Ch. 5 - They Talked...

Content Warning: Consumption of food

↓This is the Audio Companion for Chapter 5! ↓

It was... very spacious, in the room Joshua silently walked into.

It was also not a bland room, as Joshua initially thought it would be, like how he assumed the leader of Galvana had a boring office. This room seemed to have an entire kitchen and living space, but where the former ended and the latter began, he couldn't tell; there were no walls separating the spaces, if they were even meant to be separated at all. The aesthetics of the room even gave him pause to think that that was what he was looking at in the first place; who's to say that a human kitchen would look like this, or should?

No, focus here. You're here to talk, not to get distracted.

Joshua turned back to watch It'kara close the door behind him. Well... maybe 'close' wasn't correct here. It... shifted? It was like it was on a conveyor belt that was misaligned, causing the door to turn into a closed position at the frame. Off-putting.

...why did I turn again?

He thought to himself, as he stood there, hypnotized by the world of questions he had about... everything around him. It'kara walked away from the door and met Joshua's eyes with their own.

"Would you like to sit down?" they said, gesturing with an open hand to the table in the 'kitchen'.

Right, okay. Take a seat. Be normal. Say something.

Joshua struggled to bring words to his lips as he came to the table and grasped the frame of the...

--Chair. It's a goddamn chair. It looks like one, it is a chair. Call it a chair.

...chair.

"...uh, what..." Joshua started, but choked on the air. The question he was trying to ask was rather unformed, and he didn't even know what kind of answer he wanted. "...what room is this?"

It'kara turned to face Joshua, as they were now peering into a cabinet in the 'kitchen'. A smile was on their face, and he couldn't tell if it was from amusement at the question or an attempt to keep the pleasant energy of this meeting around while he was fumbling with his head so much.

"This is my room," they replied with a quaint chuckle. "It's my living space on this ship. I figured, since our intrusion a few days ago, we could be a bit hostful in a way. A show of goodwill, if you want to be diplomatic about it."

Joshua couldn't help but chuckle at the end of their sentence out of nervousness. They really want you to trust them, at the end of it.

...but why?

Does it matter?

No, shit. Focus. Diplomacy.

"...uh, well," Joshua almost whispered after his laughter had left him, "speaking of diplomacy, why exactly are you here?"

It'kara pulled a tray of white, fluffy mounds out of the cabinet, set them in front of Joshua, and sat opposite of him. They seemed to be struggling to find what to say, but in a less distressed manner than Joshua felt he was in.

"Well," It'kara began, as their eyes fell back to him, "I'd be lying if I didn't say it was, partially, out of..."

...

He sat there, with no real idea of what to say next, or how to think about what It'kara was trying to say. It sounded rather casual and unassuming, which he imagined is what they were trying to go for, but...

"Oh, I'm sorry! I forgot to tell you what these are!"

It'kara stood back up from their seat and leaned to the side of the table to point to the white mounds.

"This is an appetizer. Well, we call it an appetizer, but for you, it might be filling enough to be a meal on it's own. Here."

They grabbed the ball on top, and took a small bite out of it. Joshua could see the inside was mostly solid, but colored in a strange way; the outer layer of white was a stretchy material - some kind of dough, perhaps - wrapped around what was inside, which was a vibrant array of multiple colors (mostly reds, blues and some orange) blending together in a blotchy way. The inside looked more firm than the outside, but still soft in it's overall structure. It didn't move when It'kara bit into it, and it wasn't bending inwards while they were holding it. It was like the meat of a fruit.

"See? You can eat some."

He stared at the white balls, feeling uncomfortable with the idea of putting whatever was in there inside of his body...

...despite the fact he already swallowed a vaccine pill to get to this point.

So, after a few more moments of hesitation, he swallowed, and picked up one of the balls. It felt soft in his hand, and if it was dough, it wasn't leaving anything on his hands, even in a residual sense. At least, it didn't feel that way. He brought the ball closer, and slowly took a bite out of it.

As soon as it touched his tongue, Joshua felt an explosion of flavors almost overwhelm him. He couldn't even tell what those flavors were as they blended together in his mouth and his mind, catching him off guard and granting him a sense of awe only recently matched by seeing the ship above the sky for the first time. This was... quite an experience.

He succumbed to the sensations, and closed his eyes, trying to focus and savor the feelings he was experiencing now. It was too much to not want to just stay like this forever, drown in it. It was... euphoric.

But then the concern of time penetrated the thick clouds in his mind, and he almost jumped from the seat trying to open his eyes again.

Where am I again?

