starbound - scomiche

008. language

I kind of hate this chapter, but oh well. Your comments have been inspiring me so much <3

☆

It didn't take Avi very long at all to find a vendor that sold food for every species of every planet possible.

Laihiri's capital looked more like a steampunk fantasy land than a city to Mitch, and he couldn't get enough of it. There were more odd looking androids and hooded merchants than travelers like on Ordalla, and Mitch felt even more out of place than he did last time. But the trio walked on confidently with their heads held high anyway, and Mitch wished he could do the same -- Kirstin was out of makeup, so he was forced to stay close behind Kevin, and keep his hood pulled high and face ducked low at all times. Laihiri was not free of imperial guards, even though they were much more sparse than before; he realized now that the only place he'd ever be safe was on Jurakín, until the empire was defeated.

The air here was humid and the sun burned hot, and his skin felt sticky under his cloak. It was a factory planet, it smelled awful, and couldn't wait to get out of there.

He could barely hear Kirstin and Avi speaking to a vendor while Kevin and Mitch hung out across the street, but whatever they were speaking, he could tell it definitely wasn't English. It sounded vaguely Russian, with hints of a completely foreign dialect, and it raised the question -- how the hell did they speak English in the first place? Wasn't it invented by humans? He sighed. He guessed he'd have to add that to the list of questions to ask -

He shifted his eyes to the android and beamed. He's been waiting for some downtime to ask his questions, but now he had it, and he couldn't contain his curiosity any longer. "Kevin? Can I ask you few questions?"

The android smiled gently down at him. "I was wondering when you would ask. Surely you must be confused."

He nodded quickly and had to force himself to not bounce on the balls of his feet. He took a deep breath, and apologized silently to Kevin for the onslaught of questions he was about to receive. "Okay. So. Do we travel faster than light? What are Ordalla's clouds made of? Why is the water pink? What's the atmosphere here made of? Holograms are real? How did Gus's nose fix itself? And you... are androids like you common? It's incredible! And how do you guys know English? Do you..." He stopped to take a breath, and bit his lip sheepishly when he realized he did the whole mouth diarrhea thing again. 

Kevin blinked at him once, and his eye contracted as he studied Mitch. "Yes, just H2O, the ocean absorbs the blue spectrum of the sun's light, 23% oxygen and 77% nitrogen, yes, his existing cells dedifferentiate to the proper stem cells instantly, yes, it most certainly is incredible, and English..." He blinked at Mitch again. "The entire rebellion learned it 7 cycles ago when we discovered it's what you would be speaking."

He realized he was holding his breath, and he forced himself to exhale slowly while he processed all that information. It only raised even more questions, but more importantly, he was taken aback by the whole English thing. They just learned it? Like it was no big deal? And only the rebellion learned it... Then why did it play over the speakers in Ordalla? Why did Scott know it, too? Wait, scratch that. Of course Scott would also know English, because he knew Mitch would speak it, too.

"So, wait," he said confusedly, "why do you guys speak it when I'm not around?" His eyes widened when he realized he just outed himself as an eavesdropper, but he cleared his throat awkwardly to cover up. "Like, you just started talking to Gus in English, and..."