A/N: Hope everyone enjoys this chapter half as much as I've enjoyed reading your reviews, you guys rule.
In case anyone's interested, I've whipped up a picture of dear Bookwang for my deviantART gallery. The link to that is in my profile.
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Otto regained consciousness in a matter of minutes, coming to just in time to see the city slip out of sight. The pod rode smoothly on its track like a pearl sliding along a ribbon of dark silver running down a narrow strip of sand. The scientist peered out of the pod's window, taking in the cloudless expanse of blue sky dotted with flying vehicles. If he traced the line of track he could spot the tiny shape of the pod ahead of them. It must be miles and miles ahead, he thought.
One hundred and twenty-four miles, Father, the actuators informed him. Otto felt he would have been happier not knowing.
Sometimes the pod passed through small towns built alongside the track on the slightly wider spits of land. The pod's speed prevented him from making out any details before the towns were out of view, but he got the impression of white buildings only three stories at the tallest and some patches of low-lying foliage nearer to the water. People as well, and certainly not all sporting eight limbs. Even in the briefest glances Otto garnered he was aware of the great diversity of Santraginus V.
The pod slowed as it entered a town larger than the ones Otto had glimpsed so far, but still a far cry from the city Otto had left behind. While the pod's track seemed to hold the title of Main Street, unpaved roads led off of it. Stores took up space along the track and residences lined the roads. The town had a tranquil feel to it; people strolled down the streets or sat on porches, children played in yards, small land vehicles traveled past the houses and shops. The house-lined roads ended at the water's edge on either side, and Otto spotted people splashing in the gentle surf or lying on the strip of beach left clear of buildings. Again he noticed the patches of plant life around the town. Otto asked if this was Bookwang's hometown.
"No, we're a little further out. This is the closest town to home, though. It's nice, you could settle down here."
The thought had crossed Otto's mind. The actuators of course protested its lack of suitable buildings in which to house a fusion reactor, but Otto found a kind of dark humor in the idea of a supervillain bedding down in this idyllic alien community. Yes, he felt he could find some peace here, at last. I should have gotten out of the city months ago, the thought occurred to Otto. Much as he wished Earth hadn't been destroyed, he dreaded to think what would have become of him if he was still there. Probably would have died, sooner rather than later. Otto tried to focus on Santraginus V's sparkling waters as the pod left the town.
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Otto noticed the trees first as the pod pulled up to Bookwang's home. They had the curved trunks of palm trees, but deciduous branches with star-shaped leaves replaced the long fronds. Two groves of these trees framed a path up to the complex of small white buildings that made up Bookwang's home, which was situated on a peninsula of sand. The pod sped off once Otto and Bookwang stepped clear of it, streaking down the track and soon hidden behind one of the groves. Bookwang spoke in jovial tones as he led Otto down the path, "Welcome to the house, buddy, you can stay as long as you like. We should have plenty of room and food and as much sun as you can stand. We even have some trees, if you get homesick," he gestured to the groves.
But a new worry had caught the scientist's attention, "Bookwang, will your parents mind you bringing a stranger into their house?"
"Will my what mind?"
"Your parents- will they mind taking in an alien refugee?"
"Oh, my parents. No, they won't mind. They're not here."
"They're on vacation?"
Bookwang squinted at the sky, "Uh, something like that. Anyway, don't worry about it, just come on in."
The pair mounted the small patio that was shaded by a trellised canopy of climbing plants and stopped a front door whose knob glowed red. Bookwang attempted to turn the knob with his hand, but the knob defied all attempts to be turned. In fact, it seemed to glow a brighter red. After struggling for several moments Bookwang stopped and let out a short sigh, muttering, "I spent way too much time on Earth..." A lower tentacle rose and gently grasped the knob, which immediately turned white and turned easily.
"Tentacle-print identification?" Otto inquired once the pair entered.
"We like our privacy," Bookwang replied curtly, still annoyed with himself for becoming so accustomed to using his hands. "We'll figure something out for you later."
The actuators picked up the sound of irregular steps coming from a stairwell next to the front door. All four lights were pointed at the stairwell when the Santraginian girl came into view, vaulting the last few steps with her tentacles, and captured the moment the girl's look of joy at seeing Bookwang changed into a look of perfect shock at seeing his companion.
