“How long were you trying to get on that train?” Rodney asked the Govvu girl. He had secured four tickets for the express sky train to MetroPol South, and they were now all seated within a private car on the Anti-spinward side of the vehicle.
She shrugged. “Just gave the ole heave ho, to tell ya the truth.”. She sung her legs back and forth under the seat like she was sitting on some kind of swing.
The train started to move, and swiftly accelerated out of the station. Turbulence buffer fields spun up around the train protecting it from atmospheric friction. With out the buffers, the train would burn up at the speeds they would be traveling. Rodney studied the Govvu girl. It was hard to tell how old she was by looking at her. The impression he got looking at her was that she was a teenager, and young one at that..
“What’s your name?” Anil asked.
“Not sure I should tell yoos,” She smiled as she said it. She was chewing some kind of sticky pink substance, and made loud smacking noises with her lips. Her teeth were white and perfectly straight. Except for the skin color it was hard to tell she was not human.
“You just agreed to take a five hour train ride with us,” Tony pointed out. “That’s a pretty trusting thing to do.”
“I’m Anil, he’s Tony - “
“An Oose Hee?” She pointed at Rodney.
“You can call me Mr. Morris,” Rodney replied. “Now. what. is. your. name?” He meted out each word.
“Casandra,” She replied.
“From what I recall, that does not sound like a Govvu name,” Anil folded his arms and leaned back. “You know the train station has your DNA code right? We might look harmless”
“More like clueless,” Casandra snorted a laugh.
Anil tilted his head to one side and raised an eyebrow, then frowned. “Oh shit.”
Rodney matched his look, “What?”
Anil sighed and motioned toward her, “She’s royalty. She’s fucking Govvian royalty.”
Casandra became instantly agitated and then took her chewing wad out of her mouth and threw it at him. Anil deftly deflected to pinky slimy blob, unfortunately hitting Tony in the process.
“Hey!” He jumped up and tried to pick the brightly colored ball off his jacket sleeve. “Eew, this is gross!”
“She’s royalty,” Anil said. “That’s why the guards left her alone, and that’s why when you treated her like a chaparone they let you alone,” he said to Rodney.
“I figured she was just running a grift”
“I was,” Casandra stuck out her chin defiantly.
“She was,” Anil continued, “But it didn’t get her into any trouble. You can’t scream at station staff. Not unless arresting you would cause a bigger problem.”
Casandra folded her arms and flopped back against her seat. “Bo was right. You Hoosmans are a right chancers yoos are.”
Rodney glared at her, but couldn’t decide if she was a problem or an opportunity. The real challenge was how to talk to her. Her bellicose behavior now seemed reminiscent of normal teen angst. This was the problem with the Govvu, they were both very different, and strikingly similar to humans.
“What is it you want?” Rodney asked. “What are you trying to do?”
“Oh, no yoo have decided to play the copper have you?”
“No,” Rodney said deliberately slowing down his voice and making his best effort to imitate a light night disc jockey streaming love songs. “I can’t help you get what you want if I don’t know what it is.”
Casandra looked like she was actually considering that. She slumped a little lower, so that she was almost laying back on the seat, and her chin was on her chest. It was like she was trying to shrink. “I want a cherry pie.”
“A what?” Tony leaned forward.
Casandra scrambled to sit up. “I want a blooming cherry pie!” She shouted. “We don’t have pies in Rascalia, let alone cherries, and I’ve heard my brothers talking about them and the berks won’t share nuthin no how with no one, so I decided to get one for myself. There I said it. I want a Cherry pie!”
Rodney looked at Anil. “Are Cherry pies rare here?”
Anil pulled up his computer and cocked his head to one side. “It turns out cherry pies are a delicacy here. There are several types - basically deciding which planet they come from. Local, from the Farms of Hestia, off world, from our colony of Besor, and the most expensive of all. Earth genuine.”
