Hatred 2 (Patreon)

@Millerdark made an interesting suggestion this month for a continuation of Hatred.

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“Why can’t you just…?” Eka nearly shouted. Then, not able to find the words, she released a frustrated gasp, “Gah!”

Jeerus glared at her for a long moment before raising a wing and catching the bartender’s attention. “Another, please.”

They had been meeting in Jeerus’s “office” earlier, but the claustrophobic space had been too much for her today, so they’d reconvened to Tira’s Roost. The Roost was a filthy, low-brow bar, but that made it a huge improvement over Jeerus’s office. When full, as it often was, the arrunians packed the place like kerrati in a nest—practically one atop another. But in the lull between lunch and dinner, very few hung about the place.

…Mostly just hard-core alcoholics like Ambassador Jeerus.

Krieker, the most pleasant arrunian that Envoy Eka had yet to meet, delivered a third cocktail in a loroka husk and set it in front of Jeerus.

Eka groaned and let her head hang back so far that her long ears pointed down at the gravel floor beneath their chairs. “Getting drunk? Is that your solution to everything?”

“It certainly makes meetings with you easier,” he grumbled into the beverage.

The geroo crushed her palms into both eyes. “This isn’t working.”

“So, give up,” he huffed.

“I’m not allowed to!” she snarled at him. “You don’t understand anything I’m saying.”

“And you, likewise, don’t get any of my concerns either.”

Covering her muzzle for a moment, she sighed, “We have to try something different. How do I make you get our position?”

Jeerus shrugged. “I dunno. Roleplay? Swap places?”

“Swap places?” Eka’s ears stood up straight.

“Yeah, I mean, you pretend to be me, I pretend to be you,” he explained, “perhaps if we debated the opposite sides, we might better understand each other?”

“Okay, but what if we really swapped places?”

The arrunian blinked and stared at her a long while with a blank expression. Truthfully, all avian expressions were blank due to a lack of ears. In Eka’s option, the constant tilting their heads and twisting their necks about was a ridiculous way to try and emote their expressions. “How do you mean?”

“Well, what would happen if you took my place for a day and I took your place?” she asked. “Would that work? Would that give us the starting point we don’t have currently?”

He blinked and stared at her longer. “You want me to fly … your shuttlecraft back to your ship?”

“Oh, pff. It’s easy,” she huffed. “You just sit down in the seat and say, ‘Computer, return us to the ship.’ It’ll take care of all the coordinating and docking and stuff. It’s all automated.”

“That doesn’t sound too hard.”

“No, it’s easy,” she agreed. “Then, when you’re ready to come back, you say, ‘Computer, return us to the planet. Dock in the usual place.’”

Jeerus tilted his head back and forth while he thought it over. “Yeah, I could do that. But what would I eat? I seriously doubt your restaurants accept our money.”

Eka raised a single finger. “I’ve got you covered there.” She pulled the strand from her shoulder and tapped at its face. “I downloaded this app last month that lets me set up a virtual account on my strand. That way I could let my niece play games on my strand or whatever without her being able to open any of my personal stuff like email or messaging. But it has a feature where I can put credits in the virtual account’s wallet.”

He stared at her for the longest time without blinking. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“I’m saying that I’ll put some money in here for you. Then, when you want to buy something, just hold this up, and they’ll transfer out what they need.” She started to hand it to him, only to pull it back before he could grab it. She growled, “Do not lose my strand! If you do, the next time I come down here, I’m going to park my shuttle on your roof and crush your home.”

“You don’t have to threaten me,” he groaned, taking the communicator from her. “I’m not going to lose it.”

Eka sat patiently while the arrunian examined her strand, turned it over, tapped at the buttons on the screen. Eventually, she huffed to get his attention. “And me?” she asked. “If I need to buy something?”

