Chapter 13: Night on the Town

After a short debriefing back at the spaceport, they were dismissed, Jaeger and Baker returning to Maza’s domed house on one of the mag-lev trains. Several of the probes had been destroyed, but a few had been recovered, and as had been expected they were packed with transmitters and sensory equipment. They were spies, sent to assess the defenses on the ground. You didn’t have to be a master strategist to guess that it was the precursor to a full-on invasion. The Bugs had moved up their timetable, an attack could come any day now.

Maza stared vacantly out of the window as she sat beside him in the train car, Jaeger nudging her with his elbow to get her attention.

“Hey, you alright?”

“I was just thinking,” she said, looking forlorn. “The Bugs have set foot on Val’ba’ra, this is only the beginning. Soon we’ll be at war. It will be like what happened on Ker’gue’la.”

“No it won’t,” Jaeger replied, doing his best to reassure her. “We’re here this time. We have ships, weapons, experience. There’s no way we’re going to let them take this planet.”

“But even if we win, lots of people are going to die all the same. Entire cities might be razed.”

“We’re going to do all that we can to prevent that.”

“I saw how worried everyone was at the debriefing,” she continued, “I can read Earth’nay facial expressions pretty well by now. The appearance of the probes bothered them, they expected to have more time to prepare. It’s only been a few days, they won’t have had time to manufacture enough new weapons for the orbital defense grid, they won’t have been able to install them yet...”

“It’s no use worrying,” Jaeger said with a shrug. “You won’t do yourself, nor anyone else any good by making yourself miserable.”

“How can you be so ... aloof?” she asked, looking up at him with a flurry of purple feathers. “The world might end tomorrow for all we know, but you’re not worried at all?”

“Sure I’m worried, but like I said, worrying doesn’t help anyone. Being a soldier is ninety percent waiting, ten percent fighting. If you let it, your worry and your apprehension will drive you crazy, fry your nerves. You have to accept that some things are outside of your control, you have to distract yourself.”

“Distract myself?”

“Yeah. What do Valbarans do to unwind, what do you do to relax? If this really was your last day, how would you want to spend it?”

“You’ve really ... put a lot of thought into this,” Maza said, a hint of pity in her voice. “Before we encountered the Bugs, we always imagined joining this ... advanced, enlightened Galactic community. They’d share with us advanced technology, philosophies, medicines. They’d show us wonders that we could never have imagined. Instead, the Galactic community is at war. First contact with the Bugs was followed by the complete destruction of our colony, and the next group of aliens that we met was a war fleet. We thought that we could escape our problems by reaching the stars. Instead, we just traded old problems for new ones.”

“It’s not all that grim,” Jaeger said. “Sure, we’re at war with the Bugs, but the other species all get along pretty well. You saw that the Rorke’s crew compliment was made up of several different alien races. Further inside Coalition space, things are pretty peaceful. We have to deal with organized crime and piracy on occasion, but it’s only on the borders that wars flare up. If we survive ... I mean, when this is all over, if you guys choose to join us then we can bring you into the fold. You’ll have the chance to found new colonies, we’ll be able to open up trade routes to Valbara, we’ll be able to protect you from the Bugs. This can still turn out okay.”

“You asked me what I’d do if this really was our last night alive,” she said, glancing up at him wistfully. “Perhaps I should show you how Val’ba’ra’nay have fun?”

“That sounds like a good start,” he said with a grin.

They stopped at the dwelling so that the aliens could change out of their uniforms. Unfortunately, Baker and Jaeger had no choice but to keep theirs on. When they were done, the group set off towards the city in another mag-lev train. Baker was always the first one off the carrier when they had shore leave, he was always seeking out street vendors and dive bars, eager to explore the bowels of stations and outposts. He had no complaints, the prospect of a night on the town had him excited.

Jaeger might have preferred a quiet night of reflection, excitement would not be something that they were going to be lacking in the coming days, but he was also interested in exploring more aspects of Valbaran society. He would never share the sentiment with Maza and her friends, of course, but that society might not be around for very much longer. There was something oddly melancholic about the idea of dancing in a nightclub or drinking in a bar that might be razed to the ground the next day.

The familiar spires of the city rose up in front of them as they raced along the track, the train having to tilt at a ninety-degree angle again to avoid an oncoming car, the motion never failing to alarm Jaeger and amuse Baker. By the time the train car slid into the station, the setting sun was already painting the sky in shades of pink and orange, stars just starting to become visible above their heads.

“They say that the setting sun’s colors are a premonition of the coming day,” Maza said, noticing that he was staring at it.

