Your review has been rescheduled for tomorrow – Ardus
Nina stared at the screen. "Huh?"
Athe leaned over her shoulder, reading. "He signed it this morning, so he's all right.He didn't get lost." The brown Dreen winked at her. "Nothing to worry about." He showed her a printout, a list of tasks about six bullet-points long. "I have my day planned, would you care to join me?"
"...Sure." Nina climbed down from her chair. She'd had just about enough of studying, she hadn't realized just how much she needed a break."Where are we going?"
"Just a few stops, nothing too long-winded. We'll be done by lunch."
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"Isn't it adorable?" Nina spread her arms and turned on her toes. Bright turquoise and seafoam swirled around her legs and cobalt wrapped around her chest, exposing brown shoulders and a bronze waist.
Athe gave her an odd smile."It is, but... Where did you find Dreen clothes your size?"
"Over there," Nina pointed over her shoulder at a shop decorated with bright colors and simple drawings.
Athe made a face. "Doctor, those are children's clothes."
"I know, but everything else is too big."
Athe shrugged. "I suppose they would be. Are you comfortable?"
"Oh yes, very." Nina ran her hands over the silky material. "It's so cool and light, perfect for the climate. I could wear this every day."
Athe watched her admire herself, twisting and turning and watching the sunlight play across the slight green iridescence of the cloth. "You look very pleased with yourself."
"I am! I can speak your language and eat your food, I should wear your clothes too." She smoothed the short tunic top, delighting in the subtle pattern and roomy cut. She could bend and twist and move so freely! And the colors were so rich, the fabric slightly stretchy and even though it was thick she could feel air moving across her skin. I love it.
"Doctor, if you're done shopping, we can get something to eat."
"Yes! Let's do that, I'm starving." She scurried to catch up to him as he headed off down the avenue. Dreen streets were paved with ancient stone slabs worn smooth by millions of large semi-webbed feet and gouged here and there from clawed toes. Generations after the Dreen industrial era,centuries before humans discovered coal-powered machines, they had long-since begun naturally beautifying their communities with native plants and thus walking along any street was more akin to taking a stroll along a meticulously verdant garden path. The native Dreenai flowers, some as large as serving plates, perfumed the air with unusual yet pleasant scents. The few vehicles Nina saw were small freight, carrying goods and manned by only one or two Dreen.
Walking beside Athe, Nina drew some stares and curious glances but also the occasional smile when she greeted them in their language. She passed a few Dreen children, their skins lighter in shade and their bioluminescent pores much fainter than their mature neighbors, and waved when they pointed at her out of curiosity. She could spot those just coming into adolescence by the darkening of skin at the back of the neck and along the spine, their soft baby colors shading to more mature deep browns, greens, blues and blacks. Eventually the shadowy hues would spread around their bodies and continue to deepen, giving the Dreen their characteristic pattern of dark dorsal and light ventral sides. Along with the coloration, their glowing pores would also develop until they were bright enough to discern even by daylight. By the time they were adults, they would be as liberally dotted as the night sky.
That brought back something that continued to bother Nina. As she passed aDreen whose dark coloring closely resembled Doctor Ardus, she took note of the brilliant points on the fellow's stomach and chest. Dreenmen most commonly wore tunics of light fabric in some bold color,their hems tucked or bloused into the wide waistbands of their gathered trousers. Some, depending on their occupation as much as their personal preferences, wore their shirts open halfway to the waist to better display their colors. Also, Dreenai was a warm planet, so ventilation was key. But Doctor Ardus chose dark colors as well as closed, long clothing that covered a much greater portion of his skin. Is he embarrassed? As she looked around, she saw no other Dreen – male or female –wearing anything quite so concealing and unflatteringly dull. Also,she saw no others without their pores glowing brightly. That must be it. He's the only one around here who doesn't light up. Poor guy, maybe that's why he's such a butt. Nina grinned. Yes, that's all it is.You remember what that's like, being different.