Jeerus nodded. With a complex and very musical series of whistles, he caught Krieker’s attention once more. “Hey, uh, Envoy Eka is going to stick around for a day or so while I check out her ship. If she, uh … y’know needs anything, just put it on my tab, okay?”

“You got it boss,” said the bartender before going back about his duties.

Silence stretched and the two stared at one another for a long while. “So, is that it? Can we really do this?” he asked.

Eka shrugged. “I have no idea. This could go sideways in so many spectacular ways, but honestly?” She inhaled and released a deep breath. “If we don’t make some progress soon, I’m going to get in so much trouble that I’ll never talk my way out of it. We have to try something.”

Jeerus nodded. “Yeah, I get that.”

Then, she took back her strand for a moment and placed a call. “Bridge? Oh hey, Commander Yopo, glad I caught you,” she said. “Listen, Ambassador Jeerus and I are going to try an experiment. We’re going to try swapping places for a day.”

The geroo smiled at the ambassador and nodded as she listened to the commander. “Good. Good. It’s worth a try, right?” said Eka. “Anyhow, all I ask is that you make sure the ambassador swaps back with me by this time tomorrow, okay? Yeah, exactly, I don’t care if you have to break his wings. Just make sure he doesn’t maroon me on this ancestors-be-damned puddle of a planet.”

She hung up the call and set the strand back down in front of Jeerus’s roost. “All good,” she said in a sing-song voice.

The ambassador glared at her a long moment before picking the device up and leading her outside. They walked in silence until they reached the beach closest to where her shuttle had parked. When they paused, Eka said, “I put a copy of my schedule in your virtual account. It’s a light day, so only a half-dozen meetings before we swap back.” She tapped her paw anxiously for a moment. “And … your responsibilities?”

He stared at her for a moment. “Oh. Well, after our meetings, I usually go to Magistrate Vicoy and update her on how things went. I guess you should do that for me.”

“Okay,” said Eka. Out of habit, she reached for the holster she kept on her shoulder but of course, it wasn’t there. “I can remember that. When?”

“Huh? What?” he asked. “Oh, uh, tonight. Meet with her tonight.”

Eka’s ears hung low. What time was “tonight”? Early? Late? Hells, she didn’t have a strand anymore, so she didn’t really know what time it was.

The shuttle’s ramp lowered and Jeerus waddled half way up it before stopping and turning back. “Oh, uh, when I get up on your ship… Is there anywhere in particular that I’m supposed to sleep or something?”

Eka chuckled. “Yes, my apartment is number 6120. I put that in the notes on my strand.” She tapped her chin in thought. “My roommate’s name is Upai. Be nice to her. And … don’t mess with any of my personal possessions or I’ll find a way to burn your island to the ground, okay?”

He glared at her. “Yeah, okay,” he muttered before turning back around.

“And uh uh…” asked Eka. She turned toward the island and gestured with a finger. “Which is your apartment?”

“Oh yeah,” he said, taking a step back down the ramp. He gestured with a wing. “See the big, golden building on the peninsula? High peaked roof?”

The building was hard to miss, a short walk, perhaps only a thousand meters down the beach. One wall faced the bay and had five circular holes spaced evenly at ground level. Above that, there were another five, and another five above them. The sloping roof narrowed above that, so there was only three holes on the fourth floor and a single hole on the fifth. “Oh yeah, that one’s nice,” said Eka, turning back toward the shuttle. “I bet the view is lovely.”

“Thanks,” said Jeerus as he headed back up the ramp. “The top roost is mine. Blue shutters. Fifth floor. Right under the roof’s peak.”

The ramp retracted with a whir, and the shuttle departed with a whoosh. But Eka just stood there in knee-deep water, her long tail bobbing up and down with the tiny waves as they rolled in.

How am I supposed to get up there, she wondered, without flying?

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Reviewer's link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iUfsqOklBCnEv4k6KcAX6dIaRCri29LvrUT5uvqWXBY/edit?usp=sharing

Thoughts?