Two Kinds the Same - Chapter IV.

Two Kinds the Same

Chapter IV.

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS

Part II.

Heathrow Spaceport, London, Earth [Solar System – Local Cluster] – 18:45 UTC – 2182.11.08 CE

Droplets were racing down the huge glass wall. The sky turned almost completely dark due to the thick clouds, which also brought the cold, drizzling rain that made the view even more depressing. He was gazing at his obscure reflection lit by the cool white LED tubes of the VIP terminal’s waiting room.

    “They’re gonna love it.” the taller, bald young man said impassively.

    “Yah.” Kevin added, mimicking his tone, while trying to control his rising heart rate.

    “Will you tell me when you are about to pass out?”

    “Will you shut up?”

He caught up with Ante Erceg from External Relations soon after his briefing with Roland. The officer was the other person appointed to the turians beside Wilkinson – whom Kevin was replacing for the next week. Kevin came to a quick agreement with Ante that he would sit by the wheel and let Erceg entertain the guests on the way to the apartments.

He snapped his eyes at every new flashing dot appearing in the sky, then punctiliously glimpsed at his omni-watch and the screen projected above the benches, to check the arrivals. The top entry was ‘Shuttle LV426 – SSV HK’, due in any minute; he could tell by its freshly changed status to ‘Entry’. He pinned his eyes on the sky.

Most of the heavy air traffic was directed in a way that a vertical corridor was cleared for space vessels entering and leaving the spaceport. The flashing lights of the countless aircraft put out this less busy, scarce patch on the sky, which was easily visible in clear weather at night; he usually enjoyed the sight of the twinkling dots, doubled on the giant mirror of the Wraysbury Water Reservoir with the old airport’s irradiation in the background, but now it was a hazy mess with the eerie will-o’-the-wisps phasing behind the curtain of rainclouds, wobbling above Heathrow.

Kevin noticed his palms were cold, yet sweating again; just like on their way here. He rubbed them against his trousers and tried to recall what he had learned en-route.

To his misfortune, Ante was not much of a xeno-specialist either. The man was transferred from MI5 not long ago; handed in his request to the division where he knew his application could get some push in the selection process. It is good to have friends here and there. He was about six years older than Kevin, being in his mid-thirties; which came with some extra diplomas, and also some field experience and a wide encyclopaedic knowledge.

While driving to the spaceport, the man tried his best to search for some basic description on the turian physique and social behaviour, but despite his efforts Kevin still felt just like before entering a dentist’s consulting room; and to be honest: he couldn’t remember a thing about what Ante read out to him.

A steady patch of light appeared and started to grow brighter in the middle of the aerial corridor. The two men fixed their eyes at the approaching vessel. The Kodiak gracefully descended to the point where they could take out its details, such as its Alliance decals and the tail number in the lights of the landing pad, to confirm that it was in fact the shuttle they were waiting for. In a minute the vessel was already touching down not far from the terminal, stirring a vortex of vapour above the wet asphalt in the wake of its thrusters’ turbulence.

    “All right, here we go.”

A bus has set off to sidle by the spacecraft; the two officers padded down to the reception storey.

    “Okay Kevin, you just flash your thirty-two and let me do the talking.” he said, keeping his eyes on the arrivals.

    “The stage is all yours, man.” He stepped aside letting Ante coming forth; he had rarely ever been more accommodating.

The bus’ headlights dazzled them for a moment, before it hauled to a stop with its side facing the terminal entrance. The doors slid open; five lean figures pressed through with their huge kit-bags in their hand or across their back.

Kevin has never seen any turians up-close earlier; if their strange silhouettes weren’t alien enough, their movement surely sent the creeps down Kevin’s spine. Until they crossed the threshold where some diffuse light could reveal more of their forms, he could only take out five shady bodies, like some strange, thin puppets, which came to life from the depth of a film studio’s ages-old storage, sauntering towards them in a disturbingly unnatural way.

The experience of seeing those oddly shaped figures that his mind had been unsuccessfully trying to bind to its closest resemblance: humans, yet different enough to not know instinctively how the muscle structure of such a being would support and propel their frame, made them fall right in the uncanny valley.

 People got used to all kinds of monsters, fantastic creatures and giant robots; cameras also brought the greatest beasts to just a few inches on the holo-screens, but when such a thing is there, breathing, live, within the reach of your touch, that’s a creepy feeling!

