Chapter 1

Tetra scowled and gave the vending machine a solid kick. It wouldn’t do much in the way of removing the graffiti, but the damn thing deserved it for all the trouble it was giving her. Some idiot had decided to give the machine a cheeky little makeover during the last class period. The graffiti in this case taking the form of a caricature of a Human in Overlord armor, complete with a cartoonishly huge, veiny dick sticking out of his codpiece. And worse yet, the kid (she assumed it was a kid, but who knew with Humans) had used a sintering pen, likely stolen from one of the shop classrooms, forcing Tetra to chip off compacted metal rather than scrubbing away simple ink or paint. She hated this job like the plague but there was nothing else around for a Sha’dee of her age, and if she didn’t work, her Colony would starve. Tetra didn’t complain, at least not to anyone but herself: Sha’dee were social creatures above all else, putting the needs of the Colony first and foremost was second nature. A behavioral trait which their Human masters exploited shamelessly.

As a Sha’dee Tetra was humanoid but smaller than most Humans, with a slender figure, deep crimson skin, large eyes, mobile, pointed ears and a long prehensile tail. She stood around five foot six, though a good portion of that was made up by the long neck which contained her complex voicebox and gizzard. She had four fingers and toes to the Human five, and her nose was very slim, with little “<”-shaped slits on either side instead of hooded nostrils, an adaptation which kept sand out of her nose but made her a terrible swimmer. She was tall but slim for her race, with the exception of her broad, rounded hips, one feature which she took guilty pride in. Tetra was a rare breed of Sha’dee, with irregular spots of a darker red than her base skin going up and down her body. They started big along her sides and got smaller before petering out as they reached the center, until they resembled freckles on a Human.

As she sighed and started to hammer away at the drawing again, the electroneural lines on her flanks detected something organic and humanoid moving quickly towards her. Tetra turned to see who it was, but she was too late. The Human cruised past her at full speed, snapping her viciously across the lower back with a rolled up stack of papers. She squealed in surprise and pain, eliciting a cackle from her assailant and the gaggle of other Humans watching from the other side of the cafeteria. She turned and glared at them, clamping her lips shut to avoid hissing or baring her teeth as her eyes watered from the sting. Hissing at a student (or any Human, really) was a one-way ticket to getting defanged without anesthetic.

“Eeny weeny whiny wail, catch a rodji by the tail! If she hollers then she fails!” The Humans chanted, slapping the runner’s outstretched palm as he skidded to a halt next to them. Tetra turned away, forcing herself to stare at the vending machine as anger welled in her chest. Little bastards, she snarled to herself, attacking the clumps of metal with her chisel and pretending they were the faces of the Human children.

“One rodji, two rodji, three rodji, four! Stripy rodji, spotted rodji, plain rodji, more!” The chant continued, to the beat of kids slamming their palms on the lunch tables. Tetra screwed her eyes shut, flattened her ears and tried to ignore them. Something pokey hit the back of her neck, leaving a sting. She forced herself not to react, and kept hammering away at the machine. After a few more minutes of taunting and slurs, her tormentors got bored and wandered off. The Xeno girl turned and slumped against the machine, rubbing the welt on her neck and reaching down to pick up the missile, a paper airplane. She unfolded it, took one look at the crude drawing of a Sha’dee being kicked out an airlock by a giant boot with the caption “ET go home!”, then balled it up and threw it angrily at the nearest trashcan.

She sat there and fought back tears for a while, then got to her feet and finished the job. She ended up scratching the machine’s paint, but at this point she didn’t care.

Pushing her cart down the hallway, Tetra made her way to one of the study labs. She opened the door and dragged the cart inside, before she noticed that the room was not empty. Seated alone at a table was a Human boy, engrossed in an augreal display that her glasses didn’t have access to. His fingers flew across the desk, the haptic sensors implanted in his fingertips interacting with the augreal keyboard. He was a senior, probably about 18 in the Earth Standard Years used by Humanity. Of average height, he was thick in build, not overweight or bulging with muscles, but solid. He had a broad, honest-looking face, with brown eyes and drab, sandy hair pulled back into a short ponytail. He was wearing thick-framed augreal glasses (a strange affection, as most Humans used retinal implants), a pair of ratty jeans and a grey t-shirt with a golden-yellow vest.

