Brokering Trust - Gay Edition

"Not bad at all," he mused.

Selkie popped one of the seeds into his mouth, David wincing as he heard his beak crack the nut. He was surprised to see the six tentacles that were spaced around the alien's face grip a second seed as he turned his attention to one of the containers, holding it in place as he began to eat. So, not only did they control the spread of his veil-like blankets, but they could be used to manipulate food. It wasn't hard to imagine him holding a struggling crab in his face-tentacles as he cracked open its shell.

"Isn't it nicer to share a meal with someone rather than eating alone?" David asked. "This apartment is enormous - it must get lonely here."

"We do not experience loneliness as you do," Selkie replied. "And this living space may be lavish by your standards, but not by ours. It is sufficient, but not what any Broker aspires to."

"And, what do you aspire to?" he pressed as he dropped one of the pits back into the box of fruit. "A little cottage by the beach, perhaps?"

"Homes closer to the surface, such as in the reefs or lagoons, belong to those of great means and high status. We do not necessarily choose to live in the depths so far from natural light and in such...dense urban centers, but there is no room for towers and cities amongst the corals."

"You said that you evolved in that environment," David continued, finishing off the last morsels of his meal. "You hunted crabs in rock pools, so you must have lived close to the surface. It follows that living so far down must be unnatural for you."

"You should rest," Selkie added, starting to collect the empty containers with his four arms. "We are expected at the facility in seven of your hours, and you have not yet begun your rest cycle. I am also...drying out," he added as he turned to the door. "I will wake you shortly before we are scheduled to leave."

David watched his host scuttle through the force field, then closed his laptop, appraising the bed once more. It would be hard to sleep with all of the day's excitement still fresh in his mind, but he wanted to be rested and ready for what he assumed was going to be a tour of the research facility tomorrow. It was time to find out what had gone so wrong that the Brokers had called the UN for help...

***

David woke to his alarm, deactivating it with a voice command. The lights outside his little dome were just as bright as when he had gone to sleep. Living on a planet with no day and night cycle was going to take some getting used to.

He slid out of bed, stretching as he yawned, then walked over to his lockers to retrieve his suit. As he opened one of the doors, movement caught his eye, and he glanced up to see something clinging to the outside of the habitat. It looked like the belly of a slug - the creature hard to make out through the distortion, but it was almost the length of his forearm. It suddenly lifted off the dome, flitting away through the water, a shiver crawling down his spine.

"You are awake?"

David almost jumped out of his skin, turning to see Selkie standing by the force field.

"Y-yeah, I set my alarm," he replied. Realizing that he was only wearing a tank top and his shorts, he made a rather futile attempt to cover himself, the Broker watching him curiously. "Maybe knock next time?"

"My apologies," Selkie replied, keeping his eyes on David all the same. "My people have no need of clothing, and modesty is not a concern of ours."

"Yeah, I noticed that you were all nude," David added as he began to pull on the suit. "By the way, I think one of your fish got out of its tank. There was some...horrible thing crawling on the habitat a moment ago."

"That is merely my slug," Selkie replied.

"Your...slug?" he asked, zipping up.

"Yes, I believe that slug is the most accurate translation. My people have domesticated several species of mollusk that act as companion animals. There is nothing to fear - she was merely curious about the new addition to her environment."

"Pet sea slugs," David muttered as he slid on his helmet. "Why not? Maybe we can ride to the research station on dolphins and wear jellyfish as hats."

"Your disapproval confuses me," Selkie said, his chromatophores creating a wave of dark bands that spread across his skin. "She is not venomous if that is your concern."

"Just keep it away from me," David replied, checking the pressure reading on his display. "Right, I'm ready to leave. Should I bring my equipment with me?"

"Your computer, perhaps," the alien replied. "You will be provided with whatever else you require on-site."

