Jackson Kez - Space Diplomat Ch. 05

"Okay," Jackson said, "that sounds... just a bit arrogant, maybe?"

Vera shook her head. "It's not a superiority thing, at least according to Yucce, it's just a fact for them. I mean, the oldest Rhorak are estimated to be over three billion years old."

Jackson stopped in his tracks. "Excuse me?"

"Three billion." Vera stopped too, turning to face Jackson. "Humans and Sela are different in so many ways, but we're both mortal. We both breathe, eat, and sleep. The Rhorak don't do any of those things, they just... are. Some people say Genoria itself is the first Rhorak, and we're its children, but there's zero evidence so it's just one of those things people can't stop talking about." She started walking again.

Jackson eyed the ground suspiciously, wondering if it might open and swallow him up if he offended the Rhorak. Realizing that Vera was getting ahead, he jogged to catch up. The two of them left the canyon area and entered a wide expanse. The ground beneath them changed from sturdy and rocky to loosely packed sand. Vera stumbled a bit as they stepped onto it, and she shifted her feet a little, broadening and flatting them. She found her footing and kept moving.

Probably due to not carrying anywhere near as much weight, Jackson had less trouble crossing the dunes. He worried a bit about falling over, and picked his steps carefully, but he kept up with Vera easily.

"There aren't very many of them," Vera continued, "estimates range from as few as a couple hundred to as many as twenty thousand. Their philosophy, according to Yucce and... some experience," a deep blue ran through her whole body, like a wave, and Jackson wanted to hold her, but she kept pressing ahead. "Their philosophy is that there is one of them for each life to live."

"I'm not sure I follow," Jackson said.

"Sorry, it's hard to talk about. Thanks for not prying," the corners of her lips turned up just slightly, but he saw the sadness in her eyes, "so... they think there are a finite number of lives in the universe. Like... a certain number of Sela will be born and then... that's it."

"That's pretty grim," Jackson said.

"Yeah, but it's not wrong. Well, maybe it's wrong. I don't know, I can't think about it too much or I'll start spiraling." Vera picked up the pace, as if walking faster would distract her from her thoughts.

"We can change the subject." Jackson tried to keep up, but Vera started pulling ahead, her strides were so much longer than his.

"No, this is important." Vera realized she'd been getting away from him and stopped, taking a moment to center herself. "Obviously there are nuances and exceptions I'm glossing over, even the Rhorak aren't a monolith," she said, looking back at Jackson, "but broadly speaking, the Rhorak believe that each of them has a specific life to live as well. One of them might exist to remember all the birds of Genoria, it's weirdly specific stuff. And if they encounter a gap, a niche none of them are currently occupying, then they create offspring to do that. No one knows how that works, so don't ask."

Losing Khraesk must have been devastating to the Rhorak. All their unique experiences gone. No wonder it had started a war. He thought of examples of so called unforgivable crimes in the past that he'd talked leaders into forgiving. It could be done. Probably. Maybe. He wasn't sure.

"Okay," Jackson said, knitting his brows. "So if Haeva is a juvenile, they were born recently." Seeing Vera staring at him, he added, "I know, I know, that's obvious. What I mean is that they were born for a purpose recently discovered. Maybe... maybe that's good?"

"Yucce seems to think so." Vera looked around, searching for some sign of Rhorak activity. They'd been walking for almost 40 minutes, so they had to be getting close. "Maybe Haeva was born just to meet you."

"That's a weird thought."

"It's not, actually. I... I don't want to get into it."

Jackson closed the distance between them and put his hand on her arm. Vera turned to look at him, mourning and grief writ large in her expression. Jackson pulled her in and she leaned her head on him, still looking out into the distance.

"Did Yucce tell you?" she asked, little more than a whisper.

"Yeah."

"Oh."

Vera didn't speak. She didn't have to say anything. Jackson held her for a while. She turned her head toward his chest, pressing her face into him. Her arms wrapped around him and she pulled him in. Jackson's flightsuit muffled her voice, but her words brought tears to his eyes.

"I don't want it to happen to anyone else."

Her put his arm around her, as much as he could with the bulky storage crate on her back, and returned the squeeze.

"Hey," he said, "that's what we're doing." He kissed the top of her head. She was actually a little bit moist, was she sweating? It tasted slightly sweet, like everything else about her. "We're going to make sure no one here ever loses a loved one to war again."