“DAMNIT! RUN YOU PIECE OF SHIT!” The Human yelled in exasperation, slamming his fist into the desk. Tetra cocked her head, and inched closer, listening. “Oh come on! I did everything in the book!”

She noticed another augreal panel floating next to him, a public one this time. It was showing an excerpt from one of the textbooks entitled “Coding exercises for Simulated Intelligence development”. As she leaned in to see what chapter he was on, her tail swiped absently across a desk and knocked something over. She winced, and was about to back up, but he heard it and turned his head to look at her.

“Oh! Sorry, I didn’t see you there.” The Human said apologetically, grinning. Tetra was taken aback. Did he just apologize to her? A Human apologizing to a Xeno? “I’m just having some issues with this programming assignment. I can leave if you have work to do...”

“N-no, that’s fine.” Tetra assured him, backing up and grabbing her cart. She paused, then something she’d never been able to explain or justify came over her. “I-if I’m not being out of place ... What’s giving you trouble?”

The Human scooted his chair around, facing her. Tetra blinked, recognizing the character on his shirt and grinning internally. It was the supporting protagonist of an animated TV show she was exceptionally fond of, and one of her favorite characters.

“we’re supposed to write an SI to parse record directories and synthesize pertinent information, but I can’t get the thing to run on the pi chips we need to turn it in on. I don’t suppose a janitor knows much about programming though...” He explained sheepishly. Tetra ventured closer, tentatively.

“Actually, I’ve been learning in my spare time.” She explained, worrying her hands nervously. She was having a conversation with a Human! She expected him to lash out at any moment, but her natural curiosity got the better of her fear. “One of my sisters is teaching me. I want to get a job doing that instead someday.”

“Oh yeah? That’s cool.” The Human boy said, smiling. “I don’t want to get in the way of your job, but, would you mind having a look at this?”

He grabbed the augreal panel (or, rather pinched the empty air where their glasses were projecting it) and moved it over so she could see, then tapped it and flicked his hand towards her. Tetra’s own augreal system asked if she wanted to accept, and she assented, revealing the panel. Her powerful eyes zoomed across the lines of code, taking it in. Some of it was a bit clumsy, but it should be perfectly functional.

“May I?” She asked, walking up to him and gesturing at the panel. He nodded, and scooted his chair over.

“You wanna take a seat?” He asked. “My name’s Ed. What’s yours?”

“I’m Tetra.” She said as she pulled out a chair and sat down, using the abbreviated version of her name that other species could pronounce.

“Nice to meet you, Tetra. I really don’t mean to take time out of your day...” He said warmly.

“No, no it’s no problem. I can take a quick look.” She assured him, swiping up a search box and finding the sections of code she was looking for. “Ah, here we go. You used the default drivers for your rig, but the pi cards don’t work that way. You’ve gotta modify some of this to operate on the card. It’s a pretty common mistake.”

“Damn, that was quick!” The Human laughed, leaning over to look at the code she had highlighted. “You’re good at this! Say, uh, you can say no, but would you mind walking me through it after school? I need to pass this class or my dad’s gonna freak.”

Tetra narrowed her eyes. This had to be a trap. He was leading her on, there was no other explanation. Nobody was this nice to aliens. He noticed the look on her face and appeared puzzled.

“Is something wrong?” He asked.

“What’s the catch?” Tetra asked, trying to keep the tremble out of her voice.

“Catch?” He seemed genuinely confused.

“Why are you being so nice to me? What’s the trick?” She demanded.

“Trick? There’s no trick...” He blinked in surprise. “Why would you think that?”

Tetra froze, searching for the words to say, but before she could come up with something, it dawned on him.

