by Nikki Clarke
“Our visitation agent will have to speak with you,” he says gently. I move to lift off of his lap, but he stops me. He lifts me and turns me around, so that I face the side of the pod that is in front of the floating booth. A larger window has opened, and an even expressioned Lyqa male is seated in the booth on the other side. He says something in their language to Ah’dan.
“If you are able, please speak in English, so our guests can understand you,” Ah'dan requests, kindly.
“You are returning from Earth?” the Lyqa repeats without missing a beat. His accent like Bati’s and his family’s is soft and musical.
“We are.”
“And how many guests have you returned with?” He’s facing the inside of his booth. His hands moves over something I can’t see.
“There are three in our pod. My mother, father and brother have arrived as well with two more humans. One is the lehti to our brother.”
“Your brother’s lehti, she will reside?”
“I believe so.”
“And these guests? Will they reside?”
He looks up, finally. His startlingly purple eyes fall on me since I am the closest. Amina wasn’t lying about these Lyqa dudes. They are fine. This guy is a little older, maybe close to middle age, but he’s still very good looking. His stark white hair is buzzed low, an interesting contrast to his lightly tanned skin. He stares patiently at me as he waits for my answer. I look up to Bati.
“Is he asking us if we’re going to live here?”
“Oh, snap, we can stay?”
LaShay’s head pops into the isle. Her eyes are wide with excitement.
“Shay…”
“Don’t ‘Shay’ me. If I can stay, I’m staying. Can I stay?” The agent nods and turns back inside the booth.
“You have permission to stay on Lyqa for the equivalent of four Earth months. For permanent residence, you must be leht—my implant is not supplying the English translation for this word—“
“It does not matter,” Ah’dan cuts in.
“You must be leht to a Lyqa partner, the parent to a Lyqa, or complete our citizenship process, which may only be applied for at the end of your four month stay, contingent upon appropriate behavior while visiting.”
“Oh,” LaShay’s face drops comically. “Well, sign me up for the four month pass, then. Is that all right?” She looks to Bati.
“Of course,” he returns.
“Yes!” Shay pumps her fist then holds her arm out to the agent when he asks for it. He fits her with a slim bracelet. A small green light blinks on the top of it.
“Will you reside?” The agent turns back to me. Bati shifts beneath me before replying in Lyqa. The agent nods again and his hands move inside the booth.
“Will the child also reside?”
“Wait, I can stay?” I angle my head up at Bati. He leans down and places a quick kiss on the tip of my nose, surprising me with the easy show of affection.
“You can if you wish, my lehti.”
“Hey, how come Tee gets to reside and I don’t?” Shay whines.
That’s a good question. Bati ignores my curious stare and says something else in Lyqa. The agent produces a small bracelet from inside the booth.
“May I see your arm, little one?”
KJ, who’s been quietly observing everything from beside Shay, looks at me. I ease out of Bati’s lap and crouch down in the isle. I pull him in front of me so that we both face the open panel of the pod.
“It’s okay, baby. It’s just a cool little bracelet. It doesn’t hurt or anything, does it, Shay?”
Shay holds out her arm, twisting it so the fitted bit of metal reflects the dull lights of the pod. “Nope. Not a bit.”
Hesitantly, KJ holds his arm out. The agent smiles and closes the band around his wrist. Then he pats my son’s hand.
“Ask your apha to show you all of the fun things you can do with this.” He gestures to Bati. KJ jerks his head up and down quickly and rushes back into his seat.
“And you, ma’am, you can also use this band for any purchases or services you may need. It will code itself to your genetic and residence markers. Your lehti’s accounts have already been connected.”
“Oh, I don’t need any accounts. I’m not going to buy anything here.” I think about the two credit cards I have back home, both nearly maxed out. The last thing I need is intergalactic debt.
“You do not have to worry about money here, Tiani. You are free to purchase anything you desire.”
