Young Writers Society

The Conics sat in a docking bay in the Triune fold monitor, its loading ramp already lowered. The door to the rest of the shipping hall was still sealed shut, keeping out the noise of the conveyor belt and multitudes of fellow workers.

Ellipse stood at the top of the ramp, a clipboard in hand, and frowned over the shipping itinerary. “We have a lot of Triune stops,” she sang.

Next to her, Focci slapped his tail against the hull’s floor and shifted on his hands, excited. “Is Sirena on the list? Do we have enough time to go planetside?”

Mouthbot translated, and then made an odd reference to Gustav Holst. Tejal scooted towards the edge of the ramp, not wanting to be left out of the conversation.

“Are we stopping by Mao?” he asked. “I’ve been wanting to see it again.”

With a sigh, Ellipse checked over the itinerary. “Yes, we will stop at Mao Satellite.” Then she switched back to Trade Siren and looked down at Focci. “We have a stop at Sirena too. And if we are going planetside anywhere, we only have time for one of those two places.”

The boys paused, Tejal for the translation and Focci so he could give Tejal a tentative look.

“Then of course we should visit Sirena,” Tejal said. “I don’t have any immediate family to visit like Focci does.”

Focci lit up, his feathery gills waving, and rolled across the floor like a seal so he could flomp onto Tejal and hug him. Crooning a poem of thanks, Focci squeezed tight, and Tejal winced. Like any swimmer should, Focci had strong arms.

“Okay,” Tejal wheezed, patting one of Focci’s webbed hands. “Please let go of me.”

Rolling her eyes, Ellipse waited for the boys to separate, and then flicked a fingernail against the itinerary. “Keep in mind that if we get er… accosted, we may not have the chance to catch a shuttle to the surface,” Ellipse warned. “But otherwise, we definitely could visit your family, Focci.”

“It will be fine,” Focci sang, his voice airy and carefree. “Tejal is going to help you avoid the bounty hunters better, and at least the group chasing after the Impending crew will not get involved. Sirena international law is almost unfairly weighted against specifus.”

Of course Sirena would be like that. Both Sirena and Mao had been tangled in the specifus’ technological roots for ages; resentment was a given.

“The earthling and tubai might still show up though,” Focci said. “Are you sure we can go?”

Ellipse sighed and fingered her hair. “I am going to change my bangs. And I think I can find some other things to alter my smell and appearance while we are here.”

A few moments later, Tejal cringed. “If you buy perfume, please don’t wear it on the ship. I refuse to smell floral when I see my parents again.”

Gato did not even have particularly good smell, which was part of why their food tasted a little off to earthlings, despite being edible. Rolling her eyes, Ellipse gave Tejal a shrug and a thumbs-up. She refused to smell floral all the time too.

“Oh, but for the time being,” she said, “can I borrow your jacket, Tejal? The specifus team recognized me by my coveralls, but I do not really have any other clothing.”

He grimaced at her and unzipped his jacket. “I guess. Why didn’t you buy anything when we went shopping on Titan?”

“I was not outgrowing all of my shirts,” Ellipse fired back. She dropped the itinerary on Tejal’s head and held out a hand for his jacket. “Now then, we only have a few crates to unload here. You do logistics today, Focci is on machines, and I will keep an eye out for a place to buy a wheelchair while I do the manual stuff. Are we all in agreement?”

Tejal grumbled his assent, and Focci trumpeted in triumph.

“Triune has the best cranes,” he trilled. “They are always so well-oiled, and the controls are so accessible, and honestly, as much as I dislike Spec Corp’s omnipresence, the other stations could stand to use the same models.”

What a nerd, Ellipse thought. She looked to Tejal to see if he shared her opinion, but he had pinched his mouth in a wistful pout, as if he was jealous of Focci for getting to use the cranes. They were both such nerds.

Once Tejal pressed the soft leather of his jacket into her hands, Ellipse whipped it on and started down the ramp.

