Untold Stories of a Galaxy - Kysaek: The Beginning

The hullabaloo surrounding the raid on the PGI headquarters did not last long. Two weeks had passed since the raid, everything had calmed down and Kysaek was standing at a taxi rank. Initially, she thought the elite soldiers would take the credit, but things had surprisingly turned out differently. Kysaek was presented as a glittering heroine by the PGI press officers that very evening and afterwards even Skarg Peeks expressed his gratitude, albeit only through a visual audio message. He rewarded her, with words, but at the same time held out the prospect of a place under the PGIE, or at least a much more appropriate and substantial position. Until today, however, Kysaek had heard nothing more from the Calanese or his representatives. But that bothered her far less than she had previously suspected. In her neighbourhood, at least, she was given discounts on shopping for a short time, people recognised her from time to time, in short, Kysaek had tasted a crumb of notoriety for the first time in her life, and who could resist it? In her opinion, those who always thought that stars didn’t live so well were either stars themselves, who took everything for granted, or people who didn’t know this life and were consequently clueless.

And apart from the rags of fame, Kysaek also had an unexpected opportunity, because of which she was now waiting at the taxi gate. The Talin who had saved her from the two drunks had contacted her this morning. Through the media report, the stranger had recognised Kysaek and asked for a meeting, to which she happily agreed.

The meeting place was quite far in the centre of Auranis, at the Upper Blue Caf. Although Kysaek had never been there before, she knew it from advertisements and already imagined that the Talin must have some foreign currency, for the Upper Blue Caf was a floating coffee bar in a class of its own. That’s why she needed a taxi, as there were no footpaths or gliding platforms up there.

While riding or rather flying in the hoverwheel taxi, Kysaek’s vortex cuff got a message and she took a picture call.

“Hello, Kysaek!” greeted Xarus, a very, very casual acquaintance of Kysaek’s and a member of the Palanian species.

If he spoke up, Kysaek knew it was about unclean business because Xarus was a small-time crook. That’s why she put on her poker face and switched the audio so the taxi driver couldn’t listen in. “Xarus ... what do you want?”

“How impersonal,” Xarus gave affectedly, stroking the thick bulges, on his face.

Palans were sometimes scary to Kysaek. It varied from reptile to reptile, but the faces and head shapes alone could frighten her. Bulging shapes protruded from the back of the head, enclosing the head like claws and ending with pointed ends on the face. Between these thickenings and on the rest of the body, Palans also had scattered, thinly grown and sharp scales. Kysaek had already become acquainted with these, unintentionally, when she had once been pushed up against a Palanese in the magnetic train and had cut herself on its scales. Minisaw blades - that’s what Kysaek called it. “You check in maybe twice a year and I’ve lived in Auranis for three years. So I might as well just classify you as a stranger and stall.”

“Quick-witted as ever,” Xarus slurred, his many tiny teeth showing every time he spoke. “I saw you on the news recently. Very impressive. Did you actually defeat ten terrorists by yourself?”

Xarus was not the first to ask Kysaek such a question. Although she had said in the report what had happened in the tunnels, at least the version she had been allowed, all sorts of stories had developed from it. “You’ve never been interested in gossip, unless it was business. So what do you want?”

“You just gave me the answer,” Xarus replied directly, putting aside the flattery, which didn’t mean he was unkind. “I’ve got an absolutely once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.Such an easy job that makes you indecently rich in proportion.”

“And what would I have to do?” asked Kysaek, more out of politeness than interest. Back when she arrived in Auranis, she scraped by with small jobs. Everything was legal, but underpaid. So she met Xarus and got involved in a deal to drive stolen vortex cuffs around the city. She was to receive her pay at the drop-off point, but before that happened, someone tricked her and stole the van. Since then, Xarus kept coming up with new fantastic suggestions. Kysaek had not accepted any of them and never wanted to again - especially with her current, regular job.

Xarus, however, continued to present the task simply. “Keeping a package, that’s all.”

“That’s all, huh?”

“Why don’t I tell you?” said Xarus innocently. “Someone comes by your house, drops off a box, and you keep it with you until it’s picked up again.”

The offer sounded too tempting to Kysaek. “And the contents are what?”

Xarus shook his head. “Kysaek, Kysaek,” he said dismissively. “If you were supposed to know what was inside, I would have told you. But this is a business where no questions are asked. That’s why the pay is so high.”

