Black Velvet

He had never been inside one of the Borealan apartments before, even the door was scaled up for use by the aliens. As he stepped over the threshold, and the interior lights automatically turned on, he found it hard to contain his surprise. It was massive. Not just in terms of everything being blown up, making him feel like he had been shrunken down to the size of a child, but the space itself was huge. It was an open-plan apartment with a living area and kitchen, and to the rear wall were what must be the bedroom and bathroom, which were section off behind their own doors for privacy. There was a monumental couch that could have seated five or six humans sitting side by side, which was facing a large monitor that was mounted on the wall above a roaring holographic fireplace. It was rather convincing, if a little transparent when viewed from certain angles, the orange flames licking at the marble stonework.

The kitchen had counters that were at a convenient height for a Borealan, as were the chairs and the dining table. All of the plates in racks above the oversized sink and all of the appliances were similarly large. He could have fit his own apartment back in Brussels into this space two or three times over.

"This is a human dwelling?" Zuki asked, marveling at the carpeted floor beneath her feet.

"Not quite, it's a Borealan dwelling built in a human style. Hang on..." Jules made his way over to a nearby control panel that was mounted on the wall. It controlled thermostat, lighting, and other functions in the apartment. He tapped at the touch screen until he located the lighting options, lowering their intensity to a level that Zuki should find comfortable. "Try taking your helmet off," he said, "it should be dark enough for you now."

She slid the heavy helmet off her head, shaking out her cropped hair, her round ears twitching. She blinked her eyes, waiting for them to adjust to the gloom, then nodded appreciatively.

"That's good, it doesn't hurt my eyes."

"Go explore," Jules suggested, waving his arm about the room. "This is your home for the time being."

"Where will you stay?" she asked.

"Huh? I'm staying here, with you."

"Like...a pack?" she asked, her tail flicking back and forth in the way that it did when she was excited or unsure.

"I suppose Araxie packs all live together, don't they? Is that a problem for you? Do you want me to stay in another apartment?"

"N-no," she replied hastily, "I just...I haven't had a pack of my own for a very long time. I usually sleep alone." Her ears began to droop, and Jules hurried to think of a way to cheer her up.

"You and I can be a pack," he said, her ears pricking up again as she glanced over at him with wide eyes. "We'll be the diplomat pack, how about that? You're the only envoy that your people have, you know, that makes you the best Araxie diplomat by default."

"Really? We can be a pack?"

"Sure, why not? Unless you need more than two people to form a pack. Who gets to be Alpha, do we flip a coin?" he chuckled.

"You are Alpha," she said with a deferential bow of her head, "you are the more experienced diplomat. Lead me, and I will follow your command."

He had intended it to be a friendly gesture, but she seemed to have taken it a little more seriously than that. Should he perhaps clarify what he had meant, take it back, maybe? No, she looked so happy now, he didn't want to deflate her excitement. Besides, it was innocent enough, and they would be living and working together for the duration of their stay on the station much as a real pack did.

"Alright," he continued. "First command, make yourself at home, go look around. Also, let me take the helmet..."

She handed it to him, and he placed it gingerly on the glass coffee table in front of the couch. Sure, it was designed to protect the wearer from impacts and energy weapons, but he wasn't about to take any chances with something that probably cost more than his car.

Meanwhile, Zuki headed off into the apartment with a spring in her step, both from her good mood and the low gravity. She examined the living room first, placing a hand on the couch cushions and pressing down on them experimentally, her ears twitching as she heard the springs beneath them creak. She noticed the fireplace next, crouching before the shimmering projection and warming her hands. After a moment of hesitation, she reached forward to bat at the semi-transparent flames, looking on in wonder as she watched the crackling fire pass through her hand.

"It's a hologram," Jules explained, "it's not real."

"I feel heat, but I don't smell smoke," she said as she reached out towards the marble. Her hand passed through the stone, too, and she blinked in surprise.

"There's a space heater behind the wall, this way, you can have all the benefits of a real fire without dealing with cutting wood and inhaling smoke. Also, you can't really start fires on a space station, that would be really bad. Seriously, don't start any fires..."