Two Alliance guards were standing at attention by the door frames. A third uniformed member of the staff asked for the identification of the arrivals. This barely took a few seconds of their time as a detector gate scanned them with their data appearing on the screen behind the cabinet where the man stood. Each time one of them passed through, their omni-tool fired up, as the device read it.

    “Would you hold it there for a moment, sir?” the security officer held a hand up, then typed away on his console; he frowned as he compared the ID photos with the face of the only turian in the group that had no colourful markings on his face. The alien was eyeing him patiently in the crossfire of the flickering scanner and anti-germ lasers.”

    “As if he could tell the difference,” Ante leant in whispering cynically.

    “I assume he is looking for a resemblance.” He replied absently, appraising the stringy creature before him.

    “Whatever.”

Erceg stepped forward, when the leader of the alien group reached them.

    “Good evening, sir! 1st Lieutenant Ante Erceg, Liaison Officer, Systems Alliance, External Relations.”

    “Nice to meet you, sir! Sergeant Varian Pretonus of the 17^th Battalion Special Operations detachment. Thanks for the warm welcome.” the tall soldier nodded indicating the weather, with a grin – or was it?

It wasn’t only Kevin who felt nonplussed for the next moment. Was he ironic there? They were trying to read the turian’s face desperately.

    “Well, this is my colleague, Kevin Blauhorn; he is from Intel...

    “...in fact the same directorate! Liaison Officer Blauhorn; nice to meet you.” he cut him off, but suddenly became unsure about his next move. He instinctively held his right hand out to the alien, wondering if it was appropriate. The turian glimpsed down then fixed its bird eyes at him. Yeah, it was definitely a dental-drill-is-coming-in moment. He was not used to feeling like a prey, but the blue sparkling eyes pinned him like an eagle assessing its target. His excitement made him completely forget he was about to touch a turian. Pretonus regarded him briefly, then eventually grabbed his hand and shook it somewhat exorbitantly, explicitly nodding his head. The strong and thick fingers felt like the grip of an oversized parrot – the only thing he could relate to. Kevin suddenly remembered the turian gesture Ante read about; now it was him a little overdoing his part… Pretonus quickly sprang back to avoid the human’s forehead coming in close, as he bowed.

The scene audibly woke some hilarity among the rest of the team as they watched the two holding hands.

The team leader cast an eye to the side at his men then released his grip, stepping aside to let his people advance forth to be greeted by their hosts. Kevin rattled out his name a few times as the turians passed him following their sergeant’s gesture of exchanging hands, seemingly paying attention to keep their heads away, as if they were half-expecting a head-butt.

The team leader was followed by a massively built soldier with remarkably long horns going back on the top of his head; then one that introduced himself as Corporal Demian Efrux; and there were two, visibly smaller and skinnier, also probably younger turians, coming behind him: the shorter one with the light carapace and a softer voice being a specialist, the other, with a bluish metallic shine to his non-tattooed carapace was a private, called Taren.

Remembering the strange names was a feat Kevin one-sidedly passed to Erceg; he planned to catch up on that later. Instead, he trotted up to join the team leader and Erceg, leading the rest of the group out of the building.

    “I hope you brought some warm clothes. We are having some windy days coming up,” he said, indicating the turian’s thin jacket.

    “We were informed by your colleagues well ahead that it’s going to be wintertime, so yes. They also said though that it’s not that bad in this corner of the Earth.”

    “Believe me, it is.” Kevin leant closer and said confidentially. “I don’t know if you have strong winds on Palaven, but here it blows through you right to the bones almost all the time. During winter, you just get the cold water vapour as an extra. I mean, he’s been living here for a decade and look at his face...”

The turian turned his head to regard Ante’s indicated facial features. The officer stared back at Kevin with his most sulky expression.

    “See?” an ear-to-ear smile crossed his face as they walked on “So… Is it all your baggage?” he pointed at the kit-bags.

    “We’ve got some crates, too, but the crew insisted on trolleying them in.”

    “Yeah, we would like you make yourself at home.” Ante put in.

    “That’s why it feels strange… but I can get used to it!”

