Flora and Fauna - Plants + Humans

"Slow.... down!" Kurt gasped, breathing hard.

"You can take it, c'mon. Bear down, push yourself."

"I... can't!" He moaned, then collapsed.

Maya Whittaker stopped, turned around, and burst out laughing. Ten meters behind and below her, the other human had sprawled onto his back like a turtle.

"I'm done for!" He managed to force out, then stuck his arms and legs straight up into the air. "Ptthhhack!"

"Haha, knock it off." Maya walked down to where he was lying. His eyes were closed except for one that was squinted, barely open, and through which she knew he was watching her.

"Oh no, our friendly hike has taken a turn for the worse!" She said loudly. "I hope there aren't any biters in the soil. I hear there's quite a bug problem on this planet." She laughed as he scrambled back to his feet, brushing his clothes and checking for crawlies. There were quite a few bugs on Feiden, the planet to which she'd emigrated after humanity had finally stumbled across galactic Society, but the ones her and Kurt typically did business with were quite a bit bigger than whatever his imagination had just filled in.

"Hey, that's not funny, you know I can't stand insects!" He finished brushing himself off and spent another few moments inspecting the back of his arms then trying to look backwards over his shoulders at his back. "Well, the little ones. Do I have anything on me?"

She shook her head, both in answer and disbelief. "For someone who has such a problem with insects, you've picked a hell of a career," she said. Both of them had, for that matter, as it seemed the bulk of the work they'd picked up at the Lower Feiden Extraplanetary Fertility Clinic in the commercial district involved hosting or otherwise facilitating reproduction by the intelligent insectoid species that permeated Society, the most common name for the integrated galactic society humanity had stumbled into a few years earlier.

"That," he replied, finally satisfied that he hadn't picked up any unwanted passengers and looking straight at her, "is different. They're not really insects, they just...." he shrugged, "they just kinda look like them on the outside. There's no way actual insects could grow that big. You know, uh, the Cube Law."

"Square-Cube Law, Kurt, but still, they sure look like insects, you've gotta admit." She thought back to her last couple jobs. There'd been the periodic Apocriax jobs, but she had to take it easy on those for a little bit. The wasp-like beings paid extra for hosts that could have their memory temporarily modified to get a better quality fear and panic response that improved the mating performance as the giant flying creatures would attack and impregnate their unknowingly consenting hosts, but after a few of them she'd found herself waking up in the middle of the night from dreams she was pretty sure came from that. The body remembered, even if the mind was ok with it. The technicians at the fertility clinic had told her it should pass with a little time, so she'd picked up some other odd jobs in the meantime though they hadn't paid as well. Surrogate hosting clinically implanted Pradiak eggs was steady income, but nowhere near the special jobs like the Apocriax one that had paid for her dramatic lifestyle improvement.

A couple weeks earlier, they'd done a special job out at an island resort and it had paid off in a few ways. The Delphorin women who'd hunted them through the water and implanted their eggs had been grateful and afterwards Maya and her Hazen girlfriend Sperholt had spent some quality time together.

They'd also accidentally recruited a group of other humans to work for the clinic, but that was a whole other thing. One of them, Herman, had been coming up to speed as a technician/human wrangler since the job. Originally a surgeon back on Earth, he was still finding ways to work in this new environment and both Kurt and Maya had been impressed by his flexibility considering how skeptical he'd been when he originally learned about the work they did.

Each of the humans were engaged in contracts for the clinic, spending some time moving into housing they could newly afford, or in Herman's case, were in the office. Maya thought she'd heard him mention learning how to operate the ubiquitous omnitables they relied on for so much in the clinic.

Looking for a hiking companion, her technician partner was working today and had very clearly communicated just how uninterested she was in hiking. That had left Kurt, the 'OG Breeder' (a nickname Maya was careful to never say out loud) as her travel companion/victim and he hadn't been able to come up with a convincing sounding excuse before the two of them were on a travel pod heading to the woods.

