Page 44 of Alien Peacock
Before I’ve finished the sentence, a door opens in the other end of the room and a large being enters. It looks a lot like a carnival parade, the way Arelion looked the first time I laid eyes on him. This one is a light bronze with golden specks, and it’s obviously a female.
As she comes closer, I can’t help but feel a sting of envy. That’s the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen. She’s smaller than Arelion, more dainty and much more feminine in the movements and the shape. But that face is beyond perfect, with large, golden eyes and lashes as long as my pinkie finger. Her head comb is matte silver, and she wears a clingy green leotard-like garment that makes her look almost exaggeratedly feminine.
She’s more subdued than Arelion, graceful where he is outrageous. Still, I get why a flock of Earth peafowl is calledan ‘ostentation’. Being in a room with just two of these things makes me feel so scruffy and invisible that I’d love to slink off my chair and skulk back to the ship, where I could bitch to Bari about the unfairness of the world.
“Your Supremacy,” the new arrival says, her voice warm and melodic. “We thought you might be coming.”
“Good to see you, Peroena,” Arelion says and gets to his feet. “This is Maeve, a new friend from planet Earth.”
She looks at me with golden eyes. “Glad to meet you, Maeve. I have not heard of that planet, but I’m eager to learn. Hopefully our Arelion hasn’t dragged you through too much trouble. He tends to attract it. But you look like you can hold your own in any situation.”
Of course she flatters me, and of course she speaks Interspeech out of politeness. She’s making it hard for me to dislike her.
“Greetings, Peroena,” I reply. “Therehasbeen some trouble. But we’re not sure about which one of us attracts it. I think it’s mostly him, and he thinks it’s all me.”
She chuckles, a trilling sound like silver bells. “Then you will fit in perfectly here on Gigori. We’re all troublemakers, one way or the other.”
“Peroena is a general in our army,” Arelion rumbles. “The reason she asks about trouble is that she loves it. Ah, here comes another soldier.”
A big, squat alien comes lumbering through the other door. It’s brown and immensely furry, with the moves of a predator and the air of a big, dangerous bear.
He would remind me of Chewbacca fromStar Warsif that character were wide instead of tall.
As he approaches, Peroena gracefully gives way on the floor.
“A guest is a person who has been invited to visit or stay at someone’s home,” the newcomer says. “This person is typically given special hospitality or treatment during their stay.”
“That’s right, Virlu,” Arelion says slowly. “Maeve is a guest from planet Earth. She and I may stay here for a day or two.”
“A day is a measure of time,” the furry alien says sincerely as he stops. “It is longer than an hour and shorter than a month. It is standardized to be twenty hours.”
I glance around to see if this is a joke. But everyone seems perfectly serious, as if they’re used to Virlu speaking like an encyclopedia.
“I will show Maeve around the place,” Arelion says and helps me down from the chair. “We came in a flying saucer that used to be a Bululg warship. Feel free to inspect it. Aboard you will find Cerak and another robot.”
“A robot is an artificial being, a machine that can move and do work,” Virlu informs us.
“What happened to your old ship?” Peroena asks.
“It was impounded on Maranar Labs,” Arelion grunts. “By now it’s either been sold for scrap or just sold.”
He leads me through the other door. Outside we’re back in the tunnels, and we follow one that snakes its way through the rock until we get to another door.
“You should hold my hand,” Arelion says. “What lies behind here is hard to prepare for.”
I grab his hand, worried there might be nightmarish dangers behind it. “Is it safe?”
He frowns. “I’m still not sure if it’s safe for the mind. But I haven’t taken great damage yet.” He opens the door and leads me inside.
It’s a big, bright room. It’s white and shaped like a cone with the thin end down. A wide path spirals tightly up the sides. If you took a giant bar of white soap and screwed a huge screw through it, then removed the screw, you’d get a hole like this. And it reminds me of pictures I’ve seen.
“It’s a branch of the Guggenheim,” I mutter.
“Hmm?”
“I said, we have something like this on Earth. Much smaller, of course. And different.”
“Ah, then there must be mines on Earth. This is the main mine of the asteroid. The miners worked their way up from below, spiraling outwards as they gradually dug out the ore. That’s where the shape comes from. The color comes from the eccentric owner who came here much later. They painted it all and installed the light. And they put the objects here, as some kind of collection. It’s quite striking, I think.”