“I want an Earth pie!” Casandra bounced up and down in her seat. “I hear they are the yummiest!”
“Some of our foods are quite valuable to other worlds, and the true is in reverse. Govvian watermelon wine trades at astronomical prices everyhwere in the colonies,” Anil observed. “As a matter of fact I have two bottles in my personal collection.”
“I don’t want no fermented heygen juice,” Casandra said, “but, if yoos get me that pie and take it back to our estate, I’m sure I could find a bottle no one would miss for you.”
“We don’t need any stolen wine from your family,” Rodney interjected.
“Tony, see if you can find a pie between here and MetroPol South.”
“On it,” Tony had stuck the pink glob to the lower corner of the train car window. He looked at Rodney. “the cleaners will get it.”
“You don’t have any wipes?” Rodney asked. Reaching into his pack and pulling one out. Rodney had been surprised to see that Sofia had personally seen to his outfitting and she had done a marvelous job, not just with the clothes but the gear as well. She also left him a scented invitation to pay a visit when he returned to collect his ship. Rodney handed Tony the wipe, who wrapped up the pink blotch and dropped it on the flore.
“So what is your real name?” Rodney asked.
“I doubt yoo could say it,” She replied. “Govvian names are hard for hoosman’s to pronounce.”
“Their primary language is tonal.” Anil said. “Her actual name would probably sound like bird chirping to us.”
“Go on, I want to hear it,” Rodney said.
“Yoos going to get me a cherry pie?”
“I’m working on it,” Tony said focusing on his phone.
“My name is - “ Casandra opened her mouth and what came out did not sound like words, but it was more than chirping. Her name sounded like bird song. The most lovely bird song Rodney had ever heard. It took her almost a full minute to say her name.
“Very beautiful,” He said.
“Thank you.”
“You are also correct. I’m never going to learn how to say that. Why did you select Casandra?”
“It is closest to the letters of my written name in tonality,” she answered.
“Do you have a family name?” Anil asked.
“In common, my house is the Royal Ascending Fire of Melancholy.”
“Fire of Melancholy?” Rodney knew very little about the Govvian culture. Just the skin color, and eerie similarity to humans. That, and the Govvians outnumbered humanity like 100 to 1. The Govvu had been around a very long time.
“All the royal houses are named after emotions,” Anil explained. “Several houses, are very prminent in Proxima Caelum politics.”
“Yoos had just better hope you never cross the House of the Frozen Joy,” Casandra actually shivered. “Right cheery bastards that lot are.”
“Where did you learn common? Well, human common?” Rodney asked.
“My brothers. They developed a special module just for me.”
Rodney did not bother to tell her that her brothers he likely played another prank on her.
“Got one,” Tony said. “There’s an orchard commune in the Southern Peninsula. I found a family run farm trading pies. They claim they have off planet as well as locally grown.”
“Can we order it in advance?” Rodney asked.
“It looked like we can and they have two in stock, but…”
“But what?” Rodney asked.
Tony handed him his phone. “Check out the price.”
“Holy shit!” Rodney almost dropped the phone. “That’s like half the cost of my starship!”
“I’ll cover it,” Anil said. “I have an expense account for such purposes, and it would be an honor to assist our esteemed guest.”
Rodney looked at Anil, until that moment it had not occurred to him to ask how much money Anil had, but he did manager to get out of detention. He had more than money. He had clout. Clout from powerful - which always included wealthy backers. But he could see that Anil was not wrong. Befriending a member of a Govvu royal family was likely a struck of luck, even if it was dangerous luck. Anil was being optimistic about what the girl would say after she had her pie. In Rodney’s experience people that liked to cause mischief did not suddenly stop when they got what they wanted. Success tended to egg them on.
From somewhere, Casandra had managed to produce another blob of pink gooey stuff and had put it in her mouth. She was chewing loudly.
“Can you close your mouth when you chew please?” Rodney asked, not unpolitely but firmly.