“Uh, okay.” I agree, just because it’s easier. I guess it’s better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.
The agent smiles and waves us forward. “I hope you enjoy your stay on Lyqa. Welcome.”
Ah’dan replies in Lyqa and reaches through the window to grasp the man’s arm briefly before tapping the control panel and propelling us forward.
“Tee, dude, we’re on an alien planet!”
I look around at Shay and smile. Holy crap, we are.
BATI
Tiani is definitely different. Unlike Amina, she looks at everything. The moment we step outside of the transport center, her head turns in every direction as she takes in her new surroundings.
Her excitement pleases me. KJ, too, curiously walks about the front of the transport center.
“Hi!” he waves at a young Lyqa couple a few feet away. They turn, their surprise at seeing a human child evident.
“Hello, little one,” the male says and brushes a hand over KJ’s head. The woman, a beautiful raven haired Lyqa with bright hazel eyes, kneels down next to him and pulls him into a gentle hug.
“Where have you come from?” she asks.
“Chicago!” KJ throws his hands up in the air as he bounces with excitement. The woman laughs and looks to me for understanding.
“They are from Earth,” I supply. “My dahni has never traveled before.”
Her face brightens and she smiles at KJ’s display of delight. He bounces away and resumes waving at every passing Lyqa.
“K, stay close to mommy.” The anxious voice of my lehti sounds out behind me. I turn to find her glowering at me and the woman. A breeze blows from her direction, and I scent…jealousy? It washes over me and my skin trembles.
“I hope your family enjoys their stay here,” the woman extends with a knowing smile. She takes hold of my arm briefly before walking back to her pod where her partner is unloading their packs.
“KJ, let us return to your mother.” I take the boy’s hand and walk back over to Tiani. The smell of jealousy is even more potent.
“Do you know her?”
I tilt my head, confused as to why she is so unsettled. “I do not.”
“Oh, she touched you.”
I try to contain my urge to smile, but it is difficult. My mouth tilts up with pleasure. I do not mind that she doesn’t want other women to touch me.
“Lyqa are an affectionate species. We touch each other often.”
“Mm hm.” Her mouth twists up to the side before she takes KJ’s hand and turns to catch up with the others who are already making their way toward our home.
“It’s so quiet.”
Tiani’s observation is a hushed murmur. Our large party makes its way through the nearly empty streets. She’s on my right. KJ is on my other side. His excitement is a vibrant jolt through our joined palms. Ahead, my mother and father lead the group. Tiani’s mother walks with them, her arm linked somewhat stiffly through my father’s arm. Kwarq and Amina walk with Ah’dan in front of us. Amina’s round form moves slowly, keeping the general pace easy.
The thick vegetation lining the homes beside us rustles gently in the breeze. The sounds of insect life reach my ears, but aside from that, it is, in fact, very quiet.
“I have not noticed until now, but you are correct. Lyqa senses are very sensitive. As such, we have designed our homes to contain most sound. Otherwise, it would be overwhelming.”
“Wow,” Tiani looks up at a large clay structure
beside us. Dim lights glow behind the window coverings. The shadows of Lyqa move against them. “So all of these houses are soundproof?”
“They are.”
“Even on the inside? What if you need to call someone in the house?”
I smile. “The insides of our homes are open. It is easier for us to ignore select sounds. We can usually grant privacy when it is necessary.”
“Hm. So if someone is doing it, you can choose to listen or not?”
“KJ, come here. I have something to show you.” Ah’dan’s voice calls back to us. KJ breaks free of my hand and runs ahead, launching himself at my brother who lifts him over his head and settles him on his shoulders. I’m left alone with my lehti.
“I assume you refer to sex,” I reply. “Yes, if someone in our home requires privacy with their partner, it is considerate to focus one’s attention elsewhere.”
“What if they’re loud? Like really, really loud?”