She nodded, her head still buried in his chest. "Sorry I'm all over the place," she said, "you're easy to be open with and this stuff just comes out, and then I feel bad for asking you to take care of me, but... it helps. You're good at it." She tightened her arms around him. "I haven't felt this safe in a long time."

"Me too," Jackson said. He blinked, his eyes filled with tears. A few of them fell from his cheeks and landed on Vera's head, and they sank into her.

"Oh, ew," she said, involuntarily. They both laughed, breaking the tension and the sadness.

"Sorry," Jackson said, between bouts of chuckling, "but at least it made you laugh."

Vera looked up and stepped back a little, letting him go so she could reach up and wipe his tears away. "It did. Sorry I said ew when you got emotional, I'll try to be more supportive." She smiled up at him, her cheeks a mix of blue and turquoise.

"It's okay, I would have said the same thing if someone cried in my mouth."

"Yeah," Vera said, "it's pretty gross." She giggled, and pink gradually returned to her face.

They looked at each other for a moment longer, enjoying the connection. Jackson felt so accepted, and he knew Vera did too. But there was a lot at stake here, they couldn't linger. Jackson said, "We should keep going."

"We should."

It took them longer still to actually let go. Jackson scanned the horizon. "So what are we looking for?" he asked.

"Honestly, no idea," Vera said. "I've never been to a Rhorak... area. They don't have buildings because they don't need shelter, and they have no possessions to store." She stepped away from him a bit so she could turn in place without knocking him over with the storage crate. "They don't hunt, they don't need to settle near water..."

Even though Vera was mostly talking to herself at this point, Jackson knew she was making valid points. How do you find someone who can exist in total isolation from their environment? Well, not total isolation. "What about movement? Do they leave tracks or anything similar?"

Vera pondered for a moment. "Footprints or things of that nature, sure. They don't have a strong scent and smell isn't really a Sela thing anyway... they like sunlight, so they won't be totally underground. That's something, right?"

"Yeah, it's a start." Jackson scratched his head, feeling the sweat in his hair. He could really go for a long shower and a beer right about now. Instead of those nice things, he saw sand, sand, and more sand. Farther ahead it went from mostly flat to rolling dunes. A few rocks broke the monotony, but nothing that looked like the shining stone-like body of a Rhorak. Or a group of them. Or a place they could be hiding. Except... one of the dunes looked too round. Too much like a perfect sphere. Artificial, even.

Jackson pointed at it. "What about that?"

Vera looked out, following his outstretched arm. She shook her head. "I don't see it."

"The dune," he said, "see how it's a perfect sphere? That's not natural."

"I still don't see it, but it's the best lead we have," Vera said. She started off in that direction, taking slower, steadier steps as they ventured into the sloped, sandy hills.

It took them three minutes to reach the dune Jackson had spotted, and the closer they got the more convinced he became that it was artificial. In addition to its perfect shape, it had a clear boundary the other dunes lacked. They all smoothly flowed from hills into valleys, but the dome, that's what Jackson had started calling it, seemed to connect at almost a 90 degree angle. It looked surreal.

"Oh," Vera said as they got to the base of the spherical dune, "this is very strange."

Jackson reached back, shifting his weight to one side to better wriggle a scanner out of his backpack. It took a few moments and Vera waited patiently. Once he had the device out, he pointed it at the dune started running basic scans. He didn't have time to look at the readings because the dune sprang to life. It rolled upwards, sand showering off of something beneath it that towered five, ten, fifteen feet into the air, and higher still.

"Shit!" Jackson said, stumbling backward. He fell, landing on the sand with a grunt.

Vera fared worse, the sand slipping beneath her feet caused her to teeter, the storage crate swaying. She shifted herself down and flat, portions of her shooting down into the sand, looking for something to anchor to, but finding nothing. All she could do was hold on to the bulky crate as the sand carried her into the waiting space created by the rising... something.

Jackson saw a long, rounded silhouette appear as the sand cascaded around them, it reminded him of Councilor Amasa if she was twice as long and absolutely massive in every other respect. But where Amasa had the head of a dragon and a clearly reptilian body, the figure before him glistened and gleamed in speckled prismatic light. Its ochre body looking more like a gemstone than a living creature. The refractions flashed in his eyes and made him see spots, he raised his hand to block it out as best he could, still trying to get a clear look at the creature before him.