A question largely born from panic, as Joshua's judgement of time seemed to be falling behind him. His eyes went wild while he tried to gauge his surroundings.

He was still in the same room, at the same table. It'kara was looking at him, with what could only be described as a look of endearment at Joshua's reaction to what he just took a bite out of.

He felt a bit vulnerable about the situation. And embarrassed.

He hurriedly placed the white bulb down onto the table in front of him, trying not to just throw the thing away out of a desire to not be so...

...well, why was he embarrassed? Let alone, so scared? Surely, these people would've done something to him already if they wanted to, what does he expect? If--

Focus.

Focus on the talk.

Galvana, as a concept, was incredibly young, in the history of both the planet, and of the existence of humanity. But despite that, because of it's origins - born out of various misanthropic sentiments - it was only a matter of time before a dominant, aggressive, militaristic identity formed.

'Ichael and Tor'me were watching from inside the elevator as the swaths of people, human and otherwise, came closer into focus. 'Ichael was absolutely unable to keep themself calm, as they vibrated with energy while the ground came to a halt. There was so much to look at as the doors came open: Intricate, vibrant signs of light in a language they didn't understand, clothes that gave room to breathe and were mesmerizing to watch move, like flowing hair.

"Hang on," Tor'me beckoned before 'Ichael could jump right out through the doors. "Before anything else, don't go running off. I still need to keep an eye on you."

'Ichael somehow surmounted the urge to run and look at everything in sight, and turned back to acknowledge the call.

"And..." He continued, turning his head as he pondered the question clearly on his mind. "I gotta ask: Are you really just here to... check things out?"

'Ichael was embarrassed by the question, feeling unsure of how much they should mention about the situation.

"Well, yeah... I mean, isn't that technically what Joshua's doing as well?"

"It's not really the same though..." Tor'me replied, casually. He didn't seem in any way really worried or bothered about the information, but the air that was left brought the awkwardness in anyways. As if (outside of the fact that this scenario was already weird enough, for both of them) they both felt even a little out of place.

"I mean... for what it's worth, you're welcome here as long as you don't cause trouble. And, before I forget to mention..." Tor'me stepped in closer, "...you know how me and It'kara can talk to you and understand you?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, that's one-sided. There are a bunch of... tiny robots that are translating everything for us, both what we hear you say, and what we say to you. A lot of it is guessing, too, mostly based off of what we know about your language. So, if you're gonna interact with anybody, it would probably be better if I do the talking."

"Wait, how do you know our language anyway? I don't remember seeing any of you come down there."

"Oh. Well..." Tor'me stepped out of the elevator, and pointed a finger out to the crowd below the balcony he now stood out over, "...you see the villagers? The humans?"

"Yeah."

"We've had the pleasure of talking to them about a lot of things. They have a plethora of artifacts and records about the history of this planet. Including ones in your language."

"Oh." 'Ichael looked out in wonder to the crowd. "I had no idea they new anything about us. I don't really  know... anything about them."

"Well, then maybe you can use this as an opportunity to learn more about them, too."

It didn't take long for the world to gain an antagonistic relationship with the small collection of those in power, due to it's disregard for the safety and well-being of anyone who wasn't "them". Expansionist goals disrupted the lives of a significant amount of people, who were already at odds with the ideals of what Galvana represented.

"Well then..." Joshua began as he dragged his binder up onto the table. As he searched for the words to say, as well as the words to guide his mind, he let his mind fill in a blank for conversation, influenced by his own questions. "...why exactly are you here?"

It'kara's ears perked up at the question. "In general or... why am I talking to you?"

"Eh..." Joshua sighed out, still trying to regain his bearings with the papers in front of him, "...both."

It'kara seemed surprised at the answer, as they leaned back in their chair, changing their posture. "Oh. Well... how much time do you have?"

How much time will it take me to finally become a diplomat today??

"Enough of the day," he absentmindedly explained, not even looking up from the binder anymore.

"Okay then. Regardless, I'll try to keep this as brief as I can." A pause, as It'kara contemplated their answer. "Well, as for why we are here... I'd be lying if I said it wasn't at least partially influenced by a sense of curiosity." Their tone made it sound to Joshua as if It'kara was asking a question... without trying to. He let them continue as he continued looking in his binder. "When we first came here, we were mostly just passing by. We didn't have any initial intention of coming to your planet because, from what we could see, it didn't seem to have any signs of life. But then... Then is when I would say we started getting curious. Because your planet is within the habitable zone of your star, has a tolerable gravitational pull to allow for the development of life - even a significant portion of the very surface of the planet still has water! And despite all of these things, we didn't notice any signs of life on a macro scale. We decided to look more into it."