The two officers walked them out to the parking area. Their baggage was already placed orderly by the minivan with two porters waiting at attention. As the group arrived, the vehicle identified its assigned driver, and unlocked the doors. Nobody could deny the turians made a smooth team. They were packed and ready in a few seconds, before the porters could even reach out for the crates, and to the humans’ relief all their belongings fit into the van just perfectly.

Kevin stepped on the accelerator and the electric engine wound up with its peculiar whine as they were speeding out of the VIP parking lot, crossing the gates under the raised barriers. The high traffic on the roads belied the bad weather and the relatively late hour. Pairs of the most distinctly shaped headlights – real piece-of-arts – passed them, and they fleetingly lit the streamlined interiors of the van. Kevin switched some music on set to a moderate volume to fill the silence.

    “How’s your journey been?” Ante broke the monotone whirr of the tyres after a while, his eyes flicking from one turian to the other, indicating he’d try to draw all of them into the conversation. However, as it was, they waited for the highest in rank to answer.

    “Splendid, sir. It took us three days to get here; most of it spent on one of our cruisers, then a short joyride on the SSV Hong Kong,“ Pretonus replied.

    “Ever been to Earth before?”

    “No, it’s my first time… and I’m afraid it is for the rest of the guys as well,” he said peeking to each of his sides. His comrades nodded respectively.

    “We hope you’ll like it here.”

    “I’m sure we will sir, but we didn’t come to dissipate. We are looking forward to work together with your guys. Have you served with the Alliance armed forces?”

    “No, however we are an armed service, too.” Ante said almost defensively “We have servicemen from police forces, military, aerospace forces, intelligence services and even people coming from the civilian sphere.”

    “Is it common that civilians apply to interplanetary secret services right from the street?”

    “Not how it used to be, but you can find green members of the staff like that. Care to share your own experiences, Kevin?” he raised his voice to make sure it reaches to the driver’s seat, sneering at the 2nd Lieutenant’s expense.

    “I would, but senior staff like you might not have the heart to take the rough parts!” he fired back.

Efrux snickered, while watching the passing lights of the outer city outside the window through glazy eyes. The conversation mostly continued between Pretonus and Erceg. The rest of the guests seemed to be either too tired or just comfortable with their position of not being necessary to join the customary courtesy-talk.

    “And what are you doing, sir?” Taren put in.

    “I had been serving with our national service for quite a few years; may I say I spent ten of them out in the field, before transferring to External Relations.”

    “That was intelligence gathering, right? Are we talking ‘behind-enemy-lines activity?’” Pretonus interposed.

    “No, it’s more like counter-extremism.”

    “Interesting to see there are ideological tensions among humans, too. I expected it, I just never heard of it.” he said thoughtfully “I imagine the job was a mind-game rather than a pack of action.”

    “Sort of, but, I had my edgy moments… one time my transmitter went dead right when I was to summon our commando at a warehouse. I had to talk the target’s head off to earn time until the entry team positioned closer, to tap onto my words; actually I kept repeating the code for immediate entry in all possible contexts till they finally heard it.” Ante gazed ahead as if he was brooding over his glorious past “Yeah, there were a few where I was hanging by a hair.”

    “Hmm.” the turian nodded in acknowledgement, but Kevin snapped:

Kevin slowed the van; its regenerative brakes gave out a deepening whirr until he stirred the wheel and stopped before the main gate. Shortly the wings folded aside, giving way into the interlock area. The vehicle rolled over the security scanner, while Ante saw the guests to the agency’s security desk, preparing them for entry. Once the guests were registered they embarked in the vehicle again, the humans giving them a ride to their accommodations.

    “20:23! And that's what I call a timely home-run! You get it man, right? Home-run.” he winked at his colleague.

Ante’s eyes made it clear that he got it – considering the murderous stare.

The apartment complex was separate from the rest of the SAIA buildings, but was still within the confinement of the compound’s walls. The five storey building served as temporary in-house accommodation provided by the agency to its workers and guests, while also housed the medical facilities in a section of the ground floor. Given its completion was no longer ago than six or seven years, the design of the frontispiece and the interiors looked modern and up to date, just like most of the SAIA compound which consisted of similarly new or freshly renovated premises; making the general staff wonder why the hell they needed to stumble into recovery sites all around the place.

    “Heck, these guys never give you a break?” Kevin muttered as he overtook the white maintenance van decorated with yellow and black stripe decals, which was parked right before the hedges in front of the apartments, and then stopped as close to the entrance as possible.

