Kenist Miana Stories: Koaekaeala and Dune at the Abstract Destiny

Koaekaeala had been to Star City once before, and had explored it as thoroughly as he could within the span of a few days. He hadn't deemed it a particularly good place for his people to colonize, or even stay for an extended period of time. It was too full of machines and computers, bounded in metal and plastic at every turn, with nothing to hunt and nothing natural anywhere. Still, he'd dutifully made a record of it in his travel logs, in case there was a need to visit again, and let an empty slot in his teleport-charm fill up with an out of the way location to return to. It was, apparently, a good thing he did, at least for little Miss Dune.

He had, however, never been to the Abstract Destiny, a small ship currently docked at the station, though he'd heard of it. They created creatures there, large families of them, for adoption or bonding or, he guessed, just for the entertainment of it. Koae hadn't really thought much about it, but he did know that one of the creatures they manufactured at all times was small, intelligent, and not particularly difficult to please, which fit Miss Dune's criteria. At least, from what he knew of the place, it was easy enough to find.

They appeared in the empty stretch of "street" that Koae had let the teleport spell encode. Thankfully, it was empty again this time, too. A large creature like himself, simply appearing in the middle of a residential floor, could startle even the most jaded of Star City's residents. Koae knew the common tongue they spoke here, but he had such a terrible accent that he tended to confuse people. Telepathy was always an option, at least.

Dune sat perched on his shoulders, nestled into the thick fur spilling down from his neck between his folded wings, and from the way she kept moving around, she was craning her neck to look around. He looked over his shoulder and caught her leaning over his right wing to stare at the foux grass in front of one of the sliding doors leading to an apartment. She turned her ears back in embarrassment and subsided with a murmured apology. Koae chuckled.

"It's all right. I told you it was different."

"I've never seen anything like it," she admitted. "Is it really made out of metal?"

"And plastic," he agreed, and started walking. He needed one of the moving rooms that took you around the station, or they'd be walking for days to get down where they needed to be.

"Whatever that is," Dune said wonderingly. "Would you like me to get down? You don't need to carry me."

"If you like. It doesn't bother me, though, you're such a slight thing."

Dune didn't comment on that, but neither did she hop down. Since he hadn't demanded it, he merely kept walking. Being useful as transportation was a novel enough experience that he didn't mind that the transportation apparently included locomotion as well as teleportation and guidance. Before long, Dune was asking questions about this or that, and thankfully Koae was able to answer most of them from his last trip.

"Was that real grass?"

"Oh, no. Real grass is too expensive for this neighborhood."

"What was it?"

"I don't know what it's made of. Plastic, probably."

"What's that?"

"That's an advertisement screen."

"What does it do?"

"Shows pictures of things people can buy, or places people can visit, or shows people can see."

"What does it say, now?"

Koae glanced over it, and flicked his tail in quiet amusement. "It's advertising for mechanical pets."

"Mechanical... pets? Those aren't what you're taking me to, are they?"

"Oh, no. I'm taking you to a ship docked at this city, where they... have... a very much alive sort of pet for adoption." He wasn't sure how Dune would take to learning that these pets had no biological parents, so he simply didn't tell her. She either didn't notice his pause or didn't comment on it. "They're called terigon."

"Oh, good."

Questions continued for the rest of the trip, as well. The transportation room knew where the Abstract Destiny was and dropped them off directly before it. The only part of the ship open to the public was the lowest level, where two large rooms called hatching bays were located. Due to a lack of anyone to speak to-- or a sign directing him to a terigon room or anything of the sort-- Koae approached the door to the rest of the ship and made an attempt at speaking into the small speaker there. Not surprisingly, he only managed to get across that Nexiian common was not his first tongue, and they send someone out.

"Apparently there's some sort of process you have to go through, Miss Dune," he finally translated for the sa'enkeyn, who had since dismounted and sat uncomfortably in his shadow. "This gentleman can talk to you telepathically to get you started, and understand your speech in the same manner."

"Oh dear," Dune replied nervously. "Procedure?"

::Just to get you registered, miss,:: the human assured her, making her jump a little. Koae repressed a smile. ::It won't take long.::

"Well, all right," Dune said. "Koae, you don't mind waiting?"

"Of course not." He eyed the door: he would fit within it, but he had no real desire to bother, especially as he had no idea how large the room or hall beyond it was. He didn't particularly like being inside, anyway. "Out here, however, if that's all right."

::Perfectly,:: the human agreed, and the door slid open for him and the small sa'enkeyn. ::Miss-- Dune, was it? Come inside, I'll show you the paperwork.::

"I don't have very good handwriting...."

::Since it's all done on computer, I wouldn't worry about it.::

Then the door slid shut, and Koaekaeala was at loose ends for a while. He sat in the middle of the massive hallway-- so large that he felt a little dwarfed, in fact-- and looked around. If he left, he might return too late, but... there really wasn't much to do in here. Just the two hatching bays.

One of which was empty.

Well, that settled it easily enough, did it?

By the time Dune was finished, Koae had spent nearly an hour sitting among some very talkative eggs. There weren't very many, but they were chatty enough to make up for it. Koae hardly had to speak at all, the conversation just seemed to go on around him with only the occasional input. Though he did speak a little, first with their guardian, a ship's employee who told him about the batch's parents-- apparently these "created" creatures did have parents, though not in the normal fashion-- and then with the eggs themselves, to at least introduce himself. Most interestingly, he learned that not a one had wings or flight capability, which seemed a little unusual to him, and was certainly a pleasant change. They were quite interested in his recounting the pleasures of travel on foot, in fact.

It passed the time comfortably, at any rate.

When Dune came out, followed by her friendly translator, with the injunction to wait a few days on her approval, he waved his tail to flag said translator down before he disappeared back inside. ::Sir, how does one sign up for a clutch here?:: he asked, surprising himself a little.

He apparently surprised the human fellow, as well. ::There is a website....::

::I'm afraid my kind avoids computers when at all possible. Is there any way to sign up another way?::

::I suppose someone else could sign you up, with your permission.::

::Good enough.::

"Why did you do that?" Dune asked curiously as they started out of the ship a few minutes later, after Koaekaeala had given the poor human enough information for him to be signed up vicariously and received, in return, a hatching date and time.

"It seemed like a good idea," he answered. Though not entirely sure why, he thought that perhaps the thought of someone to run with-- who wasn't a fellow enkeyn and thus not someone who thought he should be able to fly-- was a motivator. "But we shall see what happens come hatching time."