"But how will we cook food?" she asked, reaching inside the burning logs and waving her fingers about.

"I'll show you," he said, walking over to the kitchen. Zuki followed behind him, watching as he gestured to a microwave that was sitting atop the counter. "This white box is a microwave, it cooks food. You open the door on the front, put your food inside, and then it's ready to eat in a few seconds. Looks like we also have a stovetop, an oven, plenty of options. I don't know how much time we'll have for cooking, though, and I'm not much of a chef."

"Inside that tiny thing?" she asked, leaning down to get a closer look at the appliance. "You couldn't fit much meat in there."

"There's also a fridge," he said, "come check this out." He opened the door, cool air spilling out, Zuki reaching a furry hand inside and wiggling her fingers.

"It's cold! Like winter."

"That's how we store food and keep it fresh," he explained.

"We dry and salt our meat to store it for long periods," Zuki replied as she swung the door back and forth.

"Maybe we'll pick up a few things while we're here if we have the time. I need to go call my superiors and see if I can arrange a meeting with the council any time soon. I'm not sure how much time we'll have to bum around, it depends on how full their schedule is, but they tend to drag things out..."

He walked over to the couch and climbed up onto it with some difficulty, as it was two feet higher than it should have been, pulling out his phone and connecting it to the station's intranet. He heard a loud crash, and he leaned over the armrest to look back at the kitchen. Zuki was standing there with two halves of a broken plate.

"S-sorry," she mumbled, setting it down gingerly on the counter. "The low gravity is still throwing me off..."

"It's alright," Jules sighed, "maybe I can write off the security deposit as a business expense."

He put a call through to the station's UN representative, inquiring as to when the Security Council might be available to hear his report as Zuki explored the rest of the apartment like a curious cat. Fortunately, there were no more alarming sounds that might indicate broken appliances. When the call was over, he set his phone down on the coffee table beside the helmet, calling Zuki over.

"What did they say?" she asked, poking her head through the bathroom door.

"It will be about four days before the council can meet with us, which gives us a lot of time to kill."

"What will we do until then?"

"I don't know," Jules replied with a shrug, "what do you want to do? We have the run of the station, a place to stay, I'm pretty sure I can just bill the UN for any expenses. One of the benefits of being a diplomat."

"People...don't usually ask me what I want to do," she said timidly.

"It's a big station, there's a lot to see. What interests you the most?"

"I...don't know."

Perhaps he was phrasing the questions wrong, she had no idea what there was to do on the Pinwheel, she had no frame of reference.

"We could go explore more of the station, we could go back to the tourist quarter and check out more of the stores. We could go pick up some food to stock the fridge, you can pick out some alien dishes to try. There's a huge database that we can access from the apartment if you want to learn about the Coalition or the member species."

"Oh, that last one," she said excitedly. "If I am to become a diplomat, then I must learn more in order to best serve my people."

"Alright, come sit next to me, and I'll show you how to work the browser."

She walked over to the couch and planted herself beside him, the frame creaking under her weight, the dent that she created in the cushions drawing him towards her. He lifted a remote from a compartment in the armrest, showing her the buttons on its face.

"This big red one turns the monitor on," he explained, pressing it and watching as the screen above the holographic fireplace flickered to life. "This button here goes forward, and this one goes back, like turning the pages of a book. Understand? Hang on, let me dial the brightness down a little bit. You aim the remote, and the little cursor on the screen moves, then you can use this button to select articles to read. Here, you try," he added as he handed her the remote.

Just like with the tablet, she adapted quickly to the intuitive controls. With a little assistance, she was soon accessing the station's database and reading entries about the different members of the Coalition. There were also video files that she soon figured out how to play, showing documentary-style scenes from alien planets. For the words that she didn't understand or couldn't read, there were accessibility features like an interactive dictionary and text-to-speech functions. She seemed transfixed, and so he left her to own devices for a while, taking to his tablet to catch up on some work.