“OH! You think I’m fucking with you because you’re a Xeno, right?” He asked, sounding ... embarrassed. “I’m not, I promise!”

“Really? No tricks?” She asked, voice softening. He nodded emphatically, reaching out a hand to her.

“No tricks.”

She cautiously took his hand, and shook it. It was strong, rough and very warm. It felt good. They both smiled.

“My parents split up when I was really little.” He explained. “My mom took me with her to a colony out on the frontier. It was a little colony, no Xenos. I’d never actually seen an alien in the flesh before mom died and I came here to live with my dad.”

“I’m sorry...” Tetra said, earnestly.

“It’s fine. I’m pretty much over it by now. And I got to see more of the Galaxy and try new things this way, so there’s that. Like this: I’ve never touched a Sha’dee before.” He grinned at her. She blushed involuntarily, hoping he wouldn’t notice.

“I’d be happy to help you.” She said, finally. You had to take a risk every now and then, she figured, and there was something about this guy that made her want to trust him.

“Great! Thanks a bunch! Dad’s gunna be out late tonight, so we have a couple hours. I can give you a lift after school, I’ve got a car. When do you get done?” He said excitedly.

“Same time you do. There’s another crew that does the night shift.” Tetra explained.

“Wanna meet me behind the lab building? It’s a blue and white Honda with custom intakes.”

“Cool! I’ll see you then!” She said eagerly.

The rest of the day flew by for Tetra. She was too busy pondering the situation before her. This Human boy, Ed. Could she trust him? He seemed sincere, but she had never seen a Human behave that way before. Conglomerate society had a loosely defined, but nevertheless strict caste system: the Humans of the Corporate class ran things, the common Humans below them served as middle and lower managers and mercenaries, and at the bottom, Xenos like herself made up the working population. Humans were taught from a young age through media, culture and the First Galactic Church that Xenos were less than them, not just nonhuman, but subhuman animals, and if one was of a religious persuasion, creatures created by God to serve them. They were encouraged to belittle and mock aliens, training that would turn them into a race of bosses and warriors who would enforce the status quo without a second thought. There was no punishment for harming or killing a Xeno, Tetra and those like her were seen as disposable. And yet Ed had treated her as an equal. He had apologized to her. Asked her permission instead of giving an order.

Was this what Humans in the Outer Ring were like? Tetra wondered to herself as she dragged her cart to the custodial storage room and started re-shelving her equipment. She’d heard rumors that there were parts of the Milky Way that were not under Conglomerate control. The fabled “Free Systems”, a collection of democratic worlds where Humans and aliens were equal was one popular topic of discussion among young Xenos, as was the Rebellion. The Conglomerate denied the existence of both, naturally, though the Rebellion was harder to cover up as more and more troops were mobilized to put it down by the day. They had recently resorted to maintaining that it was a number of small, isolated groups rather than an organized front, but nobody believed that either. Maybe where Ed had lived, near the boarder, the Conglomerate’s grip on society wasn’t as strong. Or, he was just a very, very good liar and this was all a scam. She shook her head and pushed the thought out of her mind as she placed the last cans of cleaning chemicals in their places and signed out of the timeclock.

Tetra grabbed her messenger bag from its locker and skipped out the rear doors designated for aliens. It was a beautiful day outside, the sun was shining and the temperature was mild, at least for the cool-bodied Sha’dee. She made her way along the side of the campus, weaving through dumpsters and power hookups until she reached the landing platform behind the lab buildings. She paced back and forth along the sidewalk, keeping her eye on the corner of the building behind which the student parking racks lay. Just when she was starting to think he wasn’t going to show up, her ears heard the whirr of turbines and hum of a Cannae drive. She pricked up and watched as a blue car with white stripes scooted around the corner. The vehicle was an older model, easily 100 years out of date with turbine engines for forward propulsion instead of rear Cannae thrusters.