As the guests jumped out soldierly in quick succession, it was almost hilarious to see their surprise as the cold wafts swiped them in their side, urging them to grab their equipment and march to the building at speed with necks drawn in. Their omni-tools flashed up briefly when reaching the revolving door. Kevin halted and typed a few extra buttons on the interface to get the side door open for the huger bags.

    “What’s in them?”

    “Surprise” corporal Efrux said grudgingly, wiping the chilly sprinkles off his face.

    “But seriously.” he insisted, still smiling.

    “Training drones and our weapons.” Pretonus put in.

    “Would you have bad dreams without them under your pillow?” he asked, but the turian tilted his head furrowing… “I mean, we could lock these away on this storey until you need them.”

    “Yes, that’s fine.” The turian concurred and instructed his comrades to move the crates into the storage room Ante just opened up for them, before heading to their quarters.

The group finally reached the fourth storey in two rounds, as only four of them fit in the elevator with their packs. When they all lined up on the corridor, the officers came forth to show them their apartments.

    “So, these are your rooms, gentlemen from number 421 to 424. Your omni-tools have been set to open the allocated rooms, which are suited with basic bathing facilities; on the other hand the showers are located just before the end of the hallway.”

    “Are they shared?” A higher pitch voice called out from behind the tallest and burliest turian.

    “We hope so.” the corporal muttered smiling, as he turned back.

With an irresolute move, Ante looked down at his omni-tool, bringing up the accommodation documents, while Kevin was craning his head searching for the source of the enquiry. The turians stepped aside, leaving that ‘short and skinny’ one standing in the middle, staring at the humans questioningly. Kevin blinked a few times starting to feel embarrassed as he scrutinized the features of the small turian’s face. The realization came to him like a cold shower.

    He slowly leaned closer to Ante, forgetting about his gaze still lingering over her, whispering “You knew he was a she, right?”

    “Erm... well,” he hesitated to reply as his eyes were running wildly across the pages. “Yeah, there was a note put here...” He finally pointed at the relating paragraph then both of them looked up at her.

    “Miss, erm,” Kevin started clearing his throat with less confidence in a dubious attempt to save the situation, as Ante quickly looked up and muttered her name into his ear... “Gerumis!“ Kevin pointed out with utter relief, just to notice a second later how strange his exclamation must have sounded. His impression was reinforced by five tilted heads gazing at him. “Yes, so... no! Your room is situated... “ Ante pushed his own omni-tool screen under his nose; he shot his eyes down then up again “...on the storey above. Room 521 I’ll see you to the door ma’am. It’s with a bathroom en-suite.

    “Look at that favouritism!” Taren hollered, grinning.

    “The women’s wing would be in a different section of the building, we guessed you’d rather stay closer together. On a ‘ladies first’ bases, we allocated our free en-suite room to the only woman in your team.” Ante explained in the specialist’s defence, but the turians were already resolute about ragging on her.

    “Well, I shall return to my residency,” she uttered in a cheeky tone, spinning around elegantly, to promenade to the elevator, succeeded by the theatrical grouches and griping of the males.

Kevin had already called the lift and held it until the turian got inside; he had to confess that he admired the feminine change in her motion as she was playing to the crowd. However his slowly dropping chin was more for the feat of her airy moves pulled off with the enormous kitbag across her shoulders. Kevin got inside, too and pressed the button to storey five. Facing the opening, she threw her head back bumptiously, grinning at the ops.

Kevin was standing by the control panel, still smiling at the intermezzo, when his eyes wandered up at the digital clock displaying the time 20:59.

    “Oh shi…!” He snapped as he hastily hit the open button repeatedly, but the door had already closed and the elevator started to move without any reaction to his orders.

The dial changed to 21:00. Then there was no longer a dial to see; they were standing for a few seconds in the darkness like this.

    “Why, my day would have not been complete without another power cut.” she fetched a resigned sigh.

    “Keep calm ma’am, I’m here.”

    “Ah, do I look nervous?” she asked a little more sullenly than how she intended.

Kevin was surprised at the waspy comment, just like Zaalia. She couldn’t find a better answer for herself other than blaming the cold weather.

    “You don’t look anything.” he came back with a defiant resolve.