My mouth twitches. “Some partners make it more difficult than others. Your sister, for instance, made it quite hard.” She makes an uncomfortable face, and I cannot stop my grin. “You also presented a particular challenge to my family during your sister’s wedding.”
Chapter 8
TIANI
“Like this?”
KJ waves his hand over the sensor, prompting the door to the bedroom to swish open.
“Just like that, my dahni. This is your room now. You can come and go as you please, as long as you let your mother know.”
Bati guides KJ through the door, and I step in behind them. The room is large. Much too large for one four-year-old. In the corner, there’s a bed a little smaller than a twin-size on Earth. The rest of the room is an open space. All across the room are toys and other things a kid would go crazy over. What looks like a mini jungle gym sits in the middle of the room. KJ jets into the room and makes a beeline for it, pausing with a hand on one of the lower rungs. Bati laughs and makes a shooing motion with his hands.
“Go ahead, my dahni, everything in this room is yours.”
With an excited giggle, KJ propels himself up on the first rung. He pulls himself up hand over foot with little grunts of effort until he gets to the padded top. He jumps to his feet, raising his fists above his head triumphantly. Bati whoops and claps his hands together.
“You are quick, KJ. Well done. Now can you get down?”
KJ creeps to the edge and peers over. His mouth pulls down. I chuckle and shake my head. I knew the moment he started climbing that getting back down would be less enthusiastic. I move to go help him, but Bati beats me, his long legs eating up the space before I’ve taken a step. He’s so tall that he merely plucks KJ from the top and sets him on the ground. He ruffles his hand over my son’s head.
“I am going to show your mother to her room. Will you be okay playing here until we get back?”
KJ runs over to a pile of metal blocks. They look heavy, but KJ picks two of the rectangles up easily and stacks them together. He jumps back when the pieces shift and forge together into one piece.
“These are special blocks, KJ. You can make any shape you wish.” Bati squats down next to him and points to a square. “Wave your hand over it.”
KJ shakes his left hand over the chunk of metal and a crystal clear projection rises from its surface. On the display are several shapes.
“Choose this one.” Bati points to the image of a cylinder that rotates in the projection.
“How?” KJ’s head is close to the little screen. He’s unsure of how to interact with it.
“Just use your finger and touch the one you want.”
KJ lifts his hand and jabs at the image of the cylinder before jerking his hand and body back. My eyes widen with his when the block lifts and shifts, the metal rearranging itself, the edges smoothing and constricting, until a cylinder sits in its place.
“Cool!”
Bati chuckles again and lifts the newly formed block, handing it over to my son.
“Make something very cool for me to see,” he says, using the new word. “I will be back in a moment.”
KJ starts to wave his hand over all of the blocks, turning each one into a new shape. He cackles loudly when a block shifts and twists until it sits in a star shape. Bati rises and walks back to me where I’m still standing at the door.
“Thank you for letting him use all this stuff. Those blocks are pretty cool. They’re like little transformers.”
“I do not know what those are, but these are common toys for Lyqa children. They are safe, and these are his to enjoy. I will show you to your room now.” He moves past me, and his arm brushes against my body, sending a little shiver of awareness through me.
“K, don’t get back on that thing until we come back, okay.” I point to the jungle gym. KJ jerks his head up and down without looking up from one of the shifting blocks. I don’t think he’s going to get much building done.
I follow Bati back into the large living room area of his part of the house. He lives in a mansion, or at least that’s what it would be on Earth. But really it’s just a large main house with connected smaller residences. Kwarq and Amina disappeared to one of these smaller “apartments” when he first arrived. Bati led us to another. I have no idea how many apartments are connected, but it looked like everyone headed in a different direction.
When we enter, Shay rushes in from the open balcony doors and ducks around Bati, grabbing hold of his shirt and hiding her face against his back. I get the strange urge to push her away.
“Ohmygod! Get rid of it. It’s gonna get me!”
