Page 69 of Mazorium Buys a Human

I’d never even piloted a shuttle, let alone anything as big or complicated as this ship. I was sure I could figure it out, but it would take me some time. Maybe years.

Final conclusion: nothing better happen to Maz!

We’d also woken Nadia early and played with her a lot. Even when she got fussy, I held off feeding her until we got word that the ship was in orbit and would be sending a shuttle down soon. As I expected, she fell into an exhausted sleep right after I fed her.

I hoped she would stay asleep for this visit, although we didn’t know how long these visitors would stay.

We had limited information on the investors, only that they’d very recently joined the monetary pool for this planet. The moment the payment was accepted, they’d declared their intent to visit the planet. It was all very suspicious.

Staring out the window, all I could see was the edge of the ship. Annoyed, I pulled out my information square and searched until I found a vid capture angle that showed the hatch to the shuttle.

Maz was standing there, waiting patiently for it to open. What was taking them so long? Were they organizing their weapons and going over an attack strategy?

Finally the hatch opened, and a blue Talin emerged. He didn’t have any visible weapons and walked down the ramp with a long, easy stride. The vid capture didn’t have any sound, but I watched him and Maz talk for a little while before the blue Talin turned and spoke to someone still on the shuttle.

To my absolute shock, a human woman walked out.

She looked to be about my age and healthy. She was wearing a long, purple coat-like garment with beautiful silver embroidery around the hem and cuffs.

I hadn’t even recovered from my shock before a brown-haired human child skipped down the ramp after her! What was going on here?

Turning, I almost tripped over my own feet in my eagerness to meet this woman and her little girl. I jogged through the ship and impatiently waited for the hatch to unlock and open, another safety precaution.

By the time I could make my way down the ramp and out of the ship, they were almost to me. The little girl ran past the woman and blue Talin with a cheerful, open expression on her face. She looked to be about six or seven years old. Her light brown hair was held back in a ponytail at the top of her head, and it bobbed as she moved. There was already a little dirt on the front of her shirt, and she waved a dirty hand at me.

“Hello!” she sang. “My name is Mia. Iris told me that we’re on a tree, but I think that’s odd. She can’t be right. Is this really a tree or is Iris wrong?”

I crouched down to put myself at her level, absolutely charmed. “Hello, Mia. My name is Mika. I’d never seen a tree in person before I got here, but Maz says it’s a tree, and he knows a lot.”

Mia’s bright brown eyes went wide. “You never saw a tree before? That’s odd!”

“Please don’t be offended,” the woman said with a chuckle. “Odd is her new favorite word. I’m Iris, Mia’s sorta sister.” She pointed to the blue Talin with her. “And this is Damascus.”

I could understand the “sorta” part. It was common for people to adopt each other’s kids if something happened to the parents. Humans rarely fell into the clean familial lines I saw depicted in the few Old Earth movies I’d had access to as a child.

“Greetings,” Damascus said.

Iris looked past me into the ship.

Did she want to see the inside? Could I get her alone and ask her about her life as a slave? No, I couldn’t use that word. I had to call her a pet.

“Would you like some tea?” I asked. “We have Tlash.”

Iris shook her head. “Mia has been cooped up all day. Would you like to walk around the stump with us?”

Maz and Damascus both sounded a negative rumble at the same time.

“There might be predators here,” Damascus said, looking around as if something was going to jump out and snatch one of us.

“This stump is high off the ground; you could fall off an edge,” Maz said at the same time.

To my shock, Iris laughed at their concern. She gestured for Damascus to step closer then went up on her toes to whisper in his earhole. I couldn’t hear what she was saying, but by the time he straightened up, he was making a rumble of agreement.

“They can walk around and explore the stump while you and I talk about this planet,” Damascus announced. “They won’t go near the edge, and your report states there are no predators of any substantial size to worry about.”

What was going on here? It almost seemed like Iris was whispering orders to Damascus for him to carry out on her behalf. I was deeply curious about their dynamic.

Maz clearly wasn’t happy at the idea of being separated from me, but I gave him a little nod to tell him I wanted this.