Atlas counted himself extremely fortunate to be able to walk on Dinavri soil and to be welcomed into one of their cities. There was plenty of surveillance footage of these places, but they were no substitute for being on the ground. The air smelled of rare spices used both to perfume clothes and season food.
He had to remind himself that this was not a vacation, though he could quite happily spend many hours and days wandering the streets of Dinaz City, exploring the many eateries and wonders it had to offer. There was not an inch of the city that had not been designed with true care and attention to detail. There were buildings built from bricks, each of which had been crafted out of a unique ceramic pattern to create an undulating serpent winding around a tower rising many hundreds of feet into the air.
“Is that a holy building?” he asked Lord Sithren.
Sithren glanced at it with slitted eyes and laughed. “That is a clothing store.”
“Incredible,” Atlas murmured under his breath.
“It is the Dinavri way to take great pains over that which we deem important. If a building is worth building at all, it is worth building beautifully.”
“Usually cultures lose the drive to be ornate and creative as they advance. It is impressive to have held onto that primal urge.”
“Is it?” Sithren let out a humorless chuckle, snatching offense at the jaws of a compliment. “We are so glad to impress you, Commander Atlas.”
Atlas did not deign to reply. He knew a linguistic trap when he heard one. If he apologized for offending Sithren, he would lead him to believe he could be easily manipulated. Instead, he kept his other impressions to himself rather than commenting on the vast array of beauty laid out before them in the city.
“You must be hungry after a long journey. It is traditional to eat before drinking the v’kar,” Sithren said. “Please, come, enjoy hospitality.”
The meal was served by young men wearing fine silks. There was not a female in sight. That may very well have been out of a desire to keep their women far from a Kitari and Authority representative.
The food was very good, dozens of dishes comprised of very particularly constructed bite-size pieces of rare and refined edible delights. It was a casual banquet, or at least it gave the appearance of one.
“Are there many Kitari serving on human Authority vessels?” Sithren asked the probing question, one brow raised in curiosity. He probably already knew the answer. No. There were not many Kitari yet trusted to serve on Authority vessels. Atlas’s kind were regarded as being wild and dangerous. Excellent warriors, but not the sort of creatures one wanted to be trapped on a ship with.
“The Authority is a collective. It is not solely run by humans.”
Sithren lifted his hand. “It is a human-led endeavor. The admiralty is almost entirely human, save for one token Goshian and a pet Kitari.”
The observation was not entirely inaccurate.
“It grew out of human military traditions,” Atlas allowed.
“It is colonization and occupation by diplomacy,” Sithren said. “That is why we do not tolerate the creatures. They lack honor. Their every move is a cover for some other move. They cannot be trusted, and they can never be known.”
Atlas understood the perspective, though he did not agree with it. He believed he understood humans very well, especially the one who had become his companion. Jerri was entirely known to him. She wore her indiscretions on her sleeve, and was always so brash and bold there was no room for subterfuge. The Dinavri would have liked her if they could have seen past her humanity.
“There is a human on your ship,” Sithren said, making it clear his ship had been scanned.
“Yes.”
“Bold of you to bring a female into our space. Your appetite must be great.”
“Appetite?”
“I am assuming she is there to fuck and be fucked.” The words were crude by human standards, but Sithren spoke them in a way that indicated they were part of normal conversation for the Dinavri.
“Yes,” Atlas answered smoothly. “Of course. Why else would I expend the fuel necessary to carry such a creature across space?”
Internally he was cursing. He knew that the Dinavri had the potential to scan his ship, but he had hoped the exchange would be handled before they discovered Jerri’s existence.
“I think we should bring her here. I like to meet all arrivals to my world,” Sithren said. “I’ve deployed some soldiers to retrieve her…”
Bam bam bam!
A steady pounding at the door roused Jerri from a fitful attempt at a nap. She had expected the handover to happen fairly quickly, but instead the whole thing was drawing on in a very unpleasant sort of way. The Dinavri port looked like a pretty cool place to explore, but she’d been forbidden from leaving the shuttle, which meant it could be the coolest place in all creation and it wouldn’t matter from her perspective.