A New Direction for Humanity Ch. 04

Yeah, Shae's still trans.

***

The shuttle rumbled as it started to slow its descent. Shae idly noted that she barely felt any inertia shift, but, she knew the Rei-sa had tech to manipulate gravity, even if they have been very tight-lipped about how it worked, there was no other explanation for her comfortably sitting on a cushion while the ship decelerated, instead of being painfully being strapped into a padded surface like an astronaut. Well, she actually kind of was an astronaut, in a way. She hadn't been floating around in a space station, but she definitely had been up in space for like three weeks, anchored to surfaces by either fake gravity, inertia, or magnetism. Also floating around weightless, on occasion, though that seemed not to be a necessity very often.

"We are landing shortly," The pilot addressed her. Shae was seated in the cockpit of what appeared to be an assault craft, there were only like two rooms in the thing, but when Shae saw it from the outside, it most definitely had things that blew stuff up mounted on the outside, and the seven soldiers accompanying her looked right at home in the other room, which also doubled as the doorway...? Exit? Landing ramp? Whatever it was called, the way out of the ship.

Shae smoothed down one of the wrinkles in her uniform. There was a crease in the left leg where they'd messed up her measurements. It didn't really matter to her, nobody would know or notice, but Xiac had sent it back to be refitted three times, finding one error or another in the original tailoring. She'd have sent this one back too, but they were out of time before she was due to board for the mission. The diplomatic mission, that is. The small strike craft was on its way to Victoria, to meet with the local government. The new local government, which, by the sounds of it, was largely made up of the same connected elites that had formed the old one, minus a few scapegoats held accountable for the disaster.

"Give us a moment to secure the landing site. The humans are already here to meet us." The craft shuddered as the pilot spoke, and went still, though it still hummed with energy as it settled into position. It was disconcerting how the craft settled into place to smoothly, it was actually more comfortable than standing up on a bus. Shae heard the hatch open, and heard the soldiers in the back shuffling out, metallic power armor clanking on the metal deck of the ship. There was a commotion, excited and anxious voices, both Rei-sa and human and she heard bits of english. Shae took a deep breath to settle her nerves. Xiac had assured her repeatedly that no harm would come to her, that the Mekorial was watching the entire thing from orbit like a hawk, precision sci-fi laser weapons primed to blow people's heads off, if anything went wrong. Well, she hadn't described them like that, but that was basically her takeaway from Lhas's long-winded explanation. Either way, that was really not what Shae was worried about, radical canadian terrorists were a possibility, but were hardly the top of her list of concerns, Shae was concerned about embarrassing herself, or worse, Xiac.

"We are ready for you, Shae." The voice of the squad leader she'd talked to earlier buzzed in her ear piece a bit too loudly. She'd asked them to turn the volume down, and they had, but it was still uncomfortable.

"Thank you, I am on my way." Shae replied curtly, not sure if they were actually listening to her, and stood up, her stomach doing backflips, and headed out, into the real sunlight, the real air, and the real gravity. The last of which was actually a bit stronger than she remembered, and it was weird to think of how quickly she'd forgotten gravity, of all things.

The seven Rei-sa soldiers stood around the exit ramp of the ship, fanned out, watching the assembled humans calmly. There were about six people in police uniforms holding assault weapons of some kind, watching over two people who definitely looked like politicians. All eight of them looked very surprised to see Shae walk out of the Rei-sa ship, wearing her uniform.

"Hey, everybody. Can we put the guns down? You're not gonna accomplish much shooting at them, so you're making me a bit nervous here." Shae sort of half-hid at the top of the ramp, peeking her top half out to assess the situation.

"It's fine officers, lower your weapons," One of the two politicians said, a middle aged Asian woman. The other, a typical old white guy politician, nodded his approval, and the 'police' officers did as they were asked. Shae suspected they were probably more akin to militia, and had been given police uniforms just out of a sense of fake normalcy. Well, and because they probably had uniforms to spare.

"Hi, my name is Shae Gallant, which of you is the new Premier?" she walked down the ramp up to the two politicians, feeling very self-conscious, with everybody gawking at her, the human who walked out of the Rei-sa ship.

The asian woman stepped forward. "I'm Premier Xhiang, this is Minister Adams. Sorry, Miss Gallant, you're just... not what we were expecting, forgive us for being a bit surprised."