In the taxi, Kysaek chose her words carefully. “So you want me to pay attention without knowing what to expect?” she asked, not giving the impression that the driver was listening in, and she slowly realised why the call had come now.

“Why so hesitant? You’re being the model heroine right now. Do you really think anyone would suspect anything dodgy about you?”

“So that’s how it is,” Kysaek agreed. That Xarus might have been right about the suspicion, however, she had to admit to herself, and she allowed herself to be carried away by a question. “What amount are we talking about?”

“That’s more like it,” Xarus replied with satisfaction, leaning back with rubbing hands. “We’ll split fifty-fifty. That means one hundred thousand foreign currency, for each of us.”

Kysaek’s eyes widened. She swallowed a surprised sound, however, and she cleared her throat. “A decent salary.”

“I guess you’re not alone, but let’s call it that.”

Kysaek hadn’t even earned that much foreign currency in total since her arrival in Auranis. Because of the sum, she almost forgot that she still wanted to know what was in the package, because with a sum like that, it had to be very illegal and dangerous. “Why don’t you do it yourself? Too fine for the job?”

“Kysaek - I’m the middle man. I weave contacts and look for people to take the jobs on offer,” Xarus talked his way out of it and turned the tables. “And let’s not forget which company you work for.”

“What’s that got to do with it?”

“Don’t pretend,” Xarus scoffed. He started laughing after that, which came across aborted to him and all the Palans. Somehow it was because of their jaws and one sound followed lamely the next. “PGI, Kysaek. Leaving out the petty gangsters, surely every criminal knows that the company has its fingers in a lot of dirty business.”

Kysaek knew such stories, but stories were not automatically true. PGI, for example, was supposed to be engaged in massive arms trafficking and slave trading. However, the company had contracts with countless governments and private, recognised groups to sell their weapons to, and workers were bulk commodities, as was the foreign exchange PGI raked in. Yet PGI has been indicted many times, has been under enormous media pressure, and yet the verdict each time has been innocent.

When Kysaek thought of all this, however, the encounter in the tunnel came back to her mind and the claims of the terrorists and the cloaked figure. Was there something behind all the accusations after all? Was PGI really not as clean as she thought? Yes, she had never asked official questions, but who did? The way Kysaek saw it, everyone in the galaxy did their job, went home and started again. You couldn’t live without foreign exchange. “Is it bad?” she asked uncertainly.

“I wouldn’t call it bad,” Xarus replied firmly in the negative. “What’s in the package won’t hurt anyone. My word on it.”

The temptation was there and Kysaek considered grabbing it. After years of boredom and easy living, she first prevented a whimsical robbery and now received a generous offer. Fortune wasn’t knocking on her door, it was virtually hammering her! “I’ll do it!”

Xarus rejoiced. “Very good! I knew you’d see a good opportunity when it was presented to you,” he said, relaying the information to her. “You’ll get the package sent tomorrow from the storage station near your flat. And I’m explicitly pointing it out - don’t look inside! You don’t need to know what it is. You just need to know that it’s safe with you and will be picked up and you’ll be paid handsomely for it.”

“I think that can be done,” Kysaek replied tersely. She told herself that it would be even better, because if she didn’t know what was in the package, she could deny everything if she was caught. Switched, foisted - she could think of many an excuse. “Is there anything else, or have you said it all?”

At his answer, Xarus acted up. “I have much to say, but not to you. More business requires my attention.”

“Sounds important,” Kysaek agreed. She was not fooled by Xarus, however, for he would like to be a man in demand and yet he was only the sort of crook who sold you black market tickets outside the stadiums. That the Palanese now had such a profitable deal in hand, Kysaek chalked up as a one-time thing. “See you soon!” she said goodbye, choking off a retort. After all, the conversation had bought her enough time that the rest of the flight took only a few minutes.The Upper Blue Caf was a constant flying building, a true ornament and based, like so much of the city, on the soft and noble architecture of the Talin

The Upper Blue Caf was a constant flying building, a true ornament and based, like so much in the city, on the soft and noble architecture of Talin. Around the coffee bar flowed the traffic of hovering hoverwheels. Four, very tall and mirrored shiny office towers stood around the Upper Blue Caf and yet gave it more than enough air. Wildly, purple vines snaked their strands around the bar’s landing ports and hung metre-deep over the perimeter, adorned with gold-dotted white and thorny flowers.