Joshua had finally pulled out papers that he felt would be good enough for the job of a guide for him, and watched It'kara flow in their discussion with their body language.

"Both literally and figuratively. Before, we weren't even within your solar system. But as we got closer... we finally started seeing things clearly. Flashes of history, as the years of light were catching up to us. Plant life, completely unlike anything we could've imagined, a wide, mesmerizing mesh of diverse creatures, and all of this was just on one side of the planet, one small fragment, a single continent in our view. Then we came closer, and the present was there with us. We focused on a small part of the planet's surface, close to us. A desert, with unnatural structures. Buildings."

Joshua's attention only peeked at the mention of human structures. "Galvana?"

"Oh no. It was during the night and your nation didn't have any lights on, for whatever reason. At first, we thought Galvana was largely ruins," It'kara corrected, before quickly adding, "No offense."

Admittedly, Joshua couldn't help but feel a little hurt, but he said nothing, and It'kara continued.

"On top of that, we were mostly looking for signs of life in the larger desert. And we found the village, with enough light to be seen from above the atmosphere of the planet itself. We weren't even planning on coming down to take a closer look, but then we saw Galvana's army coming. We were worried about what was going to happen and, honestly, we acted without thinking, putting that shield over the village. We would've preferred introducing ourselves in a less dramatic and threatening way. When we went to talk to those people for the first time, they were so uncertain of us." It'kara finished the thought with melancholy in their voice.

Joshua sat there in silence. He didn't know how much he was willing to believe about this. It didn't seem to him that It'kara had much of, if any reason to lie to him...

...and they didn't...but Joshua didn't know that.

"As for why I specifically am talking to you... diplomacy is not restricted to a specific title or role here. Nothing here is, really. I just volunteered to do this."

...that caught Joshua's attention in particular.

"Wait, what do you mean by that?"

"Exactly that. There is no larger structure that determines the filling out of roles for certain goals of the community we have."

...what?

"Do you not have a government? Is that what your saying?"

"We have a mode of self-governance. Likely not something you'd be familiar with, let alone anyone else in Galvana. Those villagers, on the other hand, they have something very similar to it, and it's made talking to them much easier."

"Wait a minute," Joshua hurriedly blurted, as he looked back through the papers he'd brought out of his binder, only to find that there was not a single mention of how to handle the situation he found himself in; he was acting on behalf of Galvana's leader, but if his leader wanted to talk himself, who exactly was he supposed to talk to in particular up here?

"Who... is my commander supposed to talk to? Should that be what he tries to do?"

It'kara seemed perplexed at the question. "Well, to one of us, ideally."

Oh, okay. I'll just tell him to talk to whoever he wants.

No, calm down. Who did It'kara volunteer to?

"Well, then who did you volunteer to?"

"The community," It'kara very simply replied. "We all collectively agreed diplomacy might be necessary, and I volunteered to be at least one of the people who would talk to members of the government of Galvana."

Joshua felt like he was falling in a well at this point.

"If your commander really thinks this to be an issue, I can direct him to anybody else he might feel comfortable talking to," It'kara added, staying calm despite the turmoil they were putting Joshua's poor mind through. Not purposefully, mind you. Or, even accidentally.

In fact... now that I think about it...

Joshua... what's going on in----

"Never mind. I'll....... Another topic, Galvana is interested in this village, for important reasons, old... reasons. And, like you said earlier, this disruption you caused is... in the way of that."

...

...

As is only natural, when such a project is undertaken by those who benefit from oppression, the people of the world tried to stop it. More often than not, however, the tamest of attempts to ease the situation failed, because the 'leaders' of Galvana were not interested in cooperating with the people they saw as beneath them.

'Ichael was having the time of their life, as they sat down and dug into this novel dish on the table they found themself. A mix of various wild flowers, potatoes, eggs and spices filled their senses, and it was quite a wild ride, if a bit too spicy for their typical tastes. No comparison between what they were used to eating in the mess hall of Galvana's military and what they were eating now could be made! There was no way to bring that garbage to this level.

And on top of that, despite the busyness of the world of people around them right now, the peacefulness of the experience was hard to believe; quiet enough to enjoy your own thoughts, busy enough to be lively, but not claustrophobic, or anxious. People passed by all the time, but in a way that never took too much space to make anything, for 'Ichael or anyone else, uncomfortable.