Vera collided with the base of the worm, thankfully not a waiting mouth, and quickly reformed, widening herself and pushing off against the worm with impressive force. She launched herself a short distance and twisted into a ball in mid-air, wrapping up the storage crate and her backpack within herself. She landed on a nearby, more stable dune and spun around, back into humanoid form with an audible schlorp.

Now fully visible as the last of the sand poured off it, he saw the worm extended below, its true length indeterminate. He looked up, squinting to examine its head, and realized it didn't have one. Or at least, not a typical one. It reminded Jackson of an earthworm, just a rounded end with no discernible features. Smooth, polished stone flecked with multicolored dots. It caught the sunlight, shining prismatic light all across the dunes.

It had to be a Rhorak, what the hell else could look like that? Jackson cleared his throat, he'd picked up some sand in his mouth and it scratched at his cheeks and tongue. He wanted to spit, but knew that was no way to make first contact.

"Hi there," Jackson said, "sorry if we startled you—"

"I am desert." The creature spoke, and Jackson could hear strange harmonic resonance ringing in the output from his translator. It struggled to process the language, despite Yucce's data.

"I'm Jackson Kez, Diplomat from the Stellar Alliance. I'm sup—"

"The desert is me." They twisted around slightly, rotating their head as though they had eyes to regard him quizzically.

Jackson stood up and brushed himself off. Both parts took longer with one hand. "A pleasure to meet you. I hope you'll forgive my informality, but the situation has become critical, and I need to speak with Haeva immediately. Can you—"

"Haeva." The Rhorak said. They turned, burying their head in the sand and beginning to burrow away.

"Hold on!" Jackson called out. The Rhorak stopped. He had no way of knowing if it was because of what he said, or if they had been planning to stop anyway.

The desert, Jackson didn't have a better name for his new friend, left the upper half of their cylindrical body exposed, and part them poked upward. He couldn't say exactly why, but he got the impression he should climb on. It wasn't clear what Jackson could hold on to if he did.

Vera made her way down the dune to him as quickly as she could and whispered in his ear, "I think they want us to climb aboard."

He nodded and walked with Vera over to the Rhorak. The sunlight flashed and glinted in its crystalline form, and more prismatic fractals sparkled across the sands. Looking into the core of the creature Jackson saw spiraling kaleidoscopic patterns and colors he couldn't have imagined. He had to look away, blinking a few times to clear his mind. He continued his approach, careful not to stare directly into the massive creature.

"Do we have your permission to touch you?" Jackson called out. He didn't even know if the Rhorak could hear him, but in an absence of clear communication, asking for consent never hurt.

"Permission," came the rumble from beneath the sand.

Jackson looked at Vera and shrugged, then stepped up and onto the Rhorak's back. He felt the heat immediately, which made sense, they'd been baking in the sun all day. What surprised him was the smoothness, like a perfectly tumbled stone or the work of a master sculptor, the Rhorak's body had no flaws whatsoever. No chips, no scrapes, no imperfections. He slid his hand across their back. Glossy and somehow comforting to the touch. "Wow," he said quietly. A strange tingle ran through his hand as he touched them, but it passed quickly.

He sat down, the Rhorak was big but he could sort of straddle them like a horse, and he put his hand out in front of him to brace himself. Vera climbed on behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist and helping to hold him steady. Then the Rhorak moved. Smooth, perfectly smooth, the sand parted ahead of them like water. Jackson barely noticed when they changed directions.

Vera squeezed him tighter as the Rhorak carried them along. Neither Jackson nor Vera spoke, both still tense as they expected to be hurled off at any moment. But that moment never came. The Rhorak took them through the dunes and deeper into the desert, and despite the stability of the journey, they were moving fast. Without any real landmarks to navigate by, Jackson's unease mounted.

And then suddenly, they stopped. Jackson lurched forward a bit as they decelerated and Vera held him steady. He looked around, seeing nothing but sand. Checking the medical bracelet he saw they'd traveled almost three miles in just a few minutes.

"Haeva," the Rhorak spoke again.

Jackson got the sense it was time to dismount, and he did so. Jackson extended his hand to help Vera climb down. She didn't need his help, but she took his hand anyway and smiled at him. He could still see the nervousness in her face, and he felt it too. "Thank you," he said.