"Sure," the other human in question acknowledged regarding her earlier comment about the many large insectoid aliens that made up a big part of their employment. He himself was a frequent flyer for the same hive (she smiled at the pun, thinking of the time a few weeks earlier when she'd watched a marker drone carry him screaming into the hive for his own date with impregnation, he'd definitely flown quite a bit), "but I know they don't want to _eat_ me." He shook his head. "That matters."

"Fair enough," she allowed. "But enough work talk, let's talk hike." She pointed upslope. "The path climbs for another klick but after that, it's clear sailing along the ridgeline. You can make it."

"You're mixing your metaphors, you know." He'd caught his breath and was looking up the path without enthusiasm. "And we've been at this for hours, I'm not sure I've got it in me or that a ridgeline is that, uh..." He trailed off, touching his pocket.

"Difficult? Leafy? Purple? C'mon, end the sentence," she said, not noticing him pulling out his tab.

"Oh no," he said unconvincingly, "it's the clinic." He looked up, trying to form an upset face and failing, "they've got a short-notice job for me. Looks like I'm not gonna be able to finish our hike." Feigning regret, he held up his tablet. She sighed and walked over to glance at it. Her eyes widened.

"Hey, that's an off-planet job! I've never seen one before. You?"

Kurt shook his head. He'd been at this a few months longer than Maya, but it was a novelty for him too. "It's not far, though, looks like there's a ship passing through and they're going to be in system for a day before jumping out and have a pickup out nearby. He scrolled a little further on the message and his eyebrows climbed. "This is a singleton job, but apparently they'll be coming back through the system in a few weeks and if this contract goes well, they'll have more business for us." He looked up at her. "Which means both of us, probably." He glanced back at the pad, shook his head. "If I'm reading between the lines, they might even have work for Fennis," he added, referring to their squirrel-like colleague at the clinic. Unlike Kurt and Maya, the Rafal didn't have the same bio-compatibility index as the two humans, the Indigo classification that seemed common in humans that indicated their bodies had the widest range of compatibility among live-host fertility workers at the clinic. Chemically, biologically, temperature-wise, humans seemed to sit at an almost perfect nexus for a wide variety of aliens that required surrogates, cogenitors, or even just incubators and the ability had driven a high demand for both Kurt and Maya's services.

High demand came with high pay, of course, and that was doubly helpful considering the effect sudden, cheap access to galactic Society had had on Earth's economy. The two of them and the rest of the humans that had recently joined them at this were trying to figure out how to use this income to do good back home.

"So it's just for you, do you think they'd mind if I tagged along?"

"Maybe?" Kurt looked back along the path they'd been climbing. "You sure you don't just want to skip the hike back?"

Maya laughed. "I think we're wired differently, I _like_ this stuff. I'm just kinda wondering what kind of job would be off-world. Sounds fancy." She stuck out a pinky.

Kurt nodded absently, looking back at the tab when it beeped. His eyebrows climbed his face. "Ok, they aren't fucking around. They're not just sending a normal travel pod, they're paying extra for a fast mover." His sentence was punctuated by a snap-CRACK sound and the two startled humans looked up to see something shiny dropping towards them, almost straight downwards. It slowed rapidly.

"I guess our ride's here," Kurt said a little louder than usual.

He had to speak up over the landing hum of the taxi pod as it set down on the slope next to them. They both watched with interest as it came to a rest with some of the legs extending further than the others to keep it level despite being on a hill. They'd never seen something land anywhere other than flat ground before, and this was definitely sleeker and more interesting looking than the usual pods they'd ridden in. The door opened.

Kurt picked up his pack and climbed in, Maya right behind him. The doors closed and as it lifted off to take them both back into town, Maya took a last, longing look at the trail before turning to her friend. "Don't think you've gotten out of this, you know you're gonna have a good time. We'll continue from where we left later, ok?"

Kurt smiled unconvincingly. "Great!" he lied and Maya punched his shoulder. The flying taxi streaked through the sky back towards the port city of Breidak.

***

"Human Kurt!" the Hazen clerk at the front desk greeted him. "And Maya, it is good to see you both." He looked down at his screen then back with body language Kurt had begun to recognize as mild puzzlement. Before they could continue, Kirk raised a hand.