"Hasta! Hey, little girl, look who's home!" Bookwang spread his arms and tentacles wide in full anticipation of a hug, but soon realized the girl was frozen at the bottom of the stairwell, staring at Otto. "Oh boy," he said, and swung into action. He hustled Otto deeper into the house, and then led Hasta back up the stairs, a tentacle keeping a firm grip on her shoulders while he held her hand in his.
"Bookwang?" Hasta said, her voice faint, "Was that who I think it was?"
"No."
"No?"
"No, definitely not."
"I know you've met a lot of people, Bookwang-"
"It's not him! Look, his planet was destroyed around lunchtime today, so I brought him here. He's all right. His name is Otto."
"And you're sure he's not-"
"Yes! It's just a crazy," Bookwang recalled the horde at the launch/land building, "horrible coincidence. And he's going to be staying here for a bit, because he has no place to go. Now, are you gonna be cool about this?"
She and Bookwang exchanged glances. "Um, I'm going to go upstairs. I'll be down... later." Hasta's tentacles took her up the stairs in seconds. Bookwang blew out a breath and let his head fall back against the wall.
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Pushed off into the depths of the house, still not quite sure what had just happened, Otto commenced wandering. The complex he'd seen outside framed a large garden lush with plant-life, the colors of which were almost too much for Otto's sensitive eyes. The sunlight that bounced off the plants splashed over the white walls and tinted the dark reflective floors as it fell through open doorways. Peering through these doorways, Otto was somewhat relieved to be able to identify a spacious kitchen, three sitting areas, and several bedrooms. Each room carried over the main hall's motif of white walls and dark floors; they also had touches of color such as brightly colored objects on shelves or bowls of flowers taken from the garden. All in all, the house radiated peace, although it was a peace that reminded Otto of a hotel recently emptied of guests. The scientist was grateful when Bookwang joined him, if only to break the heavy silence.
"That was my sister, Hasta," he said, "I forgot she was the one here now."
"The one? She's here alone?"
"She's three years old Otto, I think she can take care of herself." Bookwang reached into the foliage of a certain blue-leaved plant and began plucking the pyramidal fruit from its branches.
Otto started at Bookwang's casual attitude as he said this, immediately picking up on the fact that he was about to learn something weird about his companion. Cringing internally, Otto asked, "And how old are you, Bookwang?"
"Six."
"Ah. I'm guessing Santraginians have a slightly different life cycle than humans."
"Yeah, we age a lot faster than Earth folks, by Earth standards- well, by any standards really," Bookwang made for the kitchen with an armful of pyramid fruits, Otto followed him. "Santraginian kids live at home until they reach maturity, which takes about four and half Earth years I think. Then they go to school for around ten years and then usually they leave the planet. You'll hardly ever see any real Santraginians in the resort cities, just the folks who sell all that touristy crap to the visitors. Real Santraginians like variety, we get bored with sun and sand day in and day out. Probably has to do with the lifespan, we want to fit as much as we can into the time we have, not waste it staying in one place." Bookwang set about cutting the fruits into pieces with his hands while his upper tentacles got out two plates and glasses and his lower tentacles opened a large freezer drawer and retrieved a pitcher of water.
Otto tried a slice of the pyramid fruit from his seat at the kitchen counter and found it pleasantly tart. Following Bookwang's example, he spit the small seeds inside the fruit's meat onto the plate. They were, of course, tiny pyramids. "Do you get a lot of your food from the garden?"
"Mm hm, my brother Miret set the whole thing up before he left for school. He's the smartest of all of us, you know. He's working on parallel universe navigation or something right now over on Vespa 4."
"How many siblings do you have?"
"Thirteen." This time Bookwang picked up on Otto's surprise, "Uh oh, here we go again. Boy, you're lucky I like to talk. Santraginian families usually have up to sixteen kids."
"Don't you worry about overpopulation?"
"Not really. I mean, not only are we not around long enough to do too much serious damage, but we're spread out all over the galaxy and we don't mate nearly as much as humans do. Zarquon, we're monks compared to you bunny rabbits. Usually it's just the oldest child who bothers to get a mate and have children. I think it's because they're the ones who see their mother and father together, so like the idea of being with another person that way is imprinted on their minds."
"You don't see your parents?"
