If you've read any of my Pluribus Series, this takes place in the same universe, but about a century in the future. I just want to make that clear to avoid confusion. For example, in this story Pluribus is the name of a moon, and in the main series it's the name of a ship. That is intentional and the reason will become clear at the end of the main series.
*****************************
It was a much more mundane process than I'd expected. After riding in a civilian transport for weeks, and landing on the small moon, I'd expected finding an apartment to be...a bit more exotic. Instead, the ad for an apartment with an opening was literally pinned to a corkboard in the terminal. It was the 25th century, not the 20th, but whatever. I texted the number on the ad, asking if I could rent a room. The apartment was in a cultural exchange complex, so the rates were low. Plus, I had come to Pluribus partly to meet aliens, so it was a perfect situation. Much better than I would have hoped for for a young man like me, right out of college, in my price range. Almost immediately, the leasing office replied and let me know they had an opening for a human. I accepted right away.
I grabbed the handle of the rolling suitcase that contained everything I owned, and walked out into the warm afternoon light. It felt like an early summer afternoon at home in my mid-size, midwestern city, but I couldn't remember what that meant for this moon. I remembered the cycle of the seasons on Pluribus from my astronomy class last year, but that didn't tell me what each season would
feel
like. It was such a rush, standing on an alien world. Even if it basically just looked like a modern city on Earth. At least I could feel the slightly reduced gravity in my steps. I wanted
something
to be different, alien. I bent down to touch the grass, wondering how different it would be to the grass of Earth. It seemed...wider? Like, the blades of grass might have been slightly larger, side to side, but that may have also been my imagination. I tried to squeeze and bend a blade of grass in my fingers, but I felt a tap on my back.
"Excuse me."
I stood up and turned to see a middle-aged man dressed in a suit. It was a human man. He must've been one of the immigration officials.
"Oh, hi! Am I supposed to talk to you? I just got here." I didn't know how the intake process worked. It had looked like I was done, but maybe I had some other form to fill out or something.
"Nope. You're just," he gestured with his hands. "You're kinda blocking the doorway, buddy. I've got to get to work." I only now registered the impatience on his face, and the fact that I was still standing in the doorway.
"Oh!" I stepped out onto the lawn of the entrance courtyard. "I'm so sorry."
"Forget about it," the man said over his shoulder as he walked past me. I saw that streets were mostly empty, and I realized that, beyond the seasons, I didn't even know what time of day it was. I checked my tab, swiping and tapping to get it up and running after it had been shut off for the landing. It updated after connecting to the local network. My appointment to sign my lease was in two hours. After that, I could move in. The place was furnished, so the only actual moving would be my clothes and the few other things I had packed from Earth.
It was only 10:00 AM, but I was hungry, so I decided to eat near my new home, both in case I was running late and to scope out some food options nearby. The subway ride is the first time I see the promise of Pluribus fulfilled: alien races from all over the Alliance, going about their daily lives side-by-side with humans. This is what I had wanted for years. Ever since we'd hosted an exchange student from the Zunit tribe of nux when I was in high school, I'd been fascinated by aliens. I also genuinely believed that Pluribus was going to be the hub of the Alliance economy and culture for a long time to come. It all just added up: this was where I needed to be.
Once I got off at my new stop, I pulled up the local restaurant search listings on my tab. There was a nux place nearby with good reviews, and I just had to try it. Cahpo, our exchange student, had gone on and on about Zunit cuisine, and I'd always wanted to try it, or at least something similar. I opened the door to the restaurant and stepped inside. It was cool and dark, compared to the sunny street outside. There were familiar booths and tables, but they were partially hidden by an obscene number of indoor plants. The server was friendly and helpful, and I enjoyed a fish that had been cooked in a sweet and citrusy sauce. It had taken two of them to bring it out. It was good, but something was missing. The twenty-centimeter tall, pixie-like nux must have seen the confusion on my face.
"Have you had any Jimina cuisine before?" I could tell by her expression that she knew I hadn't. I did know that Jimina was the planet that nux were from.
"No, we had a Zunit exchange student stay with us, and he always talked about how good it was, but I've never had any before."
She nodded, like that explained everything. "That's great! My mom is from Atzca, only a few days' flight from Zunit. I think she started this restaurant because she missed being on Jimina." She gestured to the salt shaker on the table that was practically half her size. "You should add salt. Humans need more salt."
That sounded familiar, like maybe Cahpo had said something and I hadn't been listening, but I was still surprised. "We do?"
She smiled. She was pretty, with her bright yellow hair and lime green skin. It was amazing how human she looked, once you got past her tiny size, brightly colored skin, and the fact that she was hovering like a hummingbird. I wished she would land somewhere so I could see her wings. Nux wings were always beautiful. "Yeah, there's not much salt on Jimina, so we don't add much to our food. It's on the table there. Add as much as you want."
I sprinkled a little salt on the fish. It did make a big difference. Now there were some really interesting floral notes coming through in the sauce. It was really good! I wondered what Cahpo had done while he lived with us to avoid salt. I never saw him eat differently than we did. Well, except for eating a lot less. He was less than twenty-five centimeters tall, after all.
After that, I walked to my new apartment complex and found the leasing office. The complex looked very modern and well-maintained. I was starting to look forward to living here. I walked into the leasing office and spoke to the human woman at the front desk. The whole process only took about fifteen minutes, and I was walking out of the leasing office with the entry code on my tab, pulling my luggage behind me. I had never rented an apartment outside of university housing, but this place seemed very efficient.
The walls were gray concrete. The windows I could see from the ground looked large. That would be nice. I liked letting in daylight. I wondered if my roommates would feel the same way. I found the right building and walked up. My apartment was on the second floor. I had the entry code on my tab, but I knocked anyway. I think I felt like it would be rude to barge in if someone was home, when they'd never met me. In just a few seconds, I could hear excited murmurs behind the door, and then the lock was turned. The door opened to reveal a small entryway, and an excited, out-of-breath malorc woman standing there, holding the door.
"Hi! You must be Marc?"
"I am. The leasing office told you I was moving in?"