She'd gone to university on the mainland, where she was one of only fourteen people who weren't white or Asian, and the only Pacific Islander. It's not that different being the only human. While she knew that wasn't quite true – Doctor Yang and Doctor O'Connell were also in residence at the university – Nina had not seen another human in days, she realized. Do I really mind, though? Do I miss human company? Despite Doctor Ardus's general crabby attitude and weirdness, Nina was enjoying her stay. Dreenai was beautiful, the Dreen were friendly enough, the work was interesting now that she had finally started getting her hands on the specimens, and the food was amazing. Athe brought her around a corner and Nina stopped short. "Hey, I've been here before, Doctor Ardus took me here a few days ago."
Athe pulled up so suddenly Nina ran into his legs. "What was that?"
"A couple of days ago I bought some dinner to take home, but I dropped it so Doctor Ardus showed me this place."
Athe stared at her. "He showed you..."
"Yes, he walked me right to it. What's wrong?"
"Nothing. You said you were hungry?"
"Oh yes, I'm starving."
Settling into their table, Nina sitting on a box from the kitchen that had once contained fruit of some kind, they endured the strange looks from restaurant patrons as well as the cooks and waitstaff. Nina was used to this. Ignoring the sideways-cast eyes and whispers, she perused the menu and tried to decide between the baked eel – she'd tried it last time and it had been very good – and a thick soup made from local fishes and algae and thickened with pulverized kelp. She decided to go with the soup. Tasting a yellow beverage that strongly reminded her of mango and carrot juice, Nina watched the Dreen and admired her new clothes."Athe," she asked, "is it all right if I pick this up?"
"What, lunch? I suppose if you'd like to, yes. Thank you, Doctor Ma'atanoa."
"Please, you can call me Nina while we're out. Doctor Ma'atanoa sounds so formal."
"But you are a doctor, it would be discourteous of me not to."
"It's all right," Nina assured the Dreen, "All of my friends call me Nina. It is my name, after all."
Athe's hairless eyebrows raised. "You consider me a friend? A Dreen?"
"Of course! Mm," She held up her drink, half-empty, and declared "This is delicious."
"It ought to be, it's sailorfruit juice. Long ago before we discovered powered sailing, we Dreen used to pack literal tons of sailor fruit for long voyages. If the food ever ran out, Dreen sailors could subsist on them for months until they found shore again."
"Human sailors used to bring limes and lime juice on their voyages to prevent scurvy – that's a serious vitamin deficiency."
"Did that practice continue into your people's space-faring age?"
"Sort of. We ended up sending our early astronauts with supplements. I have some too, back in my apartment. Just in case Dreen food didn't agree with me."
"It seems to be agreeing with you quite well."
"Oh it is, and it's so good!"
"I'm glad to hear you're enjoying your time on Dreenai, I hope you'll have many nice things to say about us when you return to Earth."
"Hopefully that won't be for a while, there's so much I still want to learn." Nina lounged and sipped her drink. "For example, I was wondering what the various colors of Dreen pores mean. I've seen you turn all different shades and I was wondering if they correspond with anything. Is it hormones?" She looked around the room populated with sparkling people.
"Er, something like that."Athe unrolled a napkin across his knees. "There are nuances of course, but in general the brighter the color, the stronger the emotion."
"I see, so it's kind of like a mood ring."
"I don't know what that is," Athe confessed.
"It's an old Earth thing, a novelty piece of jewelry. They're made from thermotropic liquid crystals, and they react to changes in body temperature by changing colors. They're not always rings, either. Some are pendants or earrings. They're not very accurate, but some people think if you pay close enough attention you can get fairly close. If your mood ring –or necklace or whatever – turns red, it's supposed to mean you're angry or stressed. It makes some sense if you look at it simplistically, because of associations with mood and changes in body temperature."
Athe smiled. "How interesting! Meem would be so intrigued. Her work deals largely with chemical structures, she would likely want to know more."
"So, what about Dreen pores, then?"
"Oh, well, ours are more like chemical reactions. Look here," he said, leaning forward and placing his huge hand on the tabletop. With an almond-shaped claw he pointed out some of the bigger pores on the back of his hand. Nina leaned close. "Those pores contain photoproteins, tiny collections of a light-producing molecule that reacts with our body chemistry."
"What's the origin, bacterial?"
"No, we produce it ourselves. Our geneticists have traced the origin of these pores to more than four million years ago, when Dreen were still a mostly aquatic species. Back then we used to be more morning and evening people –well, I shouldn't say people, we were still closer to our short-legged, thick-bodied forebears. I believe you have a similar animal on earth."