A shrill screech cut them off from above, approaching in a menacing pace, it reached them with a loud metallic crank, and the elevator jerked below their feet.

    “God!”

    “Spirits!”

Kevin threw himself to the wall, reaching for the rail, while Zaalia instinctively assumed her fighting stance with slightly bent legs, from which she could react in the fastest way to any emergency. In the end this played out with Kevin grabbing on Zaalia’s forearm, which almost earned him a reflexive arm twist if it wasn’t for her quick assessment of the situation that eventually left her knocked out of balance. Under the human’s weight, she floundered at him, her shoulder pushing against his; it was supposed to be much softer by the looks – she thought grudgingly as she regained her composure, rubbing her numb plates over the joint she just hit.

    “Whoa! Was that you?” he released her, snatching on the actual rails this time.

    “Yeah.”

    “I’m sorry…”

    “…Who else would it be?!” she japed.

He saved the answer. Instead he looked around in the blank darkness.

    “Heh, right; it’s nothing, just the brakes. No worries.” he laughed as he quickly released the handrail and yanked his collar wryly, straining his eyes to find where the turian was – wondering if she could sense somehow any of his not-so-graceful clinging to the bars – if grabbing her wasn’t enough of a giveaway. But of course, he could not even see the tip of his own nose.

    “So…You see in the dark?”

    “What?... Me?”

    “No, I mean… as in turians.”

    “Ooh... Oh, Yes.”

    “Oh?” He blinked a few times and set his eyes to the front, leastwise where he assumed “front” would be, trying to pull a straight face to chase his blush away. That wasn’t the answer he expected.

    “You look scared,” the specialist added forwardly amiably.

    “How many fingers am I showing?”

    “Two.”

    “Wow, you do see me!”

    “And that’s only one of the things we can do,” she said insinuatingly. “You’ll see soon.”

    “You know, your species are considered… were considered being scary,” he corrected himself promptly; he felt he shouldn’t have let his own sentiments influence his words about general statements,  just realizing a second later that his words were not in line with his sentiments at all!

He was confined in a small lift with one of the less human-like creatures of the Citadel races, and he felt relaxed. What?!

    “Parents used to threaten their children if they were no good, that the turians would come and abduct them.” he continued. “Like, when I heard a clatter in the dark, I always imagined a turian was hiding under by bed,” he confessed.

    “Interesting fantasies you entertained, Lieutenant,” she teased.

    “I was a kid, please!”

The turian huffed; Kevin wasn’t sure, but it sounded like a repressed snigger. Kevin continued his previous thought anyway:

    “And after all that, look at us now. We are training together, working together, getting along…”

    “…Stuck in an elevator…”

    “Yah, these kinds of things,” he shrugged.

They were standing like this for a while.

The lights suddenly lit up the little room. Faint beeps from behind the control panel signalled the rebooting was done, suggesting it was operational again. The elevator slightly resonated as the hoisting mechanism started to move and a moment later the doors slid aside with a ping.

    “Run for it.” Kevin said with little enthusiasm, as he stepped out, still wincing from the returned light.

The turian woman had already stormed out, not taking any chances.

    “Thank the Spirits it didn’t last too long!” She sighed as she turned around to face the 2nd Lieutenant. “All right, thank you for seeing me to the door. It was exciting.”

    “Talking of which, that’s your door ma’am.” Kevin pointed in the direction of her room.

    “Thank you. Well, I hope you won’t need to check the wardrobe for me.”

    “Not as long as you don’t make noises… Though I think I’m not that concerned about turians lurking in the dark anymore,” he uttered, gazing ahead.

    “I guess I make a good therapist then?”

He fixed eyes with her.

    “Actually… I showed four.” he raised his hand with fingers extended but his pinkie bent.

The turian halted for a second and stared at him. Her mandibles lowered, partly exposing her teeth, and the plates on her face shifted almost subtly, just like the skin around her eyes… She was smiling! Her eyes were smiling!

Or, leastwise he hoped so.

    “Good night, Lieutenant.”

    “Good night ma’am.”

They parted; the turian entered her room as its door slid aside obediently, and Kevin strode to the elevator door, when suddenly recoiled, his eyes swinging between the staircase and the lift. He finally made up his mind and crossed the threshold; the doors closed... right before the thud of the main circuit breaker.

    “Oh, come on!”

And that's what he called bad luck.