"Welcome," came the Rhorak's voice, rumbling from below. "Gratitude," they said, and then they disappeared beneath the sands.

"Well," Jackson said, rotating in place to look for something, anything they should be walking toward. "I don't see much here."

Vera stood straight up, on high alert. "Do you feel that?"

He was about to say that he didn't, but then the hairs on his body stood up on end. It felt like a wave of static passing over him, like a balloon that had been rubbed against cloth passing within an inch of his skin, and he closed his eyes as it went over his head. When he opened them, he saw an oasis. A pool of glistening, clear blue water, surrounding by verdant green ferns with dangling fronds dotted by red and white flowers.

"Uh..." he said, looking over at Vera.

She'd gone completely still, save for the tears starting to well up in her eyes. She saw him staring. "Don't," she said, quietly, "just go ahead. I'll catch up."

Jackson had never heard her say anything so seriously, and he nodded. With one last look over his shoulder at her, he approached the pool. Tall trees offered a lot of shade, their wide, star-shaped leaves a pale white that reflected most of the light and heat. Even though the afternoon sun wasn't particularly hot, he appreciated being out of it. He looked around and didn't see any animals, and certainly no Rhorak, so he stepped over to the edge of the water and set his backpack down. Then he sat and stared into the pool, wondering if this entire oasis was a Rhorak.

"Diplomat Jackson Kez," a voice from behind him spoke. Melodious and lyrical, in perfect harmony with itself, like a duet singing to him.

He turned, a little too quickly to claim he wasn't startled, and saw a Rhorak standing behind him. They were humanoid, and feminine in appearance. Emerald green, with facets and smooth curves equally flawless. Their small feet, slender legs, and narrow hips drew his gaze upward and he noticed they had no clothing on. They were sex-less, like a mannequin, and their slim waist led upward to a chest with two unmistakable breasts. No nipples, but it was quite clear what they were supposed to be.

The Rhorak's heart shaped face had short, chin-length hair that resembled some of the greatest works of art Jackson had ever seen. It was also emerald, like the rest of their body, and flecked with dots of blue and gold. It didn't move at all, despite the breeze. Their eyes were narrow and thoughtful, giving the Rhorak a pensive look, with a long-ish nose and full, elegant lips. They stood in a direct posture, none of the canted hips or angled torso he'd expect from someone with that body standing naked in front of him. They faced him head on, feet planted casually shoulder-width apart, hands hanging comfortably at their sides.

Jackson stood up and realized the Rhorak was exactly his height. He looked into their eyes and held his hand out, palm up. "Nice to meet you, you must be—"

"This is our first meeting." The Rhorak pointed at him with one hand. "Jackson," they said, then pointed at themselves with their other hand. "Haeva."

"A pleasure to meet you, Haeva," Jackson said. The Rhorak seemed to not view interrupting someone as rude, he would have to remember that if one of them ever said more than three words at a time.

Haeva gestured to the oasis with both hands. "You are safe," they said. "We are hidden."

Jackson nodded. "Thank you for your hospitality, Haeva. Do you know the Sela Councilor Yucce? She told me to seek you out."

"I know her," Haeva said. They stood stock still as they spoke, their face didn't move at all. It was a little unnerving, but Jackson could hear the warmth and sincerity in their voice. "And I know you." Haeva stepped forward and put one hand on Jackson's chest, rubbing part of his flightsuit between two fingers. "Forgiveness, language is difficult. Rhorak do not speak to Rhorak."

Even in the short time since they started talking, Haeva's voice had grown more confident. Jackson smiled and nodded, not sure how else to respond. "I understand, I appreciate you meeting me here."

Haeva started rubbing his chest with the flat of their palm. Now Jackson really didn't know what to do. "Is this a typical greeting?" he asked.

"No," Haeva said, calmly. They put their other hand on him and started squeezing and pinching him.

"Hey!" he said, Haeva's light touch tickled. They were graceful and gentle, but also invasive, and it was putting him off-balance in more ways than one.

"You are soft, but not all-soft," Haeva said. "The Sela are all-soft." They poked him between the ribs and he squirmed.

"Humans consider this rude," he said, and Haeva stopped.

"Apologies, I did not know." They withdrew their hands and stood directly facing him again. "I am to learn... human. From you."