"Please, call me Shae. And, for what it's worth, I didn't fully expect to be here either." She tried to give a reassuring smile, even though she was the shortest person there, Xhiang had a good inch on her, and the officers and Adams all had more.

"You're... working, for the Rei-sa, are you?" She asked, her voice seemed almost suspicious, but Shae figured it was probably mostly just that she was confused and not sure how to handle the situation. How do you address a human that the Rei-sa send to talk to you? She wasn't sure that she herself knew

"Sort of, yes. I am... uhhh... directly under Vakita Xiac, kind of a... personal... assistant? I'm here to represent her, that's what matters," Shae gave herself a bit of a mental scolding as she realized that she'd gone off-script a tad.

"You're wearing a collar, are you a slave or something?" The old white guy, Adams, asked bluntly.

Shae blushed, already taking an immediate dislike to this guy. "Not... really? It's kind of hard for me to directly apply these kind of human terms to my relationship with the Vakita, or the Rei-sa as a whole. I'm here because I want to be, I asked to come." There. That was a proper evasion, even if it wasn't entirely truthful.

"Could you leave if you wanted to?" Adams asked suspiciously, scowling at her answer.

"Not without consequences. Same as if anybody wanted to walk away from their life. I do think that Xiac would eventually let me go, if I really wanted. Erm... would you mind if we went inside? This uniform isn't really the warmest." She shivered a bit as the cold november breeze blew through the uniform, reminding her that she wasn't wearing underwear, the uniform was all they'd given her.

"Of course, Shae, come on in," Xhiang led her into some kind of converted office building that was right in front of the run-down park they'd landed in. Maybe the parliament building had been demolished, or maybe they wanted a more expendable place to let Rei-sa into. This building definitely got more use than for just this meeting though, people hurried about their day, many of them doing security and other work related to her visit, and others doing unrelated things like drinking coffee at a table way down the road. As they started, four of the seven Rei-sa soldiers started to follow, apparently either briefed on this ahead of time, or informed through the speakers in their helmets.

The procession got a lot of looks as it went through the converted office, including quite a few dirty ones, but Xhiang and Adams paid them no mind, and Shae did her best to follow suit. They quickly arrived in a conference room, and the eleven of them piled in, the Rei-sa having to duck and slide to get through the doorway, but they followed without complaint or comment.

"Can we get you anything, by the way, Shae?" Xhiang asked, as they sat down, Shae taking a seat opposite the two on the long side of a long narrow table, close enough that she could have grasped the Premier's hand, if she'd reached over, herself. Shae's Rei-sa guards fanned out to cover the room, while the 'police' 'guarded' the door, mostly.

"Actually, some food would be amazing. Anything solid." Oh my gods I can actually get some human food, squeeeee. Shae tried not to bounce in excitement, she'd been so busy prepping for this mission that she'd forgotten to realize that human food was a possibility. No reason she couldn't pursue a side benefit for herself.

"Of course," Xhiang gave one of the police officers a look and a nod, and she took off, leaving only three behind. "So, Shae, we wanted to know what kind of terms the Rei-sa are willing to offer us for our cooperation, we'd kind of hoped to resume the sort of arrangements we had before, and maybe talk about launching some new satellites without fear of them being shot down." Xhiang began, face unreadable.

"Well... for starters, I do need to say that you really need to lower the reading level of what you send them. They don't understand most of what you're sending them, they showed it to me and I barely understood it, myself." Adams went red in the face at that, and Shae caught a slight look of disapproval shot towards him from Xhiang.

"That's... something we can work on. Thank you." Xhiang replied tersely, after a brief pause.

"As far as the... other thing... resuming the old arrangement isn't really going to happen. We're in kind of an in-between period right now, but eventually the Rei-sa are going to agree to and figure out a strategy for what to do with humanity. This talk here is part of that process, this isn't a 'hey we messed up please forgive us' talk. The Rei-sa are going to be a lot more in control, now, one way or another, and getting people used to that idea is one of the main jobs you're going to be doing. I'm pretty sure I can get some communication satellites approved, though. I'll ask Ji'rai about them."