"Yeah, seals - or pinnipeds, if you like. Descended from sea-mammals,"Nina marveled. "So your ancestors hunted at dawn and at dusk. Is that why your bodies have that dual coloration, the light front and dark back?"
"That's correct," Athe nodded. "Ah, our meal is here."
Nina watched the steam roll off of her bowl of soup, silver curls wafting the briny scent of roasted algae and steamed fish to her nose. She would have to wait for it to cool. "There's a species of whale on Earth called Orca, or killer whale. They're about twenty or so feet long, and they're black on top and white on their bellies. It's a starker contrast than you guys, but they live in much colder waters where they blend in with icebergs and deep water. They're hard to see unless you're looking for them. Actually, a lot of marine life on Earth has that dual coloring –sharks, whales, dolphins, mostly predators."
"Interesting. Do they have pores as well?"
Nina shook her head, holding a spoonful of soup aloft for it to cool faster. "None of our mammals have bioluminescence, mostly our insects, jellyfish, some bacteria and a lot of our cephalopods. At least no mammals did until the late twentieth century, when our scientists started working with genetic manipulation. Rodents at Stanford University were given a bacteria that glowed in the dark – not quite like what you have, but similar– first to see if it could be done, and then we learned that we could use it to test cancer drugs because we could see the effects better. Do the colors mean anything?" She tasted the soup and found it wonderfully similar to a fragrant green curry.
Athe finished a bite of a red vegetable that had been smoked. "It's not an exact science, as many of our emotions can overlap, but in general the cooler colors are pleasant feelings, the warmer colors are stronger emotions like anger or fear. White is generally neutral, almost everyone has some white almost all the time. Some colors are associated with our old gods, Omi the water goddess and Aku the land god. Omi is linked to the moon and the tides, her colors are blue and purple while Aku's colors are yellow and green."
"Now we're getting into anthropology," Nina quipped. "So what about Dreen who don't glow, like Doctor Ardus?"
Athe fumbled a piece of fish and it cartwheeled off of his skewer, dropping to this plate. Nina jumped, her glass clinking. Athe glanced at the surrounding tables before giving Nina a wide green-eyed stare.
Uh-oh. "I'm sorry, I'll stop asking."
"No, no," Athe re-speared the fish and calmly rolled it back and forth on his plate. "I knew it would come up eventually. It's just..." he glanced around again,"well, I suppose I can explain without revealing too much of the doctor's personal life."
"Athe, it's fine if you don't want to tell me. I'll go to the library and-"
"Doctor..." Athe winced. "Doctor Nina, it's all right. I'll tell you what I can. The library won't do you much good, anyway. 'Going dark' is a very private, very personal matter. Not many Dreen have cared to explain what it's like,and those that have mainly focused on the physiological aspect. If you read the documents available you'd only learn that the pores stop reacting to chemical changes in our bodies and there isn't much we can do about it. Some have experimented with follicle transplant and bacterial impregnation, but it's not the same. In many cases, it doesn't matter because sometimes it comes back. But for a Dreen, going dark usually means that they have suffered something that changes them fundamentally. You only see Dreen going dark because they've experienced either some kind of intense psychological or physical trauma. A severe mental or physical illness can mute or completely incapacitate our ability to produce light."
Something awful happened to him. That explains...so much. "I think I understand," Nina began. "Athe, I'm sorry I pushed you, but I'm a biologist, it's my job to be curious about these things."
Athe waved her off, returning to his meal. The serving size was enormous, but so were Dreen. "I know, Doctor Nina. I've been working with Doctor Ardus and other biologists for a while, I'm well aware of the temperament. My mother was very much the same way." He gave her a reassuring smile, but he still seemed cautious.
"Your mother?"
"Yes, she was a naturalist. She worked with Doctor Ardus for a time, they were... very close." At that, Athe's cheeks and throat flickered pink. He suddenly became terribly interested in a bowl of green fruit that served as his dessert course. Pink is a warm color, which emotion is that?
"So, you didn't go the biology route like your mother, I take it?"
Athe shook his head, small rings in his "hair" jingling. "I was never very good at the lab work. And I wasn't very interested, to be honest. I'm better with mathematics and organization, so I decided to put those to use and have worked as a personal assistant in one form or another."