“The photos from the Virtual system are dirt against the real Upper Blue,” Kysaek muttered to herself in amazement. Elegance everywhere she looked, with the Talin species dominating the surroundings.

Every now and then Kysaek pondered the many alien species and their cultures, and yet she rarely read up on them. It was just too much knowledge, she felt, and she didn’t even know everything about them, just as people had always not known everything about their own different cultures. As in many places, the beautiful Talin women showed themselves here, in their tasteful and in places deeply revealing robes of Decoru silk. Open and billowing leg slits everywhere. Bare arms, now and then adorned with jewellery and bangles or colourful, strange tattoos, like their heads. Bare hips and breasts uncovered at the sides crowned the immaculate appearances.Guys would surely get off more than one here. Kysaek grinned to herself and felt a flush or two herself. At her back she heard Talin’s voice from that night. “Excuse me” She turned hastily. To the voice Kysaek got the face to match.

The Talin smiled. “Ah, it is you - Elaine Kysaek,” she spoke without her mouth opening or her lips showing a hint of emotion.

Kysaek hadn’t been the best at alien biology when she was at school, and hadn’t known the species spoke differently when she first met a Talin as a child. At the time, she thought it was telepathy. But in fact there were fine slits of skin on Talin’s neck, three on each side and so narrow that they were not immediately visible. Acoustic signals came from there, which Kysaek’s biochip converted into intelligible words. She held out her hand in greeting. “That’s me. Have a nice day!”

Silence followed from the Talin and she looked down at the hand, making no move to take it.

Kysaek persevered until she noted the refusal. “Is something wrong?”

“Yes, there is,” the Talin said honestly. “It’s just that it’s only now occurring to me that this is a human gesture of friendship and greeting.” Hesitantly, Talin gave her hand.

The grip was gentle, Kysaek noticed immediately, and did not squeeze too tightly. “What is your name?”

The Talin’s introduction had an air of courtly nobility as she grasped her robe at the hem of her waist and curtsied. “Dilén, daughter of Ensa, from the city of Sapto.”

“Are you a princess?” asked Kysaek plumply.

Dilén dropped her hem. “No, although I must confess that my mother likes to bestow such name adornments on me.”

Embarrassment came over Kysaek. “Sorry. Your name and introductions were so regal to me.”

“An apology is unnecessary,” Dilén reassured her. She walked with Kysaek to an unoccupied table whose finery was extravagant. Silver tableware and a sky-blue tablecloth with a shimmering seam running through it and illegible Talin characters on it enhanced the furniture. Only when Kysaek was seated did Dilén also take a seat. “But I’ll be happy to tell you about the significance of my imagination.”

“Would suit me,” Kysaek replied more relaxed. “It will save me further embarrassment.”

Dilén took a more comfortable sitting posture. “What kind of embarrassment do you mean? You haven’t done anything wrong.”

“They say that so easily. I mean, I knew Upper Blue Caf was a fine place, and I put on good clothes,” Kysaek said, her eyes moving from one Talin to the next. “But compared to the other patrons, I guess I’m more of a service person than a guest.”

“I don’t deal with humans that often,” Dilén admitted. However, she was clearly amused by her guest’s words. “But I find your species so delightfully unpredictable. For better or for worse.”

“Then it was probably a good thing I was on the good side that night. There aren’t that many of them around, I’d say.”

“Yes, and I’m very much indebted to them for that, and if it hadn’t been for that incident at the PGI compound, I wouldn’t have been able to find them and arrange this, or at least it would have taken a long time.”

“You have to take something out of everything. But let’s talk about better things than good, bad or robberies. What was that about your imagination?”

Changing the subject was in Dilén’s mind. “I’d love to, but first I’ll order us some treats.”

“Go ahead!”

A wave from Dilén was enough and a service bot came moreover table. The machine had a female build and the face of a Talin. The bot didn’t wear clothes, though, because that wasn’t necessary. The anatomy was purely superficial and without explicit details. At the interfaces of the body, such as the wrists or the hips, there was no protective covering and green glowing lines appeared. Obediently, the bot took the order, a normal plate of sweet pastries and coffee.”

The greeting of my species is related to our tradition,” Dilén explained, eating small chocolate rings, barely bigger than a fingertip. “The principle of family exists with us just as it does with humanity. But the Talin do not have their own name after their first name and our family has a different status or ... basically we have two families, one of which is considered more important than the other.”