***

The great sunlamps that lit the station had begun to dim, simulating dusk as the walkway outside the apartment was cast into shadow. There would be enough light to see by in the artificial night, and while there would still be plenty of people going about their business, it was the time when the least traffic was clogging the torus.

Jules had finished his work for the time being, and Zuki had been glued to the monitor for hours, her black fur reflecting its glow. Even outside of the jungle, she still looked wet, and he wondered if it was the sheen of her fur or maybe something else. He was tired from his journey, but as much as he wanted to sleep, the environment outside was now more suitable for her sensitive eyes. Perhaps she would be able to explore the station at night without needing to wear the stifling helmet.

"How are your studies going?" he asked, leaving his seat at the kitchen table and wandering over to the living area. Right now, she seemed to be halfway through an article on the Valbarans, a recently contacted species who were also making a bid to join the Coalition.

"There's so much," she marveled, not able to tear her eyes away from the monitor. "There's more here than all the writings of my people a hundred times over, I wouldn't be able to read all of it if I tried. And the worlds...they're so different. I saw pictures of the Krell world. It was like our iron bogs, but extending all the way to the horizon, with sparse trees that were as pale as bone. I saw your Earth, I saw the glass canyons reflecting the light of a single sun. How would I ever explain these things to my people?"

"That's part of being a diplomat," he said, hopping up onto the couch beside her. "You have to convey concepts and ideas that are alien to people, make them understand, translate them in a way that helps them see things the same way that you do. Take me, for example, my job is to argue the case for Araxie joining the Coalition before the council. Now, the council is made up of a representative from each member state, they've never been to Araxie. They don't understand how you live, what kind of problems you're facing, what kind of help you need. So it's my job to make them see things from your perspective."

She set down the remote, turning her green eyes towards him.

"When you go back to your territory," he continued, "you're going to have to act as an intermediary between your people and mine. It's like being a translator, but for concepts instead of just words. Let's say that the Coalition wanted to build a uranium mine in Araxie, and your Patriarch didn't really understand what that entailed, what the ramifications would be. That's where you come in. You would explain to him what that is, and how it might impact the territory, and then he could make a more informed decision. You're going to learn how we think, how to negotiate, how to navigate our bureaucracy."

"You really think that I can do all of those things?" she asked.

"I think that you're the only Araxie who can."

That put a smile on her face, and she turned her attention back to the monitor.

"How about we take a break and go outside?" Jules asked. "It's nice and dark now, so you won't need to bring the helmet. We could go check out the tourist quarter maybe, I've never been there at night before. We could get some food, too, I need something to keep me awake."

"Alright," she said with a nod.

CHAPTER 10: NIGHTLIFE

The station certainly wasn't deserted by any means, but they could at least walk without having to weave through the crowds. The usual bustle of tourists had been replaced with engineers and personnel who were on night shifts. Weary travelers headed in the direction of the residences or the hangars to catch their next flight, while other people who had cause to be awake when the majority of the population were fast asleep went about their business. That also meant that the noise level was lowered, all the better for Zuki.

They were headed back in the direction of the tourist quarter when she froze in her tracks, her eyes fixed on a pack of dusky-skinned, blonde-haired Borealans wearing UNN jumpsuits who were coming in the opposite direction. Before Jules could comment, he suddenly felt his feet leave the deck, Zuki whisking him up in her arms and barreling towards the cover of a cluster of trees in a nearby planter. Something blotted out the light, and Jules realized that she had wrapped her camouflaged cloak around the both of them, cocooning them as she hugged him tight against her body.

Her leather vest was pressed up against his chest, and she had a furry hand on the back of his head, pushing his face into the nape of her neck. Her coat was silky and somewhat damp against his cheeks, so fine that it almost felt like skin, her rapid heartbeat pumping in his ear as she breathed warm air in his hair. He could feel the heat that her body radiated, and her scent was...oddly alluring, hotboxing him in the tight confines of their impromptu disguise. She smelled like blackberries, some component of whatever she used to treat her fur when she bathed, masking an underlying feminine scent that reminded him of exertion. A sudden wave of embarrassment overcame him, and he tried to pull away, but she had too tight of a hold on him.

