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A few months later, from Venus's diary
Slowly, life goes on. The little house Steve and I are renovating has probably suffered all possible setbacks, from delays in deliveries to plumbing failures, but it seems that it will soon be declared fully habitable. Our careers are slowly progressing as well, even though it is about to reach a stalemate because of...
Venus: (mimicking her boss) "You have to find that lithium, without it we won't be able to continue assembling batteries! " As if it was easy, the space is huge!
Steve: We're talking about batteries all the time also at my workplace, we have a lot of stalled projects because we lack the batteries for the assembly of new robots...
The problem is quite simple to understand, but also difficult to solve: technological devices of all types are becoming increasingly popular across the New Sixam, but nearly all contemporary devices require a lithium-containing battery to operate. And, surprise surprise, not a single gram of this element can be extracted anywhere in New Sixam. Since the humans of other countries would only be willing to sell it to us at exorbitant prices, our government preferred to invest in space exploration instead.
However, we soon had to accept that the problem couldn't be solved so easily: all the asteroids we have analyzed so far are banal balls of iron and rust, for which it is not even worth starting a space mission. Statistically speaking, there should be some place in the universe where lithium is concentrated enough for exploiting it, but finding it feels like looking for a needle in a haystack.
Venus: Oh well, soon or later we'll find something, isn't it?
Steve: (encouraging) Yeah, of course!
Leaving the bar where we had decided to relax for a moment after work, we met a couple of those ancient Sixamians. They were just looking around grimly, as usual. They've been living here with us for more than six months now, but they don't seem to have changed a bit since day one. Since when they started to work at the space command centre it has been a real nightmare, I really don't want to have to deal with them also in my free time.
But we are so unlucky to meet some of the most annoying ones in the bunch: the silent and stern Antaan, who barely talks at all, and then Arizhel, the annoying know-it-all.
Arizhel: You should leave the lithium search to us, we are better equipped and trained for this typology of tasks.
Venus: (taken aback) ... Wait, were you eavesdropping on what we said?
Unsurprisingly Arizhel, without changing her expression by a single millimetre, kept going with her monologue. I'm sure she understood perfectly what I said, maybe she even knew what I was thinking, yet she just decided to ignore me.
Arizhel: These missions require a higher degree of efficiency than the one you are currently exhibiting. You should only...
Venus: Sorry for interrupting, but we know perfectly how to do our job!
Arizhel: I have to disagree. Since the foundation of this country, New Sixam, you've only managed to get what was considered basic equipment on Sixam more than one hundred terrestrial years ago. You waste a lot of time and energy on activities that cannot bring you any real benefit, demonstrating to thrive in this inefficient life just like the Earthlings do. And...
Antaan: You know it is no use, do not waste your time.
The silent guy, Antaan, was trying to stop her, but I already knew it was impossible. Then, did he really expect me not to react after such an insult? To make it worse, Arizhel said all those hate words when staring directly towards Steve, as if her words were directed in particular towards him.
Thinking about it, Steve was one of those they abducted to gather information. I'm sure they remember him, and also that they know his memories way too well.
I had promised myself not to argue with them, but enough is enough: first they abduct Steve on the evening of our wedding, then they spend months looking down on us, and then they even have the guts to insult us, using Steve as the for them it is the shining example of our incapacity. What reaction did they expect to receive, if not:
Venus: Well, if the Earth makes you so disgusted, you can just *?#**!?!!!
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From Cassy's diary
Venus: (angry) ... and then they even had the guts to leave without even responding! Those are worse than robots!
Cassy: Oh.
Venus: (trying to calm down) anyway... what did you want to tell me?
Cassy: Tonight there's a special offer at the diner around the corner, I thought it might be a good idea to go all together.
Venus: oh, Steve would love to come!
Cassy: Actually, I asked a friend of mine to join us, but at this point I'm not so sure it's a good idea anymore...
Venus: (perplexed) Why not, what's the problem?
Cassy: Well...
Steve: (diplomatic) Oh, so you grew up on Sixam?
Toq: Yes. I belong to the first generation with a number of limbs equaling the one of humans, but we are not yet able to assume an effective disguise because of the tendrils. That's why we were not yet allowed to land on this planet.
Cassy: Thinking about it, the first Sixamians to be raised from pollinated earthling parents strictly had to maintain a disguise at all times, am I wrong?
Toq: Indeed, that is correct.
Perhaps Venus and Steve didn't particularly like the ancient Sixamians, but I also wanted to show Toq what we usually do for fun. I really don't understand them, the ancient sixamians are really helping us a lot in improving our spaceships and teleport machines, and they also provided some interesting new routes to follow for retrieving rare elements.
Besides, even my sister and Steve can't deny that Toq is very different from the other ancient sixamians they've argued with, can they?
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Venus and Steve went home early, they seemed to have had enough of the day and just wanted to stay on their own for a while.
Toq and I, on the other hand, still had a walk around the place, chatting as usual.
Cassy: This old Sixamian greeting is very funny, you know?
Toq: Um.
Cassy: Listen... I wanted to tell you that usually my sister and Steve are much nicer than today, they have just had a bad day. But it's not like they are mad at your, nor anything like that.
Toq: (doubtful) Um.
Cassy: What's up?
Toq: ... people here rarely say the same things they think. Also Venus and Stephen are not exceptions.
Cassy: Well, that's actually kind of true... Most people wouldn't say whatever's on their minds the way I do.
Toq remained silent for a moment, reasoning, before answering:
Toq: But you are not telling me everything you think either, especially recently.
Cassy: W-what?
Toq: What you think is also difficult to interpret, sometimes. Such as...
Yes, indeed there was something I hadn't told him yet, and it wasn't hard to believe that my thoughts on the matter may have been difficult to decipher, considering that they weren't particularly clear to me either. But if he had already begun to notice something, I had to find a way to at least partially explain to him what was going through my head, right?
Cassy: (embarrassed) Well, sorry, was it too much? It's just not that clear to me either, I don't…
Toq looked too stunned to say anything, he stared at me as if a second head had popped out of my neck out of the blue. Or even as if he was trying to figure out what was going on within him instead, in his mind.
I was about to tell him to don't worry, that I'd probably exaggerated a bit, when he surprised me again by hugging me tightly, then kissing me back.
Toq had surprised me every day, demonstrating time after time how, down deep, he was much more similar to us than anyone else expected from him.
But this has never been clearer to me than today.
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§HermioneSims§ corner:
This is the proverbial point in the legacy where I notice to be late and I end up rushing a few chapters. But this could be even a bit too quick, if I was a reader now I would be commenting: "Wow Toq, calm down! And also you Cassy, what the... " :P
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