firstofitskind | Spaceship Parking & Beyond, Sunday Afternoon

Spaceship Parking & Beyond, Sunday Afternoon

Liam had made plans with Kaidan and Verity to go on something of a joyride today, so he'd shown up at the junkyard early to give himself time to do an extra-thorough pre-flight check.

The virtual glass shimmered and became permeable as the shuttle recognized his biometrics, and he sat down in the pilot's seat and brought up the HUD.

ID core, optimal; conventional drive, optimal; weapons, optimal; communications, online; backup controls, online... everything seemed to be in working order. Now he just needed his passengers.

[ooc: for them what's mentioned!]

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"Earth, just not this version. Close enough that it's creepy. I grew up in Vancouver. When I landed here, I looked up my family and there's someone with my grandparents' names there now. This space is empty, though. Mine.. wouldn't be, even this far in the past," Kaidan answered.

"My universe is multi-species. We made it to space to find out we weren't the only sentients. Minor war ensued because humans don't deal well when they're suddenly not at the top of the food chain, but we got over it and joined the greater galactic community. Being on a monoculture world, barring the residents of Fandom, is..rough."

Verity wore a rueful smile. "Yeah, my family's been fighting a semi-secret war for generations because humans don't like to share with others," she said. "My world isn't a monoculture." And she honestly had no idea how many of the worlds where people swore theirs was just had cryptids hiding in the shadows where most people didn't know where to look. "Most people just don't know it. And those who do are split between those who want to help the non-human populations survive and those committed to wiping them out of existence."

Kaidan's face tightened briefly, "I really don't like xenophobes."

He really didn't.

"More than half the people I consider family aren't human."

Because most humans were the worst.

"Remind me to tell you about the Covenant of St. George sometime when it won't ruin a lovely field trip," Verity said, her mouth twisting. "You'll hate them!"

Which was fair. So did Verity.

"If they're human and organized, I'd probably find a way to bankrupt them or in other ways ruin their entire day," Kaidan said lightly.

He would hate them so hard. People who'd look at his family and call them monsters and try to kill them? He would hate them so hard.

"Harder than you think," Verity said. "Like, I said, my family's been fighting them for generations."

Ever since, you know, they'd defected.

"They're old, they're organized, and they've been hiding their money since before the advent of steam, never mind computers. They have deep pockets going back to the days of knights - pretty heavily subsidized by the dragon hordes they stole back before they all but drove the dragons to extinction."

"Never said it'd be easy, only said I'd try," Kaidan said with a small shrug. "We definitely don't have dragons where I'm from, though one of our sentient races looks a bit like."

"We're more interested in keeping them convinced we're all dead," Verity said. "And doing our best to hide folks when the Covenant is in town."

She thought of all the cryptids who had left Baltimore when Dominic had shown up. A significant fraction hadn't returned - and that was of those who still could.

Pushing away the image of Piyusha's body, she looked up at Kaidan, head tilted to the side in curiosity. "We only just discovered ours weren't as extinct as previously assumed. But all your sentient species come from outside of Earth?"

"Yeah. Earth was a monoculture before we entered the larger galactic community. Now, not so much, but not nearly to the extent of some other worlds," Kaidan answered. "It's kind of weird for me, living on this planet while it's still pre-space."

"There still might be more things on this Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy," Verity said lightly. "But I understand what you mean. The idea of walking down the street and seeing only human faces in the crowds gives me the shivers."

And not the good kind.

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Spaceship Parking & Beyond, Sunday Afternoon

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