David locked the clasps on the hard case and lifted it off the table, pausing behind Selkie as he slid through the wavering barrier. As soon as he was through the door, the slug reappeared, darting through the water with surprising speed. Its long, winding body was a vibrant azure in color, tapering into electric blue at the tips of its long feelers and its stubby tail. Its back was covered in long, delicate, almost feather-like structures that fluttered as it moved. They were a rich orange in color, giving the creature a furry appearance. If they were anything like the nudibranchs of Earth's oceans, those structures could be gills or stingers. Like many of the animals that he had seen on 1e, there was a frill-like structure that ran along the flanks of its body, creating undulating waves to propel it through the water.

It circled Selkie, its color brightening in hue to become a pastel blue - apparently, it also had chromatophores. For the first time, David saw the Broker break out into a bright smile, his lips curling and his skin taking on a desaturated cream color that accentuated his blue stripes. He looked vibrant, almost literally glowing, his leg-tentacles flaring out like a skirt as he spun on the spot to follow its movements. His delicate blankets wrapped around him, their vibrant eyespots all the more prominent, the slug nuzzling its fleshy antennae against his hand as he reached out to it. He had a better relationship with this mollusk than any of the people David had seen him interact with so far...

"Surely you are not so afraid of her?" the Broker asked, giving him a smirk as the slug perched on his outstretched hand.

"I'm not afraid of it," David grumbled, reminding himself that he was protected from direct contact with any slimy critters by his suit. He stepped through the barrier, feeling the weight of the water bear down on him, his gait changing along with his buoyancy. He approached Selkie, who gently waved a tentacle, encouraging the slug to swim towards the human. David stood rooted to the spot as it swam around him, flashing colors as though trying to communicate.

"Do these patterns mean anything to you?" he asked.

"They have been domesticated for generations, and they have learned to mimic some of our displays," Selkie replied. "It allows them to communicate their mood."

"Like a dog wagging its tail," David mused.

The brightly-colored creature extended its antennae, brushing them against his suit, trying to map out the shape of this new enigma that had entered its environment. Selkie laughed as David remained as still as a statue, the sound of his clicking beak resonating through the water. When David raised an arm, the slug landed on it, and he was able to feel its fleshy body through his suit. It wasn't as fragile or as squishy as he had imagined - it was actually quite robust and muscular. It was covered in a layer of mucus, leaving a trail behind it as it slithered into his hand. It nuzzled his palm, and he brushed his fingers against the fluffy, feather-like filaments that rose from its back.

"She likes you," Selkie chuckled.

"Does it...she have a name?" David asked.

"You could not pronounce it, but a rough translation would be...water flower."

"Maybe I'll just call her Flower," he mused, watching as the animal launched off his hand to weave through the water. "Are they intelligent?"

"Reasonably so for a domestic animal," Selkie explained as he let himself drop down from the balcony, floating towards the coral stone floor below. "They are bred primarily for emotional support."

"We have a similar creature called a cat," David explained, slowly falling behind him. "They're bred as companion animals, and they don't do much other than be adorable and cause property damage."

Selkie led him back to the door to his apartment, and after placing his hand over the control panel, it slid open to expose the empty shaft beyond. As much as it turned his stomach, David stepped into the void, letting gravity slowly carry him down its length.

"Are we taking a tube again?" he asked as they made their way through the corridors.

"No," Selkie replied, leading him beneath the ethereal glow of another tank filled with bioluminescent jellies. "The research facility is outside the city limits, and it is only accessible by transport shuttle."

"Oh, are we riding in another of those spacecraft?"

"A submersible," he explained. "The docking bay is this way."

They exited the tower proper and emerged onto a large platform that was suspended from the side of the building, jutting out into the open water. It looked like a small train station to David, with raised boarding platforms and recessed bays where bullet-shaped craft were docked. They were the usual white and silver, with sleek, streamlined hulls clearly designed for cutting through the water. The platform was open to the ocean, but there was a massive glass awning above their heads, David glancing up at the towering effigies and the network of transport tubes above.