"Well, I've met them; they helped me pack for school. Last I heard they were going to check out the last message God sent his creation, or maybe that was last year, they've been so active in their old age.(1) I forgot to say earlier that Santraginian couples have up to sixteen children within a three year period. After three years, the first child is old enough to look after the rest, so the parents usually split. Like I said, Santraginians don't like to stay in one place too long."
"So you were raised by your oldest sibling."
"Yeah, my sister Bellebox. She and her husband Mik have a hotel a few thousand miles from here, can you believe it?" Bookwang chuckled a little.
Otto assumed the alien found his sister's decision to tie herself so firmly to Santraginus V amusing, but he found he couldn't muster a polite chortle. All Bookwang's talk of family had brought unpleasant memories to Otto's mind, or perhaps memories so pleasant as to be made painful by his distance from their source. The day's activity caught up with him and he inquired as to where he could turn in for the night; as the pair had talked the sun had set, casting bands of pink onto the sapphire sky. Bookwang directed him to the nearest bedroom, saying as he closed the door on the scientist, "We'll start figuring out what to do tomorrow, Otto. Pajamas are in that first drawer there. Get some sleep, partner, you look like you kind of beat."
"Thank you, Bookwang," Otto said, lifting his tired eyes to meet his companion's, "For everything." The alien smiled, and the door shut quietly. Otto expected to toss and turn all night, but after valiantly holding in a groan of ecstasy upon sliding between the bed's cool soft sheets, he rolled over on his stomach and fell asleep.
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Around mid-morning the young alien girl's tentacles lifted her out of bed and placed her on her feet before the bathroom mirror, where she yawned. At that same time Otto settled into the same spot he'd occupied the evening before with another plate of fruit slices. Curiosity had driven him to pick a variety of fruits from the garden, so he found himself staring down at the riot of colors and shapes with a mix of caution and anticipation. Upstairs Hasta pulled on a shirt and pants, only to change into a sweater when she spotted the weather report on the screen near her bed. The sweater was almost eight months old and she'd nearly outgrown it, an inch of tentacle and arm poking out of the six sleeves. Otto's borrowed pajamas had no sleeves for the actuators, but the scientist still enjoyed the novelty of a piece of clothing designed to deal with his eight-limbed form. He would reflect later that it was also preferable that Hasta had come across him in the familiar Santraginus V pajamas instead of when he looked like he had stepped out of the poster on the wall of the L and L building. It would have been much more difficult for her to ignore him as she arranged her own breakfast that morning.
A multitude of things meandered through Otto's mind to break the ice, none coming even close to being vocalized. He focused on keeping the actuators from eyeballing Hasta with their eerie red lights. Otto had never been good with women, Rosie being the single miraculous exception, and neither had he been good with children. Girls falling neatly into both categories, he maintained his silence even when one of her upper tentacles touched his hand. "I wouldn't eat that," Hasta remarked, nodding to the slice of yellow fruit Otto had been about to eat. "Not many beings outside Santraginus V can digest it, and it's a pretty bad time for those who can't."
Otto dropped the fruit slice and wiped his hand on his pants for good measure. "Thank you."
"No problem." The girl hopped from her seat and disappeared through a doorway.
"Well, that went well," Otto said with a sigh. He finished his fruit, staying well away from the yellow slices, just as Bookwang walked in.
"Have you seen Hasta?" he asked as he buttoned his shirt.
"Yes, she just left. You might have told me some of the fruit from the garden is potentially poisonous."
Bookwang blinked, "Oh yeah. Sorry, man, you know when you live with something for most of your life you don't think it could be dangerous to other people." The alien walked over to an oval hole in the wall and stuck his face in it. On a small shelf beneath the hole a plate of chul'lo pancakes materialized. Bookwang carried his plate over to take Hasta's place at the kitchen counter next to Otto.
"That's remarkable," the scientist said, still staring at the hole and shelf. Bookwang laughed.
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(1): I could tell you where to find God's last message to his creation, if only I had my copy of So Long and Thanks for All the Fish with me.
A/N: Well, I hate to leave it here, but it's getting late and tomorrow I catch an early flight for Miami and I won't be back for the next week. Sorry for all the lame exposition on Santraginians, but we will be spending some time on the planet and I wanted folks to be informed. Next chapter: the Vogsphere.