"You said you've worked with Doctor Ardus for twelve years?"
"Full-time, yes. Before that I was something of an errand-boy for the university administration."
"Has he been...dark...for that long?"
Athe's green eyes flicked toward sher, warning. "Longer, actually."
"Oh." If it's been that long, maybe it won't come back at all. I wonder what happened to him. He doesn't look that old, it must have happened when he was pretty young. "Athe, what's that you're eating?"
"Tidepool melon," Athe said around a bite of the green fruit. "Would you like to try some?"
She did, and it was incredibly sour.
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Ardus sat in his home study, a hot drink in one hand and tablet in the other. He was reading Meem's latest report on the red sea worms' venom production, or was supposed to be, but his mind kept wandering. Meem's report mentioned Doctor Ma'atanoa and he tossed it to the side. "I cannot get away from her, not for a single day." He huffed, swirling his cup and watching the steam rise. His home study resembled his office in many ways – antique art, this time a woodblock print of a Dreenai seafaring vessel, sand-colored mats woven from a blend of grass fibers on the floor, shelves of books wrapped in preservation sheets. Years ago he'd had the walls paneled in silvered driftwood, the aged planks reflecting light from the single window that spilled yellow afternoon light across his desk.
I should go outside. I have been immersed in work, and I work with her. It is no wonder it feels like she follows me everywhere. He stood and left his desk, pacing the room for a bit to loosen up after sitting for hours. Stopping before the window he wondered if she was enjoying the weather. He snorted. Stop that! His stomach made a noise. Before he went out, he would make himself something to eat. That should keep his mind off of her.
The spare, clean kitchen yielded some basic foodstuffs, fish and vegetables and some fruits Athe had dropped off the day before. Ardus took up one of the fish, its eyes still bright, and decided he'd stuff it and bake it. Rolling up his sleeves, he washed and packed the fish with some of the herbs and vegetables he found and stared at the ceiling while he waited for the oven. I have nothing to do again. He made himself a light drink, sailorfruit juice and a splash of white foam. Not enough to get drunk, but something that tasted good and kept him busy for the few moments it took to make it. And again, once that task was finished he had nothing else to do but wait on his fish. Why am I so restless?
He wandered into his sitting-room and turned on the screen. Nothing interested him, so he left that and went out on the balcony. Outside the warm sea air blew in his face and tugged some of his barbels out of their band. Seabirds wheeled and cried over the water, squawking at each other as they darted over schools of fish. Black-backed birds with wings as long as a Dreen's arm dove into the water and swept back into the sky in geysers, their bodies streaming with silver water. On the sand below, Dreen families occupied the shore and waved to one another, arms and chests and faces sparkling.
Ardus imagined how he looked, a dark blot on the colorful world. It had been so long he'd forgotten the pattern his pores made on the backs of his hands, on his throat and chest. He did remember that he'd once possessed the coveted Collar of Aku, a smattering of starlike points around the base of his neck that resembled a particular stellar formation that surrounded the constellation named after the Dreenai land god. But he could not remember what it looked like. He watched a Dreen couple, their child running ahead, walk along the path between the beach and the building where he lived. The little family looked so contented, the parents speaking softly to each other and the child calling out to the birds wheeling overhead. The male Dreen reached over and held his partner's hand, and Ardus tore himself away from the balcony railing and fled inside.
Ardus ate and contemplated the wisdom of going to the university's saltwater pools for a night swim– it would be safer than risking the surf at dusk. Or he could simply walk along the beach. Over the years his home study had filled with things he'd found and things that had been given to him – the bleached white vertebrae and several long, dagger-shaped teeth from a screamer, old bottles from his great-great-grandparents' time washed up on the tide, tiny exoskeletons from water creatures with many leg sand eye-stalks. Once he had planned to re-plaster the balcony wall with a mix of shells, bones and sea-glass gleaned from the beach, but that plan had been abandoned once he no longer had anyone to share the balcony with. It remained a blank metal railing and a plaster wall bare of decoration, even furniture. The rooms inside stood silent, and while no dust gathered thanks to Athe's scheduled cleanings, few things had moved over the years and additions became fewer and farther between. His home was as austere and dark as he was.
And as empty.
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Enormous thanks to @thunderbird999 for pointing out the issue with spaces <3
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