A loud buzz draws my eyes back to the open doors where a huge, bright red bug is hovering at the entrance. Its large neon blue wings look like spider webs fluttering beside its scaly body. It darts forward, the buzz getting louder, and I automatically grab hold of Bati’s arm, using the other half of his torso to shield myself as much as I can.
“What the hell is that?”
Bati’s shoulders flinch up and down. “It is just a bug.”
“It’s just a bug? That thing is fucking huge! Can it bite us?”
Again that shrug. “It can, of course. This type of beetle has a viciously sharp stinger, but it will not harm you unless it is threatened.”
The buzzing sounds closer, so I peek around Bati's shoulder. The bug hovers right in front of him. I yelp and duck back behind him.
“Dude, get rid of it!” Me and Shay both yell out at the same time.
Bati turns, shifting the shield of his body. We move with him, ducking low just in case.
“I cannot make it leave, lehti, but I promise if you calm down, it will not harm you.” He stops moving and sighs deeply when we grip him tighter and refuse to move from behind him.
“Just kill it!” Shay screams out when it flies high and swoops around us.
“We do not kill things if we do not have to here.” There is real admonishment in his tone. “Now, please, it has left. If you will let me close the balcony doors, I can prevent it from coming back in.”
He starts walking toward the patio, and we both have no choice but to let go of him. The moment he steps away, we grab each other, both of us looking around cautiously.
Bati closes the doors and turns back to us. He crosses his arms and raises an eyebrow at us cowering together.
“You both look ridiculous.”
We do. I realize it the moment he says so, and I step away from LaShay, smoothing my shirt down as I try to play it off.
“Earth bugs are a lot smaller,” I mumble with as much pride as I can.
“And yet you kill them? Why kill something that is of no harm to you?”
Me and Shay exchange a look. We really don’t have an answer. Bati waits for a moment, and when we don’t respond, he shakes his head and walks past us, waving for us to follow him.
He leads us to another room, just off the living room, waving his hand over the side of the door and causing it to slide back on itself.
“We normally do not cl
ose doors in our home, but if you need privacy, just wave your hand over the entrance.”
I’m surprised that the room is about a third of the size of the one he gave KJ. A large bed takes up most of the space. A few intricately designed vases are arranged in the corners. A wide angled table takes up one side of the room, and a long, cushy lounge sits against the wall opposite the bed.
It doesn’t look like a guest room. It looks lived in. It also has the distinct scent of wood and spice. It’s a scent I have smelled before, and my body reacts to it, getting warm in all the right places. My heart trips a little and I turn to Bati.
“Is this your room?”
“It is, but I will reside in the common room for now.”
I start to shake my head, but Shay walks past us and throws herself onto the bed. Again there is that urge to drag her off of the place where he sleeps. I stamp it down and turn back to Bati.
“You don’t have to do that for us. We can sleep out there. We’re small. You’ll probably be uncomfortable.” The low couch in the living room is short and hard looking. Whereas Bati’s bed is clearly sized for Lyqa height.
“It is no problem, Tiani. You must accept and allow me to be a proper host.”
I look over to the bed where LaShay is laying face down. Her eyes are closed. At first I think she’s faking, but then a loud snore sounds out in the room.
“It is late, well past the evening hour. You must be tired. I will let you prepare to sleep.” He gives one of those short head nods and leaves, waving the door closed after him.
I can’t sleep, and I have to pee. I never sleep well in new places. Unlike Shay, who could fall asleep standing up in the middle of her high school graduation—a real thing that happened—I take forever to get comfortable. It doesn’t help that every time I try to get situated, a big puff of Bati whiffs around me. Damn that Lyqa dude smells good.
After he left earlier, I unpacked my and LaShay’s suitcases and went to go put KJ to bed, only to find him dressed in some kind of jersey type shirt and shorts set, already asleep in the little bed. Everything in the room had been put away, and his clothes and other items had been removed from his bag and placed into the single dresser in the room.