Family, two families? Kysaek mused. The surname thing was understandable to her. It was with the two families that it wavered. “Two families? How is that possible? Are Talin born to one family and adopted by the second?”

“If you stretch the definition, you could really call it that,” Dilén replied. Without pausing, she looked Kysaek in the eye. “We have a biological and a non-biological family. The non-biological one has a higher, indeed the most important status. It is the city from which we come.”

“How can a city be a family?”

“Because we are given the grace to belong to this community,” Dilén continued, stirring her coffee slowly. “So I am Dilén and I come from the city of Sapto on our homeworld.”

With this clarification, Kysaek came full circle. “The city gives the Talin their last name, and in order for them to define their biological family, they say who they are descended from.”

“That’s exactly it.”

The following remark didn’t feel right to Kysaek, who wasn’t sure if it wasn’t offensive. She voiced it anyway. “That’s bound to cause quite a mess if two or more mothers in a town are called by the same name. I imagine that would be funny.”

Dilén showed no sign of being offended. “It certainly would be. In that case, though, it just gets a bit more complicated and you name your mother’s mother.”

“Yes. The probability is certainly not that high that these two names are identical.”

“Very rare, but it does happen,” Dilén smirked before drinking her coffee.”

You and your mother, that sounds lonely,” Kysaek said appraisingly. “Don’t you have any brothers or sisters?”

“Yes, two sisters,” Dilén said and took a cube of Spice. The sand-coloured spice could enhance the flavours of most dishes and drinks and Dilén crumbled it over her coffee. “So don’t be afraid. We’re not lonely.”

“That’s good,” Kysaek replied, seeing a chance to clarify another question. “However, the family enumeration is missing a father and anyway, I noticed that I have never seen a male Talin. Are there any males at all in their species?” Kysaek hoped this didn’t go down like it did with the Nyrnka and the Talin turned out to be hermaphrodites.

“Your knowledge of my species is very slight, isn’t it?”

“Very little?” quipped Kysaek. “I have no idea about the Talin. In fact, to this day, I don’t even have a real clue about humans.” She saw her ignorance as legitimate and explained herself. “There’s just so much now. So many cultures, new religions, nations or entire planets where people are developing new customs. And even leaving that aside, I have to admit I’m not much of a reader or scholar. Even with the possibilities of the Virtual system.”

There was no trace of fear of error in Dilén. “You are honest, carefree and fearful at the same time. I envy you such a quality.”

“Envy?” giggled Kysaek. That was a new one on her. “No one has ever envied me anything.”

“Is your life bad then?”

Kysaek searched for words. “Bad, bad ...” she struggled, tapping her palms on the edge of the table. If she went by recent events, her life was not bad and so far it had not been marked by hardship or toil per se - with one exception, which she did not like to think about. Otherwise, she was not an orphan, such as there were in droves in the galaxy, and had never really been impoverished or exposed to other terrible things. No - Kysaek’s life was normal. “There are always points where you say, ‘If only I’d done or had this!’ and it’s similar in the present, isn’t it? ‘I wish I could do or have this and that.’ But no, my life is fine.”

“That’s what I thought,” Dilén asserted, putting on a very friendly face. In general, her facial expressions were very intense with her eyes, mouth and every little muscle in her face. The Talin generally possessed a strong way of expressing their emotions. “Do you know why we cover our heads?”

Kysaek persisted in her banter. “If this was a game show, I’d be out on my third negative answer right now.”

“It is our most sacred place, the head,” she said, stroking her head. “Our bodies are pure. There is nothing to protect us. Nowhere. In Talin society, it is considered shameful to show your head naked in public.”

“But at home there is no shame?”

“Yes and no.” On this subject Dilén was more serious than before, but not too stern. “When I’m in my flat, my roof is over my head. Covering is unnecessary because of that. If I am with someone else, I weigh it up. With family, very close friends or people with whom you have an intimate relationship, it would also be acceptable to bare your head.”

“Sounds reasonable to me. I’m just wondering what the deal is with the head covering,” Kysaek admitted. She was more inquisitive than ever. Learning and reading things via virtual system was one thing. To learn it from someone was an entirely different and beneficial method.

Dilén explained the spirituality of the Talin Society. “Our faith, our belief is the reason. The Nubius always look down on us and judge us. And when the day of our end has come and there is no roof, no jewellery and nothing else to protect us, they help us and draw our energies out of the body over our heads into their divine realm.”

The tension in Kysaek continued to rise. “Who are the Nubius? Your gods?”