“And what do pink and orange mean to a Valbaran?”

“Pink is love and romance, orange is somewhere between anger and surprise, blue is sadness.”

“Somehow, I doubt that you get many greens and purples in your sunsets.”

She fluttered her feathers in a Valbaran shrug.

“It’s just a myth. There’s a lot of pink today, though...”

They descended the escalator that led to the city street. Once again, the crowds of Valbarans gawked at the aliens, their heads pivoting on their long necks to get a look. This time, Maza had no patience for press conferences, her flock surrounding the two humans as they ferried them away. They must have made one of their plans at some point, because they knew exactly where they were going, in perfect coordination as they pushed and dragged the humans towards their destination.

Valbaran cities were far smaller than their human equivalents, and it didn’t take long before Jaeger found himself in a side street, away from the prying eyes of the crowds. Here, only a few Valbaran flocks disturbed them, peering at the aliens as they passed them by.

There was an abundance of neon signs here, the alien text that adorned them indecipherable, but it was such an oddly human sight. If it had not been for the strange lettering, he might have assumed that he was in some East Asian city like Hong Kong or Shanghai, maybe Tokyo. The signs came in all colors, mostly yellows that no doubt promised excitement, and greens that perhaps promised relaxation or tranquility. He would have to ask Maza about more of their colors and how they related to different emotions. It was easy to guess some of them based on the context, but he had never seen any of the green hues before.

This was the only place that he had visited within the walls of the Valbaran city that didn’t look like it had been thoughtfully sculpted. There were no rolling hills here, no trees or flowers, no swooping buttresses or elaborate decorations. It was just a regular alley that was sandwiched between two large buildings, nothing clinical or planned about it. There were exposed cables hanging between the two structures, and many of the signs were askew. The buildings blocked the sunlight to make it darker, it all looked very makeshift. A hiccup in the grand design, perhaps?

Maza noticed his confused expression, tugging him along by the hand as she explained.

“Even we can’t foresee every eventuality, sometimes city planners fail to account for certain factors or make mistakes. Here we have an alleyway where there was supposed to be some kind of facility or service, but it was deemed unnecessary sometime after it was constructed, and subsequently abandoned. Entrepreneurs moved in and took advantage of the vacant space.”

“Is that the only way that Valbarans can start their own businesses?” Jaeger asked. He hadn’t thought about it until now, but if everything was pre-planned, how did they account for people wanting to open their own stores or purchase more land? Expansion was impossible in a walled city.

“Not entirely, there are a certain number of buildings and allotments created for that purpose, but this is one of the more ... unorthodox establishments.”

“Illegal... ?” Jaeger asked apprehensively.

“Not illegal, no. Val’ba’ra’nay consider such places ... unsavory. There’s a word in our language that has no translation in yours, it means ‘to act outside of the plan’. This establishment acts outside of the plan.”

“But you’re bringing us here all the same?”

“You said that you wanted to see what we do for fun,” she said with a shrug, “and places like this can be fun.”

“Come on,” Coza said, giving him a shove from behind. “You faced the jaws of the Teth’rak, Earth’nay, you can face this too. Baker shares none of your fears.”

“Dive bar,” Baker whispered, nudging Jaeger with his elbow.

“Don’t eat or drink anything until we scan it first,” Jaeger warned, patting the pocket where he had stored the food scanning device.

Maza led them towards a small door at the base of one of the buildings, all of the neon signs appeared to be directing pedestrians to it. It might otherwise have been invisible from the street, but still, that was a lot of fucking signs for one dive bar.

He and Baker ducked under the low doorway, proceeding down a narrow staircase into what looked like a dingy basement. If this place wasn’t illegal, it was certainly as close to illegal as one could get before the police came knocking.

“The main reason that I’m bringing you here is because it will be quiet,” she explained as she held another door open for him. “There are upscale restaurants in the city, but they’ll be packed, and we would spend the whole night fighting off curious locals. I thought that some privacy might be appreciated.”

Jaeger ducked through another doorway and emerged into some kind of dingy parlor. The ceiling was low enough that he had to slouch to avoid bumping his head, and immediately, something that smelled like herbs or maybe incense reached his nose. He was standing in a roughly circular room with no windows, as it was below street level, and the walls were adorned with the same style of fabric curtains that he had seen in Maza’s bedroom. It was lit with a similar red glow, and the air was thick with what looked like cigarette smoke, the floor carpeted in a thick shag. There was what might be a bar off to one side, and there were a few tables scattered about the center of the space, some of them occupied by locals who turned their heads to peer at the visitors. Around the circumference of the room were a series of booths separated by low walls, seemingly designed to grant the occupants some privacy. The interiors were packed with cushions like those that the Valbarans slept on, arranged around a low table, clearly designed to let the occupants lounge around while they presumably ate or drank.

