Page 12 of Uprooted
“Priya, please tell me you’re not going to drink that,” I say.
“It’s not so bad. There are worse places in the universe—trust me,” she says. This is not the Priya I remember. She grew up in the height of luxury, with no shortage of bots ready to meet her every demand.
“Wow. A lot has changed in the last ten years. I never thought I’d see the chancellor's daughter defending a place like this.”
“To old friends!” Priya raises her glass of murky alcohol. Our glasses clink together and after everyone else has taken a long gulp, I grudgingly take a sip. The fizzy, slightly bitter drink goes down easily, and a warm rush hits my blood stream.
Bri takes another long drink before setting her half-empty glass down. She turns to Priya. “Start at the beginning. I want to hear every single embarrassing thing Elowen has ever done.”
Priya looks between us with a smirk. I steel myself, preparing to be the entertainment for the evening. I give her a look, begging her to go easy on me.
“The first time I saw Elowen, she walked into class midway through the term with her clothes inside out and backwards.” She gets halfway through the sentence before she’s gasping for breath laughing. More heads turn in our direction.
“Oh no!” Bri covers her mouth to hide her smile.
“I had never seen those clothes before, and my mom was very confident when she helped me get dressed that morning.”
“Don’t worry. I didn’t let her walk around like that all day. I got her straightened out and from that moment forward, we were inseparable.” Priya is right—she helped me adjust to life on Na’Lorska and quickly became my closest friend.
Our families joked that we were twins, even though our appearances were opposite in almost every way. Even as a kid I was tall, and Priya’s people never grow past four feet. I kept my long dark hair pulled back in a single braid, and Priya’s smooth hairless head was always wrapped up in a colorful headscarf.
“Elowen was awkward, but that didn’t stop my brother from falling deeply in love with her,” Priya says. She drains her drink and orders another round.
“How is your brother these days?” I ask.
“He’s great! He has a baby on the way.” Priya beams with pride.
“Looks like we’re gonna be here for a while. Next round is on me,” Bri says with a raised glass.
“I’ll drink to that!” Priya cheers. The three of us clink our drinks together, and I tip my glass high, swallowing down the rest. My aversion to the station slips away while we reminisce and catch up. I almost manage to forget how grimy and terrifying it is here.
09
Aro
“The humans’ flight path was redirected and they’ll be here a day early,” Rialto announces to the briefing room. “They will be landing at the pt’Clanik base at 0600. Upon arrival they will officially be under our supervision.”
Deputy Commander Petrok continues the briefing. “The cargo bay will be used as a staging area for their arrival. There we will connect each visitor with their precleared personal effects and escort them to their assigned room. Transpo will report to the cargo bay at 0500. Everyone else reports here at 0600 to prepare.”
Rialto adds, “Check your yuriOS for job assignments. Final inspection reports are due by 1500. Dismissed.”
I’ve been assigned the northeast quadrant to prep for the arrival of the humans tomorrow. The four sections spread out from the central hub which contains the mess hall and security ops. Each of the zones have a similar layout with a lab, a recreational space, and sleeping units. The gym, medbay, pool, and storage areas are scattered throughout the sectors.
“Don’t we have bots to do this sort of thing?” Tai mutters as we look over our tasks for the day.
I’m just glad to have something to do instead of sitting around and waiting for the humans to arrive.
A red alert pops up on my yuriOS. “I’m showing a malfunctioning cleaning bot. Come with me to check it out.”
“I really don’t want to go to the human quarters. Find me when you’re done,” Tai says.
“Don’t tell me you’ve fallen for that Anti-Human movement.” There’s a small vocal group of Tilaks that don't want humans here. No one takes them seriously. I’m not really sure they take themselves seriously.
“No, I honestly don’t care about the humans,” Tai says.
“Good. I better not catch you chanting ‘Stay True to the Blue,’” I say, mocking their ridiculous rally cry.
Tai chuckles. “The ‘Beat Feet, Pink Meat’ morons are an even bigger pain in my ass than the humans.” I can’t help but laugh.
