Conics Unfortunately: 38

Randi Who-the-heck-cared emailed almost every day during the two weeks it took for the Conics to return to the Un system’s fold monitor, cross into the Tubai system, and land on Port Tubai, which orbited the most massive rocky planet known to civilization. And because the contents of those emails were so massively infuriating, Ellipse de-stressed by playing her trumpet almost every day, which Focci did not like.

“I am sick of hearing you practice the alphabet,” he grumbled, shoving her out the dock door. “Go swim in a brine current, and make sure you have cooled down before you come back.”

A moment later, Ellipse heard the deadbolt thunk. She pounded on the door a few times, until the metal stung her fist, and then growled and turned to face the rest of the hallway.

Port Tubai was a monster of transparent plastics and glass, with tastefully placed metal surfaces so well-polished they were practically mirrors. The vibe had surprised Ellipse when her crew first landed; she had heard that the planetside architecture was full of rolling curves and metals textured and painted to look like earthen buildings, so all the glass seemed out of character.

Perhaps that was just Spec Corp’s designers trying to project their idea of futuristic design on the local people.

Trumpet in hand, Ellipse roved the shipping sector, admiring the ships through the windows, and admiring her reflection in the metal walls. She noticed a fair number of hydrogen floaters and specifus, but most of the passersby in Port Tubai were members of the planet’s two primary intelligent species.

Being tidally locked, the Tubai home planet came in two temperatures, hot and cold. Only the heavy presence of atmospheric water and reflective gases high in the stratosphere kept the surface temperature anywhere near regulated.

As Ellipse crossed into the sector for personal spacecraft, she waded her way through a crowd of stout, fur-covered night-tubai. A few of them glanced up at her through the transparent layer of fur draped over their eyes, but while none moved to let her through, none of the little black puff balls acted upset. A couple meters away, a gangly day-tubai picked their way through the crowd as well.

Ellipse tried not to look at the day-tubai. The puffballs were cute, at least, even if they were waist-high and had no sense for personal space. The day-tubai were bony white nightmare monsters, covered part way with exoskeletons and built with stringy, too-thin muscles. She stepped out of the puffball crowd with a grimace and absently tapped the keys on her trumpet.

“Not a fan of those guys,” she muttered to herself. She traipsed along, keeping an eye out for any restaurants that might serve something edible, and tried to come up with a descant to one of Andra’s awful new songs that would translate well in Trade Siren.

A few minutes later, she passed by a fried chicken joint that for some reason was paired with a bug-mush place from Nestor. As Ellipse stared longingly at the restaurant sign, she noticed a fellow earthing in the corner of her eye.

He seemed average in height, but his sheer muscle mass made the man seem intimidatingly large. Normally, Ellipse would not look twice at another traveller, but several pairs of handcuffs hung from his belt, which almost guaranteed that he was a bounty hunter. To check if he was following her or someone else entirely, she slipped into the closest day-tubai bathroom.

For a few minutes, she waited inside a stall with those same polished metal walls, too uncomfortable with her reflection to even think about peeing. Instead she read another of Randi Abe’s emails and watched the seconds tick by on her watch. When she was tired of camping out, she stepped out of the stall and walked right into a sinewy day-tubai.

They loomed in front of the stall door, slumped over with their compound eyes staring straight down at Ellipse. Her pulse picked up, and her shoulders tensed. Sweat loosened Ellipse’s grip on her trumpet, and as she looked up to meet the tubai’s gaze, she felt herself shake.

Tejal was a kid, and his parents had never gotten this close to her. Besides, the day-tubai were icky.

“You are Elliott Bei?” the tubai asked in Trade Siren. It was the only off-planet language the day-tubai could use, since they communicated by creating violin-like screeches with the nubs on their arms.

Ellipse snapped out of her shock. “Of course not,” she sneered. “I can show you my papers if you need me to, and they will tell you everything you need to know.”

“You smell like Andra Bei,” the tubai said, clacking the pincers on either side of their mouth.

No, she did not. Andra wore perfume. Ellipse screwed up her face and clutched her trumpet to her chest. “And you managed to smell Andra how?”

Someone else answered in Global Gliss. “Andra Media is giving bounty hunters unfettered access to information now. Getting my associates in for a sniff test was a piece of cake.”

Ellipse glanced past the tubai, and there stood the man from earlier, a second white tubai behind him. He swung a pair of handcuffs in a lazy circle and smirked. “If you want to be doubly sure though, I could just snag a piece of your hair and have a DNA test run before turning you in.”

“You cannot capture me without proof,” Ellipse spat. Day-tubai exoskeletons were tough, but if she struck at the right place, she could probably take out the one in front of her. However, if she could not beat all three hunters quickly enough, she ran the risk of being arrested for the same crime as the rest of the Conics crew. “You might as well be a kidnapper at that point.”

The tubai in front of Ellipse leaned down further, until Ellipse could see the tiny holes running from their eyes to their mouth. “You know, Elliott,” they sang, “tubai scent match is considered appropriate evidence in court.”

Well heck.

Ellipse did not trust herself in a fight, but as long as she made it out the bathroom door, she could manage this situation without getting herself into any more trouble. She gritted her teeth and sent one more round of glances around the room.

Then she grabbed the tubai’s neck and shot her foot into their gut.