Maza led the group over to one of the booths, the Valbarans taking seats on the plush cushions. With their long tails, they weren’t especially suited to sitting down in the way that a human would, at least not without their director’s chairs. Instead, they lounged slightly on their sides as they shifted their weight to get comfortable. Baker and Jaeger joined them, there wasn’t much leg room between the seating and the table, and so Jaeger sat cross-legged while Baker sat with his knees up near his chin. The curtains that decorated the walls of the booth were hanging a little low for their liking too, brushing against them from behind.

They got some stares from the other patrons, but the interest quickly evaporated, they seemed more concerned with whatever it was that they were drinking from what looked like champagne flutes. Trouble in paradise perhaps? Yilgarn wasn’t all whitewashed metal and happy smiles after all. In a way, Jaeger felt relieved, their seemingly perfect society had been starting to make him feel inadequate.

Seeing that they had chosen a booth, one of the several aliens who was staffing the counter made its way over to them, talking with Maza for a moment before leaving again. The two humans watched curiously, wondering what was going to happen next.

“So is this like a bar?” Jaeger asked, “like the one we showed you on the Rorke?”

“A little,” Maza replied. “I think they serve the same purpose, even if the substances are different.”

“Do Valbarans drink alcohol?” Baker wondered, watching the other patrons who were sipping from their glass tubes.

“We ferment grains to make alcohol,” Xico confirmed as she lay on the cushions across from them, “though Earth’nay seem to be able to consume more of it. Probably due to your larger size.”

A different Valbaran walked over, carrying something on a metal tray, and set it down in the middle of the table. It was a vaguely bulb-shaped device with a long neck, a bowl at the top, and half a dozen flexible hoses trailing out of it. It seemed to be made from blown glass, embellished with colorful resins or maybe metals in shades of green.

Maza reached over, picking up a small container that was resting beside the device on the tray, upending it into the bowl and placing a metal cap that was dotted with ventilation holes over the top of it. The stuff had looked like dried grass or maybe tobacco. There was some kind of heating element in the top, and she lit it with the press of a switch, a red glow emanating from the device.

“What’s this?” Jaeger asked, watching as Coza reached over to pick up one of the tubes. She pressed the tip of it against her lips, the flexible hose adorned with what looked a little like a metal whistle. When she drew on it, a bubbling sound emanated from the vase-shaped bottom of the device, the alien leaning back into the cushions and exhaling a cloud of smoke or vapor.

“Oh, it’s like a hookah!” Baker exclaimed. Jaeger shot him a questioning look.

“A what?”

“A hookah. It’s for smoking. I guess the Valbarans smoke!”

“What’s in there?” Jaeger asked warily, directing his question towards Maza as she took another one of the tubes in her hand and drew on it for a moment.

“A mixture of dried herbs and fruits,” she said, grey smoke trailing out of her mouth with every word and reminding Jaeger of a fire breathing dragon. “You should try it, I doubt there’s anything in there that your kind can’t tolerate.”

Baker leaned forward to pick up one of the tubes, but Jaeger batted his hand away.

“Use the scanner, for fuck’s sake. For all you know, this shit could make your lungs collapse.”

Jaeger rummaged in his pocket for the handheld device, holding it up to the hookah as Baker leaned closer to read the tiny display. The vase-like base was simply full of water, while the tray on the top contained a mixture of plant fibers and fruit sugars. The chemical compounds were more complex, however. There were significant traces of something analogous to nicotine, along with a lesser amount of something that the scanner listed as ‘tetrahydrocannabinol’.

“The scanner says it’s safe to consume, but I don’t think this thing has a setting for smoking,” Jaeger said. “I don’t recognize this chemical either, any ideas Baker?”

“That’s THC,” Baker chuckled.

“Is that supposed to mean something to me?”

“It’s pot, dude. Cannabis. These guys must have something similar to hemp that grows here.”

“Oh,” Jaeger mumbled, not sure how to react. The flock of aliens were all drawing on their respective hoses, and there was one left for the two humans, the smoke that they exhaled rising to join the thick smog that was already hanging in the air. This wasn’t so much a bar as a smoking lounge.

Ayau took a long draw, letting the wisps of smoke rise from her nostrils, then sank into the nest of cushions as her headdress flared in a relaxed shade of green.