"We've been sort of expecting that eventuality, unfortunately," Xhiang grimaced. "But I can't imagine the Rei-sa want to control every single aspect of the government, or else we wouldn't be having this chat."

"No, they mostly want the copper mines re-opened for now. In the future, there's going to be a lot more integration of our species into their society. Unfortunately it seems very likely that will eventually include population control." Shae winced a little at that, she knew they wouldn't like it. Minister Adams went red in the face at it, actually.

"So they want to start rounding people up into concentration camps, then," he spat angrily.

Shae shrank back under the angry recrimination. "I don't... I really don't want it to come to that, and neither does Vakita Xiac."

"What exactly does the Vakita have in mind, then." Xhiang's voice sounded almost robotic at this point, she looked shaken by Shae's words too.

"Nobody has anything in mind. Xiac wants something humane, she wants to keep most people alive, and she also wants to invest in things like infrastructure and climate change, for the planet. There are other voices amongst the Rei-sa who want a few thousand of us to be kept in a zoo or something, and if we act like animals that's exactly what will happen. You know it's well within their capabilities. Hell, look at what we've done to indigenous peoples who sat on top of resources we wanted."

"Easy for you to be calm, shemale, you look like you're already an exhibit in a zoo," Adams muttered.

A surge of anger gripped Shae. She glared at the old man, this dumb asshole who was basically trying to fuck up the future of humanity itself just because it meant that he wouldn't be the most important person around, anymore. "I'm trying to help you, you ungrateful shit," Shae yelled, the bitterness and anger bubbling out of her all at once.

One of the Rei-sa guards stepped threateningly forward towards Adams, his heavy armored foot clunking loudly on the hotel floor. He grabbed the minister by the shoulder, pulling him out of his chair.

"You speak to the Vakita's Envoy, Human. Our expectations include showing respect to Miss Shae. We would not tolerate you speaking this way to one of us, and we will not tolerate you speaking to Miss Shae that way." Minister Adams sort of limply dangled half standing half being carried by the big armored Rei-sa. Shae had been told one of the soldiers would be able to speak English and would back her up, but the sudden and violent act had caught her by surprise.

"Enough, release him. I think he understands now," Shae spoke quickly in Rei-sa before the situation escalated, the police officers were definitely about to start shooting, one of them was visibly trembling, and aiming his gun at her. Shit, that was scary.

"Of course, Miss Shae," the soldier responded, releasing the minister, who stumbled back onto his feet. Shae gave him the friendly gesture that reminded her of the hand phone, and he returned it silently.

The room was silent for a moment, the police officers seemed like they were about to open fire at any moment, and Adams looked like he was about to shit himself. Shae took the moment to collect her thoughts, and a dispassionate numbness spread through her. She knew what she was going to say. In a way, she was scared of being shot, but somehow, she barely even felt it.

"You know what,? You're actually right. I'm basically Xiac's pet human. This is the only set of actual clothes I own, and most of them are shocked that I can actually speak Rei-sa, like they expect me to be a stupid animal or a child. But, from where I'm standing, if I ask these soldiers to waste you, they will, and none of your cops will save you because they know that they won't stand a chance if they try. So, that makes me the most powerful human in this room, and it's entirely because I've made myself useful to the people with the biggest guns instead of clinging to some bullshit idea that everything can go back to the way it was, back when shitheads like you were in charge."

"Fred... I think it's for the best if you leave the room, right now." Xhiang's voice broke the silence. "Miss Gallant doesn't want you here. Officer Gill, stay here, the rest of you, escort Mister Adams back to his room." The order was carried out in silence, Adams looked scared shitless, and the officers who were leaving looked quite eager to go, including the one who'd been pointing her gun at Shae.

"You're right, Miss Gallant. I reached out to the Rei-sa with humility in mind. What I wanted was to be assured of your intent, not to make demands" The Premier sat back in her seat with a sigh. "And of course, I'm very sorry about the... slur. It was a slur, right?" she seemed embarrassed, not outraged or angry.

"Yes. It is." Shae didn't really want to elaborate on the topic, but also didn't want to leave any room for doubt that she did NOT appreciate being called a fucking shemale. Ick.

Xhiang winced a little. "You mentioned climate change? What did you mean by that?" she asked, changing the topic.

"Right. Well, I was asking the Vakita about what the Rei-sa could do for humanity, what sort of benefits this... arrangement might have. I mentioned that humans have been pretty worried about massive climate change for a while, we don't really have a means to stop it at this point, after all."

"It is a concern that fell by the wayside when an alien armada arrived," Xhiang conceded.

"Well, Ji'rai seemed quite surprised by that, she assumed we were just going to fix it ourselves, or that what's happening was on purpose. Apparently they can just... fix the problem, in a few years, get everything back to a sustainable level, maybe even have it be better than it was. Whatever that ends up meaning"

"That... is something I can use to persuade people. Maybe even point out how many lives would be lost to natural disasters anyway, if the Rei-sa hadn't come along."

"Think about stuff like medicine, too. This doesn't have to be bad for our species, it's just, going to be... very different." Shae sighed and sat back in her chair, the stress from earlier catching up to her.

The conversation was interrupted when someone knocked on the door. It opened, and someone came in wheeling a cart, piled high with food. Shae forgot some of her earlier anger and let out an excited peep. "Real food! Can we eat right away?" she asked.

The Premier agreed, and they dished out some food and started eating. "So..." She asked, "You've been living up on one of the ships?"

"Uh-huh," she replied around a mouthful of bread.

"How long have you been up there?"

"Literally since the day of the attack. I was on the ship in Vancouver when it got hit. They did an emergency takeoff and forgot I was still there."

Xhiang winced "I'm sorry about that... You said you weren't a slave but.. are you alright?"

"I'm fine. Ji'rai treats me better than our government ever did. No offense." Shae swallowed her bread and gave the Premier an apologetic smile.

"You used that word before, what does it mean, if you don't mind me asking?" The Premier took a sip of the soup she'd gotten from the cart. Shae had specifically avoided the soup.

"Oh, Ji'rai? That's Vakita Xiac. I'm not sure what it means, she just wanted me to call her that, I think it's just a title." She shrugged

"Can we trust her?"

Shae shrugged. "I don't think you have much of a choice. If I'm being honest with you guys, I'm not even doing this for my home or humanity or anything. If the Rei-sa choose to wipe us out and preserve a hundred humans as pets, I'd probably be one of them, Ji'rai likes me. The reason I'm doing it for her. I like her, I trust her, and I believe in her."

Xhiang sat back a bit in silence as Shae ate, digesting the information. "Will you be our liaison then, if we agree to the surrender?"

"Probably not. This Rei-sa named Lhas would probably do that. He's kinda grumpy but he seems to mean well. He wants you guys to have satellites too, always complains about them being shot down." Shae let herself ramble a bit, trying to 'humanize' some of the Rei-sa for the Premier. Now that her angry outburst had passed, the weight of it was starting to settle on her. What had she done? Xiac wanted her to be 'docile' and polite, and all these Rei-sa soldiers had seen her yell and threaten that idiot back there. Fuck, they'd tell everybody, Xiac wouldn't have a use for her anymore...

"Are you alright, Miss Gallant, you look pale. Did the food not agree with you?" The Premier looked extremely concerned. She probably had good reason to be, if she died in here, it would be Xhiang's responsibility.

"No, I'm alright. Haven't had any real food in a while," Shae lied

Xhiang was quiet for a while. "Alright, Miss Gallant. I'll trust you. Tell Xiac-"

"Vakita Xiac," Shae interrupted, noticing that the Rei-sa guards had bristled at the use of her name as much as she had. "Please use her title."

"Right, I wasn't clear on the protocol. Please let the Vakita know that she will have our full cooperation."

"And you're going to work on the reading level thing, yeah?"

Xhiang pursed her lips "I can promise you, Fred will not be working with this office for much longer. And you're going to keep that fact to yourself, aren't you, Officer Gill?" she asked, glaring at the one officer present, an east indian man with a gigantic black beard.

"Of course, Madam Premier." he replied curtly.

"It's the right decision," Shae spoke, still feeling like her stomach was tying itself in knots on her. "Thanks for being cooperative."

"You're sure you're okay?" Xhiang asked again.

"Yeah. I'm fine." she lied. "I should probably be getting back. If you need to get in touch with me, just ask, I'll be around." She turned to the Rei-sa who had stood up for her. "Call the shuttle, tell them to be ready," she asked him in English.