Ed’s car slowed to a halt and set down on its skids, the turbines winding down. It was a compact car with big engines and control thrusters, quick to accelerate and turn, the kind kids used for canyon running in the stacks outside the Human Quarter. Tetra hurried up to the vehicle as Ed popped open the side door and beckoned her in. The interior wasn’t original; the two seats had been replaced with racing models and most of the paneling was either missing or replaced with scavenged aftermarket versions. It wasn’t the fanciest or newest tech, but Tetra had been helping her Colony brothers and sisters restore scrapped vehicles for most of her life, and she could tell when love and dedication had been put into something mechanical. She climbed in and tucked her bag under her feet, buckling on the harness and tightening it to fit her slender frame. Ed grinned at her as he flicked switches to spin up the Cannae drive and retract the skids.

“I’m glad you showed up!” The Human smiled. “I thought you weren’t going to at first.”

“I was afraid you wouldn’t, to be honest. Sorry, I’m just ... not used to trusting Humans...” Tetra beamed back automatically, scratching herself behind the ear sheepishly.

“I get that, believe me.” Ed chuckled dryly, pulling the car into a climb and setting course for the residential side of the Human Quarter. “People are major assholes on this world. But we’re not all like that, I promise. There’s a lot of lower class Humans who aren’t happy with the way things are, but what are you gonna do? There’s no government, so it’s not exactly like we can vote for new people.”

Tetra stared out the windows, drinking in the view of the city from above. She’d never flown this high before; Xeno drivers weren’t allowed to ascend past a certain level, and there were hunter-killer drones orbiting the city ready to shoot down anyone who tried.

“I’ve never met a Human like you before.” She said, curiously. “Can’t be easy getting along with the others...”

Ed snorted and rolled his eyes as he joined a traffic stream. Tetra could see the augreal “holograms” directing the various levels and pathways of traffic criss-crossing through the air around them.

“Yeah, I don’t really have any friends here. You’re probably the closest thing, and I’ve only known you for less than an hour.” He explained, scratching his chin and matching pace with the other cars around them.

“You ... wanna be friends?” She asked, tentatively.

“Sure!” The Human smiled warmly. “You seem like a nice person, and I’ve always wanted to get to know more about aliens.”

“We’re really not that interesting.” Tetra blushed.

“You’re kidding, right?” Ed chuckled, pulling the car out of the traffic stream and descending towards the apartment complexes below. “Humans are so boring. You Ayys are fascinating.”

He brought up an augreal panel and typed in a passcode, causing a rack outside one of the top level apartments to extend from the side of the building and the autoparking system to engage, guiding the vehicle into it. The rack retracted, pulling them under the ledge above onto a balcony with another vacant rack and a door leading into the apartment. They climbed out, and Tetra circled the vehicle, appraising the engines and thrusters.

“Nice car.” She commented.

“Thanks! My dad found the frame out in the slums, and helped me get it into shape. It’s not perfect, but I have to wait until summer before I can get a job and buy the parts I want.” Ed explained, running his hand affectionately along the flank.

“You race?” Tetra asked with a sly grin.

“I used to run the snot out of the colonist kids in the canyons back on my home planet. I’ve been trying to get into the scene here, but it’s hard when you don’t know anyone. You know much about canyon running?” He asked.

“One of my brothers used to be pretty hardcore. I helped him work on his ride and did pit stuff when he raced. He was one of the best.” She elaborated, standing next to him and staring wistfully at the vehicle.

“Used to be? Did he quit?” Ed asked innocently. Tetra scowled and kicked the concrete.

“He flew too high once, trying to get around some asshole who was hogging the course. Went over the envelope by mistake and got shot down by a drone.”

“That sucks. I’m sorry...”

“Eh. It happens. Kids die a lot, just the way it is.” Tetra said, shrugging. Ed blinked and stared at her like she was crazy.

“Jesus, that’s fucked up. You really think that’s normal?” He seemed shaken.

“Between the gangs, having nothing better to do than dangerous shit like canyon running, and trigger-happy Mercs and P-Secs, a young Sha’dee is lucky to reach 20 around here. There’s nothing we can exactly do about it, so we don’t worry too much. Look, it’s not really something we like to talk about. Did you still want help with your coding shit?”