For the first time, he saw another civilian - a Broker who was standing on a platform on the far side of the station staring at him in confusion. When he raised a hand in tentative greeting, the alien's skin flushed a deep maroon, and it quickly boarded one of the shuttles through a door in the vehicle's side. The sleek craft coasted out of its berth, leaving a trail of bubbles behind it as it slid out into the ocean beyond. Like the spacecraft, it had no visible engines or propellers to give any inkling of how it functioned.

"What was that guy's deal?" David asked in bemusement.

"They would not have been expecting to meet an alien at the dock today," Selkie replied, leading him over to another of the shuttles. "They would have found your presence...alarming."

He lifted a hand to a panel beside its hatch, and the door slid aside to grant them access, the two stepping inside. It was oddly cramped, David having to duck to avoid clocking his head on the low roof, the interior barely large enough to fit three Brokers. It was about the size of a minivan from the outside, so there must be some machinery taking up that space. Strangely, there were no seats for the passengers, but maybe standing for long periods was less of an issue for a species that wasn't constantly fighting the pull of gravity. Mass transit to these aliens must just mean more shuttles - they weren't going to be carpooling in these things. Like their cramped exoskeletons, there was barely enough space to stretch out, reinforcing the idea that Selkie's people had no aversion to tight spaces. Claustrophobia wasn't in their vocabulary.

Selkie waved his hand over a control console towards the nose of the vessel, then spoke their destination, David feeling a subtle rumble as the craft left its bay. A moment later, the hull around them melted away to reveal what he now knew to be camera feeds showing the shuttle's surroundings - the same thing that had happened on the cigar ship during his descent.

He watched the dock diminish behind them, little more than a glass blister on the facade of the massive building, their craft starting to rise above the tangled network of tubes.

"We're going up?" he asked.

"Shuttle routes usually take us above the transit system," Selkie explained.

It was like flying through a city in a private aircraft, David glancing down as the tangle of infrastructure and sediment on the sea floor below faded into the blue haze. They were still rising as they drifted between the buildings, giving him a snapshot of the underwater cityscape, the way that the ocean limited his visibility making everything feel all the larger as his imagination filled in the blanks. As they rose two or three hundred meters - some sunlight starting to penetrate the water - he got a glimpse of the roof of one of the nearby towers.

As he had posited, it was constructed like a hollow tube, with a large opening at its apex that was jetting a stream of water. This rapid flow was visibly hotter than the surrounding ocean, creating a shimmering, superheated plume that billowed up towards the surface like vapor from a cooling stack. To his surprise, there was something growing around these boiling torrents. It looked like minerals had built up in layers to form rocky, uneven spires around their lips, some rising a considerable height. They were covered in clusters of colorful growths, and as they drew closer, he saw that they were teeming with animal life. They were still far too deep for photosynthesis to be viable, meaning that these couldn't be reefs.

"What's growing on the buildings?" he asked as they drew nearer, pressing up closer to the hull of the ship to get a better look. The shuttle was only twenty meters away now, skirting around the building's periphery. "Is that water as hot as it looks?"

"That is the building's exhaust," Selkie explained, as though it was the most normal thing in the world. "It is where hot wastewater from the structure is vented into the ocean."

"How hot is that water? Those aren't corals, are they?"

"Minerals and other waste products build up around the exhaust," the Broker continued. "This creates habitats for chemosynthetic bacteria, in turn forming the basis of a localized ecosystem that supports a range of animals. Extremophiles such as tube worms and crustaceans feed on the bacterial mats, and they also capture particles of organic matter that are expelled through the stream."

"You're talking about artificial hydrothermal vents," David marveled, tearing his eyes away from the sight to glance back at him. "Where does the wastewater come from?"

"Each of the towers has a fusion reactor in its deepest levels," Selkie explained. "This powers the building's systems, such as water filtration and circulation, electricity, and environmental regulation. The warm water is heated by the reactor, then it rises up through the structure, carrying away contaminants from the filtration system along with it."

"So, the current carries away all of the gunk that ends up in the filters as it moves up through the building, then all of that hot water and detritus is expelled out of the roof?"

