle vertically over his mouth and chugs the whole thing. “The U-firmary makes the best hangover cures.”
“It tastes so bad,” Maria says with a twisted look of disgust on her face.
“I guess I’m used to it. It is kind of bitter.”
“Kind of? It’s like eating cocoa by itself.”
“I don’t know cocoa, but if it makes me feel like this, and if it tastes like this, then I’ll take it. If you stick with me, you’ll get used to the taste of pith in no time.”
They both sit at the table watching the busy spaceport and making small talk while Maria forces down the pith liquid.
“I’m worried for your friends,” Kal says. Eventually he is doing stretches in the large space of the dining area to fully wake himself and Maria stares at his fit body that seems too large to manage the positions that he contorts into, like a gymnast. She doesn’t try to hide her curiosity about Kal’s body and he smiles when he notices her staring at him, but he doesn’t mind at all. Maria is fascinated by his chest muscles that appear to be a very muscular abdomen, but in some positions he takes, she can see a hard line, like a lip, under his large pectoral muscles with the perky red nippiles at the center of each.
“Are you worried for your friends?” Kal asks when he comes to rest in a full split, both his legs extended out perfectly straight and his butt and torso resting on the floor.
“Umm…yeah, of course ” Maria says. At the moment, she is more curious what the large lip on his chest is for. It is pink like the lips on his face and his orange-red pecs seem to rest on top of it.
“Pen has them, right?” Kal says. “She found out we were on Wiis and figured that the Queen was spying for Eakran. They know about Whadgaf and her council, everyone does.” He looks at Whadgaf as she whistles through her beak as she continues to sleep heavily, her wings wrapping her like a sleeping bag. “She’s the leader of the resistance. The IP has done a lot to unite the cultures of the universe, they have undoubtedly done good for many. The safe zone of the Banned Regions would not exist without the alliances forged by the IP. But an organization is only as good as its constituent parts, and it seems that the majority of the current representatives would rather use the collective resources to secure selfish interests. That has become increasingly clear, despite the way Pen parades around the universe like an intergalactic herald for peace and liberty. She can’t hide her intentions for much longer. Whadgaf will see, she has too much faith in the First Captain, I know she doubts that the IP will attack the Banned Regions, but there are bad elements there and it makes sense. If she can clean up the Regions and establish some order there, she can leverage that to increase recruitment of officers from representative cultures and increase the presence of IP security everywhere.”
“Why is more order and security a bad thing?” Maria asks. “Is Pen really that bad, or is it your history together that makes her so scary?”
“I will make a wager with you,” Kal says. “I believe that Pen has your friends, and when we find them, or if we rendezvous with them later and they tell us of their encounter, they will tell of abuses at the hands of Pen Nuren. Then you will see. Your friends, the resistance that has sprung up around you all, present an uncontrollable variable to Pen. She wants Eakran dead for her reasons and you all have prevented that and are still embarrassing her. You will see, Maria. A woman of Rhasdwiis does not suffer embarrassment. Should we try to find your friends?”
“Of course,” Maria says as she watches Kal stand and then sit across from her. He takes a drink from her bottle. “We should, but if Pen is so dangerous, do you really want to walk into the IP headquarters? She knows you were on Wiis, right? She’ll kill you, will she kill them?”
Kal looks at Maria with a mix of confusion and sadness.
“What’s that lip on your chest?” Maria asks before he can respond.
Kal looks down at himself where she points, and then he slips his thumb inside and pulls. The lip and the layer of muscles extend out like elastic, defying the apparent rigidity of the muscles. He stretches it like loose skin, and when he pulls it down to expose the inside, she sees that the orange-red pigmentation of his skin tapers to pink and she startles a bit and draws away like she got a peak at a very intimate part of him.
“It’s my birthing pouch,” Kal says. “I’ve had five daughters. You remind me of my youngest. She is very sweet, but she always puts on very tough airs to fit in with her impressive sisters. Maria, I don’t know many Earthlings, just you and briefly your friend Giovanni, but the universe is a very scary place right now. I couldn’t imagine being foreign to all this and being here now. Friends matter, you should be eager to trade me for them.”
“I just don’t think the First Captain would risk killing them,” Maria says. “She can’t kill an Ointite Monarch without consequences.”
“And the Earthling?” Kal asks.
Maria shrugs, “I trust the Queen to keep him safe.”
Whadgaf and Sevi wake as Maria takes another pained sip of the pith. They all drink and eat food as they make plans to deal with the Queen Ravileth’s situation.
Later, after everyone is dressed and they head out to explore the spaceport, Whadgaf receives a call on her personal communicator that she wears on her wrist.
They are at an open air restaurant and Maria sits next to Whadgaf as they wait for the others to receive their food. Maria watches Whadgaf who is excited to see the Queen Ravileth on the small screen of her communicator.
“They’re alive!” Maria says excitedly, but overhearing the conversation the two have makes her enthusiasm evaporate. Then a voice she does not recognize says,
“Technically, no one is a prisoner, they are just being detained until Representative Nuren meets with the other Representatives.”
Whadgaf shoots a look at Maria who shakes her head. When they wrap up the communication, Sevi and Kal approach their table holding more food than the two could eat themselves
“They’re being detained at the IP,” Whadgaf tells them.
“They’re prisoners,” Maria says,.”and we’re gonna break them out.”
Whadgaf looks to Maria.
“Can you handle that much mind control?” she asks. “There is a lot of security at the IP.”
“We will find out,” Maria says, not really doubting her own abilities.
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