“Yeah, sure, absolutely. Sorry, I didn’t mean to bring up something uncomfortable, I’m just a little shocked ... Here, come on in, I’ll show you my room and we can get started.” He apologized, backing over to the door and punching in his code. He held it open for her as she stepped inside. She grinned. He was kinda sweet, in an awkward, innocent way. The apartment was surprisingly spacious, and completely devoid of people, to her surprise.

“Where is everybody?” Tetra asked, looking around curiously.

“It’s just me and my dad here. He’s at work right now.” Ed explained, leading her down the hallway to a door plastered in posters of cars and animation characters. Tetra stared in wonder at the size of the place.

“All this for just two people?”

“It’s not that big!” Ed protested, opening the door.

“A place this size would be enough for at least 10 Sha’dee.” Tetra said, causing Ed to blink in surprise.

“Holy shit. I couldn’t imagine living like that. You guys must be like sardines in a can.”

“Sha’dee live in Colonies. It’s like a big group of family and family friends. Some of them take up whole buildings. Mine’s kinda small, we just have two floors.” Tetra explained, as Ed pushed a bunch of shit off his bed and sat down, pulling up a custom array of augreal panels.

“That’s fascinating. Do you have your own rooms, or what, bunk beds? Sorry about the mess, by the way. I didn’t expect to have anyone over.”

“Why would we?” She asked, puzzled, as she picked her way through the room and sat down next to him. “We share a nest with as many people as can fit.”

“Doesn’t sound like you get a lot of privacy.” Ed observed, bringing up the programming window and setting the pi card down next to them, tapping it to connect it to the interface.

“That’s not all that important to us, really. I guess Humans are just different that way.” She explained, sniffing and peering around at the scent of a familiar smell.

“Interesting. I couldn’t imagine sleeping with my whole family.” Ed said, looking at her with concern. “Is something wrong?”

“No, no, nothing wrong. Do you smoke?” Tetra asked, pulling up her own augreal suite.

“I am something of a marijuana enthusiast, yes. You?” He acknowledged with a grin. She chirped in amusement at the turn of phrase.

“You could say that. There’s not much else to do in the Stacks besides smoking pot and fucking around with cars. It’s one of those drugs that works for most species, so it’s cheap.”

“We can smoke afterward, if you want.” Ed offered.

“Hell yeah!” Tetra chittered. “Here, let me walk you through this. Did you save the place I stopped at?”

Ed found the blocks of code they were discussing, and Tetra showed him the modifications needed to make it work on the pi card. It was interesting to see how his mind grappled with the logic, and how he processed things.

Code came much more naturally to Tetra and her species than Humans like Ed, which only made it more amazing to her that they had invented it. Still, he was a quick learner. The adaptability of Humans was one of their main virtues, to Tetra’s mind. It might take them a while, but once they figured something out they mastered it with surprising speed. When they had finished, Ed tested the pi card. The panel flashed green, indicating a successful initiation and run.

“YES!” Ed pumped his fist. “Who’s your daddy!?”

Tetra chirped and gave him a hug. She could barely get her arms around his shoulders, but it felt good. He was solid and firm in her arms, and his body was so warm, much warmer than any Sha’dee she had ever felt. She wanted to linger there and not let go. He jerked in surprise and she released him, shying back and biting her lip. He stared at her for a moment in surprise. Had she done something wrong?

“I’m sorry...” Tetra apologized, clasping her hands across her chest. “I didn’t mean to upset you ... Sha’dee do that normally. Is there a Human thing I don’t know about...?”

“N-no, I’m not upset ... Just surprised. I didn’t expect that. Humans are a little cagey about touching eachother. I don’t mind it, though...” He reassured her, grinning.

“Really?” She asked, loosening her arms and leaning back in. He turned around to face her, and held out his own arms. She scooted in, and embraced him, feeling his strong arms coil around her slender torso. She could feel the slow, steady beating of his heart through his warm chest. She smiled, laying her head against his clavicle.