"We allow the ecosystems that grow around the vents to thrive, and even introduce additives to the water at varying stages to encourage their health, as these communities act as a natural filter that helps purify the water before it is released back into the ocean."

"Incredible," David muttered, turning his eyes back to the plume as they coasted past it. Even from a distance, he could see the forests of pink tube worms slowly drifting with the current, waving like grass in the wind with their mouths agape in search of food particles. There were shrimp-like animals crawling between them, covered in masses of bacterial growth that made them appear furry. There were even a few fish that must have adapted to the harsh environment darting between the rock-like formations created by decades of mineral buildup.

"You should share this tech with the Valbarans," he added. "They'd love this."

"I find their protection of their planet's ecology commendable, but they are an...unambitious people."

"I suppose they're not exactly ruthless industrialists," David scoffed. "They've been doing pretty well since they joined the Coalition, though. They have their own fleet now."

"The idea that your government simply gave them blueprints to build weapons still confounds me," he added, keeping his eyes on the murky waters ahead.

"If I recall, that was when a single UNN carrier group organized the defense of Valbara and defeated a hive fleet that was poised to wipe out the species. Extenuating circumstances, I'd call those. Do you think they should have held out for a better deal?"

"Giving away technology and manufacturing methods decades in advance of anything the native population had access to?" he asked, giving David a sideways glance. "That is worth securing some exclusive mineral extraction rights, at least."

"Somehow, the idea that a Broker would object to sharing technology doesn't come as a jaw-dropping shock to me," David replied with a scowl.

"Many agree that the Coalition is no longer facing an existential threat from the hives," Selkie argued, his coloration shifting to a darker hue as the conversation wore on him.

"It's true that we've been doing just fine without your help, yes."

"We provide more help than you realize," he shot back, his beak clicking angrily. "Just because we do not provide troops and ships does not mean that we float idly in the current. The Board invests heavily in the Coalition through providing funding and raw materials at considerable cost to our people. We help to subsidize your shipyards and provide tungsten carbides for those crude weapons you so enjoy."

"And in return, our ships and our Marines protect Trappist. Sure, you might not have jump carriers posted on your doorstep, but you're surrounded by human colonies, which is functionally the same thing. They act as a buffer that lets you turtle up here like a snail in its shell."

"You did not strike me as especially political," Selkie added, lifting his lip to expose his shiny beak in the way that a human might sneer.

"I watch the newscasts," David replied, folding his arms as he leaned back against the hull. "Maybe it amuses you to see me oooh and aaah at fish tanks and submarines, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to speak my mind. I don't require your government's approval - they didn't want me here to begin with. I have nothing to gain by stroking egos and stepping on eggshells."

"On that, my government and I are in agreement," the surly Broker muttered.

They rode the shuttle in silence for a while longer, leaving the city behind as they descended into the darkness. They were coasting towards the ocean floor now, further away from the island and far deeper than the city, the sediment here practically devoid of life. There was little more than a few lazy fish drifting along close to the bottom, as well as the odd crab and plant-like filter feeder anchored to stray rocks.

A cluster of buildings started to fade into view in the distance, sitting there in the middle of the featureless plain like an outpost in a desert. They were far squatter than the tall towers of the city, more like the domes and low spires that he had seen on the island and in the shallows. There was at least one cooling tower for a reactor that spewed shimmering wastewater, the rest of the structures forming a complex web that sprawled out in its footprint. It would have been right at home on the surface of the moon. It was hard to guess at its size, but it was easily as large as any college campus on Earth. As they neared, David noticed that there were several raised towers spaced out around the complex, the domes on their tops splitting open to reveal turrets that tracked their approach.

"Uh...what are those?" David asked warily, glancing down at the long barrel of one of the weapons through the floor as they passed over it.

"Defensive guns," Selkie replied. "They are plasma emplacements intended to destroy any unauthorized craft that enter the restricted area. Or that attempt to leave it..."