They were at yet another boring meeting between immortals on Earth. Tummy and her ship Remmy had to attend as Tummy was one of the local diplomats in the area and needed to keep in touch with the various major immortal organizations on this human planet. They needed to touch base and ensure that no one was thinking about stepping on the Empire’s toes or do anything stupid with regards to disrupting the regular folks that lived on the planet and nearby colonies.

Lucky, his ship, Fluffy, and her ship were also in attendance. They were also diplomats, though of a different litter. This was their first meeting, though, the whole lot of them only twenty-five-years-old while Tummy was nearly a thousand. She was still a baby, though, legally. The Empire set the adult age of her people starting at year twenty-thousand. This was to allow them to grow and mature and not need overall supervision of an older member of the species.

He was here, too, the older member of the species, named Jalan. Jalan’s Guardian was a destroyer, not a frigate, though, and he was about fifty-thousand-year-old.

All four of them were Catalum, a small mammalian species native to Andromeda, about the size and weight of a house cat, representing a vast intergalactic empire that spanned over forty-thousand galaxies across.

Their ships, via hardlight holographic avatars because their actual selves were many kilometers across from one side to another, the frigates being a hundred kilometers cubed and the destroyer being over a thousand kilometers long, sat at the table, listening to all the immortals, and some mortal members of powerful organizations and countries, called roll and introduced themselves and their peoples and their public intents for the next century. There were Nephilim, mermaids, Fae, demons, and a couple of elves, along with a host of mortal and immortal humans, split between normal humans, vampires, and lycanthropes. A werebear represented the lycans while a moon elf represented the mix of high, moon, and dark elves.

Most of the human immortals here had that sour and cynical look on their face. The non-humans, well, non-human on paper, everyone here that wasn’t a Catalum or their ships were fully genetic human, and could have children with the opposite side of the aisle for every other group present at the meeting. But traditionally, they only referred to the “baseline” humans, as human. The non-human humans were much more relaxed and looked content with their lives, even if they were bored. This was a dreadful meeting that resembled a human resources call. But the real-human human immortals were all entirely not having it and their faces reflected that cynicism and pessimism.

“I don’t get it,” spoke Reeves, one of the vampires present at the meeting and sitting near the little dog on her ship’s lap, “How do they,” he gestured at Tummy, “get to be so happy and cheerful? She’s twice my age.”

Tummy turned to look at the vampire.

“Roo-ahgh?” (Me, you talk to me?)

“Yes, he’s referring to you, Tummy,” replied Remmy.

“Ooo-oh.” (Oh.)

Tummy turned around on Remmy’s lap and pressed her body against Remmy’s chest. Tummy had a disability that locked her in the classic sitting dog pose which while it limited her movement, it did not stop Tummy from getting around. She also had her ship to help her as needed. The rest of Tummy’s litter was also like this, her brother Maxwell, and sisters Jessie, Jello, and Oni, all stuck in that classic sitting pose. They hopped instead of walk or run.

Tummy looked up at her ship, eyes unmoving, waiting for the ship to respond to the person.

“Fine, I’ll answer him for you.”

“Ra-Ooo!” Tummy smiled.

Remmy spoke: “Besides being children—technically, these guys are biological adults—they have a childlike wonder of the world around them. Every day is a new day, every day is a day to wonder, every day is a day to celebrate them, the world, and the people around them. While they have their biological needs met by us and the Empire, each new day is not like the previous day, and so it is a completely new experience for them. It does not hurt that they are not easily bored and will do silly things like stare at an object for hours on end, just for the enjoyment of the staring.