2
Please review. Unless you're a meteorologist or weapons specialist. I don't want to hear about unrealisticness. Thank you.
It was raining when we arrived.
From space, the planet was ordinary – blue and green and white. As we came closer to our target, though, I began to see a lot of red. There was a thin cloud cover, which was pink. The ground was rust-colored. The landing pad seemed to be clean, but as we got closer, I noticed something interesting. When the water hit the landing pad, it collected in rivulets that were close to scarlet.
The rain was red.
Our ship rolled into the hanger before we got out, so we stayed dry. We were greeted by an interesting group of people. A male Zabrak with somewhat long horns (my longest are about as long as the width of four fingers together), dark gold skin, and no hair seemed to be in charge. He wore flowing, rich green robes. Standing just behind him, as I am taught to stand with Moyek, was what appeared to be a very tall, slender male human – over two meters (six and a half feet). He had to be a Mibir, a race that scientists took a hundred years to engineer before realizing that nobody wanted them around. I wish I could say that this sort of meddling in genetics doesn't happen in the Republic, but our army is made up of genetically manufactured clones.
A little farther back was a Hssak, which somehow didn't appear quite as odd to my eyes, since I'm used to seeing very strange aliens. It's just the first-glance similarity to Humans that bothers me with the Mibir. The Hssak was about as tall as Moyek, who is about 1.8 meters (almost six feet). It had a flattish nose, large eyes, and very long ears. It had long, tawny hair and long-fingered hands. From under its robes, I could see clawed feet and a long, thin tail
Well behind them were a Human, another Hssak, and a protocol droid.
Moyek is usually very polite when greeting foreign dignitaries. I had learned that a glance in her direction almost always told me what to do. If she was doing something wrong, it usually was clearly on purpose. This was different, however. Ignoring them, she turned to the side of the ship and began studying the red raindrops on it as if the ship were more important than the people were.
Confused, I bowed and glanced at her again. She gave me no hints.
The Zabrak and Mibir smiled. "Don't trouble yourself with that," the Zabrak said. He had a slight accent. "The samudhu has come down nearly every day of the wet season since long before we came, and, hopefully, will continue long after we are gone. It does no more damage than ordinary rain does, and we will have your ship cleaned."
Moyek touched the side of the ship cautiously, then studied her finger. "What, exactly…?"
"The local dialect calls it samudhu," the Mibir explained. He had a clear, soft voice that was high by a Human male's standards and a somewhat more noticeable accent than the Zabrak's. "Translated to Basic, samudhu would be close to 'bloodrain.' It is simply an anomaly of our area of the planet. When the rain ceases, you will see the samudri, the blood-dust. It covers most everything. It is extraordinarily fine, and it manages to float in the air and collect in clouds. During the damp season, which we are in the midst of, the air is simply too heavy, and the bloodrain falls every day."
Moyek finally faced them. "And in the non-damp season?"
Is she making fun of his accent? What's wrong with her? I wondered. Now, I wonder if she was having her own premonitions.
"During the dry season, the dust falls on its own, but the air can grow thick with it." He smiled.
Moyek looked skeptical. "Isn't it hard to have your second most important city in a place where this happens? I'm sorry, but doesn't it ever get hard to breathe?"
"Occasionally," the Mibir responded with a nod. "We stay indoors throughout the worst days. You will notice that there are few Shinsayama in this part of the world, as they dislike dry weather."
The Shinsayama is the fourth main race on Okutu, a herbivorous species that was driven off its homeworld by invaders about eighteen hundred years ago. It occurred to me that their presence might be the reason that the capital city was much more peaceful than Kebro.
Suddenly, Moyek seemed to remember what etiquette is, bowed, and introduced us. The Zabrak, who called himself the High Governor, introduced the three of them. The Mibir was the chief of security of the city and was called Tiku Chisu Lasir. "Tiku" is a title in Okutushu, the planet's language, for a high-ranking governmental official other than the governor. The Hssak was the chief of otherworld affairs.
After we went into the main building, the High Governor and the Hssak slipped off with the Human and the protocol droid, leaving us with Tiku Lasir and the other Hssak, presumably an aide.
Tiku Lasir led us through the High Governor's palace at a pace that must have seemed normal to him, with his long legs, but was difficult for me to match. The palace was something that you would expect for a planet's capital, not the second capital, as this was called, but Moyek had told me that Okutu had grown wealthy, as planets go, during the millennium of peace.
As we walked, Tiku Lasir told us all about the situation. He was really very good – he gave us thorough explanations and occasionally paused in his otherwise steady monologue as if to wait for questions. Moyek never had any. I could feel her fixing everything he said into her mind for future use. I tried to do the same, but I'm not so good.
At one point, an explosion literally made the building tremble. I stopped walking, but the Force did not warn me of any danger. Moyek and Tiku Lasir stopped, too, Moyek moving subtly to be at the ready, and the chief of security calmly turning to the Hssak, who was behind me. "Would you please find out if that was aimed at the palace?" he asked so serenely that I thought he should have been a Jedi.
The Hssak pulled out a comlink and spoke into it with a hissing, crackling language. I noticed its sharp teeth and fangs just a bit uncomfortably. Plenty of aliens have bigger teeth than Zabrak and Humans do, but it still looks wrong to me.
Tiku Lasir was silent until it turned back to us and spoke to him in the same language.
He nodded. "Good." He explained to us, "Our guards believe that the explosive was aimed at another group of people, not the palace or its fence. One thing you must know is that our people often use simple, old-fashioned explosives. They do not appreciate lasers or energy bombs. Our explosives can cause terrible wounds of their own sort, so you must never underestimate them."
It turned out that they also used deadmetal knives and other such weapons, which, of course, would be no match for a lightsaber, but could cause much more blood loss. Their only energy weapons were blasters, which are equally messy.
We ended up at the rooms where we would sleep if the Force ever granted us that privilege. Another explosion was heard outside.
"Not again," Tiku Lasir sighed. "They are unusually violent this afternoon. That was the second in twenty minutes."
The Hssak hissed.
"Thirty, I apologize. Would you find out what that was aimed at?" The Hssak obediently hissed into its comlink. Its report made the Mibir nod in satisfaction. "Not us, yet."
"I think we need to start on the streets," Moyek said calmly. The Mibir nodded in agreement.
Two explosions in thirty minutes and we're going outside?!