Giving back to the community

Naera peered rather intently at a broad-leaved oak that stood at the centre of the park. Not for the first time in her life, she wondered if people watching her would think that she was communing with the tree instead of her actual purpose - which was debating if it looked like one of those who’s sap could be used to sweeten dishes. Feeling someone approach, she glanced up to see Meli smiling down at her. The Velca woman stood beside her in silence for a moment, seemingly also lost in contemplation of the tree before she spoke. “It’s not.” The Caenii blinked, looking back up at the other woman before Meli continued “edible, I mean. Technically, I think you can grind the seeds into a kind of coffee substitute, but it’s not a kind of tree humans usually use as a foodstuff. Most of the things in this park aren’t - it’s designed to appeal to the eyes, not the stomach so that sick travellers don’t feel surrounded by reminders of their appetite.”

The women continued their quiet contemplation of the tree for a moment before the Velca spoke again. “I am glad you and Dustin worked everything out. You haven’t had much time to get to grips with things in that regard yet, and I thought you might be worrying about how I’d react.” The green-skinned woman almost jumped at the words, but did her best to keep her cool. “Sorry we didn’t tell you…” Meli cut her off with a gesture. “Don’t worry about it. Emely may not realize it, but I trust her - if she thinks someone is worth the amount of effort she tells me she put in to getting you and Dustin together then it’s fine by me. Even if the timing does complicate a few things - which is why I wanted to talk to you away from the others as I have something of a favour to ask.”

Dustin watched idly from where he was sprawled on the grass, the back of his head resting against Trea’k’s chest with Rye and Emely using his lap as a pillow. The fact that Meli had gone to talk to Naera who was off on her own was good - although his view of the pair was slightly obscured by Bleu sitting in front of him reading on the tablet that she seemed to be permanently carrying at the moment. When the Velca leaned down to whisper to the Caenii woman however he frowned - he hoped whatever Meli was up to it wasn’t too much mischief, he already had enough of that with the Feliax woman currently wriggling her head in an effort to get him to stroke her hair. He obliged, deciding that whatever his fiancé was talking about it’d work out fine like normal.

The sound of boots approaching made him shift, craning his head around to the side to see who was coming up on them. For a moment, he was worried it might be one of the lifestyle journalists out to get more info about his polycule than he was willing to share - but no, none of them had been wearing dark jeans and sneakers. Glancing further up he grinned and beckoned the figure over. “That’s a bit more suited to where I want to go, Sammie.” The pilot had traded out her flight suit for the aforementioned dark jeans, a pale cream crop-top and a black leather jacket, along with a pair of sunglasses that made her look like every stereotypical pilot in the historic action movies from the nineteen-eighties his grandfather had insisted were ‘classics’.

Dustin’s call had the others looking around and a chorus of varying greetings accompanied Sammie as she crossed the remainder of the park to them. Of all of the comments, Rye’s surprised him the most; as the woman got closer the Rabyth let out a low whistle. “Are human women naturally the ones with the muscles, or is it that you don’t work out as much Dusty? At least, asides from horizontally…” Sammie thankfully didn’t hear the last part, the Rabyth shifting into a quieter tone for Dustin’s ears only, but the first bit had the pilot grinning. “Spacer family, cheaper to keep the grav plates off for a few hours a day if you do enough exercise to keep healthy, and then a few months of military training does the trick” she said, slapping her toned abdomen as she did so.

Then, turning to Dustin, she saluted. “So, where to, ambassador?” He winced at the salute, before scrambling upright and offering a hand to Emely and Rye to help them up as well. Trea’k rose unaided, as Bleu put her tablet away into the bag she’d brought with her and the other two returned from their arboreal contemplation. “Please don’t salute when we’re out and about” Dustin began with a sigh, before gesturing towards the car park. “We’ll get a taxi or something into the city; there’s a pub I’d like to go to and some people I’d like everyone to meet.”

Getting a taxi turned into everyone piling into a private shuttle after Sammie pulled a communicator from one pocket and made a quick call. The vessel skimmed low into the city proper, and Dustin smiled to himself as his lovers peered out at the towers that had been his home for most of his life. “You grew up here, sir?” Emely’s question had him shrugging in reply. “More or less. Mostly as a teen - when I was younger we were in the suburbs on the far side of the city, but my grandparents had a flat in one of the towers later on. If we keep going the way we are we’ll fly past where I studied too.” Sure enough, a short while later the more academic of his women craned to see the rather boring orange-brick building and artificial sports fields he’d spent his youth on. A crowd of young people waved up at the shuttle, causing Dustin to grin. “We always used to do that too - no idea who was in these things, but…” he hesitated, then turned to Sammie. “Can we change course a second? Get them to set down on the free sports court down there?”

As the craft touched down a moment later, two figures in suits and one wearing a bright jacket that announced to the world that she was campus security came hurrying towards the shuttle. Dustin stepped out of the door, right as the first was saying “This is an educational facility, you can’t land… oh my word.” Dustin looked at the man for a moment before rubbing his eyes. “Mr Jones? No way you’re still here!” The man shook his head a moment, before raising a hand to stop the other two who had been moving forward. “It’s Professor, or Headmaster Jones now, young master Smith. Or should I call you Ambassador Smith now?” Dustin shook his head and offered his hand to shake. “Neither, sir. Dustin’s more than fine.”

The two exchanged a few more words, before Dustin turned and poked his head back into the shuttle. “I won’t be a second, then we’ll continue on our way - if anyone wants to come with me to say hi to some people, you’re welcome.” With that, he headed out across the playing field, Meli and Bleu following close behind a moment later towards where a group of teachers had corralled the inquisitive students. A second turned out to be a little under half an hour before they climbed back into the shuttle and indicated for the craft to continue on it’s way. “Sorry, but when I was young we always imagined if we waved enough at the private shuttles someone fancy would drop in - and then I realized I’m ‘someone fancy’ now for most of those kids. Whole bunch of them wanted me to sign their tablets and whatnot. Never thought Jones would have ended up headmaster though, he was one of the best teachers there when I was young so I always expected he’d move to one of the fancy schools on an orbital or something.”

For the remainder of the flight, the conversation was on their own experiences of education; Dustin even managing to coax Sammie into revealing that she’d been largely taught by her parents - “hard to find a teacher when you’re on a slow burn to the outer planets and back three months out of every five” with formal education via online teaching only starting in her teens. “Still got through with good enough grades to meet the requirements to learn to fly” she said with a clear sense of self satisfaction. Just as they were reaching the end of that conversation, the shuttle began it’s descent.

Once landed, Dustin stepped out first before turning to offer Meli his hand. The others moved rapidly to follow, and stood on the pavement looking up at a faded sign above the door in front of them. “Looks about as fancy as that place on the station we ended up in.” Rye observed, causing Dustin to chuckle. “That place was fancy enough for you and I to start pairing in, so I’ll consider that a high compliment for my choice of venue” he said with a smirk, before reaching out to pull the bunny girl in for a kiss. As he let her go, the door opened and a voice called out. “You’re late, mister hogs-all-the-hot-alien-girls. Get in here already Dustin, before Jack manages to convince Suze that you’ve been **** by space-newts or something.”