"Hey Rhoden, I know it was just a page for me but Maya and I were out hiking together when the call came in." The human in question waved and spoke.

"I was wondering if I could go with Kurt on this job, like maybe... to watch? Monitor? From the message, it sounded like they might have more business in the future and I might..." she indicated her midriff, shrugged.

"That should be acceptable," the monkey-like sentient agreed. "I would have extended such an invitation if I had thought of it. My apologies for the rush, but the vessel will not be in orbit for very long, they're on a tight schedule and the parties aboard who are interested in your services do not wish to delay-"

"No problem, we'll figure it out. I, uh, so how do we get there?" Since arriving on Feiden months earlier, Kurt had learned how to use the network of suspended monorails, underground pods, and even the occasional air taxi but he hadn't been back to space yet.

Maya held up a hand. "Hang on, we're rushing. Doesn't he need to do prep?" She nodded over towards the door leading to one of the clinic rooms with the omnitables that were used for everything from extractions to cleaning and stretching hosts in preparation for their jobs.

Rhoden shook his tail no. "No special preparation is required for this job, it is unique in that fashion. Well, it is not required, but..." He thought, then walked over to a cabinet and came back moments later with a small liquid pouch. He handed it to Kurt. "I would suggest drinking this immediately before you start, it is a quick-acting muscle relaxant that's safe for humans. We would not usually use something like this instead of," he nodded in the same direction Maya had earlier, "but due to the time constraints of this job..." He stopped and looked up at the ceiling. A low rumble became audible to the lesser human hearing seconds later, then cycled up to a brief mechanical scream followed by what almost sounded like a jet engine spinning down. Something had just landed on the pad outside. He hurried over to the desk and picked something up then pressed it in a specific fashion, causing the box to somehow retract into itself leaving what looked like a glass container in his hands.

"Very well, take this." The Hazen handed a bottle over and Maya intercepted it and inspected the label before handing it to Kurt as Rhoden continued. "The clinic does not typically do business off-planet and according to the etiquette guides, it is customary in their culture to bring a small gift." He gestured back at the cabinet where a twin of the package sat. "Perhaps we'll have an opportunity to gift the other one sometime in the future."

Maya smiled. "You're saying we could buy booze here the whole time?"

The monkey-like alien made impatient noises. "These are business gifts. If you wish to purchase any of them yourself, I am certain an arrangement could be made, but perhaps we could discuss this some other time? They have provided one of their personnel dropships for your transportation. It's waiting outside. The ship will continue to a destination then return to Feiden within a few hours. I should tell you something about the-"

Kurt cut him off, heading to the door. "It's cool. I know they're in a hurry, so we'll figure it out as we go. Be back soon!"

The closing door cut off any reply behind him and the two humans trotted to the vehicle parked out front, obviously their ride. A hatch on the side slid open as they approached.

"Are you from the clinic?" a voice called from inside.

"Yeah, and this is my colleague Ma-" Kurt began, handing the bottle to the alien as he stuck his head in the door.

"It's fine, come aboard please, we're on a tight schedule," the insect-looking creature replied impatiently, reaching out from its seat to take the bottle and securing it in a vest. The door began closing as they climbed up into the vehicle and they could feel it lurching into action before they even sat down, which they did in a hurry. Up in front, the bulk of the pilot was hard to make out but as the lurches of a quick takeoff turned into a steady push as the little craft climbed above the traffic pattern and sped in a straight line towards a rendezvous with a distant dot hovering far above the atmosphere that they could already make out through the window. If they could see it already, it must be big.

The two humans looked at each other with that expression everyone knew, the one humans gave to each other whenever aliens did incredible things so casually. Spacecraft the size of cities fit that pattern, doubly so ones that didn't bother orbiting and just hovered outside of the atmosphere.

And it was just waiting for them, that's how easy that kind of casually terrifying display of technology was for them. The pre-contact rockets that carried humans into space had to burn hundreds or thousands of tons of fuel mostly in accelerating the ships sideways so they'd fall around the planet without hitting the ground, and here the aliens just hovered city-sized vessels the way humans might anchor a boat.

It was humbling.