“From an outsider’s point of view, that is correct and best for an explanation,” Dilén nodded, extending her index finger skyward. “The truth is more complex, but that would require much time and knowledge of the Talin.”

“At least the Talin have kept their faith,” Kysaek opined, thinking of humanity’s spirituality.

Long ago, religions had lost their meaning and power. They still existed and the number of believers was passable, but their status before and after humanity’s ascent to the stars could not be compared. However, the religions themselves were partly to blame for their fading. Even when humans were finally able to explore and colonise their own solar system, religious voices became very loud and angry. They resisted leaving the earth, arguing that there was only darkness in the galaxy and that God would be angry if people left his kingdom. There were several interpretations. In reality, however, it was fear of the loss of their influence, as later turned out to be true. There were attacks, small uprisings and attacks of all kinds to stop the progress of space travel. In the end, however, many faiths self-destructed, and no matter which faith it was - no religion in the world, upon discovering the other species, had an explanation for why those were not formed in God’s image - as humans supposedly were - or why none of the alien beings had yet heard of Abraham, Jesus, Mohammed, Moses or the many, many saints and gods of humanity.

Kysaek grinned unintentionally, for something occurred to her at the last thoughts.

The Hishek, themselves an interstellar species for 3,000 years, observed Earth from time to time and made enquiries about certain events. They confirmed and proved that there was a man named Jesus of Nazareth in the earthly years before and after Christ. The Christians finally saw themselves vindicated and had accepted the information of the Hishek as true. It seemed that this religion was recovering and there was already talk of a purified humanity, but the Hishek had deliberately and forebodingly withheld knowledge because they had expected such a reaction. They smashed Christianity with the cruel truth that everything, really everything around Jesus of Nazareth was nothing but a lie. Everything that was built around him only served his cult and its expansion of power. Miraculous healings? - Jesus was a gifted herbalist, nothing more. Resurrection from the dead? - Jesus never died on the cross. The wrong man had been seized and mistakenly crucified as Jesus. Jesus took advantage of this and pretended that he had returned. His mother and the virgin birth? - Mary really existed, a whore for sale, and through this channel she conceived her child, conceived with a scrawny, simple-minded peasant boy who had saved up a few pennies for the first time. The list of lies was endless and the other religions did not fare much better, causing anger among some believers and leading to some incidents. Others, despite the revelation, continued to try to live by their helpful religious teachings, only there was certain reformation where they hardly fixated on the once central, divine figures anymore, but focused on teachings like forgiveness, discipline, family and such.

Kysaek confessed. “I’m not a believer.”

“Really? That’s a shame,” Dilén regretted, clutching his chest. “You don’t believe in anything? Not even in honesty? Justice? Goodness? Faith is not necessarily a matter of mysticism.”

Kysaek could only exhale thoughtfully. Honest, righteous, the good - these words brought her back to what had happened at PGI. “I’ve been torn on that for a while, but for a while now I’ve been leaning more towards no. I’m not even sure I’m doing good.”

“How am I supposed to understand that?”

“I’m not allowed to talk about that,” Kysaek said sternly. “I’d like to, but I’m not allowed.”

Dilén showed understanding. “Some things must be a secret and some must not,” she said, placing her hand over Kysaek’s. “How far we put chains on ourselves and silence ourselves, though, is not anyone else’s choice. It is ours alone. One should never conceal words for the sake of submission.”

“What makes you think submission?” asked Kysaek indignantly. Did Dilén suspect something or was it just a phrase? Basically, Kysaek didn’t care, because both possibilities disgruntled her.

“I didn’t mean to accuse you,” Dilén apologised sincerely. “It was meant to be advice, that’s what we Talin tend to do ... that comes with our culture as well. The help and power of words.”

Kysaek tried to make the situation unimportant. “No harm done,” she said, gently pulling her hand towards her.

Then Dilén’s vortex cuff beeped and she sighed. “It’s my sister. I’m afraid our meeting is coming to an end.”

“All good things come to an end,” Kysaek smiled and rose. “But the best part is - it won’t be the last beautiful thing.”

As Dilén stood up, her posture continued to be perfectly straight and her robe fluttered in the wind. “You are truly an interesting woman, Elaine Kysaek. I would like to continue the contact when I get the chance.”

“I’m sure it won’t fail because of me.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” Dilén said warmly, indicating a bow. “And even if it should be years until our next meeting - I am very grateful to you.”