“Ah, but where’s the fun in that?” Casandra smiled a devlish grin and kept on chewing, mouth open, lips smacking, the sickly sweet smell of the confection wafting toward him. Was she doing that on purpose? Likely. She was a teenager. At least, she acted like one. Rodney couldn’t wait to get this pie nonsense over with. He turned his attention to check the scenery out the window.
Proxima Caelum was a beautiful world. The zone inhabited by the human colony of New Washington, was barely noticeable. Unlike the industrial colonies Rodney had visited with their focus on farming and mining, everything about this planet was designed to make human impact negligible. Solar farms were carefully sculpted into mountain sides, or power came down from the orbital platforms via nanofilament lines. Vertical farms, like towering leafy blocks provided abundant food, and this planet had virtually no mass manufacturing - only a few automated factories to recycle and convert raw materials into useful objects. Most of the industry was focused on craftsmanship and rearing of young humans into future colonists.
That did not mean there was not ample room for recreation. Even from the altitude the sky train travelled, he could see ski runs, hiking tracks, and sails off the costs of shiny beaches. Cross Roads really was a beautiful world.
“How did you get this far north without a ticket?” Rodney asked Casandra. The capital was located at the equator of the planet, not a short worlk from either Metripol.
“My brother gave me a ticket,” She said quietly.
“That is quite the family you have,” Rodney observed.
“I know you think it was unkind, but it was not. Our family is expected to engage the outworld. We do not wait for the Galaxy to come to us.”
“I can understand that,” Rodney thought about it. The Govvu had built the Galactic Scouts and dominated virtually every level of the organization. The humans were making some inroads into the organization, but it was tough sledding. The Govvu were protective.
“Why did you pick the Earth section?”
“You are…” she paused looking at each of them, then seemed to decide something. “You are impudent. Rude. You come here expecting the same as everyone else.”
“Are you saying we annoy you?” Anil asked, joining the conversation.
“Me no. My family and the other clans? Yes.”
“We believe in equality,” Rodney said, then looking out the window, he trailed off, “most days.”
“Belief is not practical,” Casandra countered. “You must know. You must work with tradition based in truth. Believing will not change the world.”
Anil raised an eyebrow.
“I am not so sure of that,” Rodney replied. “You’d be surprised what you can achieve when you believe.”
“You see what I mean?” Casandra sounded frustrated. “You do not listen. You do not learn. You tell, but never ask. You take, but rarely give. You… you act like the universe revolves around you.” She folded her arms and slumped back down in her chair. Now Rodney was definitely sure she was frustrated.
“What could we do differently?” Rodney asked.
“Show respect!” She blurted out. “Wait for your turn. Stop pushing.”
Anil smiled. “I’m sorry princess, but that is not in our nature.”
“Nor is it to our advantage,” Rodney added.
“There you go, talking of nature and advantage! What about your responsibilities?”
“I could be wrong,” Rodney replied, “but the galaxy might just be a little more complicated then you imagine.”
“It matters not. I will get my Cherry Pie and I will show my brothers I am not afraid.”
“And then you will help us when we arrive at Metripol South?” Anil asked.
She nodded. “I will introduce you to my family. They are a very good guild to know.”
An alarm sounded on Anil’s phone and he flinched. The expression on his face was one of shock.
“What is it?” Rodney asked.
“That’s odd,” Anil said. “My ship just entered orbit.”
“Where?” Tony asked.
“Here. At Cross Roads.”
“But isn’t your ship in the impound?”
“Apparently not,” Anil started to type on his phone. “And it may not be my ship any longer according to the registration.”
“Then how did you know it was here?”
“Because who ever confiscated it, did a lousy job of deactivating the security protocols I put in place to protect against just such an occurrence.”
“You sure it’s not a mistake?” Tony leaned over to look at Anil’s screen.
“Positive, and it looks like whoever took it is following our footsteps. It is docking at the Oribital platform now, and is slated to be lowered to the shipyards.”