Tor'me was sitting opposite of 'Ichael, enjoying the same dish in a very thorough manner; He would occasionally take individual parts of the meal to understand them on their own tastes and textures, and then blended them together with other parts, in precise portions. An odd way to eat something, but also something 'Ichael couldn't help but appreciate.

"So..." 'Ichael began, finishing off what was in their mouth, "...this is what they're eating down there?"

Tor'me took a while to respond as he finished off his portions, cleaning the plate of any indication that food was ever there, and sighing with pure satisfaction. "Not exactly. The recipe is from the village, yes, but... this is closer to a delicacy than a more widely enjoyed dish. The flowers we just ate don't grow well in harsh sand and sun."

"Well, then why are we eating any?"

Tor'me readjusted his position in the seat, and looked over to the awe inspiring window a good distance away, where, through a crowd of people, you could see the rough outline of the planet below them. "After we gained their trust, and... some convincing on our end... we offered some land in our ship to grow things like those flowers for them. It's far from everything they might want to preserve, but it is a good start. I see it that way, anyway."

"Wait," 'Ichael interjected, a thought suddenly popping up out of nowhere. "How... how do they still have those flowers, if they can't grow in the desert?"

Tor'me smiled slyly. "That's the fun part." He leaned in over the table, like he was about to tell 'Ichael a deep, dark secret. "Turns out, that village is sitting right on top of a pretty accessible cave network, one where they've set up a few small farming projects."

'Ichael was stunned, to say very little. "Really?" Tor'me simply grinned and nodded. "But... How big is the cave? And how do they have enough sunlight for anything to grow?"

"They don't even need the sun. They've got some special lights - Ultra-Violet lights - that give the plants the light they need."

'Ichael was still very much processing this information, and Tor'me couldn't help but chuckle lightly at their bewilderment. "I was shocked too. I didn't expect to see that happening so deep in a desert." Tor'me then picked up his plate, and 'Ichael slowly reacted by doing the same, the knowledge they just experienced being all they could think about. "In a way," Tor'me continued, looking back to 'Ichael as he began walking to the vendor, "your superiors were right; There is quite a lot going on down there. They just didn't know what exactly it was."

More militant, more dedicated attempts to bring an end to Galvana, and what it stood for, popped up, and quickly gained ground. It was quite a uniting moment for many people, that reached between cultures and past systems of alienation and exploitation. They had a common enemy - multiple common enemies - and they could do something to stop them.

...

"Well, then I believe we are at an impasse with Galvana, Joshua."

Uh...

It'kara spoke in a suddenly quieter tone, with their face retiring to a neutral expression. Likely as neutral as Joshua could perceive, anyways.

Cold sweat was staining Joshua's forehead, and the room was... well, room temperature.

"What.. exactly do you mean?"

"Well, we haven't gotten a good impression of the intentions of your superiors, which I imagine might be different from yours. And, sure, they likely don't know what to think of us either, but we've at least heard of the things they might do from the villagers we've been talking with."

It'kara wasn't upset, or even frustrated, in their presentation or actual emotions. Yet Joshua felt himself lean away from the table all the same. This felt accusatory to him. Vaguely... confrontational.

"There's sadly a very big gap in knowledge for us right now, we haven't been here long enough for that. But..." It'kara leaned in, trying to change their presentation. They could tell Joshua was worried about... something. "...you're from Galvana. I'm sure, with enough time to talk things through, you could help us understand exactly what we might be missing. What it is that... Galvana wants with an inoffensive group of people."

What were those people telling them??

Joshua didn't know what to say. And the notes he had didn't seem to be very helpful for him either. Nothing in there about alien's wanting to know how bad Galvana's leaders might be.

"I uh..." Joshua tried to speak, but it felt like his tongue was catching on something in his throat, "...well, if I..."

I need to get out of here. I want out.

"...if I get the chance, of course. But... unfortunately," he stood up from the chair and clumsily scooped everything back into the binder as he shakily continued, "I do not have much time for that. Today. Or at all."

"I see," It'kara plainly responded, now also standing up. "Well, you're welcome back, business or otherwise, and... not to push you, but if you ever decide that it would be better for you to sleep somewhere in this ship, in a room, you're free to do so. We have more than enough room."

That smile...

...fuck.

"Right." Joshua accidentally, and loudly, pushed the chair away from himself. "Well, I'm sure we'll see each other again. ah... Goodbye for now."

He tried to curtly make his way to the door out of the room, only to be cut off right at the end by It'kara. His heart raced as they held up their hand, indicating him to wait, and then... they opened the door for him, he sighed, and he left. Off to look for 'Ichael.

Genuinely though, Joshua.

What's going on in your mind?