She felt a little funny, actually, wearing something other than her coveralls. She felt funny in general, dressing in ways she had not previously, like she was pretending to be Ellie Tibot all over again, the way she had when she first arrived at the earthling fold monitor. With her hair tied up, her neck felt bare, and Tejal’s jacket hung heavy off her shoulders—too wide to really fit, but still pressed uncomfortably tight against the sleeves of her uniform.

She stopped at the bottom of the ramp and looked up, where Tejal and Focci sat discussing the itinerary, already formulating how they would enter the stops into the planetary motion simulator and murmuring about Ellipse’s reckless piloting. A little discomfort was nothing. Ellipse walked to the giant garage door, adjusted her ponytail, and pushed the button to open their dock to the rest of the station.

Almost immediately, she noticed the curl of white specifus roots behind the door. She took a careful step back and shoved a hand in her pockets. If Captain Maj’s friends were here to attack her crew, then she needed to do some hefty convincing to buy time to unload the crates.

But as the door rolled up, Ellipse realized she did not recognize these roots. They curled like frizzy blonde hair, so thickly clumped that the specifus standing on them probably swept up dirt as they moved, like one of those vacuuming robots.

This specifus’s trunk curved right at the midpoint, like they had been stapled to the ground and forced to grow towards the sun instead of simply picking up and moving, and they were horrifically small. Ellipse stood about the same height as the average specifus, but this one only came up to her chest.

“Hello!” they flashed, lights all evenly bright. “Is Captain Maj here? I have a message from the captain of the Philosophy.”

Or maybe the specifus was just really young, not malnourished.

“No,” Ellipse flashed back. “They are on Earth taking care of legal matters. But I am the stand-in captain, if this is related to business.” She looked back at the ship and saw Focci and Tejal peering at her, obviously curious about the conversation.

“Mmm.” The specifus held out a long, white light. “I can tell you, and you can pass along the message.”

“Sure,” Ellipse flashed.

The curly-root specifus leaned in closer and moved one of their leafy branches to slightly cover their lights. “We think we’ve found an argument for increasing public domain on the home planet, so if Captain Maj wants in, there’s going to be a meeting at the end of this orbit.”

That was about six earthling months from now. Captain Maj could make that. “I will let them know,” Ellipse replied. “What exactly are you talking about though?”

The specifus waved their branches a little, lights glowing a dim purple. “Eh? You are on the Conics. You ought to know.” They glanced around, and the bend in their trunk made the motion look like a dance. “I can’t tell you everything, but if you’re ever having trouble with Spec Corp, ships named for knowledge will help you. Even a number of specifus dislike Spec Corp, you know. Despite our pseudo-superiority over every other species involved in intergalactic trade.”

Ellipse nodded. “Oh. Well, I will let Captain Maj know. Where is the meeting?”

The specifus blinked the left column of lights on their trunk. They had to be young, to be copying earthling mannerisms like that. “The captain will know.”

“Uh, right.” Ellipse waved the specifus goodbye and tried not to laugh when she saw how their bushy roots stampeded along the ground like millipede legs. She turned back to the boys and trudged back up the ramp.

“What was that about?” Tejal asked.

“I think, when you are ready to get your generator out into the market, you may have some specifus allies,” Ellipse said.

Focci shifted. “Oh, Captain Maj’s little anti-Spec Corp group? They cannot do that much, though they would help if we ran into bounty hunter trouble before getting all of our cargo unloaded. And they will share information.”

“You did not think to tell us about them?” Ellipse hissed.

“They are really not that helpful,” Focci said. “Though I suppose it might not hurt to keep an eye out in the future.”

Ellipse knew she would keep an eye out. Anything that would keep her from impeding on the boys’ project was a plus. She crossed her arms and huffed and then started back down the ramp. “Well, I am going to buy perfume and new clothes. Send me a message when you two are set up to move the crates onto the conveyor belt.”

“Don’t ruin my jacket!” Tejal called.

She heard Focci’s tail whack Tejal. “Do not get caught by bounty hunters either! You can sacrifice Tejal’s jacket if it helps you get away!”