Humanity had a ways to go, but with the economy back home in upheaval from contact, that probably wouldn't be anytime soon unless some of the efforts to bootstrap them into Society paid off. The pair had made some big inroads into this recently by accidentally recruiting more humans. It looked like they might be able to start pulling in some serious credits shortly, but figuring out how to make the kind of income needed to help on a planetary scale still wasn't resolved.

Most of the other humans were even now either on clinic jobs of their own or resting between them and their unofficial head cheerleader Herman (once a surgeon back on Earth before cheap galactic tech had made his career obsolete almost overnight) had been working to figure out how to set up a business of some sort, but Society was complex and they hadn't figured out where to start yet. Regardless, each of the humans had provisionally agreed to apportioning a part of their income to an Earth development fund and the group was curious how far they could take this.

As he thought about this, the shape of the giant hovering ship lost its fuzziness and became clear shortly after the sky outside the cockpit window faded from blue to black. As they approached, the enormous craft began to turn in place and move, accelerating outwards from the planet.

"Hang on, I bet someone I could make this landing during departure," the pilot said, then reached up to tighten their restraints. The two humans looked at each other, startled, and did the same.

The shuttle put on an extra burst of speed and Kurt felt his eyes get wide as he saw the opening to the bay in front of them begin to shrink. The shuttle accelerated wildly towards the giant ship even as it ramped up its own velocity on a system-departure vector and with one final surge of power, their pilot threaded the needle betweeen the closing doors seconds before they clanged shut then applied a vicious braking thrust that pushed the humans against their restraints. Coming to a stop mid-air, it spun around and set down on a marked landing square facing back the way they'd come towards the now tightly closed hangar doors. Outside, the stars visible through a giant window overhead spun as the enormous ship finished a slalom turn and started accelerating even harder. Through the deck plating the shuttle was sitting on, they could feel the deep thrumming of normal-space drives pushing the ship then the brief disorientation as they went faster than light. Their pilot unstrapped and stood and for the first time, they got a chance to realize how big the walking beetle-like creature was.

"Ooh hoo, did you see the twist they threw in with the door?" The pilot made a chittering noise that the translator buds told the humans was laughing. "I can use the extra credits, this is going to be good." The dropship's hatch dropped open and the three climbed down onto the metal deck that stretched out around them. The space was easily a few hundred meters wide, almost like an entire airport inside a building. There were several shuttles like the one aboard which they had just ridden plus some bigger ones ranging from cargo carriers to other strange shapes that weren't obvious.

"Pilot Dornel," called a voice coming from the new insectoid figure climbing up onto the deck from a nearby recessed control area, "please tell me you let your ship fly that landing." Standing, what had first looked like a giant beetle was now another giant beetle standing on two legs. Four more extended from its midriff and then another pair up where a human would have arms.

"I'm sorry, Lieutenant Valtorin, but that was a manual approach." Their pilot extended a tablet similar to the ubiquitous ones Kurt and Maya saw everyday down and held it expectantly.

The newcomer cursed mildly then reached out with his own and they tapped the two together. Their pilot checked his after it made a bell sound and executed a very human looking bow. "Thank you, lieutenant. It is, as always, a pleasure doing business." He gestured for the two humans to follow hom down a ramp that had just come into existence that closed itself off as they entered a series of corridors under the deck and began working their way through the ship.

"You were serious about betting someone about landing?" Maya asked curiously. Their guide paused for a moment, then turned to her, confusion somehow evident in its body language in a way the humans couldn't explain.

"Is there anything more serious than a fine wager?" It waved its four arms in a gesture that somehow encompassed the entire universe. "Can anything but quantifying the nature of risk, reward, predictions, and putting one's own assets on the line come anywhere as near to showing the glorious wonder of this immensely complicated and unfathomable cosmos in which we live?"

He paused there, then repeated the gesture expectantly. Kurt and Maya looked at each other, puzzled. Finally, the big alien shrugged his body.

"Ok, also we just really like games of chance." He resumed his walk and the two humans stayed with him as they climbed into a transit pod. "A lot," he added, then touched a control that sent it flying down a tunnel.