"Uh...Zuki?" he mumbled into her shoulder, struggling to keep his hands away from her bosom as she squashed him against her. Whatever the reason for the bandages on her chest, she didn't seem to be in any discomfort. "What gives?"

"Quiet," she hissed, "there are Rask on this station!"

"Yeah, I know," he replied, his voice muffled. "They're just auxiliaries, they won't hurt you."

"But..."

"I know you're afraid of the Rask, but this is neutral ground. If they tried to attack you here, the MPs would be on them so fast they wouldn't know what hit them."

She hesitated, then seemed to relax a little, pulling back the cloak and releasing him from her hold. He stood and straightened his clothes, pushing through the leaves of a small bush and stepping off the raised planter. The pack of Rask were staring at them in confusion. From their perspective, a human and a Borealan had just darted across the walkway and transformed into a shrub. Zuki watched from her hiding spot warily, her head peeking out from beneath the ghillie suit.

"She's new here," Jules said, laughing nervously. They looked him up and down, then continued on their way, one of them peering back over her shoulder with a scowl on her face. If they recognized Zuki as an Araxie, then they didn't show it in any way, and Rask weren't afraid of confrontation.

Zuki crept out from behind the bush once they were suitably far away, flinging her cloak back over her shoulders.

"You don't have to be afraid of them," Jules said, "they've undergone their integration training if they're walking around on the station. They're our allies."

"That doesn't change what they did," she grumbled.

"But those Rask in particular didn't do it, they might not have any idea of what's going on in Araxie. We have to assume that they're innocent until we find evidence to prove otherwise."

"If you say so," she muttered.

"Come on, let's keep going."

After walking for a few more minutes, he noticed that she was shivering a little, and she had wrapped the cloak tighter about her shoulders.

"What's wrong?" he asked, "are you cold?"

"It's so cold and dry here," she grumbled, hiding beneath her leafy cowl.

"Ah, I suppose your home territory was unusually hot and humid by our standards. Wearing such sparse clothes can't be helping, shall we get you something warmer?"

"Is winter coming? Will the people here be sleeping until the suns return?"

"Well, there are no seasons on the station," he explained. "It's a controlled environment."

"What does that mean?" she asked, glancing about as if the answer might be in the air around her.

"We decide the temperature, the humidity, the air pressure. It's not going to get any warmer than this. The sunlamps will come back on in the morning, but that's about it. I'm sure there are clothing stores that cater to aliens on the station, let's go see if we can find you a jacket or something."

The great sunlamps that were embedded in the ceiling had been dimmed enough to mimic a city street at nightfall, but as the pair cleared the residential quarter and entered the tourist quarter, the walkway was bathed in colorful neon. The stores here were adorned with glowing signs and decorations designed to draw the eye of pedestrians, animated graphics, and holograms dancing in store windows. It looked like a Christmas celebration, Zuki's green eyes sparkling as she gazed about in wonder.

"Is it too bright for you?" Jules asked, "perhaps we should have brought the helmet after all."

Zuki didn't even seem to be listening to him, there were too many sights to see, her head on a swivel as she tried to take it all in at once. Her feline eyes reflected the neon glow, making them glitter, her furry ears moving independently of one another as she listened to the strange sounds coming from all directions.

The street here was a little more populated, but it was still less crowded than during the day. He had to keep in mind that time zones across Coalition space were a jumbled mess and that spacelag between star systems could be extreme. There were even tidally locked planets that didn't have a day and night cycle at all. Still, he was surprised to see that there was somewhat of a nightlife on the station.

Zuki veered off and planted her wet nose against a nearby window pane, looking past the glass at a three-dimensional hologram of a dancing, cartoon cow. Jules wasn't sure what it was advertising, but Zuki was enthralled.

"What is that?" she asked breathlessly.

"It's a cartoon, like an exaggerated drawing. There's nothing that really looks like that." She was getting a little distracted, and so he took her by the hand and guided her along. "Alright, we're looking for a clothing store, one that sells Borealan stuff. I